Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 1a: Menu Bar

Let's get started by exploring the basic elements of the Photoshop workspace. There are four main counterparts to the Photoshop workspace: the menu bar, the status bar, the toolbox, and the palettes. In this lesson we'll be learning about the menu bar.

The Menu Bar

The menu bar consists of nine menus: File, Edit, Image, Layer, Select, Filter, View, Window, and Help. Take a few moments now to look at each of the menus. You may notice that some menu commands are followed by ellipses (...). This indicates a command that is followed by a dialog box where you can enter additional settings. Some menu commands are followed by a right pointing arrow. This indicates a submenu of related commands. As you explore each menu, be sure to take a look at the submenus as well. You'll also notice that many commands are followed by keyboard shortcuts. Gradually, you'll want to get to know these keyboard shortcuts as they can be incredible time savers.

As we make our way through this course, we'll be learning the most useful keyboard shortcuts as we go along.

In addition to the menu bar, Photoshop often has context sensitive menus for accessing some of the most likely commands depending on which tool is selected and where you click. You access the context sensitive menu by right clicking in Windows, or pressing the Control key on a Macintosh.

One of the most convenient contextual menus can be accessed by right clicking/Control clicking on the title bar of a document for quick access to the duplicate command, image and canvas size dialogs, file information, and page setup. If you already know how to open an image, go ahead and try it now. Otherwise, you'll learn how in the next section.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 1b: Status Bar

Let's continue our exploration of the Photoshop workspace. There are four main counterparts to the Photoshop workspace: the menu bar, the status bar, the toolbox, and the palettes. We looked at the menu bars in the first section. In this lesson we'll be learning about the status bar.

The Status Bar

Now take a look at the status bar along the bottom edge of the Photoshop workspace. The status bar is often taken for granted or overlooked entirely, but it can be a valuable tool. You'll need an open document before the status bar will display any information, so let's open one now.

Go to the File menu and choose Open, locate an image file and open it now. If you don't have an image file handy, you can find several in the Stockart folder of the Photoshop application CD. Ctrl-O/Cmd-O is the keyboard shortcut to open a file. This is the same shortcut used by most applications, so it should be an easy one to remember. If you are a Windows user, you can quickly open a file by double clicking on the application background. (Since there is no application background on the Mac OS, there is not a Macintosh equivalent to this shortcut.)

To the far left of the status bar you will see the magnification level of the active document. You can swipe your cursor in this area and type in a new number to change the magnification of your document. Go ahead and try it now.

To return your document to 100% magnification, locate the zoom tool in the toolbox and double click the button. The keyboard equivalent to this shortcut is Ctrl-Alt-0/Cmd-Option-0. (We'll explore more of the toolbar a bit later.)

To the left of the magnification display on the status bar, you will see a display of document sizes. The number on the left displays the uncompressed size of the image if it were to have all layers flattened. The number on the right displays the uncompressed size of the document including all layers and channels. It's important to know that both of these numbers will usually be larger than the final file size of the saved document. For more on the Document Sizes display, look up Document Sizes option in the online Help file.

Next to the Document sizes display there is a small black arrow that pops up a menu. You'll find this arrow other places in the Photoshop workspace, so when you see it, remember that there is a menu hiding there. In this case, the menu allows you to change what is displayed in this area of the status bar. In addition to Document Sizes, you can optionally choose to display Scratch Sizes, Efficiency, Timing, or the current tool. You can look up each of these items in Photoshop's online Help for more information.

Next in the status bar, you can see useful information about the tool you have selected. If you still have the zoom tool selected, your status bar should say "Zoom In" if you are outside of the document area. Move the cursor into the document area and you will see the status bar display instructions for using that tool. Now hold down the Alt/Option key and the status bar will show "Zoom Out" and the cursor will change to a minus sign. Next try the

Ctrl/Command key in conjunction with the zoom tool and observe the tips displayed in the status bar. Try the other key combinations such as Ctrl-Shift/Cmd-Shift, or Ctrl-Alt/Cmd-Option while observing the status bar instructions.

Let's review each of the zoom tool options:No modifier key = click to zoom in; click and drag to zoom into a specific areaDouble click = zoom to 100% magnificationCtrl-Alt-0/Cmd-Option-0 = zoom to 100% magnificationAlt/Option = click to zoom outCtrl/Cmd = temporarily toggles to the move tool

Here are a few more zoom shortcuts we have not yet covered:

Double click the Hand tool = zoom to fit the screenCtrl-0/Cmd-0 = zoom to fit the screenCtrl- /Cmd- (plus sign) = zoom inCtrl--/Cmd-- (minus sign) = zoom out

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 1c: The Toolbox

Let's continue our exploration of the Photoshop workspace. There are four main counterparts to the Photoshop workspace: the menu bar, the status bar, the toolbox, and the palettes. We've already covered the menu bar and the status bar. In this lesson we'll be learning about the toolbox. Since this is a general overview of the toolbox, the materials here are useful for any version of Photoshop.

The ToolboxYou got a jump start on learning about the zoom tool while we were studying the status bar in the last section. Now let's explore more of the Photoshop toolbox. If you have the Quick Reference Card that came with Photoshop, it would be a good idea to locate it now. If you cannot locate a copy, Version 6.0 users can find a PDF file of the Quick Reference card on the main level of your Photoshop installation CD. Version 5.x users can find a diagram of the toolbox and all hidden tools on page 25 of the Photoshop 5.0 User Guide.

When you look at the toolbox, notice how some of the buttons have a tiny arrow

in the lower right corner. This arrow indicates that other tools are hidden under that tool. To access the other tools, click and hold down on a button and the other tools will pop out. Try this now by clicking on the rectangle marquee tool and changing to the elliptical marquee tool. The hidden marquee tools are shown here.

Now hold your cursor over one of the buttons and you should see a tooltip appear that tells you the name of the tool and its keyboard

shortcut. All the marquee tools have a shortcut of M. An easier way to switch between the different hidden tools is to use the keyboard shortcut along with the Shift key modifier. For the marquee tools, the Shift-M combination toggles between the rectangular and elliptical marquee tools. The single row marquee tools are less often used and must be selected from the toolbox flyout. Another shortcut for cycling through the hidden tools is to Alt/Option click on the toolbox button.

Take a few moments now to familiarize yourself with the tool names using the tooltips. Use the shortcuts you've just learned to explore all the hidden tools. As you select each tool, note the hints provided in the status bar area for each tool. Don't worry about using each tool for now; we'll get to that soon enough. For now, you should just get to know the tool locations and their icons.

Moving down in the toolbox, we come to the color swatches. This is where the foreground and background colors are displayed. The tiny arrow to the top right allows you to swap foreground and background colors. The tiny black and white swatch symbol to the lower left allows you to reset the colors to the default of black foreground and white background. Hold your cursor over those two areas to learn the keyboard shortcuts. To change a color, simply click on either the foreground or background color swatch and select a new color in the color picker. Experiment by changing the foreground and background colors and then resetting them back to defaults.

The next two buttons on the toolbox allow you to toggle between quick mask and selection mode. We'll learn more about this later in future lessons.

Below that you have a set of three buttons that allow you to change the appearance of the workspace. Hold your cursor over each button to see what it does. Notice the keyboard shortcut for all three is F. Hitting F repeatedly toggles between all three modes. Try it now.

This is a convenient place to mention a few more shortcuts for modifying the workspace appearance. Feel free to try them out as you read. When in either of the full screen modes, you can toggle the menu bar on and off with the Shift-F key combination. In any screen mode you can toggle the toolbox, status bar, and palettes on and off with the Tab key. To hide only palettes and leave the toolbox visible, use Shift-Tab.

The last button on the toolbox is for moving your document to ImageReady. We will not be exploring ImageReady in this course.

Before we move on to the palettes, let's review what we learned about the toolbox:

1. An arrow indicates a flyout of hidden tools.2. Each main tool has a single letter keyboard shortcut assigned to it.3. The Shift key combined with a tool shortcut allows you to toggle the hidden tools.4. D = resets the foreground color to black and background color to white.

5. X = swap foreground and background colors.6. F = toggles screen modes7. Shift-F = Turns menu bar on and off in full screen modes8. Tab = toggles the toolbox, status bar, and palettes on and off9. Shift-Tab = toggle only the palettes on and off

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 1d: Palettes

Let's continue our exploration of the Photoshop workspace. There are four main counterparts to the Photoshop workspace: the menu bar, the status bar, the toolbox, and the palettes. All that's left to cover now are the palettes. Since this is a general overview of the palettes, the materials here are useful for any version of Photoshop. You'll need to have an image open for this lesson, so go ahead and open one now.

The Navigator Palette grouped with the info and Options Palettes.

The Palettes

When you first open Photoshop, the palettes are stacked along the right edge of your screen in palette groups. The first group contains the Navigator, Info, and Options palettes. Next is the Color Swatches, and Brushes palettes. Below that are the History and Actions Palettes. Finally, you have the Layers, Channels, and Paths Palettes.

Palette groups can be moved around in the workspace by clicking on the title bar and dragging. Each palette group has a collapse and a close button in the title bar area. Try the collapse button for each of the palette groups now. You'll notice the button works as a toggle, clicking the button a second time after the palette is collapsed will expand the palette again. You may also notice that some palettes do not completely collapse. Try collapsing the color palettes and you'll see that the color ramp is still visible.

Notes for Version 6.0

In version 6, the options palettes is replaced with the options bar. The brushes palette has become part of the options bar, and three new palettes have been added: Styles, Character and Paragraph.

Color Palette Expanded

Color Palette Partially Collapsed

Color Palette Completely Collapsed

For palettes that partially collapse, you can completely collapse them by holding down the Alt/Option key as you press the collapse button. You can also collapse a group by double clicking on any of the palette tabs. To display a collapsed palette, just click once on the palette tab if it's in the back of the group, or double click if it's in the front of the group.

Palettes can be resized either by holding your cursor over an edge and dragging when the cursor changes to a double pointing arrow, or by clicking and dragging on the right corner. Only the Color, Options, and Info palettes are not resizable.

When you click the close button on a palette group it closes all the palettes in the group. To display a palette that is not shown, you can either choose the command from the Window Menu, or display the palette using its keyboard shortcut. They are:

Enter or Return = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only) Double click tool button = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only) F5 = Show/Hide Brushes Palette F6 = Show/Hide Color Palette F7 = Show/Hide Layers Palette F8 = Show/Hide Info Palette F9 = Show/Hide Actions Palette

And don't forget these which we learned in the last lesson:

Tab = Show/Hide Toolbar and all Palettes Shift-Tab = Show/Hide all Palettes

To bring a grouped palette to the front of the group, click on the palette's tab. You can also ungroup and rearrange the palettes by clicking on a tab and dragging it outside of the group or to another group. Try it now by dragging the navigator palette out of it's default group. Then put it back by dragging it back onto the palette group.

Notes for Version 6.0 skip

In version 6, several palettes can be grouped in one large super-group. To do this, drag a palette to the bottom edge of another palette group. An outline will appear long the bottom edge and then you can let go. Now the two palettes will be attached, but not overlapping. You can attach several palettes this way to create one

Notes for Mac Users

I have received reports that the function keys to show/hide palettes do not work on the Mac. Mac users will need to access these commands from the Window menu.

massive palette collection.

Docking two palettesTwo palettes that have been docked

Also in Photoshop 6.0, you have a palette well in the options bar. You can drag palettes to this area and they will remain there hidden until you click on the palette tab to reveal it. (If you cannot see the palette well of the options bar, you will need to adjust your screen resolution to at least 1024x768 pixels.)

Another common feature of all the palettes is the palette menu. Notice the small arrow in the upper right corner of each palette. If you recall from our lessons on the menu and status bar, this indicates a pop-out menu. Whenever you see me refer to a palette menu throughout these lessons, you'll know I mean this menu for whichever palette is being discussed. Take a look at the palette menu for each of the palettes now. Notice that each individual palette has a unique menu.

Practice showing, hiding and moving the various palettes, click on the palette tabs to familiarize yourself with each palette, and take a look at each of the palette menus while you're at it.

If you'd like to return the palettes to the default locations after you finish experimenting, go to File > Preferences > General and click the button to reset Palette Locations. If you always want to start Photoshop with you palettes this way, uncheck the box "Save Palette Locations" box while you are there. If you work with many large images you may prefer to keep your palettes collapsed along the bottom edge of the Photoshop workspace to give you the maximum space for documents. We'll take a closer look at each of the individual palettes in future lessons.

Notes for Version 6.0

In Photoshop 6, the commands to reset and save palette locations have moved. Reset Palette Locations is under the Window menu. Preferences is under the Edit menu.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 1: Review

It may not seem like we have covered very much so far, but you may be surprised at what you've learned. Let's review what we have studied in Lesson 1.

You learned how to find hidden menus and tools when you see a small arrow on a menu, palette, or tool button.

You learned how to identify many of the most commonly used keyboard shortcuts.

You learned how to take advantage of tool tips and hints in the status bar area.

You learned how to open a file.

You learned how to change the foreground and background colors, swap colors, and reset colors to defaults.

You learned how to change screen mode, as well as hide and show the toolbar, palettes, and menu bar.

You learned how to move, arrange, group, hide and show the palettes.

You learned how to access additional palette options through the palette menu.

You learned several ways to zoom in and out of documents.

Let's review each of the keyboard shortcuts and commands we've discussed so far:

Zoom shortcuts:

No modifier key = click to zoom in; click and drag to zoom into a specific area Ctrl- /Cmd- (plus sign) = zoom in Double click the Zoom tool = zoom to 100% magnification Ctrl-Alt-0/Cmd-Option-0 = zoom to 100% magnification Double click the Hand tool = zoom to fit the screen Ctrl-0/Cmd-0 = zoom to fit the screen Alt/Option with zoom tool = click to zoom out Ctrl--/Cmd-- (minus sign) = zoom out Type any number into the status bar magnifation level display.

Opening a File:

File > Open Ctrl-O/Cmd-O

Double click the application background (Windows Only)

Screen Mode and Display:

F = toggles screen modes Shift-F = Turns menu bar on and off in full screen modes Tab = toggles the toolbox, status bar, and palettes on and off Shift-Tab = toggle only the palettes on and off

Palettes:

Enter or Return = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only) Double click tool button = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only) F5 = Show/Hide Brushes Palette F6 = Show/Hide Color Palette F7 = Show/Hide Layers Palette F8 = Show/Hide Info Palette F9 = Show/Hide Actions Palette

Other Shortcuts:

D = resets the foreground color to black and background color to white. X = swap foreground and background colors. M = marquee tool Shift-M = toggle rectangular and elliptical marquee tools

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 1: Review

It may not seem like we have covered very much so far, but you may be surprised at what you've learned. Let's review what we have studied in Lesson 1.

You learned how to find hidden menus and tools when you see a small arrow on a menu, palette, or tool button.

You learned how to identify many of the most commonly used keyboard shortcuts.

You learned how to take advantage of tool tips and hints in the status bar area.

You learned how to open a file.

You learned how to change the foreground and background colors, swap colors, and reset colors to defaults.

You learned how to change screen mode, as well as hide and show the toolbar, palettes, and menu bar.

You learned how to move, arrange, group, hide and show the palettes.

You learned how to access additional palette options through the palette menu.

You learned several ways to zoom in and out of documents.

Let's review each of the keyboard shortcuts and commands we've discussed so far:

Zoom shortcuts:

No modifier key = click to zoom in; click and drag to zoom into a specific area Ctrl- /Cmd- (plus sign) = zoom in Double click the Zoom tool = zoom to 100% magnification Ctrl-Alt-0/Cmd-Option-0 = zoom to 100% magnification Double click the Hand tool = zoom to fit the screen Ctrl-0/Cmd-0 = zoom to fit the screen Alt/Option with zoom tool = click to zoom out Ctrl--/Cmd-- (minus sign) = zoom out Type any number into the status bar magnifation level display.

Opening a File:

File > Open Ctrl-O/Cmd-O Double click the application background (Windows Only)

Screen Mode and Display:

F = toggles screen modes Shift-F = Turns menu bar on and off in full screen modes Tab = toggles the toolbox, status bar, and palettes on and off Shift-Tab = toggle only the palettes on and off

Palettes:

Enter or Return = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only) Double click tool button = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only) F5 = Show/Hide Brushes Palette F6 = Show/Hide Color Palette F7 = Show/Hide Layers Palette F8 = Show/Hide Info Palette F9 = Show/Hide Actions Palette

Other Shortcuts:

D = resets the foreground color to black and background color to white. X = swap foreground and background colors. M = marquee tool Shift-M = toggle rectangular and elliptical marquee tools

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 3a: Color Primer

This lesson deals primarily with color and color selection methods. Because this is a beginner's course, we are not going to go into all the intricacies of working with color and understanding color theory, but you do need to understand some basic principles. For more in-depth discussion on color theory as it relates to graphics software, you can visit this site's color resources. Otherwise, scroll down to begin this lesson.

Before you dig in to this Photoshop lesson, I strongly suggest you familiarize yourself with some terminology and basic concepts through the following links:

Color TalkAn introduction to color in print and on the Web, from Desktop Publishing Guide Jacci Howard Bear.

Graphics Fundamentals: Distinguishing Photoshop Color Modes"Images come in many colors -- and color comes in many flavors. The RGB colors on your monitor are not the same as CMYK colors of your printer. To get the best results, you need to know which color mode to use when in Adobe Photoshop so your images look good. Here's a short course on Photoshop's color modes." This article from ElementK Journals provides overviews of Grayscale, RGB, CMYK, and Lab Color modes.

GlossaryPlease review the following glossary pages for definitions of the terms used in this lesson.

RGB CMYK Out of Gamut Web Safe Palette Hexadecimal Color

RGB

By Sue Chastain, About.com

Filed In:

1. Graphics Glossary

Definition: One of the color spaces used in graphics software. This color space is based on the primary additive colors of R ed, G reen, and B lue. This is the most common color mode used in graphics software.

CMYK

By Sue Chastain, About.com

Filed In:

1. Graphics Glossary

Definition: One of the color spaces used in graphics software. This color space is based on the ink colors used in traditional full-color commercial printing: C yan, M agenta, Y ellow, and blac K. In general, it is best to edit your images in RGB color mode because many software features and commands will not be available in CMYK mode. Converting your RGB images to CMYK should be one of the final steps before sending your image to a commercial printer (Also see Out of Gamut ). Although your inkjet printer may use these four colors of ink, you do not need to convert images to CMYK for printing on consumer-level desktop inkjet printers. In the case of desktop printers, the RGB to CMYK conversion is handled by your printer driver.

Definition: The phrase "out of gamut" refers to a range of colors that cannot be reproduced within the CMYK color space used for commercial printing. Graphics software is designed to work with images in the RGB color space throughout the editing process. The RGB color space has a much wider range of discernible colors than CMYK. When you print an image it must be reproduced with inks and these inks cannot reproduce the same range of colors that we can see with our eyes. Because the gamut of color that can be reproduced with ink is much smaller than what we can see, any color that cannot be reproduced with ink is referred to as "out of gamut." In graphics software, you often will see an out of gamut warning when you select colors that will shift when an image is converted from the RGB color space used in the editing process, to the CMYK space used for commercial printing.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 3b: The Color Picker

Let's start by looking at the Photoshop Color Picker. Bring up the color picker by clicking one of the color swatches on the toolbox. (Continued below...)

In my screen shot, black was the currently selected color when I brought up the color picker. Notice that there is a small circle in the lower left corner of the color picker area, this circle surrounds the selected color. Click anywhere else in the color picker and the circle will follow. (Continued below...)

Notice the two squares just left of the cancel button. The color shown on top is the currently selected color, the color on the bottom is the color you are replacing. If you see a triangle with an exclamation mark, it means you have selected a color that is out of gamut for CMYK. Below the out of gamut alert, Photoshop displays the closest color that is within the CMYK color gamut. If you

see a small cube displayed, it indicates that the color selection is not "Web-safe." Below the Web safe alert, Photoshop displays a tiny swatch of the closest Web-safe color match. Clicking on either of the closest match swatches will change the selected color to the closest match.

Now take a look at all those numeric entry fields on the right lower quadrant of the dialog box. These allow you to enter numeric color values in a variety of ways. The default for the color picker is to choose colors by Hue. You should have a dot next to the H in the color picker if you are still using the default preferences. As you move the color picker from left to right in the large color box you are adjusting the saturation of the hue. Try it and you'll notice the numbers next to the S change from 0 (far left) to 100 (far right). Moving the color picker up and down adjusts the brightness of the hue. As you move the color picker up and down notice that the B values change from 0 to 100 as well. To change the Hue, you can click in the narrow rainbow-colored strip next to the large color picker area, or you can drag up and down in this space.

For this course we will be choosing colors with the default color picker arrangement, so I am not going to cover the other numeric entry fields, but I would like to encourage you to explore them on your own. At some stage in this course I may ask you to select a specific color by its RGB values. In these cases, you would enter numbers in the corresponding

numeric fields for R, G, and B. For example, the RGB values for 50% gray are R128-G128-B128 and would be entered like this:

Notes for Version 5.5 and 6.0

In Photoshop 5.5 and higher, the color picker will also have a checkbox to display only Web colors. This restricts the color picker to only displaying colors in the Web-safe palette. In addition, you also have a field where you can enter the hexadecimal color codes used in HTML. This field is indicated with the # sign.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 3c: Color & Swatches Palettes

In addition to the color picker dialog box, Photoshop provides two palettes for selecting color: the Color Palette, and the Swatch Palette. (Continued below...)

The color palette provides a color ramp along the bottom of the palette for quickly picking an approximate color. As you move your cursor over the color ramp, it changes to an eyedropper. Clicking in the color ramp changes the foreground color. Alt/Option clicking on the color ramp changes the background color. The current foreground and background colors are displayed in the color palette in addition to the toolbox.

If a color is out of gamut, the color palette will also display the gamut alert.

The sliders in the Color palette allow you to refine your color choice by adjusting each slider or by entering values into the numeric entry fields. Right-clicking/Control-clicking on the color ramp allows you to change the way the color ramp is displayed. The Color Palette menu also allows you to change the way the color ramp is displayed, and allows you to change the sliders displayed on the color palette for selecting colors using RGB, HSB, CMYK, or other color spaces.

Notes for Version 6.0

In Photoshop 6.0, the color ramp has two larger areas with black and white swatches. This makes it a bit easier to select pure white or pure black from the color ramp.

We've learned so many options for choosing colors already, it's hard to imagine ever needing another one, but Photoshop has it! Take a look at the swatches palette now.

The default swatches are a generic set of colors, but the true value of the Swatches palette is in its ability to load custom swatch collections. With a set of custom color swatches you can restrict yourself to specific colors without having to remember any numeric color values. For instance, you can create a custom swatch from the colors in a company logo, and use those colors when working on other projects for the company.

Here's a few color swatch actions you can try on your own:

Left click selects a foreground color Alt-click/Option-click selects background color in Photoshop 6.0. In Photoshop 7.0,

Ctrl-click/Command-click selects the background color. When you move your cursor over an empty spot in the swatch palette, it changes to a

paint bucket and you can click to add a new color to the swatches palette. (In Photoshop 6, you'll be prompted to name the swatch.)

In Photoshop 6.0, when you hold the Ctrl/Command key down and move your cursor over a swatch, the cursor changes to a scissors icon and you can click to delete a color. In Photoshop 7.0, use the Alt/Option key to delete a color.

To change the color of a swatch, select the new color using the color picker, move the cursor over the color swatch that you want to replace, and hold down the shift key. The cursor changes to a paint bucket and you can click to replace the old color with a new color.

In Photoshop 6, you can double click on a color to rename it. You can revert to the default swatch palette by choosing Reset Swatches from the

Swatches palette menu. You can also load, replace, and save swatch collection from the Swatches palette

menu.

In the exercise that follows you will learn how to create a custom swatch collection from the colors in an image. There's also some additional notes for users of version 6.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 3d: Custom Swatch Exercise

You can imagine how time consuming it would be if you had to create a custom swatch collection by choosing and adding colors one at a time. You'll be glad to know that you can create a custom palette from the colors in an existing image. (Continued Below)

Let's try it now using the About logo. Save this image to your hard drive and open it in Photoshop.The image opens in RGB color mode. In order to create a swatch collection from an image, we must first convert it to a indexed palette image. To do this, go to the Image menu and choose Mode > Indexed Color.

The indexed color dialog box appears. You can read more about the options in the dialog in the online help, but for this exercise, just make the following selections:

• Palette: Perceptual• Colors: 128• Forced: None• Transparency: unchecked• Dither: None

Click OK, and the image is converted to indexed color mode, and the color palette of the image is displayed in the swatches palette (version 5.x only).

To save the swatches for future use, go to Image > Mode > Color Table > Save. Give the file a name and then cancel out of the color table dialog. Color Tables are saved as ACT files. You can store the files anywhere and load them from the Swatch Palette menu. When loading a color swatch the default file name is set to ACO, so in order to load the ACT file you'll need to change the Files of type menu to look for ACT files. Once the Color table is loaded into the swatches palette you can save it again as an ACO file

for ease of use; this step is not necessary, however, since the swatches palette can load both ACO and ACT files.

You'll find some additional color swatch files in the Goodies folder in your Photoshop application folder.

Notes for Version 6.0

In Photoshop 6, you'll find some additional options on the Swatches Palette menu. Most noticeably you'll find that you can load swatches directly from the menu. As long as the ACO swatch file is located in your Adobe\Photoshop 6.0\Presets\Color Swatches folder, the swatches will be listed on the menu, saving you a few steps when loading custom swatches. If you add a new swatch file while Photoshop is running, you'll need to close and reopen Photoshop before they will appear in the menu.

Another difference in Photoshop 6 is that you have the option to view swatches as thumbnails or as a list. The list view shows a larger color swatch with the color name next to it. In thumbnail view, you can still see the color names by holding the cursor over the swatch for a few moments.

Also in Photoshop 6, you'll find there are two icons along the bottom

of the swatch palette for creating new swatches and deleting swatches. You can drag swatches from the palette to these buttons to add and remove colors from the swatch collection.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 3e: Eyedropper & Info Palette

With the eyedropper tool you can pick up colors from any open image. The keyboard shortcut for the eyedropper is I. Simply click with the eyedropper in your image to

change the foreground color. Alt/Option click to change the background color. (Continued below...)

When the color picker dialog is on-screen, your cursor will automatically change to the eyedropper anytime you move it outside of the color picker dialog to an open document. Whenever a painting tool is active, can temporarily switch to the eyedropper to change the foreground color by pressing Alt/Option.

Double click on the eyedropper toolbox button for the eyedropper options (In Photoshop 6 the options are on the option bar.) The options allow you to specify a single pixel sample, a 3x3 average, or a 5x5 average. In most cases, the 3 by 3 average works well. This averages the color of the nearest 3 pixels surrounding the area where you click. You can also change the sample area options by right-clicking/Control-clicking anywhere in the image when the eyedropper is active.

The eyedropper can be used in conjunction with the Info palette to read color values from your images. Display the info palette, then select the eyedropper and move it over your image. By default, the Info palette displays the RGB and CMYK values, as

well as the X and Y coordinates of the cursor. When making a selection, the Info palette also displays the width and height of the selection.

Notice the tiny arrows next to the eyedropper and crosshair icons on the Info Palette. You remember what that means, don't you? Yes... there is a menu under there! Clicking on the tiny icon pops up a menu that allows you to change the values displayed in the info palette.

Another thing to notice about the Info palette is that it gives you yet another way to identify colors that are outside of the CMYK gamut. As you move the eyedropper over your image, look at the CMYK values displayed in the Info Palette. When the percent (%) sign changes to an exclamation mark (!) it indicates a color that is out of gamut.

If you hold the Shift key down while the eyedropper is active, you can place color samplers on your image. These samplers allow you to continuously display color readings for specific points on your image. You can place

up to four samplers in an image. Place a couple of sampler points on your image now and notice what happens to the Info Palette. It expands to show the sampler readings. These are useful for doing advanced color correction work.

To remove a sampler, hold the shift key down and move the cursor directly over the sampler target; the cursor will change to a pointer and then you can click and drag it outside of the document window. You can hide the samplers without removing them from the Info Palette menu. You can also choose the color sampler tool directly from the toolbox (hidden under the eyedropper), but it is much easier to just remember I for eyedropper and shift for the sampler tool.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 3: Review and Homework

Bitmap mode means the image consists of only pure black and pure white. A bitmap mode image is called a one-bit image and is also known as line art. (Continued below...)

Grayscale mode means that the image contains 256 levels of gray plus black and white. Grayscale mode is also called 8-bit.

RGB stands for red, green, and blue. This image mode is a full color image. Because it uses one 8-bit channel for each color -- red, green, and blue -- it is called a 24-bit color image (8 red 8 green 8 blue = 24).

CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. This color mode is used in four-color process printing, and is not usually used during the editing process.

Index mode allows you to limit the colors used in an image to specific palette. The indexed palette can have up to 256 unique colors.

The out of gamut alert is a small triangle with an exclamation mark that appears when a color is selected that will shift when the image is converted to CMYK mode.

The Web-safe alert is a small cube that appears when a color is selected that will shift or dither on systems that cannot display more than 256 colors.

Whenever the cursor appears as an eyedropper, you can click to change the foreground color.

The keyboard shortcut for the eyedropper is I.

Holding Alt/Option down when a painting tool is active temporarily changes to the eyedropper for selecting a new foreground color.

You can place up to four color samplers in your image by holding down the shift key when the eyedropper tool is selected.

Homework Assignment:Select an image that has a pleasing range of colors. If necessary, crop the image to isolate the areas of color that are most pleasing. Convert the image to index mode. Save the Color Table (ACT) and then convert the color table to a custom swatch file (ACO) as described in Lesson3d. Post your swatch file to the forum to share with your classmates. Here's an example I created from the following image:

Click here to download the ACO Swatch Collection.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 4a: Selection Tools

In this lesson we're going to be exploring all of Photoshop's selection tools plus masks, alpha channels, and transformation of selections. The selection tools include the marquee tools, the lasso tools, and the magic wand. However, we are also going to discuss many more ways

of making and refining selections using Quick Mask Mode, alpha channels, and the transform selection command. (Continued below...)

We use selections in Photoshop to isolate editing to specific areas in an image, or for cutting out portions of an image. Similarly, masks are used to protect specific image areas from being modified, or for removing portions of an image. For a more thorough overview on the differences between masks and selections, see part two of my article, All About Masks.

Unless you're entirely new to Photoshop, you probably have some familiarity with the marquee selection tools. It's difficult to do much of anything in Photoshop without them. These include the rectangular marquee, the elliptical marquee, the single row horizontal, and single row vertical marquee tools. As you learned in a previous lesson, the shortcut key for the marquee tools is M and Shift M toggles the rectangular and elliptical marquee tools. Let's look at some additional shortcuts for the marquee tools:

Holding down the shift key while dragging a selection marquee constrains the selection to a square or circle.

Holding down the shift key while dragging a selection marquee when an existing selection is active adds to the selection.

Holding down the Alt/Option key while dragging a selection marquee when an existing selection is active subtracts from the selection.

Holding down the Alt/Option key while dragging a selection marquee creates the selection from the center out from where you initially clicked.

The Shift and Alt/Option modifier keys can be used together when making an initial selection to constrain proportions and draw from the center.

The Shift and Alt/Option modifier keys can be used together when another selection is active to create a selection from the intersection (the areas where the two selections overlap).

To reposition a selection while you are in the process of drawing it, hold down the spacebar. As long as the spacebar is held down you can move you selection, when you let up on the space bar you can go back to drawing your selection. The selection will not be finalized until you release the mouse button.

You can move a selection after it has been finalized by moving the cursor inside the selection marquee as long as the marquee tool is active. The cursor will change to look like this and then you can click and drag the marquee into a new position. You can also use the arrows on your keyboard to reposition a selection.

Ctrl/Command-A selects the entire image. Ctrl/Command-D removes the selection. Shift-Ctrl/Command-I inverts the selection. Ctrl/Command-H acts as a toggle to hide the marquee but preserves the selection.

Notes for Version 6.0

In Photoshop 6, you can also choose the add/subtract/intersect modifiers from the set of buttons on the

options bar.

In Photoshop 6, the Ctrl/Command-H shortcut toggles more than just the selection marquee, so you may need it to press the key combination multiple times before the marquee is hidden. You can control what items this toggle controls by checking them off in the View > Show submenu.

The marquee tools have some options you can access by double clicking the tool to bring the options palette to the front. You can adjust the feathering, anti-aliasing, and style.

Feathering lets you fade the edge of the selection, but in most cases you will leave this setting to zero since there are more accurate ways of feathering a selection after it has been drawn.

Anti-aliasing smoothes out the edges of the selection. You'll rarely, if ever, need to deactivate this. It will be unavailable for the rectangle selection tool because rectangles always have hard edges.

The style menu lets you make more precise selections. o When constrained aspect ratio is chosen you can choose the ratio of width to

height. With both values set to 1 you would only be able to draw a perfect square or circle. With a width of 1 and a height of 2 you would create a selection that is two times higher than the width, and so on.

o When fixed width is chosen you can enter a width and height in pixels and just click once to make a selection of that exact size.

Take some time now to try all these options using the marquee selection tools. When you're ready, continue on to the next lesson on the lasso tools.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 4b: Lasso & Wand Selection Tools

In this lesson we'll be discussing the three lasso tools. The shortcut key for the lasso tool is L and Shift L toggles between the three lasso tools. (Continued below...)

The regular lasso tool allows you to make freehand selections. Just click and drag to draw the selection. Whenever you let up on the mouse button, your selection will automatically close, forming a straight line between the start and end points. The shortcuts for adding to and subtracting from the selection are the same as the marquee tools. Here's some additional lasso tool shortcuts:

If you want to draw straight lines with the lasso tool, you can hold down the Alt/Option key and make a series of single clicks instead of dragging.

You can toggle between freehand and straight line mode by pressing the Alt/Option key while you are drawing the selection. This is a bit tricky, you need to make sure you press or release the key wile the mouse button is down or you will close the selection.

You can hold down on the delete key to erase recently drawn line segments.

You also have feathering and anti-aliasing options with the lasso tool.

The Polygonal Lasso tool is used to draw straight line selections. You can make the polygonal lasso tool work just like the regular lasso tool by holding down the Alt/Option key to draw freehand selection. One difference with the Polygonal lasso tool is that you can use the Shift key to constrain the selection lines to 45° increments. If you are drawing a straight line selection you can press the delete key at any time to remove the last segment. To remove multiple segments, press delete repeatedly.

If you used the polygonal lasso tool to make a freehand selection you can hold down the delete key to slowly erase the line. This also requires a bit of coordination, because you will have the Alt/Option key already held down to draw freehand. What you need to do is let up on the Alt/Option key and hold down delete. Then when you have erased as much as you'd like, you can go back to pressing down the Alt/Option key to continue your selection in freehand mode.

The Magnetic Lasso tool works similarly to the other lasso tools, but it has special powers that can detect areas of contrast and it will snap to the edges of the object you're trying to select. Because of these special powers, the magnetic lasso has more options than the other lasso tools. These options are explained in my magnetic lasso tutorial, which is part of the assignment for this lesson.

You can temporarily switch to the regular lasso tool behavior while using the magnetic lasso by holding down the Alt/Option key and dragging. Or you can temporarily switch to polygonal lasso tool behavior by holding down the Alt/Option key and clicking. The Delete key allows you to delete points. Here's some additional lasso tool shortcuts that aren't mentioned in my tutorial:

You can adjust the lasso width as you draw using the arrow keys or the [ and ] keys. You can adjust the frequency as you draw using the ; (semicolon) and ' (apostrophe)

keys. You can adjust the edge contrast as you draw using the , (comma) and . (period) keys.

Closing selections with the polygonal lasson and the magnetic lasso is a little bit different than the freehand lasso tool. With these tools there's two ways to close the selection:

If you move the cursor within a few pixels of the starting point, you'll see a tiny circle appear next to the cursor and it means that when you click once the selection will close.

If you're not near the starting point and you want to close the selection you must double click.

o If you're using the polygonal or magnetic lasso tool with the Alt/Option key to make freehand selections, you must let up on the Alt/Option key first, and then you can double click to close the selection.

Last, but not least, is the Magic Wand tool. The magic wand makes selections based on color similarity. The shortcut for the magic wand key is W.

Double click on the magic wand tool to bring the options palette to the front.

The tolerance setting controls the range of color that will be selected and has a range from 0 to 255. To select a small range of colors enter a low number, for a wider range of color, select a high number.

The Use all Layers option allows you to select based on the data from all visible layers (we'll be learning more about layers in the next lesson).

When contiguous is checked, the selection only includes adjacent pixels of the same color range. If you wanted to select islands of color all at once, you would deselect the contiguous option.

As with the other selection tools, you can use Shift to add to the selection, and Alt/Option to subtract from the selection.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 4c: Selection Exercises

Let's practice what we've learned so far by making some basic shapes with the selection tools. (Continued below...)

.

Start with a new document (File > New), 400x400 pixels, with a white background.

For these exercises we'll be making basic shapes by filling the selection.

To fill a selection with the background color, you can hit the Ctrl backspace/Command Delete key.

To fill with the foreground color, hit Alt backspace/Option Delete.

For the first shape draw a square, then subtract a circle and fill with black.

Notes for Version 5.0

The contiguous option is only available in version 5.5 and higher.

Use the polygonal lasso to make a diamond shape (don't forget the shift key to constrain the angle).

Then invert the selection (Shift Ctrl/Command I) and fill with white. Since this is just practice our shape won't be perfect, but we could use grids and rulers for more precision.

Go to the view menu and turn on rulers or hit Ctrl/Command-R. Turn on the grid next from the view menu or by hitting Ctrl/Command-". Double click on the ruler and change the units to pixels. Click Next and set the grid lines for every 50 pixels with 5 subdivisions.

Use the grid to help you draw a perfect triangle.

Add a rectangle to make a house shape.

Then use more rectangles to make a door and window.

With the single row marquee tool you can add a line to form the

base of your

See if you can figure out how to make the half circle window and the tree on your own.

Then use the magic wand in combination with other tools and modifier keys to change the color of the house.

And I'll bet you thought you couldn't draw!

See what else you can add to the scene using the selection tools and post your finished drawing to the discussion forum.

Here's some additional shapes you can try to recreate on your own for practice. Remember to use the grid as a drawing aid. You can toggle grid snapping on and off by pressing Ctrl/Command-;. I've left the grid visible in these screen shots to give you clues on how the shapes were created.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 4d: Select Menu Commands

Now let's take a look at some of the commands found on the Select menu. (Continued below...)

We've already covered some of the shortcut keys for the most often used commands:Select All = Ctrl/Command-ADeselect = Ctrl/Command-DReselect = Shift-Ctrl/Command-DInverse = Shift-Ctrl/Command-I

Next is the Color Range command. This is another way of making selections based on color similarity, but unlike the magic wand tool, you have a bit more control and can refine your selection visually. To learn more about this command, see the online help file or page 142 of the Photoshop 5.0 User Guide or page 144 of the Photoshop 6.0 User Guide.

The feather command allows you to soften or blur the edges of your selection by a specific number of pixels. You can experiment with it on one of your own images to create a soft vignette effect. Here's how:

1. Make an oval selection

2. Feather by 10-20 pixels3. Invert the selection4. Fill with a background color.

The feather command is usually fine when you just need to feather the selection by a few pixels, but in most cases, you need a more visual approach. I'll be showing you a better alternative to the feather command when we discuss Quick Mask Mode very soon.

Next up is the Modify submenu which includes the commands Border, Smooth, Expand, and Contract.

Border creates a selection that frames the border of previously selected area. The border can be any size from 1 to 64 pixels. See the example below where the circular selection was converted to a border selection of 10 pixels.

Original Selection Converted to 10 pixel border selection

You'll rarely ever use this command, and if you fill the border selection with a color you'll see why. It makes a fuzzy selection.

If you wanted to outline a selection with a hard edge, you'd be better off using the Stroke command. If we step back in the history palette to before we used the border command, we can choose Edit > Stroke.

Set the width and the location of the stroke, and you get a nice hard-edged border like the one to the right.

The Smooth command smoothes out any sharp angles in your selection. In the example below, the first outline resulted from a freehand selection with the lasso tool that was stroked. The second outline is the same selection after apply the smooth command with a radius of 10. For the third outline, smooth was applied again with a radius of 10.

Try this out on your own. Remember, you can stroke a selection and then move the selection over by clicking inside it and dragging.

Expand and Contract are pretty self explanatory. Expand makes the selection larger by a specific number of pixels; and contract makes the selection smaller by a specific number of pixels.

Original Selection Expand Selection 10 pixels Contract Selection 10 pixels

The Grow command expands a selection to includeadjacent areas that are similar in color to the current selection. The Similar command expands a selection to include non-adjacent areas that are similar in color. In the example here, I first made a rough lasso selection of the inside of the leaf.

Using grow, the selection expands to the entire leaf as shown below.

Using similar, the selection expands to include most of both leaves.

This is similar to the contiguous option for the Magic Wand tool. Grow is equivalent to having contiguous checked, and similar is the equivalent of have contiguous unchecked. Feel free to save this image to experiment with on your own.

Take some time to experiment with all these commands on your own before moving on to learn about transforming selections. If desired, post your practice files to the discussion forum.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 4e: Transforming Selections

The Transform Selection command gives you much more control over modifying selections. (Continued below...)

When you invoke the transform selection command, a bounding box will appear around your selection, similar to the box that appears when you use the crop tool. The box has handles just like the crop bounding box that allow you to drag and stretch the bounding box. The same keyboard shortcuts you learned for transforming the crop bounding box can be used with the transform selection bounding box:

Holding down the Ctrl/Command key while dragging a middle handle allows you to skew the bounding box.

Holding down the Ctrl/Command key while dragging a corner handle allows you to distort the corners independently.

Holding down the Alt/Option key when dragging a corner handle resizes the bounding box from the center.

Holding down the Alt/Option key when dragging a side handle applies the transformation to both sides of the bounding box like a mirror reelection.

Shift constrains the movements and can be used in conjunction with the other modifier keys.

You can rotate the selection by moving the cursor just outside of a selection handle. The cursor will change to a double pointed arrow to indicate that you can rotate.

You can flip a selection by dragging one handle all the way across the bounding box to the other side.

To commit the transformation, double click inside the bounding box. To reject the transformation, hit Esc.

You can access additional transformation commands by right clicking/Option clicking inside the bounding box for the context sensitive menu. The context sensitive menu allows you perform transformations numerically.

Notes for Version 6.0

If you have Photoshop 6, you can transform numerically via the options bar.

Practice transforming selections to make the following shapes:

Click the thumbnail to download a larger version of this image to practice making a selection of the headlight using the transform command:

If desired, post your practice files to the discussion forum.

Next up we'll learn how create and edit selections visually with Quick Mask Mode, and we'll discuss the save and load selection commands when we learn about alpha channels.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 4f: Quick Mask Intro

We continue our lesson on selections with Quick Mask Mode and Alpha Channels. There's a reason we're discussing these two things together, because they are very similar to work with. Later, when you learn about layers, these same principles can be applied for working with layer masks and adjustment layers. (Continued below...)

You can think of a mask or an alpha channel as a more visual way to represent a selection. Think back to earlier in this lesson when you used the feather command on a selection to create a soft vignette effect. You could use numeric values for the feathering amount, but there was no way to see the results of the feathering until you deleted the background.

Let's get an introduction to Quick Mask mode by creating a vignette effect a different way. Open an image and make an elliptical selection.

The Quick Mask buttons appear directly under the color palette on the toolbox. The shortcut key for Quick Mask is Q and this acts as a toggle to turn Quick Mask Mode on and off.

After making your elliptical selection, tap the Q key to switch to Quick Mask mode. The non-selected areas of the image are visible through a red screen.

The red shading indicates the masked (or non-selected areas). Now we want to feather the selection to create the vignette effect... but, what's this? The Select > Feather command is disabled. No fear... instead of feathering the selection, we can use the Gaussian Blur filter to get the same results. The difference is, we'll be able to see those results in real time.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. You may need to click and drag in the small preview area to bring the edge of your image into view. However, if you click the preview check box, you can preview the changes in your actual image.

Since we went into Quick Mask mode before invoking the Gaussian Blur filter, the effects are only applied to our mask.

Now drag the Radius slider up to a range between 10-20 pixels and observe the Quick Mask.

OK the Gaussian Blur dialog.

Tap the Q key to exit Quick Mask mode.

Invert your selection.

Fill with white.

While this may seem like more steps than using the feather command, it's better because you can get a pretty good idea if your blur amount was right before making any drastic changes. With the feathering method it may take a few tries since it's basically guess work and you won't know if you guessed right until you fill the background.

That was the quick intro; there's actually a whole lot more you can do with Quick Mask. But first, let's explore some of the Quick Mask options.

If you double click either of the Quick Mask buttons on the toolbox, you can change the options.

If you prefer the colored area to represent the selection instead of the mask you can change that here. If the default red overlay color isn't working for your image, you can click the color square to change it to something that works better. And finally, you can adjust the opacity of the overlay color. Feel free to experiment with these options on your own.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 4g: More Quick Mask

Make your channels palette visible. By default it will show you a grayscale representation of each of the three color channels: Red green and blue. Now make a selection and switch to Quick Mask mode.

You'll see a fourth channel appear in the channels palette labeled Quick Mask. A Quick Mask is actually a temporary alpha channel. And an alpha channel is essentially a selection that has been saved. Any editing that you perform in Quick Mask mode can also be performed on an alpha channel and vice-versa. The only difference is that the alpha channel becomes part of your image (when it is saved in a format that supports them) and the Quick Mask is lost as soon as you exit Quick Mask mode and deselect.

What else can we do in Quick Mask mode? Well, you'd be surprised. Basically, any editing function that can be applied to a grayscale image can also be applied to a Quick Mask or alpha channel. You can paint on it, apply curves and levels adjustments, even use the other selection tools within Quick Mask mode. We've already experimented with applying filters, and you'll find that many of Photoshop's filters can be used in Quick Mask mode for interesting effects. You can invert a mask using the same invert command that you use to invert the colors in your image, Ctrl-I/Command-I.

You may also notice that when you switch to Quick Mask mode, your foreground and background colors automatically revert to default black and white (don't worry, your previous color selection will still be there when you exit Quick Mask mode). This is because the mask is actually a grayscale representation of a selection. When you look at the Quick Mask in your channel palette, the black areas represent what is completely masked and the white areas represent what is unmasked (these will be the selected areas when you exit Quick Mask mode). Of course, you can also have partially selected areas and these are represented by shades of gray. When you paint on a mask, black adds to the mask and white erases the mask. For further explanation of this, you may wish to read my article, All About Masks.

Let's try a quick exercise that will really help illustrate this.

1. Open any image.

2. Type Q for Quick Mask Mode, then hit Alt-Backspace/Option-Delete to fill with black.

3. Then go to Filters > Render > Clouds. 4. Look at the thumbnail in the channels palette and you can see it is filled

with varying shades of gray.5. Click the small eyeball next to the RGB channel at the top of the palette

and you'll see the Quick Mask in grayscale. Click the space where the eye was to reveal color image again.

6. Toggle out of Quick Mask mode. The selection marquee is just a bunch of squiggly lines that don't tell you very much!

7. Now hit Backspace/Delete to fill with white and your image should have a smoggy hazy appearance. The areas of the mask that were darkest show the most change and the areas that were lightest show the least change.

If you find you prefer working in Quick Mask Mode over using the selection tools, you can duplicate many of the commands in the Select menu by going into Quick Mask mode and using other Photoshop filters and commands. Here's Quick Mask equivalents to some of the Select menu options:

Expand can be achieved with Filter > Other > Maximum Contract can be achieved with Filter > Other > Minimum Feather can be achieved with Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur (try motion blur or radial

blur for other effects. Select > Inverse can be achieved with Image > Adjust > Invert or Ctrl-I/Command-I Border can be achieved with Filter > Sketch > Photocopy. (Experiment with the

sliders) After applying the Select > Border command, you can switch to Quick Mask mode and

use Image > Adjust > Levels to give the border a hard edge. In fact, you can use this anytime you need to convert a feathered selection to a hard edge.

And of course, you can make free-form selections by using any of the painting tools in Quick Mask mode.

Continue on to learn how to save selections as alpha channels and work with the channels palette.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 4h: Alpha Channels and the Channel Palette

Before we move on to some mask and alpha channel exercises, let's discuss alpha channels and the channels palette. (Continued below...)

Anytime you think you may need to reuse a selection, you can save it permanently in an Alpha Channel. To do this, make a selection, choose Select > Save Selection and a dialog box will appear.

By default the selection will be saved with the current document, but you can pull down the menu to make a new document from the selection. In most cases you will save the selection with the current document. In the Name field, you'll want to type a name for your selection so you can identify it when it's time to reload the selection.

The Operator options would be available if your document already contained an Alpha channel. You can add, subtract and intersect the selection with an existing alpha channel. Or, as usual, you can create a new channel.

An image can contain up to 24 channels, including all color channels. These alpha channels are saved even when you close and reopen an image, but only when the image is saved in a format the supports it. These include Photoshop's native format (PSD), PDF (Photoshop 6.0 only), PICT, TIFF, and RAW.

Your saved selections appear in the channels palette. To load a saved selection, you would choose Select > Load Selection (but I bet you knew that!). If your document contains more than one alpha channel you would choose the one you want from the Channel drop down menu. You can also invert the selection as you load it. If you had an existing selection already made you can use the Operation options to add, subtract, or intersect the selection. Otherwise, New will be the only available operation.

You can also work with saved selections via the channels palette. Take a minute to save a few selections so you can follow along while we discuss the channel palette. To view a channel as grayscale, just click on it in the channel palette. To view the selection as an overlay with the composite image still visible, click the eyeball next to RGB and the eyeball next to the thumbnail of the channel you want to see as an overlay.

When a channel is selected in the channels palette, any editing you perform is applied only to the channel, just as if you were in Quick Mask mode. Double clicking on the channel brings up its options and allows you to rename a channel. To the far right of the thumbnail, you'll see the keyboard shortcuts for selecting specific channels. It's handy to remember Ctrl-~/Command-~ to select the RGB composite image.

You'll also notice a row of buttons along the bottom of the channels palette. These buttons allow you to load a channel as a selection, save a selection as a channel, create a new empty channel, and delete a channel. If you want a dialog box to appear so that you can name the selection when you use the button method of saving a selection, hold down the Alt/Option key when you click on the button. To create a new alpha channel based on an existing channel, drag one of the channels to the create channel button. A duplicate channel will appear which you can edit. Again, hold down Alt/Option for a dialog box. To delete a channel, drag and drop it onto the far right button with the trash can icon.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 4i: Quick Mask & Alpha Channel Practice

Here's some practice exercises to help you get familiar with Quick Mask mode and alpha channels. (Continued below...)

Exercise 1: Rounded Rectangle

1. Open a new image 100h x 200w pixels.2. Create a rectangular selection3. Enter Quick Mask Mode4. Filter > Blur Gaussian Blur5. 10 pixel radius6. Image > Adjust > Levels7. Drag the black and white sliders toward the center as shown in the screen shot.

Voila! A rounded rectangle selection.

Exercise 2: Coloring

Download this image. I've created several selections for various parts of the butterfly and saved the selections as alpha channels. Practice loading alpha channels and filling selections to color the image.

Exercise 3: Create a gradual fade.

1. Open any image2. Switch to Quick Mask mode.3. Select the linear gradient tool.4. Set the gradient options for foreground to background.5. Click and drag to fill the mask with a gradient (hold shift to constrain it to

a straight line).

6. Exit Quick Mask mode. [Note the selection marquee appears as if the image is half selected. That's because the marquee only appears where pixels are more than 50% selected.]

7. Type D to reset default colors.8. Hit Backspace/Delete.

Exercise 4: Combine selection tools and Quick Mask for faster selections.

1. Save this flower image.

2. Use the magic wand with a tolerance setting of about 100 and click on the yellow petals.

3. Most of the petals should be selected. If you need to, choose Select > Similar to select more of the petals.

4. Switch to Quick Mask Mode.5. Make a selection of the inside of the flower and remove the mask by filling with white.6. Invert the mask (Crtl-I/Command-I).7. Exit Quick Mask Mode.8. Fill with White.

Exercise 5: Create an interesting edge effect without expensive filters.

1. Open any image.2. Make a rectangular selection staying about a half inch from all edges of

the image.3. Switch to Quick Mask Mode.4. Go to Filter > Brush Strokes > Spatter5. Adjust the preview window so you can see the edge of your mask and move the sliders

until you are pleased with the effect. I used a radius of 20 and smoothness of 4.6. Invert the mask.7. Exit Quick Mask Mode.8. Fill with white.

Try this same technique with these filters for other edge effects:

Filter > Distort > Ripple Filter > Distort > Glass Filter > Distort > Ocean Ripple Filter > Artistic > Underpainting

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur (10-20 pixels) followed by Filter > Pixelate > Color Halftone

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur (10-20 pixels) followed by Filter > Pixelate > Crystallize Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur (10-20 pixels) followed by Filter > Pixelate > Crystallize Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur (10-20 pixels) followed by Filter > Pixelate > Mosaic (10) Filter > Sketch > Torn Edges Filter > Sketch > Water Paper Filter > Stylize > Diffuse (apply multiple times) Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur (10-20 pixels) followed by Image > Adjust > Poserize (5-

10)

If you'd like additional practice with selections, Quick Mask, and alpha channels, see Photoshop Masks & Selection Techniques for links to tutorials from around the Web. Be aware, however, that some of these tutorials may include features and commands we have not yet covered in this course.

Please post your results from these exercises to the Interactive Classroom.

Working with Masks and Making Selections in PhotoshopTutorials for making complex masks and precise selections with Adobe Photoshop. Techniques for using channel masks, alpha channels, quick mask mode, layer masks, grayscale masks, marquee selections, the extract command, plus various random selections tips and tricks.

Channel MaskThis simple technique uses a duplicate color channel to create a mask for isolating a complicated selection.

Magnetic Lasso ToolUse the magnetic lasso tool and quick mask mode in Photoshop 5 to remove a complex background from an image in less than 10 minutes.

Pen Tool SelectionsThis technique uses the pen tool to create a path around the image and convert the path to a selection.

Combining Selection TechniquesFor some selections, a combination of tools and techniques is required. Here's one example where an image was isolated from the background using channels, levels, and the pen tool in combination.

Extract CommandAn overview of the new extract command in Photoshop 5.5.

Selection Tools and CommandsLearn about the new reselect command, the magnetic lasso tool, freeform pen tool, magnetic pen tool, and measurment tool introduced in Photoshop 5.5.

Back to Basics - Photoshop SelectionsWendy Peck thoroughly explains Photoshop's selection tools, and other important selection tasks including making selections with channels and color range, plus modifying, saving, and sharing selections.

Master Photoshop's Masking ToolsExplore the principles of masking and learn several different techniques for masking and making selections in Photoshop.

Cleaning Up a Dirty Hair Mask in Photoshop CS"In compositing, there's nothing worse than a bad mask. And nowhere is it easier to mess up your mask than on a subject's hair, especially when it's blurred or obscured by a complex background or hazy foreground, making it pretty much impossible to get an accurate mask at all."

Introducing QuickmaskThis excerpt from Using Photoshop 5 introduces you to the Quickmask mode of making selections.

Layer Mask BasicsLearn how to create and edit layer masks, then use them to create artistic effects.

MaskPlus TechniqueRon Lemire demonstrates a method of handling selections or masks that creates perfectly aligned edges. Great for colorizing.

Masking UnmaskedLearn how and when to use masks, clipping paths, and silhouettes.

Quick Mask BasicsLearn about the quick mask mode in Photoshop and see examples of how you can use it to perfect your selections.

Selection TipThis tip shows you how to avoid the fringe that results when using the ctrl-click on a layer method of loading a selection.

SelectionsFrom the author: "A collection of odd items intended to show off the talents of the various selection tools, the marquee tools, the lassos, the magic wand, and, from the Select menu, Color Range."

SelectionsExplains the selection tools in Photoshop 4 and when you should use each of them.

Selections and Removing BackgroundsIn this tutorial, we will do this mostly in the context of removing backgrounds from pictures. In particular, we will be using lasso, magic wand, a quickmask, a layer mask, the pen tool, and a special selection using a threshold adjustment. Photoshop 6.0.

Removing the BackgroundPhotoshop 5.5's Background Eraser

Removing the Background > Adobe Photoshop

The qualities of this image led me to choose Photoshop's background eraser tool. The background in this image is a similar color throughout the image, and the soft, billowing edges of the vapor trails make the selection tools--such as the magic wand or magnetic lasso--impractical. Using the background eraser and the technique below, I was able to remove the background from this image in just a few minutes.

The background eraser tool samples the background color as you paint and

erases pixels in the same color range as you drag your brush across the image. The color range is determined by the tolerance setting in the background eraser options. Since this image had a background that was all over very similar in color, a low tolerance setting was used. I choose the discontigous option because I wanted to remove the blue color everywhere it appears in the layer.

Because part of the foreground in this image is light colored, I find it easier to work with the background eraser by dropping in a contrasting color behind the layer so I can see my work more easily. To do this, I double clicked on the background to promote it to a layer and I named that layer "Jets".

Next, I added a new layer, dragging it below the Jets layer and filling it with solid black. Later, this layer can be deleted or filled with another color.

As you can see below, I like to work with a fairly large brush when using the background eraser tool. You don't want a soft-edged brush either. I find a hardness level of about 80 works well. To customize your brush size and hardness, just double click an existing brush in the brushes palette, or select New Brush from the brush palette menu.

When you click with the background eraser brush in your image, you need to be very careful that the crosshairs in the center of the brush land only in the background area. The crosshairs take a sample for the background color, so if the crosshairs touch the foreground, it will remove part of the foreground.

With my giant brush, I like to make several individual clicks in the image rather than using a click and drag motion. When you make individual clicks, it's much easier to undo a mistake if you click too close to the foreground. Below you can see where I've made two clicks with the background eraser.

I continue clicking until the area immediately surrounding the foreground is completely removed, then I go back and take out the surrounding background with a dragging motion.

You can see in the enlarged view here that there are some specks from the background that were not completely removed. If you continue to carefully drag the brush around the image you can erase the majority of those specks.

To make sure all traces of the specks are completely removed, this is what you can do: Ctrl-click on the layer in the layers palette (command-click on Mac) to load the layer as a selection...

Then invert the selection (Selection > Invert) and press delete.

Here is the final image with the background removed and a new background dropped in to replace the black. The total time spent removing the background was under 3 minutes.

It may take a little time experimenting with the background eraser tool options before you can achieve results this quickly, but with a little practice, I'm sure you'll start to see the power of this amazing tool.

Removing the BackgroundPhotoshop Channel Mask

Removing the Background > Adobe Photoshop

It may seem like a real challenge to pull the fireworks out of this image. The selection tools won't work, and the background eraser didn't produce very good results either. I'm going to show you an amazingly simple technique for masking the fireworks in this image using the channels palette.

The total time isolating the fireworks was under two minutes. This technique doesn't always work this smoothly for every image, but it can be used in combination with other methods for making more complex selections. In the fifth example on removing backgrounds with Photoshop, you'll see how this technique was expanded on and combined with other methods for masking a more complicated image. If you're not familiar with masks, you may find it helpful to read my previous article, All About Grayscale Masks.

The first step is to look at the channels palette and determine which color channel best represents the area we want to capture. To the right, shown from top to bottom, you can see the red, blue, and green channels for this image. It's obvious that the red channel contains the most information for capturing the fireworks.

In the channel palette, click on the red channel and drag it down to the new channel button.

This creates a duplicate of the red channel as an alpha channel. Alpha channels are a way of saving selections that can be loaded at any time. In addition, they can be edited with painting tools like a grayscale mask.

Note: In older versions of Photoshop, this channel will be called Alpha 1 (assuming it's the first alpha channel). In later versions of Photoshop, the duplicated channel will be named as a copy of the duplicated channel, such as "Red Copy" in this example.

After duplicating the red channel, the white areas at the bottom of the image (from the city lights in the original image) are painted out. You want to be sure that your alpha channel is the active channel before you start painting. Now we have a grayscale mask that can be loaded as a selection for isolating the fireworks.

Click on RGB in the channel palettes to make all channels active and return to the color view of your image. Next from the Selection menu, choose Load Selection. In the dialog box, choose "Alpha 1" or "Red Copy" (depending on whether you are using an older or newer versions of Photoshop as noted above.

Here you can see the selection marquee surrounding the fireworks.

Next, invert the selection (Selection > Invert in older versions of Photoshop, or Select > Inverse in newer versions) and hit delete to remove the background. Make sure your image is on a layer before hitting delete. If the layer palette shows only one layer labeled background, you must promote it to a layer by double clicking on the background in the layers palette.

Here you can see the fireworks with another background dropped into the layer below. There's just one more step that we can do to improve this image.

From the layers menu choose matting, then Remove Black Matte.

As you can see below, removing the black matte makes a considerable improvement.

Any time you pull an image from its background, it's a good idea to try each of the three matting commands. Sometimes one will produce better results than another, and sometimes none of them appear to have any effect at all... it all depends on the combination of your foreground and background. But don't overlook them entirely because they can often make a world of difference.

Removing the BackgroundPhotoshop Magnetic Lasso Tool, Page 1

Removing the Background > Adobe Photoshop

What this image has going for it is a very distinct edge, which makes it a perfect candidate for the magnetic lasso tool. I ruled out the background eraser because there were color variations in the background that were very similar in color to the leaf color. The duplicate channel trick wouldn't work for the same reason, and the edge is just too ragged to trace it with the pen tool. Using the magnetic lasso for the initial selection and taking a few minutes to clean up the selection in quick mask mode, I was able to isolate the leaf in this image in about ten minutes.

The magnetic lasso tool detects and snaps to the edge of an object as you to trace

along its outline. The Magnetic lasso tool options used for this image are shown to the right. The lasso width controls how close the edge you need to stay as you trace the image. Frequency controls how often points are laid down, and edge contrast helps you fine tune the edge detection.

As you drag along the edge of an object, the tool drops fastening points to anchor the selection.

Here's a few helpful shortcuts you should know about working with this tool: If you get too far away from the edge, you may get a point in the wrong place. You can back up and remove points by clicking the delete key as you use the magnetic lasso tool. You can also add points manually by clicking once where you want to place a point. If you find yourself using this tool often, it's a good idea to get familiar with some of the other shortcuts on page 140 of the Photoshop 5.0 User's Guide.

When you get all the way around your object, your cursor will change when you hold it over the first point. Clicking once will close the selection and you'll see the selection marquee surrounding the image as shown below.

As you can see, the magnetic lasso failed to detect the object's edge around the stem area of the leaf. We can correct this fairly easily by zooming in and switching to quick mask mode.

Continue on to the next page to learn how to clean up the selection using Photoshop's quick mask mode.

Removing the BackgroundPhotoshop Pen Tool, page 1

Removing the Background > Adobe Photoshop

Because of the curved shape of the butterfly in this image, the ideal selection tool is Photoshop's pen tool. The background makes it very difficult to use the other selection tools, but it's a fairly simple shape for drawing a path. The entire selection process for this image took approximately fifteen minutes using the technique below.

The pen tool allows you to draw a path around your image consisting of bezier curves. If you're not familiar with pen tool or working with bezier curves, you'll want to familiarize yourself with pages 153 - 160 in the Photoshop 5.0 User's Guide. You'll also find an excellent pen tool tutorial and tracing templates at Mike's Sketchpad.

Personally, I find it easier to place the points of my path around the image initially, and then go back and edit the curves later. If you're comfortable drawing with the pen tool, you may prefer to draw the curves as your create your path, or you may prefer the magnetic pen tool. If you're just placing the points for editing later, you'll need to place a point between each curved line segment where the line changes direction, as shown below.

Here's a zoomed in view so you can get a better view of how the points were placed.

Once the points are in place, you can switch to the Convert Anchor Point tool to

shape the curve. Click on a point and drag away from it to create the curve, then use the control handles to edit the shape of the curve. If you need to select and move a point, hold down the control key (command on Mac) to temporarily switch to the

direct selection tool. If you need to add or delete points, you can do that without leaving the convert anchor point tool by right clicking (click-hold on Mac) on the path.

Below is a zoomed in view of the edited path, where you can see the control points for the nodes along the edge of the wing.

Below is the butterfly with the completed path.

And here is a closer view of part of the path.

On the next page you'll learn how to convert the path to selection and add the butterfly's antennae back in before dropping out the background.

Removing the BackgroundPhotoshop Combination of Tools, Page 1

Removing the Background > Adobe Photoshop

The qualities of this image are such that no single technique is going to be very effective. The background is so close in color to parts of the girl's blouse that it makes the background eraser difficult to work with. The bottom half of the image is simple enough that the pen tool would be ideal, but the girl's hair presents some problems. I decided to use a combination of techniques; first, expanding on the channels trick used in the fireworks example and using levels to refine the mask, and then using the pen tool to isolate the girl's arms and sleeves to further refine the mask for the lower portion of the image. The entire process took approximately twenty minutes.

I started out by drawing a loose selection around the girl's hair with the freehand lasso tool.

Next I looked at the individual color channels to find the one that had the most contrast. You can see from the thumbnails to the right that the red channel clearly has the most contrast. So initially we'll use a duplicate of the red channel to create our alpha channel mask.

In the channels palette, drag the red channel to the new channel button to create a duplicate.

A duplicate channel is created and named Alpha 1. This is what we'll be working with as a selection mask.

The loose selection we made with the lasso tool should still be active and we want to be working only in the Alpha 1 channel.

Go to Image > Adjust > Levels to bring up the levels adjustment dialog. Drag the left and right sliders under the histogram toward the center...

...just enough that you increase the contrast as much as possible without loosing the fine wisps of hair. When you start to loose the strands of hair, you'll need to back off some and stop there.

Next you can make another selection and adjust the levels again to increase the contrast even more. You can select different areas and repeat this as needed to make the best possible selection.

Once you've gone as far as you think you can with the levels adjustments, use the paintbrush to fill in the rest of the face and hair with white. Take care not to go to far out to the edge and paint away the fine strands of hair. I got a little too close here on the left side of the girl's head.

Once the face is filled in, we can switch to a larger brush and fill in the lower part of the girls dress and arms.

Continue on to the next page to see how the mask was completed for the bottom portion of the image.

Removing the BackgroundPhotoshop Combination of Tools, Page 2

... Continued from Page 1

Next I switch to the pen tool and draw a rough line around the girls arms and sleeves. For a more detailed explanation of using the pen tool, see the butterfly example.

After the rough outline is drawn, the curves are refined with the convert anchor point tool.

The path is then converted to a selection using the same method that was used in the butterfly example.

The the selection is filled with white. (Edit > Fill)

Now we'll need to do another levels adjustment to shift the remaining dark gray areas to 100% black. But we don't want to effect the hair area because it has shades of gray we need to keep. So, first we'll lasso a loose selection around the hair, then invert the selection.

With the inverted selection, we can go to Image > Adjust > Levels and move the left slider in until the surrounding dark gray becomes completely black. We now have a selection mask saved as an alpha channel!

Click the RGB channel in the channels palette to return the view to the full color image. Next go to Selections > Load Selection. In the dialog box, choose the Alpha 1 channel as the source and click OK.

Here you can see the selection marquee around the image.

As always, I switch to quick mask mode to have a look at the selection mask. You can learn more about quick mask mode on page two of the leaf example.

While in quick mask mode, I usually apply a half-pixel gaussian blur just to soften the mask the slightest bit.

Next I switch back to selection mode, invert the selection and delete the background.

Here is the final image with a new background.

I hope this series of tutorials showed you that there's never one way to approach a problem. Sometimes it takes creative thinking and a combination of techniques, but with practice and a wide variety of tools I'm confident that anyone can handle even the toughest of background removing challenges.

Discovering Photoshop 5.5 Extract Command

Dateline: 11/03/99

This command in the Image menu opens a dialog box that offers several tools for isolating the foreground and background areas of an image. To see a screen shot of the dialog box, click here and a new window will open.

This command works particularly well for images that have intricate or undefined edges, like hair. In the two images below you can see the results of my first time using the extract command.

It takes a little practice at first to get the selections just right, but once you start to work with the tools, you will quickly learn how they effect the extraction, and you'll be able to extract complicated selections from a background in short work. With the tools in the dialog you can switch back and forth between the original image and the extracted image and you're able to fine tune the selection before committing to it. The extract dialog screen shot shows you all the available tools for making and refining selections. These are thoroughly explained in the User Guide Supplement so I won't use space here to explain them.

The extract command is really quite ingenious, and well worth taking a little time to learn how it works.

Photoshop 5.5 Extract Command Dialog Box

Image (c) 1999 Nova Development Art Explosion 600,000.

Discovering Photoshop 5.5 Reselect, Magnetic Lasso, Freeform Pen, Magnetic Pen

Dateline: 09/06/99

Reselect CommandThe first of the new selection tools and commands is the reselect option found under the Select menu. This option simply reselects the most recent selection.

Magnetic Lasso Tool If you've ever struggled with making difficult selections you will love the magnetic lasso tool. Just click once along the edge of the area you want to select to set the first point, then drag all along the edge of the area you want to select. The magnetic lasso detects the edges and creates the selection as you drag the pointer. You can see the selection being created as you drag, so if you get off track a little, you can easily just back up the pointer to the last fastening point and keep going.

This tool worked surprisingly well, even on images where there weren't always distinct edges to the area being selected. As you can see in my example, I was able to do a pretty good job of selecting the man in the image by using the magnetic lasso tool alone. From the enlarged view, you can see I lost a bit of his face; that could easily have been touched up with the other selection tools or with some tweaking of the tool options beforehand. Had those areas been more distinct, it would have been a flawless selection... in just a few seconds, and using a mouse at that.

As you can see from the magnetic lasso options, you can control the feathering, anti-aliasing, lasso width, frequency, edge contrast, and stylus pressure. The lasso width is the distance from the pointer that the magnetic lasso will detect the edges of the selection. You can modify the lasso width settings as you make a selection by using the modifier keys [ to reduce the width, and ] to increase the width. Frequency controls the rate at which the tool sets down fastening points. The edge contrast determines the sensitivity of the tool to the edges. This is the option I could have adjusted to get a better selection of the man's face in the example

above.

Freeform Pen Tool The freeform pen tool is only slightly different from the regular pen tool from previous versions. The main difference is that you do not lay down anchor points manually by clicking, you simply draw the path by dragging the pointer, and the points are laid down automatically. You can later go back and adjust the points once the path is complete. There is only one setting on the options palette for this tool - curve fit. The curve fit determines how much the path is smoothed. A high number results in less points being laid down, a lower number lays down more points and matches the pointer trail more closely.

Magnetic Pen Tool The magnetic pen tool works similarly to the magnetic lasso tool mentioned above, but instead of making a selection as you drag the pointer, you are making a path. As you drag the pointer you can also click to add points to the path

as needed. By holding down the Alt(Win)/Option(Mac) key and dragging you can draw freehand paths, and by holding the Alt(Win)/Option(Mac) key and clicking, you can draw straight segments.

The options for the magentic pen tool inlcude curve fit, pen width, frequency, edge contrast, and stylus pressure. Curve fit is described above for the freeform pen tool. Width, frequency, and edge contrast are all similar to the coresponding options for the magnetic lasso tool. The [ and ] modifier keys can be used to adjust the pen width, just as they are used to adjust the lasso width for the magnetic lasso tool.

Photoshop Selections: Selection Tools

 

Four marquee tools in Photoshop. Selection shown above. The toolbar fly-out for the marquee tools is shown below.

Left to right: Rectangular, Elliptical, Single Row, Single Column. The Crop Tool is at the far right, but does not apply to this subject.

When I present basic techniques, I will always start right at the beginning. Photoshop offers several selection tools. The selections shown at the left are created with the four marquee tools located in the top left corner of the toolbox. Rectangle, Elliptical, Single Column and Single Row. To make a rectangular or circular selection, click and drag with the desired marquee shape tool. The selection is created from the click point to where you release the mouse.

You can also have the selection drawn from the center by holding your ALT or Option key while you click and drag. To select a perfect circle or square, hold your SHIFT key as you make your selection.

The Single Column and Single Row Marquee are not as well known, but they can also be very handy. Each will select a one pixel area horizontally or vertically, across the document.

A series of lines as shown to the left is surprisingly fast to accomplish. Activate the Single Row Marquee tool, and click to place your first line. Hold your SHIFT key down and line your cursor up on the ruler at the point

Stripes created with the Single Row and Column Marquee tool. You can create the selection even when the cursor is off the

canvas.

Make sure you also see Masks are Easy ... Really. Masks are selections and the two articles work hand in hand.

for the next line and click.

You don't have to have your cursor on the canvas to create this selection, which helps to create even stripes. You can work with your cursor against the ruler. In the sample shown here, the cursor is located right next to the ruler, completely off the canvas, yet a click will place a selection. Note the + on the cursor indicating that the SHIFT key is depressed and the selection will be added to the existing selection. Multiple stripes are created instantly with a simple fill.

Although the selection goes from border to border, as shown to the right, you can use the Preserve Transparency option on your layer to create stripes just on your object. The same image, shown below with a fill applied to selected areas, illustrates the effect when the Preserve Transparency option is active for the layer containing the gray rectangle. If you prefer to have your stripes on a separate layer, preserve transparency will not work. See Adding or Subtracting from your selection to remove areas of the stripe pattern that you do not want.

 

The Magic Wand selects only the color on the active layer with default settings.

Magic WandOne of the greatest time-savers in Photoshop is the Magic Wand. Click, and the program will select colors of a similar value, with you choosing how far from the color you clicked on that the selection will wander. Truly a "magic" tool – in perfect circumstances. If we could custom order our images for easy Magic Wand selection, this section would be over now. I would tell you how to set your tolerance, and that would be that.

However, the real world does not work like that. Photos come with similar colors next to each other or scattered everywhere, not just where you would like to select. There are some workarounds, though, that I will present later in this article, but let's start with the basics for how the Magic Wand tool works.

The Magic Wand selects similar color on the same layer. Note in the image to the left, that the Green 1 layer is selected in the Layers palette. Note also that the Magic Wand did not select the green rectangle, located at the

The two green rectangles are now on the same layer, and with Contiguous unchecked, one click will select both green areas.

Setting Tolerance to 1 and selecting the background is a quick and accurate way to select objects. Simply invert the selection and you

have the exact area you desire.

top of the rectangles on the screen, and labeled Green 2 in the Layers palette, since that layer is not active.

We have to pause for a moment and look at the Magic Wand Options window, shown here. You can gain a lot of control over the the Magic Wand tool with these few choices. Remember how our selection was picked up just from the active layer? Activate Use All Layers, and all similar color from all layers will be included. You can select both green rectangles with one click (if Contiguous is unchecked – read on for more).

Or, suppose you have both green rectangles on one layer, as shown at the left. As long as the Contiguous option is unchecked, both green rectangles on the same layer will be selected. With Contiguous checked, only color that is contiguous, or physically joined, will be selected.

The Tolerance setting determines how large a range of color the Magic Wand will select. If the Magic Wand is picking up too much of the area you desire, try reducing the Tolerance, or

increase it to include more colors.

One of my favorite selection tricks, is to use the Magic Wand to select the opposite to what I require. Let's use our green rectangles as an example. I can set the Tolerance to 1, which means just one color will be selected, and click on the white background. This gives me a completely clean selection that is the exact inverse to the selection I desire, as shown to the left. Choose Select>Inverse from the main menu, and you have the selection you desire. This is not so important when you are working with plain rectangles as we are here, but for objects with texture or a photographic image, and an uneven shape, the invert trick will save many hours and give you exact control.

Finally, the Anti-aliased option is self explanatory. If I am working with photographic type images, I will work with this turned on. For more solid color work, it is usually better to leave it off. However, as a caution: If you find that you cannot get a single color selection, no matter how low you set the tolerance, check to see if your anti-aliasing option is turned on. Most often this is the culprit when you cannot get a clean selection that should be simple.

Photoshop Selections: Selection Tools 2 

Lasso Tools (l to r): Lasso, Polygonal Lasso and Magnetic Lasso.

Photoshop has the most powerful array of selection tools in the graphics world. Many are not used though, and it is only when you understand what all the selection tools can accomplish, that you are able to effectively use this power. We still have the three lasso tools to cover and make sure you do not miss the Quick Mask section of this tutorial. Keep your eye out for a full tutorial on Photoshop paths very soon, since Paths are very much selection tools. They would fit here, but I would rather handle that subject on its own, since there are many new concepts to learn.

Top: The Lasso tool in action. In the lower image, a straight line has been created when

the mouse button was released away from the

Lasso ToolThe first place we turn when we cannot do an area selection with one of the marquee tools, or an automatic selection with the Magic Wand, is the basic Lasso tool. This tool offers a very simple concept: Click and drag around the area you wish to select. Sounds easy, but the reality is often quite different. The Lasso tool is shown at the left, tracing out a complex set of curves. Of all the lasso tools, this one offers the most flexibility, but also requires the highest mouse skill level.

To use the tool, click and drag in the shape your require. When you release the mouse, the start and end points are automatically joined in a straight line, as shown in the sample at the left.

Zooming in to a high magnification will usually return the best results when using the Lasso tool. Selecting the small tulip in the image at the left would be very difficult at actual size. The sample

starting point.

High magnification of the image shown to the right. Note how much easier it is to see where

the selection boundaries should be.

Photo © Tom Thomson Photography. Used with permission.

below shows how much easier it is to see the actual outline of the flower. At times, it can also be hard to discern where the outline of the actual object may be, and you will find that you must select roughly at actual size and then fine-tune at high magnification. See the next page on editing your selection for this technique.

The Lasso tool offers two options. Double-click on the tool to open the Lasso Tool Options Window. You can choose anti-aliasing, which is usually desired unless you require pixel by pixel accuracy. The Feather option is one I never use. You can feather your selection at any time, and I would prefer to concentrate on an accurate selection than where the feathering may affect.

Polygonal Lasso ToolI call this the straight line lasso tool, although I suppose the lofty name is technically correct, since you cannot select an open area. However, the only thing about this tool that counts, is that it will select straight areas with ease.

To use, you simply click, move to the next anchor point, click, move to the next point, etc. To complete your selection, move your cursor close to the starting point. An o shape appears beside the cursor, signifying that the start and end point will be joined when you release the cursor.

You can constrain your selection to horizontal or vertical lines by holding the SHIFT key down before

The Polygonal Tool in action. The lower image shows a curved portion that was created

with the ALT or Option key pressed down, temporarily converting the Polygonal tool to

the basic Lasso tool.

you select the next point. If you press your ALT or Option key at any point in your selection process, the Polygonal Lasso tool converts to the Lasso tool, making it easy to do a combination selection as shown at the left. My ALT key was pressed at the lower right corner and released at the end of the curved section, returning my selection to straight lines. Toggle back and forth as required.

The options for the Polygonal Lasso tool are the same as for the Lasso tool.

The Magnetic Lasso tool snaps to the edge, even though the cursor is quite far away.

Note the o shape on the cursor, indicating that a closed selection will be created when the

mouse is released.

Magnetic Lasso ToolThis is a selection tool that is more exciting in concept than in practical use. In theory, it is like the Lasso tool, with a strong attraction to an edge. The problem with the tool comes in the struggle between what you consider to be the edge and what the tool considers to be the edge. I hate to admit how often the tool wins, so I use it only under ideal circumstances (and usually when there is nobody around to witness my imminent defeat).

The top image at the left is an example of a perfectly behaving Magnetic Lasso tool. Note how far the cursor is from the edge. The selection boundary is snapping to the edge as I drag the mouse carelessly around the area. In the second image, note how tightly the selection is against the edge. Also note the o by the cursor indicating that the start and end points will be joined when the mouse is released. Pretty slick ... when it works.

This was an ideal edge for the Magnetic Lasso tool to work. In fact, it was custom designed to show how the tool works and I made sure that there was plenty of contrast and nothing to distract the selection.

Take a look at the next image though. As soon as I added feathered edges to the shape, the magnetic properties became confused. Unless this tool can get a solid grasp of the edge, it is almost impossible to

Even a slight feathering on the edge is enough to make the magnetic properties fail.

control. In this case, I would have been better with a plain Lasso tool selection. Or, better yet, if you have the background clear for selection, the Magic Wand. Select the background and choose Select>Invert from the main menu.

If you are determined to work with this tool, though, you can adjust the parameters to customize the magnetic properties.

The Feather and Anti-aliased options are the same for the Magnetic Lasso tool, as for the first two lasso tools. The remaining options, however, are strictly to guide the magnetic snapping to the edge. The Lasso Width refers to how close you must bring the cursor to the edge for the snap to take place. Taking this value down too low, though, kills the effect, since you must trace almost as carefully as you would with the Lasso tool.

The Frequency represents the number of anchor points that will be created as you complete the selection. A lower number will result in a less accurate, but smoother selection. Finally, Edge Contrast is the amount of difference you expect the magnetic properties to recognize. If you are selecting from an image with high contrast, this number can be increased. A low contrast image will require that you reduce this number.

Make sure you also see Masks are Easy ... Really. Masks are selections and the two articles work hand in hand.

Before we leave the selection process and move onto editing your selection, I want to take a look at a very powerful trick for making selections. Read on to learn how you can put channels to work for you.

HOME | EXPERTS | GRAPHICS| column 36

Photoshop Selections: Selecting with Channels and Color Range

 

Each channel offers varied contrast levels, the most important element for using the Magic Wand tool.

The top image is the Red channel of this image, and has sufficient contrast for a one-click Magic Wand tool selection.

Photo © Tom Thomson Photography. Used with permission.

Often, no matter how hard you try, it is nearly impossible to get the selection you require. Try using just one channel to make a selection. Take a look at the Channels palette as shown at the left. You see the original RGB image at the

top, with reasonable contrast for selection. But look at the Red channel. The flower is standing out very clearly against the background for exceptionally efficient selection.

To use a color channel for selection, activate the desired channel and work on the grayscale representation on your canvas as you normally would. In this case, one click of the Magic Wand tool, with a Tolerance of 120, delivered a perfect selection of the flower.

The images at the left show the results of a one-click Magic Wand selection with the same tolerance setting. Note how the Red channel (first image) creates a perfect selection, while the RGB selection fails to select some interior areas.

Often, you also want to see what is happening in the RGB image as well as the specific channel. You can choose View>New View from the main menu. This will give you two different views of the same image. Changes you make in either view are reflected in the other.

In the sample below, the RGB image is shown on the left, and is currently active. You can see the selection that I made when the right image was the active document, with only the Red channel active. Although I had to resize and compress this image for display here, you should be able to see that the file name is flower.psd in both views.

Always keep channels in mind when you are using automatic selection, like with the Magic Wand tool, or the Magnetic Lasso Tool. Even when using the basic Lasso tool, one of the individual channels may offer better visibility to select an exact area.

 

 

To create this effect, I used the color range function to create a selection of one color with a Fuzziness of 100 (the range of color that will be selected). I then copied the selection and pasted it into a new document. A quick, easy to control method of creating an illustration look from a photograph. Although this was created with a one color selection, you can easily select many colors to create the same type of image from a photograph with more color variation.

Select a color rangeThe color range selection provides an interesting selection process. You can choose preset colors, or use a sampler to create a selection with this command.

Make sure that you do not have an active selection, and choose Select>Color Range. The Color Range window will open. Keep in mind as we work along, that you are simply creating a selection, using color as a selector. Think of it the same as the grow or similar command, but completely within your control.

First, make sure that the Image option is active in the middle of the window. This is where you will choose the colors. Move the Color Range window so that you can see your canvas as shown below.

You have several choices for a selection preview, which will be shown on your canvas. I have chosen White Matte here, and usually find that the White Matte or Black Matte provides the clearest preview for me. You may also choose Grayscale or Quick Mask as a preview method. I prepared a sample (see left) of all available selection previews for the same selection, so you could compare the options side by side. Again, I remind you that we are not changing the image, just creating a selection. The image that appears on your canvas is simply showing which areas are selected.

 

This image shows how the selection boundaries appear for the selection used to create the image shown immediately above this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, we get to choose a color. Choose one of the eyedropper tools in the Color Range windows. For a single color, choose the first eyedropper. To add new colors, choose the + eyedropper. To remove selected colors, choose the – eyedropper. Follow the selection in your document screen. You can switch preview types at any time. The image below shows a single color selection with a White Matte preview. You can adjust the range of color that will be selected by using the Fuzziness option. This function is similar to the Tolerance setting for the Magic Wand. Lower values will include a small range of color. Higher values will include a wider range of colors with the selection.

When you are satisfied that you have the selection you require, click OK. The selection boundaries will display as shown at the left. The selection that you see does not illustrate the full selection, however. Compare the image above to the selection displayed to see the difference. That is why it is very important to follow the preview as you make your color selection.

Image created from a one color selection.

To choose all the Reds, Greens, or Blues, etc., in your image, click on the drop-down box and choose a preset color. Check your preview to see which areas have been selected.

Experiment with this selection feature. It seems complicated, but if you work through it step-by-step the first time, it is really quite simple. Of course, the results are not always predictable, since you are working with shades of color, but that is what can make it an exciting selection feature, and very useful if you are trying to customize color adjustment.

The image at the left was created by selecting only the yellow from the flower image. I saved the selection and then copied the selection channel to a new document (see next page for instructions on sharing selections). I then loaded the selection in the new document and filled the selection with black.

Make sure you also see Masks are Easy ... Really. Masks are selections and the two articles work hand in hand.

So now you have the basics of Selection tools in Photoshop. Paths is another very useful tool for creating selections, but I will be handling that topic separately in the near future.

We will move on now to editing your selection boundaries. Photoshop does offer many post selection choices, and you should be very familiar with each one. Getting a good selection is most valuable when you can manipulate it to do what you require.

HOME | EXPERTS | GRAPHICS| column 36

Photoshop Selections: Edit Selections

Once you have created your basic selection with the most appropriate tool, you still have many options to fine-tune or add special effects to the area. If you are selecting an uneven area that cannot be picked up with the Magic Wand, you will probably find that there is an area or two of your selection that is not quite right. That is easily repaired by adding to or subtracting from your selection.

SHIFT key in action with the Lasso tool, adding a new area to the selection. Note the + beside the cursor.

The Lasso tool with the ALT or Option key, removing an area from the selection. See the – symbol beside the cursor.

Rectangular selection with circular areas added and removed.

Add or subtract from a selectionTo add to a selection, simply hold your SHIFT key down as you create the new selection. To subtract, hold your ALT or Option key as you trace around the area you wish to subtract.

In the image at the left, you can see that the selection border around this flower has an area that must be added to the selection. It is usually best to increase magnification until you have a very clear view of the edge. Using the Lasso tool, with the SHIFT key depressed (note the + beside the cursor), I traced carefully along the edge of the flower. You can see, though, that once I had the flower edge completed, I did not require accuracy. The area I am tracing on the interior of the flower is already selected, so I have no need to spend time following the edge.

The second image at the left shows an area removed by using the Lasso tool with the ALT key. Again, once I have traced the edge of the object, I do not need accuracy for the remaining selection, since that area is already a non-selected area, and removing from it will make no difference.

In this case, the flower was the selected area. If the background area was the selected area, you would use the opposite tool to accomplish the same effect.

Of course, you can also use the addition and subtraction to selections to draw objects. To create the selection shown at the left, I drew a rectangle, and removed the lower right corner by drawing an ellipse selection with the ALT key pressed down, to remove the area. Finally, with the SHIFT key down, I drew another selection with the Elliptical Marquee tool at the top right corner.

There is no limit to the number of additions or subtractions you can use to create a selection. However, if you are working on a complex selection, you may wish to save the selection occasionally as you work along (see below). Of course, you can always use the History palette to step back if you lose the selection through a couple of careless mouse clicks. (Does that sound like experience talking?)

You can also use addition and subtraction with any combination of selection tools. Do the original selection with the Magic Wand, and clean it up with any other tool. Start with a Lasso tool selection and add or subtract a range of color with the Magic Wand. I find it much faster to do a rough selection and then add or subtract areas, often at high magnification.

TIP: Have you ever started a selection and then realized that you were too far to the left? Yes, you can move it later, but you need to know now where to stop the selection. Try this. When you are drawing a selection, press down your spacebar. You can now move the selection as you desire, and then resume drawing the selection as soon as you release the spacebar. Try it a few times until you have it planted in your mind. I do not use this a lot, but when I do, it is a great time saver.

Oval selection in the top image. Bottom image shows the same selection with the Grow command applied.

Photo © Tom Thomson Photography. Used with permission.

Select similar pixelsYou can also add to your selection with either the grow or similar commands in the select menu. If you wish to add pixels of a similar color value, the range of which is determined by the current Magic Wand Tolerance level, choose Select>Grow. If your Magic Wand Tolerance is set to 50, any areas containing colors within that range of color will be selected. This command only selects colors that are joined, or contiguous. The oval selection at the left contained a wide enough range of color to select the entire flower when the Grow command was applied.

To select similar color areas anywhere in the document, choose Select>Similar. Again, the Tolerance, or range of color selected is determined by the Magic Wand Tolerance value. In the image below, I used the Magic Wand to select one yellow rectangle. The Select>Similar command automatically selected the remaining rectangles.

 

Move your selectionI love Photoshop's ability to move the selection – not the image contained in the selection, but the selection itself. As long as a selection tool is active, when you move your mouse over a selection, the cursor will change (see left) and you may move the selection at will. However, this only works when selection tool is active. If the Move tool is active, the area of the image that is selected will be moved.

Transform your selectionSuppose your selection is just a tiny bit too large, or, you would like to rotate the selection to apply a special effect. No problem. Simply choose Select>Transform from the main menu, and you have the same control over your selection as you have for objects.

Selection handles will appear around your selection. Use the corner handles, plus your SHIFT key to resize the selection proportionately, or side and top handles to adjust width or height. Position your cursor over a handle and it will change to a double arrow, indicating that you can resize the selection in that direction.

Place your cursor on the selection between handles, and the cursor will change to a curved double arrow. At this point you can click and drag to rotate your selection. You can move the rotation axis my moving the icon that is located in the middle of the selection (see the top image for the default location). Simply click and drag the icon to move the rotation axis to the required location. Your selection will now rotate around this point as shown in the sample to the left.

 

HOME | EXPERTS | GRAPHICS| column 36

Photoshop Selections: Modify, Save and Share Selections

 

Modify your selectionPerhaps your selection is close to perfect, but is a bit rough, or you wish it was one pixel larger or smaller. Choose Select> Modify and the answer is just a click away. You have the option to add a border to, smooth, expand or contract your selection.

The samples at the left show the effect of smoothing your selection. The top image shows a selection with sharp bumps and hollows. Smoothing the selection by 4 pixels results in gentle curves. You can set the smooth amount to any value. (This selection is actually the same flower selection from above, moved to a new document – see below to find out how to share selections between images.)

Need a border for your selection, or just want to blur a few pixels along the edge? Choose Select>Border and set the value for the number of pixels you would like to manipulate. See left for the selection with a border added. Adding a border to a selection automatically creates an antialiased border as shown below. Use the Edit>Stroke command for a solid border.

When you would like to include one more pixel all around your selection, simple choose Select> Modify> Expand and set the value to 1. Ditto to select one less pixel, but choose Select>Modify>Contract. This is a feature I use a lot when removing backgrounds.

Feather your selectionThis is an option I use all the time. Feathering your selection softens the edges, and is very important when you are removing backgrounds or adding objects to collages, etc. Create your selection, then choose Select>Feather and specify a value. The image at the left has the original selection at the left, and the same selection feathered by 5 pixels. Both were filled with the same fill.

 

 

Save your selectionYou can spend a lot of time creating a selection. Often, it is important to save the selection, so you can return to the exact location for a later manipulation. Simply choose Select>Save Selection and your selection will be saved with your document. The Save Selection window will open. Type a name that will mean something to you later in the Name field.

To retrieve the selection later, choose Select>Load Selection, and choose the selection from the drop-down list in the Load Selection window.

Photoshop saves your selection by creating a channel. Open the Channels palette, and you will see your selection represented as a channel. You can also load the selection back into your document by activating your selection

channel and clicking on the Load channel as selection icon at the bottom of the Channels palette. This same feature lets us share selections between documents. Note: Don't panic when you see that your screen is filled with a grayscale image ... simply activate the RGB channel to get your colored image back.

 

Channel is copied from one image to another.

 

Share your selectionWe know that in Photoshop, that selections are design power. But that power can be magnified many times over when you can share your work between documents. Using the Channels palette, this is a very easy task.

Both the document containing the selection channel, and the document that you would like to copy it to, must be open. Set the window size on each document so that you can see both on the screen. Now, simply click and drag the channel from the original document to the screen of the new one. As you move your mouse over the new document, the cursor will change to a hand as shown at the left. Release the mouse. Check the Channels palette in the new document, and you will see the selection channel is now showing at the bottom of the channels list, with the same name as was originally assigned. You can now load the selection as above.

So, there you have it. Certainly more than just the basics for one of the most basic operations in Photoshop. Selections are the backbone of Photoshop, and the more methods for selection that you learn, and the more you practice, the better your work will be. The added bonus is time. When you know which selection tool to reach for, you are halfway to completing your task. After all, how long does it take to select Edit>Fill, or hit the Delete key.

Make sure you do not miss my earlier tutorial, Masks are Easy ... Really. Masks are nothing more than high-class selections, and with what you have learned in this article, you can really make your masks/selections work for you.

Trivia answerRemember on the front page of this article, I asked you to figure out how this selection was created. The selection itself was one click with the Magic Wand tool. The trick is that the selection was made on a layer that contains only the drop shadow.

Create a layer and apply a layer effect. To separate the effects from the layer, choose Layer>Effects>Create Layer from the main menu (or right click and choose Create Layer from the pop-up menu). Your layer and its effects are now on separate layers.

Using Masks in Photoshop

Excerpted from Using Photoshop 5

by Daniel Giordan and Steve Monitz

Introducing Photoshop Quickmask

One of Photoshop's greatest strengths is its ability to conform to the relative strengths of each individual user. Some people like to use curves for example, while others prefer levels, and still others may prefer Brightness/ Contrast. Photoshop gives you a range of tool options, allowing you to choose which one you like best.

In this chapter, we'll look at one unique way in which Photoshop lets you select certain areas of your image. Oh sure you have the magic wand tool, the lasso, and the marquee tool, and each of those work very well in defining a selection by its edges. The Photoshop Quickmask feature lets you define a selection by painting an area, brushing in the selection using the full gamut of Photoshop's toolset. If you tend to think in terms of painted areas rather than outlines and paths, then you may find Quickmask selections to be a more intuitive way of defining an area.

Quickmask is a special mode in Photoshop that is completely devoted to defining a selection. While in Quickmask mode, every Photoshop function, tool result, and menu command is related to defining the selected area. When you paint or draw, you are painting a selected area. When you use the blur tool, you are blurring a selected area, and when you apply a filter, you are actually filtering a selected area. We will look at how to use all of these effects in this chapter, along with other masking and selection options.

Step 1-Setting Quickmask Parameters

Quickmask gets its name from the fact that as you create your selection area, Photoshop masks that area off, tinting it with a colored mask to show what has been selected. When you're finished making the selection, you exit Quickmask mode, and Photoshop automatically converts the mask to a standard selection so that you can edit the image. Quickmask is a visual, painterly way to make a selection, and if its handled correctly, it can make unique selections that are impossible to recreate in any other way.

Before we start creating Quickmask selections, we need to set up the parameters for how Quickmask will work. The following step-by-step will set up the way the painted mask looks as it is applied, along with some other relevant selection parameters.

 

Figure 18-1- Launch the Quickmask Options dialog box by double clicking the Quickmask icon.

Setting Up the Quickmask Parameters

1. Double-click the Quickmask icon just below the color swatches in the tool palette (figure 18.1)

2. Select Color Indicates option. Choosing Masked Areas means that any colored areas will not be selected when you exit Quickmask mode. The Selected Areas checkbox means that colored areas will be selected when you exit Quickmask.

3. Click on the color swatch to launch the Photoshop color picker, and select the color for your mask. This is especially important if the current color is similar to the color of your selected area.

4. Enter an Opacity percentage value to indicate how much of the transparency shows through as you paint it, and click OK.

Since you've already chosen a mask color in step 2 of the above step by step, you don't need to worry about color anymore while in Quickmask mode. In fact, Photoshop doesn't even let you work with color in this mode; it converts everything to grayscale. To see what I mean, try to select a foreground color in the color palette, it automatically converts to it's grayscale equivalent.

The reason for this is that Photoshop uses grayscale values to control the relative intensity of the mask you are painting. With black as the active color, the paint tools paint the mask at 100% intensity. If white is the active color, the mask is erased, and any shades of gray will paint the mask in relative degrees of opacity. In summary, black lays down the mask color, white erases it. And if you make a mask/selection with an 80% gray, then any editing done through that selection will be applied at 80%. Paint into that selection and it goes on at 80%, delete that selection, and its deleted to 80%.

Photoshop Tip

Even though you set the visible transparency of the mask in the previous step by step, the actual transparency of the selection is determined by the grayscale value set as the foreground color while you paint the mask. The Opacity value

set in the Quickmask Options dialog box only controls how the mask looks as you're painting it, it does not effect the intensity of the mask or the resulting selection.

Step 2-Apply a Basic Quickmask

With the parameters set, its time to create our first Quickmask selection

Creating a Basic Quickmask Selection

1. Click on the Quickmask icon to enter the Quickmask mode.

2. Select the paintbrush tool from the toolbox, choose a brush size appropriate for the area to be selected, and select black as the foreground color.

3. Begin painting the area to be selected. You will notice that Photoshop paints the mask over the

area as you paint.4. To erase any of the mask, select white as the foreground color and paint over the area to be deleted. You will notice

that the mask disappears as you do this.5. When the mask covers the appropriate area, click the Exit Quickmask icon to convert the masked area to a selection.

(Please note that all areas except the mask will be selected in this step if you selected Color Indicates Masked Areas in the set up procedure).

Figure 18.2- Applying a mask in Quickmask mode.

Rather than painting a large or complex area from scratch, you may find it beneficial to select part of an area with Photoshop's conventional selection tools to start with, fine tuning things with Quickmask a bit later.

To do this you simply make a selection and click the Quickmask mode button to enter Quickmask mode. The current selection will be converted to a mask. The magic wand tool is an excellent selection tool to start with, as the proper tolerance setting can select much of the desired area if it's set right. Another approach could be to use the Marquee tool and shift-select large blocks of a selection before entering Quickmask mode.

 

Step 3- Translucent Masks & Selections

We generally think of masks as selection as either activating an area or excluding it from any editing. But it is possible to make a selection that only affects an area partially. For example, if an area is partially selected, painting with black will result in a gray stroke that is lighted or darker, depending on how much it is selected. The effect is similar to when a selection edge is feathered, and the effect is faded out toward the edges.

I refer to them as translucent selections in the context of Quickmasks because these partial selections are painted on using a gray color rather than straight black. The darker the gray, the more the area will show the effect, while masks painted with a lighter gray let the effect show through more

slightly. Translucent masks allow areas and layers to fade into one another, creating smooth transition effects. The following step be step shows how to set up these transition areas easily using Quickmask.

 

 

Figure 3- While in Quickmask mode, drag a black to white gradient across the image.

Creating a Translucent Selection

1. Enter Quickmask. by selecting the Quickmask mode button.2. Select black as the foreground color, and white as the background, and select the Gradient tool from the toolbox.

Make sure that foreground to background is selected as the gradient type in the Gradient tool Options palette.3. Beginning where you want the selection to have its strongest effect, click and drag a gradient across the image

(Figure3). 4. To adjust the fade of the gradient, select Image>;Adjust>Curves, and raise or lower the curve to increase or decrease

the speed of the fade.5. Exit Quickmask mode to activate the selection.

Once the above translucent selection is created, its a simple matter to delete it to the background color or to reveal a lower layer (Figure 18.4). You could also fill the selection with a color, pattern, or even a pasted image. In this case, I simply deleted the selection to white.

Photoshop Tip

Remember that you can start a Quickmask from any standard selection approach. Try creating a color based selection and converting that to a Quickmask for further selection modification.

 

 

 

 

Figure 18.4- After creating a translucent selection, delete to the background for a fadeout effect.

Step 4-Sharpen & Blur A Quickmask

There is more to creating a Quickmask than simply painting an area and converting it to a selection. Remember that Photoshop lets you use all of its tools on the painted mask you've created. This means that you can apply local or global sharpen/blur effects, further modifying the selection you've created. Once you have a basic Quickmask area defined, you can use the following methods to further modify the mask:

Use the Sharpen/Blur/Smudge Tool Use the Dodge/Burn tool Use the Curves controls Use Edge effects- comprised of Invert /Equalize/Threshold /Posterize Use Filters to add patterns and distortion

Use the Sharpen/Blur/Smudge Tool

The Sharpen/Blur/Smudge tool is an effective way to modify local edge areas of a selection. For example, if you want to have the edge of a selection fade out on one side, but be crisp and sharp on the other, you would use the Sharpen and Blur tools as needed. In the same way, selecting the smudge

tool lets you smear and distort selection edges in varying degrees(Figure 18.5).

Figure 18.5- The effects of the Sharpen, Blur, and Smudge tools on a Quickmask.

The key differentiator between these approaches and selecting feather edges or a distort filter, for example, is that these commands apply their effects globally to the entire selection, while the Sharpen/Blur/Smudge tools allow you to modify local areas of the mask. Quickmask allows you to use individual tools on specific areas of a selection as needed.

Use the Dodge/Burn tool

The Dodge/Burn tool provides another way to modify a mask by making the mask value darker or lighter. This approach allows you to darken an edge, which sharpens it and eliminates any anti-aliased or feather effects that may be applied there. Conversely, the Dodge tool lets you soften an edge, creating more of a feathered selection. In this respect, the dodge/burn tool modifies a mask in the way as the sharpen/blur tools, but it does go one step further.

The Dodge/Burn tools also let you modify the translucency of a mask, making it more opaque or transparent. You can use the burn

tool to darken and solidify a selection area, while the Dodge tool lightens and feathers an area. This lets you move beyond modifying only the edges, letting you modify internal areas of a mask and selection as well(Figure 18.6).

Figure 18.6- The Dodge/Burn tool can create or delete transparent sections of an existing Quickmask.

Use the Curves controls

Once you've started a translucent mask, either with a gradient, or any of the tool listed above, you can modify the relative translucency with curves. Its as simple as selecting Image>Adjust>Curves while in Quickmask mode, and moving the curve up or down to lighten or darken the current mask. You can make similar modifications with the Brightness /Contrast controls, or the Levels controls.

Use Edge effects- Invert /Equalize /Threshold /Posterize

It is also possible to modify a mask using the four edge effects controls found at the bottom of the Adjust Submenu in the Image menu. These controls can deliver quick shortcuts to various mask editing requirements.

Invert will turn the current mask inside-out, switching the selected and deselected areas.

Equalize will sharpen the mask globally, while adding a slight degree of feather, depending on whether it was present in the original selection.

Threshold eliminates all feather, defining an absolute edge between the selected and deselected areas. You can control where this break occurs by moving the threshold slider in the dialog box that appears when you select this command(Figure

18.7). Posterize will divide the mask into distinct levels of opacity, which in turn will create distinct levels of translucent

selections. Simply select the posterize command and enter the number of levels desired in your mask, and Photoshop will divide the mask into distinct sections. Be sure the Preview box is checked so that you can preview the effect from the dialog box.

Figure 18.7- The Threshold slider controls the edge and area covered by the Quickmask.

Step 5- Using Filters to Distort A Quickmask

One of the most exciting ways to modify a quickmask is by using filters. Filters will effect an active mask in the same way that they effect a standard set of pixel values, (excluding color modifications). This means that you can apply a texture or pattern to a mask, which in turn can become a texture selection for you to fill with a color, or

another image, or to simply delete to the background. The general range of effects that can be applied to a mask are as follows:

Sharpen/blur filters- Apply special Sharpen/blur effects to a mask, such as motion or radial blur filters. Explore the Sharpen /Blur submenus to appreciate the full range of options.

Texture effects- Apply textures or patterns with any of the filters found in the Artistic /Brush Stroke /Noise/ Sketch /or Texture submenus.

Distortion effects- You can apply twirl or wave patterns to a mask using the filters found in the Distort /Render /and Other submenus

The following step by step will apply multiple filters to a Quickmask. It shows the basic procedure for filtering a mask, as well as giving an indication of how filters can be combined for more complex results

Filtering a Quickmask

1. Enter quickmask mode by selecting the quickmask mode button

2. Select Filter>Noise>Add noise. With the Preview button selected, you will see the noise mask effect that will result(Figure 18.8). Adjust the various noise controls until the desired noise effect is achieved, and click OK.

3. Select Filter>Artistic>Palette Knife, and modify the settings to create a random speckle effect. I had to lower the stroke size way down, and increase the softness to create the

effect shown in figure 18.9. Click OK to apply the effect.4. Select Filter>Distort>Wave and modify the settings to distort the pattern(Figure 18.10). Click OK to apply the effect. 5. Exit Quickmask mode to convert the mask to a selection.

 

 

Figure 18.8-Apply the Add Noise filter to a Quickmask.

Figure 18.9- The settings and preview for applying the Palette Knife filter.

Figure 18.10- The results of the Wave filter.

Step 6-Saving Quickmask Selections

Having spent so much time creating these artistic selections, the last thing you want to do is deselect

them and have all your work disappear forever. To avoid this, you can save the selection using Photoshop's Save Selection command. This ensures that your selection is securely archived, ready to be reactivated whenever you need it.

Saving a Selection

1. With the selection still active, choose Select>Save Selection.2. Enter a name for the selection channel in the dialog box that appears.3. Make sure that the current document’s name is showing in the Document pop-up menu, and select New

Selection from the Channel pop-up menu (Figure 18.11).4. Click OK to complete the process.

Figure 18.11-The Save Selection dialog box.

When Photoshop saves your selection, it creates a new channel, called an Alpha channel, that records the selection information. Found in the Channels palette right next to the RGB or CMYK channels, the Alpha channel shows you the grayscale info that is used to reactivate the selection. Open the Channels palette to see that the selection was saved and named as your requested. This channel contains the exact same selection info that you created in the Quickmask mode, it's just archived for future use.

Once a selection is saved, you can reload it at any time. Follow the steps below to reload a saved selection from an Alpha Channel.

Loading a Selection

1. Choose Select>Load Selection2. Select the desired Alpha channel from the Channel pop-up menu. If you have just one selection saved for this

document it will appear in the menu automatically.3. Check off the Invert check box if you wish to select everything except the Alpha channel's contents.4. Click OK to load the selection.

Photoshop TipIf you have a selection active as you load anther one, you can add, subtract, or intersect the new channel from the current selection, using the Operations section of the Load Selection dialog box.

 

Masks Are Easy 4: PhotoShop Mask Basics

 

PhotoShop has a masking feature called Quick Mask that is different from layer masks. See the next page for more information on Quick Mask.

Create a layer maskYou cannot add a mask to the background layer. I will usually duplicate the background layer and then fill my background layer with a background color, often white. The illustration at the left shows a simple setup for preparing to add a layer.

There are two methods to add a layer mask. You can choose Layer > Add Layer Mask > Hide All or Reveal All. Hide all fills the layer mask with Black, masking the entire layer. Reveal All fills the layer mask with white, or applying no mask to the layer.

You can also choose the Add Layer Mask Icon from the bottom of the Layers window (highlighted with yellow). If you have no active selection, this choice will produce a mask with white fill, or the same as the Reveal All menu selection. If you have an active selection, the selection will be set as white, with the rest of the layer mask filled with black, or masked.

The sample at the left shows both the original photo, and then a Reveal All mask added to the layer. Note there is no change to the photo. In this sample, the mask edit mode is on, as shown by the closest icon to the layer thumbnails. With this icon showing, any edits we do will be applied to the mask, not the photo. If the edit mask icon is not showing, click on the mask thumbnail in the layer row to activate it.

 

 

 

Edit the MaskWhen the mask edit mode is activated, the foreground and background colors automatically change to black and white. If you choose another color as the background or foreground color, your choice is automatically converted to the grayscale equivalent. Again, keep in mind that this does nothing to your original photo – the grayscale restriction is only for the mask.

As a simple exercise, let's add a mask to make the border pixels mask the photo with 50% transparency. Select All. Choose Select> Transform Selection and holding your ALT (Option) key to resize your selection from the center, set the size of your borders. Unless your image is square, you may want to move the sides independently from the top and bottom for an even border. Double click to set transformation. Choose Select>Inverse to select the border pixels.

Choose Edit>Fill from the main menu and specify Black and 50% for Blending Opacity. In the sample at the left, note how the selection borders are reflecting the change to the mask, and therefore the photo, but the photo remains untouched (see the thumbnail). The mask now has a 50% gray border. This is masking the photo by 50% and allowing 50% of the background, or white, to show through. If we change the background to brown and make no changes to the photo layer, the results will be as shown here. Since the mask is working on the photo layer, the 50% border will allow whatever is on the lower layer to show through.

This is quite powerful, but you really could do this with the selection tools. Squares and straight lines are great for learning about masks, but let's evoke a little more mask power. We are going to use painting tools to make the border more interesting.

Photos © Tom Thomson Photography. Used with permission.

Adding paint effects to a layer maskI changed the background back to white for easy visibility. Activate the mask edit icon by clicking on the mask in the layer window if necessary.

This effect started with a wide border selection. Create a layer mask as above. Activate mask edit mode and fill selected area with a pattern fill (see Lines tutorial for directions on creating and defining a pattern). This creates a rectangular frame with the pattern texture allowing some of the background to show through.

To create the irregular edges, select the Pattern Stamp Tool from the Rubber Stamp tool fly-out. With mask edit activated, click along the edges of the frame to create an irregular edge. The Pattern Stamp Tool paints with the current pattern fill. You can see the effect of the new edges in the layer window sample shown above the photo.

You can also apply filters or any other paint tool to a mask. The effects are limited only by your imagination. The best way to actually become comfortable with masks is to play. If you can find an hour or two to experiment without production pressure, you will have your time back many times over in the future. Masks are great tools for automation and consistency in addition to the wealth of artistic opportunities they present.

Carry on to the next page to learn about one of PhotoShop's best features, Quick Mask. In the next tutorial (April 17, 2000), we will cover alpha channels, saving masks and importing graphics from illustration programs to use as masks.

Masks Are Easy 5: PhotoShop Quick Mask

Note how the selected area from the top photo is now the only portion of the photo that is not covered by the "mask." Remember from the layer mask discussion, that regular selections enclose the area of the document where an effect may be placed, and masks cover the area that will NOT receive the effect.

Gradient fill applied with Quick Mask mode active above. Identical selection shown in Standard Edit mode below.

 

 

PhotoShop offers a wonderful little one click-wonder called the Quick Mask. It works in much the same way as the masks we have been looking at in this tutorial, but it is not applied to a layer. In fact, it is a temporary mask that can make selecting areas much easier. As with any mask, you can also use all painting tools for effects that would be impossible using only selection tools.

The two samples at the left illustrate Quick Mask basics. In the top photo, a regular rectangular selection is shown. The lower photo is exactly the same except the Quick Mask option has been chosen from the tool bar (just below the foreground and background selectors). Quick Mask mode is selected in the view of the toolbox shown here. To change back to the regular selection mode, simply click on the Standard Mode button. You can change between modes with these selectors, or simply use the "q" key on your keyboard to toggle back and forth.

And you will toggle back and forth. Unlike the layer mask which becomes and integral part of the layer, Quick Mask is a temporary setting. You cannot apply any effect to the document when you are in Quick Mask mode. This setting is simply a selection tool. However, it is a powerful selection tool, since any tool that will work on a grayscale image can be used to edit while in Quick Mask mode. Note how the foreground and background color change automatically to black and white when you change to Quick Mask mode.

Although the mask is shown in red to represent rubylith masking (a holdover from the pre-digital print industry), black and white have the same effect as they do for layer masks. Painting a Quick Mask with the foreground as black provides a total mask, while white masks nothing.

Important: When you are in Quick Mask mode, any effect you create will be applied only to the mask, not the document.

In this set of samples, I have started with Quick Mask mode activated. I chose the gradient tool and set a gradient fill from black to transparent, bottom to top. This will protect the area of the skaters from any effect.

The second sample here is exactly the same, but I have returned to Standard Edit mode. The selection area is actually feathered, but of course there is no way to show that with the marching ants selection borders – probably the strongest reason to use Quick Mask often. In the Quick Mask version of this

operation, it is very clear what areas are protected and which are not, as well as the level of transparency at all points in the selection. The final image (right) shows the result of filling the selected area with a 100% white fill.

 

 

Rough selection done quickly with standard selection tools.

Switching to Quick Mask mode makes accurate selection very fast, since you can use any paint tool. Quick Mask mode above and Standard Edit mode of the same selection.

 

Photos © Tom Thomson Photography. Used with permission.

Where Quick Mask truly shines is as a selection assistant. It is not difficult with most images to create a rough selection, but fine tuning it becomes a challenge when working with standard selection tools.

In the samples at the left, I started first with a quick selection using the Magnetic Lasso tool. It is pretty rough and adding and subtracting from this selection would be an exercise in patience and endurance. However, if you switch to Quick Mask mode, you are able to use paint tools to get very accurate selections.

Note: I reduced the intensity of the red mask indicator from the default value of 50% in order to more easily see the detail. You can also change the mask color if the red is too close to a color in your image. Double click on the Quick Mask edit button to set color or change overlay transparency.

To use paint tools, simply switch to Quick Mask edit. Choosing black as a foreground color with any tool will add to the mask. White as the foreground color removes the mask. I find that I am constantly toggling between Standard and Quick Mask mode when cleaning up a selection.

Here is the final Quick Mask view before I changed to Standard edit mode and deleted the background. Hint: After deleting the background, feather the selection using a very low number or contract or expand the selection by 1 or 2 pixels and apply a blur to soften the edges.

You can also see Quick Mask used to keep track of selections when creating outlines in the tutorial: Text as Design.

Learn to use Quick Mask. Remember the shortcut – the "q" key. Once you have completed one difficult selection with Quick Mask, you will be converted forever.

Make sure you stop by again for part two of this tutorial when we will look at saving selections, alpha channels and importing images as masks.

Masks Are Easy 6: PaintShop Pro Masks

Paint Shop Pro offers powerful mask capabilities. You can apply any effect to a mask that you can apply to a grayscale image, including filters, paintbrushes and pattern fills. See the introduction in this tutorial for basic mask principles. Although you can apply a mask to any type of image, I am using photographs for the following techniques. Keep masks in mind though, even when you are creating art from scratch in PaintShop Pro, since they can be great time savers and help to provide consistency.

We will cover mask basics in this tutorial, with saving masks, alpha channels and importing images for masks in the next tutorial (April 17, 2000).

 

 

 

 

Photos © Tom Thomson Photography. Used with permission.

Create a basic maskOpen your photograph. Create a duplicate layer that we will add a mask to, and make sure it is selected. We are going to first add a mask that covers the entire layer (we will discuss different mask creation methods a little later). Choose Masks>New>Hide All from the main menu, or right click on the Create Mask icon in the Layer Palette and choose Hide All from the pop-up menu. This places a mask over the entire layer.

Nothing will happen to your image, though an icon will appear with your layer settings to represent that there is a mask on the layer. In order to see the mask, choose Mask>View mask from the main menu. See the result at the left. The second photo shows the mask covering the entire

layer. The image you see in this view is actually the one on the background layer since everything is masked on the current layer, meaning nothing will show. To acheive the results in the photo shown at the top of this page, we will have to create "holes" in the mask to let the photo show through. We will soon fill the background layer with black, but for now we need it to guide where we will place the holes in the mask.

Choose Mask>Edit Mask from the main menu. When this option is checked, any changes you make will take place on the mask. Create an oval selection with the ellipse selection tool, and a feather setting of 25% for this look. Fill the selected area with white to create a hole in the mask to let your photo show through.

To create text on the mask, make sure you have selected Mask Edit mode and enter your text. It will be presented as a selection boundary on the mask. Fill with white to remove masking. In this sample you can see the selection boundaries and the shaded areas in the letters showing the photo behind the mask.

Now fill the background layer with black to acheive the final appearance. In this sample, I deliberately held the oval selection a little short of the child's head to illustrate that you can also edit the mask with the brush tools. Choose Masks>View masks to turn off the mask view. The mask is still in effect, but will not show.

Note that the mask is over the watering can in the photo above, but in the one at the right, the watering can is now exposed. With the Mask Edit turned on, and white foreground color, paint to remove any areas you would like to exclude from the mask. Use a soft brush for a feathered appearance, and if necessary, soften the edges with the Retouch tool.

Now that we have worked through this sample with this method, I would like to introduce another way to acheive the same result and is actually a more efficient method, since you can have your background color already set. (I did the first sample with a full layer mask, since I think masks are easier to understand if you start without a selection.)

Open your photo as above and create a duplicate. Fill the background layer with the final background color.

Create the same oval selection as above BEFORE you create the layer mask. Click on the Create New Mask icon and choose Show selection or choose Masks>New>Show selection and a mask will be placed using the selection boundaries. If you would prefer the inverse to the selection to be showing through the mask, choose Hide selection as you create your mask.

Enter your text as above.

This is the basic method for all masking in PaintShop Pro. Practice, since it does take a while to remember to switch back and forth from Edit Mask to standard mode. The shortcut to toggle between the two modes is CTRL K – one well worth learning. Carry on to the next page and see an artisitic application of this method and make sure to come back for part two of this tutorial when we look at advanced mask tools and methods.

Masks Are Easy 7: PaintShop Pro Masks for Artistic Effect

 

Graduated fill used to create mask. This is the mask used to create the photos below.

Mask applied to a layer with a white background on the layer below.

Identical to the above photo, but a yellow background fills the layer below.

When you are comfortable with masks, effects that would be impossible, or certainly impractical for most commercial projects become quick and easy. One of the most common applications for masks is to fade portions of an image. This is easy accomplished with graduated fills on a mask, and leaves the option to change background color without having to redo the fill effect.

Open the photo and duplicate the background layer. Choose Masks>New>Show All or create a mask by right clicking on the Create mask icon in the Layers Palette and choosing Show All. This places a mask filled with white, or no masking. Choose Masks>Edit Mask to create the mask. It is best if you do this effect without the Show Mask activated so you can see the actual results as you work.

Apply a gradient fill. I have included the settings for the custom fill I used on this photo. Work with the Edit feature of the Gradient fill until you have a result that works with your photo. Each photo is a little different. Try the radial and rectangular gradients as well for some dynamic effects.

 

 

Art like image created with a textured mask placed over the entire photo, and selective areas removed from the mask with a soft paintbrush. The original photo is shown below.

Original photo. When you are working with effects like this, it is best to work with a high quality, sharp image.

Mask with texture applied ready for “painting” the flowers through the mask.

Photos © Tom Thomson Photography. Used with permission.

The image shown at the left was created from a photo using a layer mask. Open the photo and duplicate the background layer. Choose Masks>New>Hide All or create a mask by right clicking on the Create mask icon in the Layers Palette and choosing Hide All.

Fill your background layer with white. Choose Masks>View Mask and Masks>Edit Mask from the main menu. Choose Image>Effects>Texture and use the following settings: Texture 6, Size 49%, Smoothness 0, Depth 1, Ambience -100, Shininess 96, Angle 315, Intensity 100, Elevation 7. Note: For any texture on a mask you will probably need a high Shininess setting, as well as an increased Light Intensity and low Light Elevation for the effect to show. See the resulting mask at the left.

To bring the flowers from the background, make sure that Edit Mask is turned on and choose a small, soft paintbrush. Set your foreground color to white and paint over the flowers. You may wish to work without the mask view turned so you are working with the final appearance. Work carefully on the first few flowers to get the feeling for where to place your brush, and the rest will go quickly. Try “dabbing” with the brush rather than dragging.

In the photo above, the stem lines were added without much concern for where the actual stems in the picture were located. I used a very small brush and sketched in the stems to balance the image.

The image at the right shows a magnified view of the mask. Note how soft the edges are on the white areas in the mask – the areas where the flowers show through.

Experiment with the many effects included with PaintShop Pro. You may find an effect that will work to provide an artistic touch and consistency for an entire site.

Make sure you watch for the second part of this tutorial which will cover saving masks, using

Masks Are Easy 8: CorelDraw Masks Vector programs like CorelDraw offer an effect that is similar to masks, although technically, this is not a mask technique. I have included it here, though, because the result is similar to some of the effects created with raster program masks.

 

 

 

If you would like to place a photo in a wild border, there is no easier way than in CorelDraw. You can take any vector shape and fill it with a photo. Take a look at the two samples to the left. Each were created with one step, using the shape shown here (“C” from dingbat font Button Button).

To create this look in CorelDraw, draw your vector shape. Choose File>Import to import a photo. Size the vector object to match the photo as shown here. You can adjust a vector diagram to any size – larger or smaller. If the proportion is not correct, make sure you adjust the proportion on your shape, not your photo. Any area of the shape that falls outside the photo borders will be filled with the color of the vector object.

Select the photograph and choose Effects>Powerclip>Place Inside Container. The vector object and the photo do not need to be arranged in any special way. The cursor will change to a black arrow as shown at the left. Click on the vector object and the photo will fill the object.

You can also use an outline for definition as shown in the skating photo above.

Masks Are Easy 9: Mask Power with Fireworks

 

Image created by joining an object shape with a photo.

Fireworks, with its hybrid vector/raster type operation is especially well suited to mask work. The simplicity of clipping one image is one of the strengths vector programs can offer, yet Fireworks can also deliver the soft raster effects like shadows and glows as easily as any raster program.

You must think a little differently for masks in Fireworks, but it is a difference most people will find easy to follow. Fireworks masks are based on one image clipping another. Quite simply, if you want an photo to be in a star shape, you place a star over the photo and follow the technique below. The photo takes on the outer shape of the star, yet remains editable.

The image at the left was created with a photograph and a dingbat font outline. The image was clipped, with a drop shadow and outer glow applied.

 

The shaped object is placed on the photo.

The image can be moved within the bounding shape.

To create this look, import a photograph and create an outline to use as the clipping shape. You can draw an object using the draw tools, import another image, or as I have done here, use a dingbat shape. This is “u” from the Button Button dingbat font. Both the photo and the dingbat have been rotated. Both are on the same layer.

With the Pointer tool, select both objects. Choose Modify>Mask Group>Mask to Path, and the photo will take on the shape of the object above as shown in the image at the left.

Note the icon in the middle of the image. You can drag this icon to reposition the photo within the outline.

If you are using a font, it remains editable, even though it is forming the outline for a photo. In the samples below, I first joined the photo and a character from the Button Button font. I chose the Text tool and clicked on the group to open the Text Editor, and simply changed the font character for the second effect below. Even with effects such as drop shadow or embossing, the text remains editable.

 

 

Graduated filled circle forms the path and transparency for the photo beneath it. The result of joining them with the Mask to Image command is shown below.

Objects with this effect are transparent. Note how the tan color is peeking through the image.

Photos © Tom Thomson Photography. Used with permission.

For a more traditional mask operation, Fireworks offers another mask option. In this method, the transparency is taken from the top object as well as the outer shape.

In the sample at the right, I created a a circle with a radial fill. I had to edit the fill to increase the black area, since the black is where the photo will show through.

Select both the circle and the photo and choose Modify>Mask Group>Mask to Image. The photo shown below is the result.

When this effect has been applied, the resulting image is transparent, which presents many new opportunities for interesting designs. In the image below, note how the tan color seeps though the image.

You can also use the texture feature of the Fireworks fill effect. In the samples below I have applied a texture fill to the same photo and circle. The sample at the right shows the image before applying the Mask to Image effect. The photo below is the result.

Experiment with the gradient and texture fills to create many unique effects. Masks in Fireworks are very easy and flexible and well worth spending the time to master. And as easy as they are, you will be creating wonderful work with masks very quickly.

Be sure to come back for the second part of the mask tutorial. We will be covering saving masks, channels and many other mask tricks. We will also cover masks in Macromedia Flash. Don't miss it!

Selections and Removing Backgrounds-- a Photoshop Tutorial by Janee

We do selections frequently in Photoshop and there are many ways to do them. In this tutorial we will work with some of the many different ways to handle selections, including some of the more difficult selection chores.

In this tutorial, we will do this mostly in the context of removing backgrounds from pictures. In particular, we will be using lasso, magic wand, a quickmask, a layer mask, the pen tool, and a special selection using a threshold adjustment.

If you want to select something that is a solid colour, or a few colours, you can use the magic wand. Selections with gentle curves but non-contrasted backgrounds may be best done by making a path and converting that to a selection. Some selections are most easily done by colouring on a quickmask and then touching up the selection afterwards. Some selections require a combination of these. And some selections require still other methods.

As you work through this tutorial, you will become more familiar with several methods of making selections. Among the ideas you will work with are these:

Magic Wand Lasso Adding to Selections Subtracting from Selections Transforming a Selection Filling a Selection Moving a Selection

Restricting movement of a Selection Making a Path into a Selection Quick Mask Mode Theshold adjustment Applying a Selection to another Layer Removing Matting Layer Masks Levels

This tutorial was written for Photoshop version 6, but it will work similarly with newer versions.

Although this tutorial was written with the beginner in mind, you may feel more comfortable with this tutorial after you have completed my Basic Shapes tutorial. Also, if you come across something that you want to read about further, this is a good time to pick up that <gasp!> manual.

The last section on "difficult subjects" is.. well.. difficult. If you are a beginner and planning to attempt this, be patient with yourself and try to make sense of it gradually as you go along.

Please remember, as you are doing this, I'm just giving you a glimpse of a few of the many ways there are to make selections. This is by NO means a complete treatment of selection methods. I have gotten many emails from people wanting their favorite method to be mentioned. Some of your comments are at the bottom of this tutorial. Here are a few selection methods that I do NOT cover in this tutorial:

The marquee tools which are great for rectangular or elliptical selections, as we did in Basic Shapes.

The polygonal lasso which is often good for hard-edged shapes with distinct corner points. Image -> Extract or the magnetic lasso tool are often good for high-contrast subjects. I touch on the

Extract process in my Beginning Photo Restoring tutorial.

Depending upon the subject and its background, you will want to adjust your method. As you get more practice doing various selections, you will get better at deciding how to attack a particular situation. You will also discover that you just LIKE doing selections one way better than another. And that's fine too!

The goal in "deleting backgrounds" is to isolate the pixels that are not in our subject. Then we will either cover them with a mask or erase them.

We can either select the pixels of our subject and then invert the selection, or we can select the background from the start. It depends upon your image, which will be the better way. Let's get into some examples!

Sometimes, just erasing the background is good enough, but always make a duplicate of your layer and save your file as a layered psd before you do this. The Background Eraser is a handy tool for this sometimes. I show this in my Cutting out Hair tutorial.

Other times, the Image -> Extract function is handy. I show a brief look at this in my Beginning Photo Restoration tutorial.

I. The Leaf.For our first project, we are starting with the image to the right . We are going to then add little white leaves alongside this red one to get a picture like the one just below it. And we won't have to draw a thing!

Begin by right-clicking the image to the right. Choose Save as.. and put it somewhere where you will be able to find it. ;)

Start with this picture.

Then open Photoshop and open your leaf.gif. You will need this to be in RGB mode to proceed, so click Image -> Mode ... RGB.

And end up with this!

Now, let's have a look at this: The small leaves are the same shape as the big one, they are just smaller. This is a perfect job for Select -> Transform!

First we will make a selection and then mess with it a little. With this subject all one colour, we can use the magic wand tool to select the leaf.

Now click on Select -> Transform Selection.

Hold the shift key and drag the selection smaller. What does holding the shift key do? Try it both ways!

Once you get your selection the size and shape you want, hit the Enter key to lock in that selection transformation.

Now move the selection into place. To move a selection, you have to have a selection tool (any of them) chosen and put your cursor within the selected area. You see your cursor change into the little "move selection" tool.

(Note: You can't move the selection itself with the move tool. If you use the move tool, you will move whatever pixels are inside your selection. To move the selection, you use the cursor with a selection tool picked.)

If you have your selection close to where you want it, but need to just give it a nudge, with your selection tool still chosen, use your arrow keys to nudge your selection. Try this.

Make your foreground colour white and alt-backspace to fill your selection with white.

Now let's do that again for the top leaf.. but we don't have to make the selection again. We just have to MOVE the selection. You know how to do this.

But what if we want the second leaf to be exactly in line with the first one? The Shift key is the one that kind of keeps things in line for many of Photoshop's functions and this is no exception. However if you try to hold the shift key and then drag your selection, it is trying to ADD to your selection -- NOT the goal!

So what you do is begin to move your selection and THEN press and hold the shift key. This constrains the movement to 45 degree angles, making it much easier to find your exact placement! Alt-backspace to fill this with white.

Now we want another leaf there in the center, but not really a whole leaf.

Drag-shift your selection down into place and have a look at this. If we were to fill the area of the selection now, we would have a white leaf which would cover part of the red leaf. Buzz.. not the goal!

So we want the selection we have... LESS the red part. So we'll SUBTRACT a selection of the red from the leaf selection we have.

Grab your magic wand and hold the alt key. See that little tiny minus sign there beside it? Ok now click the red part and watch your selection.

Alt-backspace to fill this in. All done! Now let's have a go at the Lasso!

II. Lasso.Let's look at another image, "The time is now." The timepieces are all on one layer, the text is on its own layer, and the background is separate. Suppose we have decided that we want to move the clock over a bit. It is in the "timekeepers" layer along with the hourglass and the wristwatch.

Get the psd for this image

Ok now let's select just the clock. With the "time keepers" layer selected in the layers palette, click-drag the lasso tool to grab just the clock. (What other tools might you use to grab the clock?)

Notice that, while you have the lasso tool chosen, if you try to move the clock, just the selection moves. .. Ah! you have to choose the MOVE tool! Type v to switch to it. Sometimes you may need to move a selection. If you want to make several shapes that are the same shape but different colours, for example, you can make the first one and select it, then move the selection and fill with the second colour, and so on.

To move a selection, put your cursor inside the selection whilst any selection tool is chosen. Your cursor will change into the little "move a selection" cursor. If you want to move the selection at 45-degree increments, hold shift after you begin moving.

Ok now let's assume that the image to the left (time.gif) has been flattened, but we need to take out the background, leaving it as you see to the left. How might we do this?

Making a Selection from a Path.

Ok.. so, as cool as the magic wand is, why can't we just always use it? Well, let's say that we want to remove the background from this feather image.

When the background has some colours that are close to your subject as is the case here, you might end up with some background chunks selected too. If this happens, you can lower the tolerance setting on your magic wand in the options bar.

With contiguous turned off on the options bar, when you click on a certain blue in the image, ALL the blue of that shade (within the tolerance you have set) will be selected. With contiguous checked, only the parts that are touching where you are will be selected. So, with the picture at the right, try using the magic wand with contiguous on or off? What happens?

Try adding to the selection. To add to a selection that you have active, hold the Shift key while you have your selection tool.

If you get too much selected, you can subtract from the selection by holding the alt (option) key and select the part you what to subtract from the selection.

You could go pretty crazy trying to do this selection with a magic wand. So you may have to use a different selection method altogether as I am about to show you....

To grab this file, opposite-click (right-click for most of you) and click Save As.. and put it somewhere where you can find it.

Touching with the magic wand.. holding shift to add subsequent touches to the selection....

You reach a place where the colour on the feather is too close to the colour of the background and .. yikes! The selection wanders off into the background! In part III, I'll show how I was able to select the feather.

III. Selecting from a Path.As we saw above, using the magic wand when trying to select the feather, presented a problem. I ended up tackling this by creating a path and converting it to a selection. Can you think of another way?

Here's how:

Touch the tip of the pen to each of the vertices, or turning points, of your figure. Zoom in as close as you need to go. (Hold the spacebar to turn your tool to the hand tool to move your image around if you need to.)

Then use the convert point tool to drag out the handles and form your Bezier curves.

I go more into how to make the curves in the heart tutorials and in the raindrop tutorial. (It does take a little practice to make the curves, but it sounds harder than it really is, once you just sit down and do it.)

Once you have your path made, click on the paths palette. At the bottom of this palette is a button for convert path to selection. Your path has to be active for this to work. If it is not, use the white arrow (hold ctrl while you have the pen tool in use to switch to the white arrow) and click anywhere on the path.

Once your selection is made, then you can click Layer -> Add Layer Mask -> Reveal Selection; or you can fill the background on this layer as desired.

Note: If your image is on your Background layer, double-click this layer in your layers palette before you try to add your layer mask.

In this particular example, I found it good to add a layer mask because my original selection was not as precise as I might have hoped. Using the layer mask made it easier to edit my selection.

IV. Using a Quick Mask.In selecting an object that is in many shades of colour from a background which is of similar sorts of shades, we could use one of several approaches. For this rose, I think that I would use a Quick Mask. A Quick Mask allows you to paint on your selection (or the masked area.. your choice). Then once you have your selection, you can delete it, recolour it, mask it, or whatever you need to do.

I am going to put a black background with green corners behind my rose, but I'll make the background later. First i'll make my rose selection.

Here's how to do this:

To use this image, first click on it (You have to be online), and then opposite click it, choose Save As.. and put the file where you can find it.

First, double-click the layer in the layers palette so that it becomes a regular layer and not the background. Then choose File -> Save as, and rename your file and save it in psd format. It is always best to keep your original pristine and unmangled.

Then, to enter Quick Mask mode, first double-click your "Edit in Quick Mask mode" button (pictured in green in my screenshot to the right) to check your options. You want it to read "Color indicates Selected Areas."

You can even make the colour of your quick mask into the latest fashion colour, if you like. (Using a different colour can make it easier to see the mask. A time when you might wish to use a different colour mask would be.. this example, since the rose and the mask are pretty close in colour! I went ahead and used the 50% red, thought, the default.)

Now that you are in quick Mask mode, you can use your painting tools (brush, airbrush, etc.) to paint what is called a "rubylith mask" onto your picture. You are not really painting on the picture, but you are creating a selection. If your rubylith should extend beyond a border, then you can erase it, too! Try this using a hard-edged brush and a soft brush to see the difference in your result.

When you have your mask painted on as you want, you click on the "Exit Quick Mask" button on your toolbar (in red above). This makes the marching ants go around on the part of your image where you painted the rubylith.

(If you end up with the background selected, as i have here to the right, then do Select -> Inverse if you want to convert this to a layer mask as i did in the next step.)

Now that your selection is active, you can do whatever you want to the background. I want to convert this Quick Mask selection to a real layer mask. This way I can preserve the original background should I need to edit the selection later or do something different with the background.

To make your selection into a Layer Mask, with your selection active, click the Add Layer Mask button (here it is green). Et voilà! Masked!

Whatever you have in the layer below will show through. At this point, I clicked the new layer icon, chose black for my foreground colour and then clicked alt-backspace to fill that layer with black.

Should you see that your edge is a little rough or not accurate in some places, you can always edit your layer mask. Just click it in the layers palette, and choose either a white or black brush and edit your troubles away!

(For a more detailed treatment of layer masks, see my tutorial "Fading Images into One.")

I touched a green airbrush to the corners of my black background to get this effect.

V. Difficult Subjects.But what about that wispy-haired waif we want to take from a big-city background and place into the forest? Or what about this tree with this threatening sky to the right? Can we make this a pretty day? How can we select something complex like this tree with all that tiny detail?

In Photoshop, there are always at least three ways to do something.Since there is some pronounced contrast in this photo, one way to select the tree from the background is by using a threshold level adjustment.

Here's how I did it:

If your image is the background layer, double-click it in the layers palette to make it into a regular layer.

Then drag your image to the New Layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette to duplicate it. Click on the upper one of these, the new layer, in the layers palette to select it.

Image -> Adjust -> Threshold. Now right-click the layer in the layers palette and name it "Threshold."

When the dialog box comes up, move the slider left and right and watch your image. What you want is for your subject to be black and your background to be white. You will have to go back and forth to get just the right level of detail that you want. Click the Preview box off if you want to remind yourself where your image edges are. When the subject is black and the background is white, hit ok.

So now we have the relatively simple task of selecting just the black tree. Then we are going to use this selection as a pattern to cut the tree out of the original picture!

Choose your magic wand from the toolbox and make sure that contiguous is off. This will enable you to select all of the black pixels whether or not they are contiguous (touching each other). Then set your tolerance to a low number.

Now touch your magic wand to the tree (in the threshold layer.) This will select all the black pixels.

Now we will apply this selection to the duplicate original tree layer.

This photo was given to me for the use with this tutorial only. ©2001, Lynn Bishop of Canz Designs, New Zealand. You may use it for the purposes of this tutorial by clicking on the picture (to get the full-size version) and then right-click it. Click Save As.. and put the file where you can find it.

Your black tree is selected now. Click the eye off in the threshold layer. You should now see your original tree layer with the cloudy background. The original tree has the selection ants going around it.

Now click on the original layer in your layers palette. Click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette. Et voilà! Now what you did was you added a MASK to this layer. You did not delete the background. So if you wanted to, you could paint on the mask in either black or white to EDIT the part of the tree that is showing. This is the beauty of layer masks!

Now you can put in whatever background you want in the layer underneath the original one. I've made a white -> blue gradient sky layer.

Finally, because the tree was so dark in the original picture, the resulting cutout tree against a summer blue sky is too dark. We can fix that a bit with levels. Image -> Adjust -> Levels .. and then pull the light and medium sliders toward the left till you like your look.

Trouble-shooting.

There was a pretty hard edge around the perimeter of the tree when I did mine. This can lead to an overly crisp and fakey look. as in the shot to the right.

Softening this edge is one use for that layer mask. Click on the layer mask and then do Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur and make it just one or 1.5 pixels.

Here is something else that might occur. When you are placing something against a darker background than was there, you can get a whitish fringe around the subject. The same can happen with a dark fringe on a light background. So how do you fix this?

One way is to use Layer -> Matting -> Remove white matte (or remove black matte).

Here is another way to use that black silhouette tree that we got from doing the threshold adjustment.

I show just ONE way to do this tree selection. Some people have told me that they know a better/faster/more elegant way to select this tree than the one I suggest here.

How many ways can you think of to do this? Tell me your favorite way and if it is different from the ones here, I'll post it at the bottom of this tutorial!

I hope you have had fun with the activities in this tutorial and that you picked up some tidbits along the way!

Always me,

More ways to select this tree:

In your example of the tree, I prefer a slightly different approach. You can use the fact that the sky only contains blue and white, usually. The blue channel is therefore 50% of the way towards being the required silhouette, because the sky area is probably a fairly uniform light gray. All you need do is make an alpha channel from the blue channel, roughly lasso the major part of the non-sky region and fill with black. Then touch up and enhance the image, finally using threshold with a hint of

blurring to give a true b&w silhouette. Create a selection from the alpha channel and then add layer mask, revealing or hiding the selection as before. I understand that your tutorials are designed to demonstrate the use of tools like magic wand along the way, but I do think this way is better in practice. (I expect there are at least four more ways of doing this!).John Houghton

Some Advanced Selection Tips

1- In prepress clean jobs, always use PEN tool.

2- In case of hairy subjects, use PEN also if you have a magazine cover person. This sounds crazy, but they pay well. If the job is not well-paid, use Janee's procedure.. It is good, but do not forget to make a backup layer... Do not tell me I have history palette, because you'll need to purge history from time to time to free up some scratch space needed in processing layers. In addition to the procedure you may consider the following tricks:

a- In addition to threshold, you may use adjustment layers such as Hue/Saturation to increase saturation, simple brightness and contrast, to emphasize external edges, then turn on (Use All Layers) option before you use magic wand.

b- Instead of cutting sharp edges, sometimes it is more practical to stroke edges, after adding new layer above, with a layer option of Normal, and suitable transparency. Stroking edges (center option), for high resolution picture, with a hair of one pixel will add to the details rather than erasing them. If you are satisfied with the stroke, just merge down. For this step to succeed, you need high resolution for enough pixels. If your image is low-res, you may resample it to 400 percent, then after stroking, resample again to 25 per cent. Those two resampling steps will even add anti-aliasing to the edges.

c- You may actively enlarge selection made by the Magic Wand, using Select>Grow.. Grow tool's threshold is adjusted everytime using the Magic Wand palette's threshold. Thus, the sky in your tutorial may be first selected with Magic Wand, then Grow after you oversaturate by using Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.

d- Another important selection tool is the Similar tool. I talked about that tool before in your Line Art Tutorial.

e- Sometimes it is helpful, after putting a saturation layer to work with your selection tools directly from channels palette. If you are in RGB mode, you may activate those channels one by one... you may notice important similar terrains, that you may select one by one, then you turn RGB combination on.

f- Sometimes converting a COPY of the image to CMYK space may help in finding more similar terrains in four channels rather than 3, then you make a layer mask, and convey it back to original image.

g- In case that you have gradient background with various colours, do the following: Put new layer... Make a gradient similar to the gradient beneath to the best quality of resemblance you could and same orientation... Turn on Difference Mode of the layer... Surprise... your background is all black. And you can sometimes select it using single try of Magic Wand, if you mastered the gradient well! Original trick.. isn't it?

h- It is sometimes helpful to use selection free transform.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 5a: Intro to Layers

Up to now all the work we've done in these lessons has been on a background layer. You may have discovered that working on a background layer can be very unforgiving. Any editing you do on a background layer permanently alters the pixels of the background and the only way to undo those changes is by using the history palette. When you begin to combine layers with the Photoshop features you've learned up to this point, a whole new realm of Photoshop's power will be opened up to you! So, let's get started...

What is a layer?If you're totally unfamiliar with layers in graphics software, they can be a bit difficult to grasp. You can think of each layer in a document as a sheet of clear transparent film. When you paint on one of the sheets, you can still see through the unpainted areas of the sheet. When you stack the sheets, the painted areas on the lower sheets will show through the transparent areas of the sheets above. In Photoshop, the transparent portions of a layer are displayed as a gray and white checkerboard pattern (unless the image contains a background). The checkerboard pattern is not really part of the document, it's just there to help you identify the transparent areas.

Take a look at the examples here. The large image shows the three layers stacked. The three smaller image show the contents of each layer. You can tell by the way the objects overlap that the fish is at the bottom of the stack, the butterfly is in the middle, and the star is at the top of the stack. Photoshop treats each layer as if it were a separate document so that any editing functions are only applied to the active layer.

When you open an image such as a digital photo in Photoshop, normally the image opens with only a background layer. The background is a special layer that cannot have transparency and always remains on the bottom of the stack. When you stack additional layers above the background, the background will show through the unfilled portions of the layers above it. A background can be converted to an ordinary layer by double clicking on its name in the layers palette. You can type a new name for the layer at that time or accept

the default. Naming your layers as you create them is a good habit to get into, because it helps you identify your layers in the layers palette more easily.

In Photoshop, you use the layer palette for managing the layers in a document. Here's a screen shot of the layers palette for the example above. (I've enlarged the thumbnails for this screen shot so you could better see the layer contents.)

You're likely to find that the layers palette is one of the most often used elements of the Photoshop interface. In fact, you may find it useful to rearrange your palette placement to allow maximum space for the layers palette. Personally, I like to keep the least used palettes collapsed at the bottom of the screen, leaving the entire right side free to expand the history palette and the layers palette. If you have Photoshop 6, you can use the palette well in the options bar to hold some of the lesser used palettes. And if you're fortunate enough to have a multi-monitor configuration on your computer, you can really maximize your workspace.

There are considerable differences in the layers palettes in Photoshop 5.x and 6.0, so I have divided the layers palette overview into separate pages according to your version. Choose your Photoshop version below to continue on to the layers palette overview.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 8 Exercises 1-2: Dodge, Burn, Curves, Sponge

Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 8. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

Scroll down to begin exercise #1...

Exercise One - Dodge & Burn

Practice Image: dodgeburn.jpg

Roll your mouse over this image to see the original untouched photo.

Practice using the dodge and burn tools to minimize the shadows on this image. You can also use the burn tool to tone down the glare on the blonde hair. Not too much, though! Remember, you don't want to remove the light and shadow completely... just enough to minimize the extremes a bit. I found the triangle-shaped glare on her right cheek distracting, so I concentrated my efforts on minimizing that and the dark shadows under her eyes.

Exercise Two - Curves and Sponge Tool

Practice Image: washedout.jpg

Roll your mouse over this image to see the original untouched photo.

In this image the boy on the right looks like his momma used cheap detergent because his jacket is dull and washed out. In fact, the entire image looks a little washed out to me, so let's first take a detour into the curves dialog box and darken up the midtones a bit. (I know we haven't reviewed curves yet, so for now, just follow my instructions and don't worry about why you're doing it. It will help you get comfortable in the dialog box without the stress of learning how it works just yet. We'll discuss curves in more detail in a future lesson.)

Go to Image > Adjust > Curves and grab the middle point of the diagonal line and drag it slightly down and to the right. Just enough to give the line a slight curve.

This darkens the midtones while preserving the full tonal range of the image.

Now I want to darken up some of the darker tones too, so click on the lower left section of the curve and move it down ever so slightly. Just enough to give the curve a bit more of a J shape.

See my screen shot to see how your curve should look.

When you get the curve adjusted, click ok. Already it is a big improvement. But kids clothes should be bright and colorful, so let's use the sponge tool to brighten up the jacket a bit.

Set the sponge tool to saturate and pressure of 40%.

Paint over the jacket of the boy on the right. Be sure to catch the yellow sleeve that's peeking out from behind the ear of the other boy.

You can also pop over to the other boy and zap the colorful parts of his clothes with the sponge tool too. Denim is supposed to be faded so we can leave that area alone.

Now take a snapshot and use the history palette to toggle the before and after snapshots back and forth. What a difference... You're on the way to becoming a master retoucher!

Now on to the next challenge...

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 8 - Exercise 3: Clone & Sharpen Tools

Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 8. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

Scroll down to begin exercise #3...

Exercise Three - Clone and Sharpen Tool

Practice Image: clonepractice.jpg

Roll your mouse over this image to see the original untouched photo.

This is an interesting image, but I find the chain hanging down from the camel's chin to be distracting. Let's do away with that, shall we?

Remember the New View command I told you about at the beginning of this lesson? Now would be a good time to use that trick.

Select your clone stamp tool, choose a soft-edge brush that is slightly larger than the chain links. Set the mode to normal and opacity to 100 percent.

Set your clone source about an inch or so to the left of the chain, right at the bottom edge of the image.

Make your first click directly on the chain at the bottom of the image so the source and destination will be aligned horizontally.

Drag on up the chain, but stop before you get the area where you see streaky spots in the sand. You want to be careful to make those streaks aligned when you clone. To do that you'll want to reset your clone source so it is centered on a streak near the chain, then move over the chain and center your brush so the streak will align properly and click. Then continue filling in.

As you get close to the camels chin, you will need to rest the clone tool often and work more slowly. Adjust your brush size if you need to.

Be sure to align the horizon line which is immediately behind where the chain meets the strap.

For that last tiny bit, you'll want to switch to a hard-edged brush to get a sharp line under the camel's chin.

To finish it off, use the sharpen tool with a large, soft brush, set to about 12-15% pressure and brush over the camel's head and neck to bring it into focus and make it pop out a bit more.

That's it!

Practice Image: clonepractice3.jpg

For more cloning practice, try removing the wreath and bow from above the fireplace in this image.

Some tips on this image:

Carefully line up the shadow from the ledge of the fireplace and slowly work across from right to left.

You may start to see a pattern emerging. That's ok. First remove the object and then you can go back over it with single clicks to minimize the clone pattern.

You'll notice the wall is lighter on the right than on the left. As you work across, this will become more and more obvious. Again, just finish removing the object, then after the object is removed you can clean up the color of the wall.

To even out the wall color, pick up the wall color with the eyedropper and use the paintbrush tool in lighten and darken mode to gradually blend the color together.

On the mantle you may need to use the clone tool some more in lighten or darken mode to even the tone.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 8a: Retouching Tools Intro

All of us strive to capture the perfect picture every time, but we all know that perfect image can be a rare and elusive thing. That's where the magic of Photoshop's retouching tools comes in. The retouching tools include Blur, Sharpen, Smudge, Dodge, Burn, Sponge, Rubber Stamp, and the History Brush. While all of these tools have value, the two most important retouching tools are the rubber stamp and the history brush, so we'll be spending the most time discussing those.

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At this point in the course, the Photoshop 5.x users should have a good grasp on how to access the options palette, and the Photoshop 6 users should be familiar with the options bar. For the remaining portion of the course, when I say "options" Photoshop 5.x users should know to double click the tool button to access the options palette, and Photoshop 6 users look to the options bar. If a tool is not behaving as you think it should, you can reset the tool to default options from the options palette menu in Photoshop 5.x or by double clicking the far left icon on the options bar in Photoshop 6.0.

All of the retouching tools use the brushes palette, and many of them have opacity or pressure controls, and blend mode options. Because we've discussed these options in previous lessons, I will not be repeating those explanations again. You may either review those lessons or consult your Photoshop User Guide if you need a refresher. I will only be discussing any new options within these tools.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

• Read This First!• Course Outline• Retouching Tools Intro• Blur, Sharpen, Smudge• Dodge, Burn, Sponge• Clone Stamp, History Brushes• Ex: 1&2 3 4&5 6&7 8 9 10

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The "Use all layers" option has also been discussed, but it deserves repeating here because it is so important to the retouching process. When use all layers is enabled, it allows you to sample from one layer, while painting your corrections onto another layer. If you use a new empty layer to paint on your corrections, you never have to worry about making a mistake, because you can just go back and erase from the layer containing your corrections.

Photoshop's Snapshot features is also extremely valuable in the retouching process. Always make a snapshot before you begin your corrections and after... there's nothing more satisfying than being able to flip back and forth between the before and after results to see what you've accomplished. You'll also want to get in the habit of taking snapshots periodically in the editing process so you can return to a previous state if things start going in the wrong direction. Remember, however, that snapshots do not get saved with your image. Once you close the image, any snapshots are deleted. If you want to save a snapshot permanently, you'll have to create a new document from it and save it under a different file name.

Here's a tip you'll use often when working with the retouching tools: the New View command. This command is located under the View menu and it allows you see the same image with multiple zoom levels on screen at the same time. When making image corrections it is always best to check your image at 100% magnification, but you will also want to get in close as you work. Rather than constantly switching zoom levels, simply choose View > New View and another window will appear. Zoom one window in on the area where you're working, put the other one to 100% magnification, and position the windows so you can see them both. And don't forget the spacebar shortcut for quickly switching to the hand tool temporarily as you work in a zoomed view.

With that out of the way, let's get on to the tools...

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 8b: Blur, Sharpen, and Smudge Tools

We'll start with the blur, sharpen and smudge tools. With these tools, the name pretty much says it all. They don't require that much explanation, but a few tips are always helpful! (Continued below...)

The keyboard shortcut is R and you can toggle between the three tools using Shift R.

Blur - blurs the area where you paint. Sharpen - increases contrast in the areas where you paint. Smudge - blends the pixels where you paint simulating the action of dragging a finger through

wet paint.

Each of these tools has a mode option and a pressure setting. The pressure setting determines how strong the effect is applied. With the sharpen tool especially, you will want

to keep the pressure setting very low. Too much sharpening can have some really disastrous results. If you need to see it to believe it, just crank that pressure up to 100 and make a couple swipes across any image.

I think you'll find you will not use the sharpen tool very often at all. The Unsharp Mask filter is much better at overall sharpening. The sharpen tool is useful primarily for popping out highlights on shiny objects, or maybe to give an important object a little extra "pop" after you've resampled an image. Remember to use it sparingly, though, and always create a snapshot first because it's so easy to overdo it.

The blur tool is useful for removing small facial blemishes and smoothing out wrinkles. It's easy to get a bit carried away with the blur tool when working on a face. Things will be looking great as you start, but if you overdo it, your image will begin to have an obvious retouched appearance if you're not careful. One way to avoid overdoing it is by using the lighten and darken blend modes with the blur tool. For instance, if you want to tone down freckles or diminish a pimple, you would use the blur tool in the lighten mode. In lighten mode, only darker pixels are blended and it will tone down freckles and blemishes without completely removing them. By the way, once you blur pixels with the blur tool, those pixels are permanently altered and you can't bring them back into focus again with the sharpen tool.

The smudge tool is grouped with the retouching tools, but it's actually used more often in painting. For retouching purposes is can be use to quickly rub out a minor blemish, touch up the shine on someone's lip stick, and so on. It can also be useful for blending out the jaggies that can sometimes occur when sizing up an image. This is another tool you want to be careful not to overdo and be sure to keep the pressure setting low. The smudge tool has a finger painting option that applies a dab of the foreground paint color each time you click.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 8c: Dodge, Burn, and Sponge Tools

Next we have the tools with odd names: dodge, burn, and sponge. These tools get their names from traditional photography where, in the darkroom, light could be blocked out (dodged) in order to make portions of an image lighter, or light could be passed through a small concentrated hole to

darken (burn) an area. (Continued below...)

These tools are known as the toning tools and that should help you remember the keyboard shortcut of O. As usual, you can toggle between the three by pressing Shift-O.

Dodge - Lightens pixels where you paint. Burn - Darkens pixels where you paint. Sponge - Saturates or desaturates the pixels where you paint.

The dodge and burn tools work best on grayscale images. On color image the dodge tool will wash out color and details, the burn tool will just turn the area black or sunburned-looking. In a grayscale image, these tools are used to lighten shadows or overexposed areas and to darken underexposed areas. They have a unique option for "range" with choices of highlights, midtones, and shadows.

When set to highlights, only the lightest areas are affected. When set to shadows, only the darkest areas are affected. When set to midtones, only the middle tones are affected.

They also have an exposure option which controls how intense the effect is. Generally you want to use both of these tools with a fairly low exposure. You will probably rarely bring it over 25%.

In grayscale images, one example where the dodge tool is useful would be for removing dark shadows from under a person's eyes. An example where the burn tool would be useful would be to reduce the shine on a persons face from light reflecting off it. In addition to working with grayscale images, dodge and burn can also be useful for adding highlights and shadows on cartoon-style drawings and artwork.

The sponge tool allows you to adjust the color saturation where you paint. It has two modes: desaturate and saturate. The pressure option controls how strong the effect is applied.

Desaturate mode dulls the colors, turning them gray. Saturate mode intensifies the color, making them brighter.

If you have an image that was converted from CMYK mode to RGB mode, you will generally find the colors are somewhat dull and washed out. You can use the sponge tool in saturate mode to brighten them up. Conversely, when you're working on an image in RGB mode that is eventually going to be converted to CMYK, you can watch for out-of-gamut colors and use the sponge tool in desaturate mode to bring those colors back into the CMYK gamut. In desaturate mode, the sponge tool is also useful for toning down colors in the background of an image when you want to make a foreground object stand out, or for giving a color photo a vintage, colorized appearance.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 8d: Clone Stamp Tool, History & Art History Brushes

In our last lesson we had an introduction to the pattern stamp tool. This tool shares the toolbox space with the clone stamp tool which is probably the most often used of the retouching tools. The stamp tools

share the keyboard shortcut S and Shift-S toggles between the two. (Continued below...)

Options include the paint mode, opacity, aligned option, and use all layers. Ordinarily you'll use the clone stamp with the aligned option checked. When it's unchecked, your cloning is reset to the source point each time you release and click again with the mouse.

Don't overlook the blend mode options. The lighten and darken blend modes can be extremely valuable in working with the clone stamp to avoid that obvious retouched appearance. Adjusting opacity can help, too.

To use the clone stamp you must first define the clone source. To set the clone source, you click in your image while holding the Alt/Option key. Your cursor will change to the stamp tool and when you click, the source is set. Next move your cursor to the area where you want to copy the clone source. As you click and drag you will see a crosshair that moves along with the brush cursor, indicating the center of the clone source. You can even clone from one image to another by setting the clone source in one image, then activating the destination image, and dragging the brush cursor. If you arrange each window so you can see the source and destination, it will be easier to work this way.

When using the clone stamp tool, you want to take care to align your source and destination brush carefully. It helps to find a horizon line of some sort and make sure the brush edges is aligned with it when you set the source point and when you make that initial click. As long as you have those first two clicks aligned, you know they will remain aligned until you reset the source point. You'll have a chance to practice this with many of the exercises coming up.

We've already worked with the history brush a little bit in the previous lesson and I don't believe it requires much more explanation here. The History brush shares the toolbox space with the Art History brush. The

shortcut is Y and Shift Y toggles the two.

Remember to create snapshots often and you'll always be able to paint back portions of an image from a previous state using the History Brush. Snapshots aren't the only thing you can use a the source for the history brush, however. Any item listed in the history palette can also be used to paint from. So, for example, if you applied a filter but forgot to create a snapshot first, and you want to bring back the unfiltered state of the image in selected areas, set the source to the point in the history palette just before you applied the filter and begin painting. The opacity and mode options let you refine your techniques and create interesting effects as well. The history brush is one of the most revolutionary new tools to come to Photoshop. Learn it. Use it.

Photoshop 5.5 and later only:

The Art History brush isn't exactly a retouching tool. It can be used to apply painterly effects to an image like an impressionist style painting. It grabs color from the underlying pixels and blends them in unusual ways according to the style you have

selected in the options. You'll notice several new options for this tool:

The style, in conjunction with the brush shape, determines the basic shape of the impressionist strokes.

Fidelity controls how closely the colors stray from the underlying pixel colors. More fidelity means the colors will be more similar to the source, lower fidelity will result in colors that vary from the source.

The area determines how far the effect spreads from the brushstroke. The brush strokes have kind of a twirling effect and the area determines how far out those twirls go.

The spacing controls the distance between brush strokes.

This tool can be a lot of fun to experiment with. You'll find you can get the best results using it in conjunction with layers and the history brush to blend and combine art strokes with the original image for interesting effects. When it comes to art, we all have our own preferences, so feel free to spend some time experimenting with this tool on your own. It can also be useful for creating background textures and patterns.

That about covers the retouching tools. Now let's get some practice working with them on real images. Download this zip file for all the images you need for these exercises: lesson8.zip [Approx. 2 MB]

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 8 - Exercise 4-5: Clone Stamp & Blur Tools

Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 8. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

Scroll down to begin exercise #4...

Exercise Four - Clone & Blur Tool

Practice Image: scratch.jpg

Roll your mouse over this image to see the original untouched photo.

This little girl has a scratch on her face. We can't have that!

Set up two windows using the New View trick so you can zoom in and check your work at 100%.

Start with the clone stamp set to lighten and set your source directly under the scratch. Drag across the scratch. This should eliminate most of it.

If you need to, switch to normal mode, drop opacity down to about 50 and clone out any remaining scratch.

Smooth out any lingering evidence of the scratch using the blur tool.

Exercise Five - Clone Tool

Practice Image: clonepractice2.jpg

A little something different with the clone tool this time. We're going to create a seamless tile from this water texture.

Open the image and make a elliptical selection almost the full height of the image. Feather the selection by about 20 pixels and copy it to the clipboard.

Deselect <-- this is important.

Go to Filter > Other > Offset and set the Horizontal to 300 pixels, Vertical to 250 pixels and wrap around.

This turns your image inside out and brings the seams in to the middle of the image.

Paste the section you copied. This should conceal the major seam down the center. Now you just have to clone out the seams on the sides.

Use a large, soft brush to clone out any remaining seams. Don't go off the edges or you will create a new seam.

Go to Layer > Flatten Image.

Run the offset filter again. If you find any remaining seams in the image clone them out.

When you finish, you should have a completely seamless water texture. Use it as your desktop wallpaper if you like.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 8 - Exercises 6-7: Clone Stamp & Blur Tool

Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 8. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

Scroll down to begin exercise #6...

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Exercise Six - Clone Tool

Practice Image: scratched.jpg

Adobe Photoshop Basics

• Read This First!• Course Outline• Retouching Tools Intro• Blur, Sharpen, Smudge• Dodge, Burn, Sponge• Clone Stamp, History Brushes• Ex: 1&2 3 4&5 6&7 8 9 10

Interactive Classroom

Visit the forum to post your questions and comments.-Get Help with Lesson 8

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By now you should be getting quite familiar with using the clone stamp tool. See if you can remove the scratch from this image using the clone and retouching tools.

Tips:

1. Use the darken mode of the stamp tool.2. Work on a new layer in case you make a mistake.

Exercise Seven - Blur Tool

Practice Image: freckles.jpg

Roll your mouse over this image to see the original untouched photo.

Practice using the blur tool to tone down the freckles and shine on this face.

Tips:

1. Use lighten mode on the blur tool to minimize the freckles without overdoing it.2. Use darken mode to tone down the shiny spots.3. Steer clear of detail areas like eyes, eyebrows, and dimples.4. Use the smudge tool to smooth out the lipstick highlight.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

5. Lesson 8 - Exercise 8: Clone Tool, Adjustment Layers, Layer Effects

6. Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 8. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

7. Scroll down to begin exercise #8...

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14. Exercise Eight - Clone Tool, Adjustment Layers, Layer Effects15. Practice Image: cloneproject.jpg

16.Roll your mouse over this image to see the original untouched photo.

17. We're going to screen back the left side of this image and add some text to it, but first we need to clone out those marbles and make a curve adjustment.

18. It looks a little dark and dreary to me, so let's apply a curves adjustment layer to brighten up the midtones a touch. Rather than using the standard curves command, this time lets apply the curve on an adjustment layer since we haven't done that yet.

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19. Choose new adjustment layer either from the Layer menu or the Layers palette. Grab the middle of the line and move it up and left just enough to give it a little curve until the brightness looks right to you.

20.21. Add a new layer and clone out the marbles on the empty layer.22. Be careful to preserve the light streaks when you clone out the marbles, but you don't

have to get it perfect since we'll be screening it back and adding text.23. Make a rectangular marquee selection in the left half of the image, but stay about 1/4

inch away from the sides.24. Add a new brightness/contrast adjustment layer. Because you had made a selection

before adding the adjustment layer, the selection becomes a mask for the adjustment layer.

25.26. Adjust brightness to 70 and contrast to -50 and click OK.27. In the layers palette, click the layer mask thumbnail for the adjustment layer you just

created.28. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian and blur the edges about 5 pixels.29. Add a Text layer and position your text within the screened area.30. Give the text a little layer effect to your liking.31. For the final touch, use the sharpen tool to go over the metallic highlights on the

watch and chain to give it a little bit of pop.32. When I was finished, the image seemed to have a slight green cast. Because I used an

adjustment layer, I was able to go back to the curves adjustment layer by double-

clicking on the curve thumbnail in the layers palette. Then I selected the green channel and dragged the curve down just the tiniest bit to remove that slight cast. I also went to the blue channel and moved the bottom section of the curve up just the teeny tiniest bit to remove some yellow from the shadow areas of the background.

33. You can also fine tune the brightness/contrast adjustment layer now, too, if you wish.34. I've included my finished PSD file (cloneproject.psd) in the zip file of images for this

lesson so you can open the file and examine it. (Photoshop 5.x users: some layer effects may not appear properly when you open this file because it was created in Photoshop 6.)

Adobe Photoshop Basics

35. Lesson 8 Exercise 9: Clone, Blur, Dodge, Burn

36. Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 8. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

37. Scroll down to begin exercise #9...

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44. Exercise Nine - Clone, Blur, Dodge, Burn45. Practice Image: retouchpractice.jpg

46.Roll your mouse over this image to see the original untouched photo.

47. This gal has a very nice smile, but her teeth are a bit yellowed, she's got dark shadows under her eyes, a bright spot on her left temple, a white thing in her hair, and a few facial blemishes. We're going to fix all that!

48. Start by using the View > New View trick so you can see the image at 100% and zoom in close in another window.

49. The dodge tool is great for whitening teeth! For this image I set the range to midtones, the exposure to about 20% and swiped over the teeth with a small, soft brush. Instant whitening!

50. Now let's remove those dark shadows under her eyes.51. Select the clone stamp tool, set the mode to lighten, and opacity low (about 35%). Set

the source for a spot right under the shadow and blend the shadow right out. Do this under both eyes.

52. Switch to the blur tool, set the mode to lighten, and blend out the few dark spots on her face.

53. Now there's just the bright spot on her temple. We're going to try something a little different here. If you look in the channels palette and look at each color channel individually you will see that the light spot is very obvious in the green and blue channels, but not in the red channel. To fix this we are going to darken that area only in the green and blue channels.

54. Select the Green and Blue channels by clicking on one, then shift-clicking on the other. Then click the eyeball next to the RGB thumbnail. This allows you to edit only in blue and green, while previewing the composite RGB image.

55. Use the burn tool set to highlights and a very low exposure (not more than 10) to paint over the light spot. Be very careful not to overdo it.

56. Be sure to click on the RGB channel to go back to editing all channels when you finish.

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57. Lastly, use the clone stamp tool set to darken to remove that white fleck from her hair next to her left ear.

58. It may not seem like we've made all that much difference, but if you take a snapshot and compare it to the initial untouched snapshot, you will be surprised at the difference!

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 8 - Exercise 10: Burn, Sharpen, Art History & History Brush

Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 8. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

Scroll down to begin exercise #10...

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Exercise Ten - Burn Tool, Sharpen Tool, Art History Brush, History Brush

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Practice Image: retouchpractice2.jpg

Roll your mouse over this image to see the original untouched photo.

Just one more project since we have not yet experimented with the Art History brush yet. Meet my pooch, Lucy.

I really like this picture but her coat looks rather dull and washed out, and the background is so bright it really overpowers the scene.

I started by using the burn tool with the large soft brush and brushing over her entire coat. Because there's not a lot of color in this portion of the image, the burn tool works out well.

I set the burn tool to midtones, exposure 18% and went over some areas more than others to even it out a little.

I did a few quick touch-ups with the clone tool to remove the white flecks on her coat.

Next I used the sharpen tool to go over her eyes and mouth to sharpen them up a bit.

When I was happy with the way Lucy looked, I took a snapshot.

Next I used the Art History brush and painted over the background with these settings:

Brush Size: 9, soft Style: Dab Fidelity: 100% Area: 50 px Spacing: 50%.

Don't worry about painting over Lucy because we have a snapshot.

Once you have painted over the background with the Art History brush, take another snapshot.

Now switch to the regular History Brush. Set the source as the first snapshot and paint around the edges where you may have overlapped with the art history brush.

That's it for this lesson... Have fun! Please share some examples of your progress by posting your results in the interactive classroom!

Adobe Photoshop TipScreen Blending Mode

Photoshop has many different ways of blending layers. Different blending modes determine how the pixels on one layer effect the pixels on other layers beneath it.

The Screen blending mode is available with all the other blending modes on the layers window. Screen blending mode brightens the underlying layers depending on how bright the screened layer's pixels are. If the screened pixel is black, it will look completely transparent. A white pixel will be white.

A screened black layer can be used to add lens flares and other bright things to a picture with the option to remove, filter or fade them.

For Example

I've found a picture and created a new new layer above it. Then filled the layer with black and added a lens flare.

ORIGINAL Image Lens Flare with NORMAL Blending

Lens Flare on SCREEN blending COLOR DODGE blending

Now adding any filters to the lens flare layer will only effect the lens flare. There is now also the option later on to delete the lens flare layer or change it, offering more flexibility to your photoshop files.

Conclusion

Different blending modes offer a different effect. Use the one which stimulates your optic nerves in the best way.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 7 - Exercise 1: Coloring with the Paint Bucket

Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 7. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

Scroll down to begin exercise #1...

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Exercise 1 - DolphinsOpen the image lesson1e7.psd. We're going to color this image and apply several layer effects to produce the image shown here.

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The first thing we need to do is promote the background to a layer so we can keep the lines separate from the color fills. Double-click the background and name it "lines" and set the blend mode to multiply. Setting the blend mode to multiply will allow the layers below to show through the white areas on the lines layer. By using the multiply blend mode, we don't have to worry about removing the white areas.

Add another layer and drop it behind the lines layer. Name this layer "Sea."

Choose the paint bucket tool and set the options to "Use all Layers." This will allow us to sample from the lines layer, but paint onto the Sea layer. Make sure the Contiguous button is checked and that the Sea layer is the active painting layer.

Show the Swatches palette and begin filling the background areas of the dolphin image with various shades of blue-green.

Remember you can press the Alt/Option key to pick up colors from your document.

Once the Sea layer has been filled in, create another new layer, name it dolphins, and drop it below the lines layer.

Fill each section of the dolphins with various shades of gray. You may need to zoom in close to catch some of the smaller areas.

When you finish filling in the dolphins, switch to the pencil tool and use the pencil tools and the eyedropper toggle to fill in any tiny areas that may have been missed.

Now lets give the picture some dimension by applying layer effects. I used different amounts of Inner Bevel on each layer. Experiment with the layer effects until you come up with something you like.

Next we're going to add a watery texture to the Sea layer.

In Photoshop 6, use the Pattern Overlay layer style and set the Pattern to "Satin" and the blend mode to Soft Light. You might want to drop the opacity down and scale the pattern smaller.

To add the watery texture in Photoshop 5, you will need to use the water texture included in the zip file for this lesson. Insert a layer above the Sea layer. Open the water texture. Define it as a pattern and use the paint bucket to fill the layer with the pattern. Remember to uncheck use all layers and set the contents to pattern. Now change the blend mode of the layer to hard light and drop opacity down to about 50%. Your texture may not look exactly like my example because I used the pattern layer effect in Photoshop 6. If you've got a better water texture, feel free to use it instead.

I've included the layered PSD file of my finished project in the zip file. You can open this file and examine it if you get stuck. The extra layer for the Photoshop 5 instructions are included in the file as a hidden layer.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 7 - Exercise 2: Straight Lines

Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 7. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

Scroll down to begin exercise #2...

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Exercise 2 - Straight linesWith the painting tools you can constrain your strokes to straight lines.

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Visit the forum to post your questions and comments.-Get Help with Lesson 7

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To make connected straight lines lines click once, then move the cursor, hold the shift key down, and click again. If you keep the shift key held down after the second click, you can continue clicking to make connected straight lines.

To make perfectly horizontal or vertical lines, click the mouse cursor, then before moving the cursor, hold the shift key down while keeping the mouse button pressed. While the shift key is down, you can drag the mouse either left or right, up or down, and it will stick in a straight line until you let up on the shift key.

This takes some practice.

Try to duplicate the image shown here by practicing these key combinations. Don't forget you can use the grids and guides to aid with alignment. This file is named lesson7e2.gif in your zip file.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 7 - Exercise 3 - Painted Flower

Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 7. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

Scroll down to begin exercise #3...

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Exercise 3 - Painted FlowerOpen the lesson7e3.jpg flower image for exercise 3.

Promote the background to a layer named "flower picture."

In Photoshop 5, make sure the background color is set to white and choose Layer > New > Background. In Photoshop 6, choose Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. Set the color to white and then drop this layer to the bottom of the layers palette.

Use the eyedropper to pick up a purple color from the petals near the center of the flowers.

Add a new layer named petal outlines, and trace around the petals using the Wet Paint option of the paint brush tool.

Drop the opacity down on the flower picture layer if desired.

Create another new layer named petal paint and start painting in the petal color. Experiment with both the airbrush and the paintbrush. Also experiment with the fade options to paint in some of the darker veins of color. Don't worry about going outside the lines. I will show you how to fix that next.

If you've gone outside the lines on the petals, use the magic want to select the area outside of the outlines on the petal outline layer. Make sure the magic want is NOT set to use all layers. Once you have your selection, switch back to the petal paint layer and press delete/backspace to crop off the paint outside of the lines.

Next you can hide your two petal layers and add a new layer for the flower center. First pick a brown color and use a large soft brush with Wet Edges OFF to lay down a base for the flower center.

On yet another layer, you can use a custom brush to paint the yellow pollen onto the flower center. The brush I used was a textured brush from the default brushes.

At this point you may find it helpful to move the original flower photo above your painting layer and drop the opacity way back so you can just barely see it. Be sure to switch back to your pollen layer before painting again if you do!

Start painting with a brownish yellow using randomly placed clicks. Gradually increase the intensity of the yellow and pile it on for more depth.

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When you've finished you can hide the original flower photo, and drop the petal paint layer below the petal outline layer to see the result.

If necessary, make a selection based on the petal outline layer, then switch to the petal paint layer and fill it more. Make the center part of the petals darker and add more veining.

On the brown flower center layer, use a textured brush with the eraser tool to texture the edge of the flower center.

Here's my very crude, 10-minute example:

I've deliberately left the steps a bit vague here to encourage your own experimentation. We're not going for a photographic replica here. The point is to develop your skills with a variety of Photoshop's painting tools. Keep working on it and practicing with this photo or some of your own until you've got something you're comfortable posting in the classroom forum.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 7 - Exercise 4: Erase to History

Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 7. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

Scroll down to begin exercise #4...

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Exercise 4 - Erase to HistoryIn this exercise, we're going to use the erase to history option to paint selective color back into a photo that has been desaturated. Obviously, this technique will only work with a photo that started out in color. Our next exercise will involve adding color to a grayscale photo.

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First you want to open the file and check the history palette to see the an initial snapshot has been created. If you don't have a snapshot create one now.

Next go to Image > Adjust > Desaturate. This removes color without changing the color mode of the image.

Select the eraser tool and check the erase to history box in options.

Select a brush and begin painting from the center of the middle strawberry.

As you get to edges, use the keyboard shortcuts you learned for varying the brush size and hardness. See if you can paint in the strawberry's color without ever moving your mouse to the brushes palette.

If you accidentally paint color where you don't want it... don't panic! Just switch to the paintbrush tool, set the paint color to any shade of gray and set the paint mode to Saturation. When you paint with gray in saturation mode, it desaturates the image.

Are there easier ways of doing this exercise? Yes, using layers would have been easier, but the beauty of Photoshop is that you have so many options and you never know when one method will offer an advantage over another.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 7 - Exercise 5 - Colorizing with the Color Blend Mode

Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 7. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

Scroll down to begin exercise #5...

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Exercise 5 - ColorizingNow that we've removed the color from a color photo and injected the color back in to selected areas, let's do just the opposite. This time we'll start with a gray photo and paint color onto it. I've chosen a simple flower, but you might prefer to use an antique family photo of your own for practice. If you use your own photo, make sure the color mode is set to RGB before you begin.

Open the photo. Make sure you have an initial snapshot in the history palette or create a new snapshot if you need to.

Select the paintbrush tool. Set the mode to color and the opacity fairly low--around 20-40%.

This type of coloring looks best when it is very subtle. Keeping opacity low will help, but you also want to be careful not to select a bright, highly saturated color. When you pick your foreground color, watch the S and B numbers in the HSB section and don't pick a color with more than 80% saturation or brightness.

Since you're using a low opacity, remember that the paint is layered on every time you let up on the mouse button and begin a new paint stroke. It's best to fill in one very faint layer of color without letting up on the mouse button, then layer more color on here and there as needed.

Experiment with different colors and opacity to mix and blend colors.

Don't worry about going outside the edges, because you can use erase to history to paint that color back out.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Adobe Photoshop Basics

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Interactive Classroom

Visit the forum to post your questions and comments.-Get Help with Lesson 7

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Lesson 7 - Exercise 6: Airbrush Shading

Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 7. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

Scroll down to begin exercise #6...

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Exercise 6 - Airbrush ShadingThe airbrush tool is commonly used for adding dimension with highlights and shading. I've made it easier on you and provided a layered Photoshop file with a pre-drawn heart shape on its own layer.

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Open the image lesson7e6.psd

Practice using the airbrush tool with black and white paint to add dimension to the heart. Your goal is to produce something that looks like the finished example here. You can use layer effects for the drop shadow, but I only want you to use the airbrush for dimensional shading.

Tips:

1. Work on a separate layer!2. Group the highlight and shadow layers with the heart layer so your paint doesn't spray outside

of the heart shape.3. Notice in my example how the black shading goes all the way to the edge, but the white

highlights don't.4. Mouse users may have a difficult time working with the airbrush tool. If you have a pressure-

sensitive tablet, by all means... use it!5. Look closely at the world around you and notice how real-life objects have highlights and

shadows. This is the key to realistic painting in any graphics software.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

6. Lesson 7 - Exercise 7: Rainbow Paint Job

7. Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 7. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

8. Scroll down to begin exercise #7...

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15. Exercise 7 - Rainbow Paint JobIn this exercise we're going to give this car a new paint job!

16.17. Open the image.18. Select the linear gradient tool, and choose the Spectrum preset gradient.

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19. Set the paint mode to Hue. The Hue mode works very much like Color, with one distinct difference: gray or unsaturated areas in the image are not colored. Because this image has a mostly gray background, the color will only appear where color already exists.

20. Switch to the info palette before dragging the gradient out. Start at the front bumper of the car, then watch the A (angle) indicator in the info palette and drag upwards at an angle of about 112 degrees. (I only know this number as a result of trial and error experimentation.) Release the mouse button just above the roof of the car at the 112 degree angle.

21. Right now the image probably looks pretty good, but there's a bit more we can do to touch it up.

22. Paint with black in saturation mode to remove all traces of color from the background and on the wheels.

23. Then use erase to history to touch up a few areas like the hood emblem, fog lights, windshield, and the front license plate.

24. For the final touch, add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and bump the saturation up to about 20-30.

25. No selections, no masking, and it probably only took you a few minutes. Now how much would you have to pay for a paint job like that in real life?

26. Don't save over this file because you'll need it again for the next exercise. Use Save as or Save a Copy if you want to save your work.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

27. Lesson 7 - Exercise 8: Background Eraser

28. Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 7. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

29. Scroll down to begin exercise #8...

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34.

35. The contents of the Graphics Software site are copyright © Sue Chastain and About.com. These pages may be printed for personal reference, but they may not be distributed or republished for any purpose without prior written permission. Please see the About.com User Agreement for more information.

36. Exercise 8 - Background Eraser(Photoshop 5.5 and up only)

37. In this exercise, we'll use the background eraser to remove the background while preserving the drop shadow, then we'll drop a new gradient background in.

38.39. Open the original image from the last exercise.40. Use the background eraser to remove the majority of the background but don't

remove the shadow under the car. The beauty of this tool is that you don't have to do a lot of work to preserve the shadow under the car.

41. Drop in a new white background and clean up the stray pixels with more background eraser and the regular eraser tool.

42. Use the eraser at a very low opacity to touch up around the edge of the drop shadow of the car. A loose, feathered lasso selection around the shadow area and then gaussian blurring can be used to smooth and even out the shadow even more.

43. Use erase to history to add back bits of the car that might have been taken out with the background eraser.

44. When you're satisfied, switch to the background and fill it with the chrome gradient.45. Do a little more shadow touch-up if needed.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

46. Lesson 7 - Exercise 9: Creating Custom Brushes

47. Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 7. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

48. Scroll down to begin exercise #9...

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54. The contents of the Graphics Software site are copyright © Sue Chastain and About.com. These pages may be printed for personal reference, but they may not be distributed or republished for any purpose without prior written permission. Please see the About.com User Agreement for more information.

55. Exercise 9 - Custom BrushesCustom brushes can really give you a great deal of design flexibility. Let's explore custom brushes by making our own set of sparkle brushes. We'll also our own create texture brushes from an existing image.

56.57. Start with a new document with a transparent background. 200x200 pixels is fine.58. Next go to the brushes palette menu and choose new brush.59. Set your new brush to diameter 80, hardness 0, spacing 25, angle 45, roundness 10.60. Your new brush will appear at the end of the brush palette.61. Select new brush again and leave everything the same, but change the angle to 135.

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62. Repeat, this time with a diameter of 60 and and angle of 90.63. Repeat once more, this time leave everything the same except change the angle to 0.64. In your document, drag out two guidelines to mark the center.65. Set the foreground color to black.66. To create our sparkle, we need to align all our brush strokes so that they are precisely

centered. For this we need precise cursors. So hit your caps lock key to toggle precise cursors on.

67. Click once on the crosshairs using each one of the four custom brushes you just created.

68. Now we have our sparkle, we just need to turn it into a custom brush.69. Drag a selection marquee around the sparkle. Be sure to leave some extra space so

you don't cut off the soft edges.70. Photoshop 5.x: While the sparkle is selected, go to the brush palette menu and choose

define brush.71. Photoshop 6: While the sparkle is selected, go to the edit menu and choose define

brush.72. The new brush is added to the palette.73. Duplicate your document and scale the brush to different

sizes, defining a new custom brush for each different size.

74. Go back to the original and click once in the center with a soft, round brush at about 80% opacity. Define this as a new brush and repeat at various sizes.

75. Experiment with varying the brush size, hardness, angle and roundness to create a variety of your own brushes.

76. Now let's create a texture brush from an existing image. Open the texture file we used in exercise one (lesson7tex1.jpg ).

77. Make a selection of about 50x50 pixels, then feather the selection by 5 pixels.

78. Define this selection as a brush.79. Have fun making custom brushes!80. Here You can see several of my own that I made while

working on this lesson. The ABR file is included in the zip file of images from this lesson.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

81. Lesson 7 - Exercise 10: Exploring Blend Modes

82. Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 7. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

83. Scroll down to begin exercise #10...

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90. Exercise 10 - Blend ModesFor exercise 10 I want you to open any photo. The original flower we used in exercise 3 will do.

91. Now select the gradient tool and one of the more colorful gradients like Blue, Red, Yellow.

92. Fill the background with the gradient using each and every blend mode. Use the snapshot to undo the change between each one.

93. Vary the opacity and go through them again. Some blend modes--Dissolve, for example--don't have any effect unless the opacity is lowered.

94. If desired, save an example of each blend mode example and print them out for your own reference.

95. You don't have to post the results of this particular exercise, but it is important that you do it for your own benefit.

96. That's it for the painting tools! In the next lesson we will combine the paint skills we've learned with retouching tools to correct and enhance your photos.

97. Optional Homework: If desired, post the results of your lesson 7 exercises in the interactive classroom.

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Dark Border

A smooth border, that really fits with the image...

This tutorial is part of a series of tutorials on Photoshop Borders.

Borders are usually either very separate from the image they surround, or very linked. If you want a border that really flows from your image, what better way to achieve this than to use part of the picture for the border!

Here, we'll create a darkened edge to the image, to give it a smooth and fitting border very easily. This is the example image I'll be using:

The Steps

Let's get started then. I'll first take you through the basic technique, and then I'll discuss some variations:

1. Open a picture - Pull up the file that you want to give a dark border to.

2. Create a new layer - Always add borders on a new layer so they can be easily changed or removed later on.

3. How to select the edge - Those of you who are familiar with Photoshop may question the next few steps, as the "Select All, Stroke Selection" approach may seem quicker. The reason we are not doing that is that sometimes you will want dark borders wider than 250 pixels (The limit of the stroke function), so we'll take a different approach.

4. Select the Rectangle Marquee tool - Pick the Rectangle Marquee tool from the toolbar, and then set the options in the option bar. Feather should be set to '0 px', Mode should be set to 'Fixed Size', and then we'll set the Width and the Height options.

5. Decide on the size of the border - Often quite wide borders work well, but this is up to you. If I want a border 200 pixels wide, I will now pick '200 px' for the width, and '1000 px' for the height. Later on we'll swap these over.

6. Start selecting - Click on the left hand side of the image to select a portion of the image 200 pixels wide. Then hold the 'Shift' key, and keep clicking up and down the left hand side until it is all selected. Repeat this on the right hand side.

7. Swap the dimensions - Now make the height '200 px' and the width '1000 px'. Now you can select the top and bottom edges of the image in the same way. You should have now selected the entire edge of the image.

8. Fill the area - Fill the area you have selected with color using the Paint Bucket tool. Black works well here, or perhaps a very dark shade of a color related closely to the image. For my example image, I would use either black, or very dark green. This should give you a standard line border, as shown:

9. Set the opacity of the border layer - Using the Layer palette, set the opacity of the new border layer to somewhere between 50% and 90%. I usually find 75%-80% works best, but it always depends on the image and border color. Now the image looks like this:

10. You could stop here - If you like this effect, and if it works for your image, then you're finished! Often though, this still looks a little bit sharp, so let's soften it up.

11. Apply a Gaussian Blur - Select 'Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur' from the menu. You'll want to set the 'Radius' setting according to the width of your border. A third of the border size is a good starting point, so 100 pixels for a 300 px border, or 65 pixels for a 200 px border, and so on. Adjust as you like though, and then click 'Ok'.

12. You should be done - That should be it! The image should now look something like this:

Variations

Now I like the above border; I think it's elegant and smooth, but there are other options available to you.

This particular border has heaps of variations. Let me show you two, very briefly:

Shadow Lines

If you stopped at step 10, and ended up with the flat edged border, why not try adding some shadow lines to it?

Simply create another layer above the border layer, and use the Pencil tool to draw two white edges, and two black edges onto the border. Alter the layer opacity until it looks subtle, and you have a 3D dark border! It should look like this:

Varying the Faded Dark Border

Shadow lines work well if you stopped at the hard edged border, but what if you preferred the faded look? I have a variation for you too!

Remember when we used the marquee tool to select the border area? Well this time, we'll do that slightly differently. Reset the Marquee tool mode back to 'Normal', so it's no longer 'Fixed Size'.

Now on the new layer, select some random rectangles round the edge of the image. Don't make them line up or anything! When you've covered a reasonable amount of the edge, fill the selection with black.

Now create another layer, and restart the selection process. Pick more random rectangles, make them overlap! Make them smaller, larger, thinner, fatter. Be varied! Then fill this selection with black too!

You can decrease the opacities of the layers so it's easier to see what you're doing, but you want to end up with three or four layers with these random black rectangles. I've shown my layer thumbnails below, so you can see what I mean:

Set the opacities to anything you like really, whatever looks good. Generally around 40% works well. It depends entirely on your rectangles though.

You may be thinking "That looks ugly! What's he doing??". Don't worry, it'll all come together. Trust me! :)

Now, you'll want to merge the rectangle layers. The easiest way to do this is to hide the background layer, and then pick 'Layer - Merge Visible', to combine all your rectangle layers.

The final step is to apply a 'Gaussian Blur', using 'Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur'. Again, the amount is up to you and your rectangles, but you're looking to smooth them out until they just blend into the image, and give a nice, varied, darkened border look.

To illustrate what you're aiming for, I've shown my version below, as well as the rectangles without the background for clarity:

I hope you like those ideas on dark borders. Like I say, there really are numerous variations you can use, so experiment! Try out new things, and discover what works and what doesn't.

Jagged Border

Giving your picture some depth...

This tutorial is part of a series of tutorials on Photoshop Borders.

Some photos just naturally lend themselves to a little 'journey'. Often photos taken outside are great for this, as they have elements which expand out of the field of view.

The problem is, flat edges at the side of a rectangular image can really ruin this effect. They just take away the mystery and depth from the picture. Take a look at what I mean. Study this image for a minute or two:

You see what I mean about the mystery? You feel enticed to look further into the scene.

Now take a look at the image without that border:

See how the image has lost its depth? It looks a lot more plain and average with flat rectangular edges.

So let's go through how to make your own jagged borders. There are several ways to do this, but I will show you one of my favorites, and the one I used in the example above:

The Steps

1. Open a file - Pull up the photo or picture that you want to give a jagged border.

2. Create a new layer - Always add borders on a new layer so they can be easily changed or removed later on.

3. Select the brush tool - Pick the brush tool from the toolbar, and select a normal default brush. You'll want a hard edged brush, that's reasonably big. Obviously the size depends on your image and how thick you want the border, but we're probably talking 300-500 pixels.

4. Draw a vertical black brush line down the middle of the new layer, extending most of the way down the image. This should look something like the image below:

5. Once you've done this, we want to apply the Wind filter to the line. Select 'Filter - Stylize - Wind' from the menu, and look at the dialog box that appears.

6. Pick 'From the Right' for the direction, and then pick either 'Wind', 'Blast' or 'Stagger' depending on how jagged you want your border to be. I find 'Blast' often works best, but this is down to personal preference, and you should try out all three to see which you like best.

7. Once you've applied the 'Wind' filter, we have one more filter to apply. The 'Motion Blur' filter. Pick 'Filter - Blur - Motion Blur' from the menu, and look at the dialog box that appears.

8. Again, these settings are down to personal preference, and you can achieve a lot of variation with these jagged borders. The Distance should be set according the size of your original brush. I find 10-20 works well, but larger values can give nice effects. Try out an angle of -35 and see what you think of that, then adjust according to preference.

9. You should now have the makings of a jagged border. You can delete the left hand side if you like, giving you something looking a little like this:

10. Use the Move tool to drag the layer to the left hand side of the image until it is plush with the edge. Now you can duplicate the layer to copy your border. Using the duplicated layers, rotate them, reposition them, and generally cover all the edges of the image with your new border! It's a good idea to merge the border layers once you're done, just to be tidy.

A Summary

Was that a lot of information? Let me sum it up for you in a sentence.

Draw a thick line, use 'Wind', 'Motion Blur', and then copy the border around the edge of your image. This is shown in the summary image below:

The Shortcut

Are you feeling lazy? There is one other way to do this. Steal mine!

If you like you can view and download a High Quality Jagged Border, and just copy that into your documents.

You could even open it up and pick 'Edit - Define Brush' to make the border into an easy to use brush!

Simple Line Border

Elegance in simplicity...This tutorial is part of a series of tutorials on Photoshop Borders.

Many photos look a little bare without any border, but would be easily overpowered by a very large or eye-catching border. This is where a simple line border can come in very handy.

This is the example image that I'll be using:

Getting Started

Pull up a photo that you want to give a line border. Now, it would be easy enough to just draw a black line round the edge with the pencil tool, but there are several disadvantages to this!

Firstly, once it's done, it's done. You can't come back later and change it so that it's thicker, or a different color, or anything like that.

The other potential hazard is if you later decide you want to crop or resize your image. It would be nice if the border could remain independent from that process.

The other thing of course is that the pencil tool is a little bit fiddly. If you're working with very large images, it can take ages!

So here's how I suggest you add a simple line border:

The Steps

1. Create a new layer - Always add borders on a new layer so they can be easily changed or removed later on.

2. Select all - Pressing Ctrl + A will do it, or otherwise you can pick 'Select - All' from the menu.

3. Open the stroke dialog box - Select 'Edit - Stroke (Outline) Selection' from the menu.

4. Pick a thickness - The thickness you choose depends on the look you desire. Here I am picking 4 pixels to give a medium weight border, but if you want a thinner or thicker border then you can change this value.

5. Pick a color - Black always works well for the color, though more colorful lines may be appropriate for some images.

6. Leave the rest - Forget the rest of the options, we don't need them for this. (They should be set to 'Center', 'Normal' and '100%').

7. Click 'Ok', and you should have your nice black border, like this:

Variations

I've already mentioned that you can easily vary the color and size of the border, but what about making it a faded border? This is also quite simple:

1. Create a new layer - Same as before, for easy editing later on.

2. Select all - Pressing Ctrl + A will do it, or otherwise you can pick 'Select - All' from the menu.

3. Border the selection - Pick 'Select - Modify - Border' from the menu. Pick your thickness value according to your aim. I'll use 4 pixels again. Then press 'Ok'.

4. Select the brush tool - Pick the brush tool from the menu, and pick a normal default brush. Change the size so it is very large, for example 500 pixels.

5. Change the palette color - Change the foreground color in the palette to black, or another color if you prefer.

6. Draw over the entire image - Using the large brush, click and drag all around the edge of the image, until the bordered selection is filled with your color. This should create a faded border effect something like this:

There's a lot of mileage in these simple borders, and they're so quick to create, it's a technique well-worth remembering.

Restore Photo

Easy, quick, convincing repairs...

Restoring photographs can be quite a job. Sometimes they're just old, but often they've incurred damage in other ways.

This section is devoted to helping you restore your photos. This means helping you reverse the effects of color fading, and teaching you how to repair cracks, tears, blemishes, blurred patches, and other forms of damage.

It really is possible to achieve convincing restorations. Take this photograph from my family album for example. Originally it was made up from two pictures, taken in about 1980. They were stuck together with sticky tape, and over 25 years they faded to the light red-brown color shown.

Below is shown the restored version. The image is now correctly colored, and the crack and sticky tape are no longer visible. Click the images to enlarge them, and take a look at the fine detail.

To find out how to restore photos like this, read through each of the articles below. They will each add several new skills to your repertoire, so that you'll know just the approach to take, whatever photo you're working with.

Restoration Techniques

Old Photo Repair - Firstly, learn how to repair aging photos, and restore faded colors to their proper hues.

Repairing Torn and Damaged Photos - Next learn to deal with cracks and tears, remove blemishes, and repair missing image data.

Repairing Blurred Photos - Finally learn how to restore detail to areas which are blurred or smudged using sharpening techniques.

There are many techniques used when restoring photos, and different methods are appropriate depending on the image in question. This section is intended to give you the background you need, to know just what to do, and when to do it.

If you have any questions or comments, please do get in touch using my Contact Page.

Old Photo Repair

Restoring old photos to their former glory...Repairing old photos which have faded used to be a challenge! Professionals would spend hours matching color palettes and adjusting levels, but no longer!

Photoshop Elements makes old photo repair simple! Just alter a slider or two, and it will do all the hard work for you.

This tutorial deals with repairing color, but if you are looking for information on how to restore cracked or torn photos, take a look at my other Photo Restoration Tutorials.

Getting Started

Firstly, open up your discolored old photo. The example image I am using is shown here:

Next, we will change the editor to 'Quick Fix' mode. This is a special section of Photoshop dedicated to making complex image alterations both simple, and easy to 'tweak' until you are completely happy.

Click on the 'Quick Fix' button in the top right hand corner of the editor, shown below:

Once you are in this mode, you should see your image in the middle of the screen. There are several different ways you can view the image, and these can be changed by the 'View' drop down box in the bottom left hand corner.

When attempting to restore old photos, I like to see both the before and after view at the same time. To do this, select 'Before and After (Portrait)' from the drop down box. This is pictured below:

Restoring the Color

To begin restoring the color, drag the 'Smart Fix' slider to the middle. The slider is located under the first tab on the right of the screen, reading 'General Fixes'. It is shown in the image highlighting the 'Quick Fix' button above.

The image should now look roughly correct, but now we can fine-tune the repair a little.

Moving the slider to the right will emphasize more the blue and green colors. Moving the slider to the left will increase the red and yellow colors.

Only you know how the photo should look, Photoshop isn't that clever! (Yet). Adjust the slider by very small distances until the color looks just how you want it.

When you are happy, click the tick icon at the top of the 'General Fixes' tab. This will accept the changes.

Multiple Smart Fixes

For some photos, repeating this process twice can yield even better results! Below, my example photo is shown before any changes, then after one Smart Fix, and then after another!

As you can see, the second repair brought a little extra color and contrast into the image, which improved it again.

The Other Settings

As you will have seen, there are several other sliders which can be altered. It is possible to use these sliders to improve your old photo in just the same way as the Smart Fix slider, but here is the honest truth:

Nine times out of ten Photoshop gets it looking great just with the first slider.

I very rarely need to use the other sliders to fix an image, but just in case you do, here's a quick summary:

The 'Lighting' tab contains sliders which alter the brightness and contrast of an image. If your photo is very poorly lit, for example it was taken in a dark room with no flash, sometimes these sliders can be used to bring out detail.

The 'Color' sliders can be used to change the atmosphere of an image. For example the temperature slider can make an image from a cold, damp cloudy day look like a warm summer sunset!

The 'Sharpen' slider is great for photographs which use very old inks, and have blurred over time. It can help to further define the edges of a slightly fuzzy object.

Other Photo Repair Techniques

Faded color is just one issue which Photoshop Elements can help with when repairing old photos. To find out about the other useful tools at your disposal, why not read my main tutorial on Old Photo Repair.

If you've enjoyed this tutorial, why not sign up to my Free Monthly Newsletter for more great Photoshop tips?

Repair Torn Photo

Removing cracks the simple way...

Repairing torn or cracked photos can take a long time if you approach it in the wrong way. Often the result still shows tell-tale signs of the repair if you're not careful.

With Photoshop Elements, the whole process involves just a few simple actions! Anyone can seamlessly restore torn photos, to regain that precious memory or moment.

This tutorial deals with removing cracks and blemishes from an image, but if you are looking for information on how to recolor faded old photographs, take a look at this article on Old Photo Repair.

Getting Started

Firstly, open up your image in Photoshop. In most cases this will be a ripped photograph that has been scanned in, or something similar. My example involves two old photographs that were taped together in my family album. In addition to the extremely obvious seam, they also have several marks and scratches on them.

The image is shown below. Click the image to see an enlarged version. I have also displayed a large close-up of the seam. Click on that to see the seam in full detail.

Click Image to Enlarge

Click Image to Enlarge

The Tools

I use three main tools when repairing cracks and marks. The 'Spot Healing Brush Tool', the 'Clone Stamp Tool' and the 'Blur Tool'.

The toolbar icons for these tools are pictured below:

Erasing Small Marks and Blemishes

I find the easiest place to start with damaged images is erasing the minor problems. Not only is it a quick way to get started,

you very quickly get the sense that you're making progress, which is always nice!

On the image above, I began by fixing the two most prominent blemishes in the sky. The easiest way to remove marks like these is with the 'Spot Healing Brush Tool'.

To begin, select the tool, and glance up at the options bar. First ensure that 'Proximity Match' is selected in the 'Type' drop down box. Then pick a suitable brush size for the mark you wish to repair.

Using the tool could not be more simple thanks to Photoshop Elements! Simply click and drag over the mark, and then let go!

Photoshop will then use the surrounding area to intelligently 'Make up' the part of the image which is missing. The image below illustrates how the tool is used, and shows the before and after view of the areas I repaired:

An Important Note About Size

It's worth pausing at this point to mention something about the size of images you repair.

You may have noticed from my close-ups, that I scanned in this picture at a very large size and high resolution by using the 'Fine' settings on my scanner. This is always best when repairing photographs, for a very simple reason.

As we have just seen with the heal tool, a lot of the repairs we will be making involve Photoshop just 'making up' image data. The more image data present to begin with, the wiser Photoshop is when inventing data through guesswork.

For this reason, when you repair a torn photo, or remove scratches or other damage using Photoshop, always try to do so at the highest resolutions available, and then you can shrink the image after repairs if necessary!

Repairing the Major Damage

Back to our repairs. The heal tool is a wonderful invention. Sometimes it doesn't get things right first time, but if it makes things worse rather than better, all you have to do is hit 'Undo', and then try again. By altering your angle slightly, or the area which you ask it to alter, you can usually achieve a good result.

Some damage is just too major to repair using this method though. The tape and crack in my image is a good example.

Without the tape, the heal tool could probably cope with removing the crack, but as it is there is no 'good' image data for the tool to work from. The best it can do is to duplicate the tape, which we consider to be damage itself! This is shown below:

So what can we do when Photoshop can't find the right image data itself? We find it ourselves!!!

Luckily, this too is made relatively easy by Photoshop, using the 'Clone Stamp Tool'. This tool gives us the ability to duplicate image data from one part of the image to another, again just by clicking and dragging.

First select the tool, and then decide two things. Where you want to copy image data from, and where you want to put it.

To select the source, hold the 'Alt' key down, and click somewhere on your image. The destination will be a point relative to

the source, and will be set by the next place you click.

From now on, when you click and drag, image data will be pasted under your cursor from the other area of the image that you specified.

This is a slightly difficult concept to imagine (and explain!), and so if you have never used the clone tool before, I advise you to go and experiment with it now for a bit, until you are used to how it functions.

The basic idea now is to replace the damaged area of the image with more natural data from elsewhere. There are some important settings on the clone tool that will help you achieve much more natural results.

Clone Tool Settings

The clone tool has a reasonably large number of settings, visible in the options bar at the top of the screen. Discussing all of these in great detail is beyond the range of this article, but I will briefly cover a few, because they have such a big effect on how good your repairs look.

Pictured below are the settings I used for my clone tool during this tutorial:

The first option is the brush shape which the tool uses. Almost without fail, I use a soft edged circular brush. If you use a hard edged brush, it tends to be very obvious where you have cloned data, because the edges are solid. A soft edged brush gives a gradual transition between the original image and the repairs you make.

The size of the brush should be adjusted according to where you are working. Generally the bigger the better, but don't use a brush so big that you overwrite data which you want to keep.

The next important setting, possibly the most important of them all, is the opacity setting. I rarely leave this set to the default 100%, for the same reason that I rarely use a hard edged brush.

Using a lower opacity may mean that you have to go over an area several times with the tool, but it gives you that smooth transition which stops your repairs sticking out like a sore thumb.

The image below illustrates these issues. The bottom left hand corner uses a hard edged brush, and the top left hand corner uses 100% opacity. In both images, it is clear where the image was cloned.

The image on the right shows the smooth transition we are aiming for with a soft edged brush of 60% - 70% opacity.

As for the other options, the mode should almost always be set to 'Normal', and 'Aligned' should always be ticked for our purposes. 'Use All Layers' is a feature which I rarely deactivate, but it does have it's uses in obscure cases.

But My Repair Still Looks Obvious!

So you've attacked your rip with the clone tool? Made sure you were using the best Source spot to copy image data from? Sometimes even the best repairs still stick out a little.

Time to put the last weapon in our arsenal to work! The 'Blur Tool'...

Most users will have made use of this tool before, but basically it does what it says on the tin. Blurs things.

If an area of your image looks a little bit suspect, and the clone tool has left some edges or other marks, gently blur the mark

until it merges into the background.

The same settings apply as with the clone tool. It is generally best to use a soft edged brush, with an opacity anywhere between 10% and 80% depending on the mark you're repairing, and how delicate that part of the image is.

Feel free to blur a bit, review it, and then undo it if it hasn't improved things. The approach we're taking here is very much a 'light touch' one.

Finally, don't be scared to use appropriate brush sizes. I used the blur tool at 30% strength, and a size of 400px when repairing the sky in my example. If a very big or very small brush is needed, don't be afraid to use it.

Final Touches

After the major damage is repaired, take some time to apply any final changes. My image still had a border round it from where it had been scanned in, and was heavily discolored.

You can find out how to recolor faded images in my other article on Old Photo Repair.

Once you're happy with your image, you're free to use it however you want! Replace that torn photo from the album, or simply use it as your desktop wallpaper!

What's important is that you now have the skills to repair unwanted image data in any picture you come across! It's not just repairing torn photos, you can remove anything undesirable from your pictures! There's always that object which just sneaks into the side of the photograph when you're not looking. Now you can get rid of it!

A Review

To help summarize this rather lengthy tutorial, I've included step by step images of my example. Click on the links to display the picture at each stage of the repair.

1 - Original Image

2 - Minor Blemishes Removed

3 - Major Damage Removed

4 - Color Fade Repaired

Repair Blurred Photo

Bringing the blur back into focus...

Isn't it annoying when you take a set of photos, and many of them come back blurred? It's one of the most common problems photographers have, but one of the hardest to correct after the photograph has been taken!

This tutorial will show you how to repair photo blur, and how to avoid it in the future.

The Basic Principle

If you've used Photoshop or Photoshop Elements for a while now, you may have noticed two terms that walk hand in hand. 'Blurring' and 'Sharpening'.

Basically, sharpening an image is the opposite of blurring it. Photoshop Elements provides many different ways to sharpen an image.

To start with there's the 'Sharpen Tool', found near the bottom of your tool palette. This allows you to sharpen just a certain area of a picture, using an appropriate brush shape and size.

If you're sharpening the whole image, you can use the filters in the 'Sharpen' category under the 'Filter' menu. These include 'Sharpen', 'Sharpen More', and 'Sharpen Edges'.

Additionally to all of that, if you like to correct photos in 'Quick Fix' mode, there is a sharpen slider available in that section for you to use.

A 'Quick' Example

Shown further down is a portion of a photograph I took which exhibited minor blur. This is a correctable level of blur, and so I opened the photo in Photoshop Elements, and switched into 'Quick Fix' mode, using the button shown below:

I always like to see the before and after picture in quick fix mode, and so I changed my view accordingly.

To do this, use the drop down box in the bottom left hand corner, and select 'Before and After (Portrait)', as shown below:

The 'Sharpen' slider is the furthest one down on the right hand side by default. By dragging it around two thirds of the way along, I was able to reduce the blurring effect on my photo. Shown below is the photo before and after sharpening:

As you can see, especially around the text on the sign, the blur has been reduced by sharpening the image.

Over-Sharpening

Unfortunately, sharpening is a rather in-exact art, and carries a danger with it. Because of the way it works, it is all-too-easy to 'over-sharpen' an image, causing very unattractive results.

This is especially common when using the sharpen tool on a high strength setting. Below is shown an image which demonstrates the effect of over-sharpening:

To avoid over-sharpening, use the sharpen tools on low intensities, and only where they are needed.

Severe Blurring

In cases where images are extremely blurred, it is often impossible to repair them effectively.

Below is shown an image, with some close-up sections, which is blurred to the point of no return:

There is very little you can do to correct images like this, but there is a lot you can do to avoid them!

Camera Shake

The photo above was taken from a moving vehicle. To avoid blurring, photos should always be taken when the camera is stationary.

If you find (like me!) that your hands shake when you are taking photos, find something to rest the camera on. Ideally this would be a tripod, but if there is not one available, look for walls or other surfaces.

If no surface is available, try leaning up again something, or putting your elbows by your side, to steady your arms and reduce camera-shake.

Shutter Speed

Another way to reduce blurring is to increase the shutter speed of your camera. If your camera allows you to manually set the shutter speed, it is useful to remember that on high shutter speeds, blurring is usually dramatically reduced.

Unfortunately the reverse is also true. Using slow shutter speeds, perhaps to compensate for bad light, blur is dramatically increased. Ensure that the camera is perfectly still on low shutter speeds.

Bad Light

Apart from shutter speed, photos are usually more prone to blurring in bad light anyway. If you are taking photos inside, ensure you use a flash if light is fading. When outside, the best tactic is once again a perfectly still camera.

If in Doubt...

If you are struggling to take a particular image, the only other advice I can offer is to take lots of pictures! On a digital camera there can be a reasonably large variation between repeat shots. The more pictures you take, the more chance you stand of getting at least one good one!

Other Photo Repair Techniques

If you are interested in learning about how to repair other forms of photographic damage, such as faded color or rips and blemishes, why not read my main tutorial on Restoring Photos.

Photoshop Elements Basics

Start from the beginning...

Just got your first ever version of Photoshop, and in need of some background? Or maybe you've been using Elements for a while, but there are still some tools that you've never used simply because you don't know what they do? Just need to brush up on the basics? This is the place!

From experience, it's easy to own a program for years, and then still notice that 'weird-little-button-in-the-corner-that-you-just-ignore'. Sometimes there are just tools which you don't know what they do.

"Well I've never needed it so far, can't be that important can it?" ... WRONG!

Save yourself a bit of time and effort by investigating those basic tools. Learn about new ones, and find out new things about those you already thought you knew inside-out!

Shown here is the Photoshop Elements toolbar, where all the basic tools reside. Hopefully this should be easily visible on the left of your main Photoshop window, but in case you're in any doubt a standard setup is shown here.

Below are the names of each tool, from top to bottom, with a short description. Some of the icons have more than one tool hidden away in them. This is shown by a small black triangle on the lower right of the icon. Here, I have grouped the names to show they share a button. To access the hidden tools, hold your mouse button down on the icon in your program toolbar until a secondary menu appears.

To get more information on one of the tools, and find out all those lurking secrets it holds, just click on it's link.

The Tools

Move Tool - Much more than just move.

Zoom Tool - Adjusts the current image magnification.

Hand Tool - View different parts of your image without using the scroll bars.

Eyedropper Tool - Places a colour from your image into the palette.

Rectangular Marquee Tool - Makes a rectangular selection.

Elliptical Marquee Tool - Makes an elliptical selection.

Lasso Tool - Lets you draw on a selection shape.

Magnetic Lasso Tool - Helps you draw a selection shape by helping trace certain parts of the image.

Polygonal Lasso Tool - Lets you draw a selection shape line by line.

Magic Wand Tool - Moves selections or images.

Selection Brush Tool - Lets you draw a selection using brushes.

Horizontal Type Tool - Inserts text horizontally.

Vertical Type Tool - Inserts text vertically.

Horizontal Type Mask Tool - Creates a mask from horizontal text.

Vertical Type Mask Tool - Creates a mask from vertical text.

Crop Tool - Removes the edges of an image.

Cookie Cutter Tool - Cuts a custom shape out of the image.

Red Eye Removal Tool - Removes red eye from photographs.

Spot Healing Brush Tool - Helps repair damaged images.

Healing Brush Tool - Helps repair larger areas of damage in images.

Clone Stamp Tool - Duplicates parts of an image.

Pattern Stamp Tool - Duplicates patterns or patterned images onto another image.

Pencil Tool - Draws freehand like a pencil.

Eraser Tool - Erases part of your image.

Background Eraser Tool - Removes the background behind part of an image.

Magic Eraser Tool - Erases all similar pixels in part of an image.

Brush Tool - Draws with the selected brush shape.

Impressionist Brush Tool - Changes parts of the image to look stylised.

Color Replacement Tool - Replaces certain colors in parts of your image.

Paint Bucket Tool - Fills an area with color.

Gradient Tool - Fills an area with a blend between several colours.

Rectangle Tool - Draws a rectangle of color.

Rounded Rectangle Tool - Draws a rounded rectangle of color.

Ellipse Tool - Draws an ellipse of color.

Polygon Tool - Draws a polygon of color.

Line Tool - Draws a line.

Custom Shape Tool - Draws a shape template of color.

Shape Selection Tool - Allows the selection and movement of individual shapes.

Blur Tool - Blurs parts of an image.

Sharpen Tool - Sharpens part of an image.

Smudge Tool - Smudges part of an image.

Sponge Tool - Changes the vividness of part of an image.

Dodge Tool - Lightens part of an image.

Burn Tool - Darkens part of an image.

Color Palette - Selects colors to use with other tools.

Fast Document Switching

Flick through your files faster...

Often when working with multiple images, you'll want to swap between them frequently and rapidly. Photoshop Elements provides several ways to do this effectively.

The first is the 'Photo Bin'. This is a small bar at the bottom of the Editor window which displays thumbnail images of all the documents you have open. This allows you to quickly see which window is which, and swap to the right document.

If the Photo Bin is not displayed, go to 'Window - Photo Bin' to turn it on.

An even quicker way is to use an easily remembered shortcut.

You may know that in Microsoft Windows, holding down the 'Alt' key and pressing the 'Tab' key, cycles through the open windows.

Most people don't realise that another variation on this is to hold the 'Shift' key at the same time, which cycles through the windows in the opposite direction.

Photoshop Elements adopts a similar convention, except using the 'Ctrl' key instead of the 'Alt' key.

Press Ctrl + Tab to move through the available documents in one direction, and use Ctrl + Shift + Tab to view them in the other direction.

It's a really simple tip, but it can make life easier when working on a large number of documents.

Easy Circular Selection

Attacking the center of the problem...Making round selections in any image can be a frustrating task. Both elliptical and circular

selections can prove inaccurate when created normally.

By using the Alt key, you can make a round selection from its center, instead of using one of the corners. Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool, by pressing 'M' or selecting it from the toolbar. Hold Alt down and click the center of the object you wish to select. Drag outwards to size your selection.

While you're dragging you have some more options. Holding down the Shift key will enforce a circular selection, instead of just an elliptical one. To move the selection without changing the image, and before you have accepted the final selection, hold the Space Bar and move the mouse cursor.

All these techniques can be used in any combination to make all kinds of circular selection easy. A summary of the main points is given below:

Normal Selection - Elliptical selection is formed as you drag with one of the corners placed where you clicked.

With ALT Key - Elliptical selection is formed as you drag with the center placed where you clicked.

With SHIFT Key - Selection is forced to be circular, instead of elliptical.

With SPACE BAR - Selection can be moved while it is still being defined, to position it exactly where you want it, and ensure the correct selection dimensions are achieved.

Drawing a Straight Line

Simple tips to keep simple things simple...I have often been asked about drawing techniques in Photoshop Elements. Many people find that they can easily edit or manipulate existing images, but have difficult creating new ones.

One very useful tip that I was able to supply concerns drawing a straight line when using the pencil or brush tool. It's something that we often need to do, but it can be hard without these valuable shortcuts.

If you hold the Shift key as you draw with either tool, all the marks you make will remain in a straight line with the original point at which you started drawing. This can be a vertical or horizontal line depending on which direction you initially move the tool in.

Experiment with pressing and releasing the Shift key at different points during the same click-and-drag movement to see exactly how this works.

Another method, which can be used to draw multiple connected straight lines, is a point-to-point method. This technique allows the straight lines to be in any direction, not just horizontal or vertical.

Click once on the image, where you want the line (or lines) to start. Then hold the Shift key, and click in various other place on the image, and Photoshop will draw lines between the points at which you click.

Creating Borders in Photoshopby Laura Arellano-Weddleton (Apr 4, 2006)

Computers have quickly become an indispensable tool for scrapbookers. One of the main reasons for this is because of photo editing software such as Photoshop. These programs are so powerful, they're like having a darkroom right on your computer. As many scrapbookers are discovering, programs like Photoshop allow you to creatively edit your photos in ways that can greatly enhance a scrapbook page. One such technique is adding borders to your photos.

Like most techniques in Photoshop, there's more than one way to do this, and some are easier than others. Here are a few of the easiest and most useful ways. All of the instructions are based on Photoshop CS, but if you use another version or a different program, the instructions should be somewhat similar.

As an example, we'll be using a photo of Jamie's (momtoprincesses's) daughter Jillian. Pick a photo of your own to follow along! Always save your photo with a different name before you make any changes. You don't want to permanently alter your original photo.

Using ‘Stroke'

By far the easiest method to add a simple border is by using the ‘stroke' command in Photoshop. To do this, begin by selecting the entire photo (Select>>All), then choosing the stroke command (Edit>>Stroke). You'll be asked to choose how wide you want the border to be in pixels, as well as what color. The more pixels, the wider the border will be. I usually stick to one or two pixels wide.

You can leave the rest of the settings alone, but feel free to fool around with them! Using a different blend mode can yield interesting effects. For instance, by using "soft light" here with a navy blue color, I was able to create a border that still showed the photo underneath.

Creating a Border Selection

For most of the techniques to create a border, you'll start off with the part you want to turn into a border selected. The easiest way to do this, in Photoshop, is to use Select All the way you did before, and then choose Select>>Modify>>Border. Make the border as wide as you'd like. I made it eight pixels.

If your program doesn't have the ‘Border' option, you can achieve the same thing by selecting the entire photograph, and choosing Select>>Modify>>Contract instead. Contract the selection by the width you'd like the border to be. Then choose Select>>Inverse to leave the border selected.

Using Brushes to Create a Border

Have you explored all of the things you can do with the brush tool? Playing around with it can be a lot of fun, especially since you can download new brushes online. You can also use this tool to create an easy border.

Once you've created the border selection, choose a color you'd like to use and a brush that has a lot of texture. For now, leave the brush's settings at the default values, although changing them around is a great way to experiment.

Paint in the border with the brush tool. Don't paint over the same place too many times, so that the texture of the brush shows up. Thanks to the selection, you don't have to worry about "coloring outside the lines."

Using Texture to Create a Border

Another thing that you can download on the internet are patterns that you can import to Photoshop as textures. My favorites come from the Inspiration Gallery (http://www.theinspirationgallery.com/).

Once you have a pattern you'd like to use, create a texture by opening the image in Photoshop and selecting Edit>>Define Pattern. Once you've done this, create the border selection again, the way we did before. Then, select the paint can tool and choose "Fill: Pattern." The pattern you just defined should be available from the list-make sure it's selected.

To make things easier, create a new layer to make the border on by selecting Layer>>New>>Layer. Now, all you have to do is use the paint bucket tool to fill the selection in with the pattern.

Like most techniques in Photoshop, there are thousands of variations on each one! Start with what I've described, and branch off from there. The more you explore the program, the more comfortable you'll become, which will lead to you discovering your own ways of doing things. If you liked what you learned here, be sure to search for more Photoshop tutorials on the internet-they are everywhere!

Quick Photo Fixing Tipsby Denise Gormish (Mar 26, 2008)

With digital photography, a new era of photo editing has arrived. No longer do we depend on a photo processing service to fix photographs. Instead, we have the luxury of fixing them ourselves. With a little effort we can get our desired results. We can also get creative, but often we just have time for those quick fixes that will make our photographs useable and visually appealing.

To edit photographs, you will need a photo-editing program such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Elements. Some simple software programs will enable you to change brightness, crop and fix red-eye. A more advanced program will give you more options. My examples will be done using Adobe Photoshop 8.0.

To start editing open your photograph in your program and determine how it needs to be fixed. Here are six of the most common problems and how to fix them.

Too Dark. A dark photograph is a very common problem. It is also one of the easiest problems to fix as long as the photograph isn't too dark. In many cases the information is still there but it is not visible. To make the information visible, go to Image - Adjustments - Levels. A dialogue box will open. Move the white tab on the levels bar to the left. Moving the far right one will change the colors that are close to white. Since this will brighten up even the brightest section, you will not want to move this tab too far. Moving the middle one will brighten everything except the black and white endpoints. Often moving the middle one will create the best look. This can also be done with the Image - Adjustment - Curves function, which has more capabilities but is not as quick. In my dark photograph, I fixed it by moving the levels tabs.

 

 

Too Bright. Photographs can also be too bright. Photographs that are too light can be darkened but it is not as easy to fix. The camera records the image but often if an area is too bright the camera will not record it accurately. In that case there is no chance of recovering the information. To fix a bright photograph go to Image - Adjustments - Levels. A box will open. Move the black tab on the levels bar to the right. Moving the far left one will change the colors close to black to black. Since this will make the darkest section black, you will not want to move this one too far. Moving the middle one to the right will darken everything except the black and white endpoints. Experiment with moving the tabs until you get the best look. This can also be done with the Image - Adjustment - Curves function, which again has more capabilities but is not as quick.

Fixing Image Rotation. When an image appears crooked and you want to make it straighter, you can change the rotation of the image. To change the image's rotation go to Image - Rotate Canvas - Arbitrary. A window will pop open. You will put in the degree of change needed and select either clockwise (CW) or counterclockwise (CCW) then select OK. If the rotation is too little or too much, return to Image - Rotate Canvas - Arbitrary and adjust until you get the correct rotation. In my doorframe photograph, the door is leaning toward the left . I wanted it vertical. A clockwise change of 2.30 gave me the look I wanted.

 

 

Needs Cropping. Often a photograph will need cropping to remove something from the photograph or to get a closer view of something in the photograph. To crop choose the rectangular marquee tool on the upper left of the tool bar. Outline what you want to crop with the tool. To keep the proportions true to a normal print size only select an area in a ratio of 1:1.5. For a square, use 1:1 proportions. If you are not concerned about the proportions, just select the area you desire for the photograph. After selecting your area, go to Image - Crop. It will automatically crop the area. In my photograph, I wanted to crop out the person that got into the photograph. I used a 4:6 ratio and cropped it.

 

 

Fixing Off Colors. Sometimes lighting will create too much of a certain color such as a yellow from indoor lighting. Go to Image - Adjustments - Levels. A box will open. There are two ways to adjust the color. The first way involves the color droppers. This works for photographs with very dark or very bright areas. Click on the white color dropper, which is the far right of the three droppers. Then, click on the whitest area of the photograph. If it gets too washed out, then click on another white area. It should change the photograph. The color dropper is calculating what is the whitest point in the photograph. At the same time, it balances the colors. If you have a very dark area, repeat the process with the dark color dropper. The second method involves using the channels. Using the pop-down menu, select a color to change (red, green or blue) then move the tabs slowly until you get the desired color. Color changes can also be made using Images - Adjustments - Color Balance. In my photograph, the light from above creates a yellow cast on the wall and darkens the white paneling. I fixed the photograph by using the white color dropper on a bright section of the white toilet.

 

 

Removing Red Eye. A camera's flash can leave a red spot in a person's eye. Many programs come with a simple red-eye removal process. For example, iPhoto allows you to select red-eye from the menu. Then, click the center of the eye. The eye will darken.

Other general tips

Always work with the highest resolution images possible. As you crop or edit your photograph the resolution will decrease. Starting with a high resolution image will make any changes less obvious n the final photograph.

Always keep a copy of the original image. This allows you to have the original image so you can go back if you don't like your changes or need to do something different. Use "Save As" for any image changes.

With a few quick editing techniques, you can change problematic photographs into great ones.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 2e: Canvas Size

The next command on the title bar context-sensitive menu (Windows only) is the Canvas Size command This command is also found in the Image menu and must be accessed from the Image Menu on Macintosh. (Continued below...)

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The contents of the Graphics Software site are copyright © Sue Chastain and About.com. These pages may be printed for personal reference, but they may not be distributed or republished for any purpose without prior written permission. Please see the About.com User Agreement for more information.

Canvas Size allows you to change the overall size of the document canvas without altering the contents of the document. When you increase the document size, the new canvas area is added in the current background color or it will be transparent if you have no background layer. Normally you'll only be using Canvas size to increase the size of the canvas, but it can be used to decrease (or crop) the canvas also.

Open an image and choose the Canvas Size command so you can look at the dialog box now.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

• Read This First!• Course Outline• Canvas Size• Crop Tool• Cropping Practice [all]• Cropping Practice v6.x

Interactive Classroom

Visit the forum to post your questions and comments.-Get Help with Lesson 2

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As you can see the current size is shown at the top. There are fields for entering new width and height dimensions. You can enter your dimensions as percentages, pixels, inches, cm, points, or picas. The anchor diagram lets you specify how the canvas is modified. By default, the middle box is selected which adds an equal amount of new canvas on all sides of your image (assuming you're increasing the canvas size). When you select any of the other squares, the canvas is modified in the opposite direction. For example, pressing the bottom middle square will add space to the top of your canvas.

Try it now by entering new numbers in the width and height to increase the canvas size, leaving the middle anchor square selected. Assuming your background color is the default white, you should have extra white space added all all sides of the canvas. Choose Edit > Undo (or Ctrl-Z/Command-Z) to undo the change and then choose a different background color. Try the Canvas size command again using a different anchor selection and see how it effects your image. Experiment with Canvas Size until you're comfortable with it.

By the way, if you enter some number in the dialog box and you change your mind and want to get the original numbers back, hold down the Alt/Option key and the Cancel button will change to a Reset button. Pressing reset will return all values to what they were. This trick works in just about all of Photoshop's dialog boxes, and it comes in very handy, so you'll want to add this one to your essential shortcuts list.

The Canvas Size command is fine when you want to add an equal amount of space to your canvas, or when you know the exact dimensions you need to adjust, but there is a much more intuitive and flexible way to increase, and decrease, your canvas size visually... the Crop tool.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 2f Exercise: Crop Tool Practice

Now let's get some practice working with the crop tool. Right click each of these files names and download the images to your computer so you can practice these exercises:croppractice1.jpgcroppractice2.jpg

(Continued below...)

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The contents of the Graphics Software site are copyright © Sue Chastain and About.com. These pages may be printed for personal reference, but they may not be distributed or republished for any purpose without prior written permission. Please see the About.com User Agreement for more information.

The exercises on this page are for users of version 5.x or 6.0.

Adobe Photoshop Basics

• Read This First!• Course Outline• Crop Tool• Cropping Practice [all]• Cropping Practice v6.x• History Palette

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Visit the forum to post your questions and comments.-Get Help with Lesson 2

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Practice Exercise 1Changing Shape, Increasing Canvas Size & Adding Borders

Before Cropping After Cropping

Crop the image to get the results shown above. Below is a screen shot of the approximate selection you'll need to make.

Next use the crop tool to expand your canvas size and add a black border to the image at the same time. First select black for the background color. Next make a crop selection and drag the borders outside of the document area as show to the left. When you're happy with the selection, commit to the crop and you should get something like the example here.

Practice Exercise 2Rotating with the Crop Tool

Before Cropping

After Cropping

Crop the image to get the results shown above. Below is a screen shot of the approximate selection you'll need to make.

In Photoshop 5, you can also crop to a selection using the rectangular marquee tool. When a rectangular selection is active, just choose Image > Crop.

This concludes the crop exercises for version 5.x users. You may continue to the next section on the History Palette. Version 6.0 users can practice the additional crop tool features in the next page of exercises.

Make Christmas Place Cards in Adobe IllustratorSaturday December 20, 2008

Personalize your holiday table with Christmas place cards created in Adobe Illustrator. This tutorials starts with a template for place cards to brighten your holiday table. We will make holly leaves and Christmas lights to use to decorate the place cards. • How to Make Christmas Place Cards in Illustrator

Step 1: The Front of the Box

Creating a Popup Gift Box in Adobe Illustrator

From Sue Chastain, About.com

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Create a unique gift box for small gifts using Adobe Illustrator. Tutorial by Sara Froehlich.

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These gift boxes are suitable for small gifts and gift cards and can be personalized for the occasion and recipient. Best of all, once you create one you can use it as a template any time you need a small gift box.

Open a new document in Illustrator. This tutorial uses US Letter size with landscape orientation, but you can use any size of paper as long as it fits your printer. You will have to adjust the sizes of the individual parts of the box to fit your paper size. This box measures 6" X 3.5" but you can adjust the sizes to make a custom size box.

Turn on the rulers (cmd/ctrl + R or View > Rulers). Right click a ruler and choose inches for the unit of measurement. Type D to set your colors to the default white fill and black stroke.

Select the Rectangle tool (M) in the toolbox and click once on the artboard to open the rectangle options. Enter 6 in for width and 3.5 in for height to make a 6" X 3.5" rectangle and click OK. Switch to the Selection tool (V) and drag the rectangle to the top of the page so you will have room to add the one for the back of the box.

Step 2: Adding the Back of the Box

Creating a Popup Gift Box in Adobe Illustrator

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Create a unique gift box for small gifts using Adobe Illustrator. Tutorial by Sara Froehlich.

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To quickly add the back of the box, open Illustrator General preferences (cmd/ctrl + K). In the keyboard increment box, type "3.5 in" (without the quotes) so that the pressing the arrow keys will move a selected object 3.5". Click OK to accept the setting and close the preferences dialog.

Select the rectangle you made in step 1. Hold the opt/alt key and press the down arrow on your keyboard once. Holding the opt/alt key will duplicate the rectangle; pressing the down arrow on the keyboard will move this duplicate 3.5" down on the page. You should now have two boxes as shown here. Open General preferences again (cmd/ctrl +K) and change the keyboard increment setting back to 1 pt. Click OK to accept the setting and close the preferences dialog.

Step 3: Adding the Flaps of the Box

Creating a Popup Gift Box in Adobe Illustrator

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Create a unique gift box for small gifts using Adobe Illustrator. Tutorial by Sara Froehlich.

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Choose the Ellipse tool (L) in the toolbox, and click once on the artboard to open the ellipse options. Enter "1.5 in" for the width and "3.5 in" (without the quotes) to make an ellipse 1.5" wide and 3.5" tall. Click OK.

Turn on Smart Guides (View > Smart Guides). This will show the centers of objects and help you align objects. Drag the ellipse to the edge of the top rectangle so it lines up centered on the edge, as shown in the illustration.

Step 4: Converting the Top and Bottom Points of the Ellipse

Creating a Popup Gift Box in Adobe Illustrator

From Sue Chastain, About.com

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Create a unique gift box for small gifts using Adobe Illustrator. Tutorial by Sara Froehlich.

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Choose the Convert Anchor Point tool (shift + C) from the toolbox. It's under the pen tool, and looks like a caret sign. This will let you convert the top and bottom points of the ellipse into corner points.

Step 5: Duplicating the Ellipses

Creating a Popup Gift Box in Adobe Illustrator

From Sue Chastain, About.com

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Create a unique gift box for small gifts using Adobe Illustrator. Tutorial by Sara Froehlich.

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Select the ellipse with the Selection tool (V). Open General preferences again (cmd/ctrl +K) and change the keyboard increment setting to "6 in" (without the quotes). Click OK to accept the setting and close the preferences dialog.

Hold the opt/alt key (to duplicate the object, remember?) and press the right arrow key on the keyboard. This will pop a copy of the ellipse to the right side of the top rectangle.

Step 6: Add the Flaps to the Back of the Gift Box

Creating a Popup Gift Box in Adobe Illustrator

From Sue Chastain, About.com

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Create a unique gift box for small gifts using Adobe Illustrator. Tutorial by Sara Froehlich.

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Open the General preferences again (cmd/ctrl + K---if you get nothing else from this tutorial, this keyboard shortcut will be ingrained in your brain!) and change the keyboard increment to "3.5 in", without the quotes. Click OK to accept the changes and exit the preferences dialog.

Use the Selection tool (V) to select one of the ellipses, then hold the shift key and click on the second ellipse to select it as well. Hold the opt/alt key and press the down arrow to duplicate the two ellipses and place the copies on the ends of the rectangle that forms the back of the gift box.

Step 7: Adding the Finger Holes

Creating a Popup Gift Box in Adobe Illustrator

From Sue Chastain, About.com

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Create a unique gift box for small gifts using Adobe Illustrator. Tutorial by Sara Froehlich.

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Choose the Ellipse tool from the toolbox and click once on the artboard to open the ellipse options. Enter "1 in" in the width and height boxes and click OK to create the circle. Using the Smart Guides again for positioning, drag the circle to the left ellipse on the back of the gift box (the bottom rectangle) and center it over the outer edge of the ellipse as shown.

Step 8: Making the Second Finger Hole

Creating a Popup Gift Box in Adobe Illustrator

From Sue Chastain, About.com

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Create a unique gift box for small gifts using Adobe Illustrator. Tutorial by Sara Froehlich.

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Open General preferences again (cmd/ctrl +K) and change the keyboard increment setting to "7.5 in" (no quotes) so the increment is 7.5 inches. Click OK to accept the setting and close the preferences dialog.

Select the circle with the Selection tool (V) and hold the alt key to duplicate and press the right arrow key to place the duplicate 7.5" away on the right edge of the right ellipse as shown. Open General preferences again (cmd/ctrl +K) and change the keyboard increment setting back to 1 pt. Click OK to accept the setting and close the preferences dialog. This will set them back to default so you don't get a surprise when you use the arrow keys to position an object in another project.

Step 9: Cutting Out the Holes from the Flaps

Creating a Popup Gift Box in Adobe Illustrator

From Sue Chastain, About.com

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Create a unique gift box for small gifts using Adobe Illustrator. Tutorial by Sara Froehlich.

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Select the circle with the Selection tool (V) and hold the shift key and click on the ellipse under it to select them both. In the Pathfinder palette (Window > Pathfinder) opt/alt click on the Subtract from Shape Area button to remove the circle from the ellipse. Repeat the process for the opposite circle and ellipse. Now you have the basic template for the box. Save the file as giftbox_template.ai so you can use it over again.

Step 10: Add the Glue Tab

Creating a Popup Gift Box in Adobe Illustrator

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Choose the Rectangle tool (M) in the toolbox and click the artboard once to open the rectangle options. Enter 5.75 in for the width and .50 in for the height, then click OK to create a rectangle 5.75" wide and ½" high. Drag the rectangle to the bottom of the gift box like this:

Step 11: Add the Art Work

Creating a Popup Gift Box in Adobe Illustrator

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Now comes the fun part: add text and illustrations to decorate the box. Save the file under another name so you do not overwrite your template. When you are done, you might want to change the outline colors to something that barely shows up. You will need the lines as a guideline to score the box flaps after printing and cutting.

Step 12: Assembling the Gift Box

Creating a Popup Gift Box in Adobe Illustrator

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A finished gift box.

Print the gift box on heavy cardstock. Cut out the gift box, and use a rotary cutter with a scoring blade to score the line between the front and back of the box and the curved edges of the ellipses so you can fold the ends in easily.

Score the line between the glue tab and the back of the gift box, and bend it toward the inside. Spread glue on the tab and glue it inside the box. Let dry.

Fold in the back flap on one end, and then the front flap. Add the gift or gift card, and fold the final flaps in.

Create a Dreamy Photo Effect with Photoshop Elements

By Sue Chastain, About.com

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photo edge effects photographic effects photoshop elements tutorials special effects

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Dreamy Effect - Introduction

Here is an example of the dreamy photo effect we are going to create.

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This tutorial shows you how to give a photo that soft, dreamy quality. It's especially nice for close-ups and portraits because it softens the photo and minimizes details that might be distracting. This tutorial will show you some of the benefits of using blend modes, adjustment layers, and clipping masks. Some might consider these advanced features, but you'll find out that it's not so hard.

I'm using Photoshop Elements 4 for this tutorial, but the required features are available in other versions of Photoshop and Elements, as well as other photo editors, like Paint Shop Pro. If you need help adapting a step, feel free to ask for help in the discussion forum.

Right click and save this practice image to your computer: dreamy-start.jpg

To follow along, open the practice image in the standard edit mode of Photoshop Elements, or whatever photo editor you'll be working with. You may follow along with your own image, but you'll need to adjust some of the values when working with a different image.

Duplicate Layer, Blur and Change the Blend Mode

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With the image open, show you layers palette if it's not already open (Window > Layers). From the layers palette, right click on the background layer and choose "Duplicate layer..." Type a new name for this layer in place of "Background copy," name it "Soften" then click OK.

The duplicate layer will appear in the layers palette and it should already be selected. Now go to Filter > Blur Gaussian Blur. Enter a value of 8 pixels for a blur radius. If you're working on a different image you may need to adjust this value up or down depending on the size of the image. Click OK and you should have a very blurry image!

But we're going to change that through the magic of blending modes. At the top of the layers palette you should have a menu with "Normal" as the selected value. This is the blending mode menu. It controls how the current layer blends with the layers below it. Change the value here to "Screen" mode and watch what happens to your image. Already the photo is getting that nice, dreamy effect. If you feel like you've lost too much detail, dial down the opacity of the Soften layer from the opacity slider at the top of the layers palette. I set opacity to 75%, but feel free to experiment here.

Adjust Brightness/Contrast

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At the top of the layers palette, locate the "New adjustment layer" button. Hold down the Alt Key (Option on Mac) as you press this button and choose "Brightness/Contrast" from the menu. From the new layer dialog check the box for "Group With Previous Layer" and press OK. This makes it so the Brightness/Contrast adjustment is only affecting the "Soften" layer and not all layers below it.

Next you should see the controls for the Brightness/Contrast adjustment. This is subjective, so feel free to experiment with these values to get a "dreamy" quality that you like. I've boosted the brightness up to +15 and the contrast to +25. When you're happy with the values, click OK.

Essentially this is all there is to it for the dreamy effect, but I'm going to go on to show you how to give the picture a softly fading edge effect.

Copy Merged and Add Solid Fill Layer

Here's how the layers palette should look after this step.

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Up to this point we've done our work without ever altering the original photo. It's still there, unchanged in the background layer. In fact, you can hide the Soften layer to remind you what the original looked like. But for the next step we need to merge our layers into one. Rather than using the merge layers command, I'm going to use copy merged and keep those layers intact.

To do this, do Select > ALL (Ctrl-A) then Edit > Copy Merged then Edit > Paste. You will have a new layer at the top of the layers palette. Double click on the layer name and call it Dreamy Merged.

From the New Adjustment layer menu, choose "Solid Color..." and drag the cursor up to the top left corner of the color picker for a pure white color fill. Click OK. Drag this layer below the "Dreamy Merged" layer in the layers palette.

Create the Shape for a Clipping Mask

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1. Choose the custom shape tool from the toolbox. 2. In the options bar, click the arrow next to the Shape sample to bring up the shapes palette. 3. Click the small arrow on the shapes palette and choose "Crop Shapes" to load them into your shapes palette. 4. Then select "Crop Shape 10" from the palette. 5. Make sure the style is set to none (white square with red line through it) and the color can be anything.

Convert the Vector Shape into Pixels

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Click in the top left corner of your picture and drag to the lower right corner to create the shape, but leave some extra space around all edges of the photo. Then click the "Simplify" button on the options bar. This will convert the shape from a vector object into pixels. Vector objects are great when you want a crisp, clean edge, but we need a soft edge, and we can only run the blur filter on a pixel layer.

Group with Previous to Create Clipping Mask

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After you click simplify, the shape will seem to have disappeared. It's there, it's just behind the "Dreamy Merged" layer. Click on the "Dreamy Merged" layer in the layers palette to select it, then go to Layer > Group with previous. Like magic, the dreamy photo is clipped to the shape of the layer below. That's why the "Group with previous" command is also called a "clipping group."

Adjust the Position of the Clipping Mask

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Now click back on Shape 1 in the layers palette, then select the move tool from the toolbox. Put your cursor just outside the dotted line of the bounding box and click once. The bounding box will change the a solid line, and the options bar will show you some transform options. Swipe across the numbers in the rotate box and enter 180. The clipping shape will turn 180 degrees. Click the check mark button or hit enter to accept it.

This step is not required, I just liked the way the shape looked better with rounded corner on the top edge and it was another opportunity to teach you something.

If you want to adjust the position of the clipping shape, you can do that now with the move tool.

Blur the Clipping Mask for a Soft Edge Effect

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The Shape 1 layer should still be selected in your layers palette. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Adjust the radius however you like it; the higher the number, the softer the edge effect will be. I went with 25.

Add Some Finishing Touches

For the finishing touches, I added some text and paw prints using a custom brush.

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Optional: If you'd like the edges to fade out into a different color other than white, just double click the left thumbnail on the "Color Fill 1" layer and choose another color. You can even move your cursor over your document and it will change to an eyedropper so you can click to pick a color from your image. I picked a color from the girl's pink shirt.

Save as a PSD if you want to keep your layers intact for further editing. As long as you keep your layers, you can still modify the edge color, and the clipping shape. you can even modify the dreamy effect, although you will need to paste a new merged copy above the shape and color fill layers if you do that.

For the final image, I added some text and paw prints using a custom brush. See my custom brush tutorial for creating the paw prints.

How to Install Free Photoshop Content

Find and Use Free Brushes, Layer Styles, Shapes, and Other Goodies

By Sue Chastain, About.com

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photoshop downloads photoshop shapes photoshop brushes photoshop tutorials photoshop patterns

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There are hundreds of Web sites (including this one) offering free Photoshop brushes, layer style effects, actions, shapes, patterns, gradients, and color swatch sets. Here's what you need to do with these files to get them working in Photoshop, along with links to where you can find these free goodies.

BrushesPlace the *.abr files into:Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop X\Presets\Brushes where X is the version number for your version of Photoshop.

Brushes created in Photoshop 7 or later will not work in earlier versions of Photoshop. Any Photoshop brushes should work in Photoshop 7 and later.

From the Brushes Palette in Photoshop, click the small arrow in the upper right corner of the palette, and choose load brushes. The brushes will be added to the current brushes.

• Free Brushes

Layer StylesPlace the *.asl files into:Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop X\Presets\Styles where X is the version number for your version of Photoshop.

• Free Layer Styles

ShapesPlace the *.csh files into:Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop X\Presets\Custom Shapes where X is the version number for your version of Photoshop.

To load a file, go to the Styles palette, then click the small arrow in the top right corner and choose one of the layer style collections from the menu.

• Free Shapes

PatternsPlace the *.pat files into:Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop X\Presets\Patterns where X is the version number for your version of Photoshop.

To load a pattern set, go to the Patterns palette (in the fill tool, Pattern overlay style, etc.), then click the small arrow in the top right corner and choose one of the pattern collections from the menu, or choose "Load Patterns" if the set is not listed in the menu. You can also load patterns via the Preset Manager in Photoshop 6 and up.

• Free Patterns

GradientsPlace the *.grd files into:Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop X\Presets\Gradients where X is the version number for your version of Photoshop.

To load a file, go to the Gradients palette, then click the small arrow in the top right corner and choose one of the gradient sets collections from the menu.

• Free Gradients

Color SwatchesPlace the *.aco files into:Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop X\Presets\Color Swatches where X is the version number for your version of Photoshop.

To load a file, go to the Swatches palette, then click the small arrow in the top right corner and choose one of the swatch collections from the menu.

ActionsPlace the *.atn files into:Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop X\Presets\Photoshop Actions where X is the version number for your version of Photoshop.

To load an action set, go to the Actions palette, then click the small arrow in the top right corner and navigate to the location where you saved the action. Select the file you'd like to load and it will be added to the actions palette. Learn more about creating and using actions from my links to Photoshop Action Tips.

• Free Actions

Zip FilesMost of the free Photoshop content on this site is distributed as Zip files to reduce download time. Before the files can be used, they must first be extracted. Zip file extraction is built into the operating system in Macintosh OS X and Windows XP. Consult your computer help if you're not sure how to extract zip files. For earlier operating system versions, you will need an unzipping tool such as Winzip (Win), Stuffit Expander (Mac), or ZipGenius (Win) to extract the files. After extracting the files, place them in the appropriate folder as indicated above.

Note: Most of these files can actually be saved anywhere on your computer, but to make them available from each tool's menu, they should be located in the appropriate folder under Presets. If you keep the files in another location, you will need to navigate to that location each time you want to use them.

Free Downloads for Adobe PhotoshopFree downloads of brushes, custom shapes, layer styles, presets, utilties, templates, add-ons, palettes, and other resources for Adobe Photoshop. Many of these downloads (gradients, brushes, styles, shapes) can also be used in Photoshop Elements.

Free Photoshop Layer Styles (100) Free Actions & Scripts (45) Free Patterns & Gradients (29) Free Photoshop Brushes (69)

Free Fame and Border Custom Shapes for Photoshop and ElementsDownload free custom shapes for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements by Shelby Kate Schmitz. This collection includes 126 frame and border custom shape designs in 3 sets (42 shapes each).

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Free Snowflake Shape Sets by Shelby Kate Schmitz Download 101 free snowflake custom shape designs for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

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Leprakawn's Free Custom Shapes for PhotoshopFree eagle shapes for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

Free Custom Shapes for Photoshop - Continents and CountriesDownload free custom shapes for Photoshop of a variety of continents and countries for use in maps and other projects. Includes USA, Canada, Asia, Europe, Oceania, Australia, Africa, Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

Free Christian Shape Sets - Download Shapes for Photoshop and ElementsDownload several sets of free shapes for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. These shapes are based on Christian symbols and includes crosses, doves, fish, stars, and many more Christian objects and symbols.

150 Free Ornate Shapes for Photoshop and Photoshop ElementsThis free set of 150 ornate shapes by Shelby Kate Schmitz can be used in Photoshop 7 and up and Photoshop Elements 2 and up (Mac or PC).

Pro Canvas - Free Photoshop Canvas Size Enhancement Plug-InProCanvas is a plug-in to enhance and replace Photoshop's standard Canvas Size dialog box. Once installed, Pro Canvas is available through the File >Automate command within Photoshop or through the shortcut Alt F-U-V.

Sue's Free Shapes - Basic Shapes & Arrows25 basic shapes - hearts, pill, diamond, tree, maple leaf, checkerboard, hand, pointing, x, shield, mouth, lips, rounded triangle, musical notes, droplet, dingbat, etc. - and 10 arrows.

Free Custom Shapes for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements - Basic ShapesFree custom shapes for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Basic shapes including hearts, diamonds, pill shape, tree, maple leaf, dingbats, shield, musical notes, arrows, and more. Download them free from your About.com Guide to graphics software.

Sue's Free Shapes - Snowflakes & Starbursts15 snowflake shapes, 27 stars, sparkles and starbursts. For Photoshop 6 (and higher) and Photoshop Elements.

Sue's Free Shapes - Symbols & DingbatsSet 1: at symbol (@), copyright, registered symbol, information, info, question mark, no symbol, smilie face, frown. Set 2: hearts, flowers, dingbats, diamond, swoosh. Set 3: dingbats, stars, starburst, geometric patterns.

216 ColorsTips for working with Netscape's limited color palette in Photoshop. Download the 216 color CLUT file here.

Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1 Update - MacintoshThe Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1 update fixes a number of problems discovered after Photoshop 7.0 was released.

Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1 Update - WindowsThe Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1 update fixes a number of problems discovered after Photoshop 7.0 was released.

Adobe Studio Exchange"Adobe Studio Exchange is your place for actions, plug-ins, extensions, tutorials, and other helper files that allow you to easily

add new features to Adobe products. You can even create your own files, upload them, and share them with the entire Adobe Studio Exchange community."

AV Bros. Circumscriber - Adobe Photoshop CS Script"Our script is targeted to help you quickly and easily circumscribe a circle (as the selection) around either two (2) or three (3), specified by you, points." Freeware for Windows and Macintosh.

AV Bros. Collector - Adobe Photoshop CS Script"This script is targeted to help you quickly and easily collect various documents into a single Adobe Photoshop multi-layered document. (Each document is placed on a separate layer.)" Freeware for Windows and Macintosh.

Chainstyle FreebiesFree actions, patterns, gradients, and layer styles for Photoshop 6, 7, and CS.

Contact Sheet and Picture Package Update - MacintoshThe version of the plug-in that shipped with Photoshop 7.0 contains a flaw that can cause Photoshop 7 to stop responding if either command is used with a layout directory that contains certain non-image files. This updated plug-in corrects the problem.

Cybia Creative Resource Studio FreewareSeveral freeware downloads for Photoshop including plug-ins, brushes, settings, actions, textures, and more.

David Nagel's Custom Shapes for Photoshop, Retro Series"The Retro collection of shapes comes from the designs that were so popular in the early to mid 50's. The Retro collection includes a series of stars, planets, atoms, fluid circles, and a couple of takes on the ever popular boom-a-rang"

David Nagel's Custom Shapes for Photoshop, Series 1"30 shapes for creating variations on intersecting lines--like spider webs--which is an effect not easily duplicated in Photoshop."

David Nagel's Custom Shapes for Photoshop, Series 2"The set consists of 52 custom path-based shapes for use with Photoshop 7 (only!) for Mac and Windows. The shapes include window panes; stained glass panes, frames and details; and variations on horizontal and vertical blinds for use in compositing."

David Nagel's Custom Shapes for Photoshop, Series 3"Custom shapes for Adobe Photoshop 7 that includes vector-based grids, as well as some pre-warped shapes that you can use for decorative effects."

David Nagel's Custom Shapes for Photoshop, Series 4"25 decorative mesh shapes... a variety of decorative mesh styles, from wavy, disappearing grids to complex, spiraling lines."

David Nagel's Custom Shapes for Photoshop, Series 5"15 decorative mesh shapes... from wavy grids to complex, spiraling lines."

Deke McClelland's Free Photoshop StuffIncludes Photoshop 7 shortcuts and Modifiers, a 36-page shortcut table from the Photoshop 7 Bible by Deke McClelland; "Total Nuggets" layer styles for Photoshop Elements 2; and a Treasure Hunt Quiz for Photoshop.

Disable Get Info Comment Plug-in for MacFor Photoshop 6.0.1 "By default, Photoshop will always write information about the document into the Comments field shown in the Finder's Get Info dialog for the document. There are a number of file servers that provide AFP services on computers running other operating systems; some of them do not correctly handle files which have comments in the Get Info information."

FxZone Interface DepotThe interface depot is an online file resource where you can find and share files for learning or creating graphic user interfaces. Download useful patterns, textures, PSD files and other types of interface files.

HotKeys - Free Keyboard Shortcut ChartsPrintable keyboard shortcut charts for Macintosh and Windows. Also includes files for adding useful shortcut hotkeys to Photoshop.

Ignore EXIF Color Space Plug-in - MacintoshPlacing the plug-in called Ignore EXIF Color Space into the Adobe Photoshop 7 Plug-Ins folder will instruct Photoshop 7.0.1 to ignore the color space specified in EXIF metadata.

Ignore EXIF Color Space Utilities - WindowsRunning the utility called Ignore EXIF Color Space will instruct Photoshop 7.0.1 to ignore the color space specified in EXIF metadata.

j2k JPEG 2000 Plug-in for Photoshop (Win/Mac)Read and write to the JPEG 2000 file format from Photoshop with this ftee plug-in.

Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcut FixBeginning with Mac OS X v.10.2 (Jaguar), Apple has reserved the keyboard shortcut Command+~ (Tilde) to cycle through an application's open document windows. This change conflicts with the behavior of the shortcut in Adobe Photoshop 7.x. This plug-in will restore the behavior of Command+~ in Photoshop 7.x running in Mac OS X v.10.2.

Photoshop 7.0 Scripting Plug-in (Mac)From Adobe: The scripting plug-in lets you automate repetitive tasks and key workflows using rich scripting support. Write your own Apple scripts.

Photoshop 7.0 Scripting Plug-in v.1.0.2a - WindowsAutomate repetitive tasks and key workflows in Adobe Photoshop 7.0 using rich scripting support. Write scripts using JavaScript or Microsoft Visual Basic.

Photoshop Shapes by Shelby Kate SchmitzHundreds of free assorted shapes for Photoshop and Elements, plus 45 dividers and 101 snowflakes.

SuperPNG - Advanced PNG Plug-in for Photoshop (Win/Mac)"SuperPNG is a free Adobe Photoshop plug-in for using PNG ("ping") files. It is faster than Adobe's own PNG plug-in and saves considerably smaller PNGs."

xMeta - Metadata Export from Photoshop (Mac)"xMeta is a simple set of three plug-ins for exporting metadata from Photoshop in raw binary form. It can export ICC Profiles, EXIF camera data, and IPTC press information."

What it does

Flood creates bodies of lying water in pictures. It provides control over waves, a radiating ripple, the perspective and color of the water, and the clarity of reflections. Although it's a 2-D effect, with a little effort it can produce convincing results with a 3-D look.

 

How to install

Illustrated installation instructions are online.

To use this software, you need a paint program which accepts standard Photoshop 3.02 plugins.

Just put the plug-in filter into the folder where your paint program expects to find it. If you have Photoshop, the folder is Photoshop:Plugins:Filters or Photoshop:Plug-ins. You must restart Photoshop before it will notice the new plug-in. It will appear in the menus as Filters->Flaming Pear->Flood.

Most other paint programs follow a similar scheme.

If you have Paint Shop Pro: you have to create a new folder, put the plug-in filter into it, and then tell PSP to look there.

PSP 7:

Choose the menu File-> Preferences-> File Locations... and choose the Plug-in Filters tab. Use one of the "Browse" buttons to choose the folder that contains the plug-in.

The plugin is now installed. To use it, open any image and select an area. From the menus, choose Effects->Plug-in Filters->Flaming Pear->Flood.

PSP 8, 9, X, and XI:

Choose the menu File-> Preferences-> File Locations... In the dialog box that appears, choose Plug-ins from the list. Click "Add." If you are using PSP 8 or 9, click "Browse". Now choose the folder that contains the plug-in.

The plugin is now installed. To use it, open any image and select an area. From the menus, choose Effects->Plugins->Flaming Pear->Flood.

 

Controls

When you invoke Flood, a dialog box will appear:

Quick start

If you just want to make some waves quickly, click the dice button until you see an effect you like; then click OK.

To design your own water effects, you'll need to familiarize yourself with the controls, which are arranged into three groups:

View

Waves

Ripple

...and a few other controls that affect the whole image.

1. View

Flood draws a plane of water at the bottom of the picture, and the water reflects whatever's in the top of the picture. These controls determine your view of the plane of water that Flood draws.

Horizon places the horizon; 0 is at the top of the picture and 100 is at the bottom. In the preview, the horizon shows as a dotted green line. For the most credible results you should align Flood's horizon with the real horizon in the picture.

Offset sets the location of the line about which reflections occur. In the preview, the offset shows as a dotted pink line. Offsets greater than zero prevent the water from being drawn all the way out to the horizon. This is useful when you either want water only in the foreground, or when you want to have forground objects partly submerged and correctly reflected. Instructions on how to accomplish this effect appear later in this guide.

Perpsective sets the steepness of the perspective of the water's wavy surface. It's for matching the perspective in a wide- or narrow-angle lens.

Altitude moves the camera up and down. Used together with Perspective, you can produce a view of the waves that is compatible with your original image.

original picture

green horizon and pink offset lines

different perspective and altitude

 

2. Waves

These controls change the appearance of the waves.

Waviness sets the height of the waves. Zero gives a perfectly calm surface.

Complexity ranges from smooth, rolling waves to harsh choppy seas.

Brilliance sets how bright the reflections are. Zero gives dark, coffee-like water. 42 is usually a realistic watery appearance. 100 gives the total shininess of liquid mercury.

Blur makes the reflections grow blurry in the foreground. Use this to discard distracting detail in the reflections, or turn the waves off and the blur up to produce a frosted-mirror effect.

The Color Button sets the color of the water itself, which shows through in the foreground. Black and midnight blue work best.

 

more waviness

low complexity

high complexity

high brilliance

calm water with high blur

color button

3. Ripple

The water can have a circular ripple, as if a stone were dropped into it. Click in the preview anywhere below the dotted-green Horizon line to get the ripple. Click above the line to remove the ripple.

Size sets the ripple's size. The ripple will shrink in the distance. However, this setting is the neither strictly the size of ripple in the scene, nor the size of the ripple onscreen. It's an arbitrary measure that's meant to be easy to use rather than physically consistent.

Height sets how strong the ripple is.

Undulation sets how many wave cycles are in the ripple. High numbers give a more complex appearance.

a ripple

a ripple with more undulation

4. Other controls

Dice This randomizes the settings. Click it as much as you want to see different effects.

Random seed Clicking changes only the random pattern of the waves, and leaves everything else the same.

Reset Gives you the "factory settings" waves.

dice

random seed

Glue mode popup menu Lets you combine the water with the underlying image in various ways. Modes other than "normal" produce special effects. The next-glue button advances to the next glue mode.

Send to photo manager Sends the result to iPhoto (on Macintosh).

Export to PSD Renders the result to a a .psd image file, which can have custom dimensions.

Info Briefly explains of the controls.

Make Gallery Builds a web page showing all the presets in a folder that you choose.

Plus, % and minus buttons: If the selected image area is larger than the preview are, these buttons will let you zoom in and out. You can also reposition the preview by dragging it around; your cursor will turn into a hand.

Auto Preview When this box is checked, the preview automatically updates whenever you move any control. Turn it off if you want to save time.

Load preset Flood comes with some presets, which are files containing settings. To load one, click this button and browse for a preset file.

Save preset When you make an effect you like, click this button to save the settings in a file. 

Undo backs up one step.

Three more buttons:

OK  Applies the effect to your image.

Cancel  Dismisses the filter, and leaves the image unchanged.

Register Allows you to type in a registration code.

reset

export to PSD

next glue

info

make gallery

send to photo manager

load preset

save preset

undo

Memory dots

Although you can save your settings permanently to files, you can also stash settings in memory dots.

Click an empty dot to stash the current settings in it.

Click a full dot to retrieve its settings.

Hover the mouse over a dot to see what it contains.

Option-click to erase a dot on Macintosh.

Right-click to erase a dot on Windows.

If a dot is orange, your are currently using that dot's settings.

Dots remember their contents until you erase them. If you'd rather make a temporary dot that forgets when you exit the plug-in, control-click it. Temporary dots are square.

When you start the plug-in, it puts the starting settings in a temporary dot. That way it's easy to start over without exiting.

On Mac, you can drag-and-drop settings files from the central memory well.

memory dots

empty

full

current

temporary

How to submerge people

A picture of someone standing in water has to be done in two steps: one for the background, and one for the person.

Load a picture of someone standing on dry land into your paint program. Duplicate the image so that the same image appears on two layers. original picture

In the bottom layer, use the cloning brush to remove the person from the scene. You can ignore the part of the person that will be underwater.

Hint: if you already have two similar pictures, one with and one without the person, you can use these instead and save a step.

background without person

In the top layer, erase everything to transparent except the person. This only needs to be done carefully for the portion of the person that will be above the water.

top layer with person

Go back to the bottom layer and Select All. Invoke Flood, play with the controls until you like the effect, and click OK.

background with waves

Go to the top layer and Select All. Invoke Flood; it will still be set to the same effect. Adjust the Offset control so that the person is submerged to a pleasing depth. Don't change the other controls. Click OK.

person with waves

Make both layers visible and you should have a person standing in water.

 

final image

If you try to make this image in one step, the person will appear to loom gigantically from the horizon.

giantess

Hints

The prettiest results come from scenes with a wide range of brightnesses in the sky, as well as large regions of detail like clouds, trees, and buildings.

 

Flood doesn't know what 3D scene is depicted in your 2D image, so it just assumes that the scene is a vertical billboard rising from the Offset line. This limitation is least troublesome if you follow these guidelines:

- use pictures that have objects only in the distance; - the picture should be one taken along a nearly horizontal line of sight; - when you add water, view it from a grazing angle.

 

If the ripples aren't appearing, try this:

Set Size, Height, and Undulation to non-zero settings. If any of these are zero, the ripples vanish.

Click (don't drag) in the picture anywhere below the waterline to place the ripple. If you click very close to the horizon, the ripples will be invisibly small in the distance.

Version History

Version 1.3 May 2008

Adds convenience features to the interface. The Mac version is resizable.

Version 1.2 June 2007

Fixes a Windows problem where the plug-in wouldn't remember its registration when it was installed in one user

account but activated in another. Fixes a Macintosh problem where the plug-in could have bad settings or crash when installed on a machine for the first time.

Version 1.14 March 2007

Universal binary for Macintosh. Preset files have icons. Works as a Smart Filter in Adobe Photoshop CS3.

Version 1.12 April 2005

New glue modes. Fixes specks that can result from abrupt transparent edges.

Version 1.1 May 2004

New glue modes. Works with 16-bit-per-component color.

Version 1.08 December 2003

Recordable as a Photoshop action.

Version 1.04 September 2003

Adds more glue modes and the next-glue button.

Version 1.02 February 2003

Adds more glue modes and fixes a crash that could happen when using the menus under Windows XP.

Version 1.01 December 2002

Adds new glue modes: Color, Luminance, Linear Light, and Pin Light. Fixes the appearance of text in the interface when running under Mac OS X 10.2.3 .

Version 1.0 October 2000

The first public release.