Introduction to PhotoShop Basics We should by now understand that graphic images need to end up in a particular format to be incorporated into a multimedia project. For instance, Web graphics need to be converted into GIF files to be usable and we've learned the procedure necessary to translate them into the proper format using PhotoShop. But, in this exercise students will begin to explore some of the many OTHER features of this powerful program. Specifically, this week students will: Log-on to the Social Science Mac Lab Computers Review a brief "primer" on PhotoShop's Tools & Palettes Learn about the Selection Tools in PhotoShop Complete an image editing assignment At your leasure, learn more PhotoShop Tips & Techniques Finally, don't forget to Log-out! About Tools & Palettes Adobe PhotoShop is a powerful image editing program that allows you to edit and colorize images, retouch proofs and create original or composite artwork. Whether you're an art director, an electronic publisher, a photographer, an animator, a multimedia producer, or a service bureau, PhotoShop gives you the tools you need to get top-quality, professional results. PhotoShop works with bitmapped, digitized images [that is, continuous-tone images that have been converted into a series of dots, or pixels]. You can bring images into PhotoShop by scanning a photograph, slide, or graphic [as we have already seen]; by capturing a video image; or by importing artwork created in drawing programs. You can also import previously digitized images -- such as those produced by a digital camera [again, as we have already seen] or obtained from a photo CD of "copyright free" pictures &/or graphics. There are more than 40 tools available in the PhotoShop 5.0 Tool palette. Describing all if them in detail would take up way too much space and probably bore you to death! So, for now, take a look at the tool palette [on the right] and don't worry about not knowing what some of them do. No doubt, as you work with PhotoShop and gain more confidence, you will discover -- through exploration and experimentation -- what most of the tools are capable of helping you accomplish. Most of the tools have settings associated with them. To access these settings, double-click the tool you want to use [or select the tool and press the Return key]. This will open the Tool Options palette. From this palette, you will be able to change the various settings available from percentage settings for painting and retouching tools to transparency, fades, line thickness, arrowheads, anti-aliasing, gradients, etc. Choosing colors can be a formidable task and there are several ways of doing this in PhotoShop. The Color Picker dialog box is available by clicking on the foreground or background color block in the Tools palette. Alternatively, you can use the Color palette. Similar to Color Picker, you can choose colors by typing numbers or clicking on a color "swatch" [click the Swatches tab first], moving the RGB [or CYMK] sliders, or selecting a color from the color bar at the bottom [Option-click to change your background color]. PhotoShop Selection Primer With names like Lasso, Magic Wand, Feather, and Transform, you get the feeling that these aren't just your everyday tools. Indeed they are not! They're the fine instruments of a digital artist! Belaying their rather "simplistic" appearence, PhotoShop's Selection tools can do so much more than just draw outlines... they are, in fact, quite central to your success as a digital artist. They allow you to isolate areas of your image and define precisely where a filter, painting tool, or adjustment will change the image. However, they do take a little getting used to, but once you've mastered the basics, you'll be ready to jump into more advanced aspects of PhotoShop. Obviously, before you can edit an image, you must first select the area with which you want to work. When you select an area by using one of the selection tools [see below], the border of the selection looks a lot like marching ants. Once you've made a selection, you can move, copy, paint, or apply numerous special effects to the selected area. Ther are two types of selections in PhotoShop; a normal selection characterized by "hard" edges, and a feathered selection which slowly fades out at the edges. An accurate selection makes all the difference when you're enhancing an image in PhotoShop and choosing the correct selection type is very important.     The Selection Tools: Rectangular & Elliptical Marquee, Single Row & Single Column Marquee & Crop: These tools are the essential ingredients in your selection toolkit and the ones you'll use the most often in your PhotoShop work. Drag with these tools to enclose a portion of the image in a marquee [rectangular or circular depending on tool]. Click and hold-down on the Marquee tool to reveal [& select by "sliding" over] the other options. After slecting the Crop tool, "click & drag" to enclose within a rectangular marquee the portion of the image you want to retain. Lasso, Polygonal Lasso & Magnetic Lasso: Drag with the lasso to select a free-form portion of the image. The "Polygonal Lasso" tool allow you to make a selection that consists mainly of straight lines, but in an unusual pattern. The "Magnetic Lasso" allows you to trace around the edge of an object whout having to be overly precise -- the "Magnetic Lasso" will do the fine-tuning for you. Magic Wand: Click with this tool to select a contiguous area of similarly colored pixels. Move: Drag with this tool to move the selected area of the image. If no portion of the image is selected, dragging with the move tool moves the entire layer. Marching Ants: Term used to describe the edge of a selection. Used because the edges appear as very small moving "specks" [similar to a line of ants!]. There are, of course, more sophisticated aspects of the above mentioned tools and the exercise [below] will introduce you to many of them. After a few practice rounds with the various selection tools, you should be selecting like a pro! As was explained above, learning how to select areas of an image is of primary importance when working with PhotoShop -- you must first select what you want to affect. Once you've made a selection, only the area within a selection can be edited; areas outside the selection are protected from change. To begin the Working With Selections lesson for today's lab, download the "photoshop_01.sit.hqx" compressed file from the "lab_07" sub-directory in the "summer_1999" directory on the "www.soc.hawaii.edu" server. If Stuffit Expander does not automatically uncompress the downloaded file, you will need to launch in manually. FYI, Aladdin's Stuffit Expander is now available in both Mac and Windows versions [for free!] which can convert and access files from all the popular compression archive formats [including; StuffIt, Zip, UUCode, BinHex, MacBinary, Arc, gzip, Tar, Compact Pro, and more]. The compressed lesson file contains everything you need to complete this lab assignment [two graphic files & the instructions in pdf format]. Alternatively, the "pdf" documentation -- Lesson01.pdf -- can be accessed through your web browser [if equiped with the Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in] which will provide you with an online guide for completing this assignment. If you wish -- and you don't already own a copy of PhotoShop -- you can download the free demo of the software [Win: 28.1 MB; Power Mac: 38.2 MB .hqx or 28.2 MB .bin]. This will allow you to complete the exercise, but not save the edited file... Still, good practice! PAY ATTENTION! You will NOT be able to access the the "Adobe Photoshop 5 Prefs" file in the "Adobe Photoshop Settings" folder because of the security software installed on the Macs in the Lab. Instead, you will have to launch PhotoShop and return the tool palettes to their default locations. To do this, choose the "File" menu and then the "Preferences" and "General" options, click on the "Reset Palette Locations to Default" button. If you turn off the "Save Palette Locations" check box in the same dialog box, each time you launch PhotoShop, the palettes will be at their [screen space-hogging] default locations -- you can always move them later. In this lesson, you will learn how to do the following: Use the marquee, lasso, and magic wand tools to select parts of an image in various ways. Reposition a selection marquee. Deselect a selection. Move and duplicate a selection. Constrain the movement of a selection. Adjust a selection with the arrow keys. Add to and subtract from selections. Rotate, scale, and transform a selection. Combine selection tools. Crop an image. When you have finished the above outlined tasks, and your image looks similar to the picture [above right], then you should save the image to your own diskette or your Mac's "Guest" folder. You should then convert the image to GIF format using one of the techniques outlined in our last lab session and name the file "first-initial_lastname.GIF" and upload it to the "all_pau" sub-directory in the "summer_2000" directory on the "www.soc.hawaii.edu" server as a RAW DATA file. Now it's "pau hana" time! PLEASE NOTE: If you are a Windows user [poor thing!], the following keyboard equivalents apply: Control = Command on Macs Alt = Option on Macs Right mouse button = Control on Macs Tutorial excerpted from Adobe Photoshop Classroom in a Book, part of the official training series for Adobe graphics & publishing software. Published by Adobe Press & available in several languages. ISBN: 1-56830-466-8, US$45, 466 pages, paperback. Available from Amazon.com FYI: PhotoShop Tips & Techniques Communication Computer Lab's PhotoShop Quick Guide [version 3.0.5] Adobe's "official" PhotoShop Tips page Digital Mastery's Tips & Techniques The Ultimate Compendum of Adobe PhotoShop Site's very own Tips & Techniques reference page Visit Grafx Design's Photoshop Tutorials Better yet, check out Laurie McCanna's Complete List of PhotoShop Tutorials Finally, be sure to visit Dr. Melissa Lee Price's Web Graphics Photoshop 5.0 tutorial.   [ Syllabus ][ Lab Assignments ][ Downloadable Resources ][ Back to Home ]   Copyright © 1999-2000   By: M. R. Ogden -- ogden@hawaii.edu   (Rev. 14 June 2000)