Photoshop Tutorial Thread Options

[Timmyface]

Photoshop Tutorials - Basic Info

Basic Tools

Depending on the program/version you are running, you should have a pretty similar toolbar on the left of your screen, or will see these symbols throught the program.



1. This is your ‘Moving tool’ It lets your drag the current ‘layer’ around your screen.
2. Selection tool. When making rough square/circle cuts.
3. Lasoo tool. This will be used for more precise cutting, around the cars body, wheels etc.
4. Magic wand. Cleverly selects certain connecting areas in the object. Usually works best when its more of a solid color.
5. Crop tool.
6. Eyedropper, to select colors.
7. Healing brush, removes blemishes by usuing surrounding colours to blend it together.
8. Paintbrush tool.
9. Clone stamp. Creates a replication of a certain area, to paste in another.
10. History brush, removes any painting your’ve done to the image.
11. Eraser.
12. Gradient tool.
13. Blur/Sharpen/Smudge
14. Dodge/Burn/Sponge
15. Pen tool.
16. Text
17. Path selection
18. Line/rectangle tool.

Explaining some of these tools in more depth
*Right clicking on most of these icons, will show submenus for you to click*

Lasoo Tool
If your icon looks a little different, eg with a Round bubble etc, here you can right click and choose an appropriate setting.



Here i use the Polygonal Tool. When using this, instead of drawing around your image in one single step, you make points around your objects, for a more precise
selection.
*Remeber to link back up to where you started*

Magic Wand
When using the magic wand tool, it is going to look for surrounding edges based on color/shape to form your selection.
Upon selecting any tool on the left, your toolbar on the top will change.



Up here we see the 'Tolerance' tab. Here, you select how much detail, you wish the wand to look for. With the tolerance set at <10 you will have a selection like so:



The smaller number will select less, more detailed areas.

With a tolerance selection of a greater number, eg >80 will result in:



Notice that it selects some of the car. Certain times will call for the magic wand, but usually if you give the time, the Lasoo tool will serve better.

Now that you have done selecting, what next?

Once you have your selection, for whatever reasons, you can choose to either Delete or Copy/Cut it to a new layer.

Simply Right Clicking on your selection will bring up this menu.


Layer via Copy - will duplicate your selection into another layer. This is the safest way to try editing and still have your original image.
Layer via Cut - cuts the selection out of the image, in some cases we will require this.
If you no longer need it, you can simply hit the Delete key on your keyboard.

Clone
Pretty self explanitory. With the clone tool selected, you will hold down your 'ALT'or'Option' key, and click the area you wish to duplicate.

On the top toolbar, you will see Brush, Mode, Opacity.



Select the required brush you desire, and change the opacity to your needs.
[u]*Remember 100% Opacity will be a full duplicate, 0% will be blank, try stick around 80%*[u]


Healing
The healing brush blends surrounding colors together. This is most helpful when you have been 'Cloning'
If you are trying to remove certain features, grills, camera rigs etc, the clone tool will remove the majority of it, but it wont be blended in together very well.

Using the same method as the clone tool, holding down 'ALT' in a similar clear area, than painting over your cloned area, should blend it all together.


Dodge
Dodge tool allows you to lighten certain parts of the image.
When it is selected, your upper toolbar will provide you with three ranges:



Again choose the appropriate Exposure (how much/hard you want it to be) and go to town with it.
When dodging, you really want to lighten up the highlights in your darker areas, Tyre sidewalls, Projectors etc

Burn

Right clicking on your Dodge tool, will bring up this menu:


Same settings apply for the Burn tool as the Dodge tool, but this time you will be making your things darker.


Better Examples will be shown below on how to use these!
Hopefully by the end of this you can have a basic knowledge to be able to muck around with your car, trying new things, or achieving edits like this:


This post has been edited by Timmyface: Feb 13, 2013 - 2:31 AM

[Timmyface]

*reserved for*
Adjustments

• Selective Color
  Selective colour lets you fine tune each color in your image individually.
  You can make certain colours more dark, light, more vibrant or saturated, or even change a color to a certain extent.
  
  This is most helpful when Your photo is off color and need to correct it.
  
  So, open up your image as you normally would, and notice the color isn't as youd like it
  
  
  To get into the 'Selective Color' menu:
  
  
  Than you will be shown a screen of sliders like this:
  
  
  It Automatically starts on the color RED (The Small drop down box where it says red lets your choose your other basic colors)
  
  Than you have a selection of sliders, all starting at the '0' Position.
  Cyan - Magenta - Yellow - Black
  
  When moving certain sliders, you will notice the colour changes.
  
  Have a play with these, remember that the 4 colors above control the color your adjusting.
  When selected in your 'RED' adjusting the:
  Black Slider to Positive - will make the reds darker.
  Cyan Slider to Positive - will make the reds have less red in them, Negative increases the red.
  
  
  
  Different positions of the sliders play a different role in each colour your doing.
  If your adjusting the Greens for example, moving the 'Yellow' Slider will either make your greens grey and saturated, or a very vibrant bright green.
  
  An example of before, and after adjustment of the reds:
  
  
  This step makes a world of difference when you really want to make certain things stand out, or be more visible. Making your tyres and shadows more black is always handy.
  
  
• Brightness/Contrast using Masks
  Brightness and contrast can help bring out the finer details, or hide the lesser details in your photos. When overall image is too bright or too dark, you can just do the whole photo, but most photos will have different light setups, and you will benefit from using layers and masks.
  
  First, Right or (Control) Click, your Background layer, and duplicate it.
  
  
  Rename it to something appropriate like [Car Layer]
  Than do the same again, and make a [Ground Layer]
  
  Start with the [Ground Layer], Click the Layer Tab > Layer Mask > Reveal All.
  
  
  You will now notice on the right side of your layers, there is a White box there.
  First, hide all other layers, by clicking the little Eye button
  
  
  With the white box selected (Should automatically be after making the mask) Using your Paintbrush (Its easier to have it more hard than soft) paint over everything that ISN’T the ground.
  
  You will notice that it will be Erased But it actually isn’t. Later on, or now if you make a mistake, you can fine tune the edges. If you now change to the Eraser and paint over that same area, you will notice it will come back.
  
  Do this for this layer, so only the Ground is visible and the same to the other, so only the car is visible. (remember to unhide the new layer, and hiding the other) Than unhide them all when complete.
  
  Your layers should now look similar to this
  
  
  Now, select one layer, start with [Ground] (be sure to click the Image layer, not the white box) and go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness and Contrast
  
  
  
  Have a play with these two sliders, and see what you get. You will notice only the parts you Masked off, will be changed. This is where you can see where you may have missed when masking.
  If you have missed a bit, you can go back into that Mask layer (white box) and re Paint or erase to make it work.
  
  End result of separate Brightness/Contrast:
  
  
  
  
  Be sure, if you are now going to continue editing, and are happy with this Masking, to Merge or Flatten your layers back into one. If you don't, the adjustments you make will still only be subjected to the selected layer
  
  
  
  
  Photo Filter
  Sometimes, you may want your photos to give a different feel to them. An easy way to do this is with Photo Filters.
  
  Go to Image > Adjustments > Photo Filters
  
  
  
  Again, play around with using different colours, and the slider to show how much of an effect you would like. You can do this as many times as you like, and they will just stack ontop of each other.
  
  
  Smart Sharpen
  Go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen
  
  
  Set these to however you like, using the preview as a reference.
  
  
  A comparison of Before and After:
  
  
  
  
• Vibrance
  
• Burn/Dodging

This post has been edited by Timmyface: Oct 28, 2014 - 4:39 AM