Photoshop I

Photoshop consists of a Toolbar on the left, multiple Palettes (they look like miniature windows), and a Menu Bar across the top. When Photoshop is first opened (without a file specified), the large gray working area is blank.

1. Toolbox

   Notice that as you select each tool, a number of parameters specific to the active tool become available in the Options bar at the top:

   

   Certain options, such as brush size, will be used frequently. The options and their functions are too numerous to detail here, but tweaking them can help you achieve a desired result with a particular tool.

   Hover the mouse over any tool to learn its name.

   • Selection, crop and slice
   • • Marquee - Selects using geometric shapes
     • Move - Freely moves selections
     • Lasso - Freehand selection tool
       • Polygonal Lasso - Selects using straight lines
       • Magnetic Lasso - Attempts to adhere to edges
     • Magic Wand - Selects areas of similar color
     • Crop - Selects a desired portion of the image and removes the rest
     • Slice - Allows multiple simultaneous selections to be saved as separate files, e.g. for Web use
   • Retouching and painting
   • • Spot Healing Brush - Removes small blemishes
       • Healing Brush - Corrects larger blemishes by sampling another area of the image
       • Patch - Repairs by blending part of the image over a selected area
       • Red Eye Tool - Eliminates red eye in photos
     • Brush - Paints the foreground color with soft edges
       • Pencil - Paints the foreground color with hard edges
       • Color Replacement - Freehand tool for replacing color with the foreground color
     • Clone Stamp - Samples an area and duplicates it in another area of the image
       • Pattern Stamp - Paints a sample in a pre-defined pattern
     • History Brush - Paints a previous state selected from the History Palette
       • Art History Brush - Paints highly-stylized strokes using data from a previous state in the History Palette
     • Eraser - Replaces pixels with the background color or removes pixels to create transparency
       • Background Eraser - Removes pixels to create transparency
       • Magic Eraser - Changes similar pixels to transparency or background color
     • Gradient - Creates a blend between colors
       • Paint Bucket - Fills adjacent, similar pixels with the foreground color
     • Blur - Softens edges
       • Sharpen - Increases contrast between adjacent pixels
       • Smudge - Moves color as if smudging paint
     • Dodge - Brushstrokes subtly lighten the area
       • Burn - Subtly darkens an area
       • Sponge - Increases or decreases saturation (color intensity)
   • Drawing and type
   • • Path Selection - Alters paths created with shapes or the pen
     • Horizontal / Vertical Type - Inserts text in a new layer
       • Horizontal / Vertical Type Mask - Creates selections shaped like text outlines
     • Pen - Draws smooth curves using anchor points
       • Freeform Pen - Like the pencil, but automatically creates rounded curves
       • Add / Delete / Convert Anchor point - These options make more detailed adjustments to curves
     • Rectangle / Rounded Rectangle / Ellipse / Polygon / Line / Custom Shape - Draws shapes and lines in a new layer
   • Annotation, measuring and navigation
   • • Notes / Audio Annotation - Inserts a note without affecting the image appearance
     • Eyedropper - Matches the foreground or background color to a point in the image
       • Color Sampler - Sets points that display color data in the Info Palette
       • Measure - Calculates the distance between two points
     • Hand - Moves the viewing area
     • Zoom - Zooms in and out
   • Color Selection
   • • Foreground / Background - Displays the currently selected foreground (top) and background (bottom) colors and opens the Color Picker dialog
2. Palettes
   • Navigation
   • 
     • The red box indicates the area of the image you are currently viewing in the main window. The slider controls the level of zoom.
     • The Histogram tab displays a graph of pixel intensity. The Info tab displays color information at the location of the pointer and other useful details about the tool selected.
   • History
   • 
     • The History palette tracks changes you have made to an image. You can undo errors by clicking back through the list of changes.
   • Layers
   • 
     • The Layers palette uses one of Photoshop's most powerful features. Layers are the "vertical" representation of the project; shapes, text, doodles, etc. in upper layers will appear on top of objects in the layers below. They allow for creation, arrangement and editing of multiple elements in the same project. Layers will be used practically in the demonstration below.
   • Colors
   • 
     • This palette shows you the current foreground and background colors you have selected and allows you to quickly change them.

1. Opening files
   1. The above image of Chico State's Laxson Auditorium is provide for this demonstration. Right-click and "Save Picture As..."(Windows) or Control-click and "Download image to Disk" (Mac). Save the image on your desktop.
   2. In Photoshop, choose "Open" from the File menu. Navigate to the desktop and select the file laxs1.jpg
   3. The image appears as a new window in Photoshop's workspace.
2. General image editing
   1. From the Image menu, select "Image Size." The dialog box that appears is similar to the one that will appear when you create a new, blank document. In the uppermost box, "Pixel Dimensions," the pull-down menus should be set to "pixels."
   2. Note that the dimensions of "laxs1.jpg" are 400x280 pixels. This is approaching the upper limit for Web graphics. Greater dimensions rapidly produce larger file sizes and longer download times. Click OK.
   3. Play with the tools and see what effects they produce. For quick effects, apply filters from the Filter menu.
      A few things to try:
      • Text: Select the Text tool and click somewhere on the image. Type a few words. Notice that a new layer appears in the Layers palette showing a "T" to indicate text.
      • Layers: With the new text layer highlighted, pull out the Opacity slider near the top of the Layers palette. Change the position of the slider (percentage of opacity). The text becomes transparent. Use this technique to create banners, posters, etc.
      • Shapes: Select the Rectangle tool. Draw several rectangles in different places. Using the Color palette or the Color Picker from the Toolbox, draw some rectangles (or other shapes) that overlap eachother.
      • More Layers: Notice that each new shape creates a new layer. Not every tool does this. In the Layers palette, select one of the lower shape layers and drag it to the top of the stack. If there were other shapes overlapping it, it now appears on top of them. Use this technique to arrange text, shapes, and other objects in a particular way. Change the Opacity of the various shape layers.
      • Stay inside the lines: Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Click and drag within the image to select a rectangular area smaller than the whole. Click the Brush Tool. Begin painting freehand with the brush, and note that your brush strokes only appear within the blinking selected rectangle. Use this technique to confine your work to a certain area of the image.
      • Undo: All of the changes you have made so far appear in the History palette. Click back through the changes you have made to undo them. Don't worry; this is just for practice.
      • Make your own layers: From the Layer menu, select "New" and then "Layer..." Click OK to create a new layer with the default settings. It should appear that nothing has changed, except for the new layer in your Layer palette. The layer will show a checkerboard pattern; in Photoshop, this indicates transparency. Use the Brush Tool to draw some strokes on the new layer. The strokes are not attached to the image below. This is analogous to laying a sheet of glass over a painting and drawing on it. If you want to discard your changes, you can right-click on the layer and "Delete Layer."
3. Saving
   1. From the File menu, select Save As...
   2. Under the "Format" pulldown menu, the default is "Photoshop (*.PSD, *.PDD)." Only Photoshop can open and view .psd files. It stores all of the information and editing so that you can resume working on it later.
   3. The choices for Web graphics are generally JPEG or CompuServe GIF. Use JPEG for photos or any complex images, such as our picture of Laxson. GIF creates very small files, but is only suitable for images with very few different colors and large areas of solid color. Be sure your file name includes the appropriate ".jpg" or ".gif" at the end before you click "Save."