Adobe Photoshop Tutorial

Basics

***All the videos below were made and uploaded my myself***

Essential Short-Cuts:

• Ctrl + D = De-select
• Ctrl + T = Transport
• Shift = Lock Z, Y and Z Axis
• Ctrl + J = Duplicate
• Ctrl + Z = Re-do step
• Ctrl + Alt + Z = Undo

Uses

Logo design, photo editing and advanced graphics design are just a few things you can do in Photoshop

Interface

Layers pallet, image pallet, navigation panel (toolbar), move, brush, text, paint bucket, line tool, custom shape tool, gradient, clone stamp, magic wand.etc

Page sizes

A4 = 210mm x 297mm

A3 = 420mm x 297mm (double A4)

DPI

Dots Per Inch. 72 for a screen, 300 for printing. Needed to be set when you open a new document.

Use CMYK Colour Mode

Opening a new file

It is essential to create a new layer before adding to your file. This is because if you add to your background (which is selected by default) you will not be able to edit it much as it will be locked.

Marquee Tools

The Marquee Tool is one of the most essential tools within the program and without it, you wouldn't be able to do much. This tool creates shapes, selects objects and much more.

Remember to 'deselect' it once done (Ctrl + D) to remove the dotted line (otherwise known as 'Marching Ants').

'Shift' key makes it fixed on the axis (X, Y, Z) = Makes a perfect square, move, circle.etc

Adding Brushes

Use '[' to decrease the size of brush and ']' to make bigger.

To add more brushes, you need to download them from 'Brusheezy.com'.

Smooth Edges

This tool is also essential. This tool can smooth out the edges on pointy shapes like squares. The intensity of the curve is measured in 'points' (pt).

Lasso Tool

This tool can cut out a section of an image or other object and make it separate. The Lasso Tool can be drawn by Lines (straight point-to-point), Free Hand (draw the outlines by hand) or Magnetic (Photoshop decides where the lines go).

History Tool

Can be used to make part of the picture or file revert back to a previous state. This can be useful if you only need a section of the picture to be in colour or in graystyle.

Custom Shape Tool

This is where you can choose an existing shape on Photoshop and edit the points on it to change it's shape to your own.

Gradient Tool and Warping

This is where a slow fade of two or more colours can be mixed together in a desired area. This simple method can then be manipulated by a technique known a 'warping'. It stretches or compresses that shape into whatever form you want.

Stroke Tool

The border of text of shape is known as a 'Stroke'. This can be used on posters, cards, leaflets and much more.

Layer Masking

This is where you can add on overlay of a gradient fill over the top of an existing layer. You can change the opacity to let the under layer show up more or the over layer to block it from view completely.

Filters

Filters are pretty much just visual effects.

***MUST BE ON 'RGB' MODE***

Iris Blur

This blurs out everything except the area inside the area shown. Intensity can also be altered of the burred out areas. The history tool could be useful here as you can revert parts back to the 'normal' state it was in. For example, I blued the cat's face out but the whiskers were still blurred. So I used the History Tool to make it look like the cat was closer to the camera.

Noise Tool

This makes the pixels of the image or object much bigger and gives a sandy effect. The monochromatic mode is to set the pixels all the same colour, just different variants of it (dark, light and white).

Making a product demo

Here, I put all of the skills in the 'Filter' section of the tutorial to create a boarder and manipulated an image.

Text

Text is also a key part of the program and here, I used fonts to mix in with the background and other effects.

Basic Text Usage

This is where you can change the basic size, colour, font, kerning, leading and tracking of the text. This can be used to create some pretty good looking text.

Installing Fonts

www.dafont.com is used to download fonts in to Photoshop and can use them instead of the fonts already on Photoshop.

Saving Fonts as an image

Once a font is saved (or Rasterized) it cannot be changed as a text element. In other words, you cannot change the font, kerning, leading, tracking or other text properties. It is now treated as an image and can add other effects such as textures, 3D effects and perspective views.