Lesson1

Imagesize,resolution,andmode

WhenyoufirstopenPhotoshop,youshouldhaveablankworkingspacewithvarious
menus,asintheimage(right).Thedisplayedmenusandtheirlocationsare
customizable,soyourscreenmaylookslightlydifferent,butingeneralitshouldhave
asimilaroverallappearance.

First,takealookatthemenubarthatrunshorizontallyacrossthetopofthescreen.

Therearevariouswaystoacquireanimagewithwhichtobeginworking.Youcan
createanewfile,openanexistingfilesavedonyourcomputer'sharddriveoradata
disk,orimportanimagefromanattacheddevicesuchasascanner.Iwilltalkabout
eachofthesemethodsinturn.

Toopenanewfile,clickonthefirstitemonthemenu,"File."Youshouldseeapull
downmenu.
Manycommandscanbeactivatedbyusingcombinationsofkeystrokesratherthan
relyingonthemouse.Dependingonthesituation,thesekeyboardshortcutsmaysave
time.Itisagoodideatoremembertheshortcutcombinationsforthecommandsyou
usemostoften.

ToseetheFilemenu,presstheAltandFkeyssimultaneously,indicatedbythe
shorthandAlt+F.

OncethepulldownFilemenuisopen,youcanseethatthefirstlistitemis"New,"
whichcreatesanew,blankimage.Clickon"New"tobringupthecorresponding
dialoguebox.TheshortcutforopeninganewimageisCtrl+N.
Youshouldseeadialogueboxsimilartotheoneontheright.Thisdialoguebox
determinesthepropertiesofthenewimage.YoucansimplypresstheEnterkeyor
clickthe"OK"buttontoopenanimagewiththedefaultsettingsandthenchangethe
settingslaterifrequired,butitismoreconvenienttobeabletoenterthecorrect
settingsrightfromthestart.

Inthe"Name"field,youcanenteranamefortheimage.Ifyoudon'tknowyetwhat
youwanttocallyourimage,youcanleavethisuntitledandgiveitanamelaterwhen
yousaveyourwork.

Thenextsectiondealswiththesizeoftheimage.Youcanmanuallyentervaluesfor
thewidthandheight,choosingfromaselectionofdifferentunits,includingpixels,
millimeters,andinches.

Belowthewidthandheightfieldsisaplacetoenterthedesiredresolution.The
imagesyouworkwithinPhotoshoparecomposedofpixels,or"dots,"andthe
resolutiondetermineshowmanyofthesedotswillbeassignedperinchoftheimage.
Resolutionisusuallymeasuredin"dotsperinch"or"d.p.i."Thehighertheresolution,
theclearerandmoredetailedtheimagewillbe.However,imagesathighresolution
alsotakeupmorememory,sincethecomputerhasmorepixelinformationtostore.

Itisimportanttochoosetheresolutionbestsuitedforyourpurpose.Itisfareasierto
takeahighresolutionimageandmakeitsmallerthantoenlargealowresolution
image.Onceanimageisatalowresolution,enlargingitdoesnotgiveitanygreater
detail,itwillinsteadlookblurryorpixelated.Imagesintendedtobedisplayedon
computerscreensaregenerallysetat72d.p.i.Imagesintendedforprintingshouldbe
atleast300d.p.i.Forphotoqualityimages,youmaywanttogoupto600d.p.i.

Changingtheresolutionwithoutchangingthesizewillmaketheimageappeareither
largerorsmalleronyourscreen.Thisisbecausethecomputerscreenhasafixed
resolution.Ifyouincreasethenumberofpixelsperinchoftheimage,thecomputer
screenhastomakethepicturelargertocompensate,becauseitcan'tchangethe
numberofpixelsperinchofthedisplay.Correspondingly,ifyoudecreasethe
resolution,thepicturewillappearsmaller.However,thesizeoftheimagewhen
printedoutwillnotchange,becauseaprintercanprintatmanydifferentresolutions.
Instead,theimagewilllooksharperormoreblurry.

Belowtheresolutionfieldisaplacetoselecttheimagemode.Thisdeterminesthe
waycolorsarehandledintheimage.Youhavefivechoices:Bitmap,Grayscale,RGB
Color,CMYKColor,andLabColor.

Bitmap
Bitmapimagesareonlyinblackandwhite.Youwillgenerallynotusethismode
unlessyouaredoinganextremelysimpledrawing.Youmaywishtouseitwhen
designingacustombrush,butitisn'tnecessary.

Grayscale
Grayscaleimagesrangefromblacktowhitewithmanyshadesofgrayinbetween.
Youmaywishtousethismodeifyouintendtoprintwithablackandwhiteprinteror
ifyourimageisgoingtobephotocopied.Youmightalsouseitwhenscanningin
imagesiftheoriginalitselfhasnocolor,suchasaninkdrawing.

RGBColor
Thisstandsfor"redgreenblue"andrepresentsamodeofcolorselectionthat
determineseachcolorbasedonitsred,green,andbluevalues.Thesearethe"primary
colors"ofmixingwavelengthsoflight.RGBColormodeisusedforimagesintended
tobeviewedoncomputerscreensorforgeneralhomecolorprinting.

CMYKColor
Thisstandsfor"cyanmagentayellowblack."Eachcolorinthismodeisdetermined
byfourvaluesforthefourcolorsofinkusedincolorprinters.Thiscolormodeisused
byprofessionalprintingcompanies.
LabColor
Thisisamodeinwhichthecolorsarebasedonthethreefactorsofluminosity,green
red,andblueyellow.Youwillprobablyneverusethismode.

Onceyouchoosethesize,resolution,andmodethatyoudesireforyourimage,you
mayselectwhatcolor(ifany)youwantforthebackground.Allofthesevaluescanbe
adjustedaftertheimagehasbeencreated,sowiththeexceptionofresolutionasnoted
earlier,youshouldn'tworrytoomuchaboutgettingthemexactatfirst.

If,ratherthancreatinganewimage,youwishtoopenastoredimage,click"Open"
insteadof"New"intheFilemenu.TheshortcutforthiscommandisCtrl+O.When
youdoso,anexplorerwindowwillopenthatallowsyoutobrowsethroughthe
contentsofyourcomputerforfiles.Simplyclickonthedesiredimageandhitthe
Enterkeyorclick"Open."

Intheexplorerwindow,youcanopenmultipleimagesatthesametime.Open
multiplecontiguousfilesbyholdingdowntheShiftkeywhileclickingonthefirstand
lastimage.OpenmultiplenoncontiguousfilesbyholdingdownCtrlwhileclicking
oneachindividualimage.

Ifyouintendtoscananimage,youmustfirstmakesureyouhaveascanner
connectedtoyourcomputerandthatthecorrectdriversareinstalled.Whensuch
preparationsaretakencareof,youcanscananimagebygoingtotheFilemenuand
clicking"Import."Variousoptionswillappear;selecttheonethatpertainstoyour
scanner.

Aswithcreatinganewimage,youwillneedtodeterminetheproperscanningmode
andresolutiontosuityourpurposes.
Afteryouhaveopenedanimage,youcanalteritssize,resolution,andmodewiththe
Imagemenu.

Thefirstitemonthemenuis"Mode."Inadditiontothemodeslistedabove,thereisa
newmodecalled"IndexedColor."Thismoderestrictsthenumberofcolorsinthe
imagetoalimitedpaletteandisusedwhensavingimagesin.gifformat.Itisgoodfor
simpleimageswithfewcolors,butifusedwithpictureswithsubtlecolordifferences,
theresultwilllosedetail.

Below,thethreemaincolormodesthatyouarelikelytouseorencounterare
illustrated.

Grayscale Indexed Color (Web) RGB Color

Fartherdownthemenuisthe"ImageSize"item.Clickingthisbringsupthe
"ImageSize"dialoguebox.Withthisdialoguebox,youcanmanuallyshrinkor
enlargetheimagetothedesiredsize.

Theimportantthingtonoteaboutthisdialogueboxistheiconofachainlinkingthe
widthandheight.Whilethischainisshowing,changingeitherthewidthortheheight
alterstheotherdimensionsothattheimageretainsthesameproportionsnomatter
whatsizeyouinput.

Ifyouwishtoalteronedimensionwithoutchangingtheother,clickon"Constrain
Proportions"toremovethecheck.

Youcanchangethesizeandresolutionatthesametime,oryoucanchangethemat
separatetimeswhileyouwork.Ifyoudecidenottochangeanythingafteropeningthe
dialogueboxyoucanclick"Cancel."Ifyoualterthesizeyetarenotpleasedwiththe
result,youcanundoitlater.
 Whileyouareworkingonyourimage,
youmayfindthatyouwishtodraworpastesomethingbeyondtheedgeofthepicture
atitscurrentsize.Tochangethesizeofthecanvasaroundyourimagewithout
changingtheimageitself,clickontheImagemenuitem"CanvasSize."Thisbrings
upthe"CanvasSize"dialoguebox.

Inthisdialoguebox,changingthewidthorheightleavestheoriginalimageinthe
centerofthecanvas.Ifyouwanttoanchoronesideorcorneroftheimagetotheedge
orcornerofthecanvas,clicktheappropriatearrowinthe"Anchor"section.

Ifyouneedtocropexcessportionsofyourimage,youmayusethe
Croptoolfromthetoolbar.ClickontheCroptoolicon,thenclickanddragthecursor
acrosstheimagetoframetheportionthatyouwishtokeep.Youcanaltertheareato
becroppedbyclickinganddraggingonthehandlesofthecroppingframe.Whenyou
aresatisfiedwiththeresult,youcanperformthecropbyclickingonthecheckmarkat
theupperrightsideoftheworkspace,doubleclickingontheimage,orhittingthe
Enterkey.Belowisanillustrationofthecroppingprocess.
 Before During After
Homework
Openseveralimagesandplayaroundwithalteringthesize,resolution,andmode.If
youdonothaveanyathand,youmaydownloadtheflowerimagespostedhereand
usethemforpractice.

Lesson2

Selection
Thismaybethemostimportantlessonofall.Theabilitytoselectcertainareasofthe
imageinmanydifferentwaysgivesyouthepowertoalterandcombineimagesand
effectstocreatespectacularresults.

Therearefourmainwaystoselectareasoftheimage:

1. TheMarqueetool

2. TheLassotool

3. TheMagicWandtool

4. TheSelectmenu

YoucanalsoselectareasofthescreenusingthePentoolortheQuickMaskfunction,
butthosearemoreadvancedtechniquesthatwillbeaddressedlater.

1.Marqueetool

Firstopenastoredimage,thenclickontheMarqueetool.
Whenyourcursorisovertheimage,itshouldlooklikeathinplussign.Thecenterof
theplussign(orcrosshairs)istheselectionpoint.

Clickanddragthecrosshairsacross
yourimage.Arectangularmarqueeshouldappear,withonecornerwhereyoustarted
draggingandtheoppositecornerwhereyoustopped.Theredarrowinthepicture
(right)showsthemovementofthecursor.

HoldingdowntheAltkeywhiledraggingmakesthemarqueeopenoutwardwiththe
startingpointasthecenter,ratherthanacorner.Thisisshownbytheredarrowinthe
picture(below).

HoldingdowntheShiftkeywhile
draggingforcesthemarqueetobeaperfectsquare.Shift+Altcombinestheeffectsof
bothkeysandmakesthesquareopenfromthecenterpoint.

AfteryouhaveselectedanareaoftheimagewiththeMarqueetool,thecursor
changesitsappearancetolooklikeasmallmarqueewithanarrowwhenheldoverthe
selectedarea.Thiscursoraffectsonlythemarqueeitself.

Clickinganywhereintheimagewillmakethemarqueedisappear,deselectingthe
area.Ifyouclickanddraginsidetheselectedarea,youcanmovethemarquee's
positiontoselectadifferentplaceontheimage.Youcanalsomovethemarqueeby
usingthearrowkeys.
Lookatthetopofthescreen,directlybeneaththemainmenubar.Youshouldseethe
Marquee
menu.

Firstlookattheareabeneaththenumber1inthepicture(above).Thisdeterminesthe
propertiesoftheselectionarea.Thedefaultisthatyoucanonlyselectoneareaata
timewiththeMarqueetool.Ifyoutrytoselectasecondarea,thefirstmarqueewill
disappear,tobereplacedbythesecondone.

Ifyouclickonthesecondiconinthissection,whichshowstwooverlappingsquares,
itallowsyoutoselectmultipleareas.Eachsuccessivemarqueewilladditsareatothe
previousones.Theycanbeeithercontiguousornoncontiguous.

Thethirdiconinthissectionallowsoneareatosubtractfromanother.Afteryouhave
selectedanarea,clickonthisicon.Selectanotherareaoverlappingthefirst,andthe
newselectionareawillbesubtractedfromthefirst.These"subtraction"areasmust
overlaptheinitialselection.Ifyoutrytoselectanareaoutsidetheportionsurrounded
bythemarquee,nothingwillhappen.

Thefourthiconselectsonlythejunctionbetweentwoselectionareas.Selectpartof
yourimageandthenclickonthisicon.Selectanoverlappingpartoftheimage,and
onlytheareawherethetwoselectionsoverlappedwillremainselected.Selectingon
anareathatdoesnotoverlapwillgiveyouawarningmessageanddeselect
everything.

Nowlookatsectiontwo,"Feather."Thisallowstheedgeofyourselectionareatobe
gradualratherthansharp.Thehigherthenumberyouenterinthisbox,themorethe
edgeisblurred.

TheboxunderthenumberthreewillonlybeactiveifyouusetheEllipticalMarquee
explainedbelow.Antialiasingisaprocessthatsmoothsoutedgesgradually.Ifyou
haveahighresolutionimage,itisprobablyagoodideatoleavethisboxchecked,
becausethesmoothnesswilllookmorepleasing.However,ifyouaredoinglow
resolutionwork,orifyouwantacleaner,sharperedge,uncheckthisbox.

Sectionfouraltersthepropertiesofthemarquee.Thedefaultstyle,"Normal,"allows
youtodeterminethewidthandheightofthemarqueeseparatelyasyoudrag.If,
however,youchangethisstyleto"FixedAspectRatio,"youcanformamarqueethat
hasthewidthandheightsetataconstantproportion.Youdeterminethisproportion
bytypingtheratiointhe"Width"and"Height"fieldsinsectionfive.
If,insteadofdraggingthemarqueetothedesiredsize,youwishtodeterminethesize
ofthemarqueebyaspecificwidthandheight,changethestyleto"FixedSize."You
cantheninputthewidthandheightthatyouneedinthesectionfivefields.

Returntothetoolbar.Clickandholdonthe
Marqueetool.AmenuwillappearshowingyoudifferenttypesofMarqueetoolsthat
areavailable.Clickonthesecondoption,theEllipticalMarqueetool.

Thistoolallowsyoutoselectround
orellipticalareas.ThecommandsworkexactlythesameasfortheRectangular
Marqueetool.Forexample,holdingtheShiftkeywhiledraggingwillselectaperfect
circle,asinthepicture(right).

2.Lassotool

TheMarqueetoolisextremelyuseful,butsometimesyouneedtoselect
anirregularareathatcan'tbedonewithplainrectanglesorellipses.Inthiscase,you
willwanttousetheLassotool.ClickontheLassoiconinthetoolbar.Yourcursor
willlookliketheloopofalasso.Thedanglingtipoftheropeistheselectionpoint.

Clickanddragtoencompassanareaofyourimage.Assoonasyouletgoofthe
mousebutton,thefinalpointwillautomaticallyconnectitselfinastraightlinewith
thestartingpointtoformaclosedloop.Thisloopisyourselectionarea.

YoucanusetheLassotooltosurroundan
objectthatyouwanttoseparatefromthebackground,asinthepicture(right).The
Lassotoolalsohasamenubar(below),similartothemenufortheMarqueetool.

Usingtheaddition,subtraction,andoverlapfunctionsoftheLassotool,youcanalter
andfinetuneyourselectionarea,asinthepicture(below).

AswiththeMarqueetool,theLassotoolalso
hasdifferenttypes.YoucanseethechoicesbyclickingandholdingontheLassoicon
inthetoolbar,asshowninthepicture(below,right).
 Thesecondchoiceonthelist,thePolygonalLassotool,
allowsyoutocreateaselectionareabyclickinginvariousplacesontheimageinstead
ofdragging.Eachplacethatyouclickformsacornerofapolygon.Thecornersare
automaticallyconnectedbystraightlines.Youcanclosetheloopofthepolygoneither
byclickingonthestartingpointorbydoubleclicking.

WiththeMagneticLassotool,thecomputerassistsyouinplacingtheoutlineofthe
selectionarea.Itusescluessuchasdifferencesincolororbrightnesstorecognizethe
outlineoftheobjectyouaretryingtoselect,andtheselectionareais"magnetically
attracted"tothisoutline.Withthistool,youdon'thavetoworryabouthavingasteady
orprecisehand,becausethecomputerdoestheworkofremainingtruetotheoutline
onyourbehalf.

Thedrawback,however,isthatiftheoutlineoftheobjectfadesintothebackground,
thecomputercan'ttellthedifferenceandthe"magnetic"effectdoesn'tworkproperly.
Youmayhavetousetheadditionorsubtractionpropertiestocleanuptheresulting
selectionareatoyoursatisfaction.

3.MagicWandtool
Now,whatifyouwanttoselectanareathat'sallonecolor?Youcouldspendtime
carefullyoutliningtheareawiththeLassotool,butthereisamuchfastershortcut.
YoucanusetheMagicWandtool.

ClickontheMagicWandiconinthetoolbar.Yourcursorwill
nowlooklikeawand.Thesparklytipofthewandistheselectionpoint.Clickthe
wandontheimage,anditwillselectanareaofthesameorsimilarcolorasthepoint
thatyoutouched.
 LookattheMagic
Wandmenu.JustliketheMarqueeandLassotools,italsohasaddition,subtraction,
andoverlapmodes.However,ithasanewproperty:"Tolerance."Thetolerancetells
thecomputerhowsimilarincoloraneighboringpixelmustbeinordertobeselected.
Alowtolerancemeansthatthecomputerisverydiscriminatingandthecolormustbe
almostexactlythesame.Ahightolerancemeansthatthecomputer'sjudgmentis
looserandthecolorcanbesomewhatdifferent.Thepicturesbelowillustrateclicking
onthesamepointwithdifferenttolerancelevels.

Tolerance: 10 Tolerance: 25 Tolerance: 50

NoteintheMagicWandmenuthattheword"Contiguous"ischecked.Thismeans
thatthecomputerwillonlyselectcontiguousareasofcolor.Ifyouwanttoselectall
areasofthesamecoloracrosstheentireimage,uncheckthisbox.Thepicture(below,
right)showstheresultofusingtheMagicWandwiththeContiguousboxunchecked.
(Inthispicture,thetolerancehasbeenraisedto100.)
4.Selectmenu

YoucanselectareasoftheimageusingtheSelectmenu.First,
youcanselecttheentireimagebychoosing"All."ThekeyboardshortcutisCtrl+A.
Onceaselectionhasbeenmadeandyounolongerneedtheselectionarea,youcan
choose"Deselect"togetridoftheselection.TheshortcutforthisisCtrl+D.Ifyou
thenwanttoselecttheexactsameareaagain,youcanchoose"Reselect."

Thefourthitemonthemenu,"Inverse,"isahandyfunction.Itisoftendesirableto
selectasmallareaandtheninverttheselectionsothateverythingexceptthatareais
selected.Thiscansaveyouagreatdealoftimeandcanalsobeusedtocreate
interestingeffects.

Youcanselectareasoftheimageina
similarfashiontotheMagicWandtoolbychoosingtheColorRangeoption.When
youclickonthismenuitem,theColorRangedialogueboxwillappear.Yourcursor
willchangetolooklikeaneyedropper.Youcanusethiseyedroppertosampleapixel
colorfromyourimage,andlikethenoncontiguousMagicWand,similarcolors
acrosstheentireimagewillbeselected.

ThebenefitofusingtheColorRangedialogueboxtomakeyourselectionisthatyou
canseetheareathatwillbeselectedintheblackandwhitepreviewbox.Inthe
preview,theselectedareaisshowninwhiteandtheareanotselectedisshownin
black.Youcanuseyoureyedroppertosampleeitherfromtheoriginalimageorfrom
thepreviewbox,andyoucankeepmakingadjustmentsuntilyouaresatisfiedwiththe
selectionarea.

The"Fuzziness"scaleabovethepreviewboxislikethetolerancefactorfortheMagic
Wand.Thehigherthefuzziness,themoreisselected.

Totherightofthepreviewboxarethreeeyedroppericons.Thedefaultallowsonly
onecolorsamplingatatime.Ifyouclickonthe"+"eyedroppericon,anysubsequent
pixelcolorsthatyousamplewillbeaddedtotheselection.Ifyouclickonthe""
eyedroppericon,anysubsequentpixelcolorsthatyousamplewillbesubtractedfrom
theselection.Youcanclickonthe"Invert"boxtoinverttheselectionarea.Whenthe
selectionisthewayyouwantit,eitherhittheEnterkeyorclick"OK."

Afteryouhaveselectedanareaoftheimage,you
canusetheSelectmenutoaltertheselectionarea.The"Feather"menuitemactsthe
sameas"Feather"intheMarqueemenu,discussedearlier.

Clickingon"Modify"willbringupasubmenuofoptions.

1. "Border"allowsyoutodetermineaborderofaspecifiedsizearoundtheedge
oftheselection,likeapictureframe.
 2. "Smooth"willsmoothoutanycornersoftheselection.Thisisconvenientif
youusedtheRectangularMarqueetooltomakeyourselectionbutyouwould
likeroundedcorners.Itcanalsoroundthecornersofindividuallettersifyou
haveaddedtexttoyourimage,allowingyoutoaltertheappearanceofthefont.

3. "Expand"willincreasetheselectionareabyaspecifiednumberofpixels.

4. "Contract"willdecreasetheselectionareabyaspecifiednumberofpixels.

Homework

Openvariousimagesandusethedifferentselectionmethodstoselectpartsofthe
image.

Lesson3
Color,drawing,anderasing

Lookdownnearthebottomofthetoolbarandyoushouldseeanareawith
twooverlappingsquaresofcolor.Thesquareontopiscalledtheforegroundcolor.
Thisisthecolorthatyou"paint"withwhenyoudrawusingthebrushorpenciltool,
anditalsohasotherpurposes.Thecolorpartiallyhiddenbeneaththeforegroundcolor
isthebackgroundcolor.

Thedefaultsettingisblackintheforegroundandwhiteinthebackground.Youcan
returnthecolorstothedefaultatanytimebyclickingonthetinyblackandwhiteicon
tothelowerleftofthecolorsquares.Ifyouwishtoreversetheorderofthetwo
colors,switchingtheforegroundforthebackground,youcandothisbyclickingon
thedoubleheadedarrowtotheupperrightofthetwosquares.

Thereareseveral
waystochangetheforegroundandbackgroundcolors.Thefirstwayistoclick
directlyonthesquares.Whenyoudoso,the"ColorPicker"dialogueboxappears,as
inthepicture(right).

YoucanusetheColorPickerdialogueboxtosetthecolorinseveralways.Ifyou
holdyourcursoroverthelargesquarefilledwithagradientofcolor,itwillturnintoa
circle.Clickthegradient,andwhatevercolorisinthecenterofthecirclewillbe
displayedintheupperhalfofthecoloricontotherightofthespectrum.Thelower
halfofthiscoloriconwillremainsetatthepreviouscolorsothatyoucancompare
theoriginalwiththenewcoloryouareselecting.

Bymovingthetriangulararrowsonthespectrum,youcanchangethecolordisplayed
inthegradientbox.Youcanalsoclickdirectlyonthespectrumitself.
Ifyouknowthenumericalvalueofthecoloryouwant,whetheritisanRGBvalue,a
CMYKvalue,ahexadecimalvalue(usedwhencodingwebpages),orsomeother
value,youcantypethenumberdirectlyintotheappropriatefields.Youwillprobably
useRGBvaluesmostfrequently.AnRGBvalueismadeofthreenumbers,each
rangingfrom0to255.Thefirstspecifiestheamountofred,thesecondgreen,andthe
thirdblue.Ifallthreearesetto0,theresultisblack.Ifallthreearesetto255,the
resultiswhite.Ifallthreearetheexactsamenumber,theresultisashadeofgray.

Totherightofthecoloriconisasmallcubeiconwithatinycoloredsquarebeneath
it.Thisistoindicatea"websafe"color.Thereisalimitedselectionofcolorsthatare
called"websafe";ifyouarecomposingawebpage,itisconsideredbesttostickto
thisrangeofcolorssothattheywilldisplayproperlyforallusers.Thecolorinthe
tinyboxbelowthecubewilldisplaytheclosest"websafe"colortothecoloryouhave
chosen.Clickingonthetinyboxwillselectthatcolor.

AnothercolorrelatedproblemthatcropsupisthedifferencebetweentheRGB
spectrumandtheCMYKspectrum.WorkinginRGBmodeisfineifyouintendyour
finishedproducttobedisplayedelectronically.However,ifyouintendtoprintitout
usingastandardfourcolorprinter,itwillautomaticallybeconvertedintoCMYK
modefirst,sothattheprinterknowshowmuchofeachcolorinktouse.Thedifficulty
hereisthat,withthesefourcolorsalone,theprintercannotreproducethefullrangeof
colorsthatareavailabletoyouinRGBmode.Inparticular,itcannotreproducethe
brightestcolors,sotheprintedimagewilllookmore"dull"thanitdidonyour
monitor.

WhileyouareworkinginRGBmode,ifthecoloryouselectisnotacolorthatcanbe
printedaccuratelyinCMYKmode,awarningexclamationpointwillappearabove
the"websafe"cubeicon.Thus,ifyouintendtoprinttheimage,youshouldwatchout
forthewarningiconandbeawarethatthecoloryouseewillnotnecessarilybethe
coloryouget.

Ifyouhaveanimageopenthatyouareworkingon,youcanalsoselectacolorfrom
thatimage.Moveyourcursorovertheimage,anditwillchangeappearancetolook
likeaneyedropper.Clickthetipoftheeyedropperonthecoloryouwantfromyour
image,andthatcolorwillbeselectedintheColorPicker.

Whenyouaresatisfiedwiththenewcoloryouhavechosen,eitherpressEnterorclick
the"OK"button.
 Ifyouwanttoselectacolorfromyourimagewithoutgoing
throughtheprocessofopeningtheColorPickerdialoguebox,youcaninsteadclick
ontheEyedroppertool.Yourcursorwillturnintoaneyedropperandyoucanclickon
thedesiredcolor.Thecoloryouchoosewillthenbecometheforegroundcolor.(To
changethebackgroundcolor,clickthedoubleheadedarrow,usetheEyedroppertool,
thenclickthedoubleheadedarrowasecondtime.)

Therearehelpfulkeyboardshortcutsfortheseactionsthatcansaveyoualotoftimeif
youaredoingseriouspainting.Whileyouarepainting,ifyouholddowntheAltkey,
yourcursorwillturnintotheEyedropperuntilyoureleasethekey.Also,theDkey
resetsyourforegroundandbackgroundtothedefault,whiletheXkeyswapsthe
foregroundwiththebackground.

Anothermethodtosetthecoloristousea"palette."A
paletteisamenuthatyoucaneitherleaveopenontheworkspaceorhidesothatitis
outofyourway.Therearemanydifferentpalettes,andyoucancontroltheir
appearancewiththeWindowmenu.TheColorpaletteispicturedontheright.When
youholdyourcursoroverthespectrumontheColorpalette,itautomaticallyturns
intoaneyedropper.Youcanalsochangeeithertheforegroundorbackgroundcolors
byclickingontheappropriatesquareontheColorpaletteandchoosingRBGvalues
withthesliderorbytypingthenumericalvaluesintothefields.

InadditiontotheColorpalette,youcanalsousethe
Swatchespalette,picturedontheleft.The"swatches"arelikethepaintsamplesthat
youusewhenchoosingacolortopaintyourhouse.Theyaresetvaluesthatyoucan
choosebyclickingonthesquareofthecoloryoudesire.Theadvantageofusing
swatchesisthat,unlikepickingfromagradient,itisquiteeasytoreturntotheexact
colorthatyouusedpreviouslybecausetheswatchesalwaysremainthesame.Ifthere
isacoloryouwantthatisnotontheSwatchespalette,youcaneitherloadadifferent
sampleofswatches,oryoucanchoosethecolorusingoneoftheothermethodsand
thenaddthatcolorasanewswatch.Thatwayyoucancomebacktoitagainand
again.

Nowthatyouknowhowtoselectcolors,chooseacolorthatyoulikeforthe
foregroundandcreateanewimage.Whenyoucreatetheimage,makesureyoucheck
thatthebackgroundcoloriswhite.It'stimetostartdrawing.

Therearetwomaintoolsusedfordrawing:theBrushtool
andthePenciltool.ThedifferenceisthatthePenciltoolhasadistinct,sharpedge,
whiletheBrushtoolhasasofteredge.ThePenciltoolisusefulwhenyouaredoing
veryfinework,particularlyonthepixellevel,wherethesoftedgeoftheBrushtool
wouldintroducedistortion.

Fornow,choosetheBrushtool,becauseitisthedefault.
Clickanddragthebrushacrossyourimage.Itshouldleavebehinditatrailofthe
foregroundcolor.SwitchingtothePenciltoolwillgiveyouasimilarresultbutwith
harderedges.TheimageontheleftillustratessmileyfacesdrawnwiththeBrushtool
(left)comparedwiththePenciltool(right).

Afteryouhavefamiliarizedyourselfwithdrawing,lookattheBrushmenu(below).
 Underthenumberoneyouwillseethebrushtip
pulldownmenu.Clickingonthismenushowsyouavarietyofdifferentbrushshapes
andsizes.(Youcanchangethewaythebrushesarelisted,whetherwithtextor
thumbnails,byclickingonthetrianglebuttonintheupperrightcornerofthebox.)
Clickingononeoftheoptionsinthismenuchangestheshapeofthebrush.Itis
possibletodesignyourownbrushandsaveitontothismenu,butthatwillbe
addressedlater.

Youcanchangethesizeofthebrush,andconsequentlythewidthofthelineitdraws,
bymovingthe"MasterDiameter"slideorbytypinginanumberofpixels.

Thenumbertwoindicatesthemenugoverningthedrawingmode.Thisisamore
advancedpropertyofthebrush.Fornow,leaveitonthedefault.

Thethirditem,"Opacity,"governshowseethroughthe"paint"withwhichyouare
drawingis.Reducingtheopacitymakesthepaintappearfainter.Whentheopacityis
low,paintingoverthesameareamultipletimesadds"thickness"andmakesthecolor
darker.

Thefourthitem,"Flow,"determineshowmuchpaintflowsfromyourbrush.The
effectlookssimilartoreducingtheopacity.

Thenumberfivemarksthe"Airbrush"button.Clickingthisbuttontogglesthe
airbrushpropertyonandoff.Whentheairbrushpropertyisactivated,theflowof
paintincreasesthelongeryouholddownthemousebuttonoveracertainspot.
 Aswithdrawingpicturesintherealworld,where
wouldwebewithoutaneraser?ClickontheErasertoolicon,thenclickanddragyour
cursoracrossyourimage.Sincethisisthebackgroundlayer,theeffectoftheEraser
toolistoturntheareathatittouchesintothecolorspecifiedasthebackgroundcolor.
(Onotherlayers,theErasermakeswhatittouchestransparent.Thiswillbeexplained
inmoredetailinthelessoninvolvinglayers.)

TheErasermenulooksalmostthesameastheBrushmenu.Thedifferenceisthatit
onlyhasthreemodes:Brush,Pencil,andBlock.ThisallowstheedgeoftheEraser
tooltobefeatheredliketheBrushorsharplikethePencil.Thethirditem,Block,
makestheeraserintoasquareofafixedsize.

TheBrush,Pencil,andErasertoolsworkondigitalphotographsaswellasonblank
canvasimages.TheBackgroundErasertool,inparticular,canbeusefulwhenaltering
photographs.Openasavedphotograph(oroneoftheflowerpicturesfromthese
lessonpages)andselecttheBackgroundErasertoolfromthetoolbar.

IfyouusetheplainErasertool,itwillturnwhateverittouchesintothebackground
color.TheBackgroundErasertoolturnsthebackgroundtransparent.WiththeEraser
tool,ifyouwishtoerasethebackgroundfromaroundanobjectinapicture,youhave
tobeverycarefulwhengoingaroundtheoutlineoftheobjectyouwanttokeepso
thatyoudon'terasepartoftheobjectitself.TheBackgroundErasertoolhelps
alleviatethisproblembyerasingonlyspecifiedcolors.

UnliketheErasertoolcursor,whichisaplaincircle,theBackgroundErasertool
cursorhascrosshairsinthecenter.Thesecrosshairsareusedtosamplethecolorsthat
theBackgroundEraserwillerase.TakealookattheBackgroundErasermenu.

Itemnumberone,the"Brush,"allowsyoutodeterminethesizeandshapeofthe
cursor.

Theseconditem,"Limits,"tellsthetoolwhetheritshoulderasecontiguousareasor
not.UnliketheMagicWandtool,itwillnoteraseanythingitdoesnottouchwhenit
issetfornoncontiguous.Itwill,however,erasenoncontiguousareasthatare
containedwithinitscursorspace.

Thethirditem,"Tolerance,"actsliketheMagicWandtoleranceindetermininghow
closeincolorapixelmustbeforetheerasertodeleteit.

IfyouusetheEyedroppertooltosettheforegroundcolortothecoloroftheobject
youwanttokeep,youcanthencheckitemnumberfour,"ProtectForegroundColor."
Thishelpspreventthetoolfrommistakenlyerasingtheobjectyou'retryingtokeep.

The"Sampling"item,numberfive,tellsthetoolhowtodeterminewhatcolortoerase.
"Continuous"meansthatitkeepssamplingwhatevercolorisunderthecrosshairs,so
thatthecolorchangesasthetoolmovesacrosstheimage."Once"indicatesthatthe
toolwillsamplethecolorunderthecrosshairsthefirsttimeyouclickandwillnot
changethecoloraslongasyouholddownthemousebutton."BackgroundSwatch"
tellsthetoolnottosamplefromtheimagebutinsteadtoerasebasedonyourchosen
backgroundcolor.

ThepicturesbelowillustratetheuseoftheBackgroundErasertool.Thegray
checkeredpatterninthemiddlepictureisPhotoshop'swayofshowingtransparency.
Notethatthefinalpicturestillhassome"garbage"leftandisn'tcompletely
transparent.Thismeansthetolerancewasn'tsetquitehighenough.However,fora
fastonceover,itmakesitmucheasiertoextracttheflowerusingaroughpasswith
theLasso,oryoucouldcontinuetoerasethegarbagewiththeEraser.

Before During After

InadditiontotheBackgroundErasertoolistheMagicErasertool.Thistoolactsquite
similartotheMagicWandtool,exceptthatiterasesratherthanselecting.
 Homework
UsetheBrush,Pencil,andErasertoolswithvariouscolorstoexperimentwith
drawingpictures.Trybothcreatingcompletelynewimagesaswellasdrawingor
erasingondigitalphotographs.

 Lesson4
Editing
It'sfinallytimetostartputtingtogetherallthebasicsandusethemtoeditpictures.
Forthisexample,Iwillusetwopictures(below).OntheleftisaphotographofMt.
Daigoasseenthroughaplumtreeorchardinbloom,takenwithavideocamera.On
therightisapictureofasunsettakenwithacellphonecamera.Theobjectiveisto
mergethetwotocreateapictureofasunsetoverMt.Daigo.

Thefirststepistoopenbothpictures.Notethatthesunsetpictureisturned90.This
happensfrequentlywithphotographsasthepersontakingthepictureturnsthecamera
toframethebestshot.Theimagemustberotatedsothatitishorizontalbeforeitcan
beused.
 GotoImageRotateCanvas.Thiswillopena
submenuwithanumberofchoices.Inthiscase,thepictureneedstoberotated90
counterclockwise,thethirditemonthelist.Otheroptionsaretorotatethecanvas
180,90clockwise,or"Arbitrary,"whichallowsyoutotypeinanumericaldegree
value.Thetwoitemsatthebottomofthesubmenuflipthepictureasifreflectingitin
amirror.

Next,itseemsthatthecolorsinthesunset
picturearegrayishandnotasvibrantasonemightwant.Thegrayisasignthatthere
isnotenoughcontrastbetweenthelightsandthedarksinthepicture.Thiscanbe
remediedbygoingtoImageAdjustmentsandusingtheactionsinthesubmenu
thatappears.

Asyoucanseefromthepicture(right),thissubmenuhasmanyitems.Allofthem
areusefuldependingonthecircumstances,anditispossibletospendagreatdealof
timeusingthemtofinetunethecolor,contrast,brightness,andsoonofthepicture.
Sincethisisstillanearlylesson,however,Iamjustgoingtoprovideastartingpoint.

Theeasiestthingtodoistoclickon"AutoContrast."ThisallowsPhotoshoptojudge
foryouwhattheappropriatecontrastshouldbe.Ifyouliketheresult,you'rereadyfor
thenextstep.Ifyouaren'tcompletelysatisfied,youcanundotheactionandtry
somethingelse.

Probablythemostfamiliarwaytoundoanactionis
throughtheEditmenu.Undoistheveryfirstitemonthemenu.Thekeyboard
shortcutisCtrl+Z.ItisalsopossibletoundousingtheHistorypalette,butthatwill
bediscussedinalaterlesson.
If"AutoContrast"doesn'tsuityouandyouwishtotrysomethingelse,youcould
clickontheotherautomaticfunctions"AutoCurves"and"AutoColor."Ifnoneofthe
automaticfunctionsgivesyouthedesiredresult,youcanadjusttheimageproperties
manually.RightnowIwillintroduceonlyone,"Brightness/Contrast."

Clickingonthismenuitembringsupthe
"Brightness/Contrast"dialoguebox.Inthisbox,youcaninputavaluemanuallyor
usetheslidertoadjustthevalue.Anegativebrightnessvaluemakesthewholeimage
darker,whileapositivebrightnessvaluemakesthewholeimagelighter.Anegative
contrastvaluemakestheimagetendtowardanaveragegray,whileapositivecontrast
valuemakesthelightslighterandthedarksdarker.Youcanuseacombinationof
thesetwoproperties,keepinganeyeontheimagepreviewasyoufiddlewiththe
values,untilyougetaresultthatyoufindpleasing.

Inthisexample,Iamsatisfiedwiththe
resultofAutoContrastanddonotadjusttheimageanyfurther.Theimage(right)
showswhatitlookslikeatthisstage.

Nextthemountainpicturemustbetackled.ThefirstthingIwanttodoismakethe
imagesmaller.Iwanttocropouttheleftsideofthepicturethathastheevergreen
foliageinit.IcoulddothisusingtheCroptool,butIcanalsousetheMarqueetool.

ClickontheRectangularMarqueetoolandselecttheportionoftheimagethatshould
bekept.Oncesatisfiedwiththeselectionarea,clickonImageCrop.Thearea
outsidetheselectionmarqueewilldisappear.

Before After
Thenextstepistoenhancethecontentofthepicture.Inthiscase,however,the
automaticfunctionsdon'tspruceupthevividcoloroftheplumblossomsquite
enough.It'stimetoturntooneoftheothermanualactions.

ClickonImage
AdjustmentsHue/Saturation.Thisbringsupthe"Hue/Saturation"dialoguebox
(left).Increasingthesaturationmakesthecolorsmorevivid,whichisjustwhatis
neededtomaketheplumblossomsstandoutmore.

Iftheplumblossoms
stillaren'tredenough,anotherthingtotryisadjustingthecolorbalance.Clickon
ImageAdjustmentsColorBalance.Thisbringsupthe"ColorBalance"dialogue
box(right).Thisdialogueboxadjuststheoverallcolorinthepicture.Usethesliders
toplaywiththevalues,watchingthepreviewimagecarefullytomakesureyouget
thecolorexactlythewayyouwantitwithoutmakingitseemunnatural.

Theadjustedpictureisshown
ontheleft.Comparewiththeimageaboveandseehowtheblossomsarenowmuch
morestriking.

It'sentirelypossibletokeepadjustingthepictures,butthisisgoodenoughfora
preliminaryexample.It'stimetocombinethepictures.Returntothesunsetpicture
andselecttheentirecanvas.ThencopytheselectionareaeitherbyclickingEdit
CopyorbyusingthekeyboardshortcutCtrl+C.Clickonthemountainpictureto
activateitandpastethesunsetpictureontopofiteitherbyclickingEdit Pasteor
usingtheshortcutCtrl+V.Thispastesthesunsetpictureintheexactmiddleofthe
mountainpicture.

ClickontheMovetool.Thecursorwillchangeintoapictureof
crosseddoubleheadedarrowsattachedtoapointerarrow.Clickonthesunsetpicture
anddragittoanuppercornerofthemountainpicture.
Ifyouarefindingitdifficulttofitthesunsetpictureexactlyintothecorner,thereisa
waytomakethiseasier.ClickonViewSnapToDocumentBoundsasshown
(below).Whentheobjectyouaremovinggetswithinafewpixelsoftheedgeofthe
canvas,itwillautomaticallysnapexactlytotheedge.

However,there'soneproblem:Thesunset
pictureissmallerthanthemountainpicture.Ithastobeenlargedinsomewaytofit
thespace.Onemethodtodothisistochecktheimagesizeofthemountainpicture
andthenenlargethesunsetpicturetothesamewidthbeforecopyingandpastingit.
 Evenafterithasalreadybeenpasted
overthemountain,though,itisstillpossibletochangeitusingtheEditmenu.Click
EditTransform.Thisopensasubmenuwithmanyoptionsfortransforming
objectswithinanimage.Sincethegoalistowidenthesunsetimage,select"Scale."
Clickanddragonthehandlesthatappearsurroundingthesunsettowidentheimage
farenoughtomatchthewidthofthemountainimage.Ifnecessary,adjusttheheight
sothattheskydoesnotlookunnatural.Whensatisfied,eitherdoubleclickonthe
imageorclickonthecheckiconintheupperrightcornerofthemenubar.

Atthispoint,lookdownatthelowerrightcorneroftheworkspace.Thereshouldbea
palettemarked"Layers."TheLayerspalettewillbediscussedindetailinafuture
lesson.Rightnow,justknowthatthelayerontheverybottomisthebackgroundand
eachadditionallayerstacksontopofit,intheorderlisted.Theeyeiconontheleft
edgeofeachlayershowsthatthelayerisvisible.Thepaintbrushiconinthesquare
nexttotheeyedenoteswhichlayeris"active."Currentlybothlayersshouldhavethe
eyeiconandthetoplayer,called"Layer1,"shouldbehighlightedinblueandhave
thepaintbrushiconasinthepicture(below).

Makethesunsetinvisiblebyclickingontheeyeiconfor
itslayer.Thesunsetisstillthere,itissimplynolongerdisplayed.Thisallowsyouto
workonthebackgroundlayerwithoutinterference.

Selecttheskyareaofthemountainimage.IfinditeasiesttouseSelect Color
Range,butusewhichevermethodworksbestforyou.Whenyouhavethearea
selected,clickSelectModifyExpandandincreasetheselectionareabytwo
pixels.Thisisbecausetheslightfuzzinessoftheobjectborderspreventstheselection
toolfromselectingallthewayuptightlyagainsttheobject.Ifyouusetheselection
asis,itwillleaveanunnaturallineofcolorallthewayaroundit.Next,clickSelect
Featherandfeathertheborderbytwopixels.Thiswillmaketheborderlesssharp
sothatthetwoimagesblendtogetherbetter.

Oncethisisaccomplished,
clickbackontheeyeofthesunsetlayer.Youshouldseethesameselectionarea
displayedontopofthesunset.ChoosetheMarqueetoolanduseittoclickanddrag
thisselectionareauntilitsurroundsanareaofthesunsetthatyoulike.Atthispoint,
myimagelookslikethepicture(right).

Thecurrentselectionareaisthepartoftheskythatwillbepastedintothemountain
picture,soitmustbekept.Therestoftheskycanbedeleted.Theeasiestwayto
accomplishthisistoinverttheselectionarea(Select Inverse),thendeletethe
selectionareaeitherbyclickingEditClearorbypressingDelete.Youwillno
longerneedthisselectionarea,soyoucandeselect.

UsetheMovetooltomovetheremainingpieceofskytofitinplaceoverthe
mountain.Itshouldnowlooklikethepicture(below).

Itnowlookslikeasingle
pictureofthesunsetoverMountDaigo.Youcan,ofcourse,continuetotinkerwith
thingslikebrightness,contrast,andcolorbalance,butthisisgoodenoughforthetime
being.

Youcansavetheimageasitis,butinordertopreservethetwolayers,itwilltakeup
alotofmemory.Tocompresstheimagesothatitcanbesavedin.jpgformat,click
LayerFlattenImage.
SavetheimagebygoingtoFileSaveAs.Selecttheappropriatefileformatfrom
thepulldownmenuandgivethefileaname.

Ifyouwanttogivetheimageafinal,framingtouch,selectmostoftheimagewiththe
EllipticalMarqueetool.Feathertheselectionareabyabout20pixels,invertthe
selection,anddelete.Theresultshouldlooksomethinglikethis(right).

Homework
Opentwodifferentfiles,eitheryourownordownloadedfromtheselessons.Practice
adjustingthebrightness,contrast,andcolorbalanceofeachpicture.Copyallorpart
ofonepictureandpasteitintotheotherpictureinaninterestingway.

 Lesson5
Touchingup
Thislessondealswithwhatyoucandotofixupminordetailsinapicture.Iwillusea
digitalphotographasanexample,butthesameprinciplesapplytoascannedor
paintedimageandcan,infact,beusedcreativelytodrawpictures.Iwilldemonstrate
someoftheseapplicationsattheendofthelesson.

Hereisapictureofaguineafowltakenin
Hawaii.Unfortunately,therearetworandompeopleinthebackgrounddetracting
fromthebird.Thefirstchallengeistodeletethepeoplewithoutleavinganunnatural
spotinthepicture.

ItispossibletodothisbyusingtheMarqueetoolandthe
Lassotooltocutandpastebitsofthesceneryontopofthepeople.However,
Photoshophastoolsdesignedexactlyforsuchapurposethathelpmakethepasted
sectionsblendinmorenaturally.

SelectthePatchtoolfromthetoolbar(right).WhatthePatchtooldoesisallowyouto
selectanarea,aswiththeLassotool,thencopyandpasteonepartoftheimagethat
fitsthatselectionareaintoanotherpartofthesameimage.Youcandecidewhetherto
setitforselectingthesourcearea(theareatobehidden)orthedestinationarea(the
areatobecopied)first.Inthiscase,Iwilluseittoselectthesourcefirst.Thissetting
isfoundinthePatchmenu(below).

ThesecondoptioninthePatch
menuistosetittofillthesourceareawithapattern.Thatwon'tbenecessaryinthis
case.

WhenyouareusingthePatchtool,thecursorlookslikeapatchwithadangling
thread.Thetipofthedanglingthreadistheselectionpoint.Usethiscursortodraw
aroundapartoftheimagethatneedstobehidden.Iwillstartwiththeheadofthe
maninthepicture.Onceyouhavemadetheselection,clickanddragtheselection
areatoapartoftheimagethatyouwishtocopyandpasteoverthesource.Assoonas
youletgoofthemousebutton,thepartyouhaveselectedwillautomaticallypaste
itselfoverthesourcearea.Thisprocessisillustratedinthepicturesbelow.

Before During After

ThekeytousingthePatchtooleffectivelyistobreakthesourceobjectintosmall
portionsandmatcheachsectionasnaturallyaspossiblefromsomeotherpartofthe
image.Ifyoutrytodotheentiremanatonce,itwillbehardtofindasinglesection
thatbigtolooknaturalinhisplace.

In
asmallpicture,itcanbedifficulttoseefinedetailwellenoughtoworkeffectively.
Whenthathappens,UsetheZoomtooltozoominonthepartyouneedtosee.You
canalwayszoomoutagainatanytime.WhenyouselecttheZoomtool,yourcursor
willlooklikeamagnifyingglass.Thedefaultisforzoomingin;themagnifyingglass
willhaveaplussigninit.Tozoomout,clicktheiconintheZoommenuthathasa
minussigninit.Youcanalsoaccomplishthisbyrightclickingwiththemouseand
choosingtheappropriateoptionfromthemenuthatappears.Clickingon"Actual
Pixels"willresettheimageto100%magnification.

Zoominuntilthepictureisaslargeasyouneed,thenreturntothePatchtooland
continuepatchinguntilyouhavereplacedbothpeople.

Ifthistakescareoftheproblem,great.Ifit
doesn't,though,youmayneedtodosomemoreadjustment.Inthiscase,althoughthe
Patchtoolcoveredthepeople,itleftabitofunnaturalblurringwhereindicatedbythe
arrows(left).UsetheHealingBrushtooltotakecareofthis.

TheHealingBrushtooltakesasampleofonepartofthepictureandusesthatsample
topaintadifferentpartofthepicture.Firstchoosetheareayouwishtouseasthe
sampleandAlt+click.Thenpaintovertheareathatneedstouchingupasifyouwere
usingtheBrushtool.IfindthatsettingtheHealingBrushto"Replace"modeworks
bestinasituationlikethis.
 AfterusingtheHealingBrushtool,thepicture
nowhasnounnaturalblurryspots(right).YetI'mstillnotsatisfiedwiththepicture.
Thebrightsunnyareaintheupperleftcornermakesthepictureseemunbalanced.I
don'twanttochangethebrightnesslevelforthewholepicture,onlyforthatone
section.

Thisiswhereselectiontoolsareveryimportant.Whenyouselectanareaofthe
image,anyactionthatyouapplyonlyaffectstheareainsidetheselectionmarquee.
Thus,itispossibletoselecttheoverlybrightcornerandreduceitsbrightnesswithout
changingtherestoftheimage.

Afterselectingtheoffendingcornerwiththe
Lassotool,Idecreaseditsbrightness.ThenIchangeditscolorbalancetoaddmore
blueandgreensothatitwouldblendinbetterwiththerestofthebackground.The
resultingpictureisshownontheleft.

Now,unfortunately,I'mnothappywiththerailingonwhichthebirdisstanding.It
lookstoostarkandartificialcomparedwiththenaturaltonesofthesurroundings.I
wanttochangeittolookmorelikewoodsothatitwon'tstandoutasmuch.
 Todoso,firstselectthe
railing,beingcarefulnottoselectthefeetofthebird.Thismayrequiresomecareful
additionorsubtractionwiththeLassotool.Also,ithelpstofeathertheedgeofthe
selectionbyabouttwopixels.ThenopentheHue/Saturationdialogueboxandcheck
"Colorize."Playwiththesettingsuntilyougetacolorthatyoulike.ThesettingsthatI
usedareshowninthepicture(right).Theresultofthesesettingsisshownbelow.

Thislooksbetter.Inmoreadvancedlessons,I
willdiscusshowtousefilterstogivethe"wood"amorenaturalroughlook.Forthe
moment,thisiscloseenough.

Oncloserinspection,though,thepartoftherailingintheveryfrontandcenterdoesn't
blendinwellwiththerestofit.ThiscallsfortheSmudgetooltofixtheproblem.
 TheSmudgetoolisusedtoclickanddragononepartofthe
image,smearingitscolortoanotherpartoftheimageasifrunningafingerthrough
wetpaint.SelecttheSmudgetoolanddragitfromthedarkpartoftherailingacross
thelightpart.

TheresultofusingtheSmudgetoolisshownbelow.

Thepictureisalmostfinished,butsomething
isstillnaggingatme.TheplacealongtheedgeoftherailingwhereIsmudgedit
doesn'thaveanicesharpcornerthewaytherestoftherailingdoes,asindicatedby
theredarrow.Also,thebird'sfeethavebecomeabitblurry.

Tofixthis,firstusetheEyedroppertooltosamplethebrowncoloroftherailing
cornertomakeittheforegroundcolor.Usethistopaintinthecorneroverthe
smudgedportionwiththeBrushtool.

Thepaintedlinebyitselfstandsoutalittletoomuch,soselecttheBlurtool(fromthe
sameiconastheSmudgetool)andrunoverthelinetomakeitblendinslightly.Don't
blurittoomuch,oryouwilldefeatthepurposeofhavingdrawnthelineinthefirst
place.

NotethatthetoolsusedinthislessonparticularlyPatch,HealingBrush,andBlur
arecommonlyusedintouchingupphotosofpeople.Theycanwipeawaywrinkles
andblemishesifusedcarefully.
Oncethelineisblendedin,switchtotheSharpentoolandrunitoverthebird'sfeet.
TheSharpentoolaccentuatestheoutlinesoftheobjectsittouches.Youmaywantto
runitovertherestofthebird'soutlines,iftheysustainedtoomuchblurringfrom
usingthePatchtoolaroundthem.

Finallythecontentofthepictureisadjustedto
mysatisfaction.Yetitstillseemstobelackingsomething.Itwouldbeniceifthe
picturehadaframe.

Selecttheentireimage,thenclickSelectModifyBorder.Inputavalueforhow
wideyouwantthebordertobe.Ichosetouse10pixels.Thisselectsaborder10
pixelswidearoundtheimage.

ClickEditFill.Thisbringsupthe
"Fill"dialoguebox.TheFillactionwillfilltheentireselectedareawiththespecified
color.Inthiscase,it'ssetfortheforegroundcolor,whichisstilldarkbrownfrom
havingpaintedtherailing.ChangethesettingsifdesiredandeitherpressEnteror
click"OK."Thisputsabrownframearoundthepicture.
 Ifyoudon'twanttocoveruptheedgesofthe
picture,especiallyafterhavingworkedtogettherailingtolookdecent,youcan
enlargethecanvassizearoundtheimagefirstbeforeapplyingtheborder.

Thesesametechniquescanbeusedtodrawpicturesratherthantotouchupdigital
photos.Asanexample,Iwillexplainhowtousetheprocessesmentionedaboveto
drawasmileyface.

Startbyopeninganewimage.UsetheEllipticalMarqueetooltoselectacircleforthe
face.Chooseaforegroundcolorforthecoloroftheface.Iwilluseyellowforthesake
oftheexample.UseEditFilltofillthecirclewiththeforegroundcolor.

Thesmileyfacereallyneedsablack
outlinetomakeitstandoutfromthebackground,sochooseblackastheforeground
color.GobacktotheEditmenu,butinsteadofclicking"Fill,"clickontheitem
directlybeneathit,"Stroke."Strokeisanactionthatdoesnotfilltheentireselection
area,butinsteadpaintsalongthelineoftheselection.Thewidthofthelineitpaintsis
specifiedbythefirstfield,andyoucanalsodeterminewhetheryouwantittobe
insidetheselectionmarquee,outsidethemarquee,ordirectlyontopofthemarquee.

Youshouldnowhaveacoloredcirclewithablackoutline.Youcancontinuetouse
theselectiontoolswithFillandStroketomaketheeyesandmouth.Iusedthe
EllipticalMarqueetoolwithFillfortheeyesandStrokeforthemouth,thenusedthe
Erasertooltoerasetheunwantedpartoftheellipsistomakethemouthlooklikea
smile.

Ifyouwanttoaddblushycheeks,youcancontinuetousetheselectiontools,oryou
canpaintonrosycircleswithclicksoftheBrushtool.Ifthecheeksaren'tblurry
enoughforyouonthefirsttry,youcanalwaysusetheBlurtooltofixthat.

BelowistheexampleofthesimplesmileyfacethatIdrew.Theblacklinesappear
sharpandjaggedbecauseIturnedoffantialiasing.Ifyoulikesmootherlines,make
suretochecktheantialiasingoption.

Ithoughtthefacelookedabitplain,soIusedtheBrushtoolalongwiththeSmudge
tooltodrawacherryblossompetalasiffingerpainting.IthenusedtheMagicWand
toselectthepetalandswitchedtotheMovetool.PressingAltwhileusingtheMove
toolautomaticallymakesacopyoftheselectedobjectandmovesittothedesired
location.ThenIusedEditTransformRotatetomakethepetalslooklikethey're
flutteringdownfromabove.Finally,IusedStroketoframethepictureinpink.
Youarelimitedonlybyyourimagination!

Homework
Openadigitalphotoandtouchupanythingyoufindthatcoulduseimprovement.Try
tousevariousselectiontoolsaswellasPatchortheHealingBrush.Nextopenanew
fileandpracticedrawingapictureusingtheselectiontoolsalongwithFillandStroke.
UsetheBrushtooltoadddetails,alongwithSmudgeandBlurifyoucanthinkof
waystotakeadvantageoftheireffects.

Thisisthelastoftheintroductoryseriesoflessons.Afterthistheymoveinto
intermediateterritory,soifyouarestillconfusedbyanythingattheendofthislesson,
gobackandpracticeitbeforemovingon.

 Lesson6
Layers

Layersareamazinglypowerfulwhenitcomes
todrawingoreditingimages,especiallyifyouwanttoaddspecialeffectstoyour
picture.KnowinghowtousetheLayerspalettetomanipulatelayersandtheir
propertieswillallowyoutospruceupyourworkimmensely.

TakealookattheLayerspalette(left).It'spackedwithlotsofhelpfulshortcutsand
functions.I'venumberedthefourteenitemsvisibleinthisimage,thoughmoreicons
appearwhenyoustartaddingandmanipulatinglayers.

1.Nameofthelayer.Whenyouopenanimage,thelayerthatappearsisautomatically
consideredthebackground.Addingmorelayersstacksthemontopofthe
background.Theimagethatyouseeintheworkspacewindowistheviewfromthe
topdown,lookingthroughallthelayersasiftheyweresheetsofplasticstackedon
topofeachother.Ifyouonlyuseoneortwolayers,youprobablydon'thavetoworry
aboutwhattheyarecalledinthepalette.Ifyoustarteditingimageswithmultiple
layers,though,youmaywanttorenameeachlayertodescribethecontentsofthe
layersothatyoucanfinditagaineasily.Youcanrenameanylayer(exceptthe
background)bydoubleclickingonitsnameandtypingthenameyouhavechosen.

2.Layerthumbnail.Thisisatinypictureshowingthecontentsofthelayer.Thegray
andwhitecheckeredpatternindicatesthatthelayeristransparent,likeablanksheet
ofclearplastic.
3."Link"box.Theactivelayer,inadditiontobeinghighlightedinblue,willhavea
paintbrushinthisbox.Forthenonactivelayers,ifyouclickinthisbox,aniconofa
chainwillappear.Thischainiconindicatesthatthelayeris"linked"totheactive
layer.Ifyoumovetheactivelayer,anylinkedlayersmovealongwithit.Thisis
particularlyhelpfulifyouhaveanobjectinonelayeranditsshadowinanother,for
example,andyouwanttomoveboththeobjectandtheshadowtogether.Youcan
"unlink"alinkedlayerbyclickingonthechain,makingitdisappear.

4.Layervisibilityicon.Turningalayerinvisiblecanservemanypurposes.Themain
reasontomakealayerinvisibleissothatyoucanseethelayer(s)beneathit,butyou
mayalsodosotoexcludeitfromactionssuchasmergingmultiplelayers.Clickingon
theeyeicontogglesthevisibilityofthelayer.

5.Blendingmode.Thisdetermineshoweachlayerblendswiththelayerbeneathit.In
"Normal"mode,eachlayerishandledasifitwerepaintonasheetofplastic.Inother
blendingmodes,thecomputerwillblendthecolorsofthelayerwiththecolorsofthe
layerdirectlybeneathit.Thisblendingcanhavevastlydifferenteffectsdependingon
whichmodeyouselect.Thiswillbediscussedinmoredetaillater.

6.Lock.Lockingvariousaspectsofthelayerpreventsyoufrommakingunintentional
changes.Thefirsticonallowsyoutolockthetransparentpixels.Thus,ifyoudrawa
shapeonalayerandthenlockthetransparentpixels,youcanlatercolorontopofthe
shapeandnotworryaboutcoloring"outsidethelines."Anystraystrokesyoumakeon
thetransparentpixelswillhavenoeffect.Thesecondiconlocksallthepixelssothat
youwillnotaccidentallypaintanythingonceyouhaveitthewayyouwantit.The
thirdiconlocksthepositionsothatyoudon'taccidentallymovethelayeronceyou
haveitlocatedwhereyouwantit.Thefourthiconlocksalloftheseaspects
simultaneously.

7.Opacity.Thisdetermineshow"seethrough"thecontentsofthelayerare.100%
opacitymeansthatthelayeriscompletelyopaque,andanythingpaintedonthelayer
willcompletelyhidewhateverisbeneathit.Reducingtheopacityallowsthelayer(s)
underittoshowthrough.Opacityaffectseverythingintheentirelayer.

8.Fill.Thisissimilartoopacity,butitaffectsonlyitemsthatarepaintedonthelayer.
Itdoesnotchangetheopacityoflayereffectssuchas"DropShadow"or"Stroke"that
mayhavebeenapplied.

9.LayerStyle.ThisisashortcuticonthathasthesameeffectasclickingonLayer
LayerStyle.Itallowsyoutogivetheobjectsonthelayerspecialeffectssuchas
shadowsandoutlinesortoembosstheminvariousways.Thiswillbediscussedin
greaterdetaillater.

10.AddLayerMask.ThisiconisashortcutforclickingLayer AddLayerMask
RevealAll.Layermasksareusedlikestencilstoprotectthelayersothatonlypartof
whatisonthelayershowsthrough.Itislikeanpainterputtingmaskingtapeonthe
canvas,sothatwhenthemaskingtapeisremoved,thatsectionofthecanvasremains
clean.Maskswillbehandledinalaterlesson.

11.Createanewset.A"set"functionslikeafolderdoes,keepingthelayerswithinit
categorizedtogether,separatefromotherlayers.Itispossibletoapplythesamething,
suchasamask,toalloftheitemsinasetsimultaneously.

12.Createnewfilloradjustmentlayers.ThisiconisashortcutforLayer NewFill
LayerandLayerNewAdjustmentLayer.Afilllayerislikeblanketingthelayer
withanadditionalcolororpattern;thisisgenerallyusedincombinationwithmasks.
Adjustmentlayersareusedtoadjustthepropertiesofalayerinmuchthesame
mannerasthe"ColorBalance"and"Hue/Saturation"dialogueboxes,butbecause
eachadjustmenthasitsownlayer,theadjustmentitselfcanbeadjustedatanytime.

13.Createanewlayer.ThisiconisashortcutforLayer NewLayer.Ifyouclick
onanalreadyexistinglayeranddragitontopofthisicon,itmakesacopyofthe
layer.

14.Deletelayer.ThisisashortcutforLayerDelete Layer.Ifyoudragalayer
overthetrashcan,itdeletesthelayer.

Thiscompletestheoverallexplanation...butwhatdoesitreallymean?Mostofthe
layeroptionssoundlikegibberishwithoutexamplesofwhattheycando,solet'sstart
experimenting.
 WhatIwanttodoforthis
lessonistakethissimplebunnysketchandturnhimintoamorethreedimensional
computergraphic.FirstIscannedthebunnyfrommysketchbookataresolutionof
300d.p.i.(Theimageitselfisquitesmall,butitlookslargeonthescreenbecauseitis
atahighresolution.)Iampostingtheoriginalheresothatyoucandownloaditfor
practiceifyouwish.Theremainingimagesofthebunnyinprogresswillallbe
compressedtosavespace.
Thebunnyimageisautomaticallyimportedasthebackground.Thefirstthingtodois
tomakenice,cleanoutlines.ItispossibletousethePentoolforthis,butthatisan
advancedtechniquethatwillbehandledinalaterlesson.Fornow,usetheBrushtool.

Clickonthe"createnewlayer"iconatthelowerleftoftheLayerspalette.Thiswill
makeanew,transparentlayerontopofthebackground.Itwillautomaticallybegiven
thenameLayer1.Doubleclickonthisnameandtypein"Outline"sothatyouwillbe
abletoidentifythecontentsofthelayerquickly.Makingcertainthatyourforeground
colorisblack,usetheBrushtooltotraceovertheoutlineofthebunny.Useundoor
theeraserasnecessarytofixanymistakes.Youcanmakethelinesasthickasyou
like;thickerlineshaveamorecartoonyappearance.Zoominifyouneedtoinorder
toseewellenoughtotraceproperly.

Sinceitisdifficulttodrawperfectcircles,youmaywishtousetheEllipticalMarquee
whendoingtheface.Thekeyistocreateanewlayerfirst,thenusetheElliptical
MarqueewithFillandStroketomakethehead,eyes,andnose.Thatwayyoucan
movetheindividualpartsaroundwithoutdisturbingtherestoftheoutlineinorderto
positionthemproperly.Onceyouhavethemwhereyouwantthem,usetheErasertool
toerasethesegmentsoftheoutlineoftheheadthatarehiddenbehindtheears.

Onceyouhavethefacedrawnonitsownlayer,youwillneedtocombineitwiththe
layerbeneathit.Tomergethetwolayerstogether,clickLayer MergeDown.The
keyboardshortcutforthisisCtrl+E.Thisputsthefaceonthesamelayerastherest
oftheoutline.

Afteryouhavefinishedtheentireoutline,clickontheeyeiconofthe
backgroundtomakeitinvisible.Youshouldhaveanimagethatlookslikethepicture
ontheleft.Checktheimagetomakesuretherearenogapsorerrorsintheline.If
thereare,usetheBrushandErasertofixthem.

Ifyouonlywanttopaintasimple,flatdrawing,oradrawingthatapproximatesthe
lookofactualpaint,youcandosoquiteeasilywithjustonemorelayerforthecolor.
Thatwouldnotgiveyouverymuchpractice,however,soI'mgoingtomakeitvastly
morecomplicatedforyou.(Canyoufeelthelove?^_~)

Clickonthebackgroundlayer,thenclickthe"createa
newset"icon.Newlayersandsetsappeardirectlyabovetheactivelayer.Ifyoudon't
movetothebackgroundfirst,thenewlycreatedsetwillappearabovetheoutline,but
wewanttheoutlinetostayontop.Youcanalwaysmovelayersaround,ofcourse,but
thatwouldbeinefficient.It'sbettertocreateitwhereyouwantitinthefirstplace.

Doubleclickonthesetnameandcallit"Heart."Createanewsetandnameit"Arms."
Repeatthreemoretimes,makingsetscalled"Body,""Head,"and"Ears."YourLayers
paletteshouldlooklikethepictureontheleft.(Again,thisisn'tstrictlynecessary,but
youshouldknowhowtodoitincaseyoueverneedtointhefuture.)

WiththeEarssethighlightedasactive,createanewlayer.Thelayerwillappear
insidethefolder(directlybeneaththeEarsfoldericon).Thethumbnailforthislayeris
indentedtoshowthatitiscontainedinsidetheset.Renamethislayersomethingeasy
toremember.Icalledit"Earbasecolor."Selectalightpinkthatyoulikeasthe
foregroundcoloranduseittopaintthepinkpartoftheear.Forthelargeear,youcan
surroundalargeportionoftheearspacewiththeLassoanduseFilltosavesome
time.Youmaywanttomakethebackgroundinvisibleagainsoyoucanmakesure
youarecoloringcorrectly.

Afteryouhavefinishedthebasecolorfortheears,repeatthisprocessineachofthe
folders,workingyourwaydownward.Fortherestofthebodyparts,youcanusethe
MagicWandasashortcut.ClickontheOutlinelayertomakeitactive,thentapthe
MagicWandinsidetherelevantbodypart.UseSelect Modify Expandto
expandtheselectionby2pixels.Oncethatisdone,clickontheappropriatebodypart
basecolorlayertoactivatethatlayeranduseEditFilltofillthelayerwithan
appropratecolor.Iusedwhiteforthebunnybodypartsanddarkpinkfortheheart.

Theseriesofpicturesbelowillustratesthisprocess.

Whenyouhavefinished,zoominandcheckthe
corners.TheMagicWandtooloftenleavessharpcornersunselected,asshownbythe
greencirclesinthepicture(left).Ifthishappens,usetheBrushtofillinthegaps.

Nowit'stimetomakethebunnylookmorethreedimensionalbypaintinginthe
shadows.It'spossibletouselayereffectssuchasEmbosstomakethebunnyappear
threedimensional,butthatwillbehandledinalaterlesson.Fornow,youshould
knowhowtouselayerstopaintshadowsontheimage.
 Thetricktopaintingshadowsisknowingwherethelightis
comingfromintheimage.Forthisexample,I'mgoingtodecidearbitrarilythatthe
lightiscomingfromtheupperleft,asdepictedbytheyellowarrowsinthepicture
(right).Anywherethelightfallswillbebright.Whereverthelightdoesn'treach,
illustratedbythebluearrows,willbeleftinshadow.Inasimpleimagelikethis
bunny,youdon'thavetoworrytoomuchaboutbeinganartist,justpainttheshadows
onthe"underside"ofthecurvesofthebodypartsorwhereveronepartshades
another.

Selectalightgraycolorfortheforegroundandchooseafeatheredbrushtipforthe
Brushtool.Clickonthelayercalled"Headbasecolor"andfromtherecreateanew
layer.Namethis"Headshadow1."Painttheshadowsoftheheadonthislayer.Ifthe
shadowthatyoupaintdoesn'tlooksoftenough,youcanusetheBlurtooltosoftenit.
Leavingtheshadowswithsharp,distinctedgesmakesthepicturelookmorecartoony,
whereasmakingtheshadowedgesverysoftandblurrymakesitCGish.Ihappento
likethesoft,wellblendedlook,butyoucandowhateversuitsyourpersonalstyle.

IfyouAREanartistorwanttofeellikeone!youmaywanttotryusingtheBrush
menutoreducetheflowofpaintto40%orlower.Thismakeseachindividualstroke
fainter,butwhereveryouoverlapstrokes,theoverlappedareawillbedarker,justlike
whendrawingwithwatercolors,markers,pencils,andotherphysicalmedia.Youcan
evenchooseatipforyourBrushthathasatextureaddedtoitthatapproximatesthe
textureofchalkorarealpaintbrush.
 Inthispicture(left),Itintedtheshadowspink
sothatyoucanseethemclearly.Followthesameprocesstodrawshadowsforthe
restofthebodypartsandtheheart.Insteadofgray,choosedarkerpinkfortheheart
shadow.(Don'tdothepinkpartoftheears...I'llhandlethosedifferentlybelow.)
 Ifyou'renothappywiththeshadow
colorafteryou'vepaintedit,youcanalwayschangethecolorofthatparticular
shadowlayerbytinkeringwiththecolorbalanceandhue/saturation.Thisisthe
benefitofpaintingtheshadowonanentirelyseparatelayer.Youcanalsochangethe
colorbygoingtoImageAdjustmentsReplaceColor.Thisbringsupthe
"ReplaceColor"dialoguebox(right).Thisdialogueboxallowsyoutoselectacolor
inasimilarfashiontotheColorRangefunctionandusethesliderstoadjustthe
selectedcolortoyoursatisfaction.

Anotheradjustmentyoucanmake,ifyouthinktheshadowsaretoodark,istoreduce
theopacityoftheshadowlayers.Thismakesthemappearfainter,asthelayerbeneath
themshowsthrough.Thepicturesbelowillustratetheeffectofchangingthelayer
opacityoftheheartshadow.
 Opacity: 100% Opacity: 75%

Onceyouhavefinishedaddingthefirstlayerof
shadows,chooseadarkershadeofthesameshadowcolorandaddasecondlayerof
shadows.Thistime,clickonthe"shadow1"layer,thencreatethenewlayerdirectly
aboveit.Namethisthe"shadow2"layer.Next,clickLayer GroupwithPrevious.
ThekeyboardshortcutforthiscommandisCtrl+G.Whenyougroupalayerwiththe
previouslayer,itautomaticallylocksthepixelssothatyoucannotpaintonanyplace
thatistransparentonthepreviouslayer.Thismeansthatwhenyoupaintthesecond
layerofshadows,youdon'thavetoworrythatyouwillcolor"outsidethelines."You
willonlybeabletopaintoverpixelsthatyoupaintedinthe"shadow1"layer.The
groupedlayerthumbnailwillbeindented,withanarrowpointingdowntothe
thumbnailofthelayerbeneathit.Thepicture(right)showswhatyourLayerspalette
shouldlooklikewhenyoudothis.
Paintthesecondlayerofshadowsneartheedgeofeachbodypart.Thissecondlayer
shouldbesignificantlysmallerthanthefirstlayersothatitaddsasenseofdepth.
Don'tforgettomakejudicioususeoftheBlurtooltoblendtheshadows.

Whenyou'refinishedwiththesecondlayerofshadows,itshouldlook
somethinglikethepicture(left).Itintedthesecondlayerofbunnybodyshadows
slightlypinktogivetheimpressionoflightreflectingofftheheart.

Thebunnybodyismostlywhite,soitdoesn'treallyneedhighlights.Theheart,
however,couldusesomehighlightsontheupperroundedparts.Ontopofthe"Heart
shadow2"layer,createanewlayerandnameit"Hearthighlight."Chooseaverylight
pinkfortheforegroundcolorandalarge,fuzzybrushtipfortheBrushtool.Youmay
evenwanttoclicktheairbrushicontomakeuseofthatfunction.Dabsomeround
highlightswherethelightwouldhitthetipoftheheart.

Thepicturesbelowshowwheretoaddthehighlights.

Before After
 Nowit'stimetodothepinkpartoftheears.Forthis,Iwanttouse
theGradienttool.TheGradienttoolallowsyoutopaintasmoothgradientfromone
colortoanother.

First,activatethe"Earbasecolor"layerandcreateanewlayeraboveit.Callthisnew
layer"Earshadows"andgroupitwiththebasecolorlayer.Thiswaythecolorwon't
spilloutsidetheear.Choosefortheforegroundadarkpinkcolorthatyouwantforthe
darkestpartoftheearshadow.

Next,clickontheGradienttooliconinthetoolbar.Takealookatthemenuatthetop
ofthescreen(picturebelow).Themostimportantoptionsarethefirsttwonumbered
items.

Thefirstoptionletsyouchoosewhatkindofgradientyouwant.Ifyoudon'tlikeany
oftheoptions,youcancreateyourownbyrightclickingononeofthegradientstyle
iconsandmanipulatingthecolorsandcolorspacingmanually.Youcanthensave
yournewgradientstyletouselater.Thistime,however,selectthestyleindicatedby
thewhitearrow.Thismakesagradientthatfadesfromtheforegroundcolorto
transparency.

Thesecondoptionallowsyoutoselecttheshapeofthegradient.Thistime,selectthe
veryfirsticon.Thismakesthegradientproceedinastraightline.

Nowyou'rereadytocolortheear.Selectthelargeearsection(loosely)withtheLasso
sothatthesmallerearsectionisn'taffected.ClickanddragtoapplytheGradienttool
approximatelyasindicatedinthepictures(below).Youcanaltertheappearanceof
theresultinggradientbychangingthestartandendpoints.Thisshouldapplya
gradualshadowtotheear.

Before During After

Repeatthisprocessfortheotherear.

Tadah!Youhavenowconvertedasimplesketchintoacutecomputergraphic.The
startingandendingpointsareshownbelow,alongwithanimageofthebunnywith
theoutlinemadeinvisiblesothatyoucanseejusttheeffectofthepaint.

Start Finish No Outline

Homework
Sketchasimplepicture,eitherbyhandtoscan,fromscratchusingtheBrushtool,or
usingtheBrushtooltotraceadigitalimage.Uselayerstocolorit.Itcouldbeas
simpleasthesmileyfacefromLesson5,justtrytogiveitshadowsandhighlightson
differentlayers.


Lesson7
Text
Playingwithphotosanddrawingsisallwellandgood,butoneofthemostfunparts
oftinkeringwithpicturesisputtingcaptionsonthem.Infact,textitselfcanbeturned
intoartwork,especiallyforthingssuchaslogos.Inthislessonwewillventureintothe
wonderfulworldofwords.

OpenanewimageandselecttheHorizontalTypetool
(hereafterabbreviatedassimply"Typetool,"sinceIonlyusetheVerticalTypetool
fortypingJapanese).

Next,lookattheTypemenu(right).

Itemnumberoneisthetoggleiconthatletsyouswitchbetweenhorizontaland
verticaltype.AsImentionedearlier,itisusefulmainlyifyouaretypinginJapanese
andwantthetexttorunvertically.IfyoutrytouseitwithregularEnglishtext,allit
doesisrotatethetext90clockwise.

Theseconditemisthepulldownmenuthatletsyouselectthefont.Personally,Iuse
thismenumorethanjustaboutanythingelse,becauseIabsolutelyadoreplayingwith
differentfonts.Choosingtherightfontcanreallymakeyourlogoorcaptioncome
alive.Forexample,lookattheword"Howdy"writteninthreequitedifferentfonts
(right)...whichdoyouthinkbestsuitstheword?Whichwouldmaketheviewer
confused?Whichonewillbereadableatthefontsizeyouintendtouse?Thereare
lotsoffontsoutthereforfreedownload,soit'sworthdoingalittlewebsearchingto
findsomethatyoulike.

Thethirditemisapulldownmenuthatallowsyoutoselectthefontstyleifthereis
oneavailable.Somefontshavestylessuchasboldoritalicthatyoucanchoose,but
manydon't,sotheusefulnessofthisvaries.

Numberfourmarksthepulldownmenugoverningfontsize.Thisisanother
extremelyusefulmenu.Youcanusethechoicesonthemenu,oryoucantypeina
numberiftheoptionyouwantisn'tavailable.Ifyouhighlightthenumber,youcan
increaseordecreaseonepointatatimewiththearrowkeyswhilewatchingtheeffect
onthetextintheimage.Thisletsyoufinetuneexactlywhatsizeisbest.

Numberfiveisapulldownmenuthatletsyouchangetheantialiasingofthetext.
Antialiasingmakesthebordersoftheletterssmooth;withmostothertools,this
functioniseitheronoroff.Withtext,however,youhavemorechoicesastohowthe
smoothingiscarriedout.Eachmethodmakesthetextappearslightlydifferent.At
largefontsizes,youmaynotbeabletotell,butatsmallfontsizes(suchasthoseused
incaptionsforLiveJournalicons),theantialiasingcanbethefinalfactordetermining
whetherornotthefontislegible.Ifindthat"strong"makesthetextmostclearat
extremelysmallfontsizes.

Sixthisthejustificationmenu.Thefontthatyoutypecanbeleftjustified,centered,or
rightjustifiedwithrespecttothepointontheimagethatyouclick.
Numbersevenisthecolorofthefont.Itistheforegroundcolorbydefault,butyou
canchangethefontcolorbyclickingonthisboxwithoutchangingtheforeground
color.ClickingtheboxopenstheColorPicker.

Numbereightistheiconthatopensthe"WarpText"dialoguebox.Thishastheeffect
ofbendingandtwistingthetextintodifferentshapesasillustratedabove.

LastisthetoggleiconfortheCharacterpalette
(right).IcannotstressenoughhowimportantitistohavetheCharacterpaletteopen
whenyouareworkingwithtext!Inadditiontotheitemsinthemenubar,ithasa
numberoffunctionsthatmakeyourworkimmenselyeasier.

1. First,thereisatabthatallowsyoutoswitchtotheParagraphpalette.The
functionsontheParagraphpalette,suchasjustificationandindentation,should
befamiliartoanyonewhousesawordprocessor.

2. Font.Thisisthesameasthemenubar.Anychangesmadeinoneplacewillbe
reflectedintheother.

3. Style.Thisisalsothesameasthemenubar.
4. Fontsize,againthesameasthemenubar.

5. Leading.ThisisoneoftheoptionsIusemostfrequently.Itallowsyoutoset
howmuchspacethereisbetweeneachlineoftext.Bymakingthisnumber
smaller,itreducestheamountofblankspacebetweenlines.Thisisconvenient
becauseitallowsyoutofitmoretextinalimitedspace.Youcanalsouseitto
spreadlinesfartherapart.

6. Verticallyscale.Withthisfunction,youcanincreaseordecreasetheheightof
thefontwithoutaffectingitswidth.

7. Horizontallyscale.Thisfunctionincreasesordecreasesthewidthofthefont
withoutaffectitsheight.

8. Tsume.ThisisaJapanesetermforafunctionthatscrunchescharacterscloser
together.

9. Tracking.Thisissimilartotsumeinthatitcansqueezecharacterscloser
together,butitcanalsospreadthemfartherapart.Iusethisfunctionoften
whenIwantthetexttotakeuplessspaceyetreducingthefontsizewould
makeitlessreadable.

10.Kerning.Thisisafunctionthatallowsletterswrittenataslant,suchasAand
V,tofitsnuglyagainsteachother,eventhoughwhatyoumightcalltheir
"personalspace"isoverlapping.Bydefault,mostfontswillhaveautomatic
kerning.Turningthekerningoffwillforcethemfartherapart.

11.Baselineshift.Thisallowsonesectionofacertainpieceoftexttoberaised
higherthanthesurroundingtextbyaspecifieddistance.

12.Color.Thisisthesameasthemenubar.

13.Fonteffects.Theseiconstogglefonteffects,suchasunderliningand
superscripts.Theyshouldbefamiliartoanyonewhouseswordprocessing
software.TheoneIwanttomentioninparticularisthefirsticon,"FauxBold."
Thisallowsthecomputertosimulateaboldversionofthefontevenwhenthe
fontitselfdoesn'thaveaboldversionavailable.Thiscansometimesmakefonts
withverynarrowlinesmorereadablebybroadeningthelines.Thesecondicon,
"FauxItalic,"doesthesamethingforitalics,thoughIdon'tuseitasmuch
becauseifIwantanitalicfontIwillusuallyjustchooseoneinthefirstplace.
 14.Language.Ineverusethismenu.

15.Antialiasing.Thisisthesameasthemenubar.

Nowtoputthisalltogethertocreatesomethingwithtext.Forthislesson,thegoalis
tomakeaLiveJournaluserpicture.Foragraphic,usethebunnyimagefromLesson
6.

Openthecompletedbunnyimage.Inordertomaximizetheavailable
space,changethecanvassizesothatthewidthmatchestheheight.(Ilikemyiconsto
beperfectsquares.)Whenyoudoso,anchortherightsideofthepicture.This
providesabitofspacetotheleftofthebunnyforwritingtext.

LiveJournalstipulatesthaticonscanbenolargerthan100by100pixels,soreduce
theimagetothissize.Itispossibletowritethetextatalargersizeandreducethe
imageafterward,butsomethingthatlooksfinewhenlargeisoftenhardertoreadafter
beingreduced.It'sbesttowritethetextatthefinalimagesize,ifpossible.Theresult
shouldlooklikethepicture(left).

Thenextstepistodecidewhattexttouseforthecaption.It'sagoodideato
brainstormanumberofoptionsandchoosetheoneyoulikebest.Here'sasampleof
mybrainstormlistforthisimage:

Bunny Love...{Hugs}...Bunny Hugs...

With Love...I You!...Love!...
Love makes the world go round.
Someone loves you!
Have you hugged someone today?

After a lot of thought, I decided that I was most inspired by the middle option, "Love makes the
world go round." That's what I will use for this example. There's no single "right" caption, of
course, so go with what strikes you.
 The next step is to choose
an appropriate font. There are six major categories of fonts:

Serif fonts
These are fonts like Times that have small "serifs" (sticky-out bits) on the letters. The serifs are
indicated by the black arrows in the picture (right). When reading long stretches of text, the serifs
help guide your eyes smoothly from one letter to the next. This type of font also has a chiseled,
professional look. At very small font sizes, however, the thin serifs tend to lose detail can can
detract from readability.

Sans serif fonts

These are fonts such as Arial that lack serifs. They have a clean, simple appearance. They are
good to use when you don't want the font to steal attention away from something else in the
picture. They also tend to be readable even at smaller sizes. Unfortunately, they often aren't very
exciting.

Script fonts
These fonts are designed to look like handwriting. The type of handwriting can vary from a
simple scribble to elaborate calligraphy. The one pictured is called Brush Script. These fonts
often have an elegant feel and are good for creating a mood, as in a caption for a romantic image.
They are also excellent choices for dignified ceremonial text, such as on official certificates.
Unfortunately, the flourished designs are almost always ruined at low font sizes. They need to be
relatively large for the effect to be most appreciated.

Block fonts
Block fonts are thick and chunky. A notable example of this type is Impact. These fonts are good
for logos and titles because they are extremely visible and easy to read. The drawback is that
they often don't fit in small spaces.

Artistic fonts
These fonts were designed specifically to look non-standard. The one in the picture is called
Jokerman. They are great for playful text, and there are fonts for all different moods, from sweet
to wacky to scary. The drawbacks are that the fonts can sometimes be so specialized that it's hard
to find effective outlets for them, and that they are frequently difficult to read because of all the
decorations that have been added to the letters.

Dingbat fonts
These fonts, such as Wingdings, are not used for text. Instead of letters, you get symbols and
icons and even detailed pictures when you type with them. They are very useful for adding
decoration to spice up your image, but sometimes you have to search through many tiny symbols
before finding one that suits your needs.

For the bunny icon, I want something that will match the picture, so it should be a font with a
round and cuddly feel. That means I probably won't use a serif font or a block font. The first
thing I do is type the caption and experiment by comparing different fonts to see which suits the
icon best. Select the Type tool and click somewhere blank on the image. It doesn't really matter
where you click; separate the cursor slightly from the text area and it will turn into a Move icon
that you can use to adjust the position of the text at any time. At this point, don't worry too much
about size or spacing, because that will come later. The pictures below show some of the fonts I
considered.

Abbey Advert AntsyPa Boomer Monoty Forte Kristen

Mediu nts ang pe MT ITC
m Corsiva
Extend
ed
I spent a long time debating. It was particularly hard to decide whether to go with cuddly
(Advert), warm (Forte), or childlike (Kristen). In the end I decided upon the latter because the
width of the strokes used for the letters matched well the cartoony outline of the bunny.

Now to fiddle with the size and placement of the letters. I don't want to change
the font size, because it's already very readable. However, it overlaps the bunny slightly. Also,
the comb-like nature of the right edge of the text doesn't look very good. To fix this:

1. Add some spaces in front of "the" and "go" to push them more toward the right.

2. Change the "leading" property on the Character palette to push the word "round" farther
down where it won't overlap the bunny.

3. Set the "tracking" property to -50 to move the word "world" away from the bunny's ear.

The result of these changes is shown on the right.

I was originally going to make the text pink to match the heart, but I changed my mind when I
noticed the way the black matched the outlines. However, then I looked at the Warp Text icon,
and a thought struck me. The "world go round" part of the text would look really nifty if I had
the text going in a circle around the bunny. But the way the image is set up now, there isn't space
around the bunny to do such a thing. Is my only option to quit out of the whole image, then
reopen it and start from scratch?

You should have the History palette open in your workspace,

just above the Layers palette. (If it's not there, open it now.) The History palette keeps track of
the most recent changes you make to your image, as shown in the picture (left). The number of
changes it keeps in memory is specified by your user preferences. (I believe the default is 20.) If
you surpass this number, the oldest changes are bumped off the list by the newer ones.
 Clicking on one of the items in the History palette makes your
image revert back to that change. This is an extremely quick way to undo multiple steps in an
instant if you make a mistake or change your mind. Scrolling all the way up to the beginning
shows the oldest change to which you can revert (right). In this case, the image hasn't had more
than 20 changes, so it goes all the way back to the point at which the file was opened. Clicking
on this first item is equivalent to closing the file and reopening it, but much faster.

Above the list item marked "Open" you should see a thumbnail picture. This is called a
"snapshot." The snapshot is made automatically when you first open the file. You can always
return at any time to this saved snapshot, even if you make so many changes that you push
"Open" off the list. What's more, you can make your own snapshots at any time by clicking on
the camera icon at the lower edge of the palette. This is like saving a document (or videogame) at
a certain point so that you can go back to that point later if the changes you make afterward turn
out to be unsatisfactory. This snapshots will never be pushed off the list, so you can rest assured
that you can go back whenever you need.

Note: This does not actually save the picture itself! If you suffer a computer crash or blackout or
other such problem, the History palette memory will be wiped as well. Don't rely on it to save
your work-in-progress in that sense.

One further advantage of snapshots is that they can be used as a basis

for the History Brush tool (left). This tool does not "paint." Rather, it is like "paint remover"; it
replaces anything it touches with a version of whatever was in that location at an earlier stage in
the image editing process. Think about an artist who has painted a picture and then at a later date
painted another picture over the top of it, hiding the first one. The History Brush is equivalent to
removing the paint of the second picture, revealing the first one underneath.

The small icon of the brush with a counterclockwise arrow over it that is in the box to the left of
the snapshot thumbnail in the History palette shows you from where the History Brush is
drawing its properties. If you make more snapshots, you can click the box by one of the new
snapshot thumbnails to set that as the basis for the History Brush instead.

Now back to the bunny picture. Click on the "Open" item in the History palette. This takes the
bunny back to its original state. The nice thing is, the rest of the changes in the History palette
remain the same until you erase them by performing a new action. If at this point you change
your mind again and want to go back to the way you had the image the first time, you can scroll
down and click on the last item on the History palette list, and there's no harm done. This is
something you definitely can't do if you simply close/reopen the file. You can use this ability to
toggle back and forth between an old version and new version of the image until you make up
your mind which you like best. (This is something I do all the time.)

Change the canvas size of the bunny, but this time make it so that there's plenty of room around
all sides for the words to fit. Then compress the image to 100 X 100 pixels. I want the caption to
go all the way around the bunny, but the Warp Text function can only warp the words into a
semi-circle at the most, so I will have to break the caption in half and handle each half separately.

Type "Love makes the" and select the

text, either by dragging the cursor over it or by using the shortcut Ctrl + A for "select all." Click
on the Warp Text icon on the menu bar. This will bring up the "Warp Text" dialogue box (left). I
chose a bend value of +100% to make the text arc in a complete semi-circle. When satisfied with
the appearance of the text, click "OK" or press Enter.

Accept the text by clicking on the check icon in the far right corner of the menu
bar, then repeat with the second half of the phrase. You may have to fiddle with the font size and
position to get it to fit properly. If you want the words in the second half to be right-side-up,
choose a bend with a negative value. I wanted them to continue upside-down, so I chose a
positive value and then used Edit Transform Rotate 180. When you are finished, it should
look like the picture on the right.
There you have it! You now know how to add text to an image and manipulate the text into the
size, shape, and position that you want.

Homework
Choose, paint, or scan an image that you like and add a caption to make it into an icon.
Experiment with several different fonts and font sizes. If appropriate, use Warp Text to make the
caption take on an interesting shape. Use the History palette to undo any mistakes or to go back
to a previous stage when you change your mind.

Lesson8
LayerStyle
Thegoalofthislessonistomakealogo.Unlikeanicon,wheresimpleisoftenbetter
becausethesmallsizemakesitdifficulttoseedetails,alogoshouldbelargeand
fancy.Forexample,havingthetextorimageinthelogostandoutinthreedimensions
makesitmoreeyecatching.YouknowfromLesson6,however,thatitcanbequite
timeconsumingtopaintshadowsandhighlightsbyhandtoprovideathree
dimensionalappearance.Thislessonwilldemonstratehowtotakeadvantageof
Photoshop'scapabilitiestodothesamethingmuchmorequicklyandeasily.

Openanew
imageandtypethetextthatyouintendtouseforyourlogo.ThelogoIdecidedupon
isshowninthepicture(left).Alarge,blockstylefontisoftenagoodchoice;thisone
iscalledGoudyStout.Noticethatwhenyoufinishtypingyourlogo,thetext
automaticallyformsinitsownlayerontopofthebackground.
 Next,opentheLayerStylemenu.
Youcandothisinoneofthreeways:

1. ClickLayerLayerStyle

2. DoubleclickonthelayerintheLayerspalette

3. ClickontheLayerStyleiconatthebottomleftoftheLayerspalette

Thefirstitemonthelist,BlendingOptions,willgetitsownlessonlater,sowe'llskip
itforthemoment.Choosethesecondmenuitem,DropShadow.Thisfunctionapplies
ashadowtoanyobjectsinthelayer.DropShadowisextremelyuseful,sofamiliarize
yourselfwellwiththeoptionsinthedialoguebox(below).
1. Thisitemletsyouchangetheblendmodeoftheshadow.

2. Thisboxallowsyoutochangethecoloroftheshadow.Thedefaultisblack,
butyoucanmakeitanycoloryoulikebyclickingonthisboxandselecting
withtheColorPicker.

3. Youcanchangetheopacityoftheshadowtomakeitstrongerorfaintertosuit
yourimage.

4. Changingtheangleofthelightmakestheshadowprojectindifferent
directions.

5. Thedistancegovernshowfartheshadowisfromtheobjectcastingit.The
higherthenumber,thefartherawayyourobjectappearstobe"floating"above
itsshadow.

6. Thisitemletsyouincreaseordecreasethewidthoftheshadow.
 7. Withthisyoucanmaketheshadowsmallandcrisporlargeandblurry.

8. Thispulldownmenuallowsyoutoalterthecontouratwhichtheshadowis
applied.Youcanchoosefromthelistorcreateyourown.

9. Thisitemletsyouadd"noise"totheshadowtomakeitgrainy.

Thepicturesbelowillustratehowchangingthesepropertiescanalterthelookofthe
shadow.

Contour:
Color: Angle: Distance: Spread: Size: Noise:
Ring-
Black 120 1 0 0 0
Double

Contour:
Color: Angle: Distance: Spread: Size: Noise:
Cone-
Brown 45 10 30 10 30
Inverted
ThenextitemintheLayerStylemenuisInnerShadow.WhereastheDropShadow
projectstheshadowoutwardfromtheobject,InnerShadowprojectstheshadow
inwardontopoftheobjectitself.Themaindifferenceinthemenuisthat"Spread"is
replacedby"Choke,"whichgovernshowfarintotheobjecttheshadowreaches.

Thispicture(left)illustratesanInnerShadowwithanangleof45anda
"Sawtooth"contour.It'sagoodideatoplayaroundwiththesettingsforyourselfto
seewhattheydo.Youmightbesurprisedbytheeffectsyoucanget.
 Th
enextimportantmenuitemisOuterGlow.ItissimilartoDropShadow,exceptthatit
surroundstheobjectwithahaloofalightcolorthatfadestotransparency.Thismakes
yourobjectappeartoglow,particularlyagainstadarkbackground.Ifyouaretryingto
writedarktextoveradarkbackground,thisisonewaytomakeyourwordsmore
legible.

Youcanusethedialoguebox(right)tochangethecoloroftheglowwhere
indicatedbythearrow.Ifyouclickthepulldownmenu,youcanchangethehalo
fromasinglecolorgradienttoanyofthegradientpatternsthatarestoredonyour
computer.Thepicture(left)showsanOuterGlowsetforanorangeandyellow
gradient.The"Jitter"optionatthebottomofthemenuwillmakethegradientcolors
speckletogether.

Unlikedropshadow,whichissetforablendmodeof"Multiply"bydefault,theOuter
Glowissetfor"Screen."Theresultofthisisthattheglowwillbeinvisibleagainsta
whitebackground.Ifyouhaveawhite(orotherlightcolor)background,youwill
havetochangetheblendmodetomaketheglowvisible.
 InnerGlowissimilartoOuterGlowexceptthatitprojectsthecolorinward
ontopoftheobject,asshowninthepicture(left).

Ne
xtistheBevelandEmbossdialoguebox(right).Thisisoneofthemostfunitemsin
theLayerStylemenu.Withthis,youcanmaketheobjectsinthelayerpopoutorsink
downintothebackgroundasifthreedimensional.

Thetypeofbevelorembossfunctionappliedtoyourlayerisdeterminedbythepull
downmenuattheverytop,whereindicatedbythearrow.Directlybelowthisis
anotherpulldownmenuthatmanageshowthebevelisapplied.Thepicturesbelow
illustratevariouscombinationsoftheseoptions.
 Outer Bevel Outer Bevel
Smooth Chisel Hard

Inner Bevel Inner Bevel

Smooth Chisel Hard

Emboss Emboss
Smooth Chisel Hard

Pillow Emboss Pillow Emboss

Smooth Chisel Hard

Youcantogglethebevelupwardordownwardandyoucanalteritssizeandsoftness.
Thebottomsectionofthedialogueboxallowsyoutofinetunethehighlightand
shadowthatisapplied.

BevelandEmbosshastwosubmenuitems:ContourandTexture.Contourappliesa
contourtothebevel.

TheTextureitemappliesatexturetotheobject.Thetexturesareavailable
fromthe"Pattern"pulldownmenu.Youcanusethelibraryofpatternsthatcomes
withthesoftware,oryoucandesignyourownandaddthemtothelist.Thepicture
(right)wasdonewiththesettingsshown(below).
TheSatinitemappliesadarkwavyshadowovertheobject.Theappearanceofthe
shadowcanbealteredconsiderablybychoosingadifferentcontour.Youcanalso
changethecoloroftheshadowifyoudon'tlikeblack,oryoucanuncheck"Invert"to
maketheshadowglowbright.Thepicturesbelowshowsomeoftheeffects.

Contour: Contour:
Ring - Double Gaussian
ColorOverlaydoesexactlywhatitsaysitcoverstheobjectwithacolorofyour
choice.Thisisparticularlyusefulifyouintendtosavethestyleforuselater
(explainedbelow)andwanttosavethecoloralongwithit.Youcanchangethe
opacityofthecolortowhateverlevelyoudesire,andyoucanalterhowtheoverlay
colorblendswiththecolorsoftheobject.
 GradientOverlayissimilar,butinsteadofasolidcolor,itcoverstheobject
withagradientofyourchoice.Inthepicture(left),Iusedthegradienttomakethe
objectintoaMichiganfan.Youcantiltthegradientinanydirectionyoulike,andyou
canchangetheproportionalwidthsofthecolors.Youcanevenadjusttheopacityand
blendingmodeofthegradientsothatitblendswiththeobject'soriginalcolor.

PatternOverlay,ontheotherhand,coverstheobjectwithapatternfromthe
"Pattern"menu.AswiththeTextureoption,youcanusetheavailabledesignsoryou
cancreateyourown.Thepicture(right)usesapatterncalled"Gauze."

Color Gradient Pattern

Black White to Black Sakura
Thelastmenuitem,Stroke,isimmenselyvaluable.Itsurroundsyourobjectwitha
border.Youcanspecifythecolorandwidthoftheborder.Ifyoulike,youcanalsofill
theborderwithagradientorapatterninsteadofasolidcolor.Stroke,usedproperly,
canreallymaketheobjectsinthelayerstandoutfromthebackground.Thepictures
(left)demonstratethethreetypesofStroke.(Thesakurapatternissimplyagrayscale
imageofcherryblossomsfromaphotographthatIsavedasapattern.)

Nowit'stimeto
combinetheeffectstomakethelogo.Iusedthefollowinglistofstylestocreatethe
logointhepicture(right).

1. DropShadow,Color:DarkBrown

2. BevelandEmboss,Style:InnerBevel

3. Contour:Linear

4. Texture:Clouds
 5. Stroke,Size:1px,Color:DarkBrown

Butwait!Itdoesn'tendthere.EventhoughtheLayer
Stylemenuisalotfasterthanhandpaintingtheeffects,itcanbetimeconsumingto
experimentwithallthepossibilitiestofindtheperfectcombination.Plus,onceyou
havethesettingsexactlythewayyouwantthem,whatdoyoudoifyoueverwantto
usethesamesettingsagain?

Fortunately,PhotoshopmakesusingthesestyleseveneasierwiththeStylespalette
(left).Itcomeswithanumberofpresetstylessothatallyouhavetodoisclickonthe
menuandthatstylewillbeappliedtotheactivelayer.Ifyoudesignyourownstyle
that'sperfectforyourneeds,youcansaveitbydragginganddroppingthelayeronto
theStylespalette.Thatwayyoucanusethesamestyleagainwithoneclickatany
time.Ifyoudecideyoudon'tneedthatstyleanymore,youcanalwaysdeleteitfrom
thepalettelater.

Ifyoudon'tneedtosavethestyletotheStylespalette
butwouldstillliketousethesamestyleonmorethanonelayerinthesameimage,
youcandothataswellwithoutgoingthroughallthetroubleofreselectingallthe
styleoptions.RightclickonthelayerintheLayerspaletteandselect"CopyLayer
Style"fromthepopupmenu.(YoucouldalternativelyclickLayer LayerStyle
CopyLayerStyle.)Oncethestyleiscopied,youcanapplyitbypastingitonanother
layer.
OnceLayerStylehasbeenappliedtoalayer,theindividualstylesettingsshowupin
theLayerspaletteasillustratedinthepicture(right).Eachsettinghasaneyeiconnext
toitthatyoucanusetotogglethevisibilityofthatparticularsettingwithoutchanging
therest.Forexample,youcantoggletheStrokeonandoffwithoutchangingtheDrop
Shadow,toseewhichwayyoulikeitbest.Theeyeiconforthelinenamed"Effects"
togglesvisibilityforallthestylesettingsatonce.Youcanalsodeleteanindividual
settingbyselectingitintheLayerspaletteanddraggingittothetrashcanicon.
ClickingthetrianglenexttotheLayerStyleicononanindividuallayerhidesthestyle
settingsforthatlayer.

Homework
CreateyourownlogoanduseLayerStyletospiceitup.ExperimentwithDrop
Shadow,BevelandEmboss,andStrokeinparticular.Whenyouaresatisfiedwiththe
result,savethestyletotheStylespalette.

 Lesson9
BlendMode
Forthemostpart,inthelessonsthusfar,wehavenottouchedmuchuponblend
mode.Ifyoustackonelayerontopofanotherintheimage,thelayerontopobscures
whateverisbeneathit.Thisisthedefault,"Normal"blendmode.Toseewhatis
beneaththetoppicture,youhavetoreduceeithertheOpacityortheFillofthelayer,
orelseyoumusthidethetoplayercompletelybytogglingthevisibilityicon.

Inthislesson,youwillseehowtoblendthetoplayerwiththelayerbeneathitin
variouswaystoachieveartisticeffects.Todemonstratehowblendinglayersworks,I
willusetwopicturestakenattheImperialPalaceinKyotoduringcherryblossom
season.Theeffectsofchangingtheblendmodearedifficulttodescribewithwords,
sothislessonwillrelyheavilyonexampleimages.AfterIhaveshownwhatthe
differentblendmodesdo,Iwillgivesomeexamplesofhowtousethemtoenhance
yourimages.

WhenthetwopicturesarestackedontopofeachotherinthesameimageinNormal
mode,theresultisasshown(below).

+ =

Top Bottom Normal

Reducingtheopacityofthetoplayerto50%letsthebottomlayershowthrough
(below).However,thiscanresultinquitethegarbledeffect,asyoucansee.
 + =

Normal (Opacity:
Top Bottom
50%)

ClickontheblendmodepulldownmenuintheLayers
palette(left).Therearemanydifferentblendingoptionsfromwhichtochoose,and
theyallaffectthelayerdifferently.Withthecherryblossomlayeractiveandstillat
50%opacity,usethismenutochangethemodefromNormaltoDissolve.Theresult
isillustratedbelow.


Normal Dissolve
Opacity: 50% Opacity: 50%
Whatdissolvedoesisactuponalayerthathaslessthan100%opacitytoscatter
randomspecklesacrossthelayercontents.Thisiscalled"dither."Dissolvealsoworks
onthingspainteduponthelayer,suchaswiththeBrushtool.

Hereisthecherryblossomimagewithaseriesof
butterfliespaintedacrossitusingtheBrushtool(right).Byputtingthebutterfliesin
theirownlayerandsettingthelayertoDissolve,theedgesofthebutterfliesare
ditheredratherthansharp.

Thenextitemonthelist,Darken,comparesthepixelcolorofthetoplayerwiththe
pixelcolorofthebottomlayeranddisplaysonlythedarkerofthetwo(below).

+ =

Top Bottom Darken

Thiseffectcanbeusedtochangethecolorofthelightpixelsinanimagewithout
changingthedarkpixels(below).

+ =

Top Bottom Darken

Thenextoptiononthelist,Multiply,multipliesthepixelcolorvaluesofthetopand
bottomlayersanddisplaystheresult(below).Itgivesaneffectsimilartoadouble
exposure.ItlooksratherlikeDarken,butinsteadofreplacingonecolorwiththeother,
itcombinesthetwo,asyoucanseewhenyouuseasolidcolorasthetoplayer.Any
whiteareasinthetoplayerareeffectivelytransparentinMultiplymode.

+ =

Top Bottom Multiply

+ =

Top Bottom Multiply

ColorBurnmodeusesthetoplayerto"shade"thebottomlayer(below).Whitepixels
inthetoplayerareignored.Thisisequivalenttoreducingthelightexposurefora
photograph,makingtheimagedarkeroverall.

+ =

Top Bottom Color Burn

+ =

Top Bottom Color Burn

Thenextitem,LinearBurn,doesthesamething,exceptthatitmakesthebottom
imageevendarker(below).

+ =

Top Bottom Linear Burn

 TheBurneffectisnotlimitedtoblendmode.Ifyoulookat

Before After
thetoolbar,youcanseethatthereisalsoaBurntool(left).Thistoolmakeswhatever
ittouchesdarker.(Thehandiconistorepresentshadinganobjectwithyourhand
beforetakingaphotographofit.)

ThesepicturesshowtheresultofusingtheBurntoolinsidetheareaindicatedbythe
pinkcircle(right).

ThenextsectionofblendmodeoptionsisheadedupbyLighten.Thisistheopposite
ofDarken.Thetwolayersarecompared,andthelighterpixelcolorisdisplayed
(below).Inthismode,blackpixelsinthetoplayerareeffectivelytransparent.

+ =

Top Bottom Lighten

 + =

Top Bottom Lighten

ScreenmodeistheoppositeofMultiplymode.Itinvertsthecolorsofthetopand
bottomlayersfirstbeforemultiplyingthem.Theresultistomaketheimagelighter
(below).Thismodeisoftenusedwhenonewantstomakepartofanimageappearto
glow.

+ =

Top Bottom Screen

+ =

Top Bottom Screen

ColorDodgeistheoppositeofColorBurn.Insteadof"shading"thebottomlayer,it
usesthetoplayertoincreasethelightexposureofthebottomlayer(below).Thiscan
beparticularlyeffectivewhenthebottomlayerisverydarkandyouwanttobrighten
it.Anyblackpixelsinthetoplayerareignored.
 + =

Top Bottom Color Dodge

+ =

Top Bottom Color Dodge

LinearDodgeisamoreextremeversionofColorDodge,increasingthelightexposure
evenfurther(below).

+ =

Top Bottom Linear Dodge

+ =
 Top Bottom Linear Dodge

Before After

AsthereisaBurntool,thereisalsoaDodgetool.Thisallowsyoutolightenanarea
oftheimage,asillustratedbythepictures(right).
ThenextsectionoftheblendmodemenustartswithOverlay.Thismodecombines
MultiplyandScreenmodes.Wherethebottomlayerisdark,itusesMultiplymode,
andwherethebottomlayerislight,itusesScreenmode.Theeffectistomakethe
darksdarkerandthelightslighter(below).

+ =

Top Bottom Overlay

 + =

Top Bottom Overlay

SoftLightisalsoamodethatmakesdarksdarkerandlightslighter,butitdoesso
usingadifferentcombination.SoftLightexaminesthetoplayerandappliesBurnto
thedarkpixelsandDodgetothelightpixels(below).Thisgivesamuchmore
subduedblendthanOverlay.Thismodeisfrequentlyusedwhenpaintinghighlights.

+ =

Top Bottom Soft Light

+ =

Top Bottom Soft Light

HardLightagainexaminesthetoplayerandusesacombinationofmodes.Itisthe
exactoppositeofOverlay;itusesMultiplyonthedarkpixelsofthetoplayerand
Screenonthelightpixelsofthetoplayer(below).Youcanswitchbetweentheresult
ofHardLightandtheresultofOverlaybyreversingtheorderofthetwolayers.
 + =

Top Bottom Hard Light

+ =

Top Bottom Hard Light

VividLightisanexaggeratedversionofSoftLight.Itappliesthesamecombination
ofeffectsbutraisesthecontrastonthedarkareasandlowersthecontrastonthelight
areas(below).

+ =

Top Bottom Vivid Light

 + =

Top Bottom Vivid Light

LinearLightisanotherexaggerationofSoftLight.ItusesastrongerBurnonthedark
areasandastrongerDodgeonthelightareas(below).

+ =

Top Bottom Linear Light

+ =

Top Bottom Linear Light

PinLightgivesaninterestingcombination.Itexaminesthetoplayer.Wherethetop
layerisextremelylightorextremelydark,itletsthetoplayershow.Wherethetop
layerismoreneutral,itletsthebottomlayershow(below).
 + =

Top Bottom Pin Light

+ =

Top Bottom Pin Light

Ifyou'reintowildandwackyorarelookingforapsychedelicorsurrealeffect,the
nextsectionisforyou.DifferencemodecomparestheRGBvaluesforthecolorsin
thetwolayersandsubtractsthedarkervaluefromthelightervalue(below).Sincethe
valueofblackiszero,anyblackareasshownochange.

+ =

Top Bottom Difference

 + =

Top Bottom Difference

ExclusionmodeisamoresubduedversionofDifferencemode(below).

+ =

Top Bottom Exclusion

+ =

Top Bottom Exclusion

Huemodeappliesonlythehueofthetoplayertothesaturationandluminosityofthe
bottomlayer(below).Thiscanturnaregularlandscapeimageintoafantasyland.
 + =

Top Bottom Hue

+ =

Top Bottom Hue

Saturationmodeappliesthesaturationofthetoplayertothehueandluminosityofthe
bottomlayer(below).

+ =

Top Bottom Saturation

+ =
 Top Bottom Saturation
Colormodecombinesthehueandsaturationofthetoplayerandappliesthembothto
theluminosityofthebottomlayer(below).

+ =

Top Bottom Color

+ =

Top Bottom Color

Luminositymodecombinestheluminosityofthetoplayerwiththehueandsaturation
ofthebottomlayer(below)

+ =

Top Bottom Luminosity

 + =

Top Bottom Luminosity

Now,youmayhavelookedattheresultingcombinationsdisplayedaboveand
thought,"Ewwww,whywouldIeverwanttodothat?!"or"Butwhatonearth
isthatgoodfor...?"Theanswerstobothquestionsdependonthecontentsofthe
layersandyourgoalsfortheimage.

Let'ssay,forexample,thatthere'sonepartofyourimagethatyouwishtoemphasize
withrespecttotherestoftheimage.InthepictureofthegardenoftheImperial
Palace,Imaywanttodrawtheobserver'seyestothelantern.Watchwhathappens
whenIaddalayerontopofthelanternimagethatcontainsasimpleblackandwhite
gradientdrawnwiththeGradienttool(below).

+ =

Top Bottom Soft Light

+ =

Top Bottom Lighten

Youcanevenuseanimagetoenhanceitself.IfIwanttobrightenthelighthittingthe
cherryblossoms,Icantakeadvantageoftheblendmodetolettheimageitselfdothe
work(below).Iftheeffectseemstoobrightorstrongatfirst,decreasetheopacityof
thetoplayertoanacceptablelevel.

+ =

Overlay (Opacity:
Top Bottom
75%)
Youdon'thavetousetheentireimageifthere'sonlyacertainpartthatyouwantto
emphasize.Inthepicture(below)IusedtheEllipticalMarqueetoselectthelantern
andfeatheredtheedgeby10pixels.ThenIsimplycopiedandpastedtheselection
areatoanewlayerandchangedtheblendmode.

+ =

Top Bottom Multiply

Youcanusetheblendmodesincombinationwithtexttoaddaspecialtouch(below).
IusedafontcalledPristinawitha30DropShadow.
 + =

Top Bottom Luminosity

EventheDifferenceandExclusionmodes,whichlookbizarrewhenusedwithcolor,
canbequiteelegantinblackandwhite(below).ForthisimageImadeacircular
gradientinanewlayerontopofthebunnyoutlinefromLesson6.

+ =

Top Bottom Exclusion

Homework
Openadigitalphotographanddooneofthefollowingthreethings(orallthreeif
you'reambitious):
Copy and paste all or part of a different picture (or even the same picture) on top of the
background and see what happens when you change the blend mode.
Create a new, blank layer on top of the background and use the Brush tool (or Gradient tool)
to draw in the new layer. Experiment with the blend mode.
Use the Text tool to type a caption for the image and change the blend mode of the text layer.

Lesson10
Filters
 Therestillremainsoneactionmenuthatwehavenot
yetused,andthatistheFiltermenu(left).Therearefartoomanyfiltersformeto
describeeverysingleoneindetail.Instead,Iwilldiscussthemainmenuitemsand
someofthemoreusefulsubmenuitemsanddemonstratewaystousethemtoobtain
oftensurprisingresults.Iwillalsoshowhowfilterscanbeusedincombinationto
makeyourimagereallysparkle.

TheverytopitemonthemenuwiththekeyboardshortcutCtrl+Fissimplya
repetitionofthelastfilterthatyouused.Itwillchangeeverytimeyouuseadifferent
filter.Thisisaconvenientfunctionbecausesometimesthesamefiltermustbeapplied
multipletimesinsuccessiontoattainthedesiredresult.

Extractisafunctionthathelpsyouextractanobjectfromthebackground.Itissimilar
totheLasso,exceptthatitprovidesfarmoreprecision.Itisgenerallyusedwhenthe
outlineofanobjectisdifficulttotracebyhand,particularlyincasesofanimalsor
peoplewithstrayhairsflyingabout.

OpentheimagefromwhichyouwishtoextractanobjectandactivatetheExtract
filter.Asanexample,Ihavechosenaflowerwithalotofhairlikeprojections(below).
Usethehighlightertohighlighttheedgesoftheobjecttobeextracted.Thekeyisto
usearelativelythinlineonclearedgesandathicklineonedgesthataremore
difficulttodiscern.
 Whenyou've
finishedhighlightingtheedge,theimageshouldlooksomethinglikethepictureon
theleft.UsethepaintbucketFilliconandclickontheinsideofthehighlightedareato
showwhichpartyouwanttokeepandthenperformtheextraction.(Youcanalso
finetunefirstusingthePreviewfunction.)Theresultingextractedflowershouldlook
likethepictureontheright.

Ifyoufindyou'rehavingahardtimeextractinganimagewiththeotherselection
tools,youmightwanttogiveExtractatry.

Thenextitemonthemenu,Liquify,allowsyoutowarptheimage.TheLiquify
workspacelookssimilartotheExtractworkspace,butithasasetoftoolsfortwisting,
rippling,expanding,contracting,andmakingothersuchchangestotheimage.These
toolssmearthecolorsasiftheimageweremadeofwetpaint.

ThePatternMakeritemtakesarectangularselectionandsamplesthepixelsinitto
createatilethatcanthenberepeatedasapattern.Thispatterncanbesavedtouse
laterasatexture,oryoucanuseitasanimage,suchasforthebackgroundofaweb
page.
 Forexample,aclippingfromtheyellow
flowerpicture(left)couldbeconvertedintoarepeatingpatternsimilartotheone
shown(right).Ifyouarenothappywiththefirstpatterngenerated,youcankeep
generatingmorerandompatternsuntilyougettoonethatsuitsyourneeds.
Fortherestofthefilters,nothingbeatsexperimentationtofamiliarizeyourselfwith
whattheycando.Manyofthemusetheforegroundandbackgroundcolorsfortheir
effects.Igeneratedtheseexampleswithawhiteforegroundandapinkbackground.
Eachfilterhasitsowndialogueboxwithsettingsthatcandrasticallychangethe
result,soplayaroundwiththevalueswhilewatchingthepreviewtoseewhat
happens.

Artistic
Thissubmenuallowsyoutosimulatetheeffectofusingartisticequipmentandmedia
suchascoloredpencils,pastels,andwatercolors.Someexamplesoftheeffectsare
shownbelow.Formost,theartisticeffectisobvious...butplasticwrap?Surprisingly,
thisfilterisusefulforgivingobjectsinyourimageawatery,glassy,orevenmetallic
shine.Itcanalsobeusedtogiveobjectsa"gummy"appearancethat'sgreatforlogos.
 Colored Dry Plastic Rough
Cutout Sponge
Pencil Brush Wrap Pastels
Blur
TheBlursubmenudoesexactlywhatitsaysitblursyourimage.Thethreemost
importantitemsonthemenuareGaussianBlur,whichallowsyoutospecifyhow
manypixelstoblur,MotionBlur,whichcauses"speedlines,"andRadialBlur,which
eitherswirlsthepictureinacircle(below)ormakeslinesradiatingoutwardfroma
point.GaussianBlurisinvaluableforsofteningitemsinyourimage,especiallywhen
paintinghighlightsandshadowsbyhandoraddingasoftglow.MotionBlurand
RadialBlurcanbeusefulincombinationwithotherfilterstomakepatternsand
textures.

Gaussian Blur Motion Blur Radial Blur

BrushStrokes
ThisisverysimilartotheArtisticsubmenu.Someofthepossibleresultsareshown
below.

Accented Angled Crosshat Sprayed

Spatter Sumi-e
Edges Strokes ch Strokes
Distort
TheDistortsubmenuwarpsanddisruptstheimageinanumberofdifferent,often
extremeways.Someimportantexamplesareshownbelow.Shear,inparticular,is
helpfulwhenyouwanttowarpanobjecttofitaspecificcurve,suchaswhenyouadd
alogoorpatterntosomethingyouwanttoappearthreedimensional.

Diffuse Ocean
Glass Shear Spherize zigzag
Glow Ripple
Noise
TheNoisesubmenuisusedespeciallywhenrepairingphotographs.Ithelpstomake
smallblemisheslessnoticeable.Itcanalsoaddnoise,whichisconvenientwhen
combiningfilterstomakepatterns.TheitemsoftheNoisesubmenuareillustrated
below.

Dust &
Add Noise Despeckle Median
Scratches
Pixelate
TheitemsonthePixelatesubmenudistortthecolorsoftheimagebygroupingareas
ofnearbypixelstogetherintolargeblocksordividingportionsoftheimageinto
variousshapesandsizes.Examplesofthisareshownbelow.
Crystalliz Mezzotin Pointilliz
Facet Fragment Mosaic
e t e
Render
Thissubmenuallowssophisticatedthreedimensionalmanipulationandlighting
effects.Thecloudfilters,inparticular,areextremelyconvenientwhencombining
filterstomakepatterns.Samplesofthissubmenu'sfunctionsareillustratedbelow.

3D Difference Lighting
Clouds Lens Flare
Transform Clouds Effects
Sharpen
Thisisanothersubmenuoftenusedforphotorepair.Itemphasizestheoutlinesof
objectsasdeterminedbysharpdifferencesincolororintensity.Theitemsofthesub
menuaredemonstratedbelow.

Sharpen Sharpen Edges Sharpen More Unsharp Mask

Sketch
Thisisanothersubmenudesignedtosimulateartisticdrawingtechniquesandmedia.
Mostoftheitemsinthesubmenurelyheavilyontheforegroundandbackground
colors.Someexamplesareshownbelow.

Cont Graphic Halftone Photocop Torn Water

Crayon Pen Pattern y Edges Paper
Stylize
Thissubmenudistortstheimagecolorsinextremeways.Itisveryusefulwhen
designingpatternsandlogos.Samplesofthissubmenuareillustratedbelow.

Find Glowing Trace

Diffuse Extrude Wind
Edges Edges Contour
Texture
Asthenamesuggests,thissubmenuappliesathreedimensionalorothertextureto
theimage,asshownbelow.Ifusedcreatively,theseitemscanincrediblyenhance
yourwork.
 Craquelu Mosaic Patchwor Stained Texturize
Grain
re Tiles k Glass r
Video
Theitemsinthissubmenuapplytovideoandnotstillimages.

Other
Thissubmenuallowsvariousotherfunctions(below).Inparticular,theCustomitem
letsyouinputvaluestodesignyourownfilter.

Custom High Pass Maximum Minimum Offset

Digimarc
Thisallowsyoutoembedorreadanelectronic"watermark"tosignalthattheimageis
yourcopyrightedproperty.

Thefiltersthemselvescanprovideamazingresults,buttherealpowerliesin
combiningthemtocreatenewanduniqueeffects.Belowaresomesuggestionsfor
waysthatyoucancombinefilters.

ColorfromNothing
TheAddNoisefilterhasthepropertyofintroducingcolorwheretherewasn'tany
before.Youcanfollowthiswithotherfilterstoexaggeratethecolorsthatarecreated,
asshownbelow.Thefiltersinthisexampleareappliedsequentially,butyoucould
stopatanypointinthesequenceifyouliketheeffect.
 Fill Add Pointilliz Dry Rough Spatter
(Reddish Noise e Brush Pastels (10, 5)
Gray) (20%) (Size: (10, 5, 1) (10, 5,
15) Sandston
e)
FromCirclestoSquares
Youcanusethefilterstochangetheshapesthatmakeuptheimage,fromdotsto
polygonstosquares.Fortheexamplebelow,Iinvertedtheforegroundand
backgroundcolors.Dependingonyourneeds,youcanusevariousfilterstocreate
perfectcircles,stripes,cleansquares,andanumberofwhorledandmottledpatterns.
Inparticular,thePixelatefilterColorHalftoneandtheSketchfilterHalftonePattern
givepolkadots,checks,andstripesthatcanbethenbemodifiedfurtherintotextile
likedesigns,amongotherpatterns.

Fill Pointilliz Gaussian Stained Crosshat Sponge

(Dark e Blur Glass ch (0, 5, 1)
Pink) (Size: (2px) (10, 5, 3) (20, 10,
20) 2)
IfatFirstYouDon'tSucceed
Sometimesapplyingthesamefiltermorethanonceisthewaytoachievetheresult
youdesire.Inthisexample,I'mtryingtosimulatecloudsatsunset...butCloudsby
itselfreallydoesn'tdothetrick.ThusIaddedandrepeatedotherfiltersuntilitlooked
thewayIwantedit.Thesequenceoffiltersisdemonstratedbelow.Otherfiltersthat
benefitfromrepetitionareDifferenceCloudsandFindEdges.

Clouds Unsharp Unsharp Wind Wind Gaussian

Mask Mask (Stagger, (Stagger, Blur
(250%, (250%, Right) Right) (2px)
25px, 0) 25px, 0)
Inadditiontoclouds,variouscombinationsoffilterscanbeusedtosimulateanimal
fur,woodgrain,stone,water...lotsofdifferentpatterns.Useyourimaginationand
experimentforyourself!

Homework
Combineasequenceofatleastthreedifferentfilterstoobtainapatternthatyoulike.

Thisisthelastoftheintermediatelevellessons,soifthereisanythingyoudon't
understandwellyet,gobackandpracticeitbeforeproceeding.

 Lesson11
Masks
I'vedabbledabitinwatercolors,andoneofthetechniquesapaintercanuseisto
applymaskingtapearoundtheintendedworkareaonthecanvas.Whenthepainting
isfinished,themaskingtapeisremoved,leavinganice,crisp,cleanborder.Thereis
alsoaliquidequivalenttomaskingtapecalledmaskingfluidthatcanbepaintedonto
thecanvaswithabrush.Likemaskingtape,thisprotectsthewhiteofthecanvas.
Stencilsareusedsimilarlytopaintdesigns,andtheadvantageofastencilisthatone
stencilcanbeusedtopainttheexactsameshapeoverandover.

Photoshophasversionsofallthesemethods.Theyarecalled"masks"andfunction
justlikemaskingtape,maskingfluid,orstencils.Whatamaskdoesiscoveraportion
ofalayertopreventany"paint"fromcontaminatingthatarea.Theadvantagethat
Photoshopmaskshaveovermorephysicalmethodsisthattheycanbefeatheredinto
manyshadesofgray,allowingsomepaintthrough,dependingonthedesiredeffect.

Iwillstarttheexplanationwiththispictureof
KinkakujiinKyoto(left).Notethattheskyisverywashedout,nearlywhite.I'dlike
todarkenthecoloroftheskytomakeitmorecompelling.

Previously,inLesson5,Idemonstratedhowtouseselectiontoolstoselectonearea
ofthephototochangeitscolor.Thatis,indeed,ahandyfunction.However,afterI've
adjustedpartofthepicture,whatifIdecidelaterthatI'mnolongersatisfiedwithit
andwanttochangeitagain?I'vedonealotofothereditingsincethen,andthatareais
nolongerselected.Iwouldhavetogothroughthewholeselectionprocessallover
again,andthenImightnotgettheselectionexactlythesame,whichwouldleave
imperfectionsinthepicture.
Thesolutiontothatproblemistoturntheselectionareaintoamask,sothatnoother
partsofthepictureareaffected,andgivethemaskitsownlayer,separatefromthe
restofthepicture.ThatwayIcancomebacktoitandfiddlewiththatoneareaatany
time.

First,usetheselectiontoolstoselectthedesiredareaof
thepictureinthiscase,thesky.Next,withthatareastillselected,createanewlayer
andclickthe"Addlayermask"iconatthebottomoftheLayerspalette.Whenyoudo,
yourpaletteshouldlooklikethepictureontheright.Yournewlycreatedlayernow
hastheequivalentofmaskingtapeframingthesky.Nomatterwhatyoupaintorfill
thelayerwith,onlythepartovertheskywillshow.

Nowtakeacloserlookatthemaskitself.Alt
+clickonthemaskthumbnailintheLayerspalette.Yourimageshouldchangeto
looksomethinglikethepictureontheleft.Ifyoulookatyourforegroundand
backgroundcolors,theywillalsohavechanged.Bydefault,theforegroundiswhite
andthebackgroundisblack.Masksarealwaysingrayscale.
Theblackrepresentsthe"maskingtape"orhiddenarea.Thewhiterepresentsthepart
thatcanshowthroughtothelayerbeneath.Grayrepresentsanareawherealittle
showsthrough,butnotatfullstrength.Inmypicture,theoutlinewheretheskymakes
contactwiththetreesisblurrybecauseIfeatheredtheselectionbytwopixels.You
canpaintonthemaskitself,ifyoulike.Thisalterswhatshowsthroughtothelayer
beneath.Forexample,ifyoupaintabigwhiteheartintheblackarea,thenthe
contentsofthemaskedlayerwillshowthroughintheshapeofaheart.Ifyoupainta
bigblackheartinthewhitearea,theoriginalpicturewillremainunchangedinthe
shapeoftheheart.Tryitandseewhathappensafterthenextstepyoucanalwaysuse
theHistorypalettetogobackandundothechange.

Afterdrawingthetwohearts,clickonthethumbnailofthelayer
linkedtothemask.Itiscurrentlycompletelytransparent.Asanexperiment,fillit
withasolidcolor.First,chooseashadeofbluethatyou'dlikeforthesky,thoughyou
canalwaysgobackandadjustthecolorlater,soyoudon'thavetobetooprecise.
Next,selectthePaintBuckettoolfromthetoolbar(right).Thistoolfillsanarea
similartothewayEditFillworks,exceptthatitisdependentuponthecolorofthe
areatobefilledaswell.Itwillonlyfilltheareathatissimilarincolortothepointthat
wasclicked,ratherliketheMagicWandtool.Thislayeriscompletelytransparent,
however,soitfillstheentirelayer.

ClickontheimagewiththePaintBuckettool.
NotetheblueheartwhereIdrewinwhiteovertheblackpartofthemask,andthe
white(thecoloroftheoriginalsky)heartwhereIdrewinblackoverthewhitepartof
thesky(left).Thisillustrateshowchangingthemaskaffectswhat"paint"getsonthe
canvas.
UsetheHistorypalettetoundotheheartsandthenrefilltheskylayerwithblue.It
shouldnowlooklikeyourpicturehasanice,brightbluesky.Theproblemis...it's
ratherboring.There'snovariationincolor.Theskycan,inreality,beclearandblue
withoutacloudinsight,butthepictureshouldbean"ideal"versionofthesky,and
that,tomymind,includesclouds.

Youcouldpaintacloudortwoontheskyif
youwant,butitcanbedifficulttopaintrealisticclouds.Thisiswherethefilterscome
intoplay.Withyourchosenshadeofblueintheforegroundandwhiteinthe
background,clickFilterRenderClouds.Ifyou'renothappywithitasis,you
couldrepeatthefiltertorerandomizetheclouds.HoldingdowntheAltkeywhile
clickingontheCloudsfiltergivesamoreintensemix.Theresultshouldlook
somethinglikethepicture(right).Anotherwaytomakethecolormoreintenseisto
applytheDifferenceCloudsfilterrepeatedly.

Ifyouwanttogivethecloudsamorepuffy,
billowyappearance,youcanfurtherapplyUnsharpMask/Wind/GaussianBluras
showninLesson10...oryoucoulddeviseyourownfiltercombination.Theoneinthe
pictureontheleftusedUnsharpMask/Diffuse(anisotropic).
I'mfinallysatisfiedwiththesky,buthowabouttherestofthepicture?I'dliketo
brightenthegreenofthetreestogoalongwiththe"brightsunnyday"imageI'm
tryingtocreate.Icandothisbyaddinganadjustmentlayer.Also,Iwanttodothe
twoforegroundtreesseparatelyfromthebackgroundtrees,sofirstI'llselectjustthe
smallislandintheforegroundwiththeLassoandcopy/pasteittoitsownlayer.Drag
thelayerintheLayerspalettesothatit'sontopofthesky.(Don'tforgettonameyour
layerssothatyouknowwhattheyare.)

Thenextstepistoselectthebackgroundtreestomakeamaskforthem.Thistime,
I'mgoingtoselectthemusingtheQuickMaskfunction.Thisfunctionisequivalentto
themaskingfluidthatapaintermightuse,becauseyouusetheBrushtooltoapplyit.

Directlybelowthetwosquaresfortheforegroundand
backgroundcolorsinthetoolbararetwoiconsthatbothlooklikeacircleinsidea
rectangle(right).TheoneontherightwilltakeyoutoQuickMaskmode.Makesure
thatthebackgroundistheactivelayer,choosetheBrushtool,andthenclickonthe
QuickMaskicon.

Thedefaultisfortheareayoupainttobethe
areathatishidden,justaswithmaskingfluid.Inordertoinvertthis,doubleclickthe
QuickMaskicontobringupthedialogueboxforitsoptions(left).Asthedefault,no
matterwhatcoloryouoriginallyhadintheforeground,yourbrushwillpaintred.Here
iswhereyoucanchangethecolor.Youcanalsosetitsothatthepaintedarea
becomesselectedratherthanmasked.Settheoptionsthewayyoulikeandclick"OK"
orpressEnter.

UsetheBrushtopaintoverthetrees.YoucancorrectmistakeswiththeEraserif
necessary.Whateverareayoupaintwillbetheareauponwhichthemaskisbased
eithermaskedorselected,dependingontheoptionsyousetinthedialoguebox.You
canbeabitsloppywhenitcomestotheborderwiththesky,becauseI'llshowyou
howtofixthatinaminute.Youcanalsobesloppyoverthetreesintheforeground,
becauseyousavedthemtotheirownlayerearlier.Whereyouneedtobecarefulis
alongtheborderwiththepavilion.

Whenyou'refinished,yourimageshouldlook
somethinglikethepicture(right).Clickthe"Editinstandardmode"icontotheleftof
theQuickMaskicon.

Onceyou'rebackinstandardmode,your
screenshouldlooklikethepictureontheleft.(Ifyoufindthattheselectionareais
inverted,youcanalwayschangethisbychoosingSelect Inverse.)Nowwewantto
adjustitsothatitdoesn'toverlapthesky.Withthebackgroundlayerstillactive,hold
downCtrl+Altandclickonthethumbnailoftheskymask.Thiswillsubtractthe
selectionareaoftheskyfromyourcurrentselection.Theselectionareashouldnow
behuggingthetopsofthetrees.

Ifyouwish,youcandothesamethingtosubtracttheforegroundtreesfromthe
selectionbypressingCtrl+Altandclickingontheirthumbnail.Thisisn'tnecessary,
though,becausetheyareonthetoplayerandwillcoveroveranychangesthatyou
maketothebackground.

Nowclickthe"Createnewfilloradjustmentlayer"icon
atthebottomoftheLayerspalette.Whenthemenupopsup,selectHue/Saturation.
Makeanychangesthatyouwish,andnoticethattheonlythingintheimagethat
changesistheselectionareathatyoujustmade.YourLayerspaletteshouldwindup
lookinglikethepicture(left).

Whenyoufinish,thetreesshouldbebrighter
thanbefore,andtherestoftheimageshouldhaveremainedthesame.Iused
adjustmentsof+20/+40/+10toobtainthispicture(right),butyouadjustittosuityour
taste.Youcanalwayscomebackandadjustitagainlater.That'stheadvantageof
usinganadjustmentlayer.

ThenextthingIwanttochangeisthepavilion'sreflectioninthewater.Youcansee
thatit'spartiallyreflected,butIwanttoenhancethereflectiontomaketheimage
morestriking.
Beginbyselectingthepavilion.YoucandothisusingtheselectiontoolsorQuick
Maskmode,howeveryoufeelmostcomfortable.Youdon'thavetobeprecise,
becauseyouyouwillbecopyingtheselectiontoanewlayerwhereyoucancorrectit
withtheEraserifyouneedto.Youcanalsoleaveitrelativelysloppy,sinceitwould
makeperfectsenseforthesurroundingbackgroundtreestobereflectedinthewater
aswell.It'suptoyourdiscretion.

Onceyouhavemadeyourselection,copythe
pavilionfromthebackgroundlayerandpasteittoitsownlayer.(Don'tforgettoname
thenewlayer,andmakesurethatitstaysbeneaththeforegroundislandlayer.)Goto
EditTransformFlipVerticaltoturnthecopyupsidedown.UsetheMovetool
topositionitwhereyouwantthereflection.UsetheHealingBrushtooltofixthepart
wheretheforegroundtreecoverstheleftsideofthepavilion,sincethatshouldn'tbein
thereflection.Whenyou'refinished,theimageshouldlooksomethinglikethepicture
ontheleft.

Changetheblendmodeofthereflectionlayer
toOverlayandreducetheopacityto75%(orwhateverfaintnessyouthinkbest).Use
theBlur,Smudge,andErasertoolstomaketheedgesofthereflectionblendinwith
thewater.IalsosettheBrushtoolforanopacityof10%andpaintedwithwhiteover
anyareasIwantedtobefainter.Whenyou'veblendedtheoutlineswiththe
surroundingwater,applyFilterDistortOceanRippleatalowmagnitude(Iused
1/1).Theresultshouldresemblethepictureontheright.

NowI'mreadytoadjusttheforegroundisland.Rightnowit'sratherfaint,aboutthe
sameluminosityandsaturationasthebackground.Iwanttomakeitstandoutin
contrasttothebackgroundtogivetheimageagreatersenseofdepth.Forthis,I'lluse
the"maketheimageenhanceitself"trickfromLesson9.IntheLayerspalette,drag
theislandlayertothe"Createanewlayer"icontocopyit.Clickonthetoplayer(the
copy)andchangetheblendmodetoSoftLight.Thisshouldmakethetreesstandout.

Idon'twantthetreestodistractfromthe
pavilion,though,becausethat'ssupposedtobethecenterofattention.Toreducetheir
impact,clickontheoriginalislandlayerandapplyFilterBlur GaussianBlur.
Useyourbestjudgementastohowmanypixelstoblurthelayer;Iused2pxto
achievetheresultinthepicture(left).

Uponfurtherinspection,Idecidedthattheforegroundtreessimplyweren't"sunny"
enough.Withthetop(copy)layeractive,holddowntheCtrlkeyandclickonthe
samelayer.ThisisthekeyboardshortcutforSelect LoadSelection.Itdisplaysthe
selectionareaoftheislandasamarqueesothatonlythisareawillbeaffected.The
"LoadSelection"functionisthePhotoshopequivalentofastencil.Notonlycanyou
loadtheselectionsofcurrentlayers,youcansaveselectionsas"alphachannels"(tobe
discussedinalaterlesson)sothatyoucanusetheexactsameselectionareaagainand
again.

Clickon"Createnewfilloradjustmentlayer"andchooseBrightness/Contrast.
Increasethebrightnessuntillthetreeslooksunnyenough.Iused+25.
 Theimageisalmostfinished,Ijustwantto
addanicecaption.IusedtheEyedroppertoolonthesunnysideofthepavilionto
selectanicelightyellowcolor.WithafontcalledRageItalic,Ityped
"Kinkakuji"...butitlackedpizzaz.Iaddedaswirlysymbolfromadingbatfontcalled
PCOrnamentsinanotherlayer,yetitstilldidn'tseeminterestingenough(right).Ifyou
don'thavesuchadingbatonyourcomputer,youcanaddanewlayeranddrawyour
ownswirlwiththeBrushtoachievethesameeffect.

Withthetoptextlayeractive,createanewlayer.Thenewlayershouldautomatically
appearastheactivelayerontopofthetextlayer.Leavingthatlayeractive,Shift+
Ctrl+clickonthe"Kinkakuji"layerandthedingbatlayer.Thisloadstheshapeofthe
textofbothlayersaddedtogetherasaselectionareaonthenewlayer.Oncethearea
correspondingtothetextisselected,clickthe"Addlayermask"icon.Thisappliesa
layermasktothetoplayersothatnomatterwhatyoudointhelayer,itwillonly
affectthetext.

Iselectedamediumbrowncolorfromthe
shadysideofthepavilionasmybackgroundcolortomatchthepaleyellowofthe
foregroundandthenfilledthenewlayerwiththatbackgroundcolor.Iplayedaround
withfiltersuntilIarrivedatacombinationthatIliked.IusedAddNoise
(20%)/Crystallize(5)/WaterPaper(15,75,60)toachievethepattern,thenadjusted
thebrightnessby10andcontrastby+25togettheresultshown(left).Thisiswhat
theimagewouldlooklikewithoutthemask.Youcanenableordisablethemask
eitherbyrightclickingonthemaskthumbnailandselectingfromthepopupmenuor
throughtheLayermenu.

NextIapplieda120DropShadowandInnerBevel/ChiselHardofsize3pxtothe
maskedlayer.

Comparethedifferencethatthemaskedpatternlayermakes(below).

Without With
Infact,IwassopleasedwiththeresultthatIdecidedtomakeaframeforthepicture
usingthesameeffectlayer.Istartedbyenlargingthecanvasby20pixelsinboth
directions.Thismeantthatthepatternmasklayerdidn'tfilltheentirecanvasany
longer,soIusedEditTransformScaletowidenthepatterntothesamesizeas
thecanvas.Thisstretchedthemaskalongwithit,unfortunatelymisaligningitwiththe
textlayersbeneathit,soIhadtoeditthemaskdirectly.
 Iopenedthepatternmaskforeditingwith
Alt+clickandfilledthewholemaskwithblack.Ifixedthetextsothatitwould
matchthetextlayersbyonceagainusingShift+Ctrl+clicktoloadthetext
selectionsandusedEditFilltofillthemwithwhite.ThenIselectedtheentire
canvasandusedSelectTransformSelectionfollowedbySelect Inversetoselect
aborderaroundtheimage.Ifilledtheborderwithwhiteasinthepicture(left)to
allowthepatternlayertoshowthroughasaframe.

WhenIlookedattheresult,Ididn'tlikethe
waytheframecastashadowovertheimage(right).(Ofcourse,actualphysical
framesdocastshadowsontheirpictures,soifyouliketheshadoweffect,it'sokayto
keepit.)ThusIdeletedDropShadowfromthestyle.Instead,Idecidedtomakethe
lettersglow.Sincetheyarealreadypaintedalightcolor,theeasiestwaytodoso
withoutaffectingtheframeistoapplyGaussianBlurtothetwotextlayers.(The
computerwillaskyoutorasterizethelayersfirst;goaheadanddoso.)Thisblurs
theiroutlinessothattheyspreadoutandarevisiblepasttheedgesofthepatternmask.
UsingGaussianBluronabottomlayerisacommonwaytomakeanobjectappearto
glow.Toenhancetheglow,changetheblendmodetoScreen.
Afterthatwasaccomplished,Inoticedthatwithallthenewglowiness,Ishouldmake
thebackgroundtreesbrightertomatch.Sincetheyhavetheirownadjustmentlayer,
youcansimplyclickonthatlayertobringupitsproperties.Iincreasedthesaturation
levelfrom+40to+60.Thismakestheforegroundislandnotstandoutquiteasmuch,
soIchangeditsblendingmodefromSoftLighttoHardLight.

Thatdoesitfortheenhancementstotheimage!Comparetheoriginalpicturewiththe
finishedproductbelow.

Before After
SincetheLoadSelectioncommandissouseful,andtheshortcutkeycombinationsso
convenient,Iwilllistthemagainhereforreference:

1. Ctrl+click=LoadSelectionofclickedlayerintoactivelayer

2. Shift+Ctrl+click=LoadSelectionofclickedlayerandaddittoselection
alreadypresentinactivelayer

3. Ctrl+Alt+click=LoadSelectionofclickedlayerandsubtractitfrom
selectionalreadypresentinactivelayer

Homework
Openanimagethatcoulduseenhancement.Selectareasoftheimageandcreatemask
layerstoadjustpropertiessuchashue/saturationorbrightness/contrast.Ifnecessary,
changetheblendingmodeoropacityofanewlycreatedlayer.Ifapplicable,makean
objectintheimageglowwithGaussianBlur.Finally,addacaptionandcreatea
maskedpatternlayertospiceupthetext.
Ifyou'retrulyambitious,taketheoriginalKinkakujiimageandmakeitintoanight
scene!

 Lesson12
Savingpatterns,brushes,andalphachannels
Upuntilnow,Ihavefrequentlymentioned"ifyoulike,youcancreateandsaveyour
own"inregardtosuchthingsaspatternsandbrushes.Ididnot,however,
explainhowtodoso.Well,now'sthetimetorectifythat!

First,takealookattheCloneStamptoolonthetoolbar
(left).TheCloneStamptoolissimilartotheHealingBrushtool...infact,itisthe
forerunneroftheHealingBrushtool,sinceitwasusedinearlierversionsof
PhotoshopbeforetheHealingBrushwasintroduced.WiththeCloneStamp,aswith
theHealingBrush,youfirstselectanareaoftheimageasthesource.Whenyoustart
painting,yourbrushcopieswhateverwasdrawninthespotthatyoudesignatedasthe
source.Thisallowsyoutopaintoverblemishesandotherobstructions.

TheimportantthingtonotewiththeCloneStamptoolisthatithasanitemcalled
"Aligned"initsmenubar.Ifyoucheck"Aligned,"thenthespotdesignatedasthe
sourcefromwhichthecopyisdrawnwillmovealongwithyourcursor,nomatter
howmanytimesyouclick.Unchecking"Aligned"meansthateverytimeyouletgoof
themousebuttonandclickagainwhiledrawing,thesourcepointrevertsbacktoits
originalposition.

Nowclickontheotheroption,thePatternStamp
tool.Thistooldoesn'tusepartoftheimageasitssource.Instead,itdrawsfromthe
menuofsavedpatterns(right).Youcanselectapatternwiththepulldownmenuin
themenubar.Manypatternscomewiththesoftware,butit'spossibletocreateyour
own.ThepinkarrowindicatesanimageofcherryblossomsfromaphotographthatI
definedasapattern.
 Openanewfileandchooseapattern.Iwilluse
thecherryblossompatternforthisexample.With"Aligned"checked,drawonthe
image.Ifyoudrawovertheentireimage,itwillgivethesameeffectasifyouhad
usedFilltofilltheimagewiththepattern.Ifthepatternissmallerthanyourimage,it
willtilerepeatedlytofilltheavailablespace.Nomatterhowmanytimesyouclickas
youdraw,onceyouhavedrawnonapartoftheimage,thepicturedoesnotchange.
Myexampleisshowninthepicture(left).

Nowuncheck"Aligned"andtrydrawingagain.
Thistime,ifyoureleasethemousebuttonandclickagain,thepatternstartsupfroma
differentpoint.Ifyoudrawoverapreviouslydrawnareathisway,theimagechanges.
Myexampleisontheright.

Finally,checkthe"Impressionist"optioninthe
menubar.Trydrawingandseewhathappens.Thistimeyourbrushdoesn'tleavea
plainpattern,itleavesatrailofmulticoloreddotsintheshapeofthebrush.Changing
thebrushleavesadifferentlyshapedtrail.Inmyexample,Iusedacircularbrushand
acustombunnyshapedbrush(left).
 Thequestionis,howdoyousavepatternsto
thepatternmenu?Firstyouhavetocreatethepattern.Youcanuseapartofa
photograph,likethecherryblossompattern,thoughthatdoesn'tmakeaverygood
patterntilebecauseithassharplydefinededgeswherethepatternrepeats.Youmay
havetoextracttheobjectinthephotofromitsbackgroundfirst,oratleastblendthe
edgessothattheyrunsmoothlytogether.YoucanalsousethePatternMakerfilterto
turnasectionofanimageintoapatterntile,asdemonstratedinLesson10.Athird
optionistousefilterstomakeapatternyoulike,suchasthewovenlookpattern
createdinLesson11(right).

Onceyouhavethepattern,use
theRectangularMarqueetoselecttheareayouwanttobeasingletile.Thengoto
EditDefinePatternandtypeinanameforyournewpattern.That'sit!Thepattern
yousavednowappearsonthepatternmenu(left).YoucanuseitwiththePattern
Stamptool,aswellaswiththePaintBucket/Fillfunction,LayerStyle,andanyother
timeapatternisanoption.Youcandeleteitemsfromthepatternmenuatanytimeif
younolongerneedthem.
 Nowthatyouknowhowtodefineapattern,thenextstepistodefine
yourowncustombrushes,suchasthebunnyusedabove.Totherightistheoriginal
drawingfromwhichthatbrushwasmade.Decidewhatkindofimageyouwantfor
yourbrushanddrawitinsimpleblackandwhite.(Ifyoutrytousecolor,itwillstill
onlybesavedasagrayscaleimage.)Youdon'thavetobeanartisttodrawanew
brush.ThisbunnywasdoneusingonlytheEllipticalMarqueetool;ithasthreeblack
ellipsesforthefaceandearsandtwowhitecirclesfortheeyes.

Drawingacrispblackandwhiteimagelikethis
bunnygivesyouacrispbrush.Drawinganimagewithgrayscaleshadinggivesyoua
grayscalebrush.Oneproblemthatyourunintowithagrayscaleorgrainybrushisthat
itcansometimesappearveryfaintandrequiremultipleclickstobevisible.The
numbersunderthebutterflies(left)indicatehowmanyclicksittooktogetthat
intensity.Youcouldalsousetheairbrushfunctionandholdthemousebuttondown
untilthebrushhaslaiddownenoughpaint.Grayscalebrushessuchasthisareuseless
withthePenciltool,becausethepencilonlydrawssharpoutlineswithnoanti
aliasing.

Onceyouhaveyourdesiredbrushimage,selectitwiththeMarqueeandclickEdit
DefineBrush,thengiveyournewbrushaname,exactlyasyoudidwhendefininga
newpattern.ThenewbrushwillappearintheBrushmenu.Youcanuseitwithall
toolsthatmakeuseoftheBrushmenu,suchastheEraser,Blur,theHistoryBrush,the
HealingBrush,andsoon.
 Thereareextrabrushtricksthatyou
canaddtoyournewbrushusingtheBrushpalette(right).Thefirstitemonthemenu
letsyouselectthebrushfromthemenu.HereI'vechosenthebunny.

"Angle"setswhatanglethebrushistilted."Roundness"allowsyoutosquashthe
brushshape."Spacing"setshowfaraparteachiterationofthebrushshapeispainted.
Thepicturesbelowillustratetheseproperties.

Angle: 45 Angle: 90

Roundness: 25% Roundness: 50%

 Spacing: 1% Spacing: 100%

TheShapeDynamicssubmenuallowsyoutocontrolthesizeofthebrush."Size
Jitter"makesthesizeofthebrushchangerandomlyasyoudraw.Thepulldownmenu
beneaththisitemchangeshowthissizechangeisapplied."None"meansthatyou
havenocontrol,thecomputerappliesthejitterrandomly."Fade"makesthesizebegin
relativelylargeandthengrowgraduallysmalleraccordingtohowmany"steps"you
input.Thesepropertiesareillustratedbelow.Theremainingoptionsareonlyvalidif
youhaveastylusandpadconnectedtoyourcomputer.

Size Jitter: 50% Size Jitter: 100% Control: Fade 10

"MinimumDiameter"controlshowsmallthesmallestiterationwillbe(below).These
pictureswerebothdonewith100%jitter.

Minimum Diameter: 1% Minimum Diameter: 50%

"AngleJitter"makeseachiterationoftheshapeappearatarandomangle(below).
Theextentoftheanglechangeisdeterminedbythepercentage.

Angle Jitter: 20% Angle Jitter: 50%

"RoundnessJitter"randomlysquashesthebrushshape.Thenextitem,"Minimum
Roundness,"setstheextenttowhichtheshapecanbesquashedthehigherthe
number,thelessitissquashed.Thesetwoitemsareillustratedbelow.

Roundness Jitter: 50% Roundness Jitter: 100%

Minimum Roundness: 1% Minimum Roundness: 50%

TheScatteringsubmenumakestheiterationsofthebrushshapevaryinotherways.
"Scatter"makesthemrandomlyappearaboveorbeneaththelinethatyoudraw.Ifyou
check"BothAxes,"theywillalsoscatterinfrontofandbehindthepointyouclick.
"Count"varieshowmanyiterationsarepainted,and"CountJitter"randomizesthe
count.Ifyoudon'tscattertheiterations,the"Count"functionwillpaintthemdirectly
ontopofeachother,makingthemappearmoreboldthehigherthecount.These
propertiesaredemonstratedbelow.

Scatter: 100% Count: 1 Count Jitter: 50%

Scatter: 400% Count: 2 Count Jitter: 100%

TheTexturesubmenuallowsyoutoapplya
texturetoyourbrush.Thetexturesaredrawnfromthepatternmenu,soyoucanuse
DefinePatterntocreateyourown.ThisexampleusestheGauzepatternonSubtract
mode(left).

TheDualBrushsubmenuallowsyoutocombine
twodifferentbrushes.Inthisexample,Icombinedthebunnybrushwithabrush
called"StencilSpongeTwirl"fromthedefaultmenu(right).Youcanalterthesize
andcountofeachbrushinrelationtoeachotheraswellasadjusthowtheyblend.

TheitemsontheColorDynamicsmenuletyourandomizethepropertiesofthecolor,
asillustratedinthepicturesbelow.ForthesepicturesIselectedpinkastheforeground
andwhiteasthebackground.

Foreground/Background: 50% Foreground/Background: 100%

Hue Jitter: 50% Hue Jitter: 100%

Saturation Jitter: 50% Saturation Jitter: 100%

Brightness Jitter: 50% Brightness Jitter: 100%

 Purity: -50% Purity: +50%
TheOtherDynamicssubmenurandomizestheopacityandflowofthepaint.
Examplesareshownbelow.

Opacity Jitter: 50% Opacity Jitter: 100%

Flow Jitter: 50% Flow Jitter: 100%

Theremaining
itemsdon'trandomize,butinsteadaddcertainqualitiesuniformlytoyourbrush.In
particular,notetheditheringof"Noise"(left)andtheoutlineof"WetEdges"(right).

Inadditiontothepattern
menuandtheBrushmenu,thereisoneotherplacewhereyoucansaveselections
whileyouwork,andthatistheChannelspalette.Aftersettingmybunnybrushfor
variouslevelsofjittering,Ipaintedthepictureontheleft.TheChannelspalettefor
thisimageisshownontheright.
WhenyouareworkinginRGBmode,yourimageiscomposedofthecolorsred,
green,andbluemixedtogetheratvaryingdegrees.TheChannelspaletteshowsyou
whateachcolorlookslikewhenseparatedfromtheothertwocolors.

Likeamask,eachchannelisrepresentedingrayscale.Thelighterthegray,themore
thatcolorisappliedtotheimage,andthedarkerthegray,thelessthatcoloris
applied.Whiteismadeupofallthreecolorsatfullstrength,soanywhiteareasof
yourimagewillalsoappearwhite(fullstrength)onallthreechannels.Black,onthe
otherhand,ismadeupoftheabsenceofallthreecolors,soanyblackareasofyour
imagewillappearblackonallthreecolorchannels.

Anychannelsoverandabovethesethreearecalled"alpha"channels,becausetheyare
"plusalpha"comparedtothedefault.Therecanbeatotalof56channels,which
meansthatyoucanadd53channelsontopofthedefaultthree.(Ifyouareworkingin
CYMKmode,youhavefourdefaultchannels,insteadofthree.)

Whenyoumakeaselection
inyourimage,youcanchoosetosavethatselectionareaasanalphachannelbygoing
toSelectSaveSelectionorbyrightclickingwithyourselectiontoolandchoosing
SaveSelectionfromthepopupmenu.AthirdmethodistogototheChannelspalette
andclickthe"Saveselectionaschannel"iconatthebottom.

Inthisexample,IusedtheMagicWandtoselectasinglebunnyandthensavedthe
selectionareaasanalphachannel(left).Theadvantageofdoingthisisthatthisalpha
channelcannowbeusedastheequivalentofastencil.Icancallupthisselectionarea
againatanytimewithLoadSelection(asdiscussedinLesson11).Thiswayyour
"stencils"don'thavetobeextralayersinyourimage,youcansavethemoutofsight
intheChannelspaletteandonlycalluponthemwhenneeded.Mostsophisticated
techniquesthatrequirecomplicatedselectionareasusealphachannelstostore
information.

Separateselectionareascanbestoredasseparatechannels,oryoucanaddand
subtractselectionareasfromeachother.

Homework
1. Createandsaveapatterntothepatternmenu.

2. CreateandsaveabrushtotheBrushmenu,thenusetheBrushpalettetoalter
thecharacteristicsofyourbrushanddrawwithit.

3. Selectsomethinginyourdrawing(orinadifferentimage)andsavethe
selectionareaasanalphachannel.

 Lesson13
Paths
Everythinginthelessonssofarhasbeenintermsofpixels,becauseingeneralthat's
howtheimagedataisstored.NowIwillintroduceanewkindofimagedata.In
additiontopixels,itisalsopossibletostoreinformationintermsof"vectors."Vectors
aresetsofinstructionsthatlistindividualpointsanddescribethepathtotaketoget
fromonepointtothenext.

Tounderstandthedifferencebetweenpixelsandvectors,imaginethatyouaregiving
someonedrivingdirections.Herearethetwosetsofdirections:

1. "Gostraightforfiveblocks."Thisispixellikeinformation.Itwillcertainlydo
thetrick,butthedriverhastocounteveryblock,whichtakesupalotof
attention.Ifthedestinationhappenedtobetenblocksawayinsteadoffive,the
driverwouldbelikelytolosecountalongtheway.

2. "GostraightuntilyoureachMainStreet."Thisisvectorlikeinformation.You
knowthestartingpoint,theendingpoint,andthepathtotakebetweenthetwo.
ThedriverjusthastocruisealonguntilreachingMainStreet,soitdoesn'ttake
asmuchattention.Also,thesameinstructionsworkwhetherMainStreetisfive
blocksawayortenblocksaway.
Pixeldataisstoredasmanytinydots,andeachdothasitsownvalue.Thecomputer
mustrememberthelocation,color,intensity,andsoonofeverysinglepixel.Forhigh
resolutionimages,thiscantakeupalotofmemory.Inaddition,changingthesizeof
theimagecanaffectitsquality,expeciallywhenenlarging.Vectordata,incontrast,
onlyrequiresthecomputertorememberafewpointsandadescriptionofthepaths
connectingthem.Thistakesmuchlessmemory.Plus,theadvantageisthatincreasing
ordecreasingthesizedoesn'tchangethequality.(Manyfontsaredonewithvector
databecausethisallowsthemtoappearthesameatanysize.).

Photoshophastwosetsoftoolsfordrawingvectorpathsandonesetformanipulating
themafterthey'redrawn.Beforeyoustartusingthem,youshouldknowalittleabout
whatthesepathsareandwhatyoucandowiththem.

First,buildonwhatyoualreadyknow.Pathsaresimilartoselectionareasthatyou've
beenworkingwithallalong.Infact,youcanswitchbetweenselectionareasandpaths
quiteeasily.Thedifferenceisthatpathscanbemanipulatedaftertheyaredrawn,
whereaswithaselectionareayouarelimitedtopainstakinglyaddingandsubtracting
tofixanymistakesintheshape.

Openanewimageandmakea
randomselectiononitwiththeMarqueeorLasso.Itshouldlooksomethinglikethe
pictureontheleft.Next,rightclickwiththeselectiontoolandchoose"MakeWork
Path"fromthepopupmenuandacceptthedefaulttolerance.Thedashedmarquee
shouldturnintoasolidline(right).

Atthemoment,itdoesn'tlookanydifferentfromtheoriginalselectionarea.Itdoes
havenewproperties,though,andcanallowyoutodothingsthatareimpossiblewitha
plainselection.

Todemonstratethis,switchtotheBrushtoolandchooseanattractivebrush.Iuseda
star.Next,usetheBrushpalettetosetthejitterandotherpropertiesthewayyoulike.
IsetmyColorDynamicstovarybetweenyellowandorange,with50%Spacingand
150%Scatter.

OnceyouhaveyourBrushtooladjustedthewayyou
wantit,takealookatthePathspalette(left).Thepathyoucreatedshouldshowupon
thispalette.Now,eitherclicktheiconatthebottomofthepalettethatlookslikean
emptycircle,orrightclickontheWorkPathandselect"StrokePath"fromthepopup
menu.Ifyoudothelatter,makesurethatyouspecifytheBrushtoolwhenitasks.

Theresultshouldresemblethepictureontheright.It
takesthesettingsyouselectedwiththeBrushPaletteandstrokesthepath,asifyou
haddrawnalongthepathlinewiththeBrushtool.Thisisafunctionuniquetopaths.
WhatmakesthisfunctionevenmorepowerfulisthatyoucanstrokewiththeEraser,
theBlurtool,theHistoryBrush,thePatternStamp,oranynumberofothertoolsin
additiontotheBrush.

Youmaywonderwhythisisanybetterthanusingthetoolsdirectly.Wouldn't
drawingwiththeBrushtoolgivethesameeffect?Whygothroughallthetroubleof
makingapathfirst?
Thekeyisthat,withapath,youcanstrokeshapesthatwouldbedifficulttodrawby
hand.Forexample,itisquitehardtodrawaperfectcircle.However,youcanusethe
EllipticalMarqueetoselectacircle,convertitintoapath,andthenstrokethatpath.It
looksjustasifyouhaddrawntheperfectcircleyourself,withmuchlesseffort.Or
youcouldtypesometext,LoadSelectiontoselecttheoutlinesoftheletters,and
convertthatselectionintoapath.Thisallowsyoutostrokeintheshapeofanyfont
youdesire.

Ifyouaren'tsatisfiedwiththeshapeorpositionofthe
path,youcanmanipulateitdirectly.ChoosethePathSelectiontoolfromthetoolbar
(left).Thistoolallowsyoutoselectandmoveanentirepath.Clickonyourpathto
selectit.

Youshouldseeanumberofsmallsquaresappearalong
thepath(right).Therearetwodifferentkindsofpointsthatcanmakeupapath.The
firsttypeservesastheendsofstraightlinesegments.Thesecondtype,asinthe
currentexample,marksthecenterpointsofcurves.WiththePathSelectiontoolyou
can'taffecttheseanchorpointsdirectly,youcanonlydragtheentirepatharound.To
workwiththepointsthatmakeupthepath,switchtotheDirectSelectiontoolinstead.
 Ifyouclickona"smooth"anchorpointwiththeDirect
Selectiontool,smallrodswithdotsontheendwillshootoutfrombothsidesofthe
anchorpoint.Thesedirectionlinescontrolthecurveofthearconeithersideofthe
anchorpoint.Ifyouclickalloftheanchorpointstomaketheirdirectionlinesappear,
thepathshouldlooklikethepictureontheleft.

UsingtheDirectSelectiontool,youcanclickanddragthepointsthemselves,oryou
candragthedirectionlinestochangetheshapesofthecurves.Unselectedanchor
pointslookwhitewithagrayoutline,whileselectedanchorpointslooklikefilled
graysquares.Youcanmanipulateeachpointindividually,oryoucanselectmultiple
pointswithShift+clickandmanipulatethemsimultaneously.(Anotherwaytoselect
multiplepointsisbyclickinganddraggingtosurroundthem.)Tryexperimentingwith
movingpointsaroundandalteringthedirectionlines.

Rightclickingonapointmakesamenupopupthatallowsyoutodeletethatpoint.
Trydeletingapointandseewhathappens.Thelineshouldchangetoconnectthe
anchorpointsoneithersidesmoothly.Ifyourightclickonasectionofthelinewhere
thereisnoanchorpoint,thepopupmenuallowsyoutocreateonethere.Youcanalso
clickanddragthecurvesdirectly.Ifyoudoso,thedirectionlinesgoverningthecurve
willchangeautomatically.

Oneoftheoptionsyoucanchoosewhenyou
strokeapathis"simulatepenpressure."Theresultisshowninthepicture(right).The
twocirclesweredrawnusingthesamepathandthe"RoughDryBrush"tip.Theone
ontherightwasstrokedwithpenpressuresimulationon.Thismakesthebrushstroke
taperatthestartandendpoints.Youcanadjusttheamountthatthestroketaperswith
the"MinimumSize"settingintheBrushpalette.

Youcandootherimportantthingswiththepathbesidesstrokeit.Thefirstisthatyou
canuseFilltofillitwithacolororpattern,justasifitwerearegularselectionarea.
Youcandosoeitherbyclickingthe"Fillpathwithforegroundcolor"iconatthe
bottomofthePathspaletteorbyrightclickingthepathorthepathlayerinthePaths
paletteandchoosing"Fillpath"fromthepopupmenu.

Thesecondisthatyoucanturnitintoa"vectormask"foranewfilloradjustment
layer,eitherthroughtheLayermenuortheLayerspalette.Avectormaskissimilarto
amask,exceptthatyoucan'tAlt+clickandpaintonitthewaythatyoucanwitha
regularmask.Toalteravectormask,youhavetousethePathtoolorthePentool.

Ifyouwish,youcanconvertavectormaskintoaregularmaskbyrasterizingit.
"Rasterizing"istheprocessofconvertingvectordataintopixeldata.Onceyouhave
rasterizedthevectormask,eitherbyrightclickingonitintheLayerspaletteand
choosing"RasterizeVectorMask"orbyclickingLayerRasterize VectorMask,
thevectorisconvertedintopixeldataandcannolongerbemanipulatedwiththePath
tool.TheflipsideisthatitcannowbealteredwiththeBrushortheEraserorany
otherregulartool.

Athirdthingyoucandowithapathistoconvertitintoaselectionarea.This
selectionareacanbetreatedasanyotherselectionareamadewiththenormal
selectiontools.Forexample,itcanbeusedtocopy/pasteortomakealayermask.

Inthisexample,you
startedbymakingaselectionandconvertingitintoapath.Inadditiontothismethod,
youcanalsodrawthepathitselfdirectlyusingthePentool(left).ChoosethePentool
andusetheHistorypalettetoclearyourimage.WiththePentool,clickafewtimes
aroundtheblankimage,butbecarefulnottodrag.Whereveryouclick,thePentool
leavesa"straight"linesegmentanchorpoint.Returntothebeginningandclickonthe
veryfirstanchorpointtoclosethepath.Yourimageshouldwinduplooking
somethinglikethepictureontheright.Whatyouhavedrawnisapath,asyoucansee
ifyoucheckyourPathspalette.

Undoyourpathandpracticeagain.Thistime,clickanddrag.Whenyoudo,alinewill
stretchoutbetweentheanchorpointwhereyouclickedandthePentooltipwhereyou
drag.Thislineisthedirectionlineforacurve.Whenyoureleasethemousebutton
andclickagain,acurveratherthanastraightlinewillformbetweenthetwoanchor
points.Themoreyouclickanddrag,themore"smooth"anchorpointsyouwillmake.
Closethepathbyclickingonthefirstanchorpoint.

Whenyoufinish,theanchorpointsanddirectionlines
shouldresemblethepictureontheleft.

Youcancombinesmoothandstraightanchorpointsinthe
samepath(right).Inthispicture,thestarsindicateclicksandthearrowsindicate
dragging.Thetopshapeshowshowyoucansandwichcurvesbetweenstraightline
segmentsbydragginginsteadofclicking.Youcanmakebothparaboliccurvesand
sinecurves.Thebottomshapeshowsthatyoucanmakeananchorpointwitha
straightsegmentononesideandacurveontheotherbyclickingtomakethestraight
anchorpointandthendraggingonthesamepointtomakeacurveontheotherside.
Drawingindividualanchorpointsisonewaytocreateapath,butitisalsopossibleto
drawthepathasifusingtheLassotocreateaselectionarea.Forthis,choosethe
FreeformPentool.Drawtheshapeyouwantforthepath.Asyoudraw,theFreeform
Pentoolwillcreateanchorpointsautomatically.

Takealook
atthemenubar(left).Thefirstthreeiconssetwhathappenstothepathwhenyou
finishdrawingit.Numberoneautomaticallymakesthepathintoavectormaskfora
newfilllayerandfillsthenewlayerwiththeforegroundcolor.Thisisthedefault
settingfortheShapetool(tobediscussedinLesson14).Number2,thedefaultforthe
Pentool,simplydrawsapathwithoutfillingitorcreatinganewlayer.Numberthree
drawsthepathandautomaticallyfillsitwiththeforegroundcolor,butdoesnotmake
anewlayeroravectormask.

Inthesectionundernumberfour,youcanusetheiconstoswitchbetweenthePen
tool,theFreeformPentool,andthevariousShapetools.Ifyouclickthe"Magnetic"
option,markednumberfive,theFreeformPentoolwillactjustliketheMagnetic
Lasso.

Sectionsixletsyouchangethe
areathatisincludedinthepath.Thefirsticonmakeseachpathyoudrawadditive.If
youdrawasinglepathwiththis,theareainsidethepathisselected(forFillorfor
conversionintoavectormask)asinthepictureontheleft.Thesecondiconwillmake
eachsuccessivepathsubtractfromtheselectedarea.Ifyoudrawasinglepathwith
this,theareaoutsidethepathisselected(theinverseofthepreviousoption)asinthe
pictureontheright.Withthethirdicon,onlythejunctionbetweentwopathsis
selected,andwiththefourthicon,onlythenonoverlappingareasoftwooverlapping
pathsareselected.
ManyprofessionalspreferusingthePentoolortheFreeformPentooltodraw
selectionareasbecausetheanchorpointsallowpreciseadjustment,resultinginmore
accurateselectionsandthereforebettermasks.Whenconvertingfromaselectionarea
toapath,youcanadjustthenumberofanchorpointsthatarecreatedbyalteringthe
"tolerance"whenprompted.Ahighertolerancecreatesfeweranchorpoints.Fewer
anchorpointsmeanssmootherlines,becausetherearefewerseparatesegments(notto
mentionlessdataforthecomputertojuggle).

Afteryouhavedrawnapath,notonlycanyouaddordeleteanchorpoints,youcan
convertthembetweenstraightpointsandsmoothpoints.Thisisaccomplishedby
clickingonthepointinquestionwiththeConvertPointtool.

Homework
1. UsethePentoolorFreeformPentooltodrawaheartorothersimpleshape.If
theshapeisn'tperfectthefirsttime,usetheDirectSelectiontooltoadjustthe
anchorpointsanddirectionlines.Strokethepathwithabrushofyourchoice.

2. OpenanimageandusetheFreeformPentooltoselectanobjectintheimage.
Finetunethepathifnecessary.Convertthepathintoavectormaskforanew
adjustmentlayer,andadjustoneofthequalitiesoftheobject.Thenrasterize
thevectormask.

 Lesson14
Shapes

InadditiontothePentool,thereisoneothertool
capableofdrawingpaths,andthatistheShapetool(left).JustasthePentoolislike
thepathequivalentoftheLasso,theShapetoolislikethepathequivalentofthe
Marquee...butwithmuchmoreflexibility.
 Openanewimageand
selecttheRectangletool.UseittodrawarectangleexactlyasifusingtheRectangular
Marqueetool.Whenyoureleasethemousebutton,thetoolwillautomaticallycreatea
vectormaskintheshapeoftherectangleyoudrew.Thisvectormaskislinkedtoa
newfilllayerthatisautomaticallyfilledwiththeforegroundcolor,asyoucanseeif
youlookattheLayerspalette(right).

LikethepathsdrawnwiththePentool,thepathsdrawn
withtheShapetoolcanalsobemanipulatedwiththePathtool.Forexample,youcan
selectanddragtheanchorpointswiththeDirectSelectiontooltoaltertheshapeof
therectangle(left).Changingthepathchangesthevectormask.
 ThemenubarfortheShapetoollookssimilar
tothemenuforthePentool.Thepulldownoptionmenu,indicatedbythearrow
(right),changesdependingonthevariantofthePenorShapetoolyouareusing,but
itslocationonthemenubaristhesame.

Whenyouareusingoneofthepathdrawingtools
in"shapelayer"mode,thestylepulldownmenuwillappear(left).Thisoption
automaticallysetsthelayerstyleforthefilllayersthatarecreated.Thestylemenu
containsthesamestylesastheStylespalette,soitwillincludeanythatyouhave
saved.

Attheverybottomofthemenuinthispicture,youcansee
the"potato"stylethumbnailcreatedinLesson8.Applyingthe"potato"styletothe
currentshapelayergivestheresultshowninthepictureontheright.Thisisoneway
youcanusetheShapetooltocreateeyecatchinglogoimages.
ThefirstthreeshapesRectangle,RoundedRectangle,andEllipsearefairly
straightforward.TheyactalmostexactlyliketheMarqueetool.Whenyougettothe
Polygontool,however,thereareinterestingdifferences.

ChoosethePolygontoolandsetitforfivesides.The
picture(left)showsthedifferentkindsofshapesyoucancreatebychangingthe
optionsinthepulldownmenu.Theseexampleswerealldonewithanindentfactorof
50%;changingthatvaluewillaltertheappearanceoftheshapesevenfurther.

Next,selecttheLinetool.Thisallowsyoutodraw
straight,solidlines.(HoldingdowntheShiftkeywhiledraggingthemousewillkeep
thelinesperfectlystraightintheeightmajorcompassdirections.)Thepulldown
optionsletyouaddarrowheadsofyourspecificationstooneorbothendsoftheline.
Thepicture(right)showssomeexamples.Thesearrowsweredonewithvaluesof
350%width,500%height,and0%concavity.
 Finally,theCustomShapetoolallowsyouto
drawapathwithapredeterminedshape.Theavailableshapesarelistedinapull
downmenu(left).

AswiththeBrushmenu,ifnoneoftheoptionsonthemenusuitsyourpurposes,you
candrawyourownshapeandaddittothemenu.Inordertodoso,firstyoumust
createthepathintheshapethatyouwant.Youcandothisbydrawingtheshape
directlywiththePentool,eitherfreehandorbytracingabackgroundimage.

Anotheroptionistomakeapathfromaselection.
Thismethodisusefulifyouwanttoselectsomeportionofabackgroundimageto
convertintoacustomshape.Thisalsoallowsyoutodrawthedesiredshapeusingthe
Brush.Inthisinstance(right),Idrewapictureofafloppytophatonitsownnew
layerusingacalligraphybrush.ThenIusedLoadSelectiontoselectthehatand
convertedtheselectionintoapath.

Onceyouhavethepathintheshapeyoudesire,rightclickonitandchoose"Define
CustomShape."ThisaddstheshapeyoucreatedtothemenufortheCustomShape
tool.

Thefunpartiswhenyoustartcombiningthepropertiesofthe
Shapetool.Forexample,youcanmakeacherryblossom.Choosepinkasthe
foregroundandwhiteasthebackground.SetthePolygontoolforfivesideswith
roundedcorners,star,and50%indent,andmakeoneblossom.Next,changethe
Polygontothreesides,uncheckstar,andinputasetradiusof5mm.Selectthe
subtractionmodeiconfromthemenubarandplaceonetriangleatthetipofeach
petaltoleavenotchesasshowninthepicture(left).Ifyouthinkyouwilleverwantto
makecherryblossomsagain,youcannowrightclickonitandsaveittotheCustom
Shapemenu.

Tomakethestamensinthemiddle,chooseadarkerpinkfortheforegroundcolor.
WiththeCustomShapetool,select"floralornament4"fromthepulldownmenuand
drawoneshapeinthecenteroftheblossom.(Ifyou'renotsatisfiedwithits
appearance,youcandrawyourownstamenshapeandsaveittothemenuinstead.)

Atthispoint,yourblossomshouldresemblethepictureonthe
left.Ifyoudon'tlikeitbeingsoflat,youcanuseLayerStyletoembossit,strokeit,or
addashadow.
 Inthisexample(right),thestamenlayerhasastyleofDrop
Shadow(color:red,opacity:100%,distance:2,size:4),OuterGlow,andInnerBevel
(smooth).ThepetallayerhasastyleofDropShadow,Emboss(chiselhard,shadow
opacity:50%),Texture(watercolor),GradientOverlay(whitetopink,radial),and
Stroke(size:3,gradient:pinktowhitetodarkpink,style:diamond,scale:105%).

Anotheroptionistorasterizeeachlayerandapplyfilters.Inthis
picture(left),thepetallayerreceivedthecombinationAddNoise(5%,uniform,
monochromatic),RadialBlur(40,zoom),UnsharpMask(250%,3px),andFacet.The
stamenlayerreceivedCraquelure(15,5,10).Forbothlayers,thefilterswereapplied
afterusingLoadSelectiontomakesurethepartsdidnotlosetheirshape.

Youcan,ofcourse,combinestylesandfilters.Oncethelayersarerasterized,youcan
alsodrawonthemwiththeBrushorothertoolstomakeadditionalenhancements.It's
entirelyuptowhatimageyouhaveinmind.

AnotherthingyoucandowiththeShapetoolisuseittomake3Dshapes.The
cylinderlikearrowbuttonsatthebottomofthepageweremadethisway.

Asanexample,youcanmakeacubeoutofthreesquares.Opena
newimageandcreatethreesquareswiththeRectangletool,makingeachsquarea
slightlydifferentshadeofthesamecolor,asinthepictureontheright.
 Next,usetheDirectSelectiontooltogivethecubedepth.Dragthe
rightsideoftherighthandsquarepathupwardandtotheleft.Itshouldtakeona
"squashed"appearanceasshowninthepictureontheleft.Whenyouaresatisfied
withthedepthofthecube,usetheDirectSelectiontoolagainonthetopsquaresothat
itsrightsideconnectswiththerighthandsquare.

Itmaytakeabitofpractice,butyoushouldwindupwithacubelike
theoneinthepictureontheright.Bystartingwithrectanglesratherthansquares,you
canmake3Dblocksintheshapesofbuildingsorotherobjectsinthesamefashion.

Ifyou'refamiliarwiththeprinciplesofperspective,youcanusepathsasguidelines
foradjustingthesidesofyourshapessothattheyangletowardthevanishingpoint(s).
Thenicethingaboutpathsisthat,evenifyoudragthembeyondtheedgeofyour
canvasontotheblankworkarea,youcanstillseethem.Thismeansthatyourcanvas
doesn'thavetobehuge,asitwouldbeifyouusedregularlinespaintedona
disposablelayer.Thegeneralprocessisshownbelow.

Step 2: Step 3:
Step 1: Draw sides of Select and fill
Draw perspective guides shape each side
 Youcanusethesameprinciplewithone
pointperspective,asinthepictureontheright.Thesquarepathsforthewallswere
drawnwiththeRectangletool.Onceyouhavetheoutlineoftheobject,suchasthis
room,youcanpastetexturelayersovertheperspectivelines,thenuseEdit
TransformScaleandEditTransformSkewtomaketheedgesofthepasted
layersmatchupwiththepaths.

Withcurvedshapes,suchasspheresandcylinders,you
willneedtoaddextralayersforhighlightsandshadows.Youcandrawthehighlights
andshadowswiththeBrushorwiththeGradienttool.Changingtheblendingmode
andopacityofeachhighlight/shadowlayerallowsyoutofinetunetheshape's
appearance.

AsyoucanseefromtheLayerspaletteforthearrowbuttonimage(left),effectiveuse
ofhighlight/shadowlayerscanmakeyourshapesjumpout."Layer1"isthecylinder
itself,composedofasquareandtwoellipsesmergedandthenrasterized.(Ifthiswere
atruecylinder,theellipseononesidewouldbeleftseparateandgivenitsown
differentshade,likethetopofthecubeintheexampleabove,butthatmadethebutton
lookmuchmoreasifitwerepointingoutwardfromthescreen,soIeliminatedthat
aspect.)Changingthefillcolorofthislayeriswhatchangesthearrowbuttonsfrom
redtogreentoblue.

TheyellowarrowwasasimpletriangledrawnwiththePolygontool.Itwasthen
alteredbyaddingasmoothanchorpointtoonesidewiththeDirectSelectiontooland
draggingthatpointtomakethesidecurve.

"Layer3"and"Layer3copy"arethehighlights."Layer3"hasablendingmodeof
Overlayandopacityof60%,while"Layer3copy"waschangedtomaketheblending
modeLighten.ThehighlightitselfwasoriginallydrawnwiththeGradienttool.

"Layer4"istheshadow.ItwasalsodrawnwiththeGradienttool.Ithasablending
modeofDarkenandopacityof50%.

LayerStylewasthenusedontheshapelayerstomakethemstandoutevenfurther.

Homework
DesignyourownshapeandsaveittotheCustomShapemenu.Thenusethe
Rectangletooltocreatea3Dboxanduseyournewcustomshapetodecoratethefront
(andifyou'readventurous,thetopandsideaswell)ofthebox.Usestylesand/or
filterstomakeyourdecorationstandout.

Ifyouwantachallenge,dooneorbothofthefollowing:

1. Drawyourown3Dcylinderorsphereusingseparatelayersforhighlightsand
shadows.

2. Insteadofacube,makeasetofseveral3Drectanglesofdifferentheightslined
upinarowsothattheylooklikeabargraph.


Lesson15

Tipsandtricks

Youhavefinallyarrivedatthelastlesson!That'snottosaythisistheendof
Photoshop'scapabilities.Farfromit!It'sjusttheendofmyknowledgeonthesubject.

Thislessonisacollectionofquicktipsonthingsthatweren'tcoveredinprevious
lessonsbutthatweren'tlargescaleenoughtowarrantlessonsoftheirown.

1.Straighteningimages
Sometimesyoutakeapictureorscanapictureandnoticethatthecontentsare
crooked.Thiscouldbebecauseyouheldthecameratiltedorplacedtheimageonthe
scannerslightlytilted.Itcouldalsobethattheobjectsthemselvessimplylook
crookedfromtheanglethatthepicturewastaken,suchaswhenyouaretryingto
capturetallbuildings.
 Inasituation
suchasinthispictureofHikoneCastleduringcherryblossomseason(left)wherethe
objectsintheimagearetilted,rotatingtheimagewillsolvetheproblem.Selectthe
Measuretool(right).Usethistooltoclickanddragalongatiltedlineintheimage.It
willautomaticallycalculatetheangleforyou.ThengotoImage RotateCanvas
Arbitrary.ThedialogueboxwillopenwiththeanglealreadyinputfromtheMeasure
tool.AllyouhavetodoispressEnterorclickOKandthepicturewillrotatetomake
thecrookedlinestraight.Thisleavessomewhitespacearoundthepicture,soyouwill
havetocropittocleanuptheedges.Thisprocessisillustratedbelow.

Measure Rotate Crop

Sometimestheproblemisn'tthatthepictureiscrooked,it'sthatperspectivemakesthe
objects(especiallybuildings)appearslanted.Ifyourintentistoshowperspective,of
course,youneedn'tchangeanything,butonoccasionthepicturewouldlookbetter
withnice,straightlines.Intheexamplebelow,youcanseethatalthoughthelineson
thebuildingareataslantduetoperspective,theactorisstandingstraight,sorotating
theimagewon'tcorrecttheproblem.Inacaselikethis,youcanusetheCroptool.
Clickthe"Perspective"optioninthemenubarandframetheimagewiththeCrop
tool.Adjustthebordersoftheareatobecroppedsothattheyareparalleltothelines
youwantstraightened.Whenyoucroptheimage,thecomputerwillautomatically
changetheperspectivetomakethelinesstraight.Thisprocessisshownbelow,with
pinklinesindicatingwheretomatchthecropframetotheslantofthebuilding.

Step1

Before During After

Step2

Step3

Step4

2.Usingfiltersonmasks
Oneofthemainbenefitsofworkingwithlayermasksisthatthemaskcannotonlybe
pureblackorwhite,itcanalsohaveshadesofgraythatallowsomebutnotallof
thelayer'scontentsshowthrough.Youcantakeadvantageofthispropertyby
applyingfilterstothemaskitselftoachieveinterestingpatterns.Thecontentsofyour
fill,texture,orgradientlayerwillshowthroughinaccordancewiththatpattern.The
picturesontherightshowhowthisprocesscanworktomakealogo.

Step1:Typethetextofthelogo.IusedafontcalledKelmscott.Inthiscase,Iwanted
themaskedlayertostandout,soImadethetextandthebackgroundwhite.(Choosing
differentcolorsforthetextcanalterthewaythelogoturnsout,especiallyifyoualso
experimentwithdifferentblendmodes.)ApplyaLayerStyleifdesired.IusedDrop
ShadowandEmboss(smooth).

Step2:Addanewgradientlayer.(Itcouldbeafilllayer,oryoucouldcreateyour
owntextureorpatterninanewlayer,whateversuitsyou.)Iusedarainbowgradient
settoLinearat40.

Step3:Designthemaskforthegradientlayer.First,Alt+clickonthemaskanduse
LoadSelectiontomaskeverythingexcepttheareaofthelogo.Oncethatisdone,
deselectandapplyfilterstothemask.IusedtheArtisticfilterColoredPencil(5,15,
0).

Step4:Applythemasktothegradientlayer.Nowthegradientonlyshowsthroughin
thepatternofthepencilstrokes.Ifyoudon'tlikethewaythecolorspillsalittlepast
theoutlineofthelettersinplaces,youcancleanitupbyeditingthemaskwithLoad
Selectionagaintopaintblackoveranyareasoutsidetheactualtext.Inthiscase,I
happenedtolikethesomewhatsloppy/scratchylook,soIkeptitasis.

Thissameprinciplecanbeappliedtocreatemanydifferenteffects,souseyour
imaginationtospiceupyourprojects.Bythesametoken,youcanalsousefilterson
alphachannels,oreventheregularcolorchannels.

3.Aligningobjects
Thereareoccasionswhenyouwanttoalignmultipleobjects,butthisisverydifficult
todoaccuratelyjustbyeyeingit.Insuchasituation,youcanuseGridorGuidesto
helpyou,oryoucanusethealign/distributionfunctions.

Let'ssayI'mdesigningamenu,andIwanttoputafork/knife/spoongraphicjust
inwardfromthefourcorners.IfIweretoplacethegraphicsmanually,theywould
probablywindupatslightlydifferentdistancesfromthesidesoftheimage,nomatter
howhardItriedtolinethemupproperly.ThisiswheretheGridisconvenient.

IntheViewmenu,youcansetittoShowGridandSnapTo Grid.Thismakesa
gridappearacrossyourimage.Wheneveryoumoveanobjectwiththecursorunder
thesesettings,itwillautomaticallysnaptothenearestgridline.Thiswayyoucan
makecertainthatobjectsarealignedperfectly.Thegridisonlyvisiblewhileyouare
editingtheimage,soyoudon'thavetoworrythatitwillshowupafteryousaveit.
Thisgridcanalsobeusedtoaligntextandselectionareasasshownintheexample
below.

Grid Visible Grid Invisible

Ifyoudon'tneedagridovertheentireimage,orifthelinesonthegridaren'twhere
youwantthem,youcancreateyourownlinesusingView NewGuide.Suchlines
workthesameasthegridlines.Youcaninputanumericalvalueforthepositionof
eachguide,oryoucandragthemtowhereyouwantthem.Thepicturesbelowshow
onewaythattheguidescanbeused.
 Guides Visible Guides Invisible
Thedefaults,suchastheintervalsmarkedbythegridlines,canbechangedwithEdit
PreferencesGuides,Grid&Slices.

Anothe
rwaytoalignobjectsistousetheAlignandDistributefunctionsoftheMovemenu
bar(right).Eachitemmustbeinitsownlayer.IntheLayerspalette,clicktheboxto
therightoftheeyeicontomakethe"link"iconappearforeverylayeryouwantto
align.Ifyouonlylinkonelayertotheactivelayer,onlytheAlignmenuwillbe
available.YoumustlinktwoormorelayerstotheactivelayerfortheDistributemenu
tobecomeavailable.
 Forthisexample,openanewimageandusetheCustom
Shapetooltoscattersomeshapesrandomlyacrossit.Iusedthecherryblossomshape
createdinLesson14(left).Makesureyousetthetooltocreateanewlayerforevery
shape.

Next,choosewhichshapeyouwanttobetheactivelayerandlinktheothershape
layerstoit.Thelayeryouselecttobetheactivelayeristheoneusedasthereference
pointfortherest.IfIchoosethetopmostcherryblossomastheactivelayerandclick
"Aligntopedges,"theremainingthreeblossomswillallmoveupwarduntiltheirtop
edgesalignwiththetopedgeofthehighestblossom.Ifthebottommostblossomisthe
activelayer,ontheotherhand,clickingthesame"Aligntopedges"iconwillmakethe
otherthreeblossomssinktothebottomoftheimage.Thisisillustratedbelow.

Align top edges Align top edges

(top blossom active) (bottom blossom active)
TheDistributefunction,incontrast,doesnotmatchuptheedgesorcentersofthe
objects.Instead,itspacesouttheobjectsinthemiddleequallybetweentheobjectson
eitherend.(Thisiswhyyouneedatleastthreelayersinvolvedtousethisfunction;if
youhaveonlytwo,thereisnomiddlelayertobedistributed.)

Youcandistributetheobjectseitherhorizontallyorvertically...orboth,ifyouusethe
functiontwiceinarow.ThepicturesbelowshowtheresultofusingDistribute.

Distribute top Distribute left Distribute top

edges edges edges
+
Distribute left
edges
Alignanddistributecanalsobeusedtoorganizepaths.Forexample,ifyouwantto
makecertainthattwopathsarecentered,youcanselectthembothandusetheAlign
function.Thisisillustratedbelow.
 Polygon tool Align vertical centers
+ +
Custom Shape tool Align horizontal centers

4.UsingtheActionspalette

Ihavetalkedaboutmanyhelpfulpalettes,butthereis
oneinparticularIhavenotyetmentioned,andthatistheActionspalette(left).Itis
similarinfunctiontotheStylespalette.Whatitdoesiskeeparecordofasequenceof
actions,suchastheapplicationofvariousfilters,sothatyoucanapplytheexactsame
sequencelaterwithasingleclick.

Toseehowthisworks,openapicture.Iwill
usethisimageofabutterfly(right).

SelectoneoftheitemsontheActionsmenu.Ifyouclickonthetriangulararrownext
tothetitleoftheeffect,youcanseethespecificsequenceofactionsthatwillbe
applied.Onceyouhavethedesireditemhighlighted,clickthetriangular"Play
selection"iconattheverybottomofthepalette.Belowaresomeexamplesofpreset
itemsintheActionspalette.

Sepia Toning Oil Pastel Light Rain

 Ifyoudeviseasequenceofactionsthatyouwanttobeabletouse
againlater,youcansavethesequencetotheActionspalette.Firstclickthearrowin
theupperrightcornerofthepalettetobringupitsmenu(left).Select"NewSet"and
giveyoursetaname,suchas"CustomActions"or"MyActions."(Youcanalsodo
thisbyclickingthe"Createnewset"iconatthebottomofthepalette.)

Onceyournew(empty)sethas
beensavedtothepalette,selectyoursetandchoose"NewAction"fromthemenu.
Thisbringsupadialoguebox(right)thatallowsyoutospecifyafunctionkeyforthe
action.Ifyoudothis,thenpressingthefunctionkeywillperformtheaction.
Youcanalsogiveyoursequenceanametodescribewhatitdoes.Ifyoursequence
canonlybeappliedtoacertaintypeofcontent,suchasaselectionareaoratype
layer,it'sagoodideatospecifythisinthename.

Notethatitisagoodideatobeginyoursequencebymakingasnapshot.Thatway,no
matterhowmanystepsthereareinyoursequence,youcanalwaysusethesnapshotto
undobacktothestartingpointifyoudon'tliketheeffect.

Gothroughallofthestepsinyoursequenceexactlythewayyouwantthemrecorded.
Whenyouarefinished,pressthesquare"Stopplaying/recording"iconatthebottom
oftheActionspalette.

Everystepthatyouwentthroughissaved,includingallofthesettingsforanyfilters
thatyouapplied.Ifyouhavedevisedasequenceoffiltersthatproducesaneffectyou
like,andyouwanttobeabletoreproducethesameeffectexactly,theActionspalette
isagreatwaytodoso.Onethingtowatchoutforisusingfilters,gradients,orother
functionsthatdependontheforegroundandbackgroundcolors.Youcanstilluse
them,youjusthavetomakesureyouincludesettingtheforegroundandbackground
colorsaspartofthesequence.

BelowisanexampleofanactionthatIcreatedandnamed"PrismaticGlow."
5.Makingfurtheradjustments
I'vetalkedabouthowtouseautomaticfunctionssuchasAutoColorandmoremanual
functionssuchasBrightness/Contrasttoenhanceimages.Therearemanymore
functionsavailableformakingadjustmentstothecolors,brightness,andcontrast.I'm
goingtogooverthreemoreofthemthatyoumayfindconvenient.

ThefirstistheLevels
dialoguebox(left).Thisbreaksdownthepixelsintermsoflightanddarkand
displaysthemintermsofahistogram.BymovingthearrowsfortheInputLevelsand
OutputLevels,youcanadjustthebrightnessandcontrastoftheimagewithfine
precision.

Theeyedroppersinthelowerrightofthe
dialogueboxallowyoutosetvaluesforthedarkesttones,lightesttones,andmidtones
byclickingontheappropriateeyedropperandthensamplinganimagepixel.For
example,clickingonadarkgreenpixelwhereindicatedbythewhitecircle(right)sets
thatasthedarkestcolorintheimage,therebydarkeningtheimageoverall.Compare
thisdarkenedimagewiththeversionabove.
TheCurvesdialogueboxisanothertoolforadjustingtheimage.Whatthisdoesisset
upacurveshowingtherelationshipbetweenthelightness/darknessoftheinputpixels
andtheoutputpixels.Youcanchangetheshapeofthiscurvetobrightenordarken
thepixelsatanyvalueyouchoose.Thepicturesbelowillustratewhathappenswhen
youclickonthecurvetocreateanchorpointsandmovetheanchorpointsaround.
 Finally,ahandyitemontheAdjustments
menuisGradientMap.Thisfunctionmapsthepixelstoagradientofyourchoice
basedontheirbrightness.Asimpleblacktowhitegradientwillproduceagrayscale
image.Choosingagradientwithdifferentcolorscanproduceinterestingeffects.

Imappedthebutterflypicturetoacustomgradient(left)toobtaintheresultshown
(right).

Wherethisfunctionreallycomesinhandyiswhenyouaredesigningtexturesand
patterns.Youcanusefiltersonasimplegrayscaleimageandthenmaptheimagetoa
colorgradienttocolorizeit.Thiscanproducetexturessuchasfur,woodgrain,fire,
stone,andotherdesignsthatyoumaywishtouseinyourimages.Anexampleofthis
isgivenbelow.

Step1:Openablankwhiteimageanduseacombinationoffilterstomakethedesired
texture.IusedthecombinationAddNoise(100%,Uniform,Monochromatic),Motion
Blur(0,15px),UnsharpMask(250%,50px,0),andOceanRipple(3,1)tocreatea
grayscaleimageofwaves.
Step2:Selectagradienttoapplytotheimage.Therewasn'tapresetgradientthatI
liked,soIcreatedthecustomgradientshownandsavedittothegradientmenu.

Step3:UseImageAdjustmentsGradientMaptoapplythegradienttothe
image.

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

6.Havingfunwithtext
Addingtexttoyourimagetomakecaptionsisalreadyfun,ofcourse.Choosingafont,
warpingthetext,usingmasksandstylesandothertechniquestodecoratethecaption
allofitcontributestotheenjoyment.Onemorethingyoucandowithtext,however,
istouseeachletter(notjustthedingbats)asanartisticelementtobemanipulated.

Forexample,youcanusefilterstodistortthetextintounusualshapes.Youcanalso
rotatethetextintounexpectedangles,orcopyittomakepatterns.Theprocessbelow
illustratesthesepossibilities.
 Font: Filter: Gradient Copy (3)
Hancock Distort: Overlay and rotate
Twirl (yellow/pink (90CW,
(200dg) /purple, 180,
radial, 90CCW)
125%)
Infact,copyingandrotatingisagreatwaytomakeinstantpatternsanddecorations.
Plus,onceyoustrikeuponadesignyoulike,youcansaveiteithertothepatternmenu
orthebrushtipmenu,asshownbelow.Noonewilleverguessthatitstartedoutas
plaintext!

Font: Times Copy (5) and Define brush

New Roman rotate (Size Jitter:
(^ x v T) (60 100%, Scatter:
 increments) 180%)

Finally,anotherthingyoucandowithtextistochangethe
shapesofindividualletterstosuitthethemeofyourcaption.Rightclickonthetext
layerwiththeTypetool,thenusethepopupmenutoconverttheselectionintoa
path.Manipulatetheresultingpathasyouwouldanyothershape.Whenfinished,fill
thepathwiththedesiredcolor.Thepictureontheleftshowshowtheword"love"
(writtenwiththefontArialBlack)waschangedtoaddhearts.

Ifyoudon'tfeelconfidentmanipulatingthepathsofthelettersdirectly,youcan
alwayscombinethemwithpathsdrawnusingtheShapetool.

Thereyouhaveit!ThatdoesitforthisseriesofPhotoshoplessons.Nowit'suptoyoutoturnyour
imaginationlooseandusethesetechniquestomakewonderfulpictures!