Presentation Series: Using Photoshop

PR E SE N TATION SE R IE S a concise guide in x using photoshop

Before we begin... these are simply a few tips help you along the way with your modelling & rendering adventures. You can only learn so much by example, so feel free to stray away from these tips and experiment! Have fun!

And remember: breathe. The solution could be right under your nose. So sit back, relax, and don’t worry; you’ll do just fine. all the best, d

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IN THIS GUIDE...

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

Learn your HotKeys!

YOUR LEFT-HAND MAN

A few keys that will quickly become your best friends

PLAYING ALTERNATES

What the ‘Alt’ and ‘Shift’ keys can do for you In this guide you will need: Photoshop

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THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

Learn your HotKeys!

This is the Photoshop Toolbar. Every single tool corresponds to a key on your keyboard. Learn it! Learn it now!

Marquee Tool M

V Select Tool

Lasso Tool L

W Magic Wand

Crop C

I Eyedropper Tool B Brush Tool

Spot Healing Brush J Clone Stamp S

Y History Brush

Eraser E

G Gradient O Colour Dodge

Blur Tool (No Hot Key)

T Text Tool

Vector Pen Tool P Vector Select Tool A

U Vector Tool

3D Object Rotate Tool K

N 3D Rotate Camera Tool

Pan Tool H

Z Zoom Tool X Reverse

Foreground/Background Colour

Revert Default Colours D

Q Toggle Quick Mask Mode

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Some tools have variants to its purpose. Just click-and-hold these buttons to reveal their hidden menus; I’m not going to explain them (because you should experiment with them!).

A lot of them are pretty self-explanatory. Here I’m sharing ones that I use frequently:

Marquee Tool

Lasso Tool

Magic Wand

Gradient Tool

Blur Tool

Dodge Tool

Pen Tool

Vector Line Tool

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YOUR LEFT-HAND MAN

A few keys that will quickly become your best friends

While your right hand is busy using the mouse, your left hand shouldn’t be idling by!

Get it doing useful things, and to quicken your rendering process. Your hand should always hover over the lower left corner of your keyboard, particularly these keys:

These few keys, used in combination, allow you jump to commands quickly. Easy ones, like Save & Undo (Ctrl+S, Z), Cut, Copy & Paste (Ctrl+X, C, V), you should already know. But, the Shift, Ctrl1, and Alt keys have their unique purposes:

In combination with the mouse (wheel)...

Zooming around is hard work! If you don’t feel like using the Zoom Tool time (as I usually don’t), these key combos make it easy to fly around the block:

all the

Zooming Up/Down

This one doesn’t have a fancy key to go with it. Just take the wheel!

Zooming Left/Right

Use the mouse wheel in combination with the Ctrl key

Zooming In/Out

Use the mouse wheel in combination with the Alt key (Just remember to hit Alt again after you’re done... don’t wanna get stuck in the toolbar now, do you?)

PROTIP:

Speaking of using a mouse (which you always should!), right-clicking when you’re in the brush tool quickly opens the brush selector right then and there. This makes for quick access to different brush styles when you’re making your painting masterpiece.

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Mac Users will have variants on these rules as a number of their commands use, well the Command key.

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PLAYING ALTERNATES

What the ‘Alt’ and ‘Shift’ keys can do for you

Alright, now that you’re quick and swift zooming around Photoshop, let’s play opposites. Hitting the Alt key (and sometimes the Shift key) while you use a tool makes for some pretty quick and dirty shortcuts:

When you’re using the tool... The Alt Key...

Marquee Tool Lasso Tool Magic Wand Eyedropper Tool

Subtracts the Selection Adds to the Selection (Shift)

Selects the colour for your Background palette

Brush Tool Activiates the Eyedropper Tool Gradient Tool Clone Stamp Eraser

Selects your clone source Activates the History Brush Tool

Blur Tool Activates the Sharpen Tool Dodge Tool Activates the Burn Tool

PROTIP:

One of the biggest tricks to making a good and realistic render is moderation. Don’t over saturate, don’t use too many filters. Subtle colours and soft edges make for more photo realistic renders.

Think of your presentation images as paintings; layer by layer, subtlety makes for rich images.

While we’re still on the keyboard, let’s talk numbers. When you use tools like the Brush , Gradient , and the Eraser , hitting any number from 1-10 on your keyboard affects the opacity of the tool in intervals of 10%, with “1” being 10% and “0” being 100% opacity. This hotkey works for the Select tool as well, except this time, the numbers affect the opacity of the layer, not the brush.

Experiment is key. Photoshop is one of the few programs where there are absolutely no rules. Photoshop is the ‘fun part’ of your rendering adventure, so enjoy it!

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