Hey,
I'm sure I could google tutorials for this really easily, but I know how you photoshop nerds love explaining things ; ) so I thought I'd let you guys explain... you know, if you want, you could ignore this just as easily... I'm not too concerned with these problems; nothing urgent; but they are two problems I've run across more than once that I don't fully understand.

1) Gradients: Yeah, I know those gradient backgrounds should be avoided for technical stuff, but how do you create a new useful gradient outside of the defaults with those horrid colors (purple to yellow, red to green etc.)? For example, about 8 years ago when I was into video games a lot, I played Final Fantasy 7 a lot. On the "options" for that game you could set the menu colors to be a gradient using four different colors in four different corners. The result being a smooth blend between four different colors in four different areas. (does that make sense?) What's up with using gradients? Should I be worried about this, or is there better ways to get a good blend between two colors?

2) lighting: I'm always really impressed with what you guys can do with lighting. I finally figured out the burn/dodge tool (but still really suck at it). I get using soft brushes to make the transition smoother-- I just can't control it very well. Do you guys have any good tips for using the burn tool affectively? I've been practicing with it to create shadows, but it always looks shitty. Also- Using lighting affects filter. This still looks really impressive to me, but I could see how it would look a little cliche'd after messing with photo shop a lot (you know, it would seem like a lens flare filter, in a way). Anyway, when you can obviously tell someone has used lighting effects, does it turn you off from the chop? Second, a technical question, if I want to apply lighting affects to an image after the very end, when I'm done chopping, is there any way to apply the filter to the entire picture, not just the layer? I've tried linking the layers, but it will still ONLY apply to the active layer. I've had to flatten the pic every time I want to apply a lighting affect, or go through each layer and apply the affect over and over. Any solutions?

OK, sorry for the simple questions. I'm sure I could work my way through pages and pages of tutorials about how to give some text a "rockin' heavy metal texture!" or whatever the hell most of the tutorials are about. But, really, I like you guys and the explanations you give WAY better than most of the useless tutorials out there.

--Chris

use gradients. do that
to change a gradient you go to the gradient tool (with paint bucket)
click on the graident up there (BW if your colors are default)
choose the upper left corner one
therylee be four little arrow things
top ones are for opacity
bottoms for color
click on a bottom one
change color,
HIT OK,
and youre done

i'm waiting for the pro's to arrive with their magic tricks. maybe i can learn something here.

okey.. seems FF and me like to post at the same time (2nd time now lol) thanks for pointing out the blank space FF, i was wondering what it was

you use the red marker thing a lot so it looks like you have important stuff to say

dunno about the lighting what i do (probably extremely unproffesional)
i flatten the image
create a now document
drag the flattened image to it
undo flatten
drag the flattened image back to original document
and you can work on it without losing the goodness of layers

I'm not sure if I qualify as a photoshop nerd, but I love explaining things.

gradients
Some gradients look better if you draw them in Lab color mode, but you probably get better results if you just add a color in the middle of the gradient and try some different colors in the color picker.

lighting
I'm not sure if this solves your problem, but you can do nondestuctive dodging and burning by painting on another layer set to overlay mode. Use the brush tool and set the flow very low, like 2%, and paint with black and white to burn and dodge.

I never use lighting effects, but I think it could be usefull. It's not as horrible as the lens flare.

About the layer problem: In CS2 you can select multiple layers.

Hope this helps.

check out "gradiant focus" in these tut's, the gradiant tool is for so much more than purdy paterns, it can be used along side most other tools,

copy and paste

http://www.hallcross.co.uk/free%20stuff/TUT'S/tuts.htm

I use the channels alot for my lighting, to be honest i use the channels alot for everything

What Aliased said about working on a layer set to overlay. I'd just add that the layer should be filled with 50% grey. (invisible when set to overlay until you lighten or darken areas). I use this for both dodge/burn and lighting effects.

yeah, gradients with masks are pretty cool