Art 198Art History and MultimediaDoctor Cohen
TTh 3-6p
Photoshop Introduction
This is a relatively comprehensive introduction to Photoshop; complete with a list of online resources to answer any further questions you may have when using this program.
Tool Bar
Marquees
This tool allows you to select part of an image. By holding down the mouse button and dragging across the object you would like to select you can edit that selection solely. If you hold down the shift key you are able to create a “perfect” circle or square.
Move Tool
This tool will allow you to move an object within the screen. This can be while the object on the layer is selected or not.
Lasso Tool
Tool to select a raw section of the object you are grabbing. Follows mouse handling rather than creating an ideal square or circle as with the other marquees.
Magnetic Lasso Tool
To make a selection around a specific object, use the magnetic lasso tool to go around it and make the selection, it will cling to the edges.
Magic Wand Tool
Will allow the user to choose large areas of similar colors or tones depending on the tolerance. Tolerance lets the user choose how similar the pixels should be assessed, for example, if you have 6 shades of gray, high tolerance might get 5/6 where a lower tolerance will get something more like 2/6. Good time saving tool for things like photographs.
Air Brush Tool
The airbrush tool creates opaque brush strokes, which can vary in size (go to Windows>Show Brushes) and opacity (depending on how long you keep the mouse button down). Very handy for helping recreate smooth photo effects without the solid opacity of the Paintbrush.
Paint Brushes
Click on the paintbrush to create brush strokes of different sizes and shapes. Has a thicker, more opaque quality than that of its neighbor, the Spray brush.
Rubber stamp tool
To duplicate a part of an image onto another image (or the same one), choose the rubber stamp tool, click on the part of the image, while holding the ALT key, that you would like to duplicate, let go of the ALT key and start rubbing where you would like to duplicate.
Pencil Tool
Allows user to edit a graphic pixel by pixel. Variant on mouse handling unless the <Shift> key is pressed while using.
Blur Tool
Allows the user to “smooth” pixels in an image. By clicking on the arrow in the icon, you can also use the Smudge tool (shaped like a finger ready to smudge), which will actually “move” the pixels around depending on which way you shift the cursor over the image. This is similar to how you would smooth a pastel on a piece of paper with your finger.
Burn/Dodge Tool
Performing the exact same function as with photography, the burn tool will darken an area while the dodge tool allow the user to lighten an area. This can be used in conjunction with the brushes to vary the size and amount of dodge/burn.
The Pen Tool
A path is any line or shape you draw using the pen, magnetic pen, or free form pen tool. Click on this tool, click in one spot, and then to the desired end point and you will have a straight line or a path. Once you have saved a path, you can store it in the Paths palette, convert it to a selection border, fill it with color or stoke the path outline with any color.
Paint Bucket Tool
Click on the Paint Bucket in the tool bar on the left. Now click inside a shape to fill it in with color.
Eraser Tool
Select how big our eraser is by clicking on a brush type in the brush pallet like shown. If you don't see the brushes, try going to Windows>Show Brushes.Hold down the mouse button and erase your object
Eye Dropper Tool
This tool will grab the color of the pixel that it is placed on. By clicking you can choose the exact color of the pixel in a photograph or object on a layer.
Zoom Tool
Allows the user to zoom in on any part of the graphic/object/picture. By pressing the alt button and clicking with this tool it will zoom out.
Color Picker
If you click on either foreground or background in the toolbox, the color picker window will appear. The color picker will let you choose from a variety of colors for backgrounds and foreground images and text. In order to choose a new foreground or background color, click on a part of the range of colors where you think the color you want will be located. For example, if I wanted a navy blue color, I would click on the blue area and the range picker would move to blue.
Some of the text borrowed from:
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Fundamentals
Layers
(Windows>Show Layers)
Aside from the minor attraction of being able to keep your image organized by putting each element on its own separate labeled layer, the overwhelming advantage of layers is that they allow you to segregate your edits. Background layers do not allow transparency, and cannot have layer effects added to them. You can add transparency attributes (this can be found in the upper right hand corner “Opacity), apply effects to that layer only (Layer>Effects), along with deleting and incorporating elements into your graphic. In the lower part of the layer window you will find three tools: Masking, Create a New Layer (if you drag an existing layer onto this tool it will duplicate the existing layer), and Delete layer. This are the most important layer attributes for beginners. For more information about how to use Layers visit:
Color Modes
(Image>Mode)RGB: RGB (Red, Green, Blue) mode is used by computer monitors, television, most scanners, and video. Red, green and blue can be combined to reproduce up to 16.7 million colors onscreen. RGB images have 24 (8x3) bits per pixel. RGB is the best mode for color editing and painting in Photoshop.
Indexed Color: Indexed Color images have 8 bits per pixel and a limited palette of 256 colors. Indexed Color mode is useful for export to multimedia applications and the image's mode should only be converted to Indexed Color when you are ready to export the image.
Note: To prepare images for display on the World Wide Web choose Indexed Color mode and "Save As" CompuServe GIF format.
Color Tools
Color Balance & Brightness / Contrast
(Image>Adjust>Color Balance)
(Image>Adjust>Brightness/Contrast)
Color Balance- is a finesse control. It makes subtle color cast changes within the highlights, mid-tones, or shadows of an image. It demonstrates the relative nature of color very well, as it presents three sliders that represent the different color polarities. Move the slider towards the red, and conversely away from the cyan, and see the effect it has in real time.
Brightness/Contrast-, it doesn't get any more basic that this. One slider controls the brightness, the other the contrast.
Hue / Saturation
(Image>Adjust>Hue/Saturation)
Hue Saturation shifts entire ranges of color within the image. It offers sliders that control the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness in the image, as well as color spectrum bars that show the current image values, as well as color modifications. Move the Hue slider and the lower spectrum bar shifts, showing the color range that replaces the current one. A great feature in this control set is the Colorize checkbox, which converts the image to a single hue. Moving the Hue slider lets you choose a specific color, while Saturation and Lightness control the intensity and brightness of the color values. This control is great for making pure color changes, such as adding a graphic color effect, swapping a color, or creating bright, over-saturated colors. It resists naturalistic changes leaving those tasks to Curves or Levels.
Taken from (with edits):
Image Types:
Joint PhotographersExpert Group(JPEG, JPG)
JPEG is a file compression format
- This format is good for photographic images with continuous tone color
- Poor for images with large areas of few colors, and images with text (i.e. logos)
- JPEG images can be made up of 16,777,216 colors (224 or 24-bit)
- Generally smoother quality (blur)
Graphic Interchange Format (GIF)
- GIF is a file compression format
- This format is good for images with large areas of few color, and images with text
- GIF is a poor choice for photographic images
- GIF images contain a maximum of 256 (28) colors
- GIFs can be used to create animations
- Generally grainier quality
Text From:
Image Sizes and Pixels
(Image>Image Size)
Everything on the web is measured in pixels. When creating your graphics know that the standard screen size for lower end machines is 640 x 480 and the standard for normal machines is currently 800 x 600. This number is liquid—depending on the progression of monitor technology.
Use the following URL as a quick reference for converting pixels to inches and vice versa. This can also be done within Photoshop itself by going to the Menu Bar under Image> Image Size. Partially Taken from:
Web Optimization
In order to learn more about optimizing your web layouts for the web quickly, and easily visit the following URL (This is an excellent tutorial):
Reference List:
and More for PS