Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular photo editing software. This software has a user friendly interface, which allows users to perform basic photo editing. However, one just need not spend hundreds of dollars on buying photoshop to do photo editing. As Adobe Photoshop offers much more! Did you know that photoshop is used by professionals to create matte paintings. Matte painting are the paintings used to form the background layers in movies like Van Helsing, Lord of the Rings, etc. Yes my friend, the backgrounds used in LOTR series are all detailed matte paintings done by professional artists in photo editing softwares, and not a film set.
With photoshop you can do graphic design, you can create business cards, greeting cards, do compositing, unwrap UV textures (am I getting too technical here?). Unwrapping UV texture is like taking a 3D model from a software and opening it in photoshop and then painting it in photoshop. Well, in short photoshop is a mul ti-purpose tool, and once you understand the basics of photoshop, you can exploit this software in many many ways. There are various ways to learn how to use photoshop.
Fast Way to Learn Photoshop
You can download video tutorials on photoshop, or download other tutorials which contains instructions and screenshots of photoshop software, that help you understand the various features and settings in photoshop. However, in my opinion the best way to understand and learn how to use photoshop is just to start playing around with the software and if you get stuck somewhere, then hit the F1 key for help and search on the topic on which you are stuck. For example, if you want to import multiple images in photoshop, but don't know how to, then just press F1 key and search for photoshop help by typing 'importing images'. Few search results will appear in front of you, click on the relevant search result and read the stepwise instructions provid ed in the tutorial, and follow it to import multiple images. Yes, learning photoshop is quite easy and this is one of the fastest way to learn how to use adobe photoshop.
How to Use Adobe Photoshop?
To learn photoshop, what do you need? You need some previous experience of using paintbrush (yeah, the old free software that is in accessories programs tab of windows), and the photoshop software. You can download the free trial version of old photoshop CS any version, or borrow from a friend any old version of photoshop 7, 8, anything will do. Before using this software, here are some pre-photoshop tips - photoshop can slow down your machine, hence you need a good graphics card and 1-2 GB of RAM capacity. So, install photoshop trial or old version, and use these tips to check the various features and tools in photoshop.
Opening Photoshop Basics
Guessing the first thing you want to do with photoshop is edi t some pictures. (May be edit your picture, to remove pimples from your face, and crop it to put it as a profile pic on facebook?) You can simply drag and drop the picture you want to edit, or use the import option and specify the path of the image. You can also import multiple images selecting many images from a folder, and dragging and dropping your selection into photoshop software.
Understanding and Using Layers
Now that you got a picture, you will need to use tools and settings to change the picture. The first thing you need to do is unlock the layer of the image. On the bottom right side of the software, there is a floating box of layers. On that your image will be displayed as a layer. Unlock this layer, so that you can edit this picture. Remember, that you always need to keep layers unlocked in photoshop to work on them. You can select the hue/saturation or brightness/contrast options which you select from a drop box in the menu bar. Play around with the light and color settings. You can work in multiple layers in the photoshop easily, and there are many setting and features.
Here, is something for you to try out. Create a new layer which will be a tiny option on the bottom right side of layers floating box. Lock your original image layer. Then on the new layer (make sure it's unlocked), use the text option f rom the tool bar on the left side. Then select the text layers and text option and start typing on your workspace. This way you can add text on your picture. But, wait, not just that, you can go on adding anything you like this way in layers. For example, bottom layer of a red carpet event with the main celebrities, then middle layer of your smiling face picture overlapped on the head of the hero/heroine of the movie, next top layer of fan A drooling, next top layer of fan B swooning, next top layer of fan C asking autograph, to layer infinity... I hope, now you understand the 'power of layers in photoshop'. Play with settings like opacity, normal, screen, multiply with layers. These options you will find on the layers box, just below the there tabs of layers, channels and paths. Level 3 is using tools in photoshop.
Playing with the Toolbar
One of the aspect which distinguishes photoshop from other photo editing softwares, are the tool optio ns of photoshop. On the left side of photoshop software the toolbar is located. Here are some tips, before we start looking at the tool options in photoshop. If you can't find the toolbar, layers or other floating windows in photoshop, then go to the windows options on the menu bar and click on default, all the windows will get arranged to their default places. You can also click on the individual options like layers box, color palette, toolbar, etc. if you like.
There are many tools options in photoshop. The basic ones are rectangular, crop, eraser, pen, zoom, eyedropper, hand, brush, move, text, etc. You can learn the keyboard shortcuts of all these tools, just hover the mouse cursor on tools and the shortcut will get displayed, or go to help on photoshop and you will get a list of all these keyboard shortcuts, take a screenshot of these and stick them as a wallpaper, to memorize them. Play with these keyboard shortcuts for half an hour. The basic tools are eas y to use and learn. However, there are some awesome advanced tools like magic wand, clone stamp, dodge, lasso tool options which allow the user advance editing. For example, with lasso tool, you can select someone's lips and using hue/saturation option to paint those lips green. Or you can use the clone stamp, select a patch of good skin, and stamp it on the pimples or scars, to make your skin look blemish-free. (Yep, works faster than any anti-blemish cream!) Wondering, how to change eye color in photoshop which is red? Another great tool is the red eye tool, which you can find under the spot healing brush tool menu. Just click on the red eyes, and voila! Instant red eye correction.
Going Advanced
Alright, now this is for some serious photoshop users, or artists who want to use this software for designing or painting purposes. If you wish to learn how to paint then you need to play a lot with the color palette, and understand all the sizes and shapes of brush options. Also, practice of layers is important. If you are doing some graphic design work, then you will need to use more options like emboss, highlight, shadow, etc. and also understand other options like flipping images, skewing them, etc. For people who want to compose their image to look professional, you need to zoom the images a lot so that you actually work on pixel levels so that your image looks flawless. Use the feather or blur option in such cases. Tip - while doing any important project, keep saving a back up of your file every 1 or 2 hours, to prevent loss of valuable artwork.
Have you heard about photoshop elements? It is a more cheaper and simpler software compared to photoshop. It is a good software too, however, it doesn't have all the options found in photoshop. Wondering, how to use photoshop elements? It is pretty much the same way using photoshop. Another advantage of photoshop elements is that it is lighter than Photoshop CS. It is a good software if you are not looking for advanced features. These were the tips on how to use photoshop. So, use the above tips to explore photoshop features and options. If you get stuck, then hit the F1 key.
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