Some Tips... and things for you to try

Howdy

Don't EVER be afraid to try, experiment, play with Photoshop...  You just might come up with a masterpiece!

 

This what I did

1. Made just a selection of the bridge using the Polygon lasso tool.

2. Made a new layer from the selection

Command J Mac or Control J PC

3. Used the selection by color tool

but, first,  sample some green from the i-5  bridge, because the color selection tool will key on the selected foreground color in the tool bar.

Then Menu: 

Select > Color Range...

4. Made the selection 

and for detailed instructions on using selection by color go here

http://uofgts.com/PS-P2Site/selectionbycolor.html

5. Then, choose the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and

Clip it to the selected bridge layer

6. In the HSL dialogue, Check colorize… and adjust the color to what you want

7.Then use a black brush on the H&S mask to tweak the mask…

and that's it...

Laying out images on a page for a flyer or a scrapbook page...

This is one area that Photoshop Elements has the advantage... It has a bunch of built in Layout Templates...

Photshop has a few in the OUTPUT Module

Lightroom has more...

But, in layout PSE Rules!

In Photoshop you get to make them on your own...

Here's how to do it the Hard Way

http://uofgts.com/PS/select-move.html

Here's how to do it quick and easy...

Up to Photshop CS3 there was a menu item in Photoshop called Contact Sheet.

Adobe took it out of CS4 and CS5, but put it back into CS6.

(However, you can download and install the Contact Sheet plug-in from Adobe's web site for CS 4 and CS 5)

IN CS6

1. Start in Bridge.

2. Select Your photos  (Control Click) How many You select will determine how large they are on the page (Experiment)

3. Select the Bridge Menu:  Tools > Photoshop > Contact Sheet II

The above is for 6 images... Play around with more or less images...

Each image will be placed on a layer, and they will be masked, ready for you to add a background and add

"fx" (Border, etc... ) to each image... or text

Experiment!

Email your questions, or bring them to class...

Have a fun weekend playing with Photoshop!

Adjustment Layers and Masks

Photoshop has the following different kinds of layers

1. Normal
2. Text
3. Fill
4. Shapes
5. Adjustments
6. 3D
7. Video
8. Smart Objects.

One of the most versitile is the Adjustment Layer and there are 15 of them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each adjustment layer is associated with a "Gadget-icon" and a Mask

Clicking on the "Gadget-icon" pops up a dialogue box that allows you to make adjustments to the layer(s) below...

In the example I have selected the Black & White Adjustment Layer using Photoshop CS 6

What I want to do is to "paint" some color back into the image of just the vending machine.  That way your attention will be really drawn towards the color in an otherwise black and white image.  

Here's how to do that.

Step 1:

Click once inside the White Mask to "activate" it... You'll see the double lines around the mask.

Step 2: 

Press the "x" key on the keyboard, to cycle the foreground color with the background color at the bottom of the Tool Bar... We want the forground coplor to be BLACK

Step 3:

Press the"B" key to select a brush.  You can make the brush bigger or smaller by pressing the Left or Right Square breket key.

Left square bracket makes the brush smaller, Right square bracket key makes the brush larger...

Step 4.  

Paint over the Pepsi Machine on the Canvas, untill all the colors are Visible...

Painting Black on the Mask, blocks the black and white effect of the B & W adjustment panel, showing the colors from the layer below...

 

Here's the result

Saving files in Photoshop

Saving files in Photoshop and file formats.

The file format you use to save your work in Photoshop will depend on how the image will be used.

Preserving Layers

If you want to perserve layer information so you can re-edit the image or apply the same techiques to another image, then save the image as a .psd file a PhotoShop Document.

The Menu item is

File > Save As

Keyboard short cut

Shift + Control + S (PC)

Shift + Command + S (Mac)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Save As Dialogue box

Give the file a unique name (Photoshop will add the extension, in this case .psd)

You can also check

 Save:  √ As A Copy and photoshop will add the word copy to the file name in this case it would be "Beach copy.psd"

TIP: In Photoshop, if there is a button or icon that you don't know what it does, put your "pointer" over the item and don't move it... in a few seconds a yellow box will popup and tell you what it does!

If you want to perserve layers in the PSD document Make sure the Layers box is checked and always perserve your color profile..

Saving for the Internet

The .jpg file format is "lossey" the more the file is compressed, the more data is thrown away. Too much compression and the image/photo looses detail...

The menu is 

File > Save for Web...

What's important here is to choose how much compression, and the file size you want to actually display on the web or in an e-mail

If the file is going to be displayed on a web page Check Convert to sRGB 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you make all your choices click the Save... button at the bottom of the page...