Photoshop Basics

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Often you will want to begin with a blank page rather than simply by opening an existing photo. This allows you to create a piece in a specific size, and import or draw images onto it.
Click File on the menu bar. Click New… A dialog box will appear where you can specify the size and resolution of the image. Your measurements should generally be in inches or centimetres. The resolution for a printable image should not be less than 150 pixels/inch, and good-quality photographic images not less than 200 pixels/inch. Web resolution is usually only 72 pixels/inch – remember the problems associated with this, in regards tp printout quality! You can name the image, and set the background colour "paper colour" for the image (white is default).
Fill in the values and click OK. Photoshop creates a new image window at the specified dimensions, with the filename in the title bar.

Open a photo. You will be using selection tools to select an area of the image. The function of these selection tools is to isolate an area of an image so that you can work on that area without affecting anything else.

A) Marquees:
Click and hold on the rectangular marquee tool at the top left of the toolbox – a secondary box will appear which will allow you to choose the elliptical marquee tool. Click and drag on your photo to create an oval selection. If you want to create a circular selection, hold down the Shift key while you click and drag (this will create a perfect square when you use it with the Rectangular Marquee). To clear a selection, hit Ctrl+D on your keyboard.

B) Lassos:
The lasso tool is located below the marquee tool. It is used to create selections freehand, and requires patience to use accurately. Use the lasso tool to draw around a portion of your photo. This is easier to do accurately if you magnify the image first! The lasso must create a closed shape, i.e. your beginning and end points must be the same.
If you wish to add to/ subtract from your selection, go to your Options bar where you will see a set of icons showing overlapping squares (at the left). The middle two are your Add/ Subtract option.
The magnetic lasso is a specialized version of the lasso that works best on areas of high contrast. Click on the lasso tool and hold until the magnetic lasso option comes up. Click and release on the edge of the animal to create a beginning anchor point, and drag the cursor around the outline of the animal – the magnetic lasso snaps to the edge of the image. You can guide the lasso by clicking on specific points as you go. For this tool to function properly, you MUST finish on the same point you started on! This is a tool that you can easily lose control of.

C) Magic Wand:
The Magic Wand tool selects areas of similar colour or tone. This is useful if you need to select irregularly-shaped areas, such as a sky. The sensitivity of this tool can be adjusted in the Options bar, in the box marked Tolerance. 32 is the default; adjust up or down by increments of 5 or 10. The higher the Tolerance value, the greater the selection of pixels.

D) Deselecting:
When you finish working on the selection, use Ctrl + D to deselect the area.
Manipulating Selections
The point of making a selection is that you can now change or move that area.

A) Copy & Paste:
To copy an object within a picture, eg. If you wanted several eyes on a face, you must first select the object. The slower way to copy is to use the Edit>Copy and Edit>Paste options on the menu bar, or Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V. There is a faster way to do this, however: once an area is selected, use the Move tool to click and hold on the area while you hold down the Alt key on the keyboard. Holding the Alt key down, just drag and drop the selected area to its new location, let go and a copy of the original will appear. This also works for copying a selection from one image window to another.

* Make sure the Auto Select Layer and Show Bounding Box options are checked off in your Options bar when using your Move tool. It will make your life much easier…

B) Delete:
You can delete a section of your image by selecting it and pressing the Delete key on the keyboard.

C) Flip & Rotate:
To make a mirror image of a selected area within the larger photo, go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal (or Vertical).
To change the orientation of the entire image, go to Image>Rotate. You have several options: 90 Right, 90 Left, and Free Rotate. Choose Free Rotate. Then click & drag outside of the bounding box to rotate the selected area in any direction. To apply the rotation, double-click inside the bounding box.

D) Skew & Distort:
These commands allow you to stretch your selected object. Go to Image>Transform>Skew. A rectangular bounding box with “handles” on the sides and corners appears around your selection. Use your mouse to click and drag on the handles to skew the selection. Skew works on one axis only, either horizontal or vertical. The Distort command works similarly, but allows you to pull the handles in different directions, both horizontally and vertically. In both cases, double-clicking inside the box will apply the transformation. To cancel the transformation, click on the Cancel symbol in the Options bar; alternatively, to apply (keep) the transformation, click on the check mark in the Options bar.

E) Feathering:
You can create soft edges to your selection. Go to Select>Feather… A dialog box will come up: type in a pixel value eg. 20 – the larger the value, the more obvious the feathering will be. Click OK. At this point you won’t see much on screen. Next click Select>Inverse. This will select the opposite of your original selection. Then press the Delete key. Everything but your selected area is deleted, and the feathering effect becomes visible.
Colour
use it to make things more visible! Use the magnifying glass tool (lower right of toolbox). Click on image to zoom in. To zoom out, hold down the Alt key while clicking. Get used to zooming in on portions of your image – don't squint at the screen from 2 inches away!

A) Foreground & Background:
These are indicated by the overlapping squares at the bottom of the toolbox: the one on top (black) is the foreground, the one behind (white) the background. Black and white are the default colours. You can return to these at any time by clicking on the mini squares at the left. You can reverse background & foreground colours by clicking on the double arrow at the right.

Foreground colours are applied by using paint tools. The background colour shows up when you use the Eraser tool, set up a new canvas or enlarge the existing one, or cut pieces out of your image. To choose a foreground colour, click on the foreground square. The colour picker window comes up. Use the slider on the side of the rainbow section to change the range of colours in the window. To select a foreground colour, click in the colour window, and then OK.

B) Painting tools:
The main painting tool is the paintbrush. For very fine lines, you can use the pencil tools. For filling large areas, you can use the paintbucket tool. The brush tools allow you to choose different sizes and styles of brushes, and all allow you to specify the opacity of the colour by using your Options bar.
The paintbrush has a brush style palette on the left side of the Options bar. Click on the arrow to open the palette. This is where you can choose both the style and the size of the brush. You can load more brush styles by clicking on the arrow button at the top right of the brushes palette. A menu opens. You will see a list of Brush collections at the bottom of the drop menu. Click on one of the brushes files, and click load. The newly loaded styles will appear on the palette after the original brushes. Try out the effects.
There is also an Airbrush icon in the Options bar, which allows the tool to behave consistently with an airbush, especially if you adjust the Flow and Opacity options.

C) Eyedropper:
This tool allows you to pick a specific colour from your image to use as your foreground colour, eg. If you wanted the precise blue of the sky as a painting colour. Click on the eyedropper in the toolbox and place the cursor over the colour you want to sample. The tip of the eyedropper selects the colour of the pixel beneath it. Click. The foreground colour changes.

D) Swatches:
This is another way to select foreground colours.Click on any of the preset colour squares in the Swatches palette to change the foreground colour. To select a background colour, press the Alt key as you click on a colour square. You can add specific colours to your Swatches palette – if you need a specific colour again and again, make it your Foreground colour, then drag your cursor over the blank area at the bottom of your swatch collection. A paintbucket will appear – click and the foreground colour will be added to your swatches. This allows you to return to the same colour quickly.

E) Gradients:
The gradient tool (in with the Paintbucket in the toolbox) allows you to create smooth changes in colour, either by using the presets or by creating your own custom variations.
There are 5 basic types of gradient form: Linear, Radial, Angle, Reflected and Diamond – these appear as icons in your Options bar.
The gradient colours also appear in your Options bar, to the left of the above icons. By default, the gradient will be based on your current foreground & background colours. To change your gradient options, click directly onto this colour bar. A dialog box will appear showing currently-loaded gradients. New ones may be loaded from the presets, or custom ones created by clicking on the small boxes attached to the slider in the lower portion of the dialog box.
Once you have selected your gradient colour, you can return to your document and use the Gradient tool to click and drag over your image, causing the gradient to be applied.
Working with Layers
When working in Photoshop, you will be creating a series of Layers. Think of these as a set of stacked transparencies. You should always have your Layer palette open so that you can keep track of where you are working and get to your target Layer easily. The Layer you are currently on will be highlighted in blue on the palette.

Layer management allows you to isolate images, text etc and creates an efficient workspace, allowing elements to have independent space. It also allows you to show or hide elements quickly, using the eye icon in the palette. This allows you to focus on specific working targets without visual distraction.

Many functions, such as the Type tool, create new layers automatically. You can also create new layers manually, by using the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

Please note that the use of Layers increases your file size dramatically: for this reason, a fully completed document ready for printing should always be flattened before sending – go to Menu bar, Layer>Flatten Image. If you save and close the document after flattening, be advised that you cannot un-flatten it!

If you are saving a document that is incomplete, for later finishing, always save your work as a .psd (Photoshop document) – this will preserve you Layers. Saving as any other format eg. .jpg, will automatically flatten all layers.
Resizing and Cropping
To resize an image, go to Image > Image Size and adjust the measurement values in the dialog box. You should be altering the physical measurements (in/cm), not the pixel size of the document.
Note that by default, the program preserves the proportions of your image to prevent distortion on resizing. This function may be turned off in the Image Size dialog box, if desired.

You can also change the size of the page, or Canvas, you are working on. Go to Image > Canvas Size and the dialog box will allow you to alter the overall size of your page without affecting the size of the images already on it.

To crop an image, you would use the Crop tool in the toolbox (below the Lasso tool). This is an editing function, used to eliminate extraneous portions of the image. Click and drag on your image to select the area you wish to keep, then click on the Check mark in the options bar; everything outside of the selection will be eliminated. Please note that this changes the overall size of your document.

 

Nice share. You should join Talent Tutorials http://talenttutorials.com community. Check it up and let me know.

 

thanks for sharing photoshop still amazes me

 

cheers awesome tips

 

Awesome tutorial, good work.

 

Hi am new here.very helping post for begginers

 

lynda com tutorial is the best

 

hi i am here, nice information...

 

Well done, that covers the basics quite well. The symbols for the tools could of helped tho

 

thanks for this nice information...any1 can learn photoshop basics here

 

Lynda. com tutorial is the best way.

 

thanks, it look like pop art design ?

 

this is a good insight of the basics of Photoshop, Im no expert in photoshop but this will be a good reminder for me to memorize the basics tools.

 

thank you nice info. im nubie in here

 

Thanks dude, Amazing and awesome tutorial. Keep going. Are you new to this forum?

 

Nice share!

Thanks for sharing this. You rocks!

 

awesome.. nice share info man!

 

Does know about some videos being recorded as First Person VOD creating some stuff: like designing a new web logo or trying to invent some web layout?

 

Good info but I doubt it was needed, simply google tool descriptions and there will be several other detailed explanations of each tool.

 

nice tips ! anyway more practicing is the best way to get know all of the tools in this wicked software.