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Adobe Photoshop 2021 Beginner To Pro Illustrated (2021)
Adobe Photoshop 2021 Beginner To Pro Illustrated (2021)
For Beginners
Complete Beginner to Pro Illustrated Guide to Master
Graphics Designs and Image Editing Skills with
Latest Tips & Tricks
Tech Demystified
Copyright © 2020 by Tech Demystified Incorporated
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic,
electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by
any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of
the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical
articles and reviews.
ISBN - 9798711673231
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE
GETTING STARTED WITH IMAGE EDITING
GETTING FAMILIAR WITH THE HOME SCREEN
LAUNCHING INTO PHOTO EDITOR
ANATOMY OF PHOTOSHOP MAIN INTERFACE
ANATOMY OF PHOTOSHOP MAIN INTERFACE
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP TOOLBOX
CHOOSING EITHER SINGLE OR DOUBLE COLUMN TOOLBAR
HIDDEN TOOLBAR’S TOOL
MOVING AND SELECTION TOOLS
CROP AND SLICE TOOLS
MEASUREMENT TOOLS
RETOUCHING AND PAINTING TOOLS
DRAWING AND TYPING TOOLS
NAVIGATION TOOLS
UNDERSTANDING MENUS APPEARANCE
OPENING AND SAVING IMAGE WITH PURPOSE
OPENING FILE FROM ADOBE BRIDGE
IMPORTING AND PASTING IMAGES
CHAPTER TWO
WORKING WITH LAYERS
GETTING TO KNOW LAYER
TYPES OF LAYERS
CONVERTING BACKGROUND TO A LAYER
CREATE A NEW LAYER FROM THE SCRATCH
POWER OF PHOTOSHOP COMPOSITION
TRANSFORMING LAYER
USING LAYER VIA COPY AND LAYER VIA CUT
ADDING LAYER MASK
INTRODUCING ADJUSTMENT LAYER
DUPLICATING LAYERS
CHAPTER THREE
WORKING WITH TYPE TOOL
UNDERSTANDING TYPE BASIC
MAKING USE OF THE TYPE TOOL
FORMAT AND CHARACTER PANEL
CREATING PARAGRAPH TYPE
USING THE TEXT ON SHAPE TOOL
MASKING WITH TYPE
STYLIZING AND WARPING TYPE
WARPING YOUR TYPE
CHAPTER FOUR
MAKING AND MODIFYING SELECTION
DEFINE SELECTION
CREATING RECTANGLE AND ELLIPTICAL SELECTIONS
PERFECTING SQUARES AND CIRCLES WITH SHIFT AND ALT
GETTING STRAIGHT WITH THE POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL
MODIFY YOUR SELECTION
WORKING WIZARDLY WITH THE MAGIC WARD
ELIMINATING WITH THE ERASER TOOLS
THE ERASER TOOL
BACKGROUND ERASER TOOL
MAGIC ERASER TOOL
REFINE THE EDGE OF A SELECTION
FEATHERING A SELECTION
CHAPTER FIVE
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
CHAPTER SIX
CORRECTING CONTRAST, COLOR, AND CLARITY
USING BRIGHTNESS AND ADJUSTMENT
COLORIZING A PHOTO
OPENING CLOSED EYES
CHAPTER SEVEN
DRAWING AND PAINTING
SPLASHING ON COLOR WITH THE PAINT BUCKET
WORKING WITH MULTICOLOR GRADIENT
WORKING WITH COLOR PICKER
DRAWING MULTIPLE SHAPE
PENCIL TOOL
CHAPTER EIGHT
SIMPLE MAKEOVER
CROPPING, RESIZING AND STRAIGHTENING IMAGES
CROPPING AWAY WITH CROP TOOL
RESIZING YOUR IMAGE
EDITING IN QUICK MODE
FIXING SMALL IMPERFECTION WITH TOOL
RETOUCHING WITH THE HEALING BRUSH TOOL
QUICK MODE AUTO MODE
AUTO SMART TONE
AUTO COLOR CORRECTION
AUTO HAZE REMOVAL
CLONING WITH THE CLONE STAMP TOOL
ZEROING IN WITH THE SPOT HEALING BRUSH
REPOSITIONING WITH THE CONTENT-AWARE MOVE TOOL
LIGHTENING AND DARKENING WITH DODGE AND BURN TOOLS.
SMUDGING AWAY ROUGH SPOT
SOFTENING WITH THE BLUR TOOL
FOCUSING WITH THE SHARPEN TOOL
SPONGING COLOR ON AND OFF
REPLACING ONE COLOR WITH ANOTHER
CHAPTER NINE
PLAYING WITH FILTERS, EFFECTS, STYLES, AND MORE
HAVING FUN WITH FILTERS
APPLY FILTERS
WORKING IN THE FILTER GALLERY.
FADING A FILTER
MIXING UP WITH BLEND MODE
APPLYING BLENDING MODE TO A FILTER
GENERAL BLEND MODES
DARKEN BLEND MODES
LIGHTEN BLEND MODES
USING PHOTOMERGE
CHAPTER TEN
INDISPENSABLE TIPS AND TRICKS
CONCLUSION
PREFACE
Welcome to Adobe Photoshop 2021 user guide, you must have probably
heard of Adobe Photoshop, if not it is an imaging and graphic design
software for designing photos, creating 3D artwork and editing videos. It
doesn’t matter if you have experience of graphic design or not. Adobe
Photoshop is for both business and personal uses. This user guide has been
packaged in such a way to develop the prerequisites skills and knowledge
that you need to exploit and make the best out of Adobe Photoshop, it’s for
all categories of users beginning with those who do not know Photoshop by
starting from the basic level which is foundational level for the new beginner
and stretched to the intermediate user by introducing them to the several new
tools, adjustment and editing methodology and workflow options.
This user guide takes you through the beginner level of the primary adobe
design applications with rigorous in-depth research in such a way that
explains them in a logical manner by establishing a path that will blur the
previous orientation of the user in respect of the buttons and gadgets that
seem confusing; his guide has come to make it easier to operate those button
and gadget via one on one-step process to take through this user guide.
It is not a new thing about adobe Photoshop in regards to its constant
interface alteration which might make the new button and gadgets seem
different a little bit for the previous user, no qualms, this is a messiah user
guide for every puzzle is been broken down to the simplest for both beginner
and intermediate users.
In the course of going through this user guide, you will get to know how to a
bitmap image, adding shadow and effects to your various image, above all
you’ll be equipped with the understanding of how to become a professional
digital artist. Without vain repetition, let’s dive into adobe photoshop 2021
proper for a full understanding of the leverages you can gain from Adobe
Photoshop.
INTRODUCTION
Adobe Photoshop came into being by the joint works of the two art brothers,
John and Thomas in 1987 to be precise, they invented Adobe Photoshop to
take technology to the next level in respect of making the image more
attractive by creating additional effects to it which is what they inherited from
their father, their initial intention was to name the Photoshop Image pro but
the name has already been taken by another producer.
Their major reason behind this innovation is to take image and photo to
another level by creating additional effects which will make image
worthwhile and lively which is why it is called “Raster Graphic Editors’’
because it has been a powerful tool used in creating and editing images and it
can be saved in various formats, making a transparent image in the below
layers of the image, adding several models of color such as lap color and lots
more.
The first version of the Adobe Photoshop that was released is Photoshop 0.63
in 1988 but it was not released to the public, it was released to test its
effectiveness by its creator, after that, there was first initial release to the
public on February 19, 1990 as Photoshop 1.0 which is only for Macintosh.
Other Photoshop released is an improvement over the previous release,
though I can’t mention all Adobe Photoshop released but I will mention the
significant ones which will prompt me to mention a notable release in
November 1992 which is Adobe Photoshop 2.1 that was the first version of
the application software that captured the operating system of both Mac and
the Window.
Another remarkable version was also released in November 1996 which is
Photoshop 4.0 which brought two distinguished features “Action and
Adjustment layers”. The action was a useful feature that allows a designer to
make more than one command and effects to a single action, while the
Adjustment layer allows the designer to attach an effect to a group of layers
which in return will save a significant amount of time while working with
Photoshop; for you to know their efficacy and are still present in all the
current version that was released afterward.
As I have said earlier, every new release has one or more improvement over
the previous. In a nutshell, another latest version has been released which is
Adobe photoshop 2021 which comes with a lot of amazing features that are
capable of making more powerful and lively editing, fully in support of
Camera models, lenses fix the bug issues and lots more. To discover the new
ways to unlock Adobe Photoshop 2021 version, stick to this carefully packed
user guide for a way out from the adobe Photoshop puzzle.
CHAPTER ONE
GETTING STARTED WITH IMAGE EDITING
GETTING FAMILIAR WITH THE HOME SCREEN
The present Adobe Photoshop home screen offer users Adobe creative cloud
series of apps that are more than recently opened files. You can as well
browse and sort those files and display them in thumbnail or list form.
Also, on the home screen, you have access to Adobe online web tutorial,
starting from basic videos on getting started with layers and cutting out
images to advance stage. Lastly, it is this place where you can make a
creation for your new document. Let’s quickly dive into what a home screen
can offer you.
Menu items are located at the top left of your screen. Home is
there by default, when you click on Learn Button, it will display
pages of available tutorials out of which you can select.
Lightroom Photos. follow the Learn Options, when you click on
it, it will display a page of lightroom images that are stored
online. You may select them for import and they will be
downloaded and opened in Photoshop.
The PS Icon located at the top left corner is the link to the
Photoshop workspace, simply click on it to open though, it will
open without an image because you have not started any work on
it. However, you may click on the home button to return to the
home screen.
For proper understanding, let’s start from the new project work
by clicking on “Create New” to create a new project or
document, scroll to the right, up and down to select the desired
template.
After the template selection, adjust for the properties at the right
side by starting from any of your choice, the project name,
width, height, orientation, resolution, color mode and click on
create.
For the color mode, choose RGB color. This stands for Red,
Green and Blue. These are the colors that best suit Photoshop.
For the photo dimension, I will recommend 880 pixels wide/450
pixels tall, while for the resolution 72 pixels/inch will be good.
Once you are done with the filling of the document properties.
Then click Create New, to open a new document and begin your
work on it.
The new project work will be opened on the workspace which is completely
blank and white. It is called Canvas which is full of a pixel that you can
change.
You can use your mouse wheel to increase or reduce the size of the project
work by dragging the mouse in and out.
E. Document Details: This shows you the compressed and real size
of your document.
F. Active Image: This represents the interface of a large area to
work on your image with a darker background color.
G. Rulers: This is used to measure the exact position of your image
and you can drag guidelines from here for text and layer line up.
H. Search and Share: a link to search for any content, amend the
workspace arrangement and sharing your image on social media.
I. Palettes: There are various interchangeable palettes that you can
select from the Window menu.
J. Layer Palette: This is an area of the current image layer you are
working on. The layer at the top of the stack will be shown above
those below.
K. Layer Option: It gives you the right to add effects, adjustments,
layers style and other options that you can add to your currently
active layers.
MEASUREMENT TOOLS
Buttons Tools Uses
Eyedropper It samples the colors of an image. For a
better representation of the sample
area’s color, you have to increase
“Sample Size”.
3D Material It is used to sample material from a 3D
Eyedropper model.
Note: you may not need some of the Sub-Menu Option. And as a result,
there is an arrangement to edit the menu you want to see and use, to do that
simply:
Go to Edit.
Swing to Menus.
Under the Menus tab, tap the Show/Hide icon for each item you
want to hide.
Immediately you’ve found the image you are looking for, you can
either highlight on it (or many Images at once) or click on the
open button at the lower right of the browser window and they
will open up in Photoshop or you double click on the image in
question.
Click on File.
Tap Browser in Bridge from the drop-down (Alt+Cmd+O).
You can single out image and add keywords or select them in
mass and add keywords specific to each of the images you have
currently selected, then all the keywords will be displayed
alongside the attached images. In Bridge, you can browse your
image just the same way you browse the window browser. Aside
from the control that the Bridge has over your image and more
image data that is available, as it is shown in the image below.
Immediately you got your desire image, highlight it and right-
click for context menu options. In this guide, we will open
with Adobe Photoshop 2021 option.
Note: If you open any image and you don’t add any new layer during the
editing process till you save it, it will only be saved in its original jpeg
format. However, if you involve layers and adjustment during the process
of editing, it will simply be saved in PSD format to keep those layers.
After you must have made a blank document, the next is to fill
your document with the necessary image.
Images may be imported into your documents through two option
which is either Place Embedded Option by covering image as an
object. And can be edited in your active document but which will
still contain editing within it.
Or the Place Linked Option which means, after you have placed
an image into your document, the document will retain the link to
the original file so that if you edit the original image. The
subsequent time you look at the document that is containing your
image, it will update to the latest saved version.
Navigate to the folder that contains the first image you want to
use, highlight on it and click the place button or double click on it
to open the image on its document blank layer. You have to know
that the layer name will change to the image name immediately
you open the image in the document layer.
Note: The drawback to using the layers is the file sizes that will be
accumulating as you continue adding layers and attached information. It
greatly increases the size of the file and thus immediately you are done
with editing before saving the picture you have created; you have to
flatten the single image that contains all the layers you merge.
STUDYING YOUR PATH AROUND THE LAYER PANEL AND
SELECTING MENUS IS AN ESSENTIAL PART
(A) Adjustment Layer: it helps you to add any adjustment
effects such as Brightness, Contrast, levels and Saturation. This is an
alternative link to the main layer menu.
(B) New Layer Group: This is the link to create a new layer
group inside which you can drag and drop layers and it will help you
arrange your layers even if the composition is complicated.
(C) New Layer Link: A link to create a blank new layer directly
over the current above the active layer.
(D) Layers delete button: Click on it to delete the currently
active layer or you can drag the layer into the button to delete it.
You can as well change the background layer into a regular layer, simply
double click on the background layer within the layers panel which is filled
with a new layer window. The default name for the new layer will be layer 0
in the new layer window. Type a new layer name into the Name text box,
after you are done renaming the layer, click on the Ok button.
Immediately such background layer will become a regular layer that can be
moved, blending modes may be added to it including enablement to change
the opacity on the layer.
Alternatively, you can change your background layer to a regular layer by
moving to the layer menu and selecting New, then select a layer from the
background.
CREATE A NEW LAYER FROM THE SCRATCH
To create a new layer, click on Create New Layer icon [ It is similar to a
piece of paper with the lower-left corner folded} on the bottom left layers
panel.
Note: When you create a new layer, such a layer will be placed above the
layer that was selected before creating the new layer. Each new layer will be
awarded a default name of Layer 1, 2, 3, 4. And so on.
To change the name of the layer, click twice on the layer name to choose the
existing name and then type the new name for the new layer.
Follow the same process to open the browser to the front and
search for it, then drag the next image you will be using to the top
of the base image.
Hope you aware, the next layer has its separate layer which will
be named after the title of the file. In our illustration here the
sorcerer sits on top of the base image on a new layer.
To correct this issue, simply click and hold the mouse over the
very layer that contains the dragon, drag the layer to sits under the
layer containing sorceress. Immediately after the adjustment of
the foreground and the dragon behind it, the image will be more
excellent.
As you are aware each element has a separate layer, then they can
be manipulated and edited independently of each other. For
example, the dragon will be amazing if it was on the other way
around. As a result, let us flip the layer horizontally for much
awesome looking composition.
We have already gone to the file and selected the two images we
want to merge; they consist of moody woodland and cosmonaut.
Let us deal with the cosmonaut image first because we want to
take it out from his background.
Let us set the new layer to be invisible for some minutes, while
the background image is set active by clicking its layer then
navigate to the toolbar Click on the Quick Selection Tool which
will in turn allows for simple selection based on detecting
contrasting edges.
If you examine it critically, you will notice that the outline of the
featureless sky is well defined against the mountain and thus
Quick Selection Tool can easily select the sky alone by simply
click with the tool on the area of the sky and slowly drag the
cursor around the sky area to select more of the sky as the cursor
is going.
Set the top layer active and visible again, as you are doing it you
will notice you are actively selecting the area that surrounds the
sky area (indicated by the line and black known as Marching
ants) will be spread. Now we are about to turn the area into a
mask which will hide the area outside the selection.
Setting the selection active, find your way down to the layer
palette Options to choose Add Layer Mask and a mask will be
added to the top layer in the exact shape of the selection you
made. The area inside the selection is white while the one outside
the selection is black.
The white-masked area indicates that part of the layer be seen
while the black part signifies the mask hide that part of the layer.
The result here showed that the interesting sky area of the top
layer is visible while the featureless sky is hidden on the layer
below.
You can view the Mask on its own. Press the Alt key on your
keyboard and the left key on the mask. The Quick Selection Tool
will perform a decent assignment that will make you discern the
mountain and the featureless sky. When you press on the Alt and
left-click on the mask again, the screen will change back to
normal view.
You can move around the sky in the top layer but keep the mask
in its exact position, you may click on the small chain icon layer
thumbnail and the layer mask thumbnail which will unlink the
image from the mask so that either the image or mask can move
without affecting the other.
Let’s first check through our image files to select an image that
makes it step one of the Adjustment Layer, now we have gotten
the image but is a little underexposed and not bright enough. No
qualm, Adjustment Layer got us covered.
Click on the Middle Slider and move it to the left then all the
middle tones will get lighter. You may as well Shift Black Point
Slider below just a little to the right to remap solid black to
progressive lighter tones and darker areas. You can notice at this
level it is showing more light detail.
Let us proceed to adjust the color of the image. The color of the
image looks down a little, let us try to boost the vibrancy of the
image by clicking again on the Adjustment Layer and choose
Hue and Saturation from the drop-down list, then put it on the
growing layer stack.
After you must have opened your image or your files depend on
what you want to do, then navigate to the toolbar on the right and
click on the Horizontal Type Tool.
Immediately you tap on the Type tool, your Options Menu at the
top of your screen will show up what is available for that
particular tool you have clicked. With that option, you can choose
your desire font, the size and weight of the font you want and
other necessary options.
Drag with the Type on an area of your image to create a new text
layer and then look at default text to show you what your font and
your size will look like, you can type any of your desire text. But
for this case let us type the word “WAVES”.
create a text box line, then choose your horizontal Type Tool.
set your formatting option, then click and drag diagonally on the
canvas to create a rectangular text box.
you can then proceed to paste or type your text into the box.
The text box is a fixed size, immediately the text reaches the right edge, it
wraps onto a new line and if the text is longer than the box you made you will
have to resize the box to make the rest visible.
Click Control + T and then hold shift and drag one of the handle bags to
increase the box size
USING THE TEXT ON SHAPE TOOL
In Photoshop you are not limited to rectangular text boxes. There various
shape tools or even manually draw a shape with the pen tool and then fill
those shapes with the text.
Select any of the shape tools or you use the pen tool.
Set the Tool Mode to a path in the top left corner of the Options
Bar,
Then draw your shape on the Canvas.
Then grab your horizontal type tool and click inside the path you
have drawn and the shape will be turned into a text box.
Then set your text alignment to center and type your text into the
box.
Using a shape tool for your text is useful when you need to wrap
text around your image or other objects inside your design.
You can start either by opening an image in Photoshop or you can select a
layer that contains some color and navigate to the toolbar to select one Type
Mask tools and set your font. Then click Canvas and start your typing, when
you done typing click enter and your text will turn into a selection.
You will perceive the area inside the text displays the image
clearly. And outside the text is presently colored red which
signifies that at the next process of masking, you will not be able
to select the same mask format anymore.
Click on Commit Change Button, the text will change into an
active selection which will give you a couple of option. Then
click on Selection Tool that resembles Lasso Tool, right-click on
the tool and select Layer via copy for you to copy the area inside
the text to a new layer.
You can navigate to the Layer Option Panel to choose to add a
Mask if you want to and the entire image of the text will be
covered with Mask leaving the area inside the Selection visible
when masking. Do not forget that white reveals and black hides.
Other two ways to use Type Mask:
1. Add a texture to your text. Click the Add Layer Mask button
located at the bottom of the Layers panel, then the background
will be transparent, letting the text shape containing the texture
from the original image.
You may either draw it with a freehand rectangle or you set the
Size or Ratio by using tool options. Let us draw one with a
perfect square selection by setting a 1x 1 ratio.
PERFECTING SQUARES AND CIRCLES WITH SHIFT AND ALT
You may use the Paint Bucket tool to fill the area you have
selected and you will notice that those four edges are too sharp.
You can then make a soft-edged selection by typing a specific
number into the Feather box. The higher the number you typed to
the box, the greater how the edge will be blur.
After you have drawn a selection and filling, you will be able to
notice the edge is now blurred with the Marquee “Marching ants”
line staying at the very middle of the blur area.
Note: you may want to select more than one area or feel like add to your
current selection, simply hold the shift button and it will temporarily put the
tool into “Add Selection” mode.
GETTING STRAIGHT WITH THE POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL
Let us for instance and examine this studio image setting that has
too much light which is not in good alignment with the plain
background and thus there is a need to separate it from the
background. However, because it is plain background it may be
kind of difficult to use ordinary selection tool like Magic Wand.
Nevertheless, let us give it a try and check its result:
The result makes the edge around the model’s hair look very
terrible, as a consequence of using Magic Wand selection
because the image area has an uneven edge, while the Magic
Wand has an inherent inability to distinguish between the fine
edge of the hair and the background.
ELIMINATING WITH THE ERASER TOOLS
The eraser tool has a little similar function to a brush and uses the same
palette options. It is varied from the standard brush tool because it can render
pixels from a layer transparent by allowing those layers beneath to display
through.
The Eraser tool also has tool options like opacity, Flow and one unique one,
Erase to history, which can be used together with the history palette to select
undo changes in layers. The mode option being used by Eraser are Brush,
Block and Pencil. There are other types of Eraser options that you can use if
you click and hold on the Eraser tool, they are Background Eraser and Magic
Eraser. The background layer will erase part of the background by converting
the background into a layer while the Magic Eraser tool combines the Magic
Wand tool with the Eraser tool and selectively connecting areas of color.
THE ERASER TOOL
Let examine one example with the Eraser tool to understand the technique
very well:
Just like a real-world eraser, the Eraser tool erases the pixels
from your image. Whichever color you have selected as your
background will be the same you will use to erase pixel data from
the image just exactly like if you are using a solid colored brush.
You likewise set the Opacity and Size of the eraser.
In respect of this illustration, the blue can be erased sky from the
image simply by placing the cursor over the blue to be removed.
As you click and drag the mouse whichever blue that falls under
the cursor position will be erased, but the white color will not be
changed since they are not blue.
MAGIC ERASER TOOL
Then click on Refine Edge Button on the tool options bar in the
dialog windows, check the box Marked Smart Radius and then set
the brush size with the square brackets keys so that it will be large
enough to cover the area that surrounds the hair. Continue by
painting around the edge which will overlap both the model and
the background as well. After you are done painting around all
the edge areas that you want to refine.
Simply click on Ok for it to start to recalculate the edge, you
should be able to notice that the later result is a better
improvement over the earlier one.
There are other tools you can use to modify a selection that will give you the
finer result, to access those tools, navigate to Select Menu and click on
Modify, and there will be an option drop-down which is Border, Smooth,
Expand, Contract, and Feather, they are very easy to use and helpful as well.
Let us try to check on each of them:
Border can be used to create around your original selection by
using the Paint Bucket Tool. It will convert the single-line
selection into a Border of a specific width, be careful so that the
border will not extends the equal amount from either side of your
original selection.
Smooth is the tools that erase the wrinkles and kinks from the
line of your selection, it works perfectly if you have an object
smooth-edged selection. But it will round off the corner if happen
to be any irregular shapes, the bigger the value of the smooth
selection, the smoother and less detailed the selection will be.
FEATHERING A SELECTION
Feather simply soften the edge of the selection by the Radius
program in the dialog box. Copying and pasting selection into a
background feather seems probable to be the best and useful
option.
CHAPTER FIVE
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
You can perform almost everything you have in Photoshop in such a quick
and fastest way. Almost all your program’s functions can be quickly coded
with the combination of two or more keys. Knowing those shortcut keys will
speed up your work greatly. Let me quickly take you to some commonly –
used shortcuts that can fast track your image editing work. Though there are
many shortcuts let focus on the key one for easy understanding.
CREATE NEW LAYER
CREATE NEW DOCUMENT
REDO LAST STEP
PASTE FROM CLIPBOARD
CLOSE CURRENT
CLOSE ALL DOCUMENT DOCUMENT
ZOOM IN
LEVELS VIEW
ZOOM OUT
CURVES VIEW
UP
MOVE CURRENT LAYER DOWN TOGGLE LAST STATE
COLORIZING A PHOTO
At times you may feel like sample the color you want to use for your
document. That is not a difficult task, let us quickly go to how to sample
color in Photoshop;
Let us assume the picture you are about to use has no color and
therefore, it is requested for the color background. Then the
image subject is to be removed from its background and there is a
need to place a color behind it.
Next, navigate to the bottom of the Layer Palette and click on
the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon and select from
the number of the available layer adjustment. For this case, select
Solid Color and the color picker “specifically” solid color will
open.
You should know that the default color for Solid color is always
black, except you have chosen color which is the active
foreground color. The new color Fill 1 layer will be put on top of
your cut out subject. You have to click and drag so that it will be
placed below the subject. Now your subject should have sat on a
black background.
Navigate the cursor over your subject’s cheek and in no time, the
background becomes the color, then hover the cursor on top over
her lips and it becomes a pink color. Put the cursor over her iris
and the background will become a steel blue color which is a
great job though there is still more to it.
Having the color picker still active, resize the Photoshop window
and create another window beside it. For this case, we will open a
browser and searched for “Earth color Swatches”. Having your
color picker active hover your cursor on top of the contents of the
other window to sample even more colors.
OPENING CLOSED EYES
Gone are those days that you will have to throw your picture away because
the eyes are shut, the latest version of Photoshop has dealt with it accurately.
And thus, if you have another example of a face where the eyes are opened
and they look alike in respect of color and lighting, you can quickly replace
those closed eyes for open ones:
The Paint Bucket tool grants you the chance to fill areas with
solid colors, you can set the Opacity, Blend modes, and
Tolerance. If the tolerance is high in setting, it simply means it is
going to use edge detection to decide areas that can be filled,
while the low setting tolerance means it is going to ignore it.
The entire layer can be filled or you can use it to fill a specific
area depends on what the edge encounter. Let us check the
example we are having for this case which is a cartoon character
on a white background. If you check its outline you will notice it
is quite well-defined and thus, clicking the paint Bucket means
the background can easily be filled with a color.
Under the options heading, you will see an option for Contiguous
Fill, if you tick it, it will only be filled with neighboring colors
but if it is not ticked it will simply mean all matching color in the
image will be filled, it does not matter their position in the
picture.
Gradient tools allow you to fill your entire layer and area of your
image with colors, such colors can fade from one to another or
fade from color to transparent, gradient tool needs a filled shape
which should be defined by a selection that means it does not use
edge detection.
Click on the Gradient Picker and pick that very gradient you
want to use, then select a Preset from the list, preset range from
foreground to transparent to multiple color gradients, access them
with a click of a button.
You may choose to create your gradient, simply click on the
Gradient Editor and add the specific option called color stops to
a basic gradient. Adjust their color and then define if they are
solid or transparent. Note that any custom you made can be saved
as a preset.
Photoshop provides you with the custom shape tool to select from
several predefined shapes and add them as vector shapes on a
new layer. Select the color and layer style from the style picker.
Besides you may choose either they are of fixed size or
unconstrained and also if you can add to a shape or subtract from
it.
Immediately you have done with your setting, you can draw out
the selected shape on your photo, you can click and drag from the
corner outward or from the center to draw the shape from the
cursor position, the shape will be filled with your chosen color
when you released the mouse button.
You can add your vertical text option as well, text that can help
your masks and the ability to fix the typed text to a path or shape,
this example displays the butterfly ‘s outline with sample text
following the outline of the shape.
PENCIL TOOL
The pencil tool has been programmed to act just like a real-world
pencil, besides it is a hard-edged tool that has several preset
pencil tip shapes to draw with. You can as well select Size,
Opacity and Blend Mode for your pencil strokes along with its
color.
You can then start to use your mouse or tablet to sketch and draw
with the pencil as you want. It is either you draw directly over
your existing image or you create a new layer and draw on the
new one you create to preserve the version of the original one.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SIMPLE MAKEOVER
CROPPING, RESIZING AND STRAIGHTENING IMAGES
At times, it may happen to have too many surroundings in the picture and you
feel like focusing on the main image or the complete image is too big, that it
is necessary to make it smaller or even at the time the image may be bend or
not completely straight to the extent that you may feel like straighten it, all of
them is an easy task. Let us use this illustration of grazing horse on the
grassland to explain the case:
CROPPING AWAY WITH CROP TOOL
If you check the current size in pixels located at the top of the
panel with the width of 800 pixels, you should go to the lower
window and change it to 650 pixels. If the position of your main
subject is not at the center of the frame, you can change the
anchor point by clicking on the Arrow surroundings in the box
below depending on where you want to place it. There will be a
warning notice that you are about to cut out part of the image,
simply ignore it. You have just resized the image to 800 x 650
Having your Spot Healing Brush Tool, you are good to use to
paint directly on top of the blemish and then works out what you
want to fill it with by examining the area around it. The best
options tool Spot Healing Brush employ for any type of blemish
are Proximity Match and Content-Aware.
RETOUCHING WITH THE HEALING BRUSH TOOL
You may feel like altering brush size for full effectiveness, you
can do that with the help of the Size Slider in the tool options
panel or you press the left and right bracket keys. When you press
left [it will reduce the size] and press to the right will [increase
the size]. It allows you to clone accurately and the detail that may
be needed.
Looking at the image now you will perceive that the blemish has
gone, let us try to make the image look livelier and more
attractive. Layers should have been the best option but are not
available in the Quick mode, the simplest way to affect the image
is to navigate to Adjustment from the taskbar.
Inside the Adjustment panel. You can select Smart Fix and
choose from many options that bring change to the image and
getting back the details in the highlights and shadows, swing over
each one of them to see a preview of the effect that you may
likely apply over your photo. Click on the one you prefer to
apply.
There are a lot of Auto features you can use to improve your
image, they can be accessed under Enhance Menu but they are
quite wide and they do not give accurate fitness, thus you have no
precise control over the outcome if at all you want to exercise
some more control over them, there are somethings to put in
place. Let us look at those things.
Ensure you tick the Aligned option which means that the
sampling area will be moving as your brush move, if not the
clone stamp will be sampling the same area repeatedly until you
change it.
Check for the clean grass area that is next to the flag, then press
the Alt key. The command you made will bring a small target
icon. Whatever under this target is the sample to be used as the
starting point of the cloning. You have to left-click to confirm it
as your sample area.
You can now begin to move the cursor over the top of the flag,
with the level of your target area from the last step. It is displayed
as overwhelming in such a way to see what is about to clone on
top of your flag. Simply click and drag your mouse down the pole
and the grass next to it will clone over the top removing the pole.
You can then proceed to select another target sample to the right
of the flag and also clone grass from that side too over the
remaining area of the flag. You can then check ahead perhaps you
can see any repeated areas that stand out as being cloned, you
may then select a new target area and clone in some new grass to
have the same pattern occurring.
You may now navigate to the second flag on the left side and
make a new sample clone over the pole just as the same way you
did with the first flag. The look for clearly repeated as you are
cloning the clean areas on top of the flag pole.
After the completion, judge the result and check if you can see
any repeating patterns that still give the game away, then simply
clone over such areas over the offending repeated parts with
random grass and sky as necessary.
ZEROING IN WITH THE SPOT HEALING BRUSH
Removing skin blemishes may be a challenge. Spot healing brush is effective
at removing such though it can also create some issue during the process, do
not worry let me show you easy ways of getting most from your Spot Healing
Brush tool:
You may now proceed to focus the darker blemish pixels around
the face. If you view the “retouch” layer on its own, you will
notice you have successfully cloned new pixel data on this layer
by preserving the original image under it with a non-destructive
edit.
REPOSITIONING WITH THE CONTENT-AWARE MOVE TOOL
As a result of advancement in technology, Photoshop has moved
further in respect of content-aware moving tool introduction, which is
being split into Content-Aware Fill and Move. It very helpful that you
can fill in blank areas of an image with the estimation of the
surrounding area, we have a particular handy for filling those
triangular edges that are left after rotating an image for instance when
leveling the horizon line.
Let us begin with an image that is just been rotated, leaving those
empty triangles, select the Magic Wand tool and choose the
Plain Areas.
Then navigate to the Select Menu and click on Modify then next
to expand. You can then enlarge the selection area by a fair
amount. Considering this picture 12 pixels should alright.
Next, go to the Edit menu and select the Fill, fill option will be
shown. Content-aware should be there by default, perhaps it is not
there, you can choose it from the drop-down menu.
Be expecting a short pause process as the Photoshop analyzing
the image, though it will fill the blank areas with the texture
derived from the content of the immediately surrounding area.
Now let moves to the second tool, the Content-Aware Move tool
aims to select a particular object on the background and move it
to a new area of the image. The Content-Aware should
automatically fill in the area that you moved from and also blend
in the moving object.
Content-Aware move tool is not used often, unless the object you want to
move is on virtually plain ground, whichever case, it is simpler to use the
Clone Stamp but some users find the Content-Aware Move tool useful.
LIGHTENING AND DARKENING WITH DODGE AND BURN
TOOLS.
Dodging and Burning is an essential part of photo editing, dodging is the
process of lightening an image at the darkroom stage by reducing the
photograph print exposure that exists in that particular area While Burning is
the exact opposite of dodging, it makes the image darker when the parts of
the image are exposed for longer onto the print.
Let us take for a sample of the white and black image, for example, the image
is suffering from, in contrast, let us make use of the dodge and burn principle
to create more life into it. We selectively add brightness and contrast to
produce the stronger image:
Open the image you want to adjust with dodge and burn. In this
case, we have selected black and image that its contrast has been
reduced to able to exercise the effectiveness of the dodge and
burn procedure.
This specific process is a destructive one, and thus, let us begin to
press [ Cmd + J] to make the duplicate layer and give it a name
layer name “dodge” it is on this layer you will start your
“dodging” process on.
Quickly drive into the Toolbar and select the Dodge Tool from
the Dodge and Burn fly-out panel. Then proceed and click on the
Context menu above and choose the Range Button in which
there will be a drop-down menu where you can choose Highlight.
This means we are only affected by the brightest of the tones in
the image.
Set your Exposure Value As 10 Percent and be very sure that
Enable airbrush button is selected and Protect Tones is ticked
which means that the dodge effect can be added slowly and tones
and other details cannot be erased with one click.
The level to which you will lighten the area of the image wholly
depends on the personal taste. Now we had performed some
additional brightening. It simply shows the difference in contrast
from the image will begin work with.
To use the Sponge Tool, click and drag it over the areas you
selectively want to Saturate nor Desaturate. Continue to brush the
areas to increase the level of the effects you are applying. In this
case, brushing using the Desaturate option later changes the
affected area to grey.
We can start with the Magic Wand Tool which is the fittest tool
for selecting large areas of the same color and thus we are going
to use it as a starting point here, try to set the Tolerance level to
about 24-30. It should be able to pick out the chassis without
much problem.
If you wish to add a bit, you can make use of Magic Wand
because that is the area where it functions most than other, simply
click on an area that has mid-tones for the whole area you want to
select and you will later realize that the Magic Wand will select
an area that surrounds it. The size of the selection will depend on
the setting of the tolerance. You can add more area by holding
down the shift key and carefully click on the areas around your
starting selection, perhaps Magic Wand chooses some parts of the
background, you can undo it by pressing Cmd + Z and retry it
again with much care. You can also reduce the tolerance settings
downward if such an occurrence keeps occurring.
After you have successfully selected all the affected areas with
Magic Wand Tool, you can then complete the selection process
with the Lasso Tool, by adjusting the Feather To Zero which
will produce a sharp-edged selection, alternatively, you can also
make use of the selection Lasso tool.
Hold down the shift key to add more areas to your selection once
again. If at all you want to remove any selection areas such as
rind or core, you can do the subtraction by holding down the Alt
key and then going around those areas with Lasso Tool.
After you are done with the selection of all the bits you want to
replace. You can then Save the Selection for later use, to save
you from repeating the word if at all you later cage your mind.
Notwithstanding there are several numbers of filters we can use at
this stage, the most excellent way to change the selected area is
the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness option. This applies to most
editing programs. It is under Enhance Menu in Elements.
If you do not like the result you can clear the selection by
pressing the Cmd+D shortcut on your keyboard, but if you are
delighted with the result, you save the result. You may save the
final image as a PSD file in Photoshop or Elements, the selection
may be saved as an Embedded File as well.
CHAPTER NINE
PLAYING WITH FILTERS, EFFECTS, STYLES, AND MORE
HAVING FUN WITH FILTERS
One of the most Photoshop powerful effects is Filters. If you understand how
to use them properly, they can increase the quality of your images, artistic
effects and recreate a various number of photographic, it can even distort
them in many ways which may be very tedious and time-consuming.
There is a unique feature for each filter that you can adjust and manipulate
before you apply them. You can as well combine the effects of two filter by
applying them one after another, but the result effects depend on the order to
which you apply the filter for instance running Blur followed by Add Noise
will give you a blurry image with sharp dots but if you reverse the
combination, it will give you fuzzy dot. So far you can arrange filters in any
other and thus there is no specific limit to the different ways to their
appliance and combination.
APPLY FILTERS
Using a filter is such an easy task, by simply go to the Filter menu and select
whichever filter you want. Some will be applied immediately as you click
them while other some option to be filled before you can apply them. Follow
the following tips in using the filters:
1. If you are applying a filter to part of your image, simply use the
selection tool to select the desire portion before running the filter.
2. Hold Alt as you are dragging to see the real-time preview of the
effects.
3. If there is availability of the preview window, you can drag the
preview image to view different portions of it. You may employ
the + and – button to zoom in and out.
4. You may apply a filter to individual color channels and you may
apply it to layer masks as well.
WORKING IN THE FILTER GALLERY.
Filter gallery is a quick preview of how filter or filter combinations will look
like before you apply them to your image. Almost all filters can be accessed
in the filter Gallery but some cannot such as “Render Filter”. You can simply
apply such by choosing them from the Filter Menu.
Let us quickly examine a different part of the Filter Gallery window and its
functions:
FADING A FILTER
Fading is used to fade a filter that has been applied by clicking on the fade
command from the Edit menu, you can as well change the opacity and
blending mode of the filter effect.
It serves the same function as that of blending mode and opacity of the image
layer except for the original image that displays through instead of the below
layer and therefore, if you fade a filter to 0 percent(%) opacity you will be
having original image but if it is 100 percent (%) opacity you will be seeing
the full effect of the filter you apply.
Within your Photomerge window, there are various offers for the
number of options to which you can arrange your panoramic shot.
Auto option will work well for our selected landscape panorama.
Simply click on add Add Open Files Button to get your five-
shot added to the Photomerge List and then click on the top two
options and also the down option in an attempt to fill blank areas
with the Content-Aware tool.
Instantly as you click on the ok, the merging process will
commence and it will be completed automatically. It may take
some time to complete the merging process, most especially if the
PC is too slow or the image selected is of very large big files.
After the panorama has been completed, you will be seeing some
areas of the program that need to warp the pictures to correct for
perspective. At this point, the Content-Aware tool will be
attempting to add something that looks a bit like sky and sea
which depends on how well the fill works. You can crop out these
areas if you desire.
At the same time, you may use the Crop Tool to straighten out
any slight slope or tilt in your horizon, but hopefully, you may not
need it. The finished result is always wonderful just like this
picture we are having below after the merging process.
CHAPTER TEN
INDISPENSABLE TIPS AND TRICKS
AWESOME TIPS AND TRICKS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Adobe Photoshop users prefer that their photos look fantastic and that certain
part of their image looks great. That is not a problem if you can get yourself
familiar with the right tool and how to use them very well, as such will be
helpful and fast-track your editing work.
Let me quickly take you through awesome tips and tricks that I found helpful
in my photo editing work:
(1) Bird’s eye views:
Simply hold down letter H, then click and drag and you will be
given a little view box.
Simply drag the box to the side of the image to dash out to view
full and zoom in, with the little box which is called bird’s eye you
can zoom in anywhere in the image.
Over scroll help you to move your work space around the
Photoshop instead of making Photoshop fill the whole screen, so
that you can be able to work in the middle of the screen.
Go to Photoshop preferences on windows and select Tool from
drop down menu.
As soon you click on Tool, there will be pop up menu then
choose selected option and you will be taken to the image below.
Click on the over scroll and you will be able to see the whole
image and navigate it into the middle and any other part of the
work space. Its function is to help your work space not to be
locked
Add more contrast soft light but in sort of a more subtle way to
brighten the screen up.
You can sort the brightness of the image a little bit or darken the
image a little bit, whatever you want to do, you can do it with
blank adjustment layer.
As you are using any tool, hold down Ctrl to switch to the Move
tool.
As soon as you are done with the move tool release Ctrl key and
you will immediately return to the original tool.
Feeling like focus on one layer, but other ones are in the way
disturbing your work on a desired layer, no qualm.
Hold down the Alt key and click on the Eyeball icon you want
to isolate.
When you want them back again click on the Alt again and they
will switch right back on.
(9) Creating multiple stroke Effects on Text.
Why settle for a single stroke when there are two or three.
Double-click the text layer to apply a Stroke layer effect.
Press the Plus icon to add another Stroke. You can add as many
as you wish.
(10) Warping Text in Photoshop:
You can create a guide in the Photoshop work space, simply by:
Clicking and dragging on the side ruler.
However, if you do not see any rulers you can command the ruler
by pressing Ctrl + R.
Select the layer you want to copy, probably I want to grab all
my adjustment layer here, press Ctrl + C to copy.
Go to another layer which happen to be the recipient and press
Ctrl+V to paste them.
(16) Straightening Viewpoint:
This help in straighten one’s work, if you are doing complete photography,
you have to straighten up some photos. To straight up an image you have to:
Select the layer and move to filter, then to camera raw filter.
And proceed to click on this little tool which is called
transform tool and choose a guided that will guide you in
drawing lines of area that have to be straight.
Draw the line right from the top of the paper and bottom of
the paper, and both side of the image to be straight line across,
leave the remaining for camera roll to straighten them.
Then take another line for both sides, and both sides should be
vertical straight line up and down, leave it for camera roll to
straighten them out right.
Now you can proceed to use the crop tool to trim it down.
After you have click on the shaded area, you will see the whole
image being adjusted to make sure it does not have green color
cast any more. In essence, middle gray eyedropper may be
likened to be a lifesaver and a great time saver in Photoshop.
CONCLUSION
After thoroughly going through this Powerful Adobe Photoshop user manual,
you must have understood the essence of Photoshop to the immediate
environment and how to manipulate such a tool to your best advantage.
At this level, you must not be ignorant of how to apply multiple non-
destructive editing to an image by duplicating the layers which is a means of
keeping the image and carry out editing on a separate layer, and modify them
independently and accordingly. Also, the ability to blend different layers,
masking area of an image to protect it from editing level down to pixel level.
Wish you the very best moment with Adobe Photoshop.