Welcome to our Photoshop blog

Welcome to our Photoshop Blog. Here you will find summeries/notes so that you can revise the lessons done. You can also use the Comments facility to ask anything you need to ask or simply comment. I hope that you find this useful.

Joseph Micallef

Lesson ONE:Image formats, Layers, short-cuts (fill, copy,cut, paste), selection tools(marquees, lasso), stamp tool, eraser, smudge tool

Ok don't worry - the list is long but that does not mean that we have to do all the above in two hours. We will do as much as possible though. We might end up doing more than what's on the list - depending on how fast you learn.

Follow this presentation about Image formats (or graphics):

graphics and image formats

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Images which you will be using for this lesson:

 

 

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The Marquee tools:

 You have an option to choose from 4 selection marquees as shown above. To select an area, after choosing the right marquee, you only need to click and drag your mouse. The selected area will be surrounded by a dotted line. When you are drawing a marquee you are not drawing a shape but just a selection. Shapes are something else. You use a marquee in order to either copy or cut an area - or to fill an area with colour.

Example of a selection

Note: To access all the three selection tools click on the small arrow at the bottom right corner of the tool that is showing. 

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 Layers:

Essentially, Photoshop allows you to create multiple layers in one image, on top of each other. This is a very helpful feature, because you can edit one layer without changing the other layers.

Still confused? Try this: Picture yourself drawing a cartoon character. First, you start with a rough sketch. You might put this as the first layer. Then, you would use a darker ink tool for a more final version of the character (line art). This would be on a layer on top of the previous one. You could even turn down the opacity on the original, sketch-layer so that it is easier to draw over. Finally, once you have a finished line art image of your wacky cartoon character, you will want to add color to it. I like to imagine layers as transparent plastic sheets!

Layers therefore are a great tool as you can make changes or add things to an image while you can still manipulate such changes as needed! At the end you can then merge the layers.

If you do not find the layers pane on the right-hand side of your Photoshop screen, click on Window (top menu bar) and then Layers from the list.

To add a new layer click on the New Layer button as shown in the picture below:

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The Losso tools:

The Losso tool lets you select irregularly shaped areas.

• The first tool from the three, simply, Lasso Tool, is the more difficult to use since you need a very steady hand to go round an image while holding down the left mouse button.
• The Magenetic Lasso Tool (third one) is a much easier tool to use as it tries to move along and follow the outline of the shape. You don't need to keep holding down the left mouse button for it to function. It also allows you to left-click so that you make sure that it goes to the exact place where you want it. It is not totally reliable but much more easier to use than the Lasso Tool.
• The Polygonal Lasso Tool only follows straight lines - therefore not suitable to go around images containing curves. It has its use though and it will come in handy later on.

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The Clone Stamp Tool:

This is a really cool tool which we will find really handy when fixing blemishes in old photographs or when removing unwanted artifacts in newly taken photographs. The beauty of this tool lies in the fact that it reproduces texture!

It is not as straightforward to use but not difficult neither. You need to first hold down the ALT button on your keyboard while you left-click on an area which you want to reproduce (having the right colour and texture). Then by simply holding down the left button, draw on the area you want to fix or remove.

You might wish to zoom in your picture before using the Clone Stamp Tool and adjust the brush width as well. This video explains all.

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The Smudge Tool:

This tool comes in handy when we need to tidy up our work. Sometimes the end result is a bit too sharp so we would need to smudge edges for example so that they look more natural. Using this tool is very easy - simply select it from the tool bar on the left, and then drag your mouse over the area where you need to be smudged while holding down the left mouse button.

When clicking on the bottom corner arrow of the tool, you will get two more tools, the Blur tool and the Sharpen tool.

You might not see the Smudge tool at first in its place - this is because someone before you might have used the Blur or Sharpen tools and therefore these will be visible. If this is the case, only need to click on the bottom right arrow and choose the Smudge tool yourself.

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The Eraser Tool:

You get three types of erasors in Photoshop. The most used will be the Eraser Tool and the Magic Eraser Tool.

The Eraser Tool is simply an eraser - you will cancel what you draw with it.

The Magic Eraser removes a selected colour from the image and gives you a transparent background instead. You might need to adjust the Tolerance (from the top menu) to get the desired result.

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Common Shortcuts:

Ctrl+c To copy
Ctrl+v To paste
Ctrl+x To cut
Ctrl+z To undo
Ctrl-d   To Deselect (after having used any marquee tool or lasso tools)
Alt+Backspace button  To fill with foreground colour
Ctrl+Backspace button  To fill with background colour
Ctrl+ +  To zoom in
Ctrl+ -   To zoom out

ACTIVITIES: Save the pictures in the section Images which you will be using for this lesson.

1. Now, for the first picture, the one with the two monkeys, you have to fix all blemishes so that the picture looks as perfect as possible.

2. Select the monkey which has crossed arms, and place it on the table image, making it look as if it is sitting at the table waiting for food.

TROUBLESHOOTING - Things to pay attention to

You might experience a situation where Photoshop does not allow you to do what you wish and comes up with a No Entry symbol to stop you.

Instead of the symbol sometimes you might get a warning message.

• First thing to check is whether you are using the correct layer. You might be trying to copy or cut a selection from a picture but you are actually viewing/using a different layer. To solve this just click on the correct layer where the selection is in reality.

• Secondly - the problem may also be that the layer you are using is locked. This normally does not interfere but, depending on the situation, it sometimes might.

To solve this all you need to do is double-click on the lock icon and then click on OK.

• Another problem could be that the image mode is set to Indexed RGB. This usually happens when the image has been saved as .gif.

Photoshop converts to Indexed RGB automatically to reduce the file-size for storage. All you need to do is to click on Image/Mode and then choose RGB color.

[NOTE: SAVING...please save your work first as .psd (Photoshop format) and then as .jpg or any other preferred format. In this way you will always have a lossless version to work on should you need to further edit your work]

INSTRUCTIONS for activity 2

1. Download the two images and save them.

2. From Photoshop click on File, Open - and look for the Monkey.png file.

3. With the image open in your Photoshop, use the Magnetic Lasso Tool to go around the image.



4. Keep going around the image until you arrive at the initial point. You should now see a dotted line around the image (selected).

5. Ctrl+x to Cut the image.

6. In Photoshop click on File and then Open and look for the Table.gif image.

7. Create a new Layer.

8. Paste (Ctrl+v) the monkey onto the Table image.

9. To resize the monkey image: Click on Edit (top menu), then click on Transform and Scale:



Now the image has handles at the corners from where you can resize the image. When ready click on the Tick mark at the top of your toolbar

Lesson TWO: Using the pen tool, giving colour to a black and white photo, Brushes, colours, Text

The following are the images you will be using:

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The Pen tool:

We will be using the Pen Tool (top tool). This tool is really handy and might be a better alternative to the lasso tools. (It has other uses apart from selection as we will see later)

When using the Pen Tool to simply select images make sure that the following option is on:

All you need to do is click aroud the image to select it. This has the advantage that afterwords you can move the anchor points to where you find necessary so that the selection is more precise - using the Direct Selection tool:

After selecting the image, you will notice that your outline is not dotted as usual selections. This is because you have not actually created a selection but you have only created a Path for the moment.

In the Layers panel, choose Paths (if you don't see Paths go to Windows and then tick Paths). Now right-click on the path and choose Make Selection. Now you have a proper selection.

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Colouring a Black and White picture (step by step procedure):

1. Use the pen tool as explained above to select the various parts of the picture. Let's take for example the Soldier picture.

First select the cap with the pen tool.

2. Then right-click on the created Path and choose Make Selection.

3. Click on Image (top menu), then Adjustments, then Hue Saturation - and make sure that you tick the Colorize (bottom right of the box).

4. Now move the Hue, Saturation or/and Lightness sliders to obtain the required colour, then click on OK.

5. Do the same with different parts of the picture ie, the face/body, the uniform shirt, and even if you wish, change the backround colour.

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 Adding Text:

It is quite easy to add some text in Photoshop and you can also add some nice effects to it as well. Please keep in mind that whenever you add text Photoshop adds a new layer automatically.

All you need to do is click on the Text tool first:

Now you can click wherever you want on your image/picture, select the font, size and colour, (from the top horizontal menu bar) and start typing!

To add effects:

In order to add a Drop Shadow or to add some embossing effects, go to Layer and then Layer Style and choose from there. There are other effects which you can choose - just make sure you choose an appropriate effect that will enhance your text and which allows it to be legible.

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Brush Tool:

When you choose the Brush Tool you will get the following toolbar on top of your screen:

From this toolbar you can choose the brush-size (width of the brush), the opacity (how transparent or not the ink is) and other options including the option to use a virtual air-brush instead of a normal brush.

You can then choose your colour from the tool bar on the left.

To fill an area, layer, selection with the Foreground colour use CTRL+Backspace. To fill an area, layer, selection with the Background colour use ALT+Backspace.

To change the colour just double click on the present coloured square.

To switch between background and foreground colours just click on the small double-headed bended arrow near the colour squares.

Lesson 3 - The page curl trick, using and creating gradients, colour styles, filters

You will be using the following images for this lesson:

image1

image2

Colour Styles (or simply Styles):

You will usually find the Styles palette under the Layers section on the right-hand side of the screen. If you don't see it, click on Window (top menu) and then Styles.

You can apply Styles to any layer but they are must suitable to enhance Text. With them you can create really cool titles for your work.

If you only see a handful of such Styles, just click on the top right arrow on top of the Styles palette and then add any of the listed Styles - at the end you will need to click on the Append button.

To apply a style to a text or layer, just click on the layer you want to apply them to, and then click on the style of your choice. Experiment until you get the desired effect.

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Filters:

Filters are special effects which can be applied to any image or layer.

Experiment with the available Filters to see what they do. Just click on the layer for the image, and then click on Filters (top menu), then choose one of the many from the list. You will feel spoilt for choice! 

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Gradient fills:

A gradient fill is a way with which you can fill an area with more than one colour with graded shades. The image below is filled with a gradient:

You will find the Gradient fill tool in the left hand side toolbar in Photoshop:

If instead you find the Paint Bucket tool, just click on the bottom corner arrow and then choose Gradient Tool.

When you click on this tool, the top menu changes accordingly:

When you click on the small arrow (indicated by the red circle), you will get a set of pre-defined gradient fills from which you can choose (called Presets).

You can create your own gradient by changing the colour from the Stops, shown above and below as "small houses" (square and rectangle on top).

When the desired gradient fill has been chosen, all you need to do is just drag a line alone the area which you want to be filled with this gradient.

Use image 2 above to fill with a gradient. It is easy. First select the black image by using the Magic Wand tool, then select a gradient of your choice and drag the mouse along the image.

Note about the available gradients in Photoshop: You can add more preset gradients by clicking on the small black arrow:

...and then choose one of the gradient sets from the bottom of the list (from Color Harmonies1 to Spectrums). Note also that certain gradients behave differently from others, especially the Special Effects set. Normally when drawing a gradient over an already existing one, the last gradient replaces the previous. With one of the Special Effects set, namely the Russel's Rainbow gradient (sometimes also found as simply Rainbow),  this is not the case...so you can create gradient over gradient without the last replacing the previous. Try it out, you can achieve some really cool effects.

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The page curl trick:

You must remember how your copybooks at school usually ended up with curled bottom corners! We will add such curl to the image on top.

1.Download and save the tulips image (top of lesson 3).

2.Draw a small triangle using the Pen tool at the bottom right corner (or any corner actually).

3.Right click on the Path and then choose Make Selection:

4.Delete the selection by clicking on the Delete button on your keyboard.

5.Draw another triangle as in the picture below:

6.Now add a new Anchor Point in the middle of the shorter side of the triangle, using the Add Anchor Point tool.

7,Use the Direct Selection tool (the white arrow) to drag this new Anchor Point so that a curve is created.

8. Create a selection from this path.

9.Now create a new Gradient Fill, one which has a dark colour at both ends and a light or white colour in the middle:

10.Now fill the selection with this new gradient.

11. CTRL+D to deselect and view your image properly. You can even fill the white area with your choice of colour should you wish.