Adobe Photoshop - An Introduction

Practice No. 1

During our Second Quarter we will concentrate on the Adobe Photoshop Application. The older computers have the Adobe Photoshop 7 Version and the newer ones the Adobe Photoshop CS3 Version. There are a few differences and Mrs. Feld will explain this to you in class.

Adobe Photoshop is a powerful image-editing application with a wealth of tools and commands for working on digital images or bitmaps*. There are utilities for retouching, color correcting, cropping, rotating, resizing and more. There are also over 90 functional and creative filters that can be applied either to the entire image or to selected areas within the image to create special effects.

First you must become very familiar with the Photoshop Toolbox. Please read the Photoshop Handout very carefully and check the following sites to review: Photoshop Toolbox CS3 and Tips and Rules. Also, learn at least two ways of importing images in Photoshop.

The following Keyboard Shortcuts are essential (YOU MUST REMEMBER THESE):

• Command-O Open (to import a picture in Photoshop)
  
• Command-N New (to create a new document)
• Command-Z Undo (to undo the last thing you did)
• Command-J New Layer (creates a new layer in Photoshop)
• Command-U Hue/Saturation (opens the Hue/Saturation Window)
• Command-Shift-U Desaturate (Black & White in Photoshop)
• Command-T Free Transform in Photoshop (great way of turning your images around, enlarge them or shrink them)
• Command-Shift-4 Take picture of selection (easy way of copying something in Apple Computers, your Mac will automatically create a picture of your selection on your desktop)
• Command-Shift-3 Take picture of screen (your Mac takes a picture of your whole screen - find it on your desktop )
• Command-Plus (+) Enlarge image in Photoshop (to work on details I recommend that you enlarge your pictures this way)
• Command-Minus (-) Minimize image in Photoshop (to reduce your picture and go back to original size)
• Command-P Print
• Command-S Save
• Command-W Close
• Command-C Copy
• Command-V Paste

We will work on a few Practice Exercises first, then Mrs. Feld will tell you which Textbook Exercises, and which other exercises -created by Mrs. Feld- in the Server (iLife06), to complete. Those of you not going to Kairos XVIII must work on the class assignments (four Photoshop Exercises that must be saved as both PSD's and JPEG's in the Server under your Digital Applications folder > under your name - in a new Photoshop Folder you should create in the Public Folder, so Mrs. Feld can grade your work).

You must become proficient at working with layers in Photoshop (check your Photoshop Handout and Chapter 2 in the CS3 textbook). When using Photoshop we work with layers most of the time. Layers in Photoshop are like individual sheets of clear plastic that are in a stack. You activate a layer by clicking on it. When you work in Photoshop pay attention to which layer you are selecting before you make any changes.

JPEG: Is an acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group. An extremely efficient compression format frequently used for images on the World Wide Web. There are other file formats, but we will only save our work as JPEG's and/or PSD's (Photoshop Files).

* Bitmaps are digital images. An object in a bitmap image consists of a rectangular grid or raster of pixels (small blocks) - like a mosaic. When editing a bitmap (digital) image, it is the color values of individual pixels or groups of pixels that are modified; so when working in Photoshop you edit pixels, change their color, shade and brightness.

Assignments 1 - 4: During the week of 11/09/09 - 11/13/09 you will work on these assignments (you can find the instructions in the document inside a folder called "ASSIGNMENTS" in iLife06 - in the Server). Those of you attending the retreat will work on these assignments when you come back, it is your responsibility to do these. You can ask one of your classmates to guide you and help you, if they already completed them. Also ask Mrs. Feld if you have any questions. You can find these assignments in the Server in iLife06 under "ASSIGNMENTS." Exercises 3 & 4 are like the exercise we did in class (that we will review on Monday); I need you to practice over and over so that you can remember how to do this type of exercises. You can also create others of your choice, and experiment with different filters. Use the Magnetic Lasso Tool over and over so you become an expert using this tool.

Extra practice: Those who want to challenge themselves a little bit (and already like Photoshop) - select two pictures: one will be the background, like a beach, a forest, a scene, etc. the other a person (woman, man, child, you, anyone). Open both in Photoshop. With the Magnetic Lasso Tool select the person (Feather on your toolbar should be 1 or 2 - not 0 - it will look better this way). Then using the Move Tool move the selection (the person) to the background picture. Now, depending on the Image Size, the person may look too big or too small on this background; you can easily correct that by using the Free-Transform option (Command-T) and dragging the corner handles in our out ("in" to make the picture smaller and "out" to make the picture bigger). To avoid changing the proportion of your picture you may want to press the Shift Key while you enlarge or minimize your image.

If you're having difficulties understanding how to do some of this work, please ask some of your fellow classmates (the ones that already understand how to use some of the Photoshop commands). REMEMBER: PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Repeat some of the exercises to understand how to do certain things in Photoshop better. Remember and practice how to use the History Brush, the Magnetic Lasso Tool and the Hue/Saturation window (Command-U) to change the color of images.