Photoshop is an amazing program. You can do anything with it ... if 'you' are a photoshop expert of course. I am not.
So, when I found myself wanting to spruce up a website and include some nice product box displays and screeshots that were more than just flat screen captures I trawled through the countless tutorials and 'how to' instructions on how to work magic with Photoshop to create such a masterpiece (because I am a software developer and not a graphic designer or marketing maestro). This is what I wanted:
But why is it such hard work? Isn't Photoshop supposed to make it easier to do things like this? Well yes ... if you are an expert with it (is this where I tell the programmers 'recursion joke?'*). The trouble with Photoshop is that it can do anything and everything and so is complex with a myriad of options and ways you need to discover to make it do what you want.
I can follow instructions and did get something almost looking how I wanted but it was far too difficult, took far too long and was far too hit and miss.
Of course, my brain waited until then to remind me that I had already bought a little shareware app called www.boxshot3d.com a few years earlier (for a handful of dollars) which did this one thing. First stop was the website where there was a new version waiting to download - nice to see it was still being developed and there was no upgrade fee to pay so I re-installed it and started to tinker with it. The interface had been updated and there were a few nice new features but it still focused on doing it's single task of rendering boxes and screenshots in 3D (now with the addition of rendering books too).
What a difference! Literally within minutes I was generating better results than I had following several Photoshop tutorials and better yet it was easy to reproduce things consistently.
Why is it better? Because it only tries to do a single thing but what it does it does incredibly well.
The two box-shots above were created with the app (shame prevents me from showing my attempts with Photoshop) and I also did a few screenshots for a website revamp similar to the one below.
Notice the nice Web 2.0 / Apple style 'reflection in the glossy desktop look'. It can also do a lot of things with light sources and shadows but I went for a simple look. If you need something similar it's worth checking out the http://www.boxshot3d.com/ website and getting a copy - it is well worth the money.
Also, a good reminder to keep apps simple and focused and able to "scratch an itch".
* In case you haven't heard it: "To understand recursion you first have to understand recursion."