Heheh...doesn't matter to me. So far, no one's managed to stump me, not even during the two years I spent teaching Photoshop. So if anyone's successful, they deserve a decent pizza in my opinion.

It's also safe to say that while the Photoshop/ImageReady combo is pretty much top-notch for image creation/editing...the web features are still a tad iffy...even in 7. Retrocity's post will fix the problem, but even I use a different program (GoLive's my favorite) for uploading to a site.

What it does have is layer effects. You access them by double-clicking a layer in the layer palette...careful, in version 7, if you double-click the layer name, it just lets you rename the layer.

Anyway, once the (huge) layer blending options dialog comes up and almost totally obscures your image, there's an effect called "Bevel and Emboss" that features a couple of "sub-effects," one being "texture." The texture effect will apply a pattern of your choice as a 'bump map' of sorts. The effects dialog is a bit on the complex side, which it sort of needs to be, but if you have any questions after you've played with it a bit, feel free to email me.

Anyone stumping me with a Photoshop question gets a free pizza.

Oh, the good news is that in Photoshop, the default patterns include the one that it appears the artist used in that image, Satin...reversed. The bad news is that effect is not an easy one to achieve...it appears that he used a layer mask comprised of both an alpha of the dresses, a gradient, and a blur here and there. My 5-minute attempt to re-create (sort of), required the use of about five layers and six layer effects.

If you're using Photoshop, it's safe to assume you also have access to Illustrator? If so, Illustrator has a Type-on-a-Path tool, buried under the regular Type tool. That could create the waviness you're looking for, but Photoshop has a much nicer feature available in version 6 and later. It's called Type Warp. I won't go too far into it, but you can access it when you're using the Type Tool, by clicking on the button in the Control Bar at the top of your screen. It looks like a "T..." with a little curve underneath it. I doubt you'll be able to get the ENTIRE string of text to wave like that in one shot, but if you combine several text blocks, it could save you some serious work. I'd also reccomend applying the text using a blending mode like Overlay or Hard Light on the type layer if you're looking to maintain highlights and shadows in the underlying layers. For what it's worth... Questions always welcome, and anyone stumping me on a Photoshop question gets a pizza.

One of my favorite little tricks is something that was added in Photoshop 5.5 for Windows, 6 for Mac. It's under the Adjustments sub-menu (you know, where the Levels are located?). It's further down this list...

This one's called Gradient Map. What it does is more or less the same thing as the GIF color tables, except that it's not limited to 256 colors. It converts the image's luminosity, which ranges from 0 (black) to 255 (white), to whichever gradient you choose or design - and applies it over the entire image. What this means is if your gradient ranges from black to white, the result will be a grayscale image.

What's more interesting is if you try it with some actual color...so I've attached an image with some various gradient maps applied...the first is black to white. The next is the same black to white with a hazy, muddy blue stop added at 50%. The next is the chrome gradient, which ships with Photoshop. The last is a different kind of gradient, a Noise rather than a Solid gradient which works a little strangely, but if you play with it, you'll understand what it does.

The way you actually USE the Gradient map is as such:

Go to your Image menu, follow down to the Adjustments submenu (second one down). In the Adjustment menu, near the bottom, select 'Gradient Map...'

When the Gradient Map dialog opens, your image instantly changes reflecting a preview of the gradient displayed (if you don't play with gradients often, it's set by default to 'foreground to background.' If the foreground to background colors aren't at their defaults, your image WILL look wierd.). Click on the gradient itself to bring up the gradient editing dialog, the preview will continue to reflect the gradient as you edit it.

I won't go into how to use the editing dialog here because, firstly - it's pretty self evident if you're familiar with Photoshop and secondly - this is getting to be kind of long as far as add-ons go. However, if anyone has any questions, post a reply or email me at my renderosity address (i.e. click on my name and send an email).

Anyone able to stump me with a Photoshop question gets a pizza.