We'll be making use of the Gaussian blur effect. The first step is to open the image you want to modify in Photoshop CC.

How to blur an entire image in Photoshop

If you want to blur the entire image choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur...

Adjust the radius to add more or less blur to the image. Then click "OK".

You're done!

How to blur faces in Photoshop (easy method)

If you want to blur a face in Photoshop, here is an easy way to do it. You can also use this method to blur text, logos, backgrounds, and anything else you want to blur.

First, use the selection tools to select the area you want to blur. In the following example, the face is selected using the Elliptical Marquee Tool.

Next, apply a Gaussian Blur just like before (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur...). Select the radius and click "OK". Finally, choose Select > Deselect.

You're done!

How to blur faces in Photoshop (advanced method)

In the easy method above, there is a hard line between the blurred section and the unblurred section. If you want to make a soft transition between the sections, use this advanced method. This method will also keep the unblurred version on a separate layer so it will be easy to revert if necessary.

First, duplicate the layer by right clicking on the layer and selecting "Duplicate layer...".

Next, apply a Gaussian Blur just like before (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur...) with your desired radius.

Add a layer mask to the duplicated layer by clicking the "Add vector mask" button. Make sure to hold OPTION on Mac or ALT on Windows while clicking the button to conceal the entire layer behind the mask. You will no longer see the blurred layer.

The next step is to use a brush tool to paint the areas that you want to be blurred. Make sure the brush tool has a soft edge (consider setting the hardness to 0%) and use white as the foreground color.

When you paint white on the mask the areas you paint will become blurred because the blurred layer is revealed.

You can see in the image above that the original unblurred layer is still available.

You can continue to paint any section you want blurred.

You're done!

Step 1: Open the photo and make sure it has a solid background.

If you need help removing a background from a photo, check out this background eraser tutorial.

Step 2: Duplicate the layer two times.

To duplicate a layer, right click on the layer and select "Duplicate Layer...". After duplicating the layer two times, hide the top layer and select the second layer.

Step 3: Add a Cutout filter to the second layer.

To add a Cutout filter, first choose Filter > Filter Gallery... Then select "Cutout". Set Number of Levels to 7, Edge Simplicity to 2, and Edge Fidelity to 2. You can experiment with other numbers if you like. Click "OK".

Step 4: Add a Poster Edges filter to the top layer.

Unhide and select the top layer. Just like the last step, choose Filter > Filter Gallery... This time select "Poster Edges". Set Edge Thickness to 10, Edge Intensity to 10, and Posterization to 2. Click "OK".

Step 5: Adjust the Threshold on the top layer.

Choose Image > Adjustments > Threshold... Set the Threshold Level to 50. Depending on your image, other values could look better. Select "OK".

Step 6: Add an Oil Paint filter to the top layer.

Choose Filter > Stylize > Oil Paint... Set Stylization to 5.0, Cleanliness to 7.0, Scale to 8.0, and Bristle Detail to 1.0. Select "OK".

Step 7: Adjust the Threshold again on the top layer.

Choose Image > Adjustments > Threshold... Set the Threshold Level to 150 this time. Depending on your image, other values could look better. Select "OK".

Step 8: Change the blending mode of the top layer to "Color Burn".

In the blending mode dropdown menu, select "Color Burn".

You're done! Your picture now looks like a cartoon.

Step One: Open your photo with red eye in Photoshop.

Step Two: Select the Red Eye Tool.

Step Three: Click anywhere in the red part of each eye with the Red Eye Tool.

You're done!

Not good enough?

If the results are not exactly what you are looking for, there are a few things you can do to improve the results.

You can modify the Pupil Size and Darken Amount settings. Usually you won't need to change these but sometimes it can help.

The Pupil Size setting changes how big of an area will darken. The Darken Amount setting will change how dark the red area becomes.

Sometimes just clicking a red eye will not make the entire red area dark. You can also click and drag using the Red Eye Tool to indicate the entire area that contains red. Try selecting an area if just clicking the red eye does not work correctly.

Since all pictures are slightly different, you may have to experiment with the settings until you get the look that you want. You can also try clicking different areas of the red eye or selecting different sizes of the red eye.

Preview on Google Drive

You can use this method no matter what type of operating system you have. Just upload your PSD file to Google Drive. You will be able to preview the file.

Once you are previewing the file, you can take a screen shot and then open the screenshot file in a different program.

Here are some shortcuts to take screenshots on various operating systems:

• Windows: Win+Shift+S
• Mac: Command+Shift+4
• ChromeOS: Ctrl + Shift + []]] (window switch key)

IrfanView (Windows Only)

InfranView is a free program you can download on Windows. It will allow you to display a PSD Photoshop file, as well as save it in a bunch of other popular formats. However, it does not support layers in Photoshop files so everything will be merged into a single layer.

Download IrfanView here.

Preview (Mac Only)

The built-in Preview program on MacOS can open Photoshop files. Just right click on the file, choose "Open With", then "Preview". Once the file is opened in Preview, you can export it to other formats by choosing "File", then "Export...". The Export menu has a dropdown menu where you can select the format. Just like IrfanView, layer information is not supported.

GIMP

GIMP is a free, open source alternative to Photoshop. It can open PSD files and even preserves layer information. GIMP is the most powerful option on this list and will allow you to make other modifications to the file.

To open a Photoshop file in GIMP, first download and install GIMP.

Then, open the Photoshop file in GIMP. Just use the default settings to convert the file.

You now have access to the image in GIMP, including all the layers! You can edit the image, or export it in any format. GIMP may not preserve all text information or layer styles.

Now you know you don't need Photoshop to open PSD files!

Photoshop has a learning curve and can be intimidating for beginners. Luckily, there are a bunch of great free tutorials to learn how to use Photoshop. Here are 7 places you can go to find free Photoshop tutorials.

The official tutorials

One of the best places to learn Photoshop for free is directly from Adobe, the company which makes Photoshop.

Adobe offers 190 free Photoshop tutorials on their website. Each tutorial includes sample files, videos, and written instructions. You can learn everything from the basics to advanced topics.

Learn from Adobe here: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/tutorials.html

Photoshop Basics from GCFLearnFree.org

This free Photoshop tutorial is sponsored by the Goodwill Community Foundation. The course covers basic and advanced tasks and is a great introduction to Photoshop.

View the course here: https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/photoshopbasics/

Photoshop Essentials

The photoshopessentials.com website has a bunch of free Photoshop tutorials. Some have videos and some do not but they are all well done.

They offer step-by-step tutorials for all skill levels, written with beginners in mind. They have tutorials on Photoshop basics, photo editing and retouching, text effects and more.

Check out the site: https://www.photoshopessentials.com/

Photoshop Star

Photoshop Star is similar to Photoshop Essentials. They have a lot of free Photoshop tutorials. The tutorials are step-by-step guides to create many different effects in photoshop.

Most of the tutorials provide source files to follow along with while going through the tutorials.

Start learning here: https://photoshopstar.com/

Photoshop Cafe

This is another site that has many different free Photoshop tutorials. Lean how to use the different tools in Photoshop to create a wide variety of looks and effects. The site also has some paid courses.

Go here for the tutorials: https://photoshopcafe.com/

The complete beginner's guide to Photoshop

This free course is from way back in 2014. But almost everything in the course is still relevant to the newest version of Photoshop. If you are looking for a single video course that covers everything you need to know about Photoshop, this is a good choice.

Start watching here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF_jSrBhdlg&list=PLYfCBK8IplO6v0QjCj-TSrFUXnRV0WxfE&index=1

YouTube channels

There are a lot of great YouTube channels that have high-quality Photoshop tutorials. Check out the following channels:

• Photoshop Training Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdQ_ZkYaMe6qPoueUyPQgpQ
• PiXimperfect: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMrvLMUITAImCHMOhX88PYQ
• tutvid: https://www.youtube.com/user/tutvid
• PHLEARN: https://www.youtube.com/user/PhlearnLLC

Photoshop is jam-packed with features which means there is a learning curve. If you want to master the use of Photoshop, there are a bunch of great free courses you can take online. Here are 7 Photoshop courses where you can learn the software for free.

Adobe Photoshop CC Tutorials for Beginners: Learn in 7 Days

In this free course from Guru99, you will learn how to use Photoshop CC. The sections in the course contain videos and written instructions to help you grasp the Photoshop IDE quickly. No prior knowledge is expected.

Adobe Photoshop CC For Beginners: Learn The Main Features Of Photoshop CC

This free one-hour course from Will Bartlett on Skillshare is an introduction into Adobe Photoshop CC. It is for absolute beginners. It begins with opening Photoshop and learning the various panel windows. Then the course it covers importing and working with various images, cleaning up acne in photos, removing objects from images, apply effects, working with vector files, exporting, and more.

Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

No Photoshop course list would be complete without mentioning the free training provided directly from the company who makes Photoshop. These quality video course include sample files to practice with and text instruction. This is a great place to begin your leaning.

Photoshop CC 2019 Essential Training: The Basics

This Photoshop course is part of LinkedIn Learning (formally Lynda.com). While not free, many libraries in the United States offer free access to LinkedIn Learning. Check your local library to see if you can access this course for free.

In this course you will learn how to work efficiently and effectively with Adobe Photoshop CC 2019. The 5 hour course covers how to use different Photoshop tools and perform common tasks. You will learn about nondestructive editing using Smart Objects, adjustment layers, blend modes, filters, and more.

Beginner To Professional The Complete Photoshop Guide

This course from Eduonix is another beginner's Photoshop course. Unlike some of the other courses on this list, it does require you to create an account and sign-in.

The course teaches everything you need to know to get started with Photoshop. It also covers tricks, techniques, and advanced features that will take your skill to the next level.

Photoshop Basics

This free Photoshop tutorial is sponsored by the Goodwill Community Foundation. The course covers basic and advanced tasks and is a great introduction to Photoshop. The course features videos and written lessons. The lessons have an easy print feature so this is one of the best courses if you prefer to print out lessons.

Four Hour Photoshop Crash Course

While it's called a "crash course", this course on YouTube covers quite a bit of material in four hours. It will take you from a complete beginner to someone who knows their way around Photoshop. You will learn about the three legs of Photoshop: layers, selections, and color correction. Rather than showing you every single feature, this course focuses on the features people actually use.

The price

Let's get right to it: Photoshop CC costs $9.99 per month (US dollars). This price includes 20 GB of cloud storage. You can pay more for additional storage.

Is it worth it? Well, for plenty of people, it is. You have to ask your self if it is worth the price to you.

We'll discuss some reasons Photoshop CC may or may not be worth the price. First, let's cover some competitors so you have something to compare to.

The competitors

Here just a few of the competitors to Photoshop:

• Affinity Photo (Mac, Windows, $49.99)
• Pixelmator (Mac, $39.99)
• Corel PaintShop Pro (Windows, $69.99)
• GIMP (Mac, Windows, Linux, free)
• Paint.NET (Windows, free)

One thing to notice right away is that all of the main competitors are either free or a one-time fee. Some people like the idea of paying a one-time cost and owning the software forever. Other people may like the subscription model of Photoshop that includes all updates and cloud storage space.

Photoshop vs competitors

Photoshop and its competitors share many features. All of the programs listed will be able to do basic image editing and anything most people do on a day-to-day basis. Many of the programs can even open Photoshop files (.psd).

However, there are a few things that make Photoshop stand out among its competitors that continue to make Photoshop the number one program used by professional photographers and designers.

Photoshop has more advanced tools and is updated more frequently than most competitors. Also, there are many more tutorials for Photoshop than other graphics software.

Here are a list of features that are part of Photoshop. All of these features are either less developed or nonexistent in much of the competing software.

• Four healing tools
• Color & Luminance Range Masking
• Stroke smoothing
• Brush organization
• Various collaboration tools
• Cross-platform compatibility with other Adobe products
• Custom path & width
• Curvature Pen tool
• CMYK mode (especially important for print)
• Non-destructive editing (original layer remains unaltered)
• User friendly interface

So is Photoshop worth it?

Whether or not Photoshop is worth the price comes down to personal preference and use cases.

If you are a professional photographer or designer, you have likely spent thousands of dollars on equipment already. An extra $9.99 per month isn't that much in comparison. If you are paying monthly for Photoshop, you can be assured that you always have access to the best image editing tools available.

However, if you are just starting out, or you don't need all the features that Photoshop offers, it may be better to go with one of the alternatives. You may consider starting with a free alternative, like GIMP, and upgrade when you find you want additional features or a more user friendly interface.

Try it for free

If you are on the fence, you can try out Photoshop for free for a week. In fact, most of Photoshop's competitors offer free trials as well. Try a few and see which one you like best. Start your Photoshop free trial.

First, make sure Photoshop is the correct tool for the job. If you just want to remove a background quickly, that can be done simply without Photoshop using one of these websites:

• https://www.remove.bg/
• https://clippingmagic.com/
• https://removal.ai/

Here are the steps to remove a background with Photoshop.

Step 1: Open your image in Photoshop.

Open the image. If you have multiple layers, make sure the layer is selected that contains the background you want to remove.

Step 2: In the "Select" menu click "Subject".

This will cause Photoshop to make a guess at a section of the the subject of the photos.

This does a pretty good job selecting the foreground, but there may be a few parts that need to be touched up. In the image below, arrows point to the parts that need to be improved.

Step 3: Go back to the "Select" menu again and click "Select and Mask".

This will open up a window that allows you to make adjustments to the selection.

Step 3: Adjust the view mode and opacity.

Try a few different options until you can clearly see the selected foreground. The exact options you should choose will depend on the colors in your foreground image and your personal preferences.

Step 3: Adjust edge detection.

This is useful for detailed selections such as hair. The Edge Detection pixel radius indicates that the edge, including all details, could be within that many pixels on each side of what is currently selected. If you select "Smart Radius", then Photoshop will automatically determine what the pixel radius is.

Step 4: Set global refinements such as smooth.

Smooth is the main refinement you will need for photo editing. This will smooth out the jagged edges of the selection. You may also want to increase the feather, which will create a soft edge around the selection.

Step 5: Use the tools on the left side to refine the selection.

The quick selection tool allows you to easily add or remove from current selection. For this tool and any brush tool you can use the bracket key to increase and decrease the size of the brush.

The refine edge brush tool will adjust the border area and is useful to add hair or other fine details to the selection.

The brush tool is used to fine-tune selections and the lasso tool is used to draw a free-hand selection.

Step 6: Confirm selection and apply layer mask.

On the "Select and Mask" window, hit OK. Your foreground is now selected. To finish removing the background, hit the layer mask button to apply your selection to the mask.

When you create a layer mask, the background is still available behind the mask in case you ever need it again. If you want to get rid of the background for good, you can copy the foreground and paste it in another image or you can invert the selection (choose Select > Inverse) and press 'delete' to permanently remove the background.

Introduction

Often, when working as web developer, we need to integrate templates. They can be from Photoshop or other software. In this article, we will have a look at the basics of Photoshop for web developers.

This content was initially written for a workshop for DAMDigital London.

Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor software, meaning it is a program that allows users to create and edit images.

_Image [source](https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html#hero-featured-video" rel="noopener" target="blank" title=")

It was released in 1988 and has grown to be the industry standard for graphics software.

You can download a free trial version of Photoshop on the Adobe website.

Workspace

Photoshop’s workspace is modular, so you can adapt it depending on the work you are doing. Some default workspaces are already set up in Photoshop. In this article, I’m using the Graphic and Web one. To change to this workspace, go into Window/workspace/Graphic and Web.

Let’s have a look at our workspace:

Photoshop

• A — Menu bar: This is where you’ll find most photoshop options.
• B — Options bar: This bar will give you all the options for the currently selected tool.
• C — Toolbox: This panel contains all the available tools from photoshop. Related tools are grouped together, and you can long click on one of them to see all the tools.
• D — Panels: It is the area where you have your basic panels open, such as Layers, History, and so on. To open a panel, just go into Window/(Panel that you want to open)

Create a new file

When creating a new file in Photoshop, you first need to know for what medium the design is going to be used — meaning, is it going to be used for a screen (web, film, or video) or for print?

Depending on the answer to this question, you will need to change the PPI (Pixels Per Inch) value.

Pixels per inch (PPI) is a measurement used to define the resolution of a computer display. This metric evaluates the picture/image quality that a particular computing or output display device is able to display. Pixels per inch is also known as pixel density. Techopedia

For print, you normally need 300PPI, but it actually depends on the printer and the size of the printed document. You should change your colour to CMYK as well, but again that depends on how you print your document. If you want to learn more about RGB and CMYK colours, check out this article.

For screens and web ?, you need 72PPI and RGB colour. Then you need to specify your screen size. I would recommend designing first for mobile, then tablet and desktop.

As a web developer, you might not need to create a new file. Chances are that you will need to work with a design provided by web designers.

We are now going to look at an existing .psdtemplate and work with it to have a look around Photoshop.

You can download and open this PSD template from Luis Costa.

Layers

One of the core features of Photoshop is layers. Layers are like a stack of sheets, and you can see through transparent areas or area with low opacity (partially transparent).

You can open the layer panel in Window/Layers.

The top layer in this panel will be placed over all the other layers underneath. Layers can be organized as well in folders. It is important to correctly name layers and folders. That will help during integration.

Next to each folder and layer, you have an eye icon. This allows you to toggle their visibility.

Your PSD might have a lot of layers and documents. One way to quickly find a layer is to select the move tool (v). Right click on the canvas where you want to find your layer. You will get all the layers in the area where you have right clicked. By clicking on one, it will select this layer in your layer panel.

Toolbox

Photoshop comes with a load of tools. I’m going to show you a few useful ones that will help you ?.

First, if you just install Photoshop CC 2018, you will need to restore all tools. So go to Edit > Toolbar and click on the Restore Defaults button.

_[Image from Adobe](https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/tools.html" rel="noopener" target="blank" title="https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/tools.html)

We are going to see some of the most useful tools you’d use to integrate a template:

A — Selection tools

• Move: Allows the user to move a layer around the canvas. As we saw earlier, it can be used as well to find a layer if you right click on your canvas.
• Rectangular Marquee: This tool is used to select an area of the canvas to copy and paste, fill it in, and so on. It can be used as well to measure. When your selection is done, you can find the size of the selected area in Window/Info. You might need to change the default unit in photoshop Edit/preferences/general/Unit & Rulers then set your units to pixels.

B — Crop and Slice tools

• Crop: This tool can… crop an image ?. In the tool settings (Options Bar), you can set an aspect ratio that you want to keep.

C — Measuring tools

• Eyedropper: The eyedropper allows you to quickly get a color reference in your design. Just click where you want the color. Then at the bottom of your toolbox, the foreground color will change to the selected color. If you click on the foreground color, it will open the color picker window. From there you can get the value of your color.
• Color Sampler: When integrating your design, you might need to select multiple colors. We are going to use the info window again Window/Info. This tool allows us to create a color sampler. Just click on the area of the image you want to get the colors from. You will get each color in the info panel. You can change the color type to web by clicking on the Eyedropper icon under the number.

• Ruler: helps you to measure your template. All the info will appear in your info window. Maintain Shiftwhen measuring, so your ruler stays straight. You can get angles also.

G — Navigation tool

• Hand: This tool helps you to get around the canvas. You can access this tool at any time by holding the spacebar and dragging it with your mouse.
• Zoom: Allows you to zoom in and out (you can you Ctrl + +, or Ctrl + - too).

Guides

As you might have noticed when opening our PSD file, we have some green lines on our template. They are guides. They are basically helpers that will help you build or measure things around your canvas.

You can move existing guides using the move tool(v).

To create new guides, you will need to open your ruler: View/Ruler or Ctrl + R. The ruler will appear in your workspace. Then from the ruler, you can drag a new guide into your canvas.

To remove a guide, use the move tool(v) and put the guide back in the ruler.

To hide and show all your guides, you can just use Ctrl + H, or go to View/Extras.

Smart objects

What are smart objects?

Smart Objects are layers that contain image data from raster or vector images, such as Photoshop or Illustrator files. Smart Objects preserve an image’s source content with all its original characteristics, enabling you to perform nondestructive editing to the layer. Adobe

Smart objects can be recognized in your layers when they have the following icon in their thumbnails:

Smart objects are really handy if you work with vector-type images (SVG, EPS, AI), but are also useful with other complex raster files.

Let’s try to import a smart object into our PSD. Download an SVG file from flaticon. To import our SVG in our canvas, just drag the file into the canvas. We can now edit our SVG in illustrator, or any other vector software, by double-clicking on the thumbnail or our smart object. Changes will appear in our PSD.

Smart objects can do way more than that, though. If you want to learn more about them, check out 10 Things You Need to Know About Smart Objects in Photoshop.

Export assets

First, just a reminder that photoshop is a raster software, not a vector software. This means we “can’t” export SVG files from photoshop. To do so, you will need to export these kinds of files from Illustrator or Inkscape, for example.

On the web, we want to have light image files. For photography, we would use a compressed .jpg file. If you need to use transparency (Alpha channel) we would use .png file. For an animated image, we would use a .gif. If you need a vector image (icons, for example) the best is to export your file as .svg. If you want to have more information about all the files available in Photoshop, you can check out "file formats" in the Adobe's website.

Export our canvas

To export the canvas, just follow these steps:

1. Go to File/Export/Save for Web
2. Pick file format
3. Pick image size
4. Pick quality
5. Save

Export only an asset from the canvas

You will probably need to export some assets of your template.

Let’s export the left arrow in the product carousel:

Using the move tool, we are going to find our layer. Right click on the arrow and select the layer Arrow Left. Now just right click on this layer in the layer panel. Select export as and select the type of file you need.

We can also export folders.

Actions

What’s an action in Photoshop?

An action is a series of tasks that you playback on a single file or a batch of files — menu commands, panel options, tool actions, and so on. For example, you can create an action that changes the size of an image, applies an effect to the image, and then saves the file in the desired format. Adobe

This feature is really convenient if you want to resize a batch of images for the web!

Let’s create a new action to crop an image and export this one:

1. Download a bunch of images from https://unsplash.com/
2. Open one of those images
3. Open the Actions panel, Window/Actions,
4. Create a new action by clicking on the icon Create a new action (The one on the left of the bin icon). Let’s name this action Export for web — client name.
5. We are now recording our action. The record button will be red, and you can stop recording by clicking on the stop icon (square icon on the left)/
6. Select the crop icon and set the ratio to 1x1 and crop the image/
7. Now we want to export our image, File/Export/Save for Web, select JPG, quality 50% and width 500px.
8. Click save and pick your destination folder.
9. Close your image without saving it.
10. To stop recording click on the stop icon (square icon on the left).

We now have our action, so we can open an image and just “play” our action by clicking on the play button.

If we want to apply our action to a batch of images, just follow these steps:

1. Go to File/Automate/Batch
2. Select the Source folder.
3. Select our action
4. Click on Ok

And voilà! All your images are in the export folder.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this small Photoshop 101 introduction for web developers ?. If you want to have a 102 version, let me know what you would like to know or to read more about ?.

• @vince_umo
• vincent-humeau.com

Part 1: Scratching the Surface

You keep hearing me talk about oatmeal and zombies. In case you think I am pointing fingers from my ivory tower, today I want to confess my own contribution to this mess.

(Disclaimer: Trashing your clients and former employer is bad form, even after a decade of silence. That’s not my intention. The people I worked with and for in the story that follows were not zombies. We were passionate insiders trying to make a difference in a zombie industry.)

I knew I was going straight to designer hell the summer of hurricane Katrina. I was taking a lunch break from a photo shoot in Indiana, the heart of American RV manufacturing. I was stopped at a railroad crossing, waiting for a train to roll by. The cargo was unbranded RVs. Hundreds of big white boxes rushing south like blood cells racing to a wound.

Some of the 120,000+ RVs heading to help hurricane victims.

The RVs were to be temporary homes for the victims of the hurricane.

People were helping other people. Warm fuzzies.

This is the surface appearance, the outer layer where designers, marketers, and brand experts make our living. Here we assume good intention, never question motives, and spin the details into glossy, highly consumable stories about our clients.

The logoless RVs on that train seemed like a perfect metaphor for the marketing industry. Clients come to us with their plain white boxes. Then the creative people go to work. We add stylish stickers to the product. We create logos and invent brands. We stage photo shoots where, if we put the camera in just the right spot, we can make the white boxes look like luxury goods.

This was my job, and I would like to think I did it well. The work we created for our RV client was solid, and when you compare it to the notoriously low standards of the competition, we had created a surface layer for our client that put them (arguably) at the top of the industry. Here is my story, a list of the sins that I committed, and the secrets of how to market white boxes.

An assortment of websites I helped create

First, let me tell you a little bit about the literal surface of the RVs. The exteriors are ugly and the swirly stickers don’t help much. I desperately wanted a chance to improve the graphics of the RVs. It seemed like the easiest way to differentiate our client’s white boxes from the competition.

Here’s how the graphics on an RV come to be. RV manufacturers have contracts with the companies that produce the decorative decals. The “design costs” are baked into the cost of the stickers. These sticker-makers are cutting deals with all the RV makers so all the stickers are designed by the same cost-constrained designers. It’s a monopoly of mediocrity.

Each year our agency would plead for a chance to design the stickers. Each year we lost. So we worked with what we had.

You can still make a white box with ugly stickers the object of desire. Like any magic trick, once you know the secret the illusion loses it’s charm. So let’s demystify this a bit.

Magic Trick 1: Makeup

An alley in the ghetto transforms into paradise. Magic.

The first trick is the oldest in the book. Add makeup. Photoshop out the blemishes. Fix it in post.

Park an RV anywhere, it could be on the side of the road. Replace the dirty industrial park with an imaginary single-lane highway pointed at some mountains. Well done, designer.

“Oh, by the way. We don’t have money for you to repeat that trick this year. Go ahead and add our new slightly less ugly graphics to the photo you faked last year.”

The post-production used in photos of female models is well-documented. The damage to the self-image of women is obvious and easy to point at. You rarely hear criticism of the day-to-day product photo touchup. Who are the victims of this deception? We’ll get to that, just stick with me.

Magic Trick 2: Use a Wide Angle Lens

I don’t know if you have been in an RV, so let me just tell you. They are tiny. Often you can stick your arms out and touch both walls. Making the interior of an RV look spacious is an impressive trick.

One of my favorite things about working for an RV client was being able to art direct the photo shoots for RV interiors.

We used an assortment of photographers in Indiana who specialized in creating these illusions. It was amazing to watch them build a shot. In the morning you have an ordinary RV. You find the best place to put the camera. Select the right lens. Manicure the surfaces. Add props. Then carefully build light. By the end of the day you have achieved the impossible–the tiny interior looks massive.

The final step would be for me to take the interior photo, cut out the windows, and insert a stock photo of a beautiful landscape. Deception complete.

Magic Trick 3: Misdirection

The third trick is misdirection. If your product can’t rely on its own good looks, you create images that encourage the viewer to look at something else. We called them lifestyle photos. Pictures of smiling, happy people doing exciting things with your product as a prop in the background. The sleight of hand is to shift of attention away from the product.

Imagine an adventurous couple on vacation. They slide their canoe into a crystal clean lake. Before climbing onboard, the man looks back over his shoulder at his RV parked on the beach. With a knowing nod, he thanks the heroic product for making this all possible.

If you can convincingly Photoshop this concept does it matter that it is a complete fiction? You can answer “no” once or twice, but when you see this trick done enough times you have to wonder. How far removed from reality can something get before the product, the reason you are doing this work in the first place, ceases to be a touched-up version of reality and crosses the line into a deception that obscures truth.

It makes a better trick to include the product in your illusions, but this isn’t mandatory. Simply having your product next to lifestyle images can be enough to distract attention away from the product. For the record, the following brochure cover wasn’t created by me.

If you make the product small enough, ugly exteriors are ignorable.

Let’s jump back to Indiana where I watched the train of unbranded RVs dissappear in the distance. I crossed the tracks and headed back to the photo studio where I commented on the train and how great it was to see an act of goodwill. I asked if anyone knew which RV company was making such a generous donation. The response was,

“Donation? Why do you think there isn’t a single logo on those RVs?”

I had no idea. What I learned next made me question everything. Were my magic tricks really harmless illusions? My tiny exaggerations were about to become a dangerous contribution to a lie that ended up permanently injuring people.

Today’s post was about the surface layer, the tricks of the trade that by themselves seem harmless. Next week I am going to talk about what happens when you start asking questions. That’s where my path to hell gets paved.

Part 2: Got a Brand Problem? Put a Bird on it.

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