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Introduction to Photoshop: Working with a Photograph

Golforiginal: large “raw” file

from camera, high resolution

Golfversionb:

Cropped

Nike symbol erased

Catawba text added, warped to fit

contour of hat, styled with drop shadow

and stroke

Saved for web, printing, Powerpoint

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This guide will introduce you to important beginning concepts in digital imaging and techniques for

manipulating images using Adobe Photoshop.

1. Getting Started

Open Photoshop by selecting the “Start” button, then

Adobe Design Premium

Adobe Photoshop CS5.1

2. The Photoshop Desktop (at top right of screen, click on DESIGN

3. Parts of the window:

Toolbox (left hand side) – contains tools for working with images in Photoshop

Menu Bar – dropdown menus for choosing commands

Image Window – where your workspace appears, the current image will be displayed here

Rulers – to display or hide rulers, press CTRL + R (or from the menu View – Rulers) – to change

the unit of measure on the ruler, double click it (or from the menu Edit – Preferences – Units &

Rulers)

Palettes – enable you to perform a wide variety of tasks in Photoshop (to reset choose

Windows – Workspace – Reset Palette Locations) – one important Palette: LAYERS

Status Bar – at bottom, provides information about current view

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4. Some Helpful Tips

* Press TAB to hide palettes and toolbox (TAB again brings them back

* Choose EDIT – STEP BACKWARD to undo your last action

* Choose Window – Show History to view the History palette. Then you can click on a previous

history to undo one or more of your previous actions

* A quick way to go to 100% view is to double-click on the zoom tool icon in the toolbox

* To zoom out, press the ALT key while you click with the zoom tool

* Use the HAND tool to move around the image when you are zoomed in

* HELP can be found at HELP – Photoshop Help

5. APPLYING YOUR KNOWLEDGE

a. Open golforiginal.jpg and view information about image

(1.7 Mg, RGB color, 3 channels, 12.907 in x 8.64 inches, 300 pixels/inch)

b. It is always a good idea to save a copy for your working file: FILE – SAVE AS -

golfversiona (.jpg) – select defaults

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c. Double-click on “background” in Layer palette on right – select default name for layer

“layer 0” – note: you cannot make changes to layer named background

6. CROPPING AN IMAGE

Choose the crop tool in the toolbox - then click and drag across the image. Adjust the

area to be cropped by using handles on the edges of the image.

NOTE: if you move the cursor just outside of one of the sizing handles, it becomes a curved

cursor, which allows you to change the alignment.

Press ENTER to crop or ESC to cancel.

7. A BETTER CROP

a. Press CTRL + Z to undo crop

b. Use magnifier and hand tool (see tool box) to magnify image and move to crop area

c. Use crop tool to more effectively crop

d. File – Save As – golfversionb.psd – this is saved as a PHOTOSHOP file as a default

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8. MORE ADJUSTMENTS (STAY ON GOLFVERSIONB.PSD) (NOTE: WE WILL SKIP THIS STEP BUT

YOU WILL USUALLY WANT TO CREATE A NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER FOR THESE CORRECTIONS –

LAYER – NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER – THEN CHOOSE THE TYPE OF LAYER FOR NON-DESTRUCTIVE

CHANGES)

a. Experiment with ADJUSTING CONTRAST: Image – Adjustments – Levels

b. CORRECTING COLOR: Image – Auto Color (not always the best), also Auto Tone, Auto

Contrast

c. SHARPENING: Filter – Sharpen – Unsharp Mask

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d. REMOVING IMPERFECTIONS:

i. PRESS CTRL - + to move VIEW to 200%

ii. Move to area you want to edit (“Swoosh” in hat)

iii. Choose the clone tool and make sure “aligned” is checked in the Options bar

iv. In the “Options” bar (top) choose a brush size – 21 is ok THEN MOVE TO

SHADOWED AREA ON HAT

v. ALT + CLICK to define source (circle changes to cross)

vi. Move the cursor over the area you want to cover and click to cover it with the

sample – continue clicking to remove “swoosh) THEN SAVE

9. ADDING A NEW LAYER WITH TEXT

a. Change view back to 100% (you can type 100 in bottom left of screen)

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b. Click on the TEXT tool (note: this automatically creates a new layer) and Set the Text

Color

c. Select color – click on COLOR THEN set Catawba Blue by entering WEB or HEX color

code: #003366

d. Set font: time new roman, 4 point

e. Click in middle of hat and type “Catawba” THEN Select CREATE WARPED TEXT to give

text a slight curve, when satisfied with look press enter

f. Select Move Tool (top of toolbox) and move type into position

g. For further enhancement, be sure you are on TEXT layer and select EDIT – FREE

TRANSFORM, make adjustments and press ENTER when satisfied

h. Further changes can be made by selecting LAYER – LAYER STYLE – STROKE or DROP

SHADOW (again changes occur on layer that you have selected)

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10. LAYER TRICKS:

a. The “eye” hides layers

b. You can drag layers around – top layer is in “top” position. Layers can become hidden

if they are below other layers

c. Saving a file in PSD format (photoshop) preserves layers

d. Saving a file in JPG format does not preserve layers but this can “thin” file for web

11. SAVE YOUR FILE NOW AS A PSD FILE – File – Save

12. SAVE AS JPG FOR WEB: File – Save As – select JPG (the smaller the size the thinner the

image) – you can insert this image in PowerPoint or on Social Media

NOTE: COLOR MODES: in Photoshop, you are always working in a color mode. The default is

RGB (Red-Green-Blue) which is also the default mode for the web. Color modes are made up of

channels which is an image made up of shades of brightness (as many as 256 shades). For

example, in RGB mode, the red channel is a grayscale image made up of brightness values for the

color red. Each pixel in the full color image is a combination of the Red, Green, Blue channel

brightness combination for that pixel.

a. Most frequently used color modes:

i. RGB: 3 channels, used by all monitors and the web, recommended by Adobe

for editing color images

ii. Grayscale: One channel, 256 shades of gray

iii. Bitmap: Black and White (no gray shades) – used for line drawings

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iv. Indexed: One color channel, up to 256 color values, used for GIF images for

the web

v. CMYK: four channels (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) – used by professional

printing houses. Preferred for images for a publication or printer.

Useful Web Resources:

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html

http://sixrevisions.com/photoshop/22-professional-photoshop-image-enhancing-tutorials/

http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/photoshop-cs5-cs55-tutorials.html

http://www.lynda.com/Photoshop-training-tutorials/279-0.html

GIMP: Open source alternative to Photoshop:

http://www.gimp.org

Image Essentials:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-

7949a.html