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Photoshop Digital Picture Editing Basics
Note: This section uses Adobe Photoshop
for Picture Editing
Find all current special offers on Adobe products.
Where better to start than the basics, where you will learn all the basic tools that we will be referring to in later sections. I recommend this section for anybody beginning their photo editing career, but if you're certain that you won't be missing out on any of this go ahead and skip it if you would like. So the tools we are going to be learning don't have anything to do with a real artistic ability involving your hands so you don't need a draw pad or anything. It mostly deals with the simple tools that you need to fix or alter your digital photos, so if you didn't already put your digital pictures on your computer then you might want to do that soon.
Now altering your photos in photoshop isn't considered cheating, photoshoping is now considered an art in itself with so many applications we see and use everyday. So if you are really serious about photography or a job or hobby involving photography then this isn't a waste of time and will earn you a ton more money in the future.
Jump to a Photoshop Basic's Subject
-Toolbar- -Tool Parameters-
-Layers Toolbar- -Resizing Images-
-Navigation- -Image Selection- -History Toolbar-
-Exporting Images- -Image Editing Careers-
If reading these tutorials won't help you visual learners you can see photoshop tutorial videos at Tutorials-4-you.com it cost a small fee but that is a great place to get the most comprehensive video tutorials for photoshop. Sadly we don't yet offer video tutorials so that is the next best thing.
This is the photoshop tool bar located on the left of your screen (hopefully), a lot of the time buttons will have two uses such as the selection tools, draw tool, clone stamp tool, eraser tool, blur tool, paint bucket tool, and so on, so click and hold down to change the tool.
Selection tool - The standard rectangle is the most common but there are other tools such as the circle and the single row selection. Constrained aspect ratio and fixed size lets you keep a specific ratio or size to your photograph and its found at the top of the program near FILE and EDIT.
The Lasso tool - besides the two basic selection tools of straight lines and free form there is the magnetic lasso tool which grabs on to the edges of an image.
Clone Stamp - You need to define the brush size which is in the top left corner, and the opacity. You use they opacity to lay a thin layer of blending which will be used a lot in superimposing.
Eraser Tool - Just like the Clone Stamp tool you can change the opacity, helping you blend layers also used a ton in superimposing.
Gradient tool - This is under the paint bucket tool, you can change the type of gradient in the top left, I usually recommend making a new layer when using this.
We will go over more parameters as we go along
A couple things you need to know about layers.
This is a simple task that you need to know because when you load a picture on to photoshop you should notice that it will probably be huge depending on your picture resolution/mega pixels. To resize an image (this means all the layers) go to IMAGE - IMAGE SIZE and adjust the sizes, also remember to look at the increment, I usually use pixels but you can use whatever makes it easiest.
To adjust a image on a single layer click on the grab tool then click 'SHOW BOUNDING BOX' near the top of the program, hold shift and grab one of the corners... Holding shift makes it so the ratio stays the same.
Besides makes the image bigger or smaller you can also change the size of your workspace by going to IMAGE - CANVAS SIZE. BY making it bigger you can add more room for more content just make sure to set an anchor point at where you want your original content to stay.
By using the navigator you can zoom in to a specific part of your picture and edit dynamic details. The triangle is used to zoom in and out so scroll that along the line to zoom in and out. One specific detail we stress is that your picture might look different zoomed in or out because of the digital processing it takes to zoom. Straight lines will come out slightly pixelated and edges will be of a lesser quality, anyway what I am trying to get to is if you want to view your picture in its final state, meaning the state it will look like when you export it, then move the triangle to 100% or just click on the box and type 100 and press return/enter. Moving the red window lets you focus on that specific part of the picture, showing it as a full screen image in your workspace (zooming in a large amount will cause heavy pixelation).
Now to define your selection a bit more try using the Magic wand tool which lets you select any one color constrained by any of the same color touching the subject. Or go to SELECT - COLOR RANGE and you will see your image in a little box just click on the color in the picture you want to select. By doing this you can change a single color in your photograph to give it a professional or artistic look.
This is a very important part so listen carefully, if you ever find yourself making a mistake, which you will quite frequently in the business of picutre editing, you need to learn how to correct your mess-ups. There is what is called a History Bar which shows all the editing you have done in the last several moves, by clicking on a previous action it will take you to that state. Beside using the History bar you need to know the simple undo command which is done by pressing CTRL + Z which returns you back to one previous state. To keeping undoing actions further press CTRL + Z to undo the first action then press CTRL + ALT + Z as many times as you need to return you to the state that you desire. And to undo all the undoing press CTRL + Z once again to bring to the original state before all the undos were made.
After you have completed your project it is time to save/export, go to FILE - SAVE AS. Now if you save it as the default a Photoshop (psd) document you can only open it in side photoshop or other photoshop programs, by saving as a PSD you can open it back up again and resume work on the project with all the layers still intact. But no you can put it on the internet and the document will be huge in file space. The most standard document to save it as is a Jpeg or jpg, this will merge all the layers and compress it at a reasonable amount space, also JPGs are perfect for shading so pictures are ideal for this. If you are using web graphics or need to have the document be transparent then you should save it as a GIF. GIFs can be transparent unlike JPGs, also GIFs are great for simple shapes and vectors. Finally Bitmaps can read vectors, but we wont be talking about these that much in later sections.
After you have selected the file type you will need to fill out a couple more things such as quality, raising the quality will make the application bigger in file space, but also make your picture crisper. If you save it as a gif it will be a lot smaller, so small images are ideal such as repeating backgrounds on webpages.
Find all current special offers on Adobe products.
Where better to start than the basics, where you will learn all the basic tools that we will be referring to in later sections. I recommend this section for anybody beginning their photo editing career, but if you're certain that you won't be missing out on any of this go ahead and skip it if you would like. So the tools we are going to be learning don't have anything to do with a real artistic ability involving your hands so you don't need a draw pad or anything. It mostly deals with the simple tools that you need to fix or alter your digital photos, so if you didn't already put your digital pictures on your computer then you might want to do that soon.
Now altering your photos in photoshop isn't considered cheating, photoshoping is now considered an art in itself with so many applications we see and use everyday. So if you are really serious about photography or a job or hobby involving photography then this isn't a waste of time and will earn you a ton more money in the future.
-Toolbar- -Tool Parameters-
-Layers Toolbar- -Resizing Images-
-Navigation- -Image Selection- -History Toolbar-
-Exporting Images- -Image Editing Careers-
If reading these tutorials won't help you visual learners you can see photoshop tutorial videos at Tutorials-4-you.com it cost a small fee but that is a great place to get the most comprehensive video tutorials for photoshop. Sadly we don't yet offer video tutorials so that is the next best thing.
Your Toolbar
First open a random picture by going to FILE - OPEN - then select a picture.This is the photoshop tool bar located on the left of your screen (hopefully), a lot of the time buttons will have two uses such as the selection tools, draw tool, clone stamp tool, eraser tool, blur tool, paint bucket tool, and so on, so click and hold down to change the tool.
Tool Parameters
Most of the tools have different aspects to consider and can help you in a ton of different ways.Selection tool - The standard rectangle is the most common but there are other tools such as the circle and the single row selection. Constrained aspect ratio and fixed size lets you keep a specific ratio or size to your photograph and its found at the top of the program near FILE and EDIT.
The Lasso tool - besides the two basic selection tools of straight lines and free form there is the magnetic lasso tool which grabs on to the edges of an image.
Clone Stamp - You need to define the brush size which is in the top left corner, and the opacity. You use they opacity to lay a thin layer of blending which will be used a lot in superimposing.
Eraser Tool - Just like the Clone Stamp tool you can change the opacity, helping you blend layers also used a ton in superimposing.
Gradient tool - This is under the paint bucket tool, you can change the type of gradient in the top left, I usually recommend making a new layer when using this.
We will go over more parameters as we go along
Your Layers Bar
Your layers bar is very important, this will help you lay picture over each other, and lets you deal with more objects at a time. To change the order of the layers grab and drag them above or below. When adding things like effects it will only apply to the layer you have selected, so make sure you have the proper layer selected. Also if a layer is locked and you cannot unlock it then drag it to the 'new layer' button to copy it then delete the original.
A couple things you need to know about layers.
- In order to combine two layers so they can be edited as one, select the layer that you want to combine with the one below it and go to LAYERS - MERGE DOWN (or) press CTRL + E
- In order to flatten the whole image into one picture go to LAYER - FLATTEN IMAGE
- In order to move any object on your project space that layer needs to be selected
- When you are going to draw over your picture or add any extra content click on a new layer so you edit that layer seperately
Resizing Images
This is a simple task that you need to know because when you load a picture on to photoshop you should notice that it will probably be huge depending on your picture resolution/mega pixels. To resize an image (this means all the layers) go to IMAGE - IMAGE SIZE and adjust the sizes, also remember to look at the increment, I usually use pixels but you can use whatever makes it easiest.To adjust a image on a single layer click on the grab tool then click 'SHOW BOUNDING BOX' near the top of the program, hold shift and grab one of the corners... Holding shift makes it so the ratio stays the same.
Besides makes the image bigger or smaller you can also change the size of your workspace by going to IMAGE - CANVAS SIZE. BY making it bigger you can add more room for more content just make sure to set an anchor point at where you want your original content to stay.
Using the Navigator
By using the navigator you can zoom in to a specific part of your picture and edit dynamic details. The triangle is used to zoom in and out so scroll that along the line to zoom in and out. One specific detail we stress is that your picture might look different zoomed in or out because of the digital processing it takes to zoom. Straight lines will come out slightly pixelated and edges will be of a lesser quality, anyway what I am trying to get to is if you want to view your picture in its final state, meaning the state it will look like when you export it, then move the triangle to 100% or just click on the box and type 100 and press return/enter. Moving the red window lets you focus on that specific part of the picture, showing it as a full screen image in your workspace (zooming in a large amount will cause heavy pixelation).
Image Selection
To select specific objects on your project there are many tools to use, if you just want to crop a certain amount of your picture you can use the crop tool which is right below the lasso tool. By dragging this tool across part of your picture then clicking the CHECK MARK at the top right it will crop the desired area. In order to keep the same size ratio then you need to use the rectangle selection tool, change the parameters found near the top of the program to fixed size or constrained ratio and change to the desired settings. Such as if you wanted to have a normal picture ratio you need a setting of 3:4 or 4:3. After you have selected the area of your picture go to EDIT - COPY or CTRL + C , then open a new project by going to FILE - NEW you dont need to change any of the parameters so just hit 'OK' and finally go to FILE - PASTE or CTRL + V ( by the way if you learn to use the shortcuts using alt and control then it will save you a ton of time).Now to define your selection a bit more try using the Magic wand tool which lets you select any one color constrained by any of the same color touching the subject. Or go to SELECT - COLOR RANGE and you will see your image in a little box just click on the color in the picture you want to select. By doing this you can change a single color in your photograph to give it a professional or artistic look.
Making Mistakes
This is a very important part so listen carefully, if you ever find yourself making a mistake, which you will quite frequently in the business of picutre editing, you need to learn how to correct your mess-ups. There is what is called a History Bar which shows all the editing you have done in the last several moves, by clicking on a previous action it will take you to that state. Beside using the History bar you need to know the simple undo command which is done by pressing CTRL + Z which returns you back to one previous state. To keeping undoing actions further press CTRL + Z to undo the first action then press CTRL + ALT + Z as many times as you need to return you to the state that you desire. And to undo all the undoing press CTRL + Z once again to bring to the original state before all the undos were made.
Saving and Exporting your Work
After you have completed your project it is time to save/export, go to FILE - SAVE AS. Now if you save it as the default a Photoshop (psd) document you can only open it in side photoshop or other photoshop programs, by saving as a PSD you can open it back up again and resume work on the project with all the layers still intact. But no you can put it on the internet and the document will be huge in file space. The most standard document to save it as is a Jpeg or jpg, this will merge all the layers and compress it at a reasonable amount space, also JPGs are perfect for shading so pictures are ideal for this. If you are using web graphics or need to have the document be transparent then you should save it as a GIF. GIFs can be transparent unlike JPGs, also GIFs are great for simple shapes and vectors. Finally Bitmaps can read vectors, but we wont be talking about these that much in later sections.
After you have selected the file type you will need to fill out a couple more things such as quality, raising the quality will make the application bigger in file space, but also make your picture crisper. If you save it as a gif it will be a lot smaller, so small images are ideal such as repeating backgrounds on webpages.