Introduction To Digital Imaging
Introduction To Digital Imaging
• crop an image;
• sharpen an image;
• scale an image;
Document Information
Related documentation
None.
Prerequisites
This document assumes that you are familiar with the use of a computer keyboard and mouse,
Microsoft Windows-based products and the use of a Web browser such as Netscape or Internet
Explorer.
Introduction to digital imaging using Photoshop (photoshop-t1)
Introduction to Photoshop
Photoshop is the ultimate Swiss army knife for all your imaging needs, from basic to highly
sophisticated image editing. For example you can simply enhance a photograph (remove red eye
effect and scratches, crop, etc.), or create a complex photo collage or a sophisticated Web
interface. Menu bar
Palette well
Palettes
• Active image area (also called Document window) – displays the active open file. Several
images can be open at the same time, but only one can be active at a time. • Palettes – help you
monitor and modify images. They can be nested by dragging the title tab of one into the body of
another. Use the Window menu to show/hide palettes
Other useful elements are:
• Palette well – helps you organize the palettes in your work area.
• Status bar – located at the bottom of every document window, it displays useful information
about the image and brief instructions for using the active tool.
• Context menu – display commands relevant to the active tool, selection, or palette. You
access them by right-clicking on an image or palette item.
The Toolbox, Palettes and Active image area can easily be moved around the workspace by
clicking the top bar and dragging them.
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Introduction to digital imaging using Photoshop (photoshop-t1)
Move Tool
The Photoshop CS2 Toolbox contains all the tools you need for manipulating and creating
images, for example, making selections, cropping, drawing, painting, erasing, moving,
magnifying, etc.
Some of the buttons represent families of tools rather than single tools. For example, the
Rectangular Marquee Tool is the default for selecting geometrical shapes, but if you right
click on it, a palette pops out with more choices such as an Elliptical Marquee Tool.
Further options are available when you hold down the <Shift>, <Ctrl> or <Alt> keys as you
use a tool. For example, hold down <Shift> to select a circular shape with the Elliptical
Marquee Tool.
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Palettes
Palettes are one of the main means of accessing many of the features of Photoshop. You can
show and hide them using the Window menu. Alternatively, you can press the <Tab> key while
holding down <Shift> to hide/show them all.
Palettes can be moved around or nested (stacked behind one another) by dragging the title tab of one
palette onto the body of another.
To bring a palette to the front, just click its title tab.
You can also expand/collapse them by double-clicking on the title tabs.
If you don’t like having palettes floating
around, you may prefer accessing them from
the Palette well. To add a palette to the
Palette well, simply drag it into it as
illustrated on the right.
Two of the most useful palettes are the Layers palette and the History palette:
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Blending modes
Hide/Show layer
Layer thumbnail
Link layers Add a layer style Layer name
The idea is that you stack layers (in the same way that you would stack sheets of acetate
transparencies) containing the various elements that will form your final image. There are different
types of layers:
• Image layers are transparent and may contain images or part of images. They can also be used
for drawing, filling with colour, etc. They contain pixel information only.
• Adjustment and fill layers allow you to make colour and tonal adjustments to your image
without permanently changing its pixel values.
• Type layers allow you to insert text in your image. A new Type layer is automatically added
above the active layer when using the Type Tool.
• Shape layers are filled with solid colours and the outline is defined with a vector mask and/or a
layer mask. A new Shape layer is automatically added above the active layer when using one of
the shape tools (Rectangle/Rounded Rectangle/Line/etc Tool).
In addition, you can manipulate each layer individually by applying various styles and effects
(blending, drop shadow, etc.), filters and masks.
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Just click on a state in the History palette to go back to that state (alternatively drag the History
state slider up or down to point to the state you wish to move to). The states below the one you
click on are dimmed and will be discarded if you continue to work from the selected state.
You can also delete states by dragging them into the wastebasket icon in the bottom right corner of the
palette (alternatively right-click on the name of the state you want to delete, then choose Delete from
the pop-up menu). Notice that this action will also delete all the subsequent states.
By default, the History palette will remember 20 states. You can change this by going to
Edit/Preferences/General.
Getting help
Photoshop has a comprehensive help tool (see illustration below). To open it, go to
Help/Photoshop Help.
A-Z Index
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Introduction to digital imaging using Photoshop (photoshop-t1)
Colour management
Colour settings
One problem with imaging software is the issue of screen, scanner and printer inconsistency. For
example, monitor brightness, contrast and resolution all affect the way an image is displayed.
Photoshop includes features to help ensure that screen colours will, as far as possible, resemble the
final image.
As a rule of thumb, the image mode should be set to RGB Color when working for screen display and
CMYK Color for printing. To check this, from the main menu, select Image/Mode.
The reason for this is the differing nature of colour creation between media.
Printers use Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black to simulate the full spectrum. This is known as the
subtractive method; remove all of these colours and you will end up with white (hence the standard
paper colour). Adding 100 percent cyan, magenta and yellow would, in theory, result in black.
However, in practice, results are never perfect, so printers include black ink; this is also a more
economical way to work.
Computer screens, along with other digital media such as scanners and digital cameras, replicate
colour using the additive method. Red, Green and Blue are combined to create a range of millions of
colours: Adding 100 percent of each colour results in white light, whereas 0 percent will render black,
in other words, no light.
If converting from a screen image to a printed version, all changes should be made in RGB mode
before a final conversion to CMYK, using the menu shown above. This will remove any colours that can
only be displayed on screen, replacing them with their nearest printable equivalents. If you need to work
on an image that has been saved in Indexed Color mode, you will need to convert it to RGB Color in
order for it to be fully editable. Indexed Color uses a smaller palette to cut down on file size.
The advantage of working in RGB Color is that you have access to all the bells and whistles of
Photoshop which would otherwise be hidden or greyed out in CMYK Color.
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sRGB IEC-61966-2.1
sRGB is the standard colour space for PC computer monitors and is the colour space assumed by
many applications (including Web browsers and Photoshop). However, it has a limited gamut,
sufficient for on-screen use (e.g. Web design, PowerPoint presentations), but unsuitable for quality
printing, since it clips colours in the CMYK gamut.
• To change the RGB colour space from sRGB to Adobe RGB, go to Edit/Color Settings. In the Color
Settings dialogue box, in the RGB drop-down menu (under Working Spaces) select Adobe RGB
(1998) as shown below:
• To convert from RGB mode to CMYK, go to Image/Mode and select CMYK Color from the list.
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Monitor calibration
The Adobe Gamma utility comes bundled with Photoshop and can be used to calibrate a monitor’s
settings: RGB colour balance, brightness, contrast and white point (the point at which colour will be
displayed as white).
To launch the Adobe Gamma wizard, go to Settings/Control Panel and double-click on the icon
labelled Adobe Gamma.
The wizard will appear as follows:
Make sure the Step By Step (Wizard) radio button is checked and click the Next button to
proceed.
Leave the default monitor profile selected unless you know of a better match for your screen, in
which case click the load button and choose from the list displayed.
Click the Next button and follow the on-screen instructions to set the brightness and contrast of the
monitor.
Again, click Next to display the Phosphors pop-up. This should be left unchanged, unless you
know for certain that your monitor’s phosphors differ from the default option.
Proceed by clicking the Next button. Uncheck the View Single Gamma Only box and set the
gamma (mid-tone) brightness of your screen for each primary colour by following the on-screen
instructions.
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Assuming you are using a PC, from the dropdown menu, select Windows Default. There is also a
Macintosh option. The Custom setting is only available to Macintosh users.
Having clicked Next to continue, leave the Hardware White Point as displayed unless you know it is
incorrect. Continue to the next screen, leave Adjusted White Point as set and proceed to the final
screen. You have an option to view the screen with before and after settings, before clicking the Finish
button to name and store your monitor’s new profile.
See Ian Lyons’ article, Photoshop CS - Colour Management (www.computer
darkroom.com/ps8_colour/ps8_1.htm) for a more detailed introduction to colour management.
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🕘 Click No to the question ‘Do you want to customize your color management
settings now?’.
Note This image was scanned at a resolution of 150 dpi (dots per inch) at 100% of its
original size.
🕘 Go to Image / Duplicate.
🕘 Accept the suggested file name (egypt150 copy) and click on OK.
🕘 Close the original image by clicking the Close icon in the top
right corner of the Image Window.
Note It is good practice to work on a copy rather than on the original version of a
photograph, so that you have a backup in case something goes wrong!
🕘 Go to the View menu and select the following options (selected options have a tick
mark next to them):
• Rulers (it may already be selected) – to display rulers along the top and left
edge of the Document Window.
• Show / Grid – to display a grid on the image (grids are useful for aligning
elements).
To alter the grid spacing go to Edit / Preferences / Guides, Grids & Slices.
• Show / Guides – guides can then be positioned anywhere in the image area and
used for the precise positioning and alignment of image elements
Note You can switch grids and guides on and off by (de)selecting Extras in the View
menu, or using the keyboard shortcut <Ctrl> + H.
1.4 The ‘Snap to’ feature is particularly useful for precise aligning or positioning of image
elements (eg text, cropping marquee, etc):
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🕘 Right-click anywhere on the left or top ruler to open the context menu and select a
different unit than the one selected – settle for Pixels in the end (Figure 1).
Right-click
Figure 1 - changing the ruler unit
🕘 Click and hold anywhere in the top ruler, and drag down the mouse cursor until you see
a horizontal blue line.
🕘 Similarly, add a vertical guide starting in the left ruler and dragging to the right.
🕘 To reposition a guide select the Move Tool in the Toolbox, then grab a guide and
move it up or down, or left or right.
Note To enable or disable guides quickly use the keyboard shortcut <Ctrl> + ;.
1.7 The Status bar at the bottom of the Document window provides useful
information:
🕘 Click anywhere in the status information box containing size / dimension etc
information, and keep the mouse button down.
🕘 This will bring up a scaled preview showing the size and position the image will be
printed at with the current page setup (Figure 2).
Note To check or change the page setup, go to File / Page Setup. The default page
setup should be A4 portrait.
🕘 Try the same thing but this time pressing the <Alt> key as you left-click in the status
information box. This will display the image dimensions, the colour mode and resolution
(Figure 3).
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🕘 Finally, click on the arrow next to the status information box (Figure 4), select Show and
try the different options:
• Document Sizes: the first figure shows the file size of a flattened version of the
image. The second, the size if saved with all the layers.
• Document Profile: the current profile (colour mode and pixel bit depth)
assigned to the image.
• Document Dimensions: the image dimensions expressed in the unit set for the
rulers.
• Scratch Sizes: the first figure displays the amount of RAM memory used. The
second shows the total RAM available to Photoshop.
• Timing: shows the time it took to complete the last operation. Reset every time you
change tools or execute a new operation.
• 32-bit exposure: Option for adjusting the preview image for viewing 32-bits-per
channel high dynamic range (HDR) images – not relevant to most users.
🕘 In the Toolbox select the Zoom Tool. As you hover the mouse
pointer over the image notice how it changes into a magnifying
glass icon with a + sign inside.
🕘 To zoom in:
• either click on the image repeatedly until you reach the desired level of
magnification (up to 1600%),
• or drag the magnifying glass to delimit the area you wish to magnify.
🕘 To zoom out, hold down the <Alt> key – notice how the plus sign in the magnification
glass icon changes to minus – and click on the image until you reach the desired level
of magnification (down to 0.4%).
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🕘 Click in the top left corner of the area you want to select and drag towards the bottom
right to mark out the area that you want to keep (crop marquee). Notice how the area
outside the crop selection dims.
• To scale the crop marquee grab and drag one of the handles – to constrain the
proportions, hold down <Shift> as you drag a corner handle.
• To reposition the crop marquee, place the cursor inside the marquee – it will
change to a black arrow – and drag.
Crop Tool handles
Figure 5 - the crop marquee in the image window
Note You can also rotate the crop marquee. Place the cursor just outside one of the corners
until it changes into a curved arrow, then click and drag. To move the centre point
around which the crop marquee is rotated, click and drag the centre point around which
the marquee rotates.
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🕘 When you are satisfied with the position and size of the crop
marquee, click the Commit button, press <Enter>, double-
click in the crop marquee, or right-click and choose Crop from the context
menu.
Note Until the cropping operation has been either committed or
cancelled, no other tool or menu can be used. To cancel the
cropping operation, press <Esc> or click the Cancel button in the Options bar.
🕘 Undo your previous crop – either use Edit / Undo Crop, or the History palette.
🕘 Define another crop marquee, this time making sure you include the vertical lines on
either side of the characters, as well as the horizontal line below their feet, as shown in
Figure 7.
2.4 Correct the keystone distortion:
🕘 In the Options bar that appears at the top of the screen when you choose the Crop
Tool, tick the Perspective box (Figure 6).
Perspective tick box
Figure 6 - the crop tool option bar
🕘 Repeat, using the other corner handles to level the bottom and top horizontal
marquee borders with the horizontal lines in the image, and the right marquee
border with the right side vertical line in the image.
🕘 Once you are satisfied with your selection, commit the crop.
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Your image should now have perfect vertical and horizontal lines, as illustrated in
Figure 8:
Figure 8 - cropped image after perspective correction
Note This operation can be fiddly, particularly with images that do not have clear vertical and
horizontal lines. Trial and error and a little patience should overcome any difficulty!
🕘 Click on Save.
🕘 In the TIFF Options pop-up window, leave the options as they are and click on OK.
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Interpreting an image
3.2 Before making any adjustment, it is important to be able to analyse the image you are
working on.
We can use our eyes to make subjective judgements about how the picture looks, but
for more useful and objective information we can also use the image histogram.
Channel menu
Expanded View Statistical information
Refresh button
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🕘 The histogram shows the shades of tones (pixels) that make up an image as well as
their distribution for all 3 channels at once (RGB) or individual channels.
🕘 What does the information provided by the Histogram palette tell you about the
current image?
🕘 At the bottom of the Layers palette, click on the Create new fill or
adjustment layer icon and select Levels to open the Levels dialogue box
(Figure 11):
Figure 11 - the levels dialogue box
Input Levels
• The Input Levels’ sliders and entry boxes allow you to increase the contrast by
adjusting the input shadows and highlights.
• The Gamma and entry box allow you to adjust the relative image brightness
between the shadows and highlights (drag the slider left to lighten and right to
darken the image).
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Output Levels
The Output Levels’ sliders allow you to reduce the tonal range (contrast) in an
image. It is best not to touch these because they inevitably result in loss of data in the
shadows and highlights – unless you deliberately want to reduce the output contrast.
The histogram in Figure 11 shows that the image has limited contrast, in other words
we have no dark blacks or bright whites. So the first adjustment we are going to make
is to reset the darkest shadow and lightest highlight points for each of the RGB colour
channels:
🕘 Make sure the Preview box in the bottom right is checked so you can see the
changes taking place.
🕘 Holding down the <Alt> key, first drag the Shadows input slider to the right and set it
just before you see some shadow detail in the image. Then drag the Highlights input
slider to the left and set it just before you see some highlight detail.
🕘 Repeat the previous step for the Green and Blue channels and click OK once you are
satisfied.
🕘 Notice how these changes have affected the RGB histogram in the Histogram
palette (Figure 12):
Figure 12 - image histogram after Levels changes
🕘 You should now have a better spread of pixel levels between shadows and highlights,
but notice how some information has been lost at some levels (hence the comb-like
effect).
🕘 Re-open the Levels adjustment layer you created in the previous task by double
clicking on its thumbnail in the Layers palette (Figure 13):
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Introduction to digital imaging using Photoshop (photoshop-t1) Figure 13 - re-open the Levels layer
If your image has a different colour cast, use the following table to decide which
channel to use:
Colour cast: Use the Move the Colour
colour Gamma slider: added:
channel:
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Note When dealing with black and white photographs, you don’t need to adjust each colour
channel separately. To correct the overall contrast and brightness you can use the
composite RGB channel instead. Use the Input Levels to improve the overall contrast, and
then the Input Gamma to correct the brightness.
Edit dropdown
options
Eyedroppers
Original input
colour ramp
Output colour
ramp
The two colour spectrum ramps at the bottom of the Hue/Saturation dialogue box
provide a visual clue as to how the colours are being mapped from one colour to
another.
The Edit dropdown menu at the top defaults to Master, which means any adjustment
will affect all the colours in an image. The other six options (eg Reds, Greens, Blues,
Cyans, etc.) allow you to narrow the Hue/Saturation adjustments to predefined
colour ranges. You can also redefine these ranges using the eyedroppers or markers
between the colour ramps.
🕘 Adjust the Hue, Saturation and Lightness by dragging the sliders left or right or by
entering a value in the corresponding box (-180 to +180 for Hue and –100 to +100
for Saturation and Lightness).
🕘 Repeat with other colours – notice that some may have little effect, which indicates that
these colour ranges are not present in the image.
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🕘 The Unsharp Mask works by increasing the contrast between pixels. Unlike tone and
colour adjustments, Unsharp Mask is applied to the Background layer (or even better
a copy of the Background layer), that is the layer containing the original image.
4.1 Create a copy of the Background layer:
🕘 In the Layers palette, drag the Background layer onto the Create
a new layer icon to make a copy of it. It will appear as a new layer as shown in
Figure 16:
Creating a copy of your background image protects the original image because it is
easier to delete a layer rather than undo changes to the background image.
4.2 Sharpen the image:
In the Unsharp Mask dialogue box (Figure 17) you can set three parameters:
• Amount controls the amount of sharpening applied to the edges (1% to 500%).
Values up to 50% produce subtle effect; values between 50% and 250% produce
moderate effects.
• Radius controls the depth of pixel along the high-contrast edges that are
changed. Values of up to 2.0 produce acceptable sharpening.
• Threshold sets a level for the minimum amount of contrast between pixels that an
area must have before it will be modified. Use a low value to apply the filter more
generally throughout the image.
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🕘 Experiment with the different settings described above and observe the changes to the
image.
As a general rule, apply an amount of between 100% and 200%, a radius of
between 1.0 and 2.0, and a threshold of between 0 and 10.
Note Sharpening for output should be applied at the end of a Photoshop session and after the
image has been resized to the final print size.
Note The reason for saving in the Photoshop format is that it will preserve all the layers,
which will allow you to make further changes to them at a later stage.
🕘 Choose the Image / Duplicate command and accept the suggested name
egypt_mural_after copy.
🕘 Close egypt_mural_after.psd.
4.5 You are now going to ‘flatten’ the image (that is, merge the layers) and save this new
file as a TIFF image.
🕘 Click on the black pointed arrow in the top right hand corner of the Layers palette and
click on Flatten Image in the pop-up box (Figure 18):
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(photoshop-t1)
Note You could also use Flatten Image in the Layers menu.
🕘 Click on Save.
🕘 In the TIFF Options pop-up window, make sure IBM PC is selected and that LZW
Compression is unchecked.
🕘 Click on OK.
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🕘 Make a copy of it using the Image/Duplicate command and give it the name
resample.
5.2 Set the rulers:
🕘 Go to Images / Image Size to open the Image Size dialogue box (Figure 19).
Note When Resample Image is selected, the Pixel Dimensions box, at the top,
becomes active. This allows you to change the pixel dimension of the image.
Resampling up
Interpolating up is a process that consists of adding new information (pixels) to an
image in order to increase its dimensions or resolution, or both. The file size
increases as a consequence. This process is useful in cases where you cannot
rescan the original at the correct settings.
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🕘 Select Bicubic Smoother as the interpolation method from the drop-down list next to
the Resample Image check box.
Note Bicubic Smoother is the ideal choice when making the image bigger.
🕘 If you want to increase the physical dimensions of the image without changing the
resolution, enter a higher value (for example 800) in the Pixel Dimensions Width
box.
Observe the changes in the Document Size options: the Width and Height have
increased, but the Resolution is unchanged.
🕘 Undo the changes that you have just made (Hint: use Edit / Undo Image Size). 5.5
Increasing the image Resolution:
🕘 If you want to increase the image resolution without changing its physical
dimensions, enter a higher value in the Resolution box (for example 300).
Observe the changes in the Pixel Dimensions options: the Width and Height have
increased accordingly.
Note There is a simple rule to help you calculate the relationship between pixel
dimension, resolution and physical dimension:
pixel dimension = physical dimension (inches/centimetres) x resolution (points per
inch/centimetre).
Warning! Resampling up is a compromise solution since all you do is add pixels to the image
without increasing the quality and detail. You may need to use the Unsharp Mask filter
to compensate for blurring, which may occur due to the interpolation process. You will
obtain better results if you can rescan the image at the right size and resolution for its
intended use.
Resampling down
Interpolating down consists of discarding pixels and results in a smaller file size.
There are two ways of achieving this: either by decreasing the resolution or by
decreasing the dimensions of the image.
5.6 The procedures are the same as for resampling up:
• If you want to reduce the file size and the total number of pixels while retaining the
physical dimensions, enter a lower value in the Resolution box.
• If you want to reduce the physical dimensions while keeping the same resolution,
enter a lower value in either the Document Size Width or Height entry box.
Interpolating down is particularly useful when you want to create a thumbnail image for
a Web page.
Note A thumbnail is a small image that downloads quickly and can link to another page
containing the full size image. The advantage of using thumbnails for large images is
that users of your site can decide whether to view the larger images (and therefore
wait for them to download) or not.
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🕘 Open the Image Size dialogue box again, make sure the Resample Image check box
is selected and select Bicubic Sharper from the dropdown list.
Note With Bicubic Sharper, the scaled down image will retain more detail and sharpness.
🕘 Set the Pixel Dimensions Width to 150 and observe the changes to the Document
Size dimensions. Click on OK.
5.7 Save the thumbnail image:
🕘 Go to File / Save As. Enter egypt_mural_thumbnail in the File name box and
choose JPEG (*.JPG; *.JPE) in the Format box. Make sure you are saving in C:\
User\Graphics\, and click on Save.
🕘 In the JPEG Options dialogue box (Figure 20), move the Quality slider in Image
Options from small file to large file (alternatively you could use the entry box or the
dropdown menu).
Note Baseline ("Standard") is the most universally understood JPEG format. Baseline
Optimised will often produce a slightly more compressed sized file, but some web
browsers may not be able to read it correctly.
Progressive creates a file that will download in an interlaced fashion – the image
downloads in a series of passes and appears blurry at first, until it gradually comes
into focus.
Notice the changes in the Size box at the bottom, it tells you how long your file will
take to download at different connection speeds – select 56.6Kbps, which is the most
common telephone modem connection speed.
🕘 Settle for a high quality (for example 10) image and click on OK.
Note JPEG is a compressed format widely used for Web images. We cover image
formats in more detail in Task 6.
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🕘 In the Image Size dialogue box, uncheck the Resample Image option – the Pixel
Dimensions options will grey out and become un-editable (Figure 21):
Figure 21 - Image Size dialogue box with Resample Image option off
🕘 Change the Resolution (for example try 225 and 300 pixels/inch) to see the changes
to the Document Size Width and Height. This is useful so that you can check the
size of a print out of your image at different resolutions.
🕘 Go to File / Print with Preview to get an idea of the print size in relation to an A4
sheet of paper.
Note If you find image sizing confusing, use the Resize Image Assistant wizard located in the
Help menu to guide you. It can be used to resize images both for print and for the web.
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Let’s start with a brief summary of the four common file formats used on this course:
• TIFF: The most common cross-platform format for images. TIFF is the format of
choice for scanned images and archival purposes because it keeps all image data
intact. The downside is the large file size that makes it unsuitable for the Web.
• PSD: PSD is Photoshop’s own file format. For flexibility in what you can do with the
file in the future (all layers are preserved), it’s a good idea to save a working copy
of your image in this format.
• JPEG: This is one of two standard compression formats used for preparing images
for the Web (the other one being GIF). It offers a smaller file size than TIFF and is
the format of choice to compress photographic images for the Web.
• GIF: This is the other image file format used for preparing images for the Web. It is
mostly used for saving logos, typography, etc. It is an 8-bit colour display mode that
indexes specific colours to each of the 256 (or fewer) numeric values.
6.1 Open your egypt_mural_after.tif again if it’s not already open.
🕘 Go to File / Save for Web to open the Save For Web dialogue box (Figure 22) and
click on the 4-Up tab in the top left corner if necessary.
4-Up
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Saving as a GIF
🕘 In the 4-Up view, select one of the preview images and set the format to GIF (Figure 23)
Preset file format
File format dropdown
Colour reduction
algorithm
Dither algorithm
🕘 Try out the various options (Lossy, Colors, Dither, etc.) and
observe the changes to the GIF preview image – it may help
if you zoom in using the Zoom Tool in the top left.
Notice the changes to the file size at the bottom of the selected preview image as
you change the settings.
Saving as a JPEG
🕘 Select the top right image and select JPEG from the format dropdown box (Figure 24):
Preset file format
dropdown
File format dropdown
Quality setting slider
Quality setting
dropdown
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🕘 Select the bottom left image, then select JPEG as format and set the quality to High
(60).
🕘 Repeat for the bottom right image, setting the quality to Low (10).
Notice that the more compressed the image is, the lower the quality, file size and
download time:
Format File size Download time
🕘 Use the Zoom Tool in the top left corner to magnify the four images and compare the
differences in quality.
You can probably see that there is not that much difference in quality between the
original image, the JPEG 100 quality and the JPEG 60 quality. For this reason, if file
size and download time are important criteria then the JPEG 60 quality would be a
good option. If quality were the most important criterion, then you would
optimise your image at Maximum quality.
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🕘 Make sure the newly created Background copy layer is selected in the Layers
palette.
🕘 Go to Filter / Noise / Dust & Scratches to open the Dust & Scratches dialogue box
(Figure 25):
🕘 Make sure the Radius and Threshold sliders are all the way to the left to start with.
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🕘 Slowly move the Radius slider to the right and observe the changes: the spots
disappear, but the image loses its inherent noise or film grain. Settle for a value of 6
pixels.
🕘 Now move the Threshold slider to the right until the spots begin to reappear. Settle for
a value of around 25 levels and click on OK.
Note The degree of success you have with the Dust & Scratches filter depends largely on
the image or selection to which you apply it.
🕘 Go to Layer / Layer Mask / Hide All. You should see a new, black-filled Layer
Mask in the Layers palette (Figure 26):
🕘 Make sure the Layer Mask thumbnail is active (it should be framed within a double line
border); click on it if it’s not.
🕘 Click the triangle next to the Brush Preset picker and choose a soft-edged brush tip
about the size of the specks you need to hide (about 17 px).
🕘 Dab with the Brush Tool where you see specks in the image.
Notice the changes on the Layer Mask thumbnail in the Layers palette.
Note The dabs are like burning little white holes in the mask, allowing the filtered image to
cover the spots in those areas.
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🕘 Click the triangle next to the Brush Preset picker and choose a soft-edge brush tip (for
example, 17 px) about the size of the specks you need to hide.
🕘 To start the repairs, hold down the <Alt> key and click in an area near the flaw you
want the repair to sample from. Release the <Alt> key and move the cursor over to the
point where you want to clone to and click, several times if necessary, to cover the
flaw.
Note The Clone Stamp Tool works by sampling colours in an area and copying (cloning) them
to a damaged area. This is a fiddly job which requires frequent sampling, but which can
ultimately give excellent results.
🕘 Select an area of the image (for example the head of the statue) – it is easier to
select from top-left to bottom-right.
TIP: Hold down the <Shift> key as you draw your marquee, to obtain a circular or
square shape, rather than an elliptical or rectangular shape.
🕘 Experiment using the Add to selection, Subtract from selection options, modifying
the feathering (Figure 29) and using the Rectangular Marquee Tool if you want.
Subtract from selection
New selection Add to selection Intersect with selection
Note Feathering creates a soft edged border around the selection that blends gradually into
the background. This technique is known as vignetting.
🕘 Using the Set foreground / background color tools located in the Toolbox, set the
background colour to white or black.
🕘 Go to the Select menu and choose Inverse – this will inverse the selection so that the
area outside your selection becomes selected (notice the marching ants around the
edges of the image).
🕘 Press the <Delete> key to get rid of the inversed selection area. You should be left with
a cut-out of the statue blending smoothly with a black or white background.
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🕘 In the Options bar, select the Add to Selection option (Figure 30):
Add to selection
Note The Tolerance option controls the range of pixels that will be included in the selection on
either side of the pixel you click on. The Contiguous option only allows neighbouring
areas to be selected. If it is unchecked, similar colours in unrelated parts of the image
will also be selected.
🕘 Click four or five times in different parts of the blue sky area, noting the low tolerance.
Change the tolerance to 10 and continue; you will notice that the whole sky soon
becomes selected, outlined by a marquee (Figure 31):
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Introduction to digital imaging using Photoshop (photoshop-t1)
🕘 Referring to the Tool Options bar, near the top of the screen, make sure Linear
Gradient is selected (Figure 32):
Linear Gradient
🕘 In the Toolbox, click the Set foreground color square to launch the Color Picker
palette. For optimum flexibility, ensure that the option Only Web Colors is
unchecked. Choose a medium dark to dark colour and click OK.
🕘 Repeat for the Set background color square, this time choosing a lighter shade of the
colour you selected for the foreground.
🕘 Place the cursor against the left-hand side edge of the blue selection and, holding down
the left mouse button, drag the cursor in a straight line to the right edge of the sky and
release.
You will notice that a gradient has been applied, but only to the selected area. If you are
unhappy with the result, you can simply drag a new gradient over the selected area.
🕘 Select the Edit in Quick Mask Mode icon, situated below the
foreground/background colour picker (Figure 33).
🕘 Click the Brush Preset picker in the options bar (Figure 34):
🕘 Paint over the area you wish to select, in this case the middle hockey player (ignore the
hockey stick).
Note how the selected area is highlighted in semi-transparent red (Figure 35):
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Introduction to digital imaging using Photoshop (photoshop-t1)
🕘 When you have finished, revert to the Edit in Standard Mode (see Figure 33) – notice
the marquee (marching ants) around the hockey player and around the edges of the
image.
🕘 If necessary, tidy up the edges by returning to Edit in Quick Mask Mode, using the
Brush Tool to add to, and the Eraser Tool to subtract from the selection.
🕘 Once you are happy with your selection, make sure you return to Edit in Standard
Mode and in the Select menu, choose Inverse.
8.6 Create a simple photo montage:
🕘 Position the hockey player where you want it on the Royal Fort image.
🕘 ‘Clone’ the flowers surrounding the hockey player, and use them to paint over the join
in the images (see task 7.5).
🕘 If any traces of hockey stick are visible in the player’s hand, try using the same
technique to remove them.
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🕘 Select the Magnetic Lasso Tool (right-click on the Lasso Tool icon in the Toolbox and
choose Magnetic Lasso Tool).
🕘 In the Options bar, set Feather to 5 px and accept the default Anti-alias, Width,
Edge contrast and Frequency options (Figure 36):
Note You can change the settings in the options bar for the Magnetic Lasso Tool: Feather
(see second Note in task 8.1), Anti-alias smoothes the jagged edges of a selection,
Width sets the radius of the area where the tool looks for the edge, Edge Contrast
specifies how much contrast the tool should look for in finding the edge and Frequency
specifies how often locking points are laid down.
🕘 Place the cursor anywhere on the edge of the main leaf, release the mouse button and
drag the cursor around the leaf – notice how the tool automatically follows the edge
created by colour or tone contrast.
🕘 If you make a mistake, just press <Delete> to undo a segment. Where there is no
contrast for the Magnetic Lasso Tool to follow, regularly click on the edge to
increase the frequency of locking points.
🕘 When you have come full circle, click the node at the starting point to make the
selection.
🕘 From the main menu choose Select / Inverse and press the <Delete> key. This will
leave the selection set against a transparent background.
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🕘 Go to File / New. In the New dialogue box, give your new image a name (eg
firstmontage). Set the Width to 300 pixels and Height to 100 pixels, the Color
Mode to RGB Color and Background Contents to White (Figure 37):
🕘 Using the Move Tool, drag the image library.jpg on to the new
blank
image.
Notice that a new layer containing the image has been created above the white
Background layer.
Note If rulers are not displayed, click View / Rulers. Right-click somewhere inside the ruler
and set the unit of measurement to Pixels.
🕘 Ensure the top layer is selected in the Layers palette. In the Edit menu, select
Transform / Scale.
This will display sizing handles around the image – if you cannot see the handles,
you can increase the canvas size by dragging its edges.
🕘 Hold down <Shift> to preserve the aspect ratio, and move the corner points inwards until
you can see enough of the student in the image.
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Introduction to digital imaging using Photoshop (photoshop-t1)
As you do this, you can reposition the image by placing the cursor inside the transform
boundaries, pressing the left mouse button and dragging. Drag the image to the right of
the canvas, leaving approximately 1/3 of the canvas uncovered and experiment with
vertical alignment until you are happy with the position of the student (see Figure 38):
🕘 Click <Enter> to commit the change – at this point, you can reposition the image if you
wish.
Note If the image keeps snapping to edges of the canvas, turn the Snap feature off by
selecting View / Snap and making sure the Snap option is unchecked. Repeat this
process to reset it if required.
9.4 Repeat steps 9.1 to 9.3 with the image computer.jpg, aligning it left, overlapping the
library image. It should cover just over ½ the canvas (see Figure 39):
Figure 39 - two overlapping layers
Note It is important that the images overlap sufficiently for the blending effect to work.
🕘 Make a note of the computer image’s right edge on the horizontal ruler (around 150 to
170 pixels), and in the Layers palette, make sure Layer 2 (the computer image) is
selected.
🕘 Then in the menu bar at the top, go to Layer / Layer Mask / Hide All to add a layer
mask.
You should now see the Layer Mask as illustrated in Figure 40:
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Introduction to digital imaging using Photoshop (photoshop-t1)
This renders the layer invisible, indicated by a black thumbnail in the layers
palette.
Various tools can be used to ‘paint the layer back’. In this
case, the Gradient Tool is used to achieve a smooth
transition from transparent to fully visible.
🕘 Place the cursor just inside the right-hand edge of the computer image (refer to the
note you made earlier), roughly in the middle vertically. Click, hold down the left mouse
button and drag the mouse to the left, in a straight, horizontal line, stopping just on the
left edge of the library image, and release.
You will notice the computer image gradually appearing. The image becomes 100%
visible at the point at which the mouse is released. You will notice that the black
thumbnail now displays the applied gradient.
Figure 41 - Layer Mask after the Gradient Tool has been applied to it
If you are unhappy with your gradient, simply click and drag the mouse again. The
shorter the drag, the less gradual the transition between invisible and opaque.
Your blended image should look something like Figure 42:
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Introduction to digital imaging using Photoshop (photoshop-t1)
🕘 In the Layers palette, select one of the image layers, press <Shift> and select the
other image layer.
🕘 With the two image layers selected, click on the Link layers icon at the bottom of the
Layers palette (Figure 43):
Notice the link symbol is now displayed to the right of each image layer, indicating
that these layers are linked.
Note Linking layers is particularly useful when you want to apply the same changes (eg
repositioning, styles, etc.) to several layers.
🕘 In the Layers menu, select Merge Layers. As a result, the two linked layers will
become one (Figure 44):
Figure 44 - merged linked image layers
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Introduction to digital imaging using Photoshop (photoshop-t1)
🕘 In the Toolbox, click on the Set foreground color square and choose a fairly dark
colour.
In the Layers palette:
🕘 Select the Background layer (currently white) and use the Paint Bucket Tool to
flood fill the whole canvas.
🕘 Next, select Layer 2 (i.e. the photo montage) and click the Opacity settings triangle at
the top right of the Layers palette (Figure 45):
Set layer opacity
Figure 45 - changing the opacity level of a layer
Moving the slider to the left will gradually reveal the background layer. Set opacity
between 30% and 50%.
You should now have a suitable background for your text.
Adding text
10.2 Add some text:
🕘 In the Type Tool Option bar (Figure 46) click on the Set the text color option and
pick a light colour for your text: Toggle the Character and Paragraph palettes
Figure 46 - the Type Tool Options Set the text color Create warped text
bar
🕘 Choose a font, style, size and anti-aliasing method from the font options (for
example Arial, 18pt, Bold, Sharp).
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Introduction to digital imaging using Photoshop (photoshop-t1)
Note Working at different image resolutions will result in variations in apparent text size. For
example text will appear much smaller in a 300dpi image than in a 72dpi (typical screen
display resolution) image.
🕘 Type Information Services, press <Enter> to start a new line and type Open Day.
10.3 Edit and position the text:
🕘 Make sure the Type Tool is selected in the Toolbox and highlight the second line of text.
🕘 Using the Set the text color picker, choose a new colour and, when you are happy with
your choice, deselect the text by clicking outside it.
🕘 In the Layers palette, make sure the Type layer is selected and click the Add a
layer style icon at the bottom (Figure 47):
Add a layer style icon Figure 47 -
🕘 From the pop-up menu, select Drop Shadow. This will launch the drop shadow
options palette, adding a default shadow to the text.
🕘 Experiment with the Structure options (Blend Mode, Colour, Opacity, Angle,
Distance, Spread and Size) and click the OK button when you are happy.
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🕘 When you are happy with your image, save as firstmontage.psd in C:\
User\Graphics\. By saving in this format, text will remain editable.
10.5 Save a copy for the Web (see Task 6.1). As the image includes photographs, the file
should be saved as a JPEG.
Note Further text editing is possible via the Paragraph and Character palettes (open by
clicking the Toggle the Character and Paragraph palettes icon on the Type Tool Options
bar. By default, the palettes are bundled together. Toggle between them by clicking the labelled
tabs. The Paragraph palette enables line spacing, alignment and so on to be set. The
Character palette provides a shortcut to several formatting elements also found elsewhere
(anti-aliasing, font colour, font size etc.)
You can also warp text in many different ways by using the Create warped text
option. Feel free to try these out.
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Table 1 – Comparison of pixel resolution, megapixels, megabyte file size and print output
dimensions at different resolutions in inches (and centimetres)
Output use Screen ruling x 1.5 Standard x 2 High quality
quality output output resolution
resolution
Books 120 – 150 lpi 160 – 225 ppi 240 – 300 ppi
Colour magazine 150 – 175 lpi 225 – 262 ppi 300 – 350 ppi
Art book/magazine 175 – 250 lpi 262 – 375 ppi 300 – 500 ppi
Photo quality inkjet printer 150 – 300 lpi 225 – 450 ppi 300 – 600 ppi
Table 2 – Rule of thumb screen resolutions for common print devices at lpi x 1.5 and x 2
quality factors
Example
Say you want to print a high quality A4 photograph on an inkjet printer:
A4 size = Width 8.268 x Length 11.693 inches (21 x 29.7 cm)
Printer resolution = 200 lpi
Quality factor = x 1.5
Print length x Printer resolution x Quality factor = number of pixels required in length
Print width x Printer resolution x Quality factor = number of pixels required in width
Scanning
Apart from the TASI website, you may find the following site very useful for all
scanning issues:
A few scanning tips, by Wayne Fulton – http://www.scantips.com
Photoshop tutorials
These tutorials cover most things you can do in Photoshop, including some useful
tutorials on image enhancement and restoration:
Adobe’s Photoshop tutorials – http://www.adobe.com/products/tips/photoshop.html
Janee’s Photoshop tutorials – http://myjanee.home.insightbb.com/tutorials.htm
‘Computer Arts’ Photoshop tutorials – http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/2d/
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