Photoshop Induction Booklet

Photoshop For Begginers - Edmund White

An introduction to the interface of Adobe Photoshop CS6 Interface is another word for appearance. In this tutorial we will look at the different areas of the photoshop interface to get an understanding of what is presented to us when we open the programme.

1.1 Getting Started 1.2 Creating a new document 1.3 The tool panel 1.4 The tool Widgets 1.5 Using Layers 1.6 Importing images

Introduction In this tutorial was made using Adobe Photoshop CS6. If you are using a different version you may notice some variations in appearances.

Don’t worry if so. Most of the key tools in the programme remain the same throughout each edition.

This tutorial will cover the very basics of using Adobe Photoshop. From setting up a document in the correct format, through to basic edits, and saving documents.

Getting Started To begin with lets have a look at the photoshop interface. We will be using Apple computers for the screen shots. If you are using a PC there will be slight differences in screen appearance.

Layout Preferences There are a huge amount of tools and widgets in Photoshop; too many to fit comfortable on the screen simutainiously.

When you first open the programme, only a select few tools are presented. These can be seen in the above screenshot. Photoshop will remember how you use the tools and how you set the layout of your workspace. The programme will always open as you left it when you last used it.

If you take a look on the top-right side of the screen you will see a menu box with Essentials written inside it.

Click on this menu to see the contents...

If you click on each of these you will see the layout of the screen change. Most noticebly on the right hand side.

These options provide custom designed layouts for specific tasks.

Photoshop is a huge programme that is used a variety of design tasks, from digital painting through to 3D design, and animation.

Creating a new document Before we start exploring the tools pallette, we need to first open a new document to provide us with a canvas to work on. To begin, goto the top navigation bar and select: File --> New as shown below.

After selecting New, you will be provided with an options window in which you can alter your document size, resolution, and colour mode. Let’s have a look at the most important options for setting up a document.

Name: You can provide your document with a name for your own reference.

Preset: Photoshop comes with lots of preset document types so that you don’t have to remember every variation in paper size! For UK paper sizes, select International Paper.

Size: This is your second option for paper size. If the required size is not an option in the Preset (e.g A1), then you can manually input the measurements in the Width and Height boxes.

Width/Height: You can create custom size documents by inputting the sizes here. Make sure you check the unit measurements. In the example (left) the unit measurement is mm. If you select that option box, you will get a dropdown menu with additional units that can be used.

This includes cm, pixels, and inches.

Resolution: This is a very important option. The resolution effects how detailed an image is. If you have a very high resolution, your image will be very detailed, but also very large in file size. If your resolution is too low, you might see pixilation when you try and enlarge, or print out the image. Resolution is measure by ppi, pr Colour Mode: This determins the way that colours are processed within your document. If you are intending to print your document, it is best to select CMYK. If your document is for the web, or screen based outcome select RGB.

More on Resolution ppi = pixels per inch

ppc = pixels per cm

If you are creating a document to print digitally you should select a resolution of at least 300ppi.

If you are creating a ducument that is for the web, you can lower your resolution to create smaller file sizes. We will look at this further in future tutorials.

1.1

The Tool Panel

Take a look on the left side of your screen. The long virtical tools pallete is where we will be focussing a lot of attention on. There are many keyboard short cuts that you can use to flick between tools. They will be included in brackets like this (v) In this section we will look at a few key tools to get us started. These will be the Move Tool, Selection Tool, Polygonal Lasso Tool, Magic Wand, Paint Brush, Type tool and Colour Pallete.

You will notice that most of the tools in the menu have a little black dot/arrow on the bottom right (highlighted by the red arrow on the diagramme below). This indicates that there are additional tools hidden within the bar. If you click and hold on any of these tools, a submenu will appear.

The below screen-shot shows the sub-menu for the Polygonal Lasso Tool.

Move Tool (v) Marque Tool (m) Magic Wand (w) Eyedropper Tool (i) Brush Tool (b) History Brush (y) Gradient / Paint Bucket Tool (g) Dodge Tool (o)

Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) Crop Tool (c)

Spot Healing Brush Tool (j) Clone Stamp (s)

Eraser Tool (e)

Blur Tool

Pen Tool (p)

Type Tool (t) At the top of the tool panel you will see two buttons. The button on the right which resembals a re-wind symbol will collaps your tools menu into two collumns if you click it. Click it again and your menu will go back to it’s normal state.

The circular button on the top left of the menu will hide the tools pallete if you click it. Sometimes this can be done accidentaly, and can be frustrating if you dont know how to locate it again. If this happens, then goto the top navigation bar and select: Window --> Tools

Shapes Tool (u)

Path Selection Tool (a) Hand Tool (h)

Zoom Tool (z) Foreground and background colour selector Edit in quick mask mode (q)

The Tool Widgets On the right side of the screen there are a set of widgets that work in conjunction with the tools. These can be removed, and customised in size and order for your preference.

Above shows the default widget setup for Photoshop CS6. The widgets are easily adjustable and can be easily found if you accidently deleate them! You can click and drag the sides of the widgets to resize them. You can also drag them apart from each other and change their position on the screen.

If for any reason you cannot find a widget, then goto the top navigation menu and select Window.

In the Window sub menu (see top-right picture) all tool palletes, and tool widgets can be found.

Have a play with the widgets, drag them around the screen to re-position them. Photoshop aims to be flexible in how you set up the screen. So all your preferred tools and widgets are in easy reach when you need them.

Layers When creating or editing images in Photoshop you can separate content into Layers to enable more control, and organisation within your project. The layers can be found in the tools widget section, or by selecting Window --> Layers.

After following the setting up a new document instructions your layers palette should look like the image on the left. This is the default setup - a single white layer with a padlock symbol and labelled Background.

The padlock symbol indicates that the layer is locked.

You cannot move, or directly edit the contents of a locked layer. You can create shapes and paint directly onto the layer. But you can’t resize, cut or move any part of it.

To unlock the layer, simply double-click on the palock, then enter a name for your layer in the pop up window before clicking OK. If you look towards the bottom of the layers palette you will see some small buttons. The most important buttons are the two nearest the left.

This is the Delete Layer button. Click this to delete any selected layer. Alternatively you can drag layers into the bin.

This is the New Layer button. Click this to create a new blank layer. If you drag an existing layer onto this button, that layer will be duplicated.

The screen-shot on the bottom left shows the layers palette containing two layers. A background layer which is locked. On top of this is a layer titled 1.

Within the thumbnail of tlayer 1 you will notice there is a check-board pattern. This indicates transparency.

On the left side of the layer there is a small icon that looks like an eye. If you click this, it will hide the layer.

In the example on the left, the layer named 1 would be hidden as the eye icon is hidden. To see the layer again, click the empty box where the eye should be.

In the above screen shot the image has four layers. The background layer, then three adittional layers named 1, 2 and 3. The background layer is locked, but the numbered layers are not.

Each of the layers has a simple transparency effect applied to them which we will look at in the Blending Modes section. This produces the see-through effect shown above.

Below is a deconstruction of how the image exists. The layers sit on top of each other allowing you to organise your image, and edit sections with ease.

You can customise the names of your layers by double clicking on the existing name, or right clicking on the layer and selecting layer properties.

It is important to remember at this point, you can only edit the contents of a layer while it is selected. To select a layer click anwhere on the target layer within the layers pallette.

If you at any point get confused whilst using photoshop, check to see if you have the right layer selected!

Importing Images Before we look at how to use the tools, we will look at how to import images into photoshop. Most designers will use a scan, or a photo as a strating point when using Photoshop. Importing images into your document will often be one of the first things you will do.

Opening a document.

To open an existing document such as a photo or scanned image - goto the top navigation menu and select File --> Open, then select the file. Photoshop will open many different file types included Tiff, Jpeg, PDF, and PSD. Be mindful that when you open a document it might have an irregular size. For example; on the left I have opened a photo taken using my digital camera. The photo file has a size of 386 x 386mm and a resolution of 180 PPi. To check the size and resolution of an image at any time, goto Image --> Image Size this will bring up the option box shown on the left.

Placing an Image within an exsiting document.

If you are working to a specific size (eg A4) you can open a document, then place an image within it.

To do this create a new document, then goto: File --> Place and select the image you wish to work on.

Once the image is placed, you will see a big X through the middle. This indicates that you can still resize the image before comitting to placing it (you can resize after too!) Once you are happy with the image placement, press Enter.

After placing an image, it will appear in a new layer above the backgroud layer.

If you look closely at this layer you can see a little icon in the corner. This indicates that this layer is a Smart layer.

Smart layers are special layers that have limited editing capabilities, but can be converted into normal layers by right clicking on them, and selcting rasterise layer.