photoshopbasics-pages.pdf

Photoshop: The Basics 1 Photoshop Basics: The Toolbox The tool palette is probably one of the most frequently used parts of Adobe Photoshop. If you want to make the most of Photoshop, you need to understand how to use...

Photoshop: The Basics 1 Photoshop Basics: The Toolbox The tool palette is probably one of the most frequently used parts of Adobe Photoshop. If you want to make the most of Photoshop, you need to understand how to use the tools effectively. You can pickup a tool in the toolbox simply by clicking on it. If you let your cursor sit over the tool without clicking on it, the name of that tool will appear on screen. It will look something like this: The letter inside the brackets is the keyboard shortcut for that tool. You will find a complete list of these shortcuts at the end of this tutorial. Tools with little black arrows in the corner have hidden tools underneath. Whenever you select any tool from the toolbox, a series of options will appear at the top of the screen in the Options Bar. Here is an example of what part of the option bar looks like when you click on one of the selection tools: www.ibrett.com © Brett Lamb 2004 Photoshop: The Basics 2 The Toolbox: A Visual Guide There is a whole range of ‘hidden’ tools in the Adobe Photoshop toolbox. Here’s a nifty little guide to help familiarise yourself with where they’re located. www.ibrett.com © Brett Lamb 2004 Photoshop: The Basics 3 Photoshop basics: The Toolbox A brief description of the tools in Photoshop and what they do. The most frequently used tools are underlined. TOOL ICON SHORTCUT DESCRIPTION Allows you to make rectangular selections of the Rectangular Marquee Tool M image. Elliptical Marquee Tool M Allows you to make elliptical selections of the image. Allows you to select a single row of pixels stretching Single Row Marquee Tool from one side of the image to the other. Allows you to select a single column of pixels stretching Single Column Marquee Tool from the top of the image to the bottom. Allow you to move selections and layers around the Move Tool V canvas. The Magic Wand allows you to select parts of the image that are similar in colour. Adjusting the Tolerance in the Options Bar when you click on this tool allows you to adjust how much the Magic Wand Magic Wand W selects. If the tolerance is low, it will select only very similar colours. If the tolerance is high, it will select colours from a wider spectrum. Very useful for removing backgrounds from an image. The Lasso Tool allows you to make irregular, freehand Lasso Tool L selections of the image. The Polygonal Lasso Tool allows you to make Polygonal Lasso Tool L polygonal selections of the canvas – such as triangles and other irregular, straight edged shapes. The Magnetic Lasso Tool is similar to the regular Lasso Tool although it automatic clings the edges of an Magnetic Lasso Tool L image. You can adjust the settings of this tool in the Options Bar. Click on this tool, select the area of your document that you wish to crop and hit ‘Enter’ on your keyboard to Crop Tool C confirm the crop (if you’re unhappy with the area you’ve selected, press the ESC key and try again). www.ibrett.com © Brett Lamb 2004 Photoshop: The Basics 4 The Slice Tool allows you to divide the image into segments which can be exported to form a HTML table. This is useful for web design because parts of the Slice Tool K image can be individually optimised or used as hyperlinks. Dividing such an image into smaller parts also makes it appear to load faster in browsers. Slice Select Tool K This tool allows you to move and resize slices. The Healing Brush allows you to fix blemishes, scratches and other imperfections in images. Hold Healing Brush J down the option key to select an area of the image which is similar to the one you want to repair. Use the healing brush to paint over the imperfection. This is another image retouching tool which allows you to patch areas of the image. There are three ways to do this. First, click on the Patch Tool and select an area of the screen that is to be patched up. Click on Source in the Options Bar. Drag the selected area to the region of Patch Tool J the image you want to use as the patch. Clicking on Destination in the Option Bar enables you to do the reverse: select the patch, then drag it to the area you wish to patch up. Using the Options Bar, you may also patch up the selected area with a pattern. The Brush Tool is much like a conventional paint brush. When you click on the Brush Tool, you are able to select a range of different brushes from the Option Bar. Brush Tool B You can also set the Opacity and Flow of the brush. Select the colour of the brush by clicking on ‘Set Foreground Color’ selector. The Pencil Tool is much like a conventional pencil, except you can choose a whole range of shapes and Pencil Tool B sizes for the nib using the Options Bar. You can also set the opacity of the pencil. The Clone Stamp Tool allows you to clone parts of an Clone Stamp Tool C image. A common use The Pattern Stamp Tool allows you paint a pattern on Pattern Stamp Tool C the canvas. You can specify the sort of pattern you would like using the Options Bar. The History Brush is very similar to the Clone Stamp Tool with one important differnce: instead of allowing you to clone part of the image, it allows you to clone History Brush Y part of the image as it appears in the previous stage of the History. This means you can change an image and then regain portions of it using the History Brush. www.ibrett.com © Brett Lamb 2004 Photoshop: The Basics 5 The Art History Brush allows you to transform conventional images into works of art. Experiment by Art History Brush Y choosing different styles and brush types. It’s best to work on a new layer above the original image, this will preserve the original if you make major mistakes. Allows you to erase parts of the image. Erased areas Eraser E are replaced with the Background Color. Background Eraser E This makes the erased area transparent. Much like the Magic Wand Tool, effective for removing Magic Eraser E areas of similar colour. Check ‘Contagious’ in the Options Bar to ensure the area you remove is smooth. Click on this tool, draw a line in the canvas to create a gradient from the foreground colour to the background Gradient Tool G colour. Options to create more complex gradients can be found in the Options Bar. Fills an area of the screen with the foreground colour. Paint Bucket G The tolerance of this tool can be adjusted in the Options Bar. Using this tool, you can blur part of the image, strength Blur Tool R of the blurring can be adjusted in the Options Bar. Sharpen Tool R Use this tool to sharped the image. Smudge Tool R Use this tool to smudge the image. Use the Dodge Tool to lighten parts of the image, you can choose to lighten shadows, highlights or midtones Dodge Tool O using the Options Bar. You can also set the exposure of the Dodge Tool. The Burn Tool darkens parts of the image. Like the Dodge Tool , you can choose to darken shadows, Burn Tool O highlights or midtones using the Options Bar. You can also set the exposure of the Burn Tool. The Sponge Tool can be used to saturate or desaturate Sponge Tool O the image, that is, make the colours more or less vivid. This line allows you to select vector graphics (the sorts Path Selection Tool A of lines and shapes you can draw with the Pen Tools in Photoshop). This allows you to manipulate vector graphics such as Direct Selection Tool A lines, shapes and text. www.ibrett.com © Brett Lamb 2004 Photoshop: The Basics 6 Creates horizontal type, you can adjust the size and Horizontal Type Tool T font in the Options Bar. Creates vertical type, you can adjust the size and font Vertical Type Tool T in the Options Bar. This creates a horizontal text shaped selection which Horizontal Type Mask Tool T can be manipulated in various ways. This creates a horizontal text shaped selection which Vertical Type Mask Tool T can be manipulated in various ways. The pen tool is used to create paths, which can be made into selections or objects that can have a stroke Pen Tool P around the outside or be filled with colour (like triangles, rectangles and other shapes). The Freeform Pen Tool allows you to create freehand Freeform Pen Tool P paths. The Freeform Pen Tool allows you to create additional Add Anchor Point Tool anchor points on a path, essentially giving you the ability to manipulate it in very flexible ways. Delete Anchor Point Tool Allows you to change paths by deleting anchor points. Convert Point Tool Another tool for manipulating anchor points of a path. Rectangle Tool U Draws rectangular paths. Round Rectangle Tool U Draws rounded rectangular paths. Ellipse Tool U Draws ellipses. Polygon Tool U Draws polygons. Line Tool U Draws lines. Custom Shape Tool U Draws custom shapes. Creates post-it notes which can be positioned Note Tool N throughout the document. Useful if you’re working with other people. Creates audio annotations which can be positioned on Audio Annotation Tool N the canvas. Useful if you’re working with other people. www.ibrett.com © Brett Lamb 2004 Photoshop: The Basics 7 The Eye Dropper Tool is used to select colours from Eye Dropper I the canvas. The selected colour becomes the Foreground Color. Selects colour information from a specified point in your Color Sampler Tool I image. You can store up to four different colours. These can be cleared using the Options Bar. Used to measure areas on the screen. Values appear Measure Tool I in the Options Bar. Hand Tool H Used to scroll around your document. Select a particular area of the screen to zoom into. Zoom Tool Z Holding down the Option/Alt button enables you to toggle between zoom in and zoom out. If you click on the foreground or background colour, Foreground/Background Color you will be presented with a dialogue box allowing you to select the colour you desire. www.ibrett.com © Brett Lamb 2004