It is only a few days since I started searching for maps for a d&d game (new player here too). Now I find myself spending all my free time searching for maps and new techniques in photoshop and other programs.
I have seen maps that look hand-drawn
(http://faterpg.files.wordpress.com/2.../kots_pmap.jpg)
and others that look more realistic, like they were taken from a satellite(http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...light=westeros).
A third caegory of maps is battlemaps, but that let's leave out for now.
I prefer the realistic look in the maps when they depict continents or countries, like the westeros map above (one of the finest samples I've seen), while the hand-drawn look is amazing when they show a region or the area around a city. Let me know what you think.
I also have a question about photoshop.

1. I loved the mountains and plains in the map in the first link. Is a way in photoshop to remove all coloring from a photo leaving only the black color. That way, I could add some of the mountains, grass, forests in the map I am going to create. Then I could add some layers to do the coloring.

Please let me know what you think. Any suggestion is welcomed.