Over my years of working with graphics I have had countless people ask for help in learning how to make better graphics. A lot of what they ask about are simple techniques that can be taught and learned easily if shown by example. In this area of my site I hope to be able to help people put together a few basic techniques that when combined, will allow them to improve the quality of their graphic work. As of right now, all the tutorials will be techniques used in Adobe Photoshop with no plug in filters because that is the program I primarily use. I normally don't use plugins because it destroys the flexibility of an image, once you use one, you are normally stuck with the results and are unable to turn them off or edit them. If the tutorial uses a plugin I will say so in the description ahead of time. As for the skill level required to understand these tutorials, I would say you need at least a basic working knowledge of Adobe Photoshop. When I start making some more advanced tutorials, I'll try to explain the steps in detail and also say in the description that it is for people with more experience.

Drop Shadow: This is a tutorial to teach you how to create a very flexible drop shadow on any object you choose and should be understandable for anyone who has at least a minimal knowledge of Adobe Photoshop 7.0 and the method is adaptable for earlier versions. Of course you can quickly make a drop shadow by using a plug in like Eye Candy or something like that, but the results are very rigid and once you hit okay you are stuck with it the way it is. The method this tutorial will teach you allows the drop shadow to be turned off and on at will anytime after you create it as well as giving you a great deal of freedom in how you create it. There are more advantages to this method as I am sure you will discover once you start to understand more about Photoshop.