Photoshop Basic Photo Editing
Photoshop Basic Photo Editing
Objectives
• New features in Photoshop CS6
o User Interface changes
o Auto save
• Explore the menus
o Menu Bar
o Tools Bar
o Tool-Options Bar
• Use Kuler and Mini Bridge
o Create color themes
o Import images
• Understand Layers
• Create a Flyer
• Retouch a photograph
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New Interface
Photoshop CS6 has four different color themes: Black, Dark Gray, Medium Gray, and Light
Gray.
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When you open Photoshop, the default interface color is set to Dark Gray. In order to apply
different color themes, do the following:
6. Click “OK.”
7. Right-click on the area behind the canvas.
Right click on the workspace behind the canvas and you are given different options.
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You may be able to change the workspace to Black, Dark Gray, Medium Gray, Light Gray, and
to your very own custom color. Notice how only the workspace behind the canvas changes colors.
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Auto save
The next new feature given in Photoshop CS6 is the ability to auto save your work. Often times a
user may be working with Photoshop and the program might end up crashing. It would be
convenient for users if Photoshop would save their work every so often, and now Photoshop does
have the power to save users’ work every five to sixty minutes. Auto saving allows you to restore
your work so when you open Photoshop back up again, anything that was automatically saved
will be recovered. However, due to deepfreeze installed on all AT Lab computers, auto save will
not work if the computer crashes.
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Under the “File Saving Options,” you may tell Photoshop to save your work.
Checking the box ensures that you are confirming that you wish for your work to be saved every
so often. You may also change how frequently you would like for Photoshop to save your work.
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Menu Bar
The options that range from “Edit” through “3D” grant us the option to edit our image or text.
The “View” and “Window” options enable us to change our workspace or to view it in a
particular way.
Tools Bar
On the left hand side, we have the tools bar, which is sectioned out in four groups. The groups
are divided by a thin, gray horizontal line. The first group in the tools group is the Selection
Group, the following is the Brushes Group. Then we have the Vector Group, and the last one is
the Motion & Animation Group.
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Understanding Tools
Photoshop has a variety of tools set available for us, and sometimes that makes it difficult for us
to keep track of every tool’s name. However, if you hover over any tool in the tools bar,
Photoshop will tell you the name of the tool and the keyboard shortcut you can use to access it.
For instance, the first tool in the tools bar is called the Move Tool, and pressing “V” on your
keyboard will allow you to select that particular tool.
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You may notice that some of the tools in the tools bar have a small, white arrow located in the
lower right corner of the icon.
By holding down on that white arrow, we are given even more tools within that tool
group to work with.
Here you’ll see when we open the submenu within the Rectangular Marquee Tool, it has
several different tools that fall within that one tool group.
Tool-Options Bar
With each tool come more options and properties that may be altered. When you select a tool, the
tool-options bar changes. Each tool has its specific properties, so any one tool will not have the
same tool-options bar as another tool. The tool-options bar is located under the menu bar.
1. Click on the Blur Tool from the Tools Bar. Look at the Tool-Options Bar.
2. Click on the Spot Healing Brush Tool from the Tools Bar. Look at the Tool-
Options Bar.
Notice the difference between the tool-options bar for the Blur Tool, and the tool-options
bar for the Spot Healing Brush Tool.
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Palettes
On the right side of Photoshop, we have our palettes. These palettes create our workspace, and we
have the option to choose which workspace we wish to work with. When you first open
Photoshop, the default palette will include the Color panel, the Adjustments panel, and the
Layers panel. On the left side of the palette, we have the quick access tool bar which includes the
history button as well as the properties button.
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Workspace
Photoshop provides varieties of tools for us to use, and it would be a bit confusing if we had all
those tools covering the space in which we wish to work. Therefore, Photoshop has created
different workspaces with specific tools set for Photographers or even Painters. Now we’re going
to take a look at the different workspaces Photoshop has to offer. The default workspace is set to
“Essentials.”
1. Click on “Essentials.”
You will see a drop down menu filled with multiple workspaces.
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All of the workspaces are slightly different from one another, but the one thing they have in
common is that each one has a layers panel. The only workspace that looks different from the rest
is the “New in CS6” workspace. This particular workspace has a combination of panels from the
other workspaces.
For this session we will be working in the Essentials workspace since it has the most
frequently used features.
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Over on the right side, Kuler will show up next to the panels.
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4. Click on “About.”
Here you will get a brief description about Kuler.
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Draw your attention near the bottom right corner of Kuler. Here you will see two buttons
that give you the option to either edit your theme or to add it to your swatches.
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Now let’s bring our attention back to Kuler. The other button allows us to create our very own
color theme.
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There are several ways to access Mini Bridge, one method is to locate Mini Bridge under the
“Window” tab.
The second method is by locating Mini Bridge at the bottom of Photoshop. You may
simply click on the “Mini Bridge” tab.
Once you found Mini Bridge using either method, you should see the option to launch Mini
Bridge.
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You will then see a sign that says “No items to display.”
6. Select “lights.jpg”
7. Hold down “Ctrl” on your keyboard.
Holding down “Ctrl” allows us to select multiple photos at once.
8. Now Select “singer.jpg.”
9. Click “Enter” on your keyboard.
You will notice that the two images have now been uploaded into two different tabs
underneath the tool-options bar.
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Understanding Layers
Now that we have successfully imported our images onto Photoshop, we will begin to explore
layers. We will discuss what layers are and how we can use them.
Concept of Layers
Imagine that you are holding a stack of three transparencies. There is writing on one
transparency, a large image on another, and the last is blank. If the transparency with the large
image in on top, obviously you are unable to see the text that is on the transparency behind it.
Additionally, if you take a dry-erase marker and draw on the blank transparency, you are only
making changes to the transparency you are working on. Also, if you don’t need the blank
transparency, you can take it out of the stack.
This analogy applies well to the concept of layers. The order of the layers changes the way you see
your files in your Photoshop window. You can only make changes to a layer (transparency) if
you have that layer selected. Also, you have the ability to add and delete layers.
Background Layer
You may notice that now in the layers panel there is a layer titled “Background” with a little
lock on the side:
A Background layer is locked and may not be moved. However you can either rename the layer
or remove the lock in order to change the Background layer into a normal layer.
1. Double-click layer.
A dialog box will show up.
2. Rename layer “Singer.”
You should also rename the other image to “Lights.”
3. Click “OK.”
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However if you do not want to change the name of the layer, and simply wish to remove
the lock then do the following:
4. Click and drag the lock icon all the way down to the trash can located at the
bottom of the layers panel.
You should then see that the layer has been changed to “Layer 0.”
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You should now have a copy of “singer.jpg” placed in the “lights.jpg” tab.
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Close the “singer.jpg” tab since we have transferred the image over to the “lights.jpg”
tab.
8. Click the “X” located in the upper right corner of the tab.
We will now change the size of our image by using Free Transform.
Free Transform allows you to resize, reshape, and make other various modifications to
your images.
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9. First, use the Move Tool to drag “singer” to the upper left corner of the canvas.
12. While holding down “Shift” on the keyboard, grab the lower right corner of
“Singer” and drag it out until it covers the entire canvas.
Holding down “Shift” constrains the proportions of our image.
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13. Click “Enter” on the keyboard to confirm the changes you have made.
14. Select the “Quick Selection Tool” within the Selection Group.
The Quick Selection Tool expands your selection to perceived edges in the image. You can
easily make a large/small selection if you increase/decrease the size of your brush.
One thing you must keep in mind while creating a selection is that you will use the “Shift” key
on your keyboard if you wish to add more to a selection. If you make a mistake with your
selection, and do not wish to start over, holding down “Alt” on the keyboard while using the
selection tool will remove that section. This concept applies to all the selection tools.
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hand and his shirt. Also, there is a tiny piece of the background between the singer’s
fingers and the microphone.
If you happen to make a selection of the background by mistake, you can simply use the
“Alt” key on the keyboard to deselect a particular area.
18. While having the “Quick Selection Tool” still selected, hold down “Alt” on the
keyboard and click on the space between the singer’s hand and his shirt to
deselect that particular area.
Your image should now look like this:
However, we still need to deselect the area between the singer’s fingers and the
microphone. Now this area is really small, so we’ll need to zoom in.
19. While holding down “Alt” on the keyboard, use the scroll button on your mouse
to zoom in.
Your screen should now look like this:
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The size of our brush is too large. We can easily adjust the size of our brush without
having to navigate to the tool-options bar. Use the left and right bracket keys near the
“Enter” key on the keyboard to manually change the size of our brush.
20. Click the left bracket key several times to decrease the size of our brush until it’s
about 9 pixels.
21. Now hold down “Alt” on the keyboard, and select the small area of the
background that we wish to deselect.
At this point, the image should look like this:
Our image may have a rough selection so we are going to use “Refine Edge” located in
the Tool-Options Bar to smooth out our selection a bit. Refine Edge has options that
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28. Push the “Delete” key on the keyboard to delete the background from the image.
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Click on the icon that looks like a sticky note. That icon should give you the option to “add a new
layer.” Once you click on the icon, a new layer should appear before the layer titled “Singer.”
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Now we will take some time to explain the Color Picker window.
Within the Color Picker window, you have the ability to modify the color you would like to work
with. You might have noticed the different buttons listed as “H:,” “S:,” and “B:.” These buttons
typically represent the hue, saturation, and brightness of a color.
Hue is defined as the type of color you are selecting, saturation is the amount of grey that is
mixed into the hue, and brightness is the luminance of the color.
5. Click “OK.”
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7. Hold and drag Layer 1 so that it’s between “Singer” and “Lights.”
We are rearranging our layers so that we can view the singer on top of the new colored
layer.
The Lights layer has not been deleted; it is simply stacked under Layer 1.
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If we click on the eye icon next to Layer 1, we can hide the layer so that we can see what
is underneath it.
8. Click on the eye icon.
We should now have a nice light tint of orange showing up behind the singer.
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If you wish to get rid of Layer 1, you can simply delete the layer.
11. Select Layer 1.
12. Hit “Delete” on the keyboard.
13. Or you can hold and drag the layer to the trash can icon located at the bottom of
the Layer’s Panel.
You should now have a basic understanding of what layers are, the different types of layers,
combining layers to the same tab, renaming layers, rearranging layers, adding and deleting
layers. We even explored several different tools within Photoshop that we can use to manipulate
our layers. Let’s take our knowledge of working with layers and start creating a flyer.
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Creating a Flyer
While creating a flyer, we will go over several different steps of how to combine images, add text,
rotate images and text, as well as merging our layers into a single layer. Many of the students
that come into the labs often use Photoshop to create posters or flyers for their projects, events,
and organizations. We will create a graduation themed flyer to understand some of the other
tools within Photoshop.
Downloading Fonts
Before we create the flyer, we will download the fonts that will be added to the flyer.
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4. Click “OK.”
The .zip folder should appear on your desktop.
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The font, Metropolis, has now been installed and will appear in Photoshop. We will
now install another font called “Pacifico.”
12. Click on this link: http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/pacifico
A new webpage should appear.
13. Click on “Download TTF” at the top of the page.
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7. Click “OK.”
8. Using Mini Bridge, Select the following images: Design.psd and Sally.png.
9. Click “Enter” on the keyboard.
You should now have all of your images opened up in separate tabs. The active tab at
this moment should be “Sally.png.”
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32. Double-click on the foreground color located at the bottom of the Tools Bar.
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Adding Text
38. Push “X” on the keyboard to switch the position of the foreground and
background colors.
Before After
40. Within the Tool-Options Bar, select the font “Metropolis 1920.”
41. Change the Font size to 55.
42. Click within the first circle in the “design” image, and type in “2.”
In this instant, you won’t be able to see anything. This is because the new layer is
stacked after the Layer 2. We need to move this new text layer to the top.
43. Simply click on the text layer, hold and drag it on top of Layer 2.
You should now be able to see the text. Remember, layers are similar to transparency
sheets, recall that concept and apply it to this situation.
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44. Now click within the second circle and type in “0.”
45. Then click the check button within the Tool-Options Bar to confirm the
changes you made.
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Our text looks a little unorganized right now, we can use Rulers to align our text,
then we will group our text layers, and we will use the Move Tool to organize our
text.
50. Navigate to “View” within the menu bar.
51. Select “Rulers.”
You should now be able to see rulers located on the left side and top side of your
canvas.
54. Click on each text layer and drag it on the aqua line.
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Remember, you can only make changes to the layer that is currently active or selected.
Go through each text layer and move the text so that it looks like this:
55. Now select all of the text layers located in the Layer’s panel.
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58. Align your text by using the arrow keys on your keyboard.
59. Hold and drag the aqua line back into the top ruler.
The aqua line is no longer visible.
60. Navigate to “View” in the menu bar, and uncheck “Rulers.”
Your flyer should look like this:
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75. Click the “text color” button again, and choose white.
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105. Grab the upper left corner and tilt the text slightly to the left until it looks
like this:
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Let’s start off by rasterizing our text layers. Rasterizing the type will change the font
into pixels. For example, if you are typing a document in Microsoft word, you can
zoom infinitely into the text and you will never see a pixel. However, in order to
apply filters or paint on text it needs to be converted into pixels. When you rasterize
type in Photoshop, you lose type editing and formatting options and it is no longer
scalable.
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All the layers have now been merged into a single layer.
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Retouching a Photograph
A large number of times, people often use Photoshop to retouch photographs. We will go over
how a simple retouching can range from removing blemishes to changing a person’s features.
Removing Blemishes
1. Open Mini Bridge.
2. Select “Blemishes.jpg.”
3. Push “Enter” on the keyboard.
4. Right-click on the background layer within the Layer’s panel.
5. Select “Duplicate Layer.”
We are going to create a duplicate layer so that we may easily compare the changes we
have made at the end.
6. Zoom in so that you have a clear view of the young man’s face.
7. Select the “Spot Healing Brush Tool.”
The Spot Healing Brush Tool is perfect for small blemishes such as these. When you click
on an area with the Spot Healing Brush, it automatically samples pixels in the
surrounding area and blends them in with the area under your brush.
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We will be working with the “Content Aware” feature in the next session.
9. Adjust the size of your brush to slightly larger than the blemish you are trying
to hide.
Tip: When retouching a photograph, the best piece of advice is to always work with a
small brush size. If your brush size is too large when using the Spot Healing Brush, it
can create an obviously pixelated area.
10. Click on any of the blemishes on his face.
The blemishes instantly disappear.
Before using the Spot Healing Brush Tool. After using the Spot Healing Brush Tool.
11. Select the “Patch Tool” from the Spot Healing Brush tool menu.
This tool works in a similar manner, except now you can tell it which pixels to sample
and manually move them to the area you would like to cover.
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13. Hold and drag that selected area to a clear spot on his face.
Use this tool for any other spots you wish to remove. However, do not touch the area
under his eyes just yet!
14. Hide and unhide the background layer to compare changes.
15. Select the “Clone Stamp Tool.”
The Clone Stamp Tool allows you to sample pixels from a selected area and you can copy
those selected pixels over an area you wish to modify. We will be using the Clone Stamp
Tool to sample pixels to cover the dark spots under the young man’s eyes.
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1. Select the “Magnetic Lasso Tool” within the Lasso Tool group.
6. Hold down “Shift” and create a selection around the other eye.
7. Press “Alt” to remove the pupil area.
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You can adjust these color sliders to change the color of the selected area.
11. Create a new color for his eyes.
Try to keep the changes natural.
12. Click “OK.”
Before we deselect the selected area, we are going to apply one last change to his eyes. We
are going to add more depth to the young man’s eyes by using the “Dodge Tool.”
13. In the Tools bar, select the “Dodge Tool.”
The Dodge Tool is used to lighten areas of the image. It works much light the
“Brightness” feature that you may have encountered in another image editing program,
but instead of applying changes to the entire image, it works only on the areas you paint
with your brush.
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Conclusion
During this introduction to Photoshop you have learned a wealth of information. You are now
adept at navigating through the menus, tool bar, and tool options bar. You also have a practical
knowledge of some of the tools within each group. Now you will be able to navigate through
Photoshop comfortably. However, Photoshop has an endless list of tools, and it would be
impossible to teach you everything in Photoshop, which is why we encourage you to explore
Photoshop while working or in your spare time!
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Activity
To help reinforce all the material you’ve learned in this lesson, you are going to
complete an activity individually. Completing this activity will strengthen your skills
and will test your memory. The activity is an hour long, and the Training staff will be
more than happy to assist you if needed. Please begin by following the instructions
listed below.
Create a Flyer
The following are required:
Retouch a Photograph
The Following are required:
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