CreativeTechs Tips

The entire MP3 collection is available for free — just in time for Halloween parties. Download your favorites to your iPod, or burn CD's right from your computer.

Jason at the Scar Stuff blog provides the MP3s in zipped files for each album. For immediate gratification, scroll down this post where you can play tracks from a few of our favorite albums.

Enjoy! And Happy Halloween from CreativeTechs in Seattle!

Halloween Sound Effects: A Trip Through The "Haunted House"

This first album is a straightforward Halloween sound effects album from 1985. Including classic sounds like a beating heart, a clock at midnight, chains, creaks, and groans. Scar Stuff summs this album up nicely: "Reeking of delicious Halloween audio cheapness, these titles must proudly number among the last of their kind before the rise of the compact disc." To download the MP3 files for this album, visit "Haunted House", "Night In a Graveyard", "The Ride of the Headless Horseman" at the Scar Stuff blog.

Boris Karloff: "Tales of the Frightened" (vol 1 & 2)

“Are you one of the frightened?” Thus starts each story in this intimate collection, narrated by horror legend Boris Karloff. "The Frightened" was originally recorded for radio with classic radio drama sound effects. Several years after Karloff recorded these, the tales were compiled and released as a set of phonograph records in the early ’60’s. To download the MP3 files for these albums, visit Tales of the Frightened at the Scar Stuff blog.

Vincent Price: "A Hornbook For Witches"

Vincent Price is known as the king of horror. This album is a gem, with Price's velvet voice narrating a collection of poems by Leah Bodine Drake. My favorite track is number 4, "The Ballad of the Jabberwock." To download the MP3 files for this album, visit A Hornbook For Witches at the Scar Stuff blog.

Halloween Sound Effects: "Sounds To Make You Shiver"

One of the classic 1970's Halloween sound effect records. I remember this from my own LP collection when I was growing up — Though some of the groans on this album sound a little more adult than I remember in my youth. To download the MP3 files for this album, visit Sounds To Make You Shiver! at the Scar Stuff blog.

Halloween Songs: "Monster Dance Party"

"Monster Mash" is a classic novelty song by Bobby "Boris" Pickett that remains a perennial favorite today. This album was released after that single hit Billboard's number one in 1962. The other songs are less memorable. Track 6, "The Monster Swim" is an obvious attempt to recapture that initial mash-magic. However track 7, "Riboflavin Flavored, Non Carbonated, Poly-Unsaturated Blood" is pretty entertaining. To download the MP3 files for this album, visit Monster Dance Party at the Scar Stuff blog.

Halloween Kitsch: Count Chocula & Frankenberry flexi discs

Remember those wonderfully cheap plastic flexi disks that could be found attached to cereal boxes or tucked in magazines? These three flexis document the cheesy adventures of Count Chocula, Frankenberry, and Boo Berry of sugar-cereal fame. Track 2, "The Monsters Go Disco," sums up the concept. Awful-but-wonderful. To download the MP3 files for these flexi discs, visit Sounds To Make You Shiver! at the Scar Stuff blog.

Scar Stuff’s Collection: 80+ Classic Halloween Records.

Finally, take a moment to browse through the full catalog of album covers. Click on anything you remember from your childhood and you'll be taken to the appropriate page on the Scar Stuff blog. The full collection includes more than 3GB of MP3 files! Start your downloading and enjoy!

Source: We always try to dig up something fun for our annual Halloween issue. This year's find is my favorite yet. It will be a hard one to top! Last year's Halloween tip was Download "Night of the Living Dead" for free.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 08:44 PM | Permalink

Microsoft Office 2007 was first released for PC users in late 2006 — introducing a slew of new file formats that couldn't be opened on a Mac. These new formats include Word 2007 documents (docx), Excel 2007 spreadsheets (xlsx), and PowerPoint 2007 presentations (pptx). The new Mac Office 2008 isn't expected to ship until January ’08.

We field calls every month from Mac-based design firms who find themselves receiving these new Office 2007 file formats from their PC-based clients. We wrote a tip back in February 2007 called Convert MS Word 2007 .DOCX files for a Mac, but that only covered one of the new formats.

The good news: Apple's new iWork ’08 which shipped in August can open and save in all those new formats. So if you are a designer who often receives files from PC-based clients, buying this new $80 package can greatly simplify your life.

Word 2007 Documents (.docx) can be opened on the Mac in Pages ’08

Excel 2007 Workbooks (.xlsx) can be opened on the Mac in Numbers ’08

PowerPoint 2007 Presentations (.pptx) can be opened on the Mac in Keynote ’08

Source: This tip inspired most recently by a phone support conversation with Gravity Design.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 12:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over the last week we've had a lot of Apple laptops in our office for various repairs and upgrades — including one of our own MacBook Pros that was upgraded with a larger internal hard drive.

It is a good reminder that however skilled you are at hardware repair, you won't be able to open a MacBook Pro case without the right set of screwdrivers. We've asked CreativeTechs' hardware guru, Jasson Lewellen, to compile a list of tools and training materials for people who are interested in doing basic Apple laptop repair.

So whether you run an IT team headed towards self-service, or you are an intrepid DIY home-user willing to void a warranty, here are a collection of links for you to start building your own laptop repair toolkit.

Note: It goes without saying, but computer disassembly and part installation is at your own risk. If you are going to take your computer apart, no matter how carefully you follow instructions, you will probably void your warranty.

Basic Apple PowerBook or MacBook Toolkit:

While Jasson's personal toolkit is filled with many dozen specialized tools and gadgets he's accumulated over the the years, he says most Apple laptop repairs require only a few specific screwdrivers.

Phillips #1 Screwdriver — A small, standard Phillips screwdriver. Almost everyone has a small Phillips somewhere. Needed for many standard screws on most electronic equipment.

Phillips #00 Screwdriver — This is an ultra-small Phillips screwdriver that most people don't keep handy. Without this small driver you can't open certain parts of a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or Aluminum PowerBook G4 case.

TORX T6 Screwdriver — Torx screws have a distinctive 6-point star-shaped pattern and require this special screwdriver to remove. The T6 size screws are found on the case of the MacBook Pro and Aluminum PowerBook G4.

TORX T8 Screwdriver — T8 screws are found on the case of the MacBook, and in other locations such as the hard drive carrier in the PowerBook G4 17-inch, and the PowerBook G4 Titanium.

Non-Marking Pry Tool — This item (Apple Part Number: 922-5065) is a nonmetal tool used for removing computer parts and prying open certain cases.

Where to Purchase your Tools:

You should be able to find most of these tools at a good local hardware store. Here are a couple additional online sources. Both RadTech and iFixit carry the harder to find non-marking pry tool (iFixit calls this item a "Spudger".)

RadTech — RadTech provides a range of hard-to-find tools for DIY laptop repairs. They have packaged toolkits branded as Glide Kits that include the needed screwdrivers and Torx wrenches needed for each particular type of Apple laptop:

RadTech Glide Kits

RadTech General Parts Page

iFixit — We wrote about iFixit a little over a year ago for their useful iFixit Guides to DIY Laptop Repair (see below). They also sell a wide variety of tools and parts.

iFixit Mac Repair Tools

Wiha Tools — Look into Jasson's own kit and you'll find many tools that carry the Wiha logo. They are not packaged specifically for laptop repairs, but these German manufactured tools feel good in the hand, and hold up well over years of use.

Wiha Phillips Precision Screwdrivers

Wiha TORX Precision Screwdrivers

Apple Laptop Repair Manuals & Training:

The right tools mean nothing without knowing what to do with them. Below are a couple official and unofficial sources for laptop tear-apart manuals and training.

Apple Training Series: Desktop and Portable Systems — If you are serious about learning more about how to repair your Macintosh laptop or desktop system, or if you wish to become a certified AppleCare Technician, here is Apple's official training book:

Apple Training Series: Desktop and Portable Systems

Apple's Training and Certification Links — For more information about Apple's training and certifications check out the Apple's certification website:

Apple Training & Certification Programs

Apple Hardware Certifications

iFixit Guide Series — Each Fixit Guide has detailed disassembly instructions that walk you through the process of accessing and replacing components in your PowerBook or iBook. These guides are well written and well illustrated.

Fixit Guide Series

CreativeTechs' review of iFixit Guides from 2006

Source: Jasson Lewellen heads up the hardware repair side of CreativeTechs. He handles most of our AppleCare and warranty repairs for clients like Amazon, Costco, K2 Sports, or the Seattle Sonics. He also provides on-site training and support for larger IT teams who want to add the ability to repair their own Macintosh computers through Apple’s Self-Servicing Account program (an installed base of at least 50 Macs is required for this program).

Posted by Craig Swanson at 06:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you suspect that fonts are causing problems in your applications, an easy troubleshooting step is deleting your Mac’s font caches.

We've covered font cache problems before in our Garbled Fonts Troubleshooting Guide — which delves into font problems more deeply. However we did overlook a quick and easy method to delete font cache files.

In Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, you can delete font caches by restarting your Mac in Safe Disk mode. To do that, start up with the Shift key pressed until you see the term Safe Boot in red letters. Then release the Shift key and log in normally.

Booting in Safe Disk mode turns off things that normally load (including font managers like Extensis Suitcase or FontAgent Pro), does a disk check, does some housekeeping, and deletes the font caches located in your Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS folder.

You’ll want to restart right away after a Safe Boot.

Source: This tip comes from this month's issue of Design Tools Monthly. Members of a CreativeTechs support plan receive a subscription to Design Tools Monthly in their monthly care package.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 06:41 PM | Permalink

Photoshop guru Jason Hoppe teaches non-destructive retouching techniques in Photoshop. In classes at CreativeTechs he shows many ways to improve your images without overwriting the original image data. Done properly, image quality doesn't degrade as you make edits, and you retain flexibility when clients come back with later change requests.

Here's a classic example of those non-destructive techniques in action: We've added a separate cloning layer instead of cloning directly onto our image. And we've used a color adjustment layer to correct our subject's skin tone without directly changing our photo's original colors.

However, you must be aware of a subtle-but-important detail when using a cloning layer on images that have been color corrected with adjustment layers. In this week's creative tip we'll discuss that issue, and we'll show why retouchers know to always turn off their adjustment layers before cloning on an image.

Plus we'll show Photoshop CS3's new Ignore Adjustment Layers button that makes life better for Photoshop retouch artists.

The Problem: Double-Hit from an Adjustment Layer.

This is one of those tips where the fix is easy, but the problem itself is a bit harder to explain. So we've created an exaggerated example to make the problem more evident.

We've started with a stock photo of a wall with aging blue paint. Then we've added an adjustment layer with an extreme Hue/Saturation setting that changes our blue paint to red.

We've made a significant change to our image — however following our non-destructive philosophy, the original background image has not been modified. The only addition is a color adjustment layer which can be changed or removed later.

And what if we wanted to create a clone layer for this image? If we start using Photoshop's clone tool with the color adjustment layer visible, and our clone tool set to "Sample All Layers" we end up cloning with a weird green hue.

This is the problem we want to avoid: A double-hit from our color adjustment layer.

The first hit happened when our cloning tool picked up all layers, including hue adjustment. So we cloned using the red version of our paint color.

The second hit occurs because our new clone layer sits below our hue adjustment layer. The red of our cloned paint is color-shifted yet again with the hue adjustment — this time into a bright green.

In less extreme examples, such as the daily challenge of cloning out skin blemishes, this double-hit can cause your cloned correction to be a slightly different tone than the skin you are correcting. The results can be subtle, but if you don't know what's going on it can cause a lot of frustration when cloning images.

The Fix: Turn Off Adjustment Layers when Cloning.

The fix in Photoshop CS2 and earlier is to turn off all Adjustment Layers when you are cloning. Retouch artists have done this for years.

In the case of our painted-wall example, we turn off the hue adjustment layer and perform all our cloning while viewing the original blue version of our image.

You can see that while our cloning layer uses the original blue paint color, it all snaps back to our desired red color when the adjustment layer is turned back on.

In our skin retouching example, by retouching with the adjustment layer turned off, we can achieve the smooth skin retouching we were expecting.

Photoshop CS3: Adobe rescues the retouch artist!

Adobe Photoshop CS3 includes a small improvement to the cloning tool that saves professional retouch artists from this perpetual hassle. Look in the Photoshop's options pane with your clone tool selected.

In all other versions of Photoshop prior to CS3, your clone tool could chose between sampling from the "Current Layer" or "All Layers." A new "Current & Below" option was added in CS3 which allows us to easily ignore all layers above our cloning layer.

Even easier, Photoshop CS3 sports a new, unlabeled button that lets you ignore all adjustment layers while cloning. Click the icon to turn this option on and you can easily clone without applying the impact of any color adjustment layers. This single button saves the hassle of tracking down and turning off multiple adjustment layers whenever you need to do basic retouching.

Thanks Adobe!

Question: Why not just put the clone layer above our adjustment layers?

Finally, let's address the question that comes up in almost every class. Why not side-step this whole issue by putting our cloning layer on the top?

The philosophy of working non-destructively in Photoshop is about building files where future changes can be made easily. Cloning layers are typically created below any color adjustment layers because if you come back a couple days later and want to change the overall color balance of an image, you want to be able to do that quickly from the topmost color adjustments.

If cloning layers are located above our color adjustments, we'd have to change them each time we made an overall color adjustment. So while this approach takes a little more thought, the results are far easier to work with down the road.

Source: This tip is taken directly from Jason Hoppe's upcoming mini-workshop Photoshop: Cloning Secrets which takes place this Wednesday, October 17th at 9:30 am at the CreativeTechs office. Tickets are $50 each, and seats are still available. We invite any Seattle-area Photoshop users to attend. For a list of other upcoming weekly workshops visit creativetechs.com/miniworkshops.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 03:01 PM | Permalink

Can a phone number count as a tech tip?

For the last month I've been using Google's new 411 service from my cell phone when I'm looking for local phone numbers or addresses. It took a couple calls to get used to the voice-recognition interface, but I use it all the time now. Google's search results have been surprisingly good at finding me what I need when I'm driving around.

Call 1-800-GOOG-411. (That's 1-800-4664-411). Say where you are and what you're looking for. If you are calling from a cell phone with text messaging, just say "text message" or "map it" and the system immediately sends you a text message with phone number, address and an optional map link.

For more details, check out the GOOG-411 site:

http://www.google.com/goog411/

Source: I first discovered this new Google service in a post on the fascinating Techcrunch blog. Ironically, it seems we can't get away from plugging a client. After I started writing up this week's newsletter, I was told that our client, Creature Advertising, is responsible for Google's first-ever billboard advertising campaign promoting this new phone service.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Retouching skin is rarely an easy task. There are no absolutes when it comes to making skin look the “right” color, smoothing out wrinkles, or reducing blemishes and blotchiness. This tip will take you through one popular technique for smoothing skin texture for a younger, smoother look.

Step 1: Duplicate the background onto a new layer.

Anyone who as taken one of Jason Hoppe's Photoshop retouching classes knows he is a strong advocate for non-destructive retouching techniques. As usual, we'll preserve the original photo by duplicating the background image onto a new layer. Simply drag the thumbnail in the Layers palette to the New Layer icon.

Step 2: Apply the Surface Blur filter.

The Surface Blur filter was introduced in Photoshop CS2. Rather than blurring your entire image, the Surface Blur filter provides a "smart" smoothing effect that protects areas of contrast or detail. Notice in our example how the skin is smoothed, yet the pupil edges in our subject's eyes remains crisp.

Choose Filter > Blur > Surface Blur

Blur the new layer to the point where the skin imperfections are no longer noticeable, but no further than that. The Radius option specifies the size of the area sampled for the blur. The Threshold option controls how much the tonal values of neighboring pixels must diverge from the center pixel value before being part of the blur.

Step 3: Add a Layer Mask. Reveal eyes, eyebrows, lips, etc

To finish up this quick technique, we add a layer mask to our newly blurred layer. This way we can use the blurred layer to smooth out skin blemishes while allowing the crisp details from our model's eyes, lips and hair to show through. You can approach this step in two different ways:

Option 1: Reveal everything on the blurred layer and carefully expose the areas of detail from your underlying image. For this approach, choose Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All, or click on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of your layers pane. The layer mask will be indicated by a white icon to the right of your layer, and painting in black on that mask will expose your underlying image.

Option 2: Hide everything and carefully paint over your original image with the smoothed skin layer. For this approach, choose Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All, or Option/Alt-click on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of your layers pane. The layer mask will be indicated by a black icon to the right of your layer, and painting in white on that mask lets you reveal your newly smoothed skin.

Whichever approach you pick, you should end up with a layer like the one shown above — a virtual halloween mask that smoothes out the skin, yet with holes that let the sharper details of the original face's eyes, lips and eyebrows show through.

Tip: To keep your subject looking natural, adjust the opacity of the blurred layer to a level that lets some of the skin's original texture peak through — usually between 50%-80% opacity.

This is one quick way to create smoother, younger, skin in Photoshop.

Source: This tip comes directly from Jason Hoppe's sell-out workshop last Wednesday: Photoshop - Retouching Skin. If you live in the Seattle-area, make sure to check out creativetechs.com/miniworkshops for a list of upcoming topics. There is also an excellent book that dives deeply into the subject of retouching skin in Adobe Photoshop: Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and Retouching Faces and Bodies by Lee Varis.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 04:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Join us at the CreativeTechs office Wednesday mornings 9:30am to 11am. Pick up a couple new skills, and get back to work before lunch. You can put what you learn into use the same day.

The cost is $50 per workshop.

Thanks to everyone who helped make last month such a success. We continue to get rave reviews of our new 90-minute morning workshops. It seems the short format is really working for people. Here is the new lineup for October and November.

October 2007 Mini-Workshops:

SOLD OUT Oct 3, 9:30-11am — Photoshop: Retouching Skin. This will be a fun day. Our master retoucher, Jason Hoppe, leads a special workshop on retouching skin in Photoshop. This workshop demonstrates a wide range of techniques for dealing with the unique challenges involved in retouching faces and bodies. This session showcases images from the portfolio of Seattle photographer Rosanne Olson, as well as several other of Jason Hoppe's recent retouching projects.

SOLD OUT Oct 10, 9:30-11am — Mastering Adobe's Pen Tool. Drawing paths with Adobe's pen tool is a crucial bread-and-butter skill for designers using any Adobe application. If you find yourself avoiding this icon, set aside 90-minutes this month with Jason Hoppe and we'll help you really “get” the Pen tool!

CLOSED Oct 17, 9:30-11am — Photoshop: Cloning Secrets. Retouching artists perform daily magic with Photoshop's cloning tool. Join master retoucher, Jason Hoppe, for another installment in his series on non-destructive Photoshop retouching techniques.

CLOSED Oct 24, 9:30-11am — Using Adobe Bridge. Adobe Bridge has become a powerful, way to manage your media files. Creative teams use Bridge to organize large collections of images. Come learn how to add keywords, manage metadata, and many other Bridge tricks.

CLOSED Oct 31, 9:30-11am — Halloween Special: Tricks and Treats. Join us Halloween morning for a fast, fun, collection of tricks and treats. We've pulled together our favorite tips from over the years. Plus, bring your spookiest questions — if you can stump us, you'll walk away with something special in your goodies bag.

November 2007 Mini-Workshops:

Nov 7, 9:30-11am — Mastering Layers: InDesign, Illustrator & Acrobat. Layers help you organize project files. At their simplest, you can streamline work by keeping graphic elements or editable text areas on separate layers. Beyond that, in Adobe Creative Suite, you can create layers that function across InDesign, Illustrator, and even Acrobat. The layer tricks in Adobe Acrobat alone are worth spending a fun morning away from work.

Nov 14, 9:30-11am — Photoshop: Preparing Images for the Web. This topic comes directly from client requests. What are the best ways to prepare images for the web in Adobe Photoshop? What formats work best? Can you create animated graphics directly in Photoshop? Come spend a fast-paced morning at CreativeTechs — your web developer will thank you for it.

Nov 21, No Workshops — Thanksgiving Week. Enjoy the long weekend.

Nov 28, 9:30-11am — Font Management in Mac OS X. Want a fast, stable, healthy Mac? You'd better get a handle on your fonts. Join CreativeTechs’ Craig Swanson for an in-depth look at font management for graphic designers. We'll help you understand what's going on with all those odd font folders scattered around your Mac — and we'll help you slim down your system fonts so InDesign doesn't take forever to scroll to Zapf Dingbats. And as a bonus we'll reveal what's changed about font management in Mac OS X Leopard!

Don't see a workshop for you?

Workshop topics come directly from client requests (the Retouching Skin workshop on October 3rd, and Preparing Images for the Web workshop on November 14th both came from client requests). So email us your idea and we'll work it into an upcoming schedule.

Email your ideas to training@creativetechs.com.

Outside of Seattle? We still want to hear from you. These same workshop topics will eventually be covered in our weekly tips newsletter.

Call us with any questions or problems.

We are all a little new to the logistics of coordinating a weekly event like this. If you have any problems or questions with online ticket ordering, please don't hesitate to call our office at 206-682-4315 or email help@creativetechs.com and let us help you in person.

Posted by Craig Swanson at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)