A question that comes up quite frequently in my Photoshop classes is “What’s wrong with my colour picker? I’m not getting the usual palette.” Or words to that affect. By default the Photoshop colour picker looks like this:

However, you may find that one day, out of the blue, your colour picker looks more like this:

There is an easy fix. Inside the colour picker, try clicking on the radio buttons H, S, B, R, G, B and you’ll see how the colour picker changes. By clicking on H (which stands for Hue) you’ll find yourself with the old familiar picker.

Who know’s maybe the Hover Hand tool will be included in Photoshop CS6? Looks pretty handy : )

Joe Bluhm is an incredibly talented illustrator and caricaturist. In this video (which is 1 of 4 – the links to the other 3 appear at the end of the clip), Joe talks through a digital art piece he created based on the favourite actors of Wes Anderson (who directed The Life Aquatic, The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore). This particular video focuses on the Bill Murray caricature and we can see how he sketches and paints digitally in Photoshop.

Visit Joe Bluhm’s blog (Rejects) for tips and tutorials and his main website to see some wonderful caricatures and inspiring illustration work. There are more video tutorials on his podcast site, although it hasn’t been updated for a while.

On a somewhat related note, this is my own attempt at a Bill Murray caricature. This was done in Photoshop and Corel Painter. It started mainly as a photo manipulation of Bill Murray and continued on from there and turned into quite a cartoony affect.

Hello again! I haven’t posted here for a while and feel it’s time to get back on the saddle again. Thanks to everyone who has visited over the last few months. I’ve been keeping a very low profile online and have spent much of the last two months breathing in and out, living in the “Now” and smelling the roses : )

Here’s four Photoshop tutorials I posted on Sitepoint during August that you might find useful.

How to use content aware fill to remove unwanted objects

Change colours in Photoshop with the Hue Blend mode

How to manipulate images using Puppet Warp in Photoshop CS5

How to use channels to make a selection and create a silhouette

I can’t believe how fast time is going. The latest edition of PhotographyBB has hit the virtual shelves. This month the magazine has some excellent articles on becoming a professional or “photo-preneur”, a great story on one photographer’s experience on photo safari in Tanzania and lots of tips and techniques on using a DSLR, Photoshop and Lightroom.

Editor in Chief, Dave Seeram had these comments regarding this recent release:

“Now into our third year of publication, I’m pleased with the growth of the magazine as well as our valued readership. Thanks to the help of the press, bloggers, and the use of social media, we’ve seen a huge increase in the numbers of readers, and the response has been very positive. In a way, this ties into a new series we’ve been running (and will continue to run) for two months now on Social Media for Photographers. This series will be exploring the different social media options that are available, how they work, and how photographers can use them to connect with others and promote their own work successfully.

This month, we take a look at the key differences, advantages, and disadvantages of the RAW vs JPEG file formats. We’ve also got a very special in-depth coverage of the new Lightroom 3 Beta 2 release by John Ogden. Here we dive into details regarding the small tweaks Lightroom 3 has to offer, as well as some of the big changes that have been highly anticipated. Also, if you are planning any trips this year, you’ll want to check out our travel photography tips for some important considerations that many vacationing photographers often overlook.

In our Photography Around the World feature, we’re off to Tanzania for a photo-safari. Along with experiencing the majesty of these beautiful animals, you’ll also learn some valuable tips should you ever have the chance to take a photo-safari yourself.”

This month I’ve written a tutorial on how to create the tilt-shift effect to make your photographs look like toy models.

And on top of all that goodness, PhotographyBB is FREE. You can download it here: http://www.photographyBB.com/magazine

If you’ve bought any of Scott Kelby’s “The Digital Photography Book”, volume 1, 2, or 3 (I’ve bought the three of them – I’m a big Scott Kelby fan and also clearly a showoff) you will be familiar with the section at the end of each book called “the recipe to get this shot”. In this section he gives a brief explanation of how different shots were achieved and post-processed. Now there is a video available where you can watch and see how the shots were done, it’s called “Photo Recipes Live”.

You can watch the first 45 minutes for free (see below) and if you like what you see you can buy the full two hour video from Peachpit. You can use the coupon code KELBYPREMIERE to get the two hour video for $29.24 which should be a saving of 35% during checkout on peachpit.com.

Note: I didn’t receive any payment or there’s no affiliate link here, just passing on some info.