NESTED TOOLS

Right click on tools with an arrow in the corner to reveal additional tools.

Move Tool

Rectangular Marquee

Elliptical Marquee

Single Row Marquee

Single Column Marquee

Lasso

Polygonal Lasso

Magnetic Lasso

Magic Wand

Quick Selection

Crop

Perspective Crop

Slice

Slice Select

Eyedropper

3D Material Eyedropper

Color Sampler

Ruler

Note

Count

Spot Healing Brush

Healing Brush

Patch

Content Aware Move

Red Eye

Clone Stamp

Pattern Stamp

Dodge

Burn

Sponge

Blur

Sharpen

Smudge

Brush

Pencil

Color Replacement

Mixer Brush

History Brush

Art History Brush

Eraser

Background Eraser

Magic Eraser

Gradient

Paint Bucket

3D Material Drop

Pen

Freeform Pen

Add Anchor Point

Delete Anchor Point

Convert Point

Rectangle

Rounded Rectangle

Ellipse

Polygon

Line

Custom Shape

Horizontal Type

Vertical Type

Horizontal Type Mask

Vertical Type Mask

Path Selection

Direct Selection

Hand

Rotate View

Standard Screen

Full Screen + Menu

Full Screen

Toolbar Index

Resizing & Rotating

Resizing

Rotating

Width

Keep the aspect ratio by clicking the chain

HeightResolution

Image>Image Size or Image>Image Rotation

Alter image size by going to Image>Image Size in the menu bar.

Rotate an image by going to Image>Image Rotation in the menu bar. Choose a direction and amount of degree change.

The fi rst thing to decide in Photoshop is what type of document you want to work with. There are two options. Selecting File>New will give you a blank canvas to work with. Selecting File>Open will allow you to choose an image fi le from the computer to start editing.

File>New or File>Open

Choose canvas height, width, resolution, color mode, and name.

New Document

Photoshop will give you the option to select a preexisting size or you can type in the size of your document manually

Adobe Photoshop CC 2017 Photoshop is used to alter, retouch, and edit images. It can also be used for drawing, web & print design, and video.

Essentials

This workspace is recommended for people who are new to Photoshop due to its Basic tool set up. Here you can learn the functions of Photoshop or do quick edits to your project.

Workspaces are a great way to personalize the tools and panels that surround the opened program window. This could be a simple way to work on projects in a fast and productive way.

Graphic and Web

This workspace is perfect for creating and designing mockups that would be used on websites. Any internet browser (e.g. Chrome or Fire Fox) will alter the appearance of your website. Using this feature will allow you to quickly change color or size to best fi t with most if not all web browsers.

Photography

This workspace is great for manipulating photos such as fi lters, highlights, or cosmetics. use this workspace when dealing with photographs such as Family, landscape, portraits, etc.

Paint

This creative workspace is used for more Fine Art work. This workspace includes tools that are suited for Digital painting and Graphic Design. Using this workspace will enhance your tools for a more creative atmosphere.

When you feel comfortable with Photoshop and know the tools that you need. Creating your own workspace that best fi ts you can be a quick and productive way of getting projects done. You can change the tool bar, add/remove work panels (e.g. History, color panel, Layers panel), and even change the hotkeys (shortcuts) on your keyboard.

Workspaces

Customize a Workspaces

This image was scanned so it needs the white background cropped out and straightened.

Hover over a corner and a rotate arrow appears. Turn the image until the edge of the photo is parallel to the crop box grid.

Crop in around the crooked

image, while still leaving some

space around the edges.

Then pull the edges in until

there is no more white background

at all.

Cropping allows you to straighten and cut out the parts of an image you do not want.

Cropping

Locking a layer keeps it from being edited. To lock or unlock click the padlock icon.

Layers in Photoshop can be compared to a stack of clear plastic sheets with different elements on them. Altering the order of the layers will change what is on top. An understanding of layers is central to working in Photoshop.

The layer highlighted in blue is the current working layer. This means it is the only layer you will be able to edit. Click on other layers to make changes to them.

Sometimes you will want to focus on one layer without the others. To hide and show different layers click on the eye icon on each respective layer.

Merging is combining two layers into one. Merging is a perminant choice so do so carefully. To merge, select the desired layers, right click on them and choose “Merge Layers”. Flattening is merging all the layers into one. It’s a good idea to save a version before fl attening incase you want to make changes later.

The default layer when opening a new canvas in Photoshop is called Background. This layer has already been edited to act as a background for other layers. It is white instead of transparent and has been set to lock. Unlock the layer to enable editing and the ability to delete it.

Selected Layer

Lock & Unlock

Show & HideMerging & Flattening

The Background Layer

Window>Layers

New Layer

AdditionalOptions

Hide/View

Lock/Unlock

Delete

Group

Layers

Some of the most common ways to edit an image can be found under this menu.

Image>Adjustments or Window>Adjustments

Image Adjustments

This graph in Levels is called a histogram. Use it to alter the darks, highlights, and midtones of an image.

Use the sliders found in the black and white options to affect the contrast between colors.

Brightness ContrastOriginal

Brightness/Contrast

Correctly Toned

Black & White

Drastically Increased Red Drastically Increased Cyan

Original

Levels

Original

Black & White

Original

Color Balance

Marquee Options

Lasso Options

Magic Wand & Quick Selection

Making Selections

Selections allow you to chose a very specifi c area of your project to edit, move, or cut out. There are many different ways to make selections in Photoshop. The following are the most commonly used tools. All can be found in the toolbar.

These selection tools allow you to make a selection that is a certain type of shape. Either rectangular, elliptical, or simply a single row of horizontal or vertical pixels.

The Magic Wand will select parts of an image that are similar to the area you click such as a single color. Quick selection selects a brush-stroke-like area.

The Lasso option is comparable to drawing the outline of a selection. The Polygonal Lasso lets you click points one after another. The Magnetic Lasso will search for the edges of an object as you trace around it.

Full Image

Here we are using the lasso tool to only select the yellow bird.

Elliptical Marquee

Polygonal Lasso Magnetic Lasso

Magic Wand Quick Selection

Rectangular Marquee

Making Transparent Backgrounds

When you have an image with a background you wish was not there it is helpful to make the background transparent.

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3

2

4

This is my original image. For this logo I want to take out the black background so I can use it against different colors.

Select all areas of the background using one of the many selection tools. I used the magic wand tool in this example.

Once all of the background is selected use the delete button on the keyboard to get rid of it. You will be left with a transparent background.

Saving as a JPEG will not keep you background transparent. Saving your fi le as a PNG will.

Unlock the background layer by clicking on the lock icon or by double clicking on the name “Background” and renaming it.

Unlock or rename layer

Saving Files with Transparency

The Clone Tool allows you to edit out parts of an image by blending in an area with part of its surroundings.

Selcet the Clone Stamp from the toolbar. Option + Click on an area that will blend well with what you are trying to remove. This creates a source location.

Then “paint” over what you want to hide little by little. Choose a new source every so often.

In this example I found the yellow in the camera strap distracting to the rest of the photo. I removed it using the clone stamp.

Original Edited

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Clone Tool

2

Customizing a preexisting Brush

Photoshop has more than enough brush options for you to choose from. Picking one will give you options to alter the preset brush for a more unique outcome. Go to Window > Brush Preset. This will give you a window full of brush thumbnails. Clicking on one will give you the settings below to alter the Brush.

You have the option to change the size of your brush by mov-ing the size cursor or typing in your exact brush size

Hardness of the brush will make it seem crisp. If you bring the Hardness all the way down, your brush will seem softer or out of focus.

Adjusting the round-ness of your brush will give it a calligraphic style. This will give the brush strokes a thick to thin movement

Rotate your brush to prevent repetition

Your brush can be smooth, or have spacing.

You can fl ip your brush on an X-axis, Y-axis, or X and Y axis. This will help make your brushes look less repetitive.

Creating a Brush from an Image or Text

First, choose a picture that you want to convert to a brush. A PNG fi le is highly recommended. Open your image fi le as normal through Photoshop. If you’re using the Text instead, open a Transpar-ent project and begin typing your word. Make sure to be on a separate window when creating a Brush.

Your brush will work the best if it’s in a gray scale. Change the contrast and Exposure for a more vivid brush pattern. If using Text, a black silhouette is recommended.

You can also turn your image into a silhouette which will give you a solid color brush pattern.

Photoshop gives you the option to turn any image into a brush. You can also use the Type tool to make a brush out of letters/words. This could be very helpful if you can’t seem to get the brush you want out of the Brush Preset Panel.

Once your image is ready to be converted to a brush, go to Edit > Defi ne Brush Preset... Give your Brush a name and as soon you click Save, the brush will be the fi rst one in the Brush Panel

Saving

File> Save As...

Once you want to save your document go to File>Save As. A dialogue box will appear with the following options:

Choose your fi le format carefully depending on what you want to do with your document. The Following are some of the most commonly used fi le types:

File Name

File Type

AdditionalOptions

Save

Save Location

There are a many different options when it comes to using text in Photoshop.

Text

Horizontal Type is the most commonly used text tool. Use the Vertical Text tool when vertical type is preferred.

Use these two tools when you wish to have something inside the text such as an image

Use this option to alter the shape of your text

These two windows open additional type options such as tracking, kerning, leading, indents, & hyphenation.

Orientation Font Style SizeAlignment

Color

Warp

Open Windows

Horizontal & Vertical Type

Horizontal & Vertical Type Masks

Warped Text

Character & Paragraph Windows

Photoshop.psd

JPEG.jpg

PNG .png

TIFF.tif

The native fi le type. This is the type of fi le you will have when you open a new document. Saving a fi le as a Photoshop document will allow you to go back and make changes.

Most common fi le type for images, but won’t preserve transparency.

Keeps quality of image and preserves transparency.

Used for high quality prints, won’t preserve transparency.

Horizontal Text

Warped Text

Warp Options

Character

Paragraph

Window> Character / Paragraph

Horizontal Text Mask

Adobe Photoshop CC 2017 Shortcuts