Posts tagged photoshop
Site makeover (finally)
Dec 24th
I realised last night that I had been using the minimalist white theme I had on the site here now for over a year, so it was about time for a makeover and get get something a little bit more colourful and fresh on here.
So, one theme, lots of customisation and some photoshop later, here we are with the new look. One of the best things about this is that the main content column is a bit wider, so I’ll be able to put higher resolution images embedded in the post (though as usual images will still link to a lightbox higher resolution version.) I could go back through the older posts and re-do the sizes of the images, but that seems like a lot of effort when they are all zoomable with a click anyway. Besides, that would just eat into time I could be using to make another urbex post :P
I’m also going to look at changing the gallery on here, I’ve been using Gallery2 up until now which has just been a pain at times to keep up to date, so I’ll be going through and migrating that all to the new system as time allows.
~Shepy
Make: A photoshop quick access keypad
Nov 9th
As you can imagine with the amount of photography posts on this blog, I spend a fair amount of time in Photoshop. Like most people using Photoshop, there are a number of tools and actions that I use far more regularly than others, so I thought it would be nice to have quick access to these on a keypad, so I don’t always have to go to the toolbar to activate them. Yes, I know I could use the standard keyboard and shortcut keys, but I just prefer having them on a dedicated and more visual pad than the standard qwerty. Having an old numeric keypad laying about, and having played with AutoHotKey a fair bit recently, I decided to set about reconfiguring the pad to activate my most common used tools when in photoshop. Here is the result:
The icons you don’t recognise at the bottom are just mapped to a few custom photoshop actions. The – and + keys increase and decrease the brush size.
The key tops are just printed on card, ‘lacquered’ with clear nail varnish to protect the ink a bit, and then glued to the numpad keys. At the moment it’s dedicated to Photoshop, but I’m considering re-printing the tops and having them dual use for Photoshop and Bridge. It’s not the most beautiful thing in the world, granted, but it does the job well and it will suffice for now till I feel justified in buying an Optimus OLED keyboard :P
The AHK script and icon for anyone who is interested, can be downloaded here: PS-Pad
~Shepy
Pause, for just a moment…
Jul 10th
Watching the world go by
I know I haven’t put an update on here in a while, though I do hope to get a couple more on very soon. In the meantime, I thought I would just share one quick picture.
I was out and about in Scotland last weekend doing some exploring with a couple of mates, and as is usually the the way when driving about I keep my camera in my lap in case I spot anything interesting on our travels. Sunday was one of those days where that habit paid off as we were driving through Glasgow city centre.
As we rounded one of the corners, the town was bustling with people milling here and there, going about their business, but there stood still amongst it all was this brightly dressed lady, just stood watching the world go past. Sorry the composition is a bit off, but it was shot from the car as we drove past, but I’m still quite pleased with the end picture, especially after the selective colouring which im not usually a huge fan of, but really seems to complete this picture.
As always, comments and suggestions are always welcome :)
~Shepy
Modlock V0.5 Released
Aug 19th
I have just released ModLock Version 0.5, which brings:
- Added option for up to 4 extra customisable buttons
- Added ability to check for updates manually or automatically
- Filename name back to modlock.exe to prevent problems updating
- Added double click support to tray icon
As usual, it can be downloaded from the ModLock page by clicking ‘modlock’ at the top right of this site.
As it now has update checking in, I wont be making any more blog posts about new releases, so you’ll either need to use the built in updating or check the page every now and then.
~Shepy
ModLock v0.3 Released
Aug 14th
The latest version of ModLock has been released, with the following features:
- Added transparency support
- Added auto run on startup option
- Added minimize to tray functionality
ModLock now has its own page on the site, where you can dowload it from. That page can be found by clicking the ModLock link in the top left, or by clicking here
~Shepy
ModLock V0.2 Released
Aug 13th
Modifier (Alt, Ctrl, Shift) Lock for Tablet PC
Aug 12th
Recently i bought myself a Tablet PC / notebook, which I have been using quite a bit with photoshop to modify photographs when away from my main desktop PC.
One problem i stumbled into however with this is the need to use modifier keys, such as Alt or Shift to change the way in which a tool behaves. When the computer is in tablet mode rather than notebook mode i have zero access to the keyboard, which made this a bit awkward to use the clone tool, for example, as i would have to half unfold the tablet to get to the actual keyboard, or use the huge standard on screen keyboard.
I had a bit of a search about and was unable to find software that suited my requirements, namely a small app that sat on screen and provided just the three modifier keys and more importantly, was free.
As i couldn’t find anything, and i was getting bored, i decided instead to just knuckle down and code it, and thus Modifier Lock for Tablet PC (ModLock) was born. A quick screenshot: