Brush Palette: The Brushes palette lets you select preset brushes and design custom brushes.

Photoshop has a powerful brush engine with many options to customize any brush tip.

The Brush Presets is the default view on the palette. It contains a list of available brush tips currently loaded, and an option to change the Diameter of the brush tip.

There are many options in the Palette Menu for ways to view the palette, loading and saving brushes and settings, and a list of more brush sets to choose at the bottom. To get back to the Default brush set, choose Reset Brushes.

Fig 5

The Brush Menu accessed from the Options Bar contains a list of brushes and two options: the brush Diameter, and the Hardness.

Creating a new brush 1. Open the brush palette 2. In the brush palette , choose an existing brush preset to modify or select a brush shape from the brush tip shape panel of the brushes palette. 3. Select brush tip shape, set the diameter, angles, adding noise , click the create new brush button 4. A brush name dialog box appears on the screen. Type some name and click ok. 5. The brush created is saved and added to the brush preset picker. 6. Select the brush created and drag it over the image to draw strokes.

Layers Palette:
Photoshop - Creating Layers Layers: It is defined as sheet of pixels that can be edited independently without affecting the other parts of the image. Layers are useful in adding a higher degree of flexibility to Photoshop documents. Using the layers palette we can create , delete, show and hide layers and also create layer sets, link layers and merge layers

There are a number of ways to create a layer. The simplest involves clicking on the "Create New Layer" icon at the bottom right of the layers palette.

Create Layer Icon:

You can also use the "Layer" menu located at the top of the screen and select New>Layer. Here you will also see the keyboard shortcut command.

Layers: Layers contains the name of all layers in the image(both visible and hidden) The eye icon present on the leftmost column indicate the visibility of a layer The blending mode determines how its pixels blend with the underlying pixels in the image.

When we click the right arrow button beside the opacity option, slider bar appears where we change the opacity value. Layers Menu:

Additionally the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl+Shift+N . With the creation of a layer in this way Photoshop will ask for a name for the layer. Name your layer or just ignore the popup clicking "OK" and a new layer appears in the layer palette. To create a new layer and bypass the New Layer dialog box, press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+N (Win).Create A New Layer Below The Currently Selected Layer . By default, Photoshop adds a new layer above the layer currently selected in the Layers palette. To tell Photoshop to add the new layer below the currently selected layer, hold down the Ctrl and click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Note that this does not work with the Background layer, since Photoshop doesnt allow any layers to be below the Background layer.

Photoshop - Hiding Layers

Another advantage to layering your work is that at any time a layer can be temporarily hidden from view by clicking on the "eye" icon next to the desired layer in the layers palette.

Hide Layers:

When we hide a layer , the contents of a particular layer are removed from the screen.

Deleting a Layer
Sometimes the data stored in the layer is not required by that time we can delete the layer using the following steps: Select the layer and click on delete layer icon option

Drag the unwanted layer to the delete option Select the layer and choose delete option from the layer menu.

Layer Set
A layer set is simply a 'folder' where you can place your layers for more organization. You can create a layer set from the menu by going to Layer: New: Layer Set or by clicking on the folder icon on the bottom of the layers palette. By creating a layer set, you can keep similar layers together.

Isn't the hand so cute when it turns into a fist to drag layers?

You can create unlimited layer sets to organize your layers. Photoshop CS now allows you to create layer sets within layer sets. This is great for advanced designers who are working with dozens of layers. As a designer you'll want to keep your palette's clean and uncluttered. Layers within a layer set will act as "linked" layers and will move all at once when you are moving the layer set itself (when selected in the layers palette). You can still work on individual layers when you double-click on the folder icon to open the layer set (and then select the specific layer itself). Here is a transformation done on the entire layer set. Layer sets are a great organizational tool and become essential when creating complex designs as they provide you much less clutter. You can break your layers palette down from 30 layers to, say, 6 different layer sets which you can open to work on individual layers.

Lock layers
You can lock layers fully or partially to protect their contents.

Lock all properties of a layer or group

1. Select a layer or group. 2. Click the Lock All option in the Layers panel. Note: Layers in a locked group display a dimmed lock icon .

Partially lock a layer

1. Select a layer. 2. Click one or more lock options in the Layers panel.

Lock Transparent Pixels Lock Image Pixels

Lock Position Lock All

Prevents you from painting or editing any transparent areas on your layer. Prevents you from painting or editing your layer. You can still select, move, or transform items on the layer. Prevents you from moving and transforming the layer Prevents you from painting, editing, moving, or transforming your layer. (But you can still make selections.)

Linking Layers
Layers can also be linked together. This is handy when moving layers and things around with the "Move Tool." Linking one layer to another holds they are relative to each other. If one moves, then the other moves. Link layers together by clicking in the vacant box that lies adjacent to the eye.

Linking Layers:

Linking layers

By linking two or more layers or layer sets, you can move their contents together. You can also copy, paste, align, merge, apply transformations to, and create clipping groups from linked layers.

To link layers:
1. Select a layer or layer set in the Layers palette. 2. Click in the column immediately to the left of any layers you want to link to the selected layer. A link icon appears in the column.

To unlink layers:
In the Layers palette, click the link icons to remove them.

Photoshop - Selecting Layers

Entire layers can be selected with a keyboard shortcut. Simply Ctrl+Click on the display box of the layer that you wish to select. This will select everything on the layer.

Selecting Layers:

The creation above started out as two separate layers, one with red text and another with black text. The black text layer was a few font sizes larger than the red. The whole document is 300 pixels wide and 200 pixels tall.

Highlight Black Layer:

Create a Motion Blur:

1. With the 'black text' layer selected, Access the Filter menu at the top of

Photoshop.

2. Set an angle of motion.

3. Set a distance (in pixels).

Angle: 20 degrees Distance: 100 pixels

A Motion Blur:

Blurring in general softens edges allowing you to create transition in your presentations. A motion blur takes this step one step further by also choosing an angle and an amount (distance) to blur.

Working With Layers

Layers are a basic founding concept you need to understand when working with Photoshop. Each time you add something to your image (for example text or shapes), Photoshop will create it as a layer. It might help for you to think about layers as several sheets of transparencies, each with a different picture. Each layer is one smaller part within the bigger picture. Take the following as an example:

This is layer 1, a This is layer 2, a transparency with a black transparency with a green border and a red circle in the circle in the middle. upper-left corner.

This is layer 3, our final transparency with a blue circle in the bottom-right corner.

If we place layer 2 (green circle) over layer 1 (red circle), and then place layer 3 (blue circle) over layer 2, we'll get an overlapping of colors within a single image. That's how layers work!

Working with layers

Create a new layer Show/Hide a layer Delete a layer Sort Layers Reposition Layers Merge two or more layers Flatten all the layers in an image into one

New Layer via Cut: 1. Open an image 2. Make a selection 3. Click on layer menu on the menu bar. 4. Choose New-layer via cut

5. A new layer with the name layer1 is created with the selected pixels and these pixels will be removed from the background layer.

New Layer Via copy: 1. Open an image 2. Make a selection 3. Click on layer menu on the menu bar. 4. Choose New-layer via cut 5. A new layer with the name layer1 is created with the copy of selected pixels and these pixels will be removed from the background layer.

Sorting Layers in the Layers Palette

We can change the order of the layers in the stack to rearrange them. 1. Drag layer1 below layer2 . The mouse pointer changes to the shape of a hand. 2. Release the mouse button. Keyboard shortcuts:

Ctrl+shift+[

move the active layer to the bottom of the stack just above The background layer.

Ctrl+shift+]

move the active layer to the top of the stack

Ctrl + [

- Shift the layer down one level

Ctrl+ ]

Shift the layer up one level.

Repositioning layers: To change the position of a layer. We can move the contents of the layer from one position to another. Assume: There are three layers with background copy, Layer 1 and Layer 2. Layer 1 contains an image of a lady with her daughter and Layer 2 contains an image of birds. 1. Click on layer 2 in the layers palette. 2. Click on the move tool in the toolbox. 3. Place the cursor on the layer in the image (not in the palette) 4. Keep the left mouse button pressed, drag the layer to the new location. The layer will be moved to the new location. Merging Layers: Photoshop allows us to merge two or more layers into one. This not only allows the simultaneous editing of the merged layers but also helps in reducing the size of the file since the file size increases with the number of layers in a file. The steps involved are: 1. Hide the layers do not want to merge by clicking on their eye icons in the layers palette. 2. Click on the top right arrow button on the top right side of the layers palette. A short cut menu appears. 3. Click on the merge visible option from the contents of this pop-up menu.

4.

All the visible layers in the image will be merged into a single layer. Merge Down:

Now I want to merge layer 4 and layer 3 , for that choose layer 4, click the right arrow button at the top of the layers palette. A shortcut menu appears and click on the merge down option as shown in below figure:

And the resultant output is

The layer 4 has merged down with layer 3. Now any action we perform on the contents of layer 3 affect the contents of layer 4 also.

Flattening Images:

Merge all the layers in an image onto one layer. This is known as flattening. When the layers in an image are flattened , all of them will be treated as one layer. Flattening an image reduces the file size since the result in a single background layer. Layer menu------- Flatten image ( this means image is not divided into layers anymore. Any action we perform on an image will affect the entire image altogether. Moving layers between images

1. Open the source document and a destination document. 2. Activate the source document by clicking on it. The layers palette appears showing the layers of the source image. 3. Place the cursor in the appropriate layer in the layer palette and drag the layer from the layers palette of the source document into the destination window document.

4. Position the layer on the image to which you want to move it and release the mouse button. 5. The copied layer is placed above the previously active layer.

Linking layers: Making a chain of layer is known as linking layers. We can link layer when we want to move more than one layer without affecting the distance between them. For ex: to move the foreground object along with the shadow object (object and shadow are in different layers). The steps are as follows: 1. Select the two layers to be linked in the layers palette by pressing shift key in the keyboard. 2. Click on the layer menu on the menu bar. Click on the link layers option. If layer is linked the chain icon appears in the box of all the layers indicating that the layers are linked.

Working with adjustment layers:

Adjustment layers constitute a major flexibility feature of photoshop to control the appearance of an image. They make objects appear larger or smaller or in a different style without changing their appearance.

Using Style Palette:

There are two main ways to apply layer styles, both of which are quick and easy. Method 1 Using A Preset Create a new Photoshop document and in addition to the default background layer, create a new line of text. In the main menu, click Window > Styles to open the Styles Palette. With your text layer selected, simply click on one of the preset thumbnails within the Layers Palette and it you will see it automatically applied to your layer. The first time you click through and load each preset, you should experience an overwhelming feeling of happiness as you begin to understand all of the potential that layer styles hold.

Method 2 Starting From Scratch Create a new Photoshop document and in addition to the default background layer, create a new line of text. In the Layers Palette, right click the name of the layer you want to add effects to and click "Blending Options" to bring up the Layer Style dialog box (you can also double click the name of the layer in the Layers Palette). We will go over each section of the Layer Styles dialog box in the latter parts of this guide, right now, we are just getting acquainted with how they are applied.

You will notice that once you add a layer style to your layer, a list of effects that are being used shows up in the layers palette. You can show/hide each of the effects by clicking the eyeball icon next to the name of each effect. This allows you to quickly hide a specific effect, while keeping the settings intact in case you want to turn it back on.

Animation: Adobe ImageReady is a bitmap graphics editor that was shipped with Adobe Photoshop by Adobe Systems for almost ten years. ImageReady is written in the C++ programming language

Creating an animated banner with ImageReady 7

. Create a new document. Preset doc sizes. Choose Web Banner and click ok.

Add some text.Now, to animate it. Using the move tool, drag the text all the way to the right and off of the page. Hold down the shift key to constrain the baseline. In the animation palette, Click duplicate frame. With frame 2 selected, drag the text into its ending position, the center of the document. We now need to generate the in between frames showing different stages of the animation.

Open the drop down in the animation palette by clicking on the little arrow at the top right and choose tween.

Choose Previous and add 5 frames.

See how Image Ready has created all the frames for us. Press the play button to preview the animation.

Press the preview in browser button.

Now view your animation in the web browser with all the vital statistics of your animation.