Photoshop Basics - the boxers
PS photo Editing toolsProblem Statement: become familiar with common photo-editing tools in Photoshop and choose and use them effectively to "fix" an old picture that has a variety of damages and discolorations.
Photoshop will be used throughout the year for in-class assignments and is also a helpful to edit and improve "Word of the Week" submissions. You will be gaining skills gradually - this assignment will start you out with the most common tools you'll need for editing photographs. The names and descriptions can be found to the right, though the best way to become comfortable with Photoshop is just to mess around with stuff and see what happens. You can always go back in your history!
Speaking of, make sure you can view your History and Layers by going to "Window" on the top bar and clicking on both until a check appears before them. Between work sessions, make sure you save your progress as a Photoshop file if you want to save your work history and layers. If you save it as a Jpeg, you will just be able to begin from your last final version. TO HAND IN: Save your FINAL edited copy as a jpeg and title it with your first initial, last name - like "shensley.jpeg." Submit it to Canvas. |
Move Tool (Keyboard: V)The move tool simply lets you move objects in a given layer around the Photoshop canvas. To use it, click anywhere on the canvas and drag. As you drag, the Photoshop layer will move with your mouse.
Lasso (Keyboard: L)The lasso is a free-form selection tool that lets you drag around the canvas and select anything the lasso'd area covers. Within this tool you also have access to the polygonal lasso, which lets you create a selection by clicking around on the canvas and creating points, and the magnetic lasso, which works the same as the regular lasso but attempts to detect edges for you and automatically snap to them. Magic Wand (Keyboard: W)Clicking an area with the magic wand will tell Photoshop to select the spot you clicked on and anything around it that's similar. This tool can be used as a crude way to remove backgrounds from photos. Crop Tool (Keyboard: C)The crop tool is used to (surprise!) crop your pictures. You can specify the exact size and constrain the crop tool to those proportions, or you can just crop to any size you please. Eyedropper (Keyboard: I)The eyedropper tool lets you click on any part of the canvas and sample the color at that exact point. The eyedropper will change your foreground color to whatever color it sampled from the canvas. Healing Brush (Keyboard: J)The healing brush lets you sample part of the photograph and use it to paint over another part. Once you're finished, Photoshop will examine surrounding areas and try to blend what you painted in with the rest of the picture. Clone Stamp (Keyboard: S)Like the healing brush, the clone stamp lets you sample part of the photograph and use it to paint over another part. With the clone stamp, however, that's it. Photoshop doesn't do anything beyond painting one area over a new area. History Brush (Keyboard: Y)The history brush lets you paint back in time. Photoshop keeps track of all the moves you make (well, 50 by default) and the history brush lets you paint the past back into the current photo. Say you brightened up the entire photo but you wanted to make a certain area look like it did before you brightened it, you can take the history brush and paint that area to bring back the previous darkness. Burn, Dodge, and Sponge Tools (Keyboard: O)The burn, dodge, and sponge tools are paintbrush-like tools that manipulate light and color intensity. The burn tool can make areas in your photo darker. The dodge tool can make them lighter. The sponge tool can saturate or desaturate color in the area you paint with it. These are all very useful tools for photo touch ups. Hand Tool (Keyboard: H)The hand tool allows you to click and drag around the Photoshop canvas. If the entire canvas currently fits on the screen, this tool won't do anything. This tool is for easily navigating around when you're zoomed in, or a picture is simple too big to fit on the screen at 100%. Zoom Tool (Keyboard: Z)The zoom tool lets you zoom in and out of the Photoshop canvas by clicking on a given area. By default, the zoom tool only zooms in. To zoom out, hold down the option key and use the zoom tool as you normally would. |