Before

After

Inside Levels, change the Channel option from RGB to Red. Align the black point on the left so that it lines up with start of the graph.

Align the white point on the right to align with the end of graph. The third adjustment needs to be made to the middle point on the graph. Bring this more towards the centre between the other two points, and around areas where the graph peaks.

Repeat this process for both the Green and Blue Channels and you should see a dramatic improvement to the colour balance of your image.

The new Photoshop CS6 & CS6 Extended have arrived at Adobe’s Store, with a special introductory offer on subscriptions through the Creative Cloud.

Start a Photoshop subscription for as little as £17.58 per month (for one year), or choose a monthly subscription for £27.34.

A membership to Creative Cloud is available from £46.88, giving you access to all exlcusive new features, products, tools and services.

Fotolia’s have recently updated their Adobe Creative Suite plugin!

This was originally released to the public in February 2012 for CS5, to be fully compatible with CS6.

This means that designers will continue to have instant access to Fotolia’s premium content.

Developed by Silicon Publishing, the plugin was specifically designed to ease the creative process by enabling users to browse, manage and directly incorporate images into Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator.

Since its release earlier this year, designers have loved the ability to swap comp photos with high-res versions with the on-the-fly replacement feature.

This is one of the many features that CS6 users can benefit from for a more streamlined workflow.

Download the Adobe CS6 extension for free at http://en.fotolia.com/adobePlugin

In the Color Range menu, there are three options under Select: Shadows, Midtones and Highlights.

Select one of these and you’ll see that those areas of the image are instantly highlighted in the preview. All other options are greyed out.

Select the Shadows options and hit OK. A selection will now be around all shadows in the image.

Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves and notice how the mask of the adjustment has taken into account the selection. Control the Curves to balance the exposure.

Repeat this for both the Midtones and Highlights options in the Color Range menu, using separate Curves adjustments for both of them to create better overall lighting.

Fotolia’s TEN collection introduces its 6th digital artist Neopen in the series bringing together the best of digital art, graphic resources and education.

This project allows image enthusiasts to fine tune their knowledge and skills with the help of free access to the source files of the world’s top digital artist.

Once again you will get instant access to over 100 files and see how each individual graphic component plays a part in creating the final image.

You will not only have access to the file in its entirety, you will also be able to view the ‘making of’ video of each featured artist.

Don’t miss the opportunity to discover Fotolia’s TEN COLLECTION and download your Neopen PSD for free for 24 hours on the 10th of May. After the 24-hour period, the file is available for £6.

If you’re yet to download Photoshop CS6 Beta, you have until 2am (BST) on 4th May – that’s a matter of hours from now!

After that, it’s available to pre-order and upgrade from Adobe.

Reallusion’s new iPlay physics system means you don’t need a degree in engineering or physics, or even in animation for that matter, to create machinery, explosions, convincing collisions and motion dynamics in a 3D environment.

The plug-in works with iClone’s smart physics engine and can be used to easily create environments. There are over 30 powerful tools for constructing 3D models and structures with game-like control.

Watch a YouTube demo video on using the new Physics Toolbox.

iClone Physics Toolbox is available from Reallusion’s Store, where you can purchase the plug-in for £69.99, or bundled with iClone5 Pro for £199.99.

HD contour manually applied

You can easily apply sharpening and avoid noise with Photoshop brushes. By manually painting in detailed light and dark values on an image, Photoshop artists can enhance contour, replicating an almost HD appearance. Here’s how.

Zoom in at 200%, apply a white brush at 5% Opacity to highlight edge details. When done, apply Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask, and set the Amount to 500% and Radius to 2 pixels. Drop the layer Fill to 80%. Apply your blacks on a new layer, again using a 5% Opacity brush minus the Unsharp Mask treatment afterward.

Today millions of royalty-free images have become available to The Associated Press customers, due to their collaboration with one of the leading microstock image companies in the world, Fotolia.

AP Images, a division of the Associated Press, now provides customers the option to buy editorial, rights-managed and royalty-free images, solidifying its standing as the industry’s  one-stop-shop for all imagery needs.

On APImages.com, MicrostockRF monthly subscriptions to new and existing customers are offered, with packages of 50 to 5,000 images per month.

MicrostockRF will be available globally to all AP Images customers in all territories, in addition to AP’s products.

“With the addition of the high-quality library of microstock images from Fotolia, AP now offers the full range of visual content to all customers across the editorial and commercial spectrum”, said Fernando Ferre, Vice President of AP Images. “Our customers are asking us for a solution and this partnership allows us to address our customers’ needs comprehensively, along with our industry-leading editorial offering and our partners’ royalty-free and rights-managed creative content.”

“We’re excited to be a part of yet another industry first by opening up a new market for our 126,000 plus artists”, said Oleg Tscheltzoff, co-founder and CEO of Fotolia. “We believe this is just the first step in a strategic alliance that will allow both of us to continue our industry leading innovations, grow our companies and benefit our customers.”

The introduction of the Creative Cloud means you only pay monthly according to what you require from CS6′s applications.

Photoshop CS6 can be pre-ordered on a month-by-month basis for just £70.32, which doesn’t tie you down to a long-term subscription. This allows one-off purchases to use Photoshop CS6 for 30 days only, for example.

The other option is to purchase a full Creative Cloud Membership that’ll only cost you £46.88 for each month in what is a 12-month subscription.

You can read what David Wadhwani, senior vice president of the Digital Media Business at Adobe, has to say about the new Creative Cloud on their site.

Adobe is offering a full first-year membership for a special price for existing registered users (CS3 or later) for £27.34 per month.

Other benefits for joining Adobe’s Creative Cloud include access to the latest Photoshop apps as and when they are released, as well as online services for storing and sharing files with others. This makes the Creative Cloud a real hub for syncing to and working with.