Photoshop Workshop

1. Photoshop Workshop Prof. Elio L. Arteaga Photoshop is the ultimate playground for bringing out the best in your digital images and transforming them into anything you can imagine. Download the exercise files and extract them to your Desktop.

2. Bitmaps and Pixels Everything in Photoshop is a bitmap, a grid consisting of very small squares, called "pixels." In 24-bit color mode, each pixel can be one of 16.7 million colors. Many Photoshop operations first require you to make a selection, called a "marquee" or a "marching ants selection," in order for you to work exclusively with the selected pixels. The ants march along the border between what is selected (what you can edit), and what is not.

3. Zooming and Scrolling Commands for zooming in and out and scrolling are the same as for any Adobe software: Press CTRL+(Win) or Command+ (Mac) number zerofor Fit in Window view. Press CTRL+ (Win) or Command+ (Mac) plus sign to zoom in. Press CTRL+ (Win) or Command+ (Mac) minus sign to zoom out. Press Spacebar+drag the mouse to scroll.

4. Because the marching ants show only the border between the selected pixels, you might be confused about what pixels are actually selected. So look for the following symbols when mousing over selected or unselected pixels: If you mouse over selected pixels, the pointer resembles an arrowhead with a square in the background. If you mouse over non-selected pixels, the pointer resembles a plus sign.

5. Select All/Select None To select everything in the bitmap image, press CTRL (Win) or Command (Mac) +A for "Select All." To drop the selected pixels (Select None), press CTRL (Win) or Command (Mac) +Dfor “Deselect."

6. Selection Tools There are two selection tools that enable you to marquee perfectly geometrical shapes: The Rectangular Marquee Tool and the Elliptical Marquee Tool.

7. Drag diagonally to create a rectangular or oval marquee of any proportion. Press Shift+drag the mouse to draw a perfect square or circular marquee from corner-to-corner. Press ALT(Win) or Option (Mac) +drag the mouse to draw marquees from the center to the edge. Press ALT (Win) or Option (Mac) +Shift+dragthe mouse to draw perfectly shaped marquees from the center to the edge. Press CTRL(Win) or Command (Mac) +Z to Undo a mistake.

8. Foreground/Background colors Notice the following icon in the Tool Palette. The upper-left icon represents the foreground color--the color applied by a Brush Tool, or by pressing ALT-Backspace (Win) or Option-Delete (Mac). The lower-right icon represents the background color--the color applied by the Eraser Tool, or by pressing Backspace (Win) or Delete (Mac).Press the letter D to set the default colors (black foreground; white background). Press X, X, X, etc. to swap foreground and background colors. Press D-> X-> X -> X -> X->

9. Golfball.jpg Open golfball.jpg in the downloaded exercise files folder.

10. Select the Golf Ball To select the golf ball, so you can separate it from its background, draw an elliptical marquee quickly, but not necessarily accurately. Then choose Select (menu) -> Transform Selection. Use the handles to position the marching ants accurately around the shape of the golf ball. Remember, you’re modifying the position of the marching ants, not the image itself. Press Enter when done.

11. Jump to a New Layer Press CTRL(Win) or Command (Mac) +J (New Layer via Copy) to copy the bowling ball pixels to a new layer.Hide the Background layer by clicking off the eye in the first column next to the layer name and thumbnail. The gray checkerboard pattern indicates transparency.

12. Businessman.jpg Open businessman.jpg in the exercise files folder.

13. Quick Selection Tool Images that contain perfectly smooth white backgrounds are easy to select using the Quick Selection Tool, which is intended to select contiguous pixels based on their color. Paint with the tool by pressing Shift to add to the selection, or ALT (Win) or Option (Mac) to subtract from the selection. Press ] to make the brush larger or [ to make it smaller.

14. Inverse Selection Inverse the selection (select the businessman, not the white background) by pressing CTRL (Win) or Command (Mac) +Shift+I.

15. Jump to New Layer Jump the businessman pixels to a new layer, and hide the pixels on the Background layer, just as you did previously in the golf ball document.

16. Horse.jpg Open horse.jpg from the downloaded exercise files folder.

17. Pen Tool Images with a complex background cannot be selected with the Quick Selection Tool. The best tool to use in this case would be the Pen Tool. This tool creates a vector-path that can be modified with the Direct Selection (white arrow) tool. When completed, the path can be converted into a marching ant selection very easily.

18. Quickly press-and-drag a vector-path around the horse, not necessarily too accurately. Be sure to close the path by dragging back on the first point in this vector-path.

19. Press A for “arrow,” move the anchor points in close proximity to the edge of the horse. Press P for “pen” to add a new point. Press A for “arrow” to move the new point in close proximity to the edge of the horse once again.

20. Press ALT (Win) or Option (Mac) +drag the mouse on a Bezier handle to move it independently of its twin. Normally, the two handles remain in a straight line.

21. When the vector-path is aligned in close proximity to the edge of the horse, you’re ready to convert the path into a marching ant selection: CTRL (Win) or Command (Mac) +click the Work Path in the Path Panel.

22. Back in the Layers Panel, jump the horse to a new layer, and hide the Background layer, just as you did in the previous documents.

23. Desert.jpg Open desert.jpg in the downloaded exercise files folder.

24. Combining Layers into One Document Use the Move Tool to drag the golf ball, businessman, and horse transparent layers over to the desert document. Scale the images by pressing CTRL (Win) or Command (Mac) +T for “Transform.” Always hold the Shift key and drag the corner handle. Press Enter to complete the operation.

26. Remember that the Layers Palette presents a side view of all the layers in the Photoshop document. The upper layers cover up the lower layers. It's possible to rearrange layers by dragging them up or down in the stack of layers.

27. Make progressive backups of your file by saving it with a different name every 5 minutes or so. Name it JohnProject2a.psd, MaryProject2b.psd,TimmyProject2c.psd, etc.For use on the web, the image needs to be optimized. Choose File (menu) -> Save for Web and Devices… and save it as a JPEG, but keep your multi-layered document in case the client requests more changes.Remember to backup your work in more than one location (a CD, a USB drive, your home computer's hard disk) in case one of the drives crashes or gets lost.

28. Layers and Masking Layer masks are a powerful editing feature of Photoshop because of the following: Layer masks are used to hide or reveal pixels. Unlike simply deleting them, the layer mask enables you to keep the original image intact, in case you ever need to go back to the original scan. A layer mask is a grayscale image, so what you paint in black will be hidden, what you paint in white will show, and what you paint in gray shades will show in various levels of transparency. You can also edit a layer mask to add or subtract from the masked region. Layer masks can be used in combination with adjustment layers to affect the image's appearance while keeping the original scan intact.

29. Doggie.jpg and bed.jpg Open: doggie.psd (a photo of an adorable little cocker spaniel puppy, similar to one of your professor's two babies) and bed.psd (where she likes to sleep) from the downloaded exercise files folder. Your job is to put the doggy in the bed.

30. Display the Layers Palette if it's not already visible. Choose Window (menu) -> Layers. Notice the layer containing the puppy image is called Background and it is locked.

31. Double-click the Background layer, and rename it "Layer 0." After you click OK, you'll notice it is no longer locked.

32. The next step involves making a selection of the puppy-pixels in order to separate her from the white background. I started out by using the Quick Selection Tool to select the white background, which grabbed almost all the pixels except for the shadow underneath her. I then used the Pen Tool to add the unselected pixels directly below the dog. I then inversed the selection—CTRL (Win) or Command (Mac) +Shift+I. Needless to say this took a long time, so it's the perfect opportunity to introduce Alpha Channels.

33. Alpha Channels An Alpha Channel is a saved selection. If a complex selection takes more than 30 seconds to make, save it as an Alpha Channel. Display the Channels Palette by choosing Window (menu) -> Channels. Save your selection as an Alpha Channel by clicking the Save Selection icon at the bottom of the palette.It's so easy to load a previously saved selection, just CTRL (Win) or Command (Mac) +click the Alpha Channel, and you'll see marching ants appear around the puppy. It's much easier than starting to make a selection over again from the beginning each time. 

34. Go back to your Layers Palette. Click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the palette. The transparency grid should now be visible behind the puppy. The white background hasn't been deleted--it's only been hidden. It's possible to bring it back by discarding the layer mask (throwing it in the trash, but don't do it now because we have more work to do). 

35. Select the Move Tool and drag the dog over to thebed.psd doc.

36. To make her smaller, press CTRL (Win) or Command (Mac) +T for "Transform". Hold the Shift key and drag a corner handle until the doggy looks to be around the right size. Then press Enter.

37. The Layers Palette indicates whether you are getting ready to work with the layer image or the layer mask. A double outline appears around the object you are about to edit: editing the layer image pixels editing the layer mask pixels

38. Working With Layers Once the doggy is on a separate layer, we can perform all kinds of interesting manipulations:Opacity—The layer's opacity determines the degree to which it obscures the layer below it. A 1% opacity is nearly transparent, while a 100% opacity is completely opaque. Adjust the Opacity controls located at the top right of the Layers Palette. Reset to 100% when done.

39. Because pure black on the layer mask completely hides the layer's image pixels, while pure white completely reveals them, shades of gray will partially hide or reveal the layer's image pixels depending on their intensity. Darker grays hide pixels to a higher degree, and vice versa.Set the Gradient Tool Options as shown: Press "D" (for default colors) to set black in the foreground, white in the background. Select the linear gradient option and Multiply blending mode with 100% Opacity.

40. With the Gradient Tool, drag upward from the doggy's paws to just below her head. Multiply blending mode causes the gradient to blend with the existing layer mask bitmap producing the new mask shown below, which hides the dog's paws, while still revealing her adorable face. Press CTRL (Win) or Command (Mac) +Z to Undo. 

41. Keeping this in mind, edit the layer mask to paint black pixels in the area where the bed knob is located. The result—now the bed knob properly appears to overlap (superimpose in front of) the dog. 

42. Drop Shadow (Layer Styles)—The small "f" icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette contains a variety of layer styles such as glows, bevels and drop shadows to change the layer's appearance. Click on the Add Layer Style icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette and choose Drop Shadow...

43. Turn on Preview, and experiment with the controls until you arrive at a soft diffuse shadow under the dog's body. Notice a small "f" icon in the dog layer. This is where you edit the layer style if you're not happy with it. The "f" icon at the bottom of the palette is only for adding a new layer style.

44. Adjustment Layers—Adjustment layers allow you to experiment with color and apply tonal adjustments to an image. If you change your mind about the results, you can go back and edit or remove the adjustment at any time. The small, half-black/half-white circle icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette can be used to create new adjustment layers. Click the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette, and choose Hue, Saturation and Brightness...

45. Turn on Preview, and experiment with the controls until the entire image turns purple.ALT (Win) or Option (Mac) +click between the dog layer and the adjustment layer to apply the color to the dog only.

46. Set the Gradient Tool Options as shown: Press "D" (for default colors) to set black in the foreground, white in the background. Select the linear gradient option and Normal blending mode with 100% Opacity. 

47. Select the layer mask thumbnail next to the adjustment layer. With the Gradient Tool, drag upward from the doggy's feet to just below her head. The gradient hides the effects of the adjustment layer near the puppy's paws, while still revealing her purple color near her adorable face. Delete the adjustment layer when done. 

48. Overlay (Blending Mode Layer)—A layer's blending mode determines how its pixels blend with underlying pixels in the image. You can create a variety of special effects using blending modes. It might be helpful to simply experiment by changing the blending mode until you find one that produces the effect you intended. Here, I tried all of them, but finally decided on the Overlay blending mode.  Select the Gradient Tool and change the gradient to a rainbow pattern in the Gradient Tool Options bar. Create a new layer above the doggy layer by clicking on the note pad icon in the Layers Palette.

49. Drag the Gradient Tool to create a rainbow gradient in the area occupied by the dog. ALT (Win) or Option (Mac) +click between the dog layer and the overlay gradient layer to apply the color to the dog only.

50. Saving Your Work It's important to keep a multi-layered version of your file in case the client ever asks for changes, which are easier to make in a multi-layered document. But it's equally important to send a flattened file to the printer, so that printing takes less time and goes more smoothly. Save your multi-layered document as a Photoshop document (PSD file).