How to Use Photoshop

Lesson 1: Basic Skills and Using Filters

Today’s Objectives
 To understand how to use the basic tools in
Adobe Photoshop.

 To understand how to use filters to

manipulate or distort a Jpeg Image.

 To document your findings and final pieces in

a PowerPoint presentation, that will be added
to as the weeks go by.
Before We Start...
 If you are caught messing on the Internet,
the following punishments will apply:

 Once: Banned from the Internet (on any part

of the school network) for 24 hours.
 Twice: Banned from the Internet for 48 hours.
 Thrice: Banned from the Internet for a WEEK.

 This has been agreed with the I.T. Staff, and

will apply across the school. I will be emailing
them names straight after class.
1. Getting Started with
Photoshop

Photoshop is located the “Art” Folder

in the Start menu. This is located to
the bottom left of your screen.

When you first open Photoshop, it will

look like the picture to the right.
 Before you can begin manipulating,
Opening a File first you must have a photograph to
work on!

Go to file, and click “Open”.

Where to find the photographs

The photos you will be

working from today are
located in the shared
areas for students and
teachers.

To find this, click on the

“Look In” drop-down box
in the “Open” window.

Scroll down until you get

to “Student_common$”
Click on “Art” and then “Pictures for Computer Project”
There are some high quality photographs for you to work from in here.
Layout of the Photoshop
Screen
Your screen should
now look something
like this.

You are now ready to

start manipulating!

Before you
start, save
this picture in
your personal
folder.
Where to find the Filters
The simplest way to manipulate
a photograph is to use the
“Filters”.

These are located in the “Filter”

drop down box along the top of
the screen.

You can use these filters to

create many different effects.

Start off with the “Artistic”

effects first.

I am going to start with the

“Coloured Pencil” filter
 How to use the Filters
When you click on a
filter, Photoshop will
often bring up a new
window.

In this window you can

preview what your
filter does.

You can also change

the intensity of the
effect (see the 3
sliders to the right).

You should play with these effects

until you are happy with the
image.
Using “Save As”
If you click “Save”, you will lose
the original picture.

To keep both the original version

and the manipulated version,
use the tool “Save As”.

You can use this tool to save a

new version of the picture under
a different name.

Perhaps you could call this one

“Coloured Pencil”.

Be very careful; do not

accidentally press
“Save”!
2. How to present your
work
 As you are manipulating your photograph, I
want you to keep a record of what you are
doing.

 You will do this by creating a “Screen Grab”

of your work.

 A Screen Grab is a snapshot of a

computer's monitor screen
How to create a “Screen
Grab”
 To create a Screen Grab, press “Ctrl” and
“Print Screen” at the same time.

 The print screen button should be at the top

right hand corner of your keyboard. (It will
probably say “SysRq” underneath it.

 Then click “File” and “New”

This drop down box will appear. Select custom. When you press
okay a blank canvas will appear.

Now go to “Edit” and “Paste”. You now have a screen grab!

Remember to save it with an appropriate name.
Powerpoint
 I now want you to use your screen grabs and saved pictures to create a
PowerPoint presentation of what you did.
 Paste in your Screen grabs and images, and write a sentence or two about
what you did and what filters you used.

 If you double click on your image in PowerPoint, the following button appear
in the top right hand corner. You can use the “Crop” tool to cut your image or
Screen Grab to the required shape.
Don’t forget to Save!
 This PowerPoint is very important to your
final grade for this project, so do not forget
to Save it!

 You may use more than one filter over the

course of this lesson, if this is the case, you
include all the work in the PowerPoint.

 Don’t leave it all to the end, work on the

PowerPoint as you go along.
3. Add on Work
 If you have documented how you have used
1 filter in PowerPoint, you have to continue
exploring Photoshop’s tools and filters.
More filters:
Document another filter. Pick a filter out of another drop
down box, ie Pixelate, or Distort etc
Zoom
This time also document how you use the zoom
tool.
4. More Add on Work
 Well done for getting this far class!

 You are now good enough at Photoshop to

learn how to use some of the more
complicated tools.

 Maybe you don’t want the whole of an image

to be affected by a filter? Maybe you just
want to change a small section?
 How do you do that?
Lasso Tool
This tool is located on the
long thin tool bar that is
usually located to the left
of the screen (although it
can be moved around)

You can use this tool to

select small areas of your
image to work on
Once you have selected the desired area, choose a filter from the
menu
The filter will only
affect the selected
area!

Use this tool to

create lots of
different effects on
the same image!
Before we finish up:
 Make sure you have all your Jpegs saved in
your personal folder.

 Make sure you have your PowerPoint

presentation saved in your personal folder.

 Log off the computer.