Photoshop basic tools

Opening a file

  1. Option #1 - Choose File >Open and navigate to find your file.
  2. Option #2 - You may drag a file's icon into a blank Photoshop window to open it.

Cropping a file

  1. Choose the crop tool on the left-side toolbar and drag out a bounding box. You may rotate a picture while cropping too. Tweaking the size is possible using the crop box handles.

Zooming In and Out

  1. Use the Zoom tool (magnifying glass icon) and click in the picture to zoom in. Option-click to zoom out.
  2. Press Command + (plus sign) to zoom in, press Command -  (minus sign) to zoom out.

Toning Lights and Darks, but not colors

  1. Use Image > Adjustments > Levels (can be used for color too, but not as powerful as the next method)

Toning Lights and Darks, and Colors

  1. Use Image > Adjustments > Curves

Dodging and Burning (three options)

  1. Dodge and Burn tools - Use the dodge and burn tools in the left side toolbox. The dodge tool looks like a lollipop shape, burn tool looks like a hand w/ opening after their darkroom counterparts. Be sure to change the "Exposure" slider on the Options Bar at the top to about 10-20%. The default of 50% is way too strong.
  2. Lasso tool - Use the Lasso tool in the toolbox (3rd down) to select an area, then choose Select > Modify > Feather and specify a pixel value (more pixels = gentler feather), then run Image > Adjustments > Levels.
  3. Quick Mask gradients - For gently feathered burning of corners, it's hard to beat a selection made in Quick Mask mode, then running a Levels. Steps are:  Double click the Quick Mask button just under the foreground and bsackground color swatches in the toolbox. The dialog choice should be Color indicates: "Selected Areas", then click OK to start work in Quick Mask mode. Choose black as the foreground color and white as the background color in the toolbox swatches. Choose the Gradient Tool, and drag a selection. If the gradient on the Options Bar at the top shows Foreground to Transparent as a gradient choice, you may select multiple corners at once. A red overlay should be seen on all selected areas. Return to Normal mode by clicking the Quick Mask button once again, and the painted areas turn into the typical  marching ants selection. Run levels or curves to lighten or darken, then deseclect (Select > Deselect)

Rotating a Picture

  1.  Rotate when cropping a picture. It attempts to keep as much of the original picture as possible
  2. Image > Image Rotation - Use either the presets for 90 degree increments, or choose Arbitrary and work with degrees
  3. Select All, then choose Edit Transform to rotate freehand.

Spotting out Small Flaws

  1. Spot Healing Brush - Choose the Spot Healing brush tool from the left-side toolbox 7th position down). You may have to click and hold on the icon to display the choices that include the Spot Healing Brush tool. Merely click on the flaws in your picture to fix them. There will be certain situations where this won't work.
  2. Clone Stamp tool - icon looks like a rubber stamp. To fix a flaw, choose the tool, then Option click in the picture where an area matches what should be in the flaw, move the icon to the flaw, and click-drag. Don't drag over long distances or you'll get ugly repeating artifacts.
  3. Patch Tool - nested with the Spot Healing Brush tool. Works on larger areas needing work. Choose the tool, circle an area with the flaw like you are making a selection around it, then click in the middle of it and move it to a similar area without flaws. Works about 80% of the time.
  4. Healing Brush in Pattern mode - Create a new 64x64 pixel file and fill it with 50% gray (Edit>Fill, Contents ->50% gray). Select all of the 64-pixel square picture (Command-a) and choose Edit>Define Pattern.
    Choose the Healing Brush tool. On the Options bar at the top, click on Source: Pattern, and choose the gray square pattern that you just made. On the Options bar, choose Mode: Screen  instead of Normal.
    Now switch to the picture to be retouched. Merely brush the tool over skin imperfections and they will be smoothed substantially. Be careful when retouching next to dark hair, etc. or the the tool will blend in some of the darker colors.
     

Resizing Pictures

Image > Image Size.

This can get fairly complicated and you can resize a picture one of two ways:

1.Resample Image unchecked: This way keeps the original number of pixels without altering them, and you merely stretch or shrink the existing pixels. If they are stretched too large, they will be visible.

2. Resample Image checked: This way will add or subtract pixels to the picture. This is very useful to cut down very large camera files to smaller pixel dimensions for a web page. However it's difficult or impossible to upsize a picture without some uglies showing.

Each of these two methods will require some basic understanding about the structure of digital pictures in Photoshop. I have a web page here that gives a basic background about it.

Non Destructive (Reversible) Toning using Layer Masks

  1. With a picture open that needs toned, find the Layers palette. Click the little black/white circle at the bottom of the palette and choose Levels or Curves, or any of the other options. This does the toning with a Layer "overlay" and does not directly change the pixels in the picture - unless the layers are flattened together. Only a couple of file formats are capable of saving files with adjustment layers (Photoshop *.PSD files, TIF files). If the layered file is saved as a JPG, it will be automatically flattened, individual pixel tones will be altered, and you'll lose the ability to tweak your toning changes.

Making an Easy Panorama

  1. Shoot overlapping pictures while you pan a scene. In Bridge, shift-select all the files you wish to use, and choose Tools > Photomerge. Click the Reposition option, and click OK.

A Fun Silhouette Effect

  1. Make a photo of a nice sky with clouds (in lab, use cloudsupsz.jpg)
  2. Make a silhouette of someone against a white background
  3. Have both photos open as separate files in Photoshop
  4. Tone the silhouette photo to remove most intermediate shades of gray (Image > Adjustments > Levels)
  5. Resize the silhouette photo to match the pixel dimensions (ignore print dimension in inches for now)
  6. Copy the silhouette photo (Select > All, then Edit >  Copy)
  7. Switch to the sky picture and paste the silhouette on top as a layer (check the Layers palette to see if this indeed happened)
  8. In the Layers palette, click the Mode list, and choose Screen instead of Normal.

Printing from Photoshop to VisCom Lab Printers

I have a detailed set of instructions here.