How to make Delicious Bagels Text Effect in Photoshop? Tutorial

Bagels are a donut-shaped type of bread made with flour. They look absolutely amazing when well baked and shiny!

This tutorial will show you how to use the powerful Layer Styles’ capabilities in Photoshop, along with a couple of brushes and filters to create some delicious-looking bagels.

The Final Result:

Notes:

* the software used in this tutorial is Adobe Photoshop CS6, but you can use CS3+ versions as well.
* you might want to check the Basix Page to see some useful topics on dealing with Photoshop basics, such as loading palettes and some shortcuts.

Resources:
* Franks font.
* Floral Patterns by sofi01.
* Wood Patterns pattern by Loungedy.
* Paper_2 by Atle Mo.
* White Texture by Dmitry.
* Concrete wall by Atle Mo.

Note: You might need to load the Contours used in the tutorial, so check this image to see how to do so.

Step 1

- Create a new 1250 x 1250 px document (you can use any Width value you like, but make sure that the Height value is not less than 1250).

Pick the Rectangle Tool, Set the Foreground color to #d4d0c9, and draw a rectangle that extends a little bit outside the document.

- Double click the Rectangle shape layer to apply the following Layer Style:

- Bevel and Emboss
Size : 3
Check the Anti-aliased box
Shadow Mode – Color : #a89a86

- Contour Check the Anti-aliased box.

- Texture
Pattern : paper_2
Depth : 318%

- Gradient Overlay
Blend Mode : Multiply
Style : Radial
Scale : 150%
Click the Gradient box to create the gradient.

To create the Gradient, you’ll need to click below the gradient bar to add Color stops, and above it to add Opacity stops.

This gradient is created using two colors: #ffffff to the left, with the opacity 0%, and #6e3c32 to the right, with the opacity 100%.

- Pattern Overlay
Blend Mode : Multiply
Pattern : 1181556893.gif

This will create the main background.

Step 2

- Set the Foreground color to #d8d1b9, pick the Ellipse Tool, then press and hold the Shift key, and click and drag to create a circle that fits within the document.

-Double click the Ellipse shape layer to apply the following Layer Style:

– Bevel and Emboss
Technique : Chisel Hard
Size : 95
Gloss Contour : Cove – Deep
Check the Anti-aliased box
Highlight Mode : Soft Light – Opacity : 50%

– Contour
Contour : Cone – Asymmetrical
Check the Anti-aliased box.

– Texture
Pattern : White Texture
Depth : 10%

– Satin
Blend Mode : Linear Light
Color : #767676
Distance : 73
Size : 250
Contour : Ring – Double

– Pattern Overlay
Blend Mode : Multiply
Pattern : Wood 411.jpeg

– Drop Shadow
Opacity : 24%
Distance : 55

This will create the bowl/dish/plate material. You can play around with the Bevel and Emboss values, or use different colors and textures if you like.

Step 3

- Create the first letter of the word you want to create in All Caps, using the font “Franks”, the color #e3d1ab, and the font Size 570.

You can work simultaneously on all the letters, or work on each one separately. That’s totally up to you.

- If the letter contains closed counters (holes), you’ll need to convert it to a shape to remove the sharp corners of the aperture.

To do so, right click the text layer, then choose Convert to Shape.

- Pick the Convert Point Tool, click and drag around the sharp corner to select it, then click and drag the anchor point to convert the sharp point into a curve.

- Then, you might need to pick the Direct Selection Tool, click and drag the points to move them around, or click and drag the Direction Points to widen or narrow the curve.

- The final result doesn’t have to be perfect; in fact, it better be not.

- Duplicate the shape layer, change the copy’s Fill value to 0, then duplicate the copy twice. So you’ll have the original text layer, a “copy”, “copy 2″, and “copy 3″ layers.

Step 4

- Double click the original text layer to apply the following Layer Style:

– Bevel and Emboss
Size : 65
Soften : 16
Shadow Mode – Color : #a98f59

– Drop Shadow
Uncheck the Use Global Light box
Angle : 80
Distance : 20
Size : 25

- This will create the basic 3D shape of the bagel.

Step 5

- Double click the “copy” text layer to apply the following Layer Style:

– Inner Shadow
Color : #533416
Distance : 0
Size : 7

– Inner Glow
Blend Mode : Multiply
Opacity : 85%
Fill : Choose the gradient fill – we’ll create the gradient in a minute.
Technique : Precise
Source : Center
Size : 43
Contour : Gaussian
Range : 80

- Click the gradient box to create the gradient.

The three colors used and their Locations are:
# – Color – Location
1 – #d17a34 – 0%
2 – #ecd8ad – 45%
3 – #e0c09a – 88%

As for the Opacity values:

# – Opacity – Location
1 – 100% – 0
2 – 100% – 45%
3 – 0% – 100%

Using a gradient for the glow will help create a dark to light coloring from the center of the letter towards the edges.

Step 6

- Double click the “copy 2″ text layer to apply the following Layer Style:

– Bevel and Emboss
Size : 62
Uncheck the Use Global Light box
Angle : 68
Altitude : 64
Gloss Contour : Half Round
Check the Anti-aliased box
Highlight Mode – Color : #ffe4bd – Opacity : 25%
Shadow Mode – Opacity : 0%

– Texture
Pattern : White Texture

- This will add some texture (bump) to the text.

Step 7

- Double click the “copy 3″ text layer to apply the following Layer Style:

– Bevel and Emboss
Size : 75
Uncheck the Use Global Light box
Angle : 54
Altitude : 42
Gloss Contour : Log
Check the Anti-aliased box
Shadow Mode – Opacity : 0%

– Contour
Contour : Half Round
Check the Anti-aliased box.
Range : 40%

– Texture
Pattern : Concrete wall

- This will add some shine. The shine will change its angle when it will be rotated near the end of the tutorial, which will make it more dynamic.

Step 8

- Ctrl + click any letter layer’s thumbnail to create a selection.

- Go to Select -> Modify -> Contract, and type the value 50. This will contract the selection 50 px inwards.

- Go to Select -> Modify -> Feather, and type the value 15. This will soften the edges of the selection.

- Set the Foreground color to #994b0d, pick the Paint Bucket Tool, create a new layer on top of all layers, call it “Brown”, and fill the selection with the Foreground color.

Step 9

- Ctrl + click any letter layer’s thumbnail to create a selection one more time. Create another new layer and call it “Texture”. Set the Foreground color to #e4c8a0 and the Background color to #936d2f.

We’ll apply some filters to create a simple texture that will also enhance the coloring of the letter.

- Start by going to Filter -> Render -> Clouds. Then Go to Select -> Deselect (Ctrl + D) to get rid of the selection.

- Go to Filter -> (Filter Gallery) -> Sketch -> Bas Relief, and change the values as shown below.

- This is what you should get.

- Go to Filter -> (Filter Gallery) -> Brush Strokes -> Accented Edges, and modify the values as shown below too.

- That’s it for the texture. Really simple.

- Change the “Texture” layer’s Blend Mode to Soft Light. You can see the difference it makes.

Step 10

- Pick the Brush Tool, and open the Brush panel (Window -> Brush).

Choose a soft round brush, and modify its settings as shown below:

- Brush Tip Shape:

- Shape Dynamics:

- Create a new layer on top of all layers, call it “Color Burn Brush”, change its Blend Mode to Color Burn, its Opacity to 45%, and set the Foreground color to #cac2b7.

- Click and drag slightly to intensify some areas on the letter. This will make the golden-brown part look more realistic.

Step 11

- Create a new layer, call it “Inner Shadow”, and change its Blend Mode to Multiply. Set the Foreground color to #e7cf93 and reduce the Brush Size to 45 px.

- In the Brush panel, under Brush Tip Shape, set the Spacing value back to 25%.

- Select the text like you did previously, then paint around the counters to add more shadow.

- Create another new layer, call it “Outer Shadow”, change its Blend Mode to Multiply, set the Foreground color to #e3b96d, and increase the Brush Size to 175 px.

Click and drag a little bit far from (outside) the selection, and around the letter, to darken the edges.

- When done, deselect (Ctrl + D).

This is the main bagel. The next steps are simple additions to this outcome.

Step 12

- Pick the Brush Tool and open the Brush panel. Choose a hard round brush, and modify its settings as below:

- Brush Tip Shape:

- Shape Dynamics:

- Scattering:

This will be the main seed brush.

Step 13

- Create a new layer on top of all layers and call it “Sesame”.

- Double click the “Sesame” layer to apply the following Layer Style:

– Bevel and Emboss
Check the Anti-aliased box
Highlight Mode – Color : #ecbe8e
Shadow Mode : – Color : #c1803a

– Contour
Contour : Cone
Check the Anti-aliased box.

– Drop Shadow
Opacity : 60%
Distance : 1
Size : 2

- Duplicate the “Sesame” layer, and rename the copy to “Poppy Seed”.

- Double click the “Poppy Seed” layer to change the Bevel and Emboss Shadow Mode color back to Black.

- Set the Foreground color to #d4ad6c, select the “Sesame” layer, then click and drag over the middle part of the bagel letter to scatter the sesame.

A helpful tip would be to drag in a subtle zig-zag motion. this will help better spread the seeds much better.

- Change the Foreground color to #372f2d, decrease the brush Size to 7, select the “Poppy Seed” layer, then click and drag to add the poppy seeds to the bagel.

Step 14

- The bagel letter is finished now. So group its layers, then go ahead and create the other letters.

When done, select each group, then go to Edit -> Free Transform, to rotate and position the letters inside the bowl.

- Click the “Create new fill or adjustment layer” icon down the Layers panel, and choose Gradient Map.

- Change the adjustment layer’s Blend Mode to Multiply and its Opacity to 10%.

- The gradient is created using 3 colors:
# – Color – Location
1 – #7b2800 – 0%
2 – #ffb211 – 60%
3 – #ffffc7 – 100%

- Finally, you can add two more separate “Sesame” and “Poppy Seed” layers right on top of the bowl’s layer, and scatter some seeds around to finish off the effect.

And there you have your bagels ready!
Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and found it delicious 

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How to Draw a Tomato with Photoshop? Tutorial

In Hand Drawing of PS, the most required thing is patience. I don’t list detailed parameters in this paper, only steps and ideas of Hand Drawing. You should work out parameters by yourselves. I hope my steps and ideas will be helpful to you.

Step 1, draw such a path with Pen tool. It is not a regular oval.

Step 2, Sketch paths of other parts with the Pen again.

Step 3, In this step, draw the light and shadow relationship of the general structure of the tomato, still with the Pen tool. In my case, I draw it in separate pieces, then fill in colors and feather paths. As to parameters, just follow your feelings.

Step 4, To further depict the tomato, “light” is very important. The method is same as above.

Step 5, To draw grains on the surface of the tomato, create a layer of the shape of the tomato, and add “Filter-Texture-Grain”. The mode of the layer is “Dissolve” and the transparency is about 10%, or you can try other methods.

Step 6, As same with step three, continue to depict the luster of the tomato. The drawing of cracks is simpler, just draw out the path, fill in colors and stroke(1px).

Step 7, To draw the split of the tomato, you should be patient enough. It requires little technology, and the method is same as above. The drawing of the particles in the split is same as that of particles on the surface.

Step 8, Draw out the general light-shadow relationship of the tomato pulp, and continue to enhance it. We can still use path-feather method here, and I have combined “Brush tool” to complete some small details(pulp has certain luster and transparency, so certain transparency is required when setting the brush).

Step 9, To draw some juice and pulp flow out of the tomato, brushes are also used to draw the pulp. You can try the several brushes in the red box and may have different feelings.

Step 10, A fresh tomato should have some dewdrops on it.

Step 11, The drawing of the dewdrops is same as that of other water drops. Water drops are transparent, so remember to adjust the transparency. Copy similar water drops, then adjust their sizes, shapes and light. Vector path is required here.

Step 12, Draw tomato leaves. Leaves of a ripened tomato will not be very fresh. To make them look more beautiful, I have drawn very fresh leaves.

Step 13, Noises can make leaves look furry. Look carefully and you will discover there are fine white furs on the leaves. The furs can be drawn with paths or brushes.

Step 14, Finally we have completed it.

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How to Handle Catch Lights and Eyeglasses Glare in Portrait Photography? Tutorial

Ideally, catch lights should be round.This tends to be the most natural and visually pleasing shape (reflections of the sun are round, and we are used to seeing the round shape). The shape of your catch lights is generally only a problem if you are using a square reflector or diffuser. If you are going for a contest winner, you will want to retouch your catch lights to make them round.

Be careful about the number of catch lights visible in the eye. Your fill light or reflectors will add additional catch lights to the eyes. You usually only want one in each eye. Retouch or adjust your lighting to remove any extras.

Lastly, the catch light (ideally, provided by the main light) often looks best at the 11:00 or 1:00 o’clock position within the subject’s eye. Knowing this will help you determine how high to place the main light. It should be at about 45 degrees from the axis between the camera and the model and high enough to be slightly above their head.

Every face is different, so watch the shadows and catch lights to determine the right placement for the lighting pattern–shadows to determine the light pattern, catch lights to determine the height of the light source.

Reflections in glasses can kill a portrait faster than just about anything else. Here are a few pointers:

The first thought that many of us have is to just take the photo with the subject not wearing glasses. This can work–or it can be a problem.

If the subject does not normally wear glasses (they may habitually go without them or they may usually wear contacts) go ahead and shoot without them. If the subject normally does wear glasses, and you shoot without them, no one is going to like the portrait. The person in the photo won’t look natural. Plus, their eyes might look slightly unfocused or even crossed.

“Untitled” captured by Ryantron on Flickr.

Rule of thumb: if your subject shows up for the portrait session wearing their glasses, leave them on.

Since the lights are generally higher than the subject’s head, one way to avoid glare from the glasses is to raise the part of the stems going back to the ears. The hooked part will be raised half an inch or so above the ear. This tilts the lenses down and can eliminate glare.

If tilting the glasses doesn’t eliminate the glare, you may have to raise the lights. Be careful about tilting the glasses too far; it looks odd if you overdo it.

Lastly, you can actually take the lenses out of the frames and have your subject wear the empty frames. This is a method that’s been touted by photographers for decades! For most eyeglass frames, it is easy to remove and replace the lenses with an eyeglass screwdriver kit. It would be worth your while to get one and keep it in your camera bag.

Be cautious though. If you break or scratch your subject’s glasses, you could end up buying him or her some new ones. You will drop the screws, so have extras on hand.

Catch lights and glare prevention need not be complicated. Make sure your catch lights are the right shape and in the right location, watch for glare in your model’s eyeglasses, and you’ll be quick to improve your portrait photography.

About the Author:
Dan Eitreim writes for ontargetphototraining.com. He has been a professional photographer in Southern California for over 20 years. His philosophy is that learning photography is easy if you know a few tried and true strategies.

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What are Inbound and Outbound links?

Most of the bloggers are obsessed with backlinks and always get in the debate of “dofollow” and “nofollow” links and always try to weigh their benefits and drawbacks. Most of the bloggers also sell and buy backlinks as they want to exchange some PR. This post will give you the overview of inbound and outbound links.

Inbound links:

Inbound links or commonly known as “backlinks” are the links pointing to your site and search engines like Google like it when you have thousands of links pointing to your site but sometimes Google penalizes you for it too if you have poor quality and irrelevant backlinks pointing to your site. Yes, because you have no authority over the inbound links which others post for you. Google only likes it when relevant links point to your site but as you have no control over them you cannot control which sites point to your site. But if your content is rich with information and unique then chances are that people will link to your site and there are more chances that those links will be “dofollow” and you will get some free and targeted traffic to your site. Inbound links that are “dofollow” also increase your website’s PR and SERPs and are considered healthy for any blog or website.

Outbound links:

These are the links pointing to other websites from your website and you have more control over these links. People have different views about outbound links and many say that it is against the SEO rules and search engines can penalize you for doing this. This approach is wrong; I know Google cannot penalize me if I put a link to Google inside my post. My theory is that you should link to relevant content if it gives more information to your readers. Bloggers are of the view that you lose traffic when you put outbound links in your posts but if you share useful resources then chances are that your readers will stick to your blog and will come back in search of more useful resources. But if you do put outbound links in your posts then make sure they are pointing to relevant, original and informative content.

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How to get Better Ads via Better Sitelinks?

Sitelinks are an important part of successful ads.  They show value to potential customers before a click occurs, while also being (along with other extensions) a factor of ad rank.  User interaction with sitelinks is so strong that you should consider them a basic part of your ad text - title, description, display URL and sitelinks.  Optimize the messaging in this space routinely, just as you do with ad text.

Many advertisers aren’t taking advantage of this excellent feature just yet, so before we start optimizing you may need to implement them.  Adding sitelinks boosts the average CTR on an ad by 10-20% (+20-50% when the search is one of your branded terms), so that implementation should be time well spent.

Make sure to have at least six active sitelinks for desktop and four active sitelinks for mobile, but remember that you can go all the way up to twenty total per ad group or campaign.  Sitelinks allow 25 characters for the link itself, and that space allows for testing.  We’ve found that somewhat shorter sitelinks are the most effective, though, so try to keep them closer to 18-20 characters for desktop and 12-15 characters for mobile. 

We think sitelinks are a great proven feature, and we also think that they can be made better.

Reporting on Sitelinks

Start by knowing how you’re doing.

When reviewing these statistics, remember to compare sitelinks to one another and not to overall ad performance (as CTR on sitelinks is almost universally lower than a click on an ad, even though an ad with sitelinks will perform better than an ad without sitelinks).  You can also look at a sitelink’s contribution to the entire creative.  If you segment by “This Extension vs. Other” you can see if that extension is encouraging clicks on the headline or other links.

Identify your strong performers in terms of CTR (on the link itself or the surrounding ad), conversion rate, and conversion volume to establish a baseline of what target you can shoot for with low performers.  If certain sitelinks aren’t receiving a lot of impressions they’ve been passed over by the system, which means that you could probably work on improving those first.

(Quick aside - Beyond normal reporting, it’s also a good idea to do a simple sense check.  Are those the six {or twenty} pages that would be the most useful for your customers?  Even if CTR or impressions are low, is there a minority of your users that will find that sitelink very useful?  You may want to keep that link in place for them.)

Once you’ve found what’s not working, try out new text to improve performance.  If CTR is fine but your conversion rate is lagging, you could be sending traffic to the wrong page or setting user expectations incorrectly with a misleading link.  As with your ads, even top performers could potentially be improved upon.  Think about something new you may want to try.

When viewing your sitelink data, the info is available at the ad, ad group, campaign, and account level.  Add or remove these columns on the Ad Extensions tab to determine just how specific you want your info to be.

Testing Your Sitelinks

Pure A/B testing isn’t possible because each sitelink must point to different content.  When you’re identifying what’s lagging behind, recognize that other variables can muddle your results (things like ad tests, bid changes or seasonality).  You can try out variations of sitelinks in different campaigns or sets of ad groups to see what works better, but it’s still not going to be a perfect solution.  Recognize the imperfection of this whenever reviewing your results.

Sitelink testing shouldn’t be as frequent as your ad testing (due to the lack of A/B testing).  Monthly or quarterly reviews might make sense for you, depending on your volume.

Apply ad copy testing principles to your new sitelinks.  Think of distinct calls to action and benefits that relate to a user’s search and the page you’re directing them to.  You can also take lessons from previous ad tests and apply them.  For example, you can use losing (but still strong) ad copy as your sitelinks or their descriptions.

Sitelinks with Additional Detail

You also have the option to add additional detail to your sitelinks, which is great opportunity to prove value to customers before they click.  At present, sitelinks automatically serve descriptions where appropriate.  That feature is going away in the near future, though, so add in descriptions yourself sooner rather than later.

Mobile Sitelinks

Try to speak to mobile users.  Think about mobile intent and how it differs from desktop, and then reflect that way of thinking in your sitelinks.  You’ll also want to keep mobile sitelinks shorter (to around 12-15 characters) to ensure they aren’t cut off.

Closing

You can show users valuable information about your site right in your ads via sitelinks.  It’s imperative that they’re present, and once they’re there you should focus on making them as good as they can be (just as you do with the ads themselves).  Sitelinks not only increase the relevance of your ads, they increase the relevance of the user experience you deliver after the click.

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How to get googles organic Sitelinks? Guide to Googles Organic Sitelinks

What are Sitelinks?

Google sitelinks are additional links that display in main search result. Typically a user will see sitelinks for brand names that Google recognizes. You can distinguish sitelinks when there are two or more links indented below the main search result.

The image shown below is a screenshot from Google's search results.

To see it in action perform a Google search for the keyword "Anything Digital." Beneath the main url you will see relevant links to various areas of the Anything Digital website.

Why are sitelinks important?

Sitelinks are valuable for brand reputation, and a strategy to control a greater area of the search results page. They also help users navigate to the appropriate section of your website without having to click the homepage. Your website can become more visible to your potential customers. Sitelinks push other listings lower on the page including your competitors, or in our case torrents. Most importantly displaying 6-8 links in the organic search results, will easily increase your CTR (Click Through Rate).

How do you get sites links to display?

Currently sitelinks are automated by Google's Algorithm. Google only shows sitelinks for results when Google feels they are useful to the user.

“If the structure of your site doesn't allow our algorithms to find good sitelinks, or we don't think that the sitelinks for your site are relevant for the user's query, we won't show them.” - Google

Unfortunately Google does not provide specific instructions on how to display sitelinks—however by followingWebmaster Guidelines, and the few tips below you can increase your chances.

• Make a site with a clear hierarchy that Google's crawler can easily navigate
• Offer a sitemap to your users with links that point to the important parts of your website
• Create a useful, information-rich, quality content
• Use text instead of images to display links
• Make sure that your title tags and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate
• Check for broken links
• Use anchor text and alt text that is informative and relevant on internal links
• Include your most important pages in main menus

What if i want to change a sitelink?

Google provides an option to delete a sitelink called sitelink demotion. A sitelink demotion should be used when you think one of your URL is inappropriate or incorrect. Demoting a URL for a sitelink hints to Google that you don’t think your users will find the link useful.

Google doesn't guarantee that demoted URLs will never appear as a sitelink, but we do consider a demotion a strong hint that we'll try to honor when generating sitelinks.

How to Demote a sitelink

Here is how a website owner can request to have sitelinks demoted:

1. Log into Google webmaster tools
2. Choose the appropriate website site you want
3. Under Search Appearance, click Sitelinks.
4. In the For this search result field, complete the URL for which you don't want a specific sitelink URL to appear
5. In the Demote this sitelink URL field, complete the URL of the sitelink you want to demote.

Once you've demoted or a sitelink, it may take some time for search results to update so check back frequently.

Pro Tip: You can demote up to 100 URLs, and demotions are effective for 90 days from your most recent visit to the Sitelinks page in Webmaster Tools.

This overview should give you a good understanding of Googles sitelink feature. We are interested in your experience as well. Please comment below and let us know if your site is displaying sitelinks or if you have used the demotion tool.

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Introducing New Feature: Sitelink Extensions in Bing Ads

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, we are delighted to announce the availability of Sitelink Extensions on the Yahoo! Bing Network!

Sitelink Extensions will:
-    Drive deeper engagement with your potential customers by allowing them to connect directly with relevant and important portions of your site.
-    Allow you to create and update additional messaging and information to without modifying your text ads or keywords.
-    Be available on both Yahoo! and Bing search pages.

This short video provides a quick introduction to Sitelink Extensions, below is an example ad:

Over the last few months, we have worked closely with our advertisers across many different industries to build and fine tune our Sitelink Extensions experience. A special “Thank you!” goes out to our beta customers for helping shape this offering.

It is worth noting that during our pilot phase of Sitelink Extensions, most of our advertisers experienced an increased click-through rate of 15-25% compared to a standard search ad without Sitelink Extensions -- many did much better than that. These additional text + URL pairs have the capability to help you drive improved ROI, so I encourage you to try them out today.

You can create Sitelink Extensions now through the Bing Ads user interface, the latest version of the Bing Ads Desktop Editor, and through the Bing Ads API. Simply log into Bing Ads, navigate to the Campaigns tab and then click on the ‘ad extensions’ sub-tab. You will find this new sub-tab adjacent to the familiar sub-tabs for keywords, ads and ad groups.

You can read more about Sitelink Extensions on our help pages.  Rest assured that we intend to continue to build upon this first release of Sitelink Extensions, and we have great updates in the pipeline – including availability outside the U.S. – planned for the relatively near future.

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