Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

Back to Top

Have you ever wanted to completely brand your Twitter Profile but didn’t either have the time or know how to do it in Photoshop or Gimp? With MyTweetSpace you can easily do that.

Smushit is a service that goes beyond the limitations of Photoshop, Fireworks & Co. It uses image format specific non-lossy image optimization tools to squeeze the last bytes out of your images – without changing their look or visual quality. You’ll get a report of how many bytes you can save by optimizing your images and all the changed images as a single zip for download.

At Photoshop Express you can quickly and easily accentuate your photos with easy-to-use options for resizing, cropping, sharpening, and more. Make your photos pop with fun, eye-catching effects and enhancements. Then share your photos in My Gallery, where you can create customized photo displays, or upload them to your Facebook page, blog, or anywhere else online.

FlickrShop is a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop that allows you to upload images to Flickr photo sharing website directly from Adobe Photoshop. No need to save your image to a temporary file, no more switching between applications – just open your image, tweak it in Photoshop and share it with the world via Flickr.

CutMyPic is an application that allows it’s users to upload a picture, crop it, round the corners, and add a drop shadow, all in a couple of clicks. You can then either save it or send it to a friend. The site focuses on simplicity and speed.

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

Back to Top

Gmail Labs is a testing ground for experimental features that aren’t quite ready for primetime. They may change,break or disappear at any time.

If (when) a Labs feature breaks, and you’re having trouble loading your inbox, there’s an escape hatch. Use http://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0.

Offline by the Offline teamMake Gmail go where the Internet doesn’t. Access your inbox through your browser and use Gmail’s familiar features when you’re offline. To get started, enable this lab and then click on the “Offline” link in the upper-right of your inbox.
YouTube previews in mail by Stanley C and Braden KShows a video preview whenever you receive a YouTube link in an email. You can watch the video right inline!
Picasa previews in mail by Dan, Stanley, Mark & UmeshShows photos previews whenever you receive a Picasa link in an email.
Flickr previews in mail by Dan PShows photos previews whenever you receive a Flickr link in an email.
Yelp previews in mail by Dong C, Braden K, and Raylene YShows previews of Yelp listings (rating, location, phone number, etc.) whenever you receive a Yelp link in an email.
Google Voice player in mail by Robert DLets you play voicemails left on your Google Voice account right from the email notification.
Google Docs previews in mail by Steven S, Jim M, Bob B, and Ted CShows previews of documents, spreadsheets and presentations directly in the email when you receive any link to a Google Doc. Also gives an option to open directly in Google Docs.
Message translation by DarrenUses Google Translate to translate messages you receive in other languages.
Back to Beta by DarrenSoothes the soul by putting the familiar beta sticker back on the Gmail logo.
Quick Links by Dan PAdds a box to the left column that gives you 1-click access to any bookmarkable URL in Gmail. You can use it for saving frequent searches, important individual messages, and more.
Superstars by Kai H & Julie WAdds additional star icons. After enabling this feature: (1) Go to the “General” Settings page to choose which superstars you wish to use. (2) Use either the keyboard shortcut (’s’) or click to rotate through your selected superstars. (3) Use the search operator “has:” to find all messages with your superstar (e.g. “has:red-bang”, “has:blue-star”). Learn the name of a superstar by hovering over its image in the “General” Settings page.
Pictures in chat by Dave CSee your friends’ profile pictures when you chat with them.
Fixed width font by Keith CAdds an option to the reply dropdown menu that lets you view a message in fixed width font.
Custom keyboard shortcuts by Alan SLets you customize keyboard shortcut mappings. Adds a new Settings tab from which you can remap keys to various actions.
Mouse gestures by Erik AUse your mouse to navigate with gestures. Hold right-click and move the mouse left to go to a previous conversation, move it right to go to the next conversation, and move up to go back to the inbox view. Works best on Windows.
Signature tweaks by Keith C and Dave CPlaces your signature before the quoted text in a reply, and removes the “–” line that appears before signatures.
Random Signature by Chad PRotates among random quotations for your email signature.
Sender Time Zone by Marcin BShould I reply to this mail or just call the guy? Ooops… it’s 1 am. Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb…
Custom date formats by Emil EAdds options to the general settings page allowing the date and time format to be changed independent of language. For example, you can use a 24-hour clock (14:57) or show dates with the day first (31/12/07).
Muzzle by Chad PConserves screen real estate by hiding your friends’ status messages.
Old Snakey by Dave CKick it old school with Old Snakey! Enable keyboard shortcuts and hit ‘&’ from the main page to play a game of snake.
Email Addict by Michael DLets you take a break from email and chat by blocking the screen for fifteen minutes and making you invisible in chat.
Right-side chat by Emily CMove the chat box to the right side of the inbox.
Hide Unread Counts by Matt MHides the unread counts for inbox, labels, etc.
Advanced IMAP Controls by Jamie NChoose which labels show up in IMAP, turn off message auto-expunging, or trash messages when they’re deleted from IMAP.
Canned Responses by Chad PEmail for the truly lazy. Save and then send your common messages using a button next to the compose form. Also automatically send emails using filters.
Default ‘Reply to all’ by Mark KMake ‘Reply to all’ your default option for responding to emails.
Quote selected text Ryan AQuote the text you have selected when you reply to a message. (Now works with the mouse, too!)
Navbar drag and drop by Anatol PAllows you to reorder the items in your navbar using drag and drop.
Mail Goggles by Jon PGoogle strives to make the world’s information useful. Mail you send late night on the weekends may be useful but you may regret it the next morning. Solve some simple math problems and you’re good to go. Otherwise, get a good night’s sleep and try again in the morning. After enabling this feature, you can adjust the schedule in the “General” settings page.
Forgotten Attachment Detector by Jonathan KPrevents you from accidentally sending messages without the relevant attachments. Prompts you if you mention attaching a file, but forgot to do so.
Vacation Time! by DarickLets you specify starting and ending dates for the vacation autoresponder.
Custom Label Colors by Mark KLets you create your own combination of colors for labels. Instead of choosing one of the standard colors from the label dropdown menu, click on Add custom colors. Pick your combination of colors, hit Apply, and enjoy.
Mark as Read Button by Mark KTired of spending all that effort to click on the more actions menu every time you want to mark messages as read without reading them? Now just enable this lab and that is just a button click away!
Go to label by Bruce Dkeyboard shortcuts and hit ‘g’ then ‘l’ to display a popup for selecting a label to go to. Also works with Quick Links.
Inbox preview by Peter BShow a simple, static preview of the inbox while loading.
Multiple Inboxes by ViviAdd extra lists of emails in your inbox to see even more important email at once. The new lists of threads can be labels, your starred messages, drafts or any search you want, configurable under Settings.
Google Search by Adam and DrewDisplays Google search results inside your mail window, letting you quickly find things and use them when you’re writing an email.
Create a Document by Jeremie LE & David KAllows you to create a Google Document from an email conversation or a new blank document if your keyboard shortcuts are enabled by hitting ‘g’ then ‘w’.
Filter import/export by Luke B, Slava C, and the Data Liberation teamExport your mail filters as a file: back them up, share them, or save them before deleting so you can restore them later. Import one of these files to quickly add or restore filters. These options become available under Settings/Filters when you enable this Lab.
Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat by The SMS TeamAllows you to send and receive text messages (SMS) in Chat. US phones only for now.
Authentication icon for verified senders by E RDisplays a key icon next to authenticated messages from certain senders that spammers attempt to fake. Currently works for mail from PayPal and eBay only.
Send & Archive by Pal TAdds a button to the compose form that lets you send a reply message and archive the email conversation in a single action.
Undo Send by Yuzo FOops, hit “Send” too soon? Stop messages from being sent for a few seconds after hitting the send button.
Location in Signature by Marco BAppends your location to your signature. You must have your signature enabled. Please enable gears for higher accuracy.
Title Tweaks by Fedor KChanges order of elements in the browser title bar from “Gmail – Inbox (20) – jaysonconner@gmail.com” to “Inbox (20) – jaysonconner@gmail.com – Gmail”. This way you are able (most of the time) to see if a new mail has arrived even if Gmail window is minimized.
Don’t forget Bob by Ari L, Naty L & Ron MOnce you pick some email recipients, Gmail suggests more people you might want to include based on the groups of people you email most often.
Got the wrong Bob? By Assaf B.D. & Naty LDoh, have you ever addressed an email too quickly, and included Bob (your boss) instead of Bob (your friend) by accident? If you’re emailing more than two people at once, Gmail will check if you meant to include Bob Smith rather than Bob Jones based on the groups of people you email most often.
Green Robot! by Chad YChat buddies show up as robot icons if they are currently using Android. Helpful to determine if you are chatting with someone on a computer or someone on an Android device.
Search Autocomplete by Ibrahim B, Chris P, and Andrew CProvides search suggestions for contacts and operators as you type in the search box.
Hide read labels. by Damian G & David de KThe visible labels in the navigation bar will be hidden under the ‘more’ menu when they don’t contain any unread conversations.
Inserting images by Kent TAllows you to insert images into a message body. You can upload and insert image files in your computer, or insert images by URLs. This lab will not work if you have offline enabled.
Extra Emoji by Yuzo FCompose messages with a richer set of emoji characters.
Hide Labels from Subjects by Christopher SWorking on a netbook with a small screen? Labels next to mail in your inbox take up valuable space. Hide them, and you’ll be able to see the subjects of your emails themselves.
Google Calendar gadget by Ben K and Garry BAdds a box in the left column which shows your Google Calendar. See upcoming events, locations, and details.
Google Docs gadget by Claudia C and Ted CAdds a box in the left column which displays your Google Docs. Shows recent docs, starred docs, and has fast search.

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

Back to Top

Udorse is a visual endorsement engine. Udorse empowers each of us to endorse the items and places in our photos that we want to help support, and share with our friends. It’s as easy as tagging a person.

OutWit Hub contains dozens of recognition and extraction features to ease your Web searches and organize your collections. Automatically browse through pages, collect and format the information you seek, display full screen slideshows on any topic in a single click… and find your golden needle in the Web haystack.

With BAAGZ‘ simple, integrated user interface it’s easy to store and organize your favorite things online in a format that can be easily retrieved, shared and searched by you and other baagerz. Easily create an infinite number of baagz, each representing the content that interests you most. Bring your baagz alive by adding personal and public content from around the Web, including shortcuts to your favorite Web sites, custom wallpapers, RSS feeds, images, videos and more.

ScanDigital gives you your photos on CD/DVD as well as in your own free and unlimited online gallery. You can organize your photos, share with loved ones and order reprints and other great photo products. ScanDigital offers free Shipping, free digital optimization using our proprietary process, and the fastest turnaround time, Guaranteed.

With Steekr you can:-Store your music ,your pictures, your videos and all your personal files online. -Play and listen to your digital files directly in your browser. -Share your files with your friends or relatives.

Ikbis is a photo and video sharing service geared for the Arab audiences around the world. With Ikbis, you can upload and organize your photos and videos that you have taken with your digital camera or mobile phone. Moreover, you can share your photos and videos with friends and family, interact with other Ikbis users and rate photos and videos.

Pikeo think that pictures tell better stories when you can give people some idea of where they were taken. Pikeo lets you look at your pictures along with a map showing the scenes of your crimes. Pikeo also helps you organise your pictures in smart albums based on what, where and who information (called tags). You can decide which of your pictures you want to share with your family, friends and everyone else, and which ones you want no one to see.

Create and customize professional-looking galleries using advanced Web interface. Organize and structure your photographs so that you and your visitors can easily find them and view. From standards-based IPTC tags to full EXIF support your photographs show every detail including captions, titles, file and exposure info, searchable keywords and categories. Zenfolio gives you powerful tools allowing you to be efficient and organized.

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

Back to Top

PhotoPresets for Photoshop Lightroom by Jack Davis

Many photographers are experiencing the power and flexibility of the recently released Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, a breakthrough image management and processing tool designed for photographers. To expand the creative possibilities OnOneSoftware are pleased to offer PhotoPresets with One-Click Wow! a dynamite collection of development presets created by renowned Photoshop educator, author and photographer Jack Davis. And the best part is the price, free.

Designed to work the way you work, the PhotoPresets with One-Click WOW! tackle only one development parameter allowing you to optimize your image at each step to create the look you really want without sacrificing any quality. Rather than bloated presets that control all the variables at once and make adjustments that you may not like and you have to hunt down to fix. You start with adjusting your images color and tone and then can add effects like black and white conversions, tinting, split-toning and vignetting. With XX presets in X categories the number of combinations is astounding. Here are some examples of what you can do with PhotoPresets with One-Click WOW!

System Requirements

Windows

• Windows XP with SP2 or later
• 1 GHz processor or faster
• 1GB of RAM or more
• 2MB of disk space
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0

Macintosh

• Mac OS X 10.4 or later
• 1 GHz processor or faster
• 1GB of RAM or more
• 2MB of disk space
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0

Download the presets here.

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

Back to Top

There are thousands of tutorials on the web on how to create a Web 2.0 styled logo. I came across one that has a small but very useful bonus. At Hongkiat’s blog there is an excellent tutorial on how to create the infamous Web 2.0 logos and a styles preset download for Photoshop with several styles to create the logos. In the tutorial you can learn how to create these logos.

Head on over to Honkkiat’s blog to download the styles preset and take the tutorial. You will soon be able to create your very own Web 2.0 logo.

If you need inspiration when creating your Web 2.0 logo then check out Go2Web20.net where you can find hundreds of Web 2.0 logos.

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

Back to Top

Digital Photography Tutorials
Each digital photography tutorial is short, can be read in one sitting…

Macro Photography
Macro Tutorial: how to take close-up pictures of small things.

Black’s is Photography – Black’s Photo Tutorials
This floral photography tutorial teaches you the basics of macro photography by focusing on how to take great pictures of flowers.

Photoshop Tutorial: How to Shoot Macro Photography
Macro photography is one of the most popular forms of photography and can be one of the most rewarding.

Strobist: How To: DIY $10 Macro Photo Studio
Do it yourself Macro Photo Studio.

Strobist: On Assignment: Shoot Your Shiny New Gizmo Like a Pro
Macro Reflector Demo, Flash Synching Options, Pocket Wizard Tutorial etc.

Plonsky – Macrophotography Article
Bug Pictures (Insect Macro Photography) An article on the techniques involved.

General Photography Macro Photography Tutorials
General Photography Macro Photography Tutorials.

General Photography Tutorials – Search for General Photography
Cat photography tutorial.

Insect Macro Photography Tutorial
Insect Macro Photography Tutorial.

Basic Macro Photography Tutorial
This site will introduce you to basic macro photography.

Outdoor Photography Instruction- Macro work – Nature’s Pic Images
Photographic instruction articles – outdoor nature photography.

macro Photography tutorials: flowers, butterfly, insects, tehnical
Macro Photography tutorials.

Digital photography tutorials – Macro Photography Pixagogo
Digital photography tutorials – Macro Photography – Upload & share your photos in your own photo gallery.

Digital photography tutorials – Macro Photography Pixagogo
Macro Photography tutorial. Macro photography, or pictures taken close-up, can be made incredibly easier by using a digital camera.

Video Tutorial: Basic Introduction to Macro Photography – Digital
Singletonj has made this great video tutorial available for anyone who’s interested in macro photography.

Photo Inspiration: Macro Photography – Digital Photography Reviews
Nothomyrmecia macrops – Photo by Alex Wild. Some amazing macro photographs are available in his Photoshop Tutorial: Selective Coloring

Free Photography How-To Guides and Tutorials at Cameratown.com
Title: Up Close and Personal: Macro Photography Tips.

Super Macro Tutorial [Archive] – The Photo Forum – Photography
A video for how to make a super macro with your camera and a SLR lens.

Better Digital Photography: Macro Photography How-to Video
Here is a nice video tutorial of how you can do Macro Photography, producing wild and amazing imagery.

Digital Photography Tutorials
Macro Photography lighting tutorial and the inexpensive lighting setup episode.

Digital photography tutorials – Macro Photography Pixagogo
Digital photography tutorials – Macro Photography

Reversing Lenses for Macro Photography – Tutorials
Reversing Lenses for Macro Photography.

Digital camera help free images photography SLR tutorial
Basic photography tips include aperture, priority, shutter, zoom, landscape, night, macro, nature etc..

Digital cameras help tutorial SLR camera settings
Macro photography. The photos that can be included in this category are those that depict reality at a 1:1 scale.

Paper Minis Tutorial: Home-Made Macro Photography Light Box
State-of-the-art pictorial tutorials for making doll and dollhouse miniatures.

Macro Digital Photography
Exploring Close-up Photography – A good tutorial that looks at the topics of Macro Lenses, Focusing and Depth of Field, Exposures and Backgrounds.

Macro photography tutorials
Macro photography tutorials.

Digital Photography Articles
The Sahara Desert Macro Photography

macrophoto’s deviantART Journal
Macro Tutorials Macro Photography for Beginners – A good introductory tutorial.

What is area focus?
You may find that, besides macro photography, there are other instances when it is the appropriate focus mode to use.

Understanding Depth of Field in Photography
For macro photography (high magnification), the depth of field is actually influenced by another factor: pupil magnification.

Digital Camera and Photography Tips, How Tos and Tutorials
Use this step-by-step digital photography tutorial on eBay selling and Macro photography allows you to take close-up pictures of basically anything.

Macro photography with a Canon G3 – Canon Digital Photography Forums
Macro Photography tips for owners of a Canon G3.

Voigtlander 125mm f/2.5 Lanthar does Macro – Canon Digital
Night & Low-Light Photography Tutorial.

photographyVoter / Published / Macro Photography
Non-lens related equipment that is commonly used in macro photography. A detailed tutorial on how to get great macro shots using a compact camera.

O’Reilly — Tasteful Food Photography
A comprehensive tutorial on macro photography and food products.

Close Up and Macro Photography | Digital Camera Reviews, News
In this tutorial you’ll discover some fascinating insights into the world of macro photography.

How to Shoot Macro Photography.
Asimple tutorials outlining the basics of Macro Photography.

Macro Photography Tutorial – Day by Day – by Rick
Detailed resource for Macro Photography.

Affordable Macro Photography
Reposted on Macro Photography with permission of the author.

Getting Close and Personal
Macro photography is a style of photography that gets you right into the action. So what does macro mean in the photography world?

Light Box / Light Tent Photo Gallery
A tutorial on how to construct a Light Box / Light Tent Photo Gallery.

Photography Tutorials, Photography Tutorial
Taking close-up pictures of small things is called macro photography.

LookingForLight Macro Tips
Photo.net Macro Forum – probably more than one would ever need to know about macro Photography!

PhotoLinks Photography Photography Resources
PhotoLinks Photography Network features over 10000 photography web site listings, Landscape Photography, Macro Photography, Nature Photography etc.

Macro Photography, Macro Photographer, Macro Photographers
Directory of Macro Photography web site listings.

Create a lightweight, cheap photo backdrop from PVC

Abstract smoke photography
How-to guide on making pictures of smoke

Extreme Macro Photography on a budget
So, you like the idea of doing macro photography, but you think you can’t afford it?

No Cropping Zone: Macro Technique
A tutorial on Macro Photography and cropping.

Musings on Photography: Macro Photography
Philip Greenspun’s tutorial on macro photography. Very solid but somewhat old (1997) and oriented to pre-digital Nikon and Canon 35mm SLR cameras.

MAKE: Blog: DIY Extension tube / reverse mount for macro photography
DIY Extension tube / reverse mount for macro photography.

Digital Photography: Macro photography how-to’s for digital
The Digital Photography School has written up a good macro photography tips article.

Photography and Studio Lighting – Do It Yourself
Photography and Studio Lighting – Do It Yourself

Close-up Macro Photography
Macro photography is close-up photography.

Macro Photography with the Nikon Close-up Speedlight Remote Kit .
Check out this great tutorial on getting the best shots with your digital camera.

Macro Photography Lighting Hack
Macro Photography Lighting Hack

Explorations in the artistic world of macro photography.
The High Dynamic Range (HDR) Landscape Photography Tutorial

Outdoor Photography, Outdoor Adventure, Forum, Gallery, Newsletter
A source for outdoor adventure and outdoor photography: newsletter, backpacking, digital editing, snowshoeing, macro photography, climbing and more.

Extreme Macro Photography
Here is a neat tutorial that will show you to Create an Extreme Macro Photography lens with a Pringles Can!

Photography and Travel Taking Your Camera on the Road – Pringles
Photocritic’s Extreme Macro Photography on a budget.

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

Back to Top

Making sense of all the online photo services can be just as difficult as picking out a camera and lenses. With all the options out there, it’s important to choose the right site for backing up and printing out your precious masterpieces. Whether you’re looking for a photo community, a place to develop your shots, or just a site to share your photos with friends, there are plenty of options to pick from. But choosing the right site to upload your all your photos to is a big decision since you will spend a lot of time and potentially money once you go down a path. So choose your path wisely.

Here’s a comprehensive look at the best of the best for sharing and printing photos on the web:

flickr is made for snap happy photographers. From the simple uploading interface to the Organizr tool, the folks at flickr designed the site for photo sharing. You can easily exhibit all of your photos to the public or control who sees them with convenient privacy settings. You can also track how many people have viewed your pictures. But one of the best aspects of flickr is the community. Like other social networks, flickr allows you to connect to your friends and see their photostreams and see their new pictures whenever they upload them. It also allows friends and visitors to leave comments (and even highlight portions of the picture to leave mouse-over callouts on any photo!). Spend hours looking through tags of photos to find anything and everything a person could take a picture of. Flickr makes it easy for bloggers to add their pictures to their blog (except for Xanga users). It unlike all the photo printing sites, flickr even allows people to download your files which makes it a great tool for archiving files. On top of that, it allows your friends and anyone else to download different sizes of your picture files, including the high-resolution originals! Sharing photos has never been easier since flickr came along. Now you can get prints of your pictures! If you are connected to friends you can also print out their photos as well. There are also a few printing services like Zazzle that you can use.

Shutterfly was one of the original online photo services along with Snapfish and Ofoto. It has continued to stay independent unlike its competitors (Snapfish was owned by District Photo and now is owned by HP; Ofoto was bought by Kodak). Shutterfly has the most user friendly interface of all the online photo printing services and makes organizing and editing photos simple and easy. The desktop uploading tool is a bit buggy, but usually can get the job done. Shutterfly prints come out with relatively accurate colors and pretty good quality. Although the consensus is that Ofoto has better quality prints, comparing them side by side, Shutterfly is comparable. The slideshow feature loads quickly but at lower resolution than the Kodak EasyShare Gallery (Ofoto) does. Shutterfly is a great service for sharing photos online. For new members you get 15 free 4×6 prints.

Ofoto was bought by Kodak which has changed the name to the Kodak EasyShare Gallery. Ofoto quickly became the leading online photo service with high-quality prints and competitive pricing. The Ofoto interface is less intuitive than the Shutterfly interface. Editing and organizing photos is much more complicated on Ofoto. You also have to register and log in to see other peoples photos which can sometimes be a pain. But once you login, the updated slideshow presentation loads quickly (photos are now pre-loaded in the background) and they are at higher resolution than they used to be. But Ofoto’s strength is in the processing. Backed by Kodak, Ofoto has continued to perfect the process of printing digital photos. This is a very compelling reason for DSLR owners who want to print large photos with accurate colors and sharpness to use the Ofoto service. 4×6 prints run for about $0.25 each.

Snapfish started off as an online film processing solution. It was bought by District Photo and recently sold to Hewlett Packard. It has built a similar offering to Shutterfly and Ofoto, but the prints are not quite as good as the big two online printing services. They have tried to differentiate themselves with mobile camera phone photo printing, a service that the others have not quite fully adopted yet. For new Snapfish members you receive 20 free prints. For existing memberships Snapfish pricing is extremely competitive and now offers 4×6 prints for only $0.12 each.

Other Services

Photo Sharing/Hosting:

• PBase
• Zoto
• Smugmug
• Photobucket
• Fotki
• Webshots
• ImageEvent.com

Photo Printing/Publishing:

• PhotoWorks
• Picaboo
• Winkflash.com

Desktop Photo Slideshows:

• Slide
• FilmLoop
• Tubeshow

Photo Licensing and Selling:

• Fotolia
• Digital Railroad

Online Storage:

• 25 Free Gigs at MediaMax

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

Back to Top

Many dedicated Photoshop users can get substantial speed gains from their existing equipment by simply optimizing their computer and software so that it runs Photoshop more efficiently.

Here is a quick collection of speed-enhancing tips for getting the most efficient usage out of your software and computer:

Allocate a Scratch Disk
Photoshop uses RAM memory to run itself, store picture information, and to save undo and History State steps. Unless you are working with particularly small photo files it won’t take too many editing changes before the RAM is completely used up. At this point Photoshop cleverly uses a portion of hard drive space as “fake” RAM. This is not a new idea. Most operating systems use the same approach (called Virtual Memory) to ensure that enough memory is available for running essential programs. Photoshop calls this extra memory a “Scratch Disk”, and correctly setting up the disk will provide immediate speed and efficient benefits.

To set your Scratch Disk, select Edit>Preferences>Plug-Ins & Scratch Disks. Then choose a drive that has the most free space from those listed in the pop-up menu. If you have other drives listed you can also allocate these as extra Scratch Disks. Photoshop will make use of the drive listed first until it is full and then move to the next drive, even if more memory is needed. Most imaging professionals who regularly work with large files install a specific “fast access” drive just to be used as a Scratch Disk by Photoshop.

Set RAM percentage
Photoshop shares the RAM on your computer with the operating system (Windows or Mac OS X) and any other programs running at the same time. The percentage designated in the Photoshop Memory & Image Cache preferences determines the upper amount of RAM memory that can be used by Photoshop. Most new users push this setting as high as possible, some as much as 90 percent, thinking that this will speed up the processing of their files.

Unfortunately if this allocation is set too high, the operating system, as well as Photoshop, may need to move information from the fast RAM memory to the slower hard drive memory while processing. This action is called “page swapping” as the data is moved back and forth between the different memory spaces, and results in Photoshop actually running slower.

If you experience slower performance when raising the percentage of RAM allocated to Photoshop, try reducing the total amount to 50-60 percent for systems with up to 2GB, and 70 percent for computers with 4GB of RAM. Remember that you have to restart Photoshop after making any memory changes to ensure that these alterations will take effect.

Defragment your drives
As images and files are saved and resaved to disk they tend to become fragmented. This means that rather than the whole file being saved in one continuous space on the hard drive the information is broken into bits and stored in several locations (where ever there is empty disk space). Later, when the file is reopened, the document is reconstructed from each of the individual pieces. This file fragmentation slows down the opening and saving of files, as well as the running of programs such as Photoshop, if they were fragmented when initially installed. You can overcome this problem by regularly defragmenting the drives you use to store your images and load your programs.

To defragment a drive in Windows XP: Click Start>All Programs>Accessories> System Tools>Disk Defragmenter. Choose the drive to be defragmented and then select the Defragment button.

To defragment a drive in Mac OS X: Despite the fact that the latest version of Mac OS X contains automatic defragmentation of files smaller than 20MB, most Apple users prefer to defrag their drives with third-party utilities.

Minimize History States
The Photoshop History palette is a great feature, especially if you make mistakes as often as I do. Each successive edit is recorded as a step in the palette, enabling you to step back through the changes, gradually reversing your edits as you go. But this great feature does come at a cost. Each step uses memory resources and, when you make complex changes to large files, you can imagine how much memory is used to store a collection of steps.

Thankfully Adobe provides a setting in the Edit>Preferences>General dialog that can be used to alter the number of History States (or undo steps) stored by your system. By default it is set to 20, but if you find that Photoshop is running slowly after making a few editing changes then try reducing the number. Less History States does mean less opportunity to reverse editing changes, but this action frees up memory resources and can bring new life back to a slow running machine.

Reduce the number of open files
It may seem like stating the obvious, but the more pictures you have open in Photoshop the more of the total resources of the machine is taken up just maintaining each open file. When you add in the memory used to ensure undo or multiple History States for each file, it is not too hard to imagine that you will very quickly run out of RAM, forcing Photoshop to use the much slower Scratch Disk space. To speed up the processing, make sure that you only open (and keep open) files that are essential for your current editing task.

Run Photoshop by itself
A simple measure to speed up Photoshop is to make sure that no other programs are running at the same time. Seemingly simple utilities such as iTunes, Outlook, and Word all chew up memory and processor resources that could be used to drive Photoshop more efficiently. The golden rule is that if the program is not essential for the editing task then close the software. Click on the photo below to enlarge.

Alter the tile size
When Photoshop processes a photo it splits the picture into smaller image sections called tiles, and works on each in turn. By default the size of each of these tiles is 132KB. You can increase the amount of memory used for the processing of each tile by activating the Bigger Tiles plug-in.

To enable the Bigger Tiles plug-in: Close Photoshop and find the ~Bigger Tiles plug-in file in the following directories:
Mac OS: Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS2/Plug-Ins/Adobe Photoshop Only/Extensions/Bigger Tiles
Windows: Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS2/Plug-Ins /Adobe Photoshop Only/Extensions/Bigger Tiles
Now rename the file and in the process remove the tilde (~) from the title. Restart Photoshop. Now if you assign from 261MB to 1GB of RAM in the Memory & Image Cache preference, the tile size increases to 260KB. Increasing the allocation to more than 1GB increases the tile size to 1MB. Larger tile sizes reduce the amount of time Photoshop takes to process an image, especially on computers with more than 1GB of RAM.

Scratch Disk vs. Virtual Memory
Both Photoshop and the Windows XP operating system use hard drive space as extra “fake” RAM. Adobe recommends that Photoshop Scratch Disks be positioned on a different drive to the one used by Windows for its Virtual Memory system. On most setups the Windows swap file is stored on the Startup or C drive. To help with overall Photoshop and Windows performance, ensure that you don’t position the Scratch Disk on the same drive. To set the location of your Scratch Disk select Edit>Preferences>Plug-Ins & Scratch Disks and choose the drive to use from the drop-down menu. Remember don’t select Startup or C drive unless you have no other choices.

Alter the Image Cache setting
Photoshop uses a special Image Cache to help redraw high-resolution images quickly. Instead of displaying all the information contained in these big files, Photoshop creates lower-resolution versions of the photo that are then used to update the screen quickly.

You can elect to store from 1-8 cached versions of the photo. A value of 1 disables the caching. Higher values store multiple versions of the file, which in turn produces faster screen redraws. The default setting is 4, but inputting higher numbers will help speed up the redraw process.

When a high cache number is set, it will take longer to open files as Photoshop creates the low-resolution versions of the photo at this point. To alter the Image Cache setting select Edit>Preferences> Memory & Image Cache and enter a value from 1-8 in the Cache Levels text box.

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!
Back to Top