In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the Hollywood Highlights effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

1.  If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image. If you are working from the original image, skip this step.
2. Press crtl-alt-tilde (~) to load the highlights in the image.

3. Press crtl-J to duplicate the image and name the layer highlights.

4. Press crtl then click on the new layer to load the selection. Click …

Hello loyal readers of my blog , I have launched a set of AllyKatDesign Actions to make photoshopping your images a little bit easier, especially if you’re like me and want everything NOW!

A couple of the actions are set up for a flattened image, while others will work on a layered file, which means that you can make all the “beauty” adjustments for instance first, then use the action as a finishing touch. All the actions also put all the layers into a folder, so that you can go …

Been a little while since I have written a tutorial, so I thought I would make it a good one
I’ve been thinking again about the earlier Dave Hill tutorial that I have written and I don’t think that I did his work justice, so here’s take two Again I’m using the Topaz Adjust Filter to speed things up a little.
I looked at the Dave Hill website again (nice upgrade btw!) and carefully studied all the elements again:

Everything is usually in focus and sharp, so foreground and …

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of shooting with one of the most wonderful models that I have ever worked with! He was an absolute inspiration and is now my muse. It was incredible to work with someone, where every photo and pose were just perfect. Imagine sorting through those photos and trying to pic out the best! It was very difficult, but I prevailed and offer now just a small sample from the shoot. Enjoy!

Lately I have been searching for some interesting ideas for business cards as its time to order some more. Of course I’ll be ordering them from Moo.com again as the quality was unsurpassed the last time.
I came across a website that will create tag clouds out of random phrases and words that paste in. It gives you the option to change the fonts colours and layout. The site is http://www.wordle.net/
Some other ideas that I have had for this is to make the tag clouds into canvases, printed art and t-shirts …

Phew has it been a busy start to the year!!!
A few restorations, a wedding, retouching jobs and websites to do and I don’t know where the time has gone!
I have finally added a restoration section to my portfolio which will be updated again shortly. You can check it out here.
There is a new site added to AllyKatDesign portfolio – superhealth-fitness.com.
This has been designed for personal trainer Matt D’Angelo, so that existing and new clients can benefit from his expertise. You can visit his site here.
Ausbeauties is getting a complete overhaul, …

Today I finally set up my second monitor for my computer.
A bit of a kerfuffle as I needed to get a DVI To SVGA/VGA adapter in order to plug it into my graphics card. Half hour wait at the computer shop got me the adapter and I was on my way home to set it up.
The second problem that I ran into was the fact that the new monitor calibration was completely out. :S I tried calibrating it visually – nearly but no dice! So I went to the trusty …

Phew xmas is over!! What a turbulent time. I apologise for my silence as of late, but it seems that everyone needs a rush job done before xmas!
So I have organised a little treat for my loyal readers and gathered up all the popular t-shirt designs by AllykatDesign.
RedBubble

From the RedBubble Collection I have included the four top sellers: Inspired by Dexter and Gothic themes.
space
If you would like to see more t-shirts you can have a look here: view all t-shirts designs or for all artwork you can have a …

The new look Brendan B Photography website has been rolled out!!
Not much has changed for those of you have visited the site previously, except it has become more polished and sleek. It still features the same easy to navigate menu and gallery, and the mailto link has been upgraded to a contact form, which of course thanks the user for taking the time to send an email.

The new Peninsula Hapkido website has been rolled out!!
There isn’t much content yet, just a home page and a contact page, but its slowly filling up with more content soon The form has also been updated to thank the person that submitted it, which is quickly becoming an AllyKatDesign trademark for  contact forms.
Its good to see the new layout up and running finally!
Stay tuned for more updates.