Photoshop-Tutorial EASY PDF
Photoshop-Tutorial EASY PDF
The screen in Photoshop can look quite scary at first, there is so much going on!
Below is a picture of the screen with the different areas. You can add/remove palette
groupings to tailor it for your needs. I recommend having the undo and layers palettes
open (as shown).
Settings for
the tool
being used
Toolbox
Palettes
Workspace
(where the picture goes)
USING THE TOOLBOX
The toolbox contains many tools used for creating and editing images. Many of the
tools are grouped together according to their function. For this reason, some of the
tools are hidden in the group.
Example, if you click and hold the mouse on the Marquee tools box, you will see the
following tools under that grouping or you can right click on it.
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Tools
Marquee tool (M): This tool is used to select/cut different parts of an image.
Move tool (V): Used to move images or selected pieces of an image.
Lasso tool (L): Used to select specific parts of an image.
Magic wand tool (W): Used to select specific parts of an image.
Brush tool (B): Used for painting in Photoshop. Also, can be used to add color to the old
pictures/images.
History Brush Tool (Y): Basically works like undo in Word.
Eraser tool (E): Used to erase part of an images.
Paint Bucket Tool (G): Used to fill image/selection with any color.
Blur Tool (R): Used to blur an image or a small part of an image.
Dodge Tool (O): Dodge tool used to modify pictures/images.
Direct Selection Tool (A): Used to direct select a specific part of a shape.
Type Tool (T): Used to add text to your image.
Add Anchor Point Tool: Used when editing a shape.
Rounded Rectangle Tool (U): Used to draw shapes.
Eyedropper Tool (I): Used to select any color from an image just by clicking on it.
Zoom Tool (Z): Used to zoom in and out.
Edit in Standard Mode (Q): Goes to standard mode.
Edit in Quick Mask Mode (Q): Goes to quick mask mode.
Standard Screen Mode (F): Goes to standard screen mode.
Full Screen Mode (F): Goes to full screen mode.
Jump to ImageReady (Ctrl-Shift-M): Used to transform work created in Photoshop to
ImageReady.
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Introduction: The basics Selection Tools 1
The two sets of basic selection tools are found of your toolbar
They are the ones circled below
Right clicking on each of the two selection tool button will reveal even more types of
selection tools that fall within that category
The first tool in the basic shape selection tools is the circle selection tool. Right click
on the first selection tool button and select the circle tools
You can now click inside your circle selection to fill it with a desired colour.
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Here are some more examples of ways to fill your selection:
You can use these 3 tools "circle, square and line" to make many kinds of selections.
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Now lets begin to learn about some of the features of the selection tools. Right click
again on your basic selection tools button the reveal the 4 types of selection tools.
Select the Square selection tool
Now, you already know how to make your selection, but you are probably wondering
how you can make your "Square Selection" an actual square, instead of a rectangle. To
make your selection a perfect square, just hold the shift button while you drag (this
works the same to make the ellipse a circle).
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Introduction: The basics Selection Tools 2
This is the second tutorial on the selection tools. In the first tutorial you learned the
basics of making your selections with your "basic" selection tools. You will now go
over the many options that you can use when using these basic selection tools.
Select any of the 4 basic selection tool type: square, circle or Single Column
When you select one of these tools you will notice that a set of options appear at the
top of your screen, they look like this:
What this style does is set your width and height to any ratio that you want. When you
input a value, any square that you make will have the exact ration that you enter. For
example if you input a ration of 1/1 your rectangle would obviously be a perfect
square.
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Select the last style from the drop down menu called "fixed size"
What the fixed size option does is allow you to input the exact size that you want your
rectangle to be. Input whatever value you want and simply click on your image, not
need to drag with this option.
And of course the Normal style allows you to make any kind of rectangular selection
that you want.
Feather is a way to "blur" the edges of your selection. This option is usually used to
blend images.
Then you will in your selection you will see that the last 5 pixels of the perimeter of
the rectangle have been blurred. The higher the feather value, the more of the square is
blur.
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Photoshop 1: Basic Photoshop Techniques - Shapes
This tutorial will show you how to create shapes in Photoshop.
Shapes are easy to create in Photoshop. The process is not obvious, though.
Choose RGB colour to A good resolution is How high the picture will be
create a colour picture about 80 PPI (pixels per (you can change the units to
inch) for most work cm or mm)
3. Choose Edit,Stroke. This will bring up the Stroke dialog box. Choose the colour
and thickness of the line. After choosing Selections, None you'll be left with your
shape.
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Of course, you could choose to fill the circle with a colour or draw different shapes.
The fill tool. You can choose the colour by double clicking on it
Further work:
Above is the shape with two selections. First select the circle shape then added a
rectangle selection.
TIP: You can add to or subtract from selections by holding down the SHIFT or ALT
keys, respectively.
Then fill the whole selection with black. You can apply a Gaussian Blur (Filters, Blur,
Gaussian) then use Image, Adjust, Levels to smooth out the circle and round the
corners.
Once you have the shape you want you can add an effect (like the chrome effect) and
lettering to create a logo.
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Photoshop 2: Drop Shadows
Here's another fairly easy yet not-so-obvious process... Drop shadows.
1. Go to file and new. Choose the settings you want (15cm x 15cm) and click on OK.
2. Choose the colour you wish your text to be (lightercolours work better), the click on
the text tool .
3. Choose the settings you want in the top toolbar (font, size etc)
4. Click on the workspace where you want your text to start and type in the text you
want.
5. In the layers palette drag the text layer to add layer icon.
It's the one circled in red (note: it might be at the top of the
layers palette).
Choose Filters, Blur, Gaussian Blur and enter a value that gives you the blur you want.
If unsure, try the number 3.0
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7. In the layers palette drag the shadow layer below the text layer. Make sure the
shadow layer is active and, on the image, hold down the CTRL key and use the mouse
to position the shadow where you want it.
The final image (with an added layer style: Layers / layer style then add a bevel of
6).
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Photoshop 3: Colouring Line Art
This tutorial will show you how to put colour on a line art.
1. Go to file and then open. Search in the student dropbox in X:\DT\Mr Miller and
find the file Dragon_blank.psd
2. Double click on "background" layer and name it "lineart", then click OK.
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3. Use the magic wand tool and click on the body area.
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5. Change foreground colour to the colour you want the body (double click)
and use the fill tool to shade the
area in.
This will add the layer you selected and the layer below it. If you keep doing that until
you are happy with the layer palette. NOTE: do not merge the line art layer.
If you have some problems because some areas are not filled with colour you can
always pick the Brush Tool , and brush on it to fill.
REMEMBER : just fill colour on a new layer, DO NOT fill colour on "Line art"
layer!!!
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Photoshop 4: Shading and Shadowing
This tutorial is really useful to practise shading and shadowing on your picture.
1. Open the image you used for the last tutorial (or you can open X:\DT\Mr
Miller\Coloured_Dragon.psd)
2. Choose a light source, anywhere you like, I will describe the detail you must
remember below :
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3. You are going to use the Dodge Tool (make picture lighter) and Burn Tool
(make picture darker). Follow the rule on the previous picture and start shading!
(a) First, pick Burn Tool , choose big size brush, about 60px
Continue shading on areas where aren't light (for better accuracy zoom in and use a
smaller brush)
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(b) Then pick Dodge Tool , option :
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Photoshop 5: Layers
This tutorial takes several pictures and shows you what you can do with them on
different layers. These include;
Moving a layer (independent of anything else)
Changing the colour of a layer
Changing the size of a layer
Changing the opacity of a layer
2. Use the magic wand tool to select the background, then use the eraser (try a large
brush size) to delete it.
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6. In the layers pallet rename each layer to something sensible.
8. You can turn layer visibility on and off and completely change the appearance of an
image without permanently affecting the picture. The eye icon to the left of each layer
controls its visibility. A layer is made visible or hidden by clicking its eye icon (below
left). The result is the same Photoshop document shown previously with the exception
that one of its layers has been hidden revealing the picture or background underneath.
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11. Click the Rev Counter layer to activate it. Now change the Opacity (in the layer
pallet) to about 50%
12. Click the Gear stick layer to activate it. Now change the Opacity (in the layer
pallet) to about 18%.
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Photoshop 6: Picture Editing and Combining
1. Open the file stickman.jpg in X:\Subjects and
Departments\Design Technology\Photoshop
2. Use the magic wand tool to select his boots (hint: hold
down shift to add selections).
3. Choose a colour in the pallete and use the fill tool to fill in
the colour of his boots.
4. Colour in both boots, his axe and face using the same method.
5. To change the colour of his bag is more difficult as it is a variation of green colours.
You need to adjust the tolerance (click the magic wand tool, then look at the toolbar
near the top of the screen. Adjust the tolerance to around 75 or see what works best
for you. Once selected, use the fill tool like before.
6. Use the magic wand tool and click on the white background, then
use the magic eraser tool on the background and you should end
up with a grey and white checkered background - this means
nothing isin the background.
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9. Use the move tool and drag the selected rock across to the mountain picture.
You can resize it by dragging the corners. To rotate it go to Image\Transform\Free
Tranform. Once you have it where you want it PRESS ENTER.
10. Drag across the stickman using the move tool onto the mountain picture and resize
him as desired. You should end up with something a little like below but you can
chose the sizes and positions.
Extension task:
Open up another copy of stickman.jpg Try dressing him differently as a child, or
give him long hair. Use the same methods as before and drag that person across to
join the other man in the picture. You could make a whole family go for an outing.
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Photoshop 7: Other Effects
Metallic Shapes
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Step 5: Now progress onto the contour subsection and alter
the curve into the one on the left (again, its a custom one not
included with Photoshop). You can try playing around with
this setting if you like, but the effects are unpredictable and
best left alone.
Step 7: We can now bring all our work together by going into
the Colour Overlay dialog and entering the settings. Press OK
to exit the layer effects dialog and admire your work!
Step 8: Et Voila! A metallic pill button awaits your further
attention and usage. You can, of course, go for more complex
metals using the Texture Overlay feature, but I'll leave the
experimentation up to you...
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Helpful Hints:
Saving a file
If you need to workon a file later, save it as a Photoshop file - .psd
If youve finished it, you can save it as a .jpg file (note jpg files are compressed and do
not save things like layers)
Scanning in a file
When you scan in a file you must state several things;
- Size (e.g. A3)
- Quality (Dots per inch or DPI). The higher the DPI the better quality it is, but also
the larger the file is you must balance the two.
- Colour do you need black and white, grey scale or colour? (colour takes up more
room)
Once youve decided everything, you must choose where to save it, and then scan it in.
Note: In school you must press the # key to transfer it to the network (Scans Room 16
folder).
Layers
Use a new layer whenever you do something different. It makes it easy to view (as
you can hide layers) easier to change and easier to delete objects. You can also always
merge them together later on.
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Keyboard Shortcuts
Tools
Program Commands
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