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Visual Elements: Digital Tools

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Photoshop Notes – Assignment 1

Photoshop Class 1 Notes

Tools

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Keyboard Commands

  • Save: COMMAND S
  • Copy: COMMAND C
  • Paste: COMMAND V
  • Undo: COMMAND Z
  • Hide/ Show the Layer Pallette: fn F7
  • Move Tool: V
  • Magic Wand and Quick selection brush: W
  • Marquee Tool: M
  • Lasso Tool: L
  • Free Transform: T
  • Deselect selection: COMMAND D
  • Select All: COMMAND A
  • Inverse Selection: COMMAND SHIFT I

Making Selections

  • Holding the OPTION key will start a selection from the center as opposed to the corner.
  • The SPACEBAR will allow you to move a selection around.
  • You can add to a selection by pressing SHIFT.
  • You can subtract from a selection by pressing OPTION.

Layers

  • Remember, Photoshop is a dumb program that can’t read your mind. You always need to select the thing before you do anything to it.
  • A new layer is created everytime you paste an object. Remember to name this layer something as soon as possible.

The Free Transform Tool

  • Holding SHIFT will allow you to enlarge or shrink something proportionally.
  • Holding OPTION will allow you to shrink/grow your selection form the center as opposed to a corner.

The Quick Selection Tool

  • When using the quick selection tool start from the center of the object you want to select and slowly push out.
  • If you select too much hold the OPTION key to deselect start from the outside and push in.

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Photoshop Class 2 Notes

Keyboard Commands

  • Save: COMMAND S
  • Copy: COMMAND C
  • Paste: COMMAND V
  • Undo: COMMAND Z

    Hide/Show the Layer Palette: fn F7

  • Move Tool: V
  • Magic Wand and Quick selection brush: W
  • Marquee Tool: M
  • Lasso Tool: L
  • Free Transform: T
  • Deselect selection: COMMAND D
  • Select All: COMMAND A
  • Inverse Selection: COMMAND SHIFT I

    Enter / Leave Quickmask mode: Q

  • Brush Tool: B
  • Increase/decrease brush size: [ or ]

Advanced Free Transform

  • Besides increasing and decreasing the size of a selection you can also rotate the selection by moving your cursor to just outside the corner of the bounding box so that it turns into a curved arrow cursor.
  • You can also do a number of other things by right clicking or holding the CONTROL key and clicking:
    • Skew: This will allow you to tilt or lean your image left, right, up or down.
    • Distort: Will allow you to change the image by dragging out a corner.
    • Perspective: Will skew the selection so that it looks like it is going back towards a vanishing point.
    • Warp: Will allow you to warp things along a warp mesh. This transformations will allow you to bend different items.
  • You can also combine a number of these distortions before you leave transform mode.

Advanced Selections

  • You can also paint on selections using the Quick-mask mode.
    • Double clicking the Quick-mask icon will allow you the change the color of masked areas as well as flipping what’s selected and what is not.
    • The darker your color is the more opaque it’s going to be the lighter the more transparent.
  • If you need to select a specific color you can do so using the Color Range option found under the Selection menu option.
  • For things like hair and fur you can refine a mask using the refine edge tool.
    1. Once you’ve made a selection click on the Select and Mask... option in the top menu bar.
    2. On the new tool bar that pops up on the side choose the Refine Edge Brush Tool (It looks like a little paintbrush over a comet).
    3. Paint over the space where the hair and background overlap. Don’t go over hair or skin that doesn’t need to be refines. You basically painting over the areas you want photoshop to separate the hair from the background.
    4. The View option will allow you to change the view to get a better look at your mask.
    5. Press the OK Button when you are finished
    6. The marching ants will march around items that are 50% or more visible so don’t worry if it looks like some of the hair will get cropped off.

Adjustment Layers

To create an Adjustment layer that will turn everything beneath it a particular color:

  1. Click on the Adjustment Layer icon in the Layers panel.
  2. In the contextual menu that appears choose the Hue and Saturation option.
  3. A new Properties Panel will appear to make averything one color click on the Colorize check box.
  4. You can adjust the color by using the Hue slider.

Remember: Adjustment layers only effect everything that is below them. If only part of your images is being colorized check to make sure the adjustment layer is at the top of the layer stack.

To adjust just part of a layer with an adjustment layer

Sometimes you may want to affect just part of an image you can apply an adjustment to just one image by doing the following:

  1. First you need to select the thing you want to apply the adjustment layer to. Do this my moving the cursor over the thumbnail image of the layer you want to select and click. This should select just the items that are on that layer.
  2. Click on the Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and select the adjustmetn you’d like to make (in class it was Levels).
  3. Adjust the properties as you would with any other adjustment level.
  4. To make sure the adjustmetn layer moves with the layer it’s adjusting you will have to link or group the two.To Link the layers
    1. Hold down the Command key and click on the layers you wish to link.
    2. Click on the link icon (it looks like a little chain) at the bottom left of the Layers pallete.

    To Group the layers

    1. Hold down the Command key and click on the layers you wish to link.
    2. Click on the group icon (it looks like a little folder) near the bottom right of the Layers pallete.
    3. You can also group layers by pressing command G.

    Don’t forget to name your group after it’s created.

Another way to adjust just part of a layer with an adjustment layer

  1. Create an adjustment layer just above the layer you want to adjust.
  2. Modify as you normaly would (don’t worry that it’s affecting everything.
  3. Hover your mouse above the adjustment layer closer to the bottom while holding down the option key. the cursor should turn into a box with an arrow by it.
  4. Click the create a clipping mask. You can always option click again to undo this.

Advanced Layers

  • You can increase or decrease the transparency of a layer using the Opacity Slider located on your layer panel.
  • You can hide or un-hide a layer by pressing the eyeball icon next to the layer you want to affect.
  • You can lock various parts of a layer by clicking the lock options.
    • The Checkerboard : Will not allow you to affect anything on the layer that’s already transparent.
    • The Paint Brush: Will not allow you to paint or draw on that layer.
    • The Crossed Arrows: Will stop you from moving anything on that layer.
    • Art board lock Will lock Art boards.
    • The Padlock will lock everything.

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Working with light and fine-tuning

Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Burn, Dodge and Sponge Tool: O or press SHIFT O to cycle through each of the tools.
  • Eraser Tool: E
  • Brush Tool: B
  • Increase / Decrease Brush Size: [ or ]

Creating Shadows – The Destructive Way

NOTE: This is a destructive process so it’s highly recommended that you make a copy of the layer you’re going to add a shadow to by right or control-clicking on the are and choosing Duplicate Layer or dragging the layer down to the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layer’s pallet.

  1. Select the layer that has the ground you want to add the shadow to.
  2. Press the O key or select the Burn Tool.
  3. Make sure you select the tonal area you want to burn (usually this is the default–mid-tones)
  4. Paint the shadows on using the Burn Tool.

Creating Shadows – The Non-Destructive Way

  1. Create a new layer by pressing the New Layer icon at the bottom of the layers pallet.
  2. Make sure the new layer is right below the layer with the object casting your shadow.
  3. Using the Brush Tool (Keyboard shortcut B) paint a black shadow on the new layer.
  4. Adjust the Opacity Slider near the top of the Layers Pallet to adjust the shadow layer’s transparency and make the shadow a little more believable.
  5. Link the object and it’s shadow layer together by holding down the COMMAND key and clicking on the layers you wish to link.
  6. Click on the LINK icon (it looks like a little chain) in the Layers Pallet to link the selected layers.

Creating Shadows – A Non-Destructive Alternative

  1. Make a copy of the layer you wish to make a shadow for by dragging the layer to the New Layer icon.
  2. In the menu bar select Image>Adjust>Levels.
  3. Drag the black slider all the way to the right so the image is a silhouette.
  4. Drag the new shadow layer beneath the layer thats casting it.
  5. Enter Free Transform mode COMMAND T and then right or CONTROL click on the image and choose one of the distortion options to make the shadow look like it’s on the ground.
  6. Follow steps 3-6 in the Creating Shadows – The Non-Destructive Way to finish the process.

Fine Tuning Overlapping

  • Use the Eraser Tool E to add small overlaps in places with grass or dust.
  • Remember erasing is destructive so be careful!

Adjusting levels to make things pop in black and white

  1. Select the layer of the object you wish to adjust.
  2. In the menu bar select Image>Adjust>Levels.
  3. Adjust your levels (usually from the Mid-tones slider) to make the object stand out from the background.

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