Digital Photography

Workshop

How to improve your pictures

How to use imaging software

How to use your camera

Loading pictures onto the Computer

From a memory card

Via a USB Cable from your camera

From a memory stick

From an existing file in a folder

From the internet

Available software

Freeware like Picasa or Gimp

Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, ArcSoft

Windows Programmes like Photo Editor

Some may come bundled with a camera, scanner or printer

Photoshop: The BasicsThis is a Professional Package

We are using CS-

(Creative Suite)

The simpler “Photoshop Elements” is sometimes given with PC

packages

Even if you don’t have access to Photoshop it will be useful to learn

some of the skills

It will enable you to see the potential of post production editing

It replicates some of the darkroom functions you may be familiar with

Photoshop has functions/tools that look similar to many other packages

Open the Photoshop Programme from the Go/programmes menu

In a moment you will be able to add one of your images to

manipulate but please watch the demonstration as we go along.

This is what your workspace should look like

If it doesn’t click on Window for a drop down menu or drag out the window so that it fills the page.

Check the items you need, these are the minimum for ease of use

You can now save it in case you lose bits when working

To open an image you can:

Open “New” in File and paste from a file or the internet

“Open” an existing picture File

“Browse” a whole folder of pictures

“Import” from a scanner or camera

This image has been opened from

an existing file

This is like an overlay of tracing

paper on a picture. The blue colour tells you

this is the one you are working in

This image has been pasted from the internet into

a blank background so it becomes a Layer

Photoshop can be a very creative piece of software:

..but let’s learn how to tweak pictures first

..to improve tone and colour

..and get rid of blemishes

Set up your desktop now and open and image

(we can help)

One of the simplest changes can be

made with the Crop Tool

…which lets you edit the proportions of your

“Composition”

Composition is a major aesthetic consideration

Here’s where you can

adjust tone

..with slider

s

But these are a rather crude

tool

A more controlled way is to use the

Levels slider

The histogram has three sliders for

highlight, midtones and shadow

A poorly exposed picture will have gaps at either end and the

sliders must be brought up to the edges to get a proper tonal

range

More precision and control is now

possible

This can do other adjustments. There are many

ways to arrive at the same result. Experiment, you can

always “undo”

Undo or Step Back here

..or go back in History

If you want to turn your picture to black and white

you can use Grayscale mode in the Image menu

..but you lose all colour information for other

effects

A better way is to Desaturate

Then add tints using other options like

Colour Balance

Those are the minimum “after effects” you need to produce

better pictures

Most software will do these edits

Take some time now to familiarise yourself. Try different images

Those are the minimum “after effects” you need to produce

better pictures

Most software will do these edits

Take some time now to familiarise yourself. First, how to save!

When it comes to saving….

…”Save” covers over the previous

version ( so BEWARE)

“Save As” allows you to choose the Name, size,

format and Location

You are asked if you want to make the Photoshop file more

compatible, but this flattens the file and loses all the layers and

history.

..so uncheck this box if you want to work on

the file later

There is a drop down

menu

Photoshop files are large and don’t always open in

other applications

The most common file format is a JPEG which

opens in almost all other Programmes

This is known as a “lossy” format as it compresses quality, You will

be asked what resolution to save at (useful for e-mails, websites where

size matters)

..but remember we want

large/quality prints for display

Next we will look at some of the other editing options available for

more advanced users

Now you have your image there are three main ways of working with it

The Tool menu

The Image Menu

The Filter Menu

Tools with a black arrow in the corner have options

To select areas of

your image to work on you can use this

tool called

the Marquee

tool which makes

and cuts a shape

..or you can use this tool called

the Lasso

..or you can use this tool called

the Magic Wand

The magnetic lasso is

the most useful for

cutting out difficult shapes

The area cut round is

highlighted with a dotted

line

To select it hit

return

You can “Deselect”

here

Like most tools there are settings

you can alter

Feathering softens the

edge of your “cut out”

Width tells the cursor

how close to “stick”

Edge contrast tells the cursor how much difference to notice

between colours/tones

Frequency tells the cursory how many sticky

points to make

If it runs away with you, Backspace

takes you back along the line

Remember to press

return and the area is selected

Remember your adjustments are to a specific Layer, so if you cut out and paste a small

section, you work on just that area

Copy and paste will give you a new layer of the area cut out

(in this case just the eye)

By switching off the eye symbol you can miss

out a layer temporarily and see what is “underneath”

This can now be adjusted

Using “Transform” in the Edit menu or

“Adjustments” in the Image

menu

Transform changes

size/angle etc

Adjustments can do colour, contrast,

brightness etc

,,,in this case to the background layer, and note that the eye area that was cut out has stayed

as it was

As long as you haven’t saved over the original picture you can go back by clicking on History

..or Step Backwards/Undo in

the Edit Menu

Now for some more radical and creative manipulations

If you wanted to improve this shot by

removing the distracting background

there are two ways

The clone stamp which copies parts of the

picture from one area to another

You can adjust quantity and pressure here

You can adjust size and type of brush here (for all menus using a drawing

tool)

You can adjust what you are painting with here

To select the area you copy you

place the brush and hit Alt button

You can then place the brush in the

area to paint over

With care and the right settings

you can copy and overpaint

from one area to disguise another

You can use the Clone tool to edit

out any distracting element

The other method is to select an area with the

Marquee tool, copy and paste it

Then use the Transform tool to

stretch the new Layer (find it in the Edit

menu)

Change the opacity so you can see what you are

doing

Then use the Eraser tool to rub through to the

Layer below

..and reveal the Image carefully

with a new background

Turn the Opacity back to 100% and the

background sits in place

To make your picture into one flat image, use the Layers

menu. This flattens all the Layers, or “Merge Down” means the live blue Layer to the one below

“Merge Visible” means all the

open layers that have an eye

symbol active

Anything you copy in

Photoshop…..

..can be pasted into…

..any other.

The size is then changed in

Edit/Transform/Scale

..to look more in keeping.

Then using Image Adjustment and Filters the

colour, tone, contrast, grain, light etc altered to

hide the join

“Filters” has a multitude of drop down menus and sub-

menus to change the look of your Image (or layers within

the image)

Picking one gives you a Preview of how it

will look and the variations possible

Other versions of Photoshop may not look like this

Changing the sliders….

Changing the effect….

Experiment

Especially with multiple

Layers and rubbing through

If printing pictures at home, always use Print

Preview to check size/paper…

Page setup lets you choose Paper Size from a drop down

menu

Scale to fit Media will crop to paper size or you can specify the percentage

Scale to fit Media will crop to paper size or you can specify the percentage

Finally, how to add text to pictures

using the Type tool

Draw out the

box

Choose font

Change size, colour etc

There are more options if you right click the

Layer

Adding shadows,

texture and so on

These can be changed again

later by clicking here

Via a drop down

..to access

the sliders

Remember the type is also a

Layer so can be distorted…

..and have filters etc applied

This is only the basics. There

are help guides built in.

..and tutorials on the Internet

Good luck, have fun, be

subtle