General:
Fchanges screen mode
Eeraser
Zzoom tool
Vmove
Xflip flops White to Black
Dresets paint to Black and White
Ggradient tool
\ creates the rubylinth
ALT+rightclick+dragchanges brush size (horizontal move)….changes feather (vert move)
BBrush [ ] to resize
JHealing brush
Tabhides all panels
Ctrl-0 or double click Hand tool fits image to screen
Ctrl+Spacebarfor zooming
Cntl + LLevels
View > Rulersdragging ruler into image creates a guide
Selections:
Ctrl D- deselects
Shift-Ctrl-I- inverse
M- brings up selection tools
Cntrl + J- selection gets its own layer
Alt+Backspace- after a selection should fill it with white (editing a mask)
New, Add, Subtract, Intersect are icons on top left
- holding SPACEBAR is add
- holding ALT is subtract
MOVE
-Arrows nudge selection
-Hold mouse and Spacebar to move selection. Important with ADD.
-Hold ALT and then move out from center on a selection.
-instead of Copy/Paste make a selection. Use Move while holding ALT.
Rotate a selectionEdit > Transform > Rotate
Scale a selectionEdit > Transform > Scale - pull corners
-Hold Shift to re-size and keep the proportion
-ALT moves all 4 corners at once
Quick Selection Tool (W)
-Chooses by color
-Area is proportional by Brush size
-Use hard edged brush
-Turn on Auto Enhance
Quick Mask (Q)
-Icon at bottom of Tools
-Double clicking icon brings up default menu
-Paint with black to deselect
-CNTRL + SHIFT + D reselects a selection
Color Range
-Select > Color Rangesimilar colors of faces.
-Should be used first and then added to by selections
-fuzziness expands color range
-Preview limits area that can be selected
-Fuzziness is similar to Tolerance
-Better to sample more often than to crank up Fuzziness
-Good for selecting red tones out of a face
Layers:
Ctrl + Jduplicates selected Layer
Shift-Ctrl-Nnew layer
ALT click on eye shows only that layer
ALT click on Mask thumbnail to view B+W on fullscreen
ALT + drag to copy mask to another layer
\ creates the rubylinth
Layer Masks
-Hold ALT when clicking on a layer to drag mask to another layer
-Add a Layer Mask by clicking O (square around it) at bottom of Layer Panel.
-Masks
- Black protects the original
- White is the area affected by the layer adjustments
-Creating a Mask
- Create a selection
- Add layer mask icon
- Use Brush or Eraser to make changes to the Mask
-Edit Mask using Properties Panel
- Allows inverting
- Changes mask to a selection
Tools:
Tool default settings are in Options Menu
P- grabs Pen (top is Options….Path, Shape)
Shape- solid objects or selections
-Creates a layer
Path- between points
-Need to create a layer 1st for Fill or Stroke
Using Pen
-Create an anchor point and control handles
-Click to create points
-Smooth for curved lines
-Corner for straight lines
-Process Lisa pg 539
-Use Shift for vert or horizontal
-Press ESC to finish
-Move a PT with Direct Selection or Shift-A
-Drawing curves Lisa pg 541
-Enter hides line
-Have to save each Path
Marquee
-Shift makes a square
-Alt from the center
-Spacebar for repositioning
-Arrows move it (shift = 10 pixels vs 1)
Elliptical
-Use guides to help
Lasso
-Press Alt to temporarily go from Poly Lasso to normal Lasso
-Letting go of the mouse closes the loop
Magnetic Lasso
Contrast – value neighbor pixel has to be different
Width - # of pixels in sampled edge or how far away from center pt to detect contrast
Freq – distance from anchor points (more needed if complicated)
Edge Contrast – default is 10%, use 30% for well defined
tap Delete if anchor pt is wrong
use CAP for precise cursor
Spacebar pauses the process
Magnetic Wand
Whole pixel unless Continuous option is turned on
Tolerance – high is less exacting of color match
Brush
-ALT+rightclick+dragchanges brush size (horizontal move)….changes feather (vert move)
-Tolerance- set 12-31less is more picky
Clone Stamp
- ALT-click the area to start the Clone (upper left of object)
- Move to new location and click with mouse
- Hold down mouse and repaint the object into the new place
- This will create a new layer with the new object in it
Using layers
After I Open a photo in PS the first thing I always do is copy the Background Layer. This does 2 things, it saves an “original” copy if all goes bad and you need to start over and there are some things that can’t be done on the Background Layer.
Every time you do something different start a new layer. The layers can be renamed which is fabulous for knowing what was done on each layer. Each layer has its own Opacity slider which is handy for toning down an effect or ghosting something. A good example of this is having a separate layer for Content Aware removal of people’s wrinkles. Reducing the Opacity slider of this layer will bring back the wrinkles to any state from full removal to no removal and anything in between.
Grouping Layers is a good tool to unclutter the list of layers. To do this, highlight all layers you want to group, right click and select Group Layers. Example of this, again on a face, you might have an eye layer, a mouth layer, a wrinkle layer and a hue layer for the skin. Group these and call it Face.
When you need a layer that combines all the layers below it (example is using the Liquify filter or needing to make a layer from a Selection), use the shortcut Shift+Cntrl+Alt+E. You will use this shortcut a lot. Memorize it.
Ctrl+J copies a layer and places it above the layer you copy. You can drag this new layer to anywhere you need it. If you make a Selection on a layer and then use Cntrl+J, this copies the selection into a new layer. You use this a lot when replacing an eye because one is closed and you select/use the other eye flipped horizontal and move it over the closed eye.
If you don’t think you will revisit a few of the layers and the list is getting long, highlight the layers you won’t revisit and right click and select Merge Layers. This reduces all the highlighted layers to one layer. Flatten Image does the same thing but it merges ALL layers. Only use this when you KNOW you will never need any of the layers and you want to reduce the size of the file for storing.
Masks
Any layer can have a Mask. Adjustment Layers (exposure, hue, contrast, levels etc…) come with their own masks. To add a mask to a layer that doesn’t have one, click on the “circle in the square” icon at the bottom right of the screen. The default is for the mask to be solid white which means it not hiding anything.
A white box will be added to that specific layer line when it has or gets a mask.
The white vs black in a mask can be confusing. Basically, where the mask is white, whatever effect you’ve done on that layer will show through. If an area is black, that particular effect will be blocked out. Black is like a curtain on a window. If it’s down, you can’t see out. Example: You add an Exposure Adjustment layer to the top of the layer list. You want the part of the photo to be overly exposed for some reason. Make the mask Black in all the areas you don’t want over exposed. (Creating masks is dealt with later).
In the properties box, masks can be feathered and/or their opacity reduced.
Creating a Mask
Masks can be created in basically 2 ways. “Created” meaning the black portion added to the original white box.
- A selection is made on the photo of the portion you want to be black (hidden). Once the selection is made, click on the “circle in a square” icon on the bottom right of the screen. Where there was a selection, that area will be filled in as black.
- Select the “circle in a square” first and a white box will appear on the layer line. Click on the white box to highlight it. (note: you WILL forget to do this and your you will paint black on your photo. Just Undo the paint, select the mask’s white box and start over). Using the Brush and the foreground color to black, paint where you want a mask.
If you want to add to an existing mask using the selection technique, make your new selection and then (with the foreground color black) select ALT+Backspace. This is a handy thing to remember.
To view the mask overlayed on your photo, select \ on your keyboard. Select \ one more time to get rid of the overlay. To view the mask fullsize on your screen in black and white (excellent for checking to see that there are no extraneous white or black specs in areas you don’t want them to be), hold down ALT and click on the mask box. Repeat to go back to the photo.
Quite often you will use the same mask on different layers. To copy a mask to another layer, hold down the ALT key and drag the existing mask to the new layer.
To invert a mask, highlight the mask box and select Ctrl+I. Surprisingly you use this quite a bit, especially if you’ve copied the mask to another layer and now you want to do something with the areas of the photo that you wanted to stay the same with old mask layer.
Manipulating a Photo
The main reason a photographer in post editing will use Photoshop is for manipulating the actual photo. Removing power lines as an example. There are several tools to do this and each has its own good points and bad. Learning to use all of them and getting a good handle on when each technique/tool is the best to use in a situation just requires practice and familiarity. All will work, but some will work better in each situation.
I suggest that each manipulation (or a group of similar ones) be put on its own layer. This is where Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E comes in handy.
Content AwareCA simply is having the computer decide and generate what it thinks needs to be added as the replacement for a selection.
To use it, make a selection around something that needs to be gone. The selection should be simple :ie draw a line around the tree ( no need to select the actual tree). With the line selection (using the lasso tool) around the tree, select Shift+F5. Hit OK on the menu and voila!...the tree is gone and what the PC thinks should be there in it’s place is there.
Content Aware works great for things like a bird in the sky that you want gone, a bokeh or bright spot in the background that you want gone. The simpler the area is around the tree, the better the PC will fill in acceptably.
Spot Healing BrushJust as the name implies. It’s a brush (size and feather adjusts just like a brush) and you brush it on to make stuff go away. The PC fills in the area using the Content Aware algorithms. It’s work great on flecks of stuff, acne, piece of garbage on a lawn etc. Much, much better than the tool in Lightroom. Where it breaks down and doesn’t do a good job is if the area you want removed is next to something of a totally different color. You will get bleed in of that color into the area you “healed”. If this happens, a mixture of the Spot Healing brush and the clone tool works well.
Clone ToolI highly recommend you make a new blank layer (bent piece of paper icon in bottom right). Make sure Sample: Current and Below is selected in the box top center of screen. Align should be checked as well.
The Clone tool is a “select the starting point, paint a copy somewhere else” tool. You want a 2nd bird in flight? Alt+click somewhere on the bird, go to where you want the bird and start painting. A new identical bird will appear.
By making a new layer with just the cloned copy on it, you can use the eraser on it if you make a mistake or over-clone. You can also use the Transform tool to shape the clone if it needs to be re-shaped for some reason.
The clone tool, like the brush, can be adjusted for size and feather.
Prime Example where the Clone tool is perfect:Your photo has a person walking in the background in front of a brick wall and you want that person gone. Create a new blank layer. Holding Alt down, click on an area of unobstructed brick. Zoom into the photo. Inside the Clone Tool circle as you move your mouse, you will see the unobstructed bricks. Align that image with where it lines up with the bricks right next to the person. Click when its aligned. Now start painting in fresh bricks over top of the person. With Align selected (remember I told you to have this selected?) you don’t have to paint in one fell swoop. If you stop and start a gazillion times, the Clone Tool will be aligned. Paint and maybe reselect if you have to, until the person is gone.
Replacing a part of the photo with a part from another photo You’ve taken a family group photo session and the one great photo you got, the toddler has his head turned. You’ve got another photo where the toddler is looking at you but Uncle Joe’s expression sucks. What to do?
- Do not do anything in Lightroom first. Open both photos as layers in Photoshop. (select both photos in LR and right click. Select Open Photos as Layers)
- In the photo with the toddler looking at you, make a box selection around the toddler’s head.
- Cntrl+J will make a new layer with just the selection of the toddler’s head.
- Select the original layer that has the good toddler’s head and the rest of the group. Delete this layer
- You now have 2 layers. One with just the toddler’s good head (rename it Head) and the full photo of the group with the Toddler’s head turned.
- If it isn’t already there, drag the Head layer to the top and select the layer Head.
- Ctrl+T brings up the Transform box around the Toddler’s head.
- Holding the mouse down anywhere inside the box and you can move the head anywhere you want. Move it to where it needs to be to replace the old head. (decreasing the opacity of the Head layer while you do this allows placement much easier.)
- When its in place, bring back the opacity of the Head layer. It’ll start looking good but the area around his head may be slightly visible.
- Add a mask to Head layer. (icon in bottom right of screen)
- Select Brush (B), with a pretty good feather and black as the foreground color.
- Highlight the mask box and start painting away the extraneous stuff around the toddler’s head. If you over paint, change the foreground color to white and paint the mistake away. Zoom in and carefully mask out (paint black) all the areas you don’t want to see from the new head layer.
- Voila!!! Great family pic.
- Now Save this photo and Import it into Lightroom and do what you’d normally do from scratch.