If you own an iPhone, chances are you use Instagram, the popular iOS app that lets you apply effects to your photos and share them online in no time. Some of the filters included in Instagram can make your photos look really awesome, to the point that you may want to apply them to the images on your computer. And here's where Daniel Box gets into action.

Being an Instagram fan himself, Daniel was looking for a way to replicate the app's filters in Photoshop. After not finding any satisfying results, he decided to create a set of Photoshop actions that let you apply Instagram filters to the images in your computer. Though he says he didn't get a 100% match, I have to say results are very close to the original Instagram filters. They look great and best of all, can be applied in just one click.

I've always felt a special fascination for color effects applied to black and white images. So, when I saw this quick Photoshop tutorial on the OnSoftware BR blog, I couldn't help trying it out! It's a very simple effect often used to draw attention to certain areas in the image, and it's really easy to apply. Just follow these steps and turn any image into a little piece of black and white art.

How often have you seen an image that you'd like to use as a wallpaper on your iPhone 4? In my case it happens all the time, but I'm never sure if the image will fit my iPhone - with the clock, the unlock bar and everything in the way. Luckily, I've found a simple trick to turn your favorite photos into gorgeous iPhone 4 wallpapers. All you need is this iPhone 4 template from DeviantArt, then follow these steps:

1. Open the iPhone wallpaper template in Photoshop and unlock the background layer by double clicking on it.

Yesterday I tested an iPhone app called Color Effects that gives you some cool tools for your photos. I thought that you could probably do the same in Photoshop, so after playing with color palettes and brushes for a while, here I am with a few tricks to create eye-catching color effects in Photoshop. Let's get started!

Change the color of any object in your photo.

Difficult as it sounds, this color effect is actually very easy. What you need to do is select the object in Quick Mask mode, go back to Normal mode, invert the selection and then play around with the Hue/Saturation controls. You'll find all the details in this tutorial I wrote a while ago.

We've done lots of Photoshop tutorials on OnSoftware, but most of them are photo effects. That's why I thought it was the right time to write a tutorial about a nice text effect, like this one I used some time ago to create a greeting card for a friend. The idea is to place an image inside a word - or a sentence - so that it shows up through the letters. It's easy and looks great!

1. First of all, open the image you want to use and duplicate the main layer.

2. Then create a new layer, fill it with white and place it between the other two layers.

I've been fiddling with Photoshop during the last few days, looking for an easy way to create a photo mosaic. The idea was to divide a large image among a set of thumbnails, so that each of them contains a small portion and they all together make the original photo up. After a bit of trial and error, I finally got it. Here's how to create a photo mosaic in Photoshop, in just a few easy steps.

1. Open a blank image and fill in the background with any solid color - to work more comfortably. Then create a new layer, draw a square shape on it with the Marquee tool (M) and fill it with white.

2. Create another new layer and with the Marquee tool again, create another square shape inside the original one and fill it with black. You'll need to deselect (Ctrl+D) the previous one in order to be able to create this shape.

Sometimes a simple effect can spice up a picture more efficiently than a complicated one. This is the case with vignettes – images in which the center is clear, while the edges fade off. There must be dozens of ways to achieve this effect, but I’ve come up with a quick Photoshop trick that lets you apply a nice vignetting to your images in no time. Here’s how I do it:

1. Open your picture in Photoshop and grab the Marquee tool (M). Change it to elliptical and draw a shape on your picture to set the limit between the part you want to keep clear – the center – and the part you want to fade off – the corners and edges.

2. Go to Select > Inverse to invert the selection and then press Q (or hit the button highlighted in the screenshot) to enter Quick Mask mode. The part with a pink layer over will be the one that remains perfectly visible in the vignette.

With the new profile design rolled out by Facebook a few weeks ago, pictures have become specially relevant. The top image bar that displays thumbnails for the images you're tagged in can be easily tweaked to match your main profile picture and create a more original Facebook profile.

If you want to do something similar in your Facebook profile, just follow these steps:

1. First, download and open the Photoshop template provided by Digital Inspiration, the blog where I learnt about this trick. Then open a picture of yourself that's 700 pixels wide and 500 pixels high. Copy and paste this picture onto the PSD file. You may need to adjust the picture so that it fits the small thumbnails once it's cropped.

2. Go to File > Save for web and Photoshop will save all the picture slices as standalone JPG files in a folder.

No matter for how long you've been using Photoshop, you can still find new tools and tricks in this fantastic piece of software everyday. For instance, I had never tried Smart Objects until recently, and I have already found a good way to make use of them: creating digital photo frames you can use over and over again. Here's how to do it:

1. First of all, create a blank document. Then go to Edit > Fill, choose "Pattern" in the Use drop-down menu and and pick the Wood pattern already included in Photoshop.

2. Now open the image you want to use in your frame and copy and paste it on the document you just created. You may have to resize it (with Ctrl+T) to make it fit the frame.

I don't really like going to the beach (sorry, I just can't stand sand!) which means I stay quite white-skinned all throughout the summer. Luckily now I've learnt a Photoshop trick that lets me get a tan in under five minutes - without all the risks of staying under the sun. It won't have any effect on your skin in real life, but at least it will prevent you from looking like a ghost in summer pics! So, here's how to obtain perfectly tanned skin in Photoshop:

Most people use state-of-the-art digital cameras these days, but some others miss those good old photo cameras you had to use with film rolls. And if there's one of those old camera models that's still quite trendy today, that's Polaroid. Even if you don't have one anymore, you can still produce Polaroid photos with the help of Photoshop and a couple of easy tricks. Pay attention because they're really easy to apply and produce very attractive results!

First of all, open the photo you want to transform into a Polaroid, unblock the background layer and add a new layer below.

Make sure the photo layer is selected. Then press Ctrl+T to bring up the Free Transformation tool, and while holding Shift+Alt, grab one of the photo corners inwards to make it smaller. When done, hit Enter.

Now select the new layer you created in the first step, and with the Marquee tool, draw a selection around the image that resembles a Polaroid frame. Go to Edit > Fill and fill the selected area with white.

You may have been using Photoshop for a while now, but you may have not noticed all the possibilities hidden behind one of Photoshop’s most powerful tools: the brush.

Brushes in Photoshop are much more than just a tool to draw. They can be used to create decorative frames, add pre-made shapes and customize your images in many different ways. But if you want to make use of all the potential in this tool, you need to know how to configure and use it properly.

Like all other tools in Photoshop, brushes have their own settings in the top toolbar: Size, Mode, Opacity and Flow.

Last week I had a look at Personas, an online theme gallery with which you can easily customize the look and feel of Firefox. But perhaps the most interesting thing about Personas is that you can create your own theme really easily. Let’s see how:

1. First of all, you need to install the Personas Plus extension in Firefox. You can download it from the Personas website. Once it’s running, Personas Plus will display a tiny fox icon in the bottom left corner of Firefox’s interface.

2. Now it’s time to get to work. Open Photoshop and create the header for your theme. There are some conditions you should take into account:

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Thanks to today's technology, anyone can produce great photos. All you need is a digital camera, a bit of luck to be in the right place at the right time, and press the button. Add a few Photoshop retouches  to that, and you'll get a gorgeous picture.

Here we explain a very simple Photoshop trick to make your photos stand out, with three possible variants. They're all easy to apply and don't require an extensive Photoshop knowledge, so why don't you give them a try?

1. Open the image you want to work with. In this tutorial I'll be using this royalty-free image from stock.xchng. Grab the Marquee tool (M) and select the area you want to highlight.

2. Go to Select > Transform selection and the selected area will become a square you can resize and move freely on the screen. Put the mouse near a corner and when you see the pointer turns into a double arrow, move the mouse to tilt the selection a bit. When you're done, release the mouse button and hit Enter.

3. Now press Ctrl+J and the selected area will automatically be copied to a new layer. Make sure this new layer is active, click the layer style button and select Stroke.

Christmas is one of the best-selling seasons for holiday card manufacturers. However I still prefer handmade cards: they're cheaper, you have fun while creating them and they imply a personal effort – which is always better than a standard card you can buy at the nearest mall.

You don't need to be a computer whiz or have highly artistic skills to create your own customized Christmas cards. Some basic Photoshop knowledge is more than enough to come up with a nice, unique design. You could start by a simple text-based card with an original snow effect on it.

If you feel more daring, you could try to design a Christmas card in Photoshop. We've published a couple of tutorials on the blog to help you out. The first one is the easiest: a simple question of taking advantage of Photoshop's custom shape brushes (a tree and some snowflakes) and repeating them on different layers.

The second one is a bit more difficult, but looks great. Create a tree made of stars and add your personal message to it! It may take a bit longer, but it's worth the effort. Just think about the face of the card's recipient when they get something created by you.

Finally, don't forget the internet is full of resources to create your own Christmas card.  A quick look at DeviantArt, for example, will reveal dozens of wallpapers, icons and other eyecandy to easily make your custom cards more attractive.