Photoshop Tutorial Movies and pdf's

[psk4363]

Just posted this on the best links topic - 200+ tutorials from the likes of Adobe's own Russel Brown and others. Get 'em before they go!

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=231975#231975

Cheers,
Barry

[Conk]

Holy s__t! that's a s__tload. :shock:

[gmitchel]

I just created a QuickTime tutorial on Dodging & Burning.

http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/samples/dodge&burn.mov

It's my first. I welcome comments and suggestions.

I'm having difficulty with the audio. Specifically, I'm having trouble getting audio free from background noise from the laptop I'm using to generate the videos. The fan is audible.

I've ordered a radio mic like the announcers on TV use. The kind that clips to your back. I'm hoping it will cancel the noise or be insensitive to it. Right now I'm using a lapel electret condenser mic.

If this is well-received and I can get a solution for cleaner audio, I'll do more video tutorials.

Anyway, feel free to have a look and give me your thoughts.

Cheers,

Mitch

[mapollo]

It's my first. I welcome comments and suggestions

Ok. I just watched your .mov and being new to PS it taught me something I didn't know already. My previous attempts with the dodge and burn tools were always unnatural.So it works :P
The content seemed fine and concise and to the point. Making the icons in the "Layers" palette bigger may be an option to think about on more complicated tutorials where switching the active layer happens often. On the same note you could think about closing palettes that are not reqd for the current tutorial.
A nice TLRS logo at he end of each tutorial would look OK and save you reciting the web addy I guess.
The sound wasn't great but I didn't find it a problem on a such a short tutorial. Remember I also have the sound of the fan on my PC so I got a nice stereo effect :lol:

Please make more. This is far more useful than a pDF or a help file.

Thanks David....

[gmitchel]

Thank you for the constructive feedback, David.

I'm pleased you found the tutorial to be helpful.

I'll work on your suggestion and make Powerpoint slides for the beginning and end of the video. I'll also add a Powerpoint summary of the technique to recap. (A suggestion I received from another viewer.)

I have identified the problem with the audio. It's the codec, not my fan. I used 11k PCM and the sampling adds a lot of noise. 44k PCM does not. The audio sounds great. So, I need to experiment more with the audio.

I'll probably switch the video to full screen.

Cheers,

Mitch

[Scottes]

I'll probably switch the video to full screen.

Full screen may interpolate poorly, which I've seen in the past quite often. I often work at 1600x1280 - many/most at 1024x768. Forcing full-screen is going to look like crap on one or the other, no matter what you record at.

It's probably best to switch your Photoshop window to 1024x768 (or slightly less?) and then display at original size. Then it will fit on everybody's screen without interpolation. (Anyone using PS at less than 1024x768 has other issues. :) )

And I'm just assuming Window's screen sizes... Don't forget Macs.

[gmitchel]

Thank you for the helpful suggestion, Scott. I'll work on it. :)

I'm trying to find the right combination of efficient bandwidth and quality A/V. So I am very much open to learning from others. ;)

Cheers,

Mitch

[Scottes]

Thank you for the helpful suggestion, Scott. I'll work on it. :)

I'm trying to find the right combination of efficient bandwidth and quality A/V. So I am very much open to learning from others. ;)

Then switch to 800x600 and clear the screen of unnecessary palettes, etc.

Non-moving objects will not add to bandwidth requirements - moving objects will. So if you don't need a palette then hide it from the start - do NOT open and close it, as this will cause pixels to change and thus increase file size.

Separate the palettes used, ie; layer and channels, because flipping back and forth between them causes pixels to change...

Don't flip through menus, same reason...

If you zoom in and out, either go right to full or fit (Ctrl-0, Alt-Ctrl-0) or use the zoom tool click and drag method to instantaneously zoom to the desired size.

44 KHz is *way* overkill for voice. Given the codec issue you might be stuck, but if possible record at 44 and downsample to 8 mono.


I know that you won't always be able to do all of the above, but they will help when you can do any of them.

[dn7elson]

I just created a QuickTime tutorial on Dodging & Burning.

Mitch, have you taken a look at Camtasia by Techsmith to prepare your tutorials?

http://www.techsmith.com/products/studio/default.asp?lid=CamtasiaStudioHome

[gmitchel]

Dale:

That's what I'm using for my tutorials.

Scott:

Thanks for all the helpful advice. You're a big help. :)

The current version of my QuickTime tutorial is 800x600. The artifacting is not too bad.

I'm going to try voice sampling at 22k and see if that works. ;)

For the video codec in QuickTime, I'll probably switch to Sorenson. My understanding is that I will get better quality than the Intel Indeo 4.5 codec I'm using right now.

IOW, I'm experimenting. So all of these suggestions are very helpful. I'm very open to alternatives at this point. ;)

Cheers,

Mitch

[dn7elson]

That's what I'm using for my tutorials.

Well, nevermind :D :lol: :D

[JoseC]

Very nice video Mitch.
I understood everything :)
The layers palette is may be too small.
About the voice, there is an echo that could come from the fact that your speakers are on.
If you shutt off your speakers you should get rid of the echo.
Again, nice work.
Regards
Jose

[gmitchel]

Sorry, Dale. I didn;t mean to be dismissive of your suggestion.

It was a good suggestion. ;) I do like Camtasia.

Cheers,

Mitch

[dn7elson]

Sorry, Dale. I didn;t mean to be dismissive of your suggestion.

It was a good suggestion. ;) I do like Camtasia.


No offense taken....a couple of the architects that I have worked with and I have gotten into the habit of that response when a suggestion has already been tried :lol:

[gmitchel]

The tutorial is redone. I got the audio solved. The original .AVIs for this project were 16mb. The .MOV file is a little over 5mb. That's not bad.

The revised video tutorial is at the same URL.

http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/dodge&burn.mov

I added a title and a summary at the end. Also, a couple of transitions to tie things together.

Comments and suggestions are welcome. They've been a big help so far.

Cheers,

Mitch

[Scottes]

The revised video tutorial is at the same URL.

http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/dodge&burn.mov

Actually: http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/samples/dodge&burn.mov

[Scottes]

Now that I've finally viewed it...

Good stuff. I've read of this before, but you explain it better and the visual aspect "burns" it in more. I'll be using this soon - in fact I've got an image that I just sent to the printer... Argh.


Comments:

You've got a lot of "dead screen" - while it doesn't cause size issues really, it's wasted and kinda boring because it's empty.

Zooming in would help show the process better - at a bit of a gain in file size. :(

I would have loved to have seen the mask layer itself - again this might help people visualize what's happening.

Exaggerating the effect might make this more clear as to what's happening. Like using a brush at 35% rather than 25%. Just a thought.


Bummer. All my comments increase file size. :(
And it is still excellent as is, so feel free to ignore these comments!

[gmitchel]

Thanks for fixing the URL boo-boo.

I'll consider the suggestions, Scott. They're excellent.

I'll work on them tonight. Thanks.

BTW, if anyone is interested, here's the settings . . .

The QT .MOV settings:

Size: 720x576
Colors: True Color 24-bit
Frame Rate: 10
Video Codec: Sorenson at 100%
Audio Codec: Qualcomm Pure Voice
Audio Format: 11,025 Hz Mono

The original AVI settings for capture:

Video Codec: Intel Indeo 4.5 at 100%
Frame Rate: 10
Key Frame: 80
Audio Codec: PCM Uncompressed
Audio Format: 24,000 Hz 16-bit mono 48KB/s

Cheers,

Mitch

[gmitchel]

I revised the tutorial to incorporate suggestions. Thank you all.

The strange pixels at the start are an artifact added by Camtasia when it generates a QuickTime movie. I'll delete them with Adobe Premiere Pro arrives by editing the QuickZTime .mov file.

I also added a page to the site for the video tutorials. Here's the link . . .

http://www.thelightsright.com/DigitalDarkroom/VideoTutorials.htm

Right now, there's just the one video. More tutorials will be on the way!

Cheers,

Mitch

[Scottes]

I'm in work so I can't hear it, but it certainly looks awesome. Great stuff!

One of these days I'll have time to go back and fix a couple pictures using this. I'm psyched to do so, but free time eludes me.