Author: James Qu

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this Trasparent Text Effect, mixing with Fresh Grass Texture and Cloud Brushset. You can use the text effect in a wide range of occasions – such as website header background, part of a natural themed design, etc.

Along the way, I would like to show you my use of brushsets and the way I use them to draw background textures, then mixing the background texture with real-world object.

Some steps of this tutorial require the use of features available on CS4, but I guess there is always alternative way you can use, although the end effect may differ slightly.

Have a try :)

In my opinion, landscape photo manipulation is probably one of the most interesting, however difficult to master Photoshop technique – especially identifying the light source, how to best merge a few stock images together, etc.

In this post, I will showcase 25 Absolutely Magnificant Landscape Scenary Photo Manipulation + 5 Great PS Tutorials Showing How to Make Them. Those images are hand-picked by me from deviantArt.com and I personally enjoy them very much. The tutorials are also part of my browers favourites and I hope they’re useful to you when it comes to produce great scenary photo manipulations.

Here goes the list, enjoy!

In this post, I will show you 5 Useful Little Photoshop Tricks to Bring Out That bit of Extra Elegance for Your Design.

Lately I have seen a lot of effect done in a style that utilises a lot of shattered, distorted effect, particularly on Human body elements. This really fascinates me because I feel those artworks are simply full mystery. They may look really odd and of course SURREAL, even dark sometimes, however they can convey very strong and powerful emotion to viewers. If used well, those shattering effect can give your design a real boost.

In this post, I will show you a collection of 25 Weird, Yet Powerful Art of The Shattered, Disintegrated and Distorted Human Elements from deviantArt and Flickr. Hope you enjoy them! Let me know your thoughts :)

In this tutorial, I will show you the design processes I used to make this Rather Interesting, Wavy and Curving Abstract Shape Effect in Photoshop.

I was just playing around with the Photoshop the other day and discovered this funny effect by accident, thought it looks good and perhaps can be added to some of the photo effect you’re creating, or use it as some sorts of website background.

Along the way, we will be using the brush tool, filter effects, layer blending and some image adjustments. The steps of this tutorial is extremely simple and will be suitable for a PS beginner. Have a try!

Welcome to the 13th volume of “Creativity Fine-Tuning: Best of PSD Vault Flickr Group”, which is a showcase I run fortnightly here on psdvault.com featuring some fantastic, highly-creative design works in the PSD Vault Flickr Group.

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to share them here, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.

Here goes the list, enjoy!

Ability to produce spotless, great-looking photo effect is something that every Photoshopper strives to achieve. We all know Photoshop is designed to help us make photo/image look great, however, because Photoshop itself is such as large-scale, complicated software, sometimes it’s difficult for beginners or even intermediate users to find the function and option they need to make such effect.That’s why many tutorials have been created to help overcoming this difficulty.

In this post, I will show you my collection of 11 Fascinating and Educational Tutorials Teaching You How to Produce Better Photo Effects. Those are tutorial that I came across months or even years ago, and until now they still reside in my firefox bookmarks. It’s a small collection, however I’m sure you will find pretty much everything you need to make great looking photos, based on the techniques outlined in each tutorial.

Hope you enjoy them and learn lots :)

In this tutorial, I will show the processes involved in designing and creating this really cool, Geometric Shaped Typography with Grungy Background in Photoshop. This is a simple tutorial yet the effect looks awesome, have a try!

Along the way, I will also give you some tricks that you can use for creating awesome lighting and smoky effect to spice up your design.

The techniques involved in creating this typo include layer blending, filter effects, image adjustments and custom brushsets. Hope you enjoy it!

Abstract Effect, is basically design that does not have any specific purpose or meaning. I always enjoy them mainly because I feel they’re the ones that really give me maximum freedom, and particularly useful when it comes to adding some final touch-ups for any other type of design.

In this post, I will showcase 8 Elegant, Really Cool Abstract Photoshop Tutorials to boost your creativity and beautify your design. I personally have tried all these and I think they’re really well written and practical. Those effect can be applied to a wide range of works, including photo effect, web graphics and any other designs.

Try them out, and see if you can master them all :)

Welcome to the 12th volume of “Creativity Fine-Tuning: Best of PSD Vault Flickr Group”, which is a showcase I run fortnightly here on psdvault.com featuring some fantastic, highly-creative design works in the PSD Vault Flickr Group.

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to share them here, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.

In this tutorial, I will show you the processes involved in creating this beautiful, fantasy-styled surreal ancient ruin and coastal island scenary in Photoshop. Hope you enjoy it!

Along the way, we will go through a variety of technqiues such as layer blending, image adjustments, a bit of matte painting skills and filter effects. This is an intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be a bit tricky.

Practices always make thing easier for the future, so go ahead and have a try :) Oh by the way, the server migration is now complete, everything should be back to normal now!

In this tutorial, I will show you how you can utilise the amazing power of image adjustment layers to make colour, contrast and lighting change for any chosen image in Photoshop, by walking you through the design process of this man jumping scene.

The reason I put up this basic tutorial is that lately I have receive some requests from people wishing to learn some techniques involved in using adjustment layers.

Along the way, not only I will be using image adjustment layers techniques, but also I will show you some skills I use to create break-apart effects, pen tool and layer blendings. Have a try!

Always beautiful to look at, unqiuely presented on every person on this planet, Human Eye is an element being used over and over again by designers for a varieity of works. Lately, I have seen a lot of photo manipulations done fucusing on a single Human Eye, and frankly, I really enjoy those works and am amazed by the imagination and inspiration that those works provide.

Therefore I decide to collect 30 Stunning, Absolutely Magical Photo Manipulations Focusing on Human Eye from deviantArt.com and share them with you guys, hopefully you enjoy those works as much as I did!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to design this chilling and icy text effect in Photoshop. Yesterday and today are both really hot in my city (suppose to be winter right now here!!), so I though I can make something to cool myself down :)

Along the way, we will be practicing a lot of layer blending technques, applying texture, selection technique, and an interesting method to create snowy/foggy effect. Have a try!

In this tutorial, I will show you the processes I use to create this fantasy style, really cool distant desert city scene with an awesome energy ray blasting through the sky in Photoshop.

Along the way, we will be using tons of layer blending techniques, and I will show you how to merge the images together effectively and efficiently. We will also explore skills such as masking, filter effects and various custom brushsets.

This is an intermediate-level tutorial, have a try!

In this tutorial, I will show the steps I took to create this really cool, watercolour style “City on Cloud” Artwork in Photoshop. I was experimenting the new brushsets and textures I downloaded today and thought I could combine them together and see what result they can bring :)

Along the way, we will be using a lot of photo manipulation techniques such as masking, filter effects, layer blending options, and custom brushsets.

This is an intermediate tutorial and some steps can be a bit tricky, but why not have a try :)

Welcome to the second Free giveaway contest here on PSD Vault! This time we have Fanurio, which is company that develops time tracking and billing software for freelancers. They are generous enough to give away 3 free licenses to 3 lucky readers of PSD Vault, valued at US$59.00 each. For more details about the software, simply hop onto their website!

To enter, simply leave a commnet below and let us know why you would like a copy of Fanurio Time Tracking App. 3 Winners will be randomly selected based on this software to ensure fairness.

This contest will end at 9:00PM, Australian Eastern Standard Time (GMT +10:00), 11th of August.

Welcome to the 11st volume of “Creativity Fine-Tuning: Best of PSD Vault Flickr Group”, which is a showcase I run fortnightly here on psdvault.com featuring some fantastic, highly-creative design works in the PSD Vault Flickr Group.

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to share them here, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.