There will never be a point when a designer says ‘yep, that is it for me, I have all of the brushes I will never need’! It just won’t happen. The designers toolbox is always evolving, with new resources being added as and when they are needed. And just to help you add even more tools to your metaphorical toolbox, we have a fantastic bunch of Photoshop brush sets for you.

There are a total of 30 brush packs below, with a combined total of just over 500 brushes. There is no theme or specific category, other than that they are all large and are of the highest quality. I hope they help you out.

Speckle Brushes (5 Brushes)

Digital Smoke Brush Pack (24 Brushes)

High Resolution Texture Brushes (9 Brushes)

Watercolor Brushes (50 Brushes)

Starfield Brushes (4 Brushes)

Old Technical Drawings Brushes (10 Brushes)

Feathers and Birds Brushes (12 Brushes)

Gritty and Dirty Brushes (7 Brushes)

Spray Splatter Brush Pack (12 Brushes)

High Res Dry Brush Stroke Brushes (12 Brushes)

Subtle Brush Set (15 Brushes)

Hi Res Heads Up Display Brush Pack (30 Brushes)

Bokeh Brushes (12 Brushes)

Digital Smoke Brushes (15 Brushes)

TC-EPICA-I (10 Brushes)

Fibers #3 Brush Pack (5 Brushes)

Photorealistic Explosion Brushes (16 Brushes)

TC Magic Spells (21 Brushes)

Fiber Brushes (16 Brushes)

Electrifying Lightning Strikes Brushes (18 Brushes)

Painting Brushes (56 Brushes)

Custom Brushes of Tyler Street (40 Brushes)

Nature Silhouettes Trees & Grass Brushes (19 Brushes)

Fractal #7 Brushes (5 Brushes)

Fairy Tales Brush Set (9 Brushes)

Abstract Bokeh Brushes (24 Brushes)

Cloud Brushes (15 Brushes)

Grimey Brushes (5 Brushes)

Mountain and Rocks Brushes (5 Brushes)

Ink #4 Brushes (5 Brushes)

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This is our weekly column were we share our favorite design related articles, resources and cool tidbits from the past week. Enjoy :)
If you would like to receive our daily updates and keep up to date with the latest and greatest articles and resources from the design community, you can follow us on Twitter, on Facebook or by subscribing to our RSS feed.

git – the simple guide

How to Write Testable and Maintainable Code in PHP

Migrating A Website To WordPress Is Easier Than You Think

10 Developer Tips To Build A Responsive Website [Infographic]

Photoshop’s Role in a Web Design Workflow

Windows 8 Design Handbook

Proxima Nova is the new Helvetica

A Look at Flat Design and Why It's Significant

HoverMenu – Quick & Accessible Menu

.fitgrid – A Lightweight & Sexy Responsive Grid

CSS Modal – Modals built out of pure CSS

Chartkick – Beautiful JS charts with one line of Ruby

Full CSS NES

piCSSel-art – Draw pixel art using CSS only

Touch Areas Checker Template

Parallelism – A Free Responsive Portfolio Template

Free Flat Icon Set (3600+ Icons)

Flaterize – An Icon Set

Ecommerce Flat UI Kit Vol.1

Last Week on Speckyboy…

• Handling Ethical Disagreements With Clients
• Deal of the Week: Hiruko: Japanese Inspired Font Family – only $9!
• User Experience Trends for Admin Dashboards
• Dealing With Overly Opinionated Clients
• Getting Smarter: How Changing Your Mindset Can Help Your Web Design Goals
• PHP Tutorials for Beginners
• The freelance pricing trap and how to get out of it
• Adobe Fireworks Extensions & Commands for Web Designers

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Many companies are heads-down in their product development process. It makes sense — building a great product takes not only hard work, but collaboration across teams, especially in larger organizations.

Sometimes, companies make mistakes when building their products, especially when it comes to user experience. Here are a few UX mistakes we commonly see:

Cram That Feedback

Most people know that they should be seeking user feedback as early and as often as possible. But knowing is different than doing. Most companies end up cramming user feedback in at the very end of a project, like waiting until the night before to open your text for a final exam.

Companies that do gather user feedback are often doing it the wrong way. Teams rely on surveys and focus groups to make design and messaging decisions. They rely on a lazy approach called market research versus the “listening to the heart” approach of the user called behavior research. The main difference between market research and behavioral research is that the first collect opinions, while the second observes actual behavior. If you want to learn why users run into difficulties, and how they use your product, then don’t ask, but watch! Observe and listen as users interact with the site. Both in-person and online user testing are ideal methods for this approach.

Furthermore, most teams think you have to wait for a working product to begin a feedback session, but this is wrong. With methods like paper and codeless prototyping, a designer or marketer can collect insights from users as early as the idea stage. Getting into the habit of testing every single assumption and idea as early as possible is something teams should fully commit to. If you are not running an experiment everyday, then you are doing something wrong.

To help you do it, right here are some tips:

• Identify issues with a product and brainstorm changes
• Ask users if they have the same issues
• After validating an issue create a sketch, wireframe, or rapid prototype
• Engage users again, observe how they use the prototype
• Iterate and show the improved version to more users
• Deploy, measure, and validate with users that their pain is relieved

Marketeers Know Best… Not!

Many organizations let marketing have the final approval about what goes on the website. Marketing professionals develop the brand, and they make sure the language is consistent with the brand; they position products, they focus on aesthetic consistency and attitude and messaging.

We see organizations conducting excellent behavioral research, and handing the results to marketeers, who say: “That’s interesting—lets see how this fits into the marketing strategy.” it’s not marketing’s job to produce a solid, functional experience. The problem is that UX designers and researchers usually have little say in the final design of the site.

Marketing-driven design is problematic and it also misrepresents what it means to build a brand. The landscape is changing and the industry knows that building amazing experiences is a much better branding strategy than endless marketeer gibberish. Research to build something people love, then build that!

Size Matters

Mobile is exploding: Brace yourself. The world is browsing on smartphones and tablets. People switch between tablet, to smartphone, then desktop, and back again. Nearly everyone is walking down the street and buying shoes online.

Yet, we still tend to design for users sitting at a large desktop, alone in a quiet space. Unless you are drop-dead positive your audience is experiencing your website from a desktop, you need to think design for a multi-screen, active experience.

Sure, it’s possible to code for a multi-screen experience, and everyone talks about responsive design, but can you easily prototype a multi-screen or responsive experience? And what about user testing for a multi-screen experience? Hopefully our jobs will get easier; In the meantime we’ll have to devise workarounds to be sure that we aren’t stuck in the “desktop” paradigm.

Wordy, Wordy, Wordy…

There’s nothing wrong with having text on your website, except of course that people likely aren’t reading it.

Think about providing content in another format. Research on the human brain shows that when people are listening to someone speak, their brain activity syncs up with the speaker. The more the listener’s brain is in sync with the speaker’s, the more thoroughly the listener will comprehend the content.

Where it makes sense, use audio and/or video instead of just relying on text. Ohh, and the right picture can communicate a 1,000 words, but you must test your images to insure you picked the right 1,000 words.

Copycat

Many designers — and this is far too common an occurrence — copy the look and approach of someone elses design. If a design is appealing and appears to be working surely a rigorous process was used to arrive at the aesthetic, right? This may have been the case, but likely not. By being a copycat you copy the same issues, problems, and of another’s design.

It is recommended to leverage design patterns and the best approached from other designs, you must to think long and hard about how that design might perform, and of course, test it!

Image Source(s): All images by maraga via Shutterstock.

Perhaps the hardest project you could ever take on is designing the website of an online news magazine. One of those sites that gets updated umpteen times a day and publishes various formats of content, like news articles, image galleries, videos, blog columns, polls, etc. Yes, I am talking about content heavy websites. Those behemoths of sites that seem to be impossible to plan, nevermind design for.

As you will already know, there are thousands of content-rich websites out there, but very few seem to focus on good design. Sure, they have put a lot of thought into organization and structure, but for the most part they do rely on the old tried and tested magazine-style layouts, and never really tend wander far from those confines.

Fortunately, not all are like that. Some do dare to venture out and breakout off those shackles and design something truly unique and, and dare I say it, beautiful.

Monocle (Responsive)

Award

Esquire (Responsive)

The Next Web (Responsive)

Polygon (Responsive)

Newsweek (Responsive)

House (Responsive)

The Gadget Flow (Responsive)

ReadWrite (Responsive)

Mashable (Responsive)

Google Science Fair (Responsive)

National Academy Museum

The Verge

True Digital (Responsive)

UGSMAG (Responsive)

BBC

GOOD

Wired (Responsive)

The Brief

Black In History (Responsive)

The Artfuls

DesignTAXI (Responsive)

Reform & Revolution (Responsive)

B-Reel (Responsive)

Glamour (Responsive)

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Food photography, while being a specialized type of still life art form, has already formed its own following. From amateurs taking pictures of what they had for lunch to award-winning photographers celebrating a collection of cultures, food photography has us engaged.

The art of food photography is a precise one as well, requiring understanding of spacing, distance, color, and focus. Today we’ll take a look at tips and tricks to make your food appear to be the best that money can buy.

Food Photography Techniques

1. Equipment

Professional photographers use expensive digital backs on equally expensive cameras, but the barrier for entry isn’t that high. All you’ll need is a DSLR or an advanced point-and-shoot that will let you make adjustments to your shots.

Image Source: Photography Icons via Shutterstock.

The most important characteristic of your camera is the ability to tweak is settings, instead of relying on automatic modes. For DSLRs, interchangeable lenses are a must for taking photographs of different subjects. Tripods are also essential, to keep your shots steady.

Optional tools include lamp stands for external lighting, as well as lens shades to control the light. Don’t forget the accessories to complement your food, like bowls, napkins, silverware, and flowers.

2. Camera Settings

We touched upon this in the last section, but for food photography it’s essential that your camera has the ability to manually change the settings. It’s the only way you can focus on the minute details of the food, and highlight the features that you want to emphasize.

Image Source: Photography Icons via Shutterstock.

Take note of your aperture, which controls how much light will hit your sensor. A low aperture setting will let in more light, generally resulting in brighter photographs. Its partner, shutter speed, controls how long the shutter is open. You usually adjust both these settings in conjunction to compensate for changes in one setting with the other.

The third important setting is ISO, which controls your camera’s sensitivity to light. A higher ISO is used in darker scenes, but will result in a grainier photograph.

3. Composition

Having the right equipment and understanding the camera settings is nothing if you don’t know how to compose your shot. Food photographs are usually crisp and well lit, bringing out the texture of the food. Your goal is to feed your readers through their eyes, making them want to reach out to the photo and nab the food.

Image Source: Photography Icons via Shutterstock.

When composing, remember that the food itself shouldn’t be the only thing in the shot. The bowl or plate that holds the food (or even a napkin or a spoon) frames the subject in such a way that the accessories emphasize its presence. Avoid blank spaces and create a sense of movement in the image—crumbs, flakes, all in a natural position.

4. Lighting

Natural lighting is always recommended for food shots. While your eyes (and brain) can adapt to any sort of light and reconcile what the food is supposed to look like, cameras aren’t at the same level and need all the help they can get.

Image Source: Photography Icons via Shutterstock.

Ample light source is one of the most critical elements of food photography—find your light source and compose around it. Do you use the light shafts streaming through the window or the increased light available coming in the doorway? Lighting brings out the natural color of the food, and this is very important in keeping your subjects appetizing and appealing.

5. Angle

Like in any mode of photography, angle is critical in bringing out the best in your subjects. This is particularly important in food photography, because the shots are so close up. Some foods are best shot from above, like grains and cereal (with bits outside the bowl to create dynamism). Others, meanwhile, are best shot from an angle, such as cakes with layers.

Angle comes after composition—you don’t want to be thinking about the silverware and the napkins when the food is ready to be shot.

6. Focus

Focus changes the primary elements of your shot. You wouldn’t want the fork to be the subject that is highlighted in your picture of a cake, after all.

Image Source: Photography Icons via Shutterstock.

Focus is a result of the different settings and techniques working together, and is also influenced by the camera’s distance to the subject. However, if your camera’s autofocus isn’t cutting it, you can also manually adjust this setting to focus on the subject you want. How deep or short will the depth of field be? Because food photography relies so much on macro, having an understanding of focus is important.

Of course, these tips all lead up to the shot itself. If you want to do more with the photo, you can always edit them after the fact. But if your photo isn’t good in the first place, there won’t be anything to touch up.

Food Photography Inspiration

Here are some amazing examples of food photography for your inspiration:

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How have these techniques helped your food photography? Are there other tips you use in creating that perfect shot of food? Let us know in the comments below!