every tool explained - adobe photoshop

132 PAGES! Master every tool in the Photoshop toolbar

AdobePhotoshopEvery tool explained!Unleash the full power behind everyicon in the Photoshop toolbar

132 pages of easy-to-follow tutorials and expert advice to help develop your

Adobe Photoshop skills

Start up Photoshop and what do you see? Well,besides the menu options along the top of thescreen, youll see a Toolbar thats chock-a-blockwith icons. Youll probably recognise some of these,such as the T that designates the Type tool and thepaintbrush icon that unlocks the various Brush tools.But do you really know what the rest of these iconsmean? Honestly? The chances are that like manyPhotoshop users across the world youre only using afraction of the programs full potential, but this secondissue in the Photoshop Focus Guide series will changeall that, helping you make the most of all the tools atyour disposal.

Even professional designers often admit to beinghopeless with the Healing Brush and dodgy with theDodge tool, but theres really no reason for any of thetools to be a mystery. This issue will help you get morefrom the Clone, Gradient, Paths and Effects tools, toname but a few. Youll find expert tips and advice forworking more efficiently with each of the tools, as wellas tutorials to demonstrate exactly how to carry outuseful image-editing tasks. In the final section youllfind a step-by-step guide that brings together all theskills youve learnt, showing how to create a strikingPhotoshop image.

And lets not forget the CD thataccompanies your FocusGuide. On here youllfind a library of stockimages (worth 1,990),plug-ins and video trainingtutorials to enhance yourenjoyment of Photoshopfurther still!

Have fun!

Polish up your knowledge

Unravel the mysteries of the Photoshop Toolbar andits resident icons.Theyre not as scary as they look!

3ADOBE PHOTOSHOP TOOL TECHNIQUES FOCUS GUIDE

Welcome

Editor Dan McNamaraArt Editor Simon Bleeze

Writer Simon DanaherProduction Clive Somerville

Jonathan PalmerCover image Chris Stocker

New Media Co-ordinator Matt GallimoreProduction Co-ordinator Diane Ross

Group Publisher Dave Taylor Publishing Director John Weir

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4 FOCUS GUIDE ADOBE PHOTOSHOP TOOL TECHNIQUES

With so much to say aboutAdobe Photoshop its beendifficult to cram all the informationthat we wanted to include into thisFocus Guide. Thats why youll findthe special icons that occupy themargins so very useful.

As you leaf through the pages,youll find a range of attractivesymbols, each of which denotes anextra nugget of knowledge. Theicons enable you to identify exactlywhat kind of information youredealing with for a full guide to

icon categories, see below. Thesehandy hints, tips and shortcuts arealways relevant to the topic thatsbeing discussed, and will help youdevelop your Photoshop skills thatlittle bit faster.

Our writers are always experiencedPhotoshop experts who regularlycontribute to our sister magazines,such as Computer Arts and DigitalCamera Magazine. So you can restassured that all the information they provide is both authoritativeand thoroughly tried-and-tested.

Finding your way

Read this Guide from beginning to end or dip in and out as you please. Either way, our icons will prove indispensable


Icons explained

On your CD-ROMSome of the software that we refer to may beincluded on your bonus CD. Every now and then we remind you of this by flagging up the disc iconand listing whats on it. Handy, eh?

Top tipsThis indicates an expert tip. Anything shelteredbeneath this icon is guaranteed to reveal a usefulhint about using Photoshops extensive range oftools, palettes and features.

Further informationWed like to tell you absolutely everything, buttheres just not enough space. Instead we refer you to other useful resources, such as websites and specialist books for further reading.

ShortcutsCarrying out common tasks again and again canget a little tedious. Our handy shortcuts show youhow to carry out these tasks with a few deft key-presses, saving you lots of time and effort.

Take noteYoull find a number of these nuggets of knowledgescattered throughout the Guide.Theyre crammedwith useful information that complements themain text perfectly.

Watch out!The skull and crossbones sign means proceed with caution.Youll find some important pointsoutlined below this icon, which you should certainly take seriously.

LinksWhen we refer to a website, we may pull out theweb address in the sidebar to make it easier for you to read and remember.


Contents

CONTENTSSelections

1 SELECTION TOOLS IN PHOTOSHOP 10Making selections is the core of Photoshops way of working.There are a variety of tools you can use for the purpose, so heres how to get the most out of themBASIC SELECTION TOOLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12THE LASSO TOOLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14THE MAGNETIC LASSO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15THE MAGIC WAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16QUICK MASK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18WORKING WITH THE QUICK MASK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19SELECTIONS, MASKS AND CHANNELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20SLICES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Navigation and manipulation

NAVIGATING AND EDITING YOUR IMAGES 22Getting around inside an image is important if you are to work quickly and efficiently.This chapter covers the view navigation tools and shortcuts for managing your workspace2PANNING AND ZOOMING IMAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24THE NAVIGATOR PANEL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25VIEW MANAGEMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26MOVE, ALIGN AND DISTRIBUTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27THE MOVE TOOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28DIRECT AND PATH SELECTION TOOLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30VECTOR SHAPES AND MULTIPLE PATHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31


Contents

Brushes and Pencil tools

USING THE BRUSHES AND PENCIL TOOLS 32This chapter introduces you to Photoshops more arty tools, the Brushes.But as youll discover, you can use these versatile tools for far more than just painting3THE BRUSH TOOL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34USING BRUSHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35EXPLORING THE BRUSHES PALETTE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38THE BRUSHES PALETTE IN DETAIL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39SCATTERING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40TEXTURES AND DUAL BRUSHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41THE HISTORY BRUSH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42USING THE HISTORY BRUSH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43ART HISTORY BRUSH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

4THE RUBBER STAMP (CLONE) TOOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48REMOVING UNWANTED ELEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49CLONING SKIN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50THE HEALING BRUSH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51THE HEALING PATCH TOOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

5THE PAINT BUCKET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56MORE FILL OPTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58THE GRADIENT TOOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59THE GRADIENT EDITOR PANEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61USING GRADIENTS CREATIVELY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62GRADIENT STYLES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63GRADIENT MASKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64MASKS AND SELECTIONS IN DETAIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65MAGIC AND BACKGROUND ERASERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Cloning and Healing tools

USING THE CLONING AND HEALING TOOLS 46The Cloning and Healing tools in Photoshop offer an elegant way to fix damaged photos,correct bad scans and generally clean up your images. And theyre great fun to use

Gradients, Fills and Erasing

THE GRADIENT,FILL AND ERASER TOOLS 54Once you get more competent with Photoshop youll appreciate the importance of these utility tools.The Gradient tool in particular is essential for all manner of tricks and effects


Contents

6THE FOCUS TOOLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70THE BLUR TOOL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71THE SHARPEN TOOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72THE SMUDGE TOOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73WORKING WITH THE SMUDGE TOOL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74DODGE AND BURN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75THE SPONGE TOOL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77USING DODGE AND BURN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78FOCUSING IN WITH DODGE AND BURN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

7THE TYPE TOOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82TYPE OPTIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84TYPE TOOL TIPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85USING THE WARP TEXT PANEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87RASTERIZING TYPE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88STYLED TYPE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

8USING THE PEN TOOLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92VECTOR SHAPES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95USING VECTOR SHAPES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96MASKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98VECTOR SHAPE DETAILS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Effects Tools

GETTING TO KNOW THE EFFECTS TOOLS 68Photoshops effects tools include Blur, Sharpen, Smudge, Dodge and Burn. Discover how best to use them to spice up your artwork, composites and photographic images

Text

WORKING WITH THE TYPE TOOL 80Creating text in Photoshop is quite easy to do, whether its for artistic effect or simply to addessential information.This chapter looks at the various options available with the Type tool

Vectors

WORKING WITH PATHS,VECTORS AND MASKS 90Photoshop has always used vector-based paths to draw smooth shapes and outlines.Learn how the latest version has the ability to create shapes and masks with vectors too


Contents

CD PAGES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120INDEX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124GLOSSARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

9NOTES AND ANNOTATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102THE EYE DROPPER TOOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104USING THE EYE DROPPER TOOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105THE COLOUR SAMPLER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106THE MEASURE TOOL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Miscellaneous tools and Utilities

ANNOTATIONS,NOTES AND THE MEASURE TOOL 100Along with the creative tools, Photoshop provides several tools to add accuracy, sound andvision to your work.These fall into two tool groups Notation and Measurement tools

Essential information

CD PAGES AND RESOURCES 120Your essential guide to the software on your disc.Plus our handy glossary and index

10CREATING A MONTAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110FIX MISSING PARTS OF THE IMAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112USING THE PEN AS A BRUSH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113ADDING A BACKGROUND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115APPLYING ARTISTIC DETAIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118VECTOR SHAPE AND TYPE LAYERS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Artwork project

CREATING TOP QUALITY ARTWORK 108In this final chapter well put together a piece of artwork using all the tools and options thatweve looked at over the course of this Photoshop Focus Guide

Chapter 1

SELECTIONTOOLS INPHOTOSHOP

In earlier versions of Photoshopthere was no Select tool onethat looked like a traditional arrowcursor, that you would use to selectobjects. Because Photoshop dealtprimarily with pixels, it made nosense to have a Select tool therewere no objects to select. Instead,the selection tools were default tools ones you used automatically, tobegin editing.

In Photoshop 7.0 there is an arrowtool for selecting objects, since theintroduction of vector shapes (thosedrawn using a series of points orvectors) made this necessary.Despite this, the selection tools, intheir many and varied forms, are still

In this chapter

D i s c o v e r h o w t h eP h o t o s h o p s e l e c t i o nt o o l s w o r k

L e a r n h o w t o m a kea c c u r a t e s e l e c t i o n s

C r e a t e p a r t i a l o rg r a d i e n t s e l e c t i o n s

Making selections is the core of Photoshopsway of working.There are a variety of tools youcan use for the purpose, so lets take a look athow to get the most out of them

the main tools for doing 90% of thetasks in Photoshop.

Selections are an essential part ofunderstanding Photoshops methodsand central to the way the programworks making a selection thenperforming an action on thatselection is the basic workflow. The better you become at Photoshopthe better youll become at makingselections and vice-versa.

No need for discretionWhats important to understand,though, is that selections are notnecessarily discreet. They dont haveto define rigidly what is or is notselected they can be partial too.

It is perfectly possible to makeselections so that some pixels are100% selected and others are 100%unselected, and in between there is aselection gradient, where pixels arepartially selected. This is how youcreate effects that blend smoothlyinto existing pixels, and this alsoforms the basis of anti-aliasing smoothing jagged, pixelated edges.

Feathering is the most basicimplementation of gradientselections in Photoshop. Whenmaking a rigid selection using oneof the Marquee tools for instance,you can tell Photoshop to make theedge of the selection slightly soft, orfeathered. This effectively creates

a border around the selection wheresome of the pixels are partiallyselected, smoothing whatever effector operation is applied to theselection, or merely preventingjagged edges.

The soft optionBy making the feathered edge larger,youll be able to create very softselections, and this is very useful whenmaking photo-montages, for instance,or retouching images. Well look athow anti-aliasing and feathering areimplemented in Photoshops selectiontools, and how you can use them toachieve professional results quicklyand easily.


Selections

Page 17 The Magic Wand tool selects anobject in an image to change the colour

Page 20 Photoshop can convertchannels into selections and vice-versa

Page 18 Quick mask mode turns anypainting tool into a selection tool

Page 12 The Circular Marquee toolmakes an elliptical selection

Page 13 Single Column marquees areused to select only certain columns

Page 15 The Magnetic Lasso lets youmake detailed selections with ease

Basic Selection tools

Lets take a look at the various tools in thetoolbar available for making selections


Chapter 1

ChangingmarqueesHolding down the[Alt] key will changethe marquee mode sothat the selectionexpands from thecentre, rather than thecorners, as you drag.

Shifting aroundRather than using thebuttons you can holddown modifier keys toadd and subtractselections.To add, holdthe [Shift] key beforeyou begin to click anddrag.To subtract holdthe [Alt] key before youclick and drag.Themarquee cursor willchange to show whichmode you are in.

In Subtract mode, you can remove areasfrom the current selection. Here we

changed to the Circle Marquee tool tosubtract an elliptical shape from therectangular selection we had made.You cancontinue to make negative selections thatchip away at the current selection.This is agood way to refine a selection to fit a specificshape in an image.

4

The Options bar displays tool-specificsettings.The selection tools all have a set

of four buttons that change the effect thatsubsequent selections have on the one thatscurrently active.The normal mode is NewSelection each time you click and drag, a newselection is made and the current one is lost.Add mode makes the current selection largerand a different shape.

3

The Circular Marquee works in exactlythe same way, except the selection will

be elliptical. With both tools you can constrainthe selection so it is either a perfect circle or aperfect square by holding down the [Shift] keywhile you drag. Lift your finger off the [Shift]key while still holding the mouse buttondown to switch back to unconstrained mode.

2

The Rectangular Marquee tool is thefirst tool in the Toolbar, and is used to

select rectangular areas of an image. Itssimple to use just select the tool and dragacross the image to select the area you want.By default the tools works in corner-to-cornermode. Dragging from top-left or bottom-rightcreates the marquee.

1


Selections

Short intersectionTo activate Intersectmode without using

the buttons holddown the [Alt} and

[Shift] keys before youdrag.

Perfect circleIf, after dragging while

holding down the [Shift]key, you want to force

the selection to beconstrained to a perfect

circle or rectangle,release the [Shift] key

momentarily and pressit again. Holding the

[Alt] key while draggingwill force a selection to

be drawn from its centreas mentioned.

If already holding the[Alt] key, such as whenusing the Intersection

shortcut, momentarilyrelease it and then press the [Alt] key.

This forces theconstraint from centre to occur.

Uses for the Single Row and ColumnMarquees are varied, but not always

obvious. Here, theyre used to create multiplerandom vertical and/or horizontal lines in animage much more quickly than using thePencil or Line tool.The Add Selection modewas used and the selections filled with black,on separate layers, to create lines whoseopacity and blending mode we can vary.

8

The last two selection types in this toolgroup are the Single Row and Single

Column Marquees.These are special types ofmarquee which, as their name suggests, selecteither a single row or column of pixels. In thiscase dragging only defines which row orcolumn in the image is selected and theselection extends to the edges of the image in either mode.

7

This is the result of the intersection.Note that its only the overlapping parts

of the two selections that remain selected.This selection method is not used very oftenbut youll appreciate just how handy it can bein certain situations. Creating similarselections any other way would be verydifficult and time-consuming.

6

The fourth mode is Intersect. When inthis mode, you can create a new

selection that is the intersection between thecurrently active one and one you will drag out.Basically all parts of the current selection willdisappear except that portion that overlapswith the new selection you drag out. Here isthe original selection with a new one beingdragged out over it, using the Intersect mode.

5

The Lasso tool is a free-formselection tool. You can use itlike a pen to draw your selectionborder by hand. When using theLasso tool selections can be anyshape you like, but it can be hard tobe precise because selection must bedrawn in a single motion. ThePolygonal Lasso is much easier touse, and can be found in the Lassotool pop-up in the toolbar. Thisenables you to click from one point to another to create straight linesegments to make up your selection.All you need to do is double-click,

or click on the starting point of theselection to end it and consequentlyclose your selection.

The Lasso Tools

The standard, Polygonal and Magnetic Lassosare ideal for creating complex selections


Chapter 1

Using the [Alt] key technique allows you the bestof both worlds, drawing straight sections ordetailed curves as and when you need to

Poly-goneWhen using thePolygonal Lassoholding down the [Alt] key invokes thenormal Lasso tool.Releasing the [Alt] keyreverts back to thePolygonal Lasso.

Combined LassoWith the Lasso toolactive, just hold downthe [Alt] key at anystage to turn it into thePolygonal Lasso.

THERE ARE two ways in which to work using the [Alt] shortcut.Assuming you have the normal Lasso tool selected, if you keep the [Alt]

key held down when you click and drag, the tool will behave like the

normal Lasso.

IF YOU want to get really precise, then the Magnetic Lasso is the key.With this selection tool you can draw close to the edge of the object you

wish to select and the tool will figure out where the boundary should be

and adjust the selection to fit.

YOU CAN set the Frequency high to place lots of points as you drag.This can be handy for jagged edges.

A LOW Frequency is also useful when you dont need the addedcomplexity of hundreds of anchor points, but can make do with a

less precise selection.

LASSO OPTIONS ROUNDED UP

The Magnetic Lasso

If you want detailed selections without toomuch effort, heres the perfect tool for the task


Selections

Fast pan and zoomYou can use the Pan andZoom shortcuts to movethe image around whilestill in mid-selection. See

Chapter 2 for moreabout navigating and

editing your images.

Magnetic switchHold the [Alt] key to

activate thePolygonal Lasso

tool when using theMagnetic Lasso.

Another trick to help on very lowcontrast portions of an image, such as

where the pumpkin stalk is in front of the girlsface again, it can help to increase theFrequency setting.This will cause the tool toplace anchor points more often, thereforereducing the span of pixels it has to analyze asyou drag the mouse.

4

This is a problem of contrast. Byreducing the Edge Contrast setting in

the Option bar you can help the MagneticLasso to detect edges that are lower incontrast. But you will still need to manuallyadd anchor points by clicking, to help theLasso do this.

3

If the area you are tracing is tooindistinct and low in contrast for

Photoshop to find an edge itself, you can clickthe mouse to force an anchor point to beplaced.The default setting in the Options baris fine most of the time, but there can beproblems here, the tool has no problem withthe edge of the hair, but it didnt seem todetect the pumpkin stalk.

2

This tool lets you make more detailedselections, particularly of specific

objects in an image, without requiring toomuch effort.You dont have to keep the mousebutton held down when drawing either click once to start, drag close to the objectedge, then double-click to end. Note that thetool automatically places anchor points asyou draw to keep the selection in place.

1

The Magic Wand

The Magic Wand is a special selection tool,used for selecting areas of similar colour


Chapter 1

UnrestrictedcoloursWhen the Contiguoussetting in the Optionsbar is checked,Photoshop makes aselection of similar-coloured pixels thatare also physicallyjoined to your startingpoint. Disable thissetting and similarcolour pixels acrossthe whole image willbe included, whichcan take a fewmoments.

Use All LayersThe Use All Layersoption allows you tocalculate the selectionbased on how theimage actuallyappears on screenwhen working withmulti-layereddocuments. If this isleft unchecked, thenonly colours on thecurrently selectedlayer will be analysedfor similarity.

We can improve the ability of the wandto select the colours we want by

increasing the Tolerance setting, from thedefault 32, to 50 then [Shift]+clicking in each of the separate areas. Any other parts of thejumper still not selected can be added by[Shift]+clicking on them again until you havea good clean selection with no islands.

4

The Magic Wand will only select colourswithin a certain range, defined by the

Tolerance setting. And it will only look atcontiguous pixels that is, ones that actuallytouch each other. Areas of colour not directlyconnected, like the chest and other arm, arenot considered for selection.

3

Most images dont contain large areas offlat colour like the one above, so heres a

more typical use for the Magic Wand selectingthe girls jumper to change its colour. Using theMagic Wand, we can click on a section of thejumper to select all pixels with a similar colour.However, using the default setting there aremany islandsof unselected pixels, so not all ofthe jumper has been selected.

2

The Magic Wand tool is used to selectareas using a single click.The tool works

by sampling the colour of the image whereyou click and then looking at all adjacentpixels for those that are the same or similar incolour.Take a well-defined shape like the onehere and click in it with the Magic Wand thewhole shape is selected in one go.

1


Selections

Colour tweaksThe Hue/Saturation

panel lets you adjustthe whole spectrumor individual sectors

of the colourspectrum. Choose

these from the pop-up menu.

Let it slideThe sliders at the

bottom of theHue/Saturation panel

enable you to adjustthe range of colours

affected in each sector.

By selecting the layer mask andapplying the Gaussian Blur filter with a

smallish value we can make the layer maskslightly bigger.Then by applying Levels to thelayer mask we can make the blurred edgesbrighter, controlling how much of theHue/Saturation effect is applied to this area.

8

If we zoom into the document we cansee that there is a slight fringe of red.

This is because some of the jumper thatoverlaps the background was left unselected.This is a limitation of the tolerance settingused by the Magic Wand. Fortunately, there isa way we can fix this.

7

By adding a Hue/Saturation AdjustmentLayer while the selection is still active,

you can change the colour of the the jumper,and only the jumper. Photoshop creates alayer mask from the selection and uses is tolimit which areas of the adjustment layer willactively affect the layers below.

6

Here you can see that a part of the armhas been selected.This is due to the

high tolerance setting used.You can easilyremove it from the selection, but first reducethe tolerance to a lower value, such as 24,then [Alt]-click on the arm inside the selectionto remove it.

5

Quick Mask

Quick Mask is not a tool as such, but a modeyou can enter when working with selections


Chapter 1

Fill the gapsHoles in a Mask orQuick Mask can befilled by selecting theinside or outside areaand applying theMinimum filter.

Keep it sharpApply the Minimumfilter to a copy of alayer using theOverlay mode to give you a livesharpening layer.

While in Quick Mask mode, therefore,you can use any of the normal painting

tools to modify your mask, and hence yourselection.You can see that Photoshop offers ahuge amount of freedom when creatingselections, and this is indicative of howimportant selections are when usingPhotoshop. Here, the Paintbrush tool is beingused to clean up the mask.

4

The red overlay is slightly transparentso you can see what it beneath. Red

areas are masked out (unselected) while clear areas are unmasked (selected). Butinternally, Photoshop stores the mask inshades of grey, not red so this is how themask looks to Photoshop.

3

By clicking the Quick Mask button atthe bottom of the toolbar, or pressing

the [Q] key, the selection is converted to amask.The mask is displayed, not in shades ofgrey, but as a semi-transparent overlay.Thismimics the techniques used in traditionalprinting where a red rubylith overlay is usedto mask out parts of a photo or artwork.

2

When any selection is active, no matterwhich of the selection tools you started

off using, you can enable Photoshops QuickMask mode. Here is a less-than-perfectselection we have made using the Magic Wand.

1

When painting, take notice ofthe foreground colourindicated in the bottom of thetoolbar. When in Quick Mask modethis will only indicate shades ofgrey, so any colours you have setwill appear grey. Hitting the [D] keysets the colours to the default, whiteand black. As you paint you can usethe [X] key to reverse the backgroundand foreground colours so that youcan paint in white (unmask) or black(mask) to edit the mask.

Once you have touched up themask, you can press the [Q] key

once more to exit Quick Maskmode. Youll then be able to convertthe edited mask to a selection.

Working with the Quick Mask

The Quick Mask lets you create a ready-mademask,which you can edit or turn into a selection


Selections

Make use of the foreground and backgroundswitch key [X] to flip between masked andunmasked colours

Disappearing antsTo hide the marchingants while a selection

is active use the[Crtl]+[H] shortcut

(thats[Command]+[H]

for Mac users). Becareful to remember

that you have aselection active

though!

Hidingapplications

To hide otherapplications on a Mac

and leave onlyPhotoshop visible, type[Command]+[Alt]+[H].On PCs, Photoshop has

an applicationbackground window,

so this is notapplicable.

IF YOU need to make a selection slightly bigger all the way round, youcan do so using the Select > Modify > Expand menu command. A dialog

will appear in which you can enter the number of pixels by which you

wish to expand the selection.

YOU CAN contract a selection by using the Select > Modify > Contractmenu command.To make a selection larger by a specified number of

pixels around it, choose Select > Modify > Expand from the menu.

TO SOFTEN a selection and make its border less jagged, you can usethe Select > Feather menu command, enter a value in pixels (from 1 to

250) and click OK.

IF YOU need to modify just the border of the selection area you canselect it using the Select > Modify > Border.This is useful for creating

special edge effects, in combination with some filters, like Torn Edges.

HOW TO MODIFY YOUR SELECTIONS

Selections,Masks and Channels

Lets look at selections in a little more detail tosee how how they relate to layers and channels


Chapter 1

Alpha channelsThe term alphachannel simply meansany extra greyscalechannel saved alongwith the three RGBchannels, or four CMYKchannels, that make upa colour image file.Photoshop files canstore many of thesealpha channels at once.

Channel selection[Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Shift]+clickon a channel to loadthe intersection of thecurrent selection and a channel.

To reload a channel as a selection onceagain,click the Load Channel As Selection

button at the bottom-left of the Channels palette.A better technique is to press [Ctrl] (or[Command] on a Mac) while clicking on thechannel icon directly we can load the largerellipse as a selection (by pressing [Ctrl/Command]while clicking on it) then subtract the smallerellipse by pressing [Ctrl/Command]+[Alt] whileclicking its icon in the Channel palette.

4

Now that the selection is saved as achannel, we can drop the selection and

continue to make new ones. Its only possibleto have one selection active at a time, sosaving them to a channel is a convenient wayto store them for use later on. Here wevecreated another selection and saved it asanother channel. Its just a larger ellipse.

3

We can convert the selection into analpha channel by switching to the

Channels tab and clicking the Save SelectionAs Channel button, (second from the left atthe bottom of the palette).The selection isthen represented by a greyscale image.

2

As weve seen with the Quick Maskmode, selections are handled internally

by Photoshop as a greyscale image or mask.White areas in the mask are pixels that arefully selected, black areas are fully unselectedand grey areas are partially selected. Letscreate a simple selection using the EllipticalMarquee tool.

1

Slices

Slices are special kinds of selections for webpage design, before the Image Ready stage


Selections

Reassembled slicesWhen you save the

sliced page Photoshopcreates an HTML file

plus separate image filesfor each slice. When the

HTML file is read by aweb browser all the

slices are reassembled intheir original position,giving the appearance

of a single image once again.

Keep it tidyHold the [Ctrl] key

while using the Slicetool to toggle the SliceSelect tool on and off.

Use this to select aslice and drag its edgehandles to resize it. Be

careful not to haveany unnecessary

sliver slices betweenthe main slices. Zoom

in to check they allbutt up against each

other nicely.

Now choose File > Save For Web to openPhotoshops web compression tool. In

this panel, you can select each slice and applyprecisely the compression most suitable. Forexample, a photo saved as high quality JPEG,the text as a medium quality JPEG and thegraphics as GIFs.The backgrounds can be savedas low quality JPEGs.This sliced, higher qualityimage is only 5k larger than our first attempt.

4

Using the Slice tool we can divide upthe image into sections. Its simple to

use just select the tool and drag outmarquees to cut the image into appropriateboxes. Photoshop automatically adds extraslices where necessary to keep everythingrectangular because each slice essentiallybecomes a separate image file.

3

The problem here is that the differentkinds of graphics element on the page

really need to be saved individually using thecompression settings best suited to each.We cant do this without using slices inPhotoshop. As this pretty extreme exampleshows, achieving a small file size causes mostof the elements to look terrible.

2

Heres an example of where slicing canreally help.This is an example web page,

containing text, a background, a photographicimage and graphics created in Photoshop.Obviously, for the web we want the page todownload as fast as possible but also look asgood a possible.

1

Chapter 2

NAVIGATINGAND EDITINGYOUR IMAGES

Being able to zoom and pan animage is important whenworking on a Photoshop document.Like all other aspects of the programthere is more than one way to getaround an image, manage yourwindows and documents, andgenerally navigate the Photoshoplandscape. Similarly youll need tobe able to work with the elementswithin a document, such as masks,layers, floating selections, paths andvector masks. There are a number oftools to accomplish these tasks.

As mentioned before, Photoshop isnot an object-based 2D program that is, you work directly with thepixels of a layer until you explicitly

In this chapter

L e a r n h o w t o p a n a n dz o o m i m a g e s

D i s c o v e r h o w t o s e l e c ta n d m o v e l a y e re l e m e n t s

U s e s h o r t c u t s t o s c a l ea n d p a n t h e v i e w

Wo r k m o r e e f f i c i e n t l ya n d p r o d u c t i v e l y

Getting around inside an image is important ifyou are to work quickly and efficiently.Thischapter covers the view navigation tools andshortcuts for managing your workspace

do something to change that fact,such as creating a new layer onwhich to paint. In some 2Dprograms, every time you paint astroke or apply an effect, a newobject is created. While this givesyou a totally non-destructive way ofimage editing, it can make managingyour document a very complicatedprocedure. In Photoshop its muchmore straightforward.

Painting in layersIf you paint on an image layer, stopsay, to change colour, then paint overwhat you just did, the resultdestructively alters those pixels inthe layer. Its much like painting in

the real world, except in Photoshopyou have an Undo command.

If you need to paint over the top ofexisting artwork and be able to goback and change the position, size,colour and opacity of those strokeslater on, then you have to paint on anew layer. This holds true for anyother aspect of the program wherenew pixels are created.

While the Selection tools theMarquee, Lasso and so on are usedto select pixels within a layer, thereare other tools for selecting andmoving layer elements themselves.These include the Move tool, thePath Select tool and the DirectSelection tool for dealing with

vector-based elements. Its importantto learn the difference betweenthem, and well examine thesedifferences more closely in thefollowing pages.

Old and newThe Path Select and Direct Selectiontools are not easy to find in olderversions of Photoshop. The PathSelect tool used to be part of the Pentool group, but can now be found inits own tool group on the toolbar.Many revisions have been made toboth the menus and toolbar, but rest assured that most of theinformation in this book also appliesto older versions of Photoshop.



Page 24 Use the Zoom and Pan tools to navigate your images on screen

Page 25 The Navigation palette is greatfor giving an overview of the whole page

Page 26 Manage your screen spacewhen multiple documents are open

Page 31 Use the Direct Selection andPath tools to work with paths and vectors

Page 29 Quick 3D effects are possibleusing the Move tool in copy mode

Page 28 The Move tool enables you tonavigate your layers with a pop-up menu

Panning and Zooming images

Here we show you the basic navigation toolsavailable for viewing your image


Chapter 2

100% accuracyTo zoom the image sothat it is at exactly100% scale, double-click the Zoom tool in the toolbar.

Viewing optionsUse the buttons in theOption bar to zoomthe image to full size,print size or to make it fit on screen.

Two useful options are the ResizeWindow To Fit and Ignore Palettes

options in the Zoom tools Option bar. Withthe former option enabled the window willchange size along with the image, and withthe latter option enabled the window willcontinue to extend below any open palettes,though not the toolbar.

4

To zoom out again, either click theZoom Out button in the Option bar and

click in the image, or hold down [Ctrl] and click(thats [Option]+click on a Mac). If the imageextends past the borders of the window youcan pan the image by clicking on the Pan tool,or holding the Space Bar at any time anddragging in the window.

3

At the bottom of the toolbar are theHand (which well refer to as the Pan

tool) and Zoom tools. Click the Zoom toolthen click on your image to zoom in.Eventually youll zoom in so far that theindividual pixels will become visible as largeblocks of a single colour.Youve exceeded theresolution limit for the image on your monitor,but getting this close is often very useful.

2

When you open an image in Photoshopit is automatically scaled so that the

whole image is visible at once.The scalingfactor is displayed as a percentage in thewindows title bar. But how do you zoom in tosee more detail in a large image? As is oftenthe case when using Photoshop, there are anumber of different options.

1

The Navigator panel

A useful device for getting around documentsis the Navigator panel. Heres how it works



Navigator panel This can be very

useful when workingon multiple monitor

set-ups.You can havea full-screen preview

of your image on onemonitor while you

work up close onanother.This prevents

you continuallyzooming in and out to

see how the editinglooks relative to the

rest of the image.

A different scaleSome previous

versions of Photoshopdo not allow

incremental andfractional scaling

you can only scale outto 75%, 50%, 25%,

12.5% or in to125%, 150%, 200%

and so on.

The triangle at the top-right of theNavigator accesses the options for the

panel.There are only two in Photoshop 7:Dock To Palette Well and Options.The latterlets you change the colour of the zoom box,which can be handy if you have a very redimage like ours and the box is hard to see, of ifyou just dont like working with the red colour.

4

To zoom in and out using the Navigatoryou have a few different options.You

can use the zoom slider to interactively zoomthe image, and thats quite fun to do. Or youcan click on the Zoom In and Zoom Outbuttons either side of the slider. Or you canclick in the text field to enter an exact scale.

3

The Navigator panel is very useful whenzoomed in very close to an image,

because it shows you with a red box exactlywhere in the main image the zoomed inportion is located. Note that you can make thepreview larger by dragging the lower rightcorner of the palette to resize it, even to fill thewhole screen.

2

From the Windows menu you can accessthe Navigator panel, though its open by

default in Photoshop.This is a handy toolbecause it enables you to view the entireimage in a small window, pan the main view,and zoom in and out, all from the same smallarea on screen. Its great for those that dontlike to use keyboard shortcuts.

1

The main interface in Photoshopis quite simple and well laid-out, but it has been constantlyrefined through development tooffer highly efficient document andview management. Within the mainmenu is the View menu which hasmany view management options the Zoom In and Out commands andtheir respective shortcuts, as well ascommands to show the Rulers,Guides and Grids and the option toenable various kinds of snapping. As well as using the Navigator orZoom tool you can use the shortcuts

[Ctrl]+[+] and [Ctrl]+[] to zoom inand out (Mac users replace [Ctrl]with [Command]).

View management

Photoshop has several gadgets to help youwork with various views of your document


Chapter 2

Multiple documents can be arranged on thescreen using Tile, in Windows > Documents. Thisfits your images next to each other on screen

Floating awayThe floating palettescan get in that way,especially if you areworking on a smallmonitor. No matter, atany time you can hitthe [F] key to togglethe display mode tofull screen. Use theTab key to toggle thepalettes on and off toget a totallyuncluttered view.

When the Zoom tool isactive the Options bardisplays a few extra buttons Actual Pixels, Fit On Screensand Print Size. These zoomthe view to specific sizes.

The Navigator panel isgrouped with the Infopalette. Use the navigator toperform multiple viewnavigation tasks in one area,with one hand. You also get ahandy image preview.

The Print Size pop-up islocated at the bottom of thedocument window. Click onthe blank space here topreview how large the imagewill print out on the papersize set in the Print dialog.

Yet another way to zoomthe document is to type in avalue here at the bottom-leftof the document window.

The Zoom and Pan toolscan be found at the bottomof the toolbar. Click on theseto zoom and pan inside the image.

At the bottom of the toolbarare buttons to control fullscreen view. The middle onemakes the current window fillthe screen, the right makesthe menu bar disappear andthe left returns it to normal.

ZOOMING AROUND

As well as moving and copyingpixels, Photoshops Move toolallows you to align and distributeobjects evenly across the documentor within a selection. With the Movetool selected you will see a numberof options available.

The first option, Auto SelectLayer, is very handy. It enables youto click on a pixel in the image toselect that layer. The next, ShowBounding Box, displays a transformbox around the selection or elementor layer. You can drag the handles onthe edge of the box to move the

selection. If you click on the lines,youll switch to the Free Transformmode, enabling you to scale, rotateand deform the objects.

The next section of options onlybecomes active when you havelinked layers. To link layers so thatyou can move them as one object, goto the Layers palette and click theblank icon box between the eye iconand one of your layers. A chain iconnow appears in the blank icon box,indicating that the layer you havejust clicked next to is now linked tothe currently selected layer.

Move,Align and Distribute

The latest version of Photoshop has handyAlign and Distribute features



Line them up The Align features

work with selectionson fully filled layerstoo. If a selection is

active then it is usedas a master guide for

all the layers to bealigned to. If you have

accidentally movedimage layers so thatthey lie partially offthe canvas you can

use the Align featureto make them all lineup again squarely on

the canvas.

When you select a layer that has other layers linked to it the

Align and Distribute options of the Move tool become

active. Click on these to distribute the layers or align them to

various key points.You can use the Align Left Edges button,

for example, to align individual text layers so that their left

edges line up. Its important to note that these options only

take into account the bounding box of the layer. If you have

a series of layers linked together but they are filled totally

with pixels, then the align options will have no effect. This is

because the layers have nowhere to be aligned to, as they

are already lined up on the canvas.

ACTIVATING ALIGN AND DISTRIBUTEFeel like going MAD? Heres how to Move, Align and Distribute

The Align and Distribute buttons inthe Move options bar can be used toalign multiple linked layers

The Move tool

The Move tool is a very handy, multi-purposegadget and surprisingly easy to use


Chapter 2

On the MoveAt any time,no matterwhat tool is selected,you can access theMove tool by pressing[V] on your keyboard.

Scissor actionThe Move tool cursordisplays a pair ofscissors next to itwhen it is over anactive selection.

If a selection is active then the Movetool will move the pixels in the selection

only, as opposed to the whole layer. Hereweve selected the whole object in a flatteneddocument and dragged it.The result is thatthe pixels are lifted and moved, leaving a hole behind.

4

You can scroll your mouse through thelist to select precisely the right layer you

want to move without having to go to theLayers palette. Here weve selected theWireframe layer, and moved it. Getting intothe habit of naming your layers will help here.

3

The neat thing about the Move tool isthat it has a built-in layer navigation

feature. In a multi-layer document you canfind out exactly which layers are beneath anygiven point in an image by control-clickingand holding on the image. A menu will pop updisplaying the names of the layers in order,from the top downwards.

2

The Move tool is the second tool at thetop of the toolbar. It looks like an arrow

but without the tail. Use this tool when youwant to move elements in a document, bethey selected pixels or whole layers.

1



Extrude and moveIn the 3D text example

on the left, we firstcreated a text layer,

then loaded it as aselection by command

clicking the layer. In anew layer below the

text layer we created agradient through theselection, and with itstill active we carried

out an extrude-move function.

Computer Arts To discover even more

ways to develop yourPhotoshop skills,

check out our sistermagazine,

Computer Arts.You can find the

magazines website atwww.computerarts.co.uk.

A nifty trick is to hold down the [Alt] keyand use the arrow keys to nudge the

selection diagonally. Used on a text outlinefilled with a gradient like this, repeatedlypressing the Up and Right Arrow keys createsan extruded 3D object.

8

Another way to do this is to create anew layer from the selection first, then

use the Move tool as normal. With a selectionactive press [Ctrl] + [J] (thats [Command] + [J]on a Mac) to convert the selection to a newlayer, then move it as normal.

7

Now as you drag the selection will becopied, lifted and moved to another

location on the layer. Note that while theselection is still active the copied pixelsoccupy a quasi-layer.This is said to befloating selection.You can move it around as if it was on its own layer. Only when youdeselect the pixels will it be dropped on to the layer.

6

Moving pixels and leaving a hole behindmay be fine in some circumstances but if

you want to copy the pixels instead of cuttingthem out then you have to hold down the [Alt]key (often called the Option key on a Mac,although its still labelled Alt) as you drag withthe Move tool. Notice that the cursor willchange to a double arrow, indicating yourenow in Copy mode.

5

Direct and Path Selection tools

Use the Path Selection and Direct Selectiontools to move and edit paths and vector shapes


Chapter 2

A familiar PathThe Path Selectiontool is much like theold arrow cursor inthe Pen tool group ofprevious versions ofPhotoshop, before vector shapes and masks were introduced.

Hide and seek You can show andhide the path outlinesby typing [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[H], onyour keyboard (thats[Command]+[Shift]+[H] for Macusers) or toggling theViews > Show >Target Paths menucommand on and off.

With both paths selected you can clickon the Combine button in the Path

Selections Option bar to merge both (or asmany as you like) into a single path. If you clickaway from the paths to deselect them, thenreselect them, youll see that all the paths arenow selected because they are one.

4

Much like other selections in Photoshopyou can add to them using the [Shift]

key. Here we have selected both paths by[Shift]-clicking on the second path to activateit. Both can now be transformed together.However, to make this work you must havethe Show Bounding Box option turned off.

3

For this we need to activate the PathSelection tool.This is in the eighth row

of the toolbar and looks like a black arrowcursor. With this selected, clicking on theedges of each path in the vector mask selectsit. We are able to move the path and transformit to fit by making the bounding box visibleand clicking on the edge of the box to activateFree Transform.

2

Here we have two vector shapes in asingle vector mask applied to a Solid

Colour layer.They are not properly alignedand we need to select them independently,but how? The Move tool only lets us movethe whole layer, so were not able to select the paths independently.

1

Vector shapes and multiple paths

Follow our step-by-step guide to working on vector shapes and multiple paths



Take the A road The [A] key is the

shortcut to the PathSelection tool group.

To toggle betweenPath and Direct

Selection mode type[Shift]+[A].

Make a pointClicking once on a

point that already hashandles with the Cuspcursor converts it to a

sharp point with no handles.

With the Direct Selection tool you canselect a point in order to access its

Bezier handles and modify the shape of thecurve. If a point has no handles you can pullthem out by holding down [Ctrl]+[Alt] as youdrag ([Command]+[Alt] on a Mac).The toolchanges to an inverted V, called the Cusp tool.

4

With either the Direct Selection or PathSelection tools active you can duplicate

a path, or multiple paths by [Option]+draggingthem.The cursor will change to display a plussign next to it when you hold the Option keydown as a visual cue that you are about tomake a copy.

3

If you need to select multiple points ona path and move them as one you can

drag out a marquee with the Direct Selectiontool. Alternatively the usual shift to addmaxim holds true: [Shift]+click to add pointsto the selection that are difficult to selectwithin a single marquee.

2

If you want to edit the points of a vectorshape mask then you need to change

from the Path Selection to the Direct Selectiontool.With this tool active, you are able to click to select individual points in a path orvector shape.

1

Chapter 3

USING THEBRUSHES ANDPENCIL TOOLS

Photoshop is traditionally knownfor image manipulation,retouching, effects and colourcorrection, but not so much as apainters tool. This has partly beendue to the fact that the artisticcapabilities of the program wereseverely limited due to the poorsupport for artistic mediasimulation. Other programs such asCorel Painter used to lead the markethere, but the last few versions ofPhotoshop has seen its Brushessystem completely overhauled,making it much more useful as anartistic media program.

Having said that, Brushes havealways been essential for just about

In this chapter

U s i n g t h e B r u s h a n dP e n c i l t o o l s

E d i t i n g a n d s a v i n gb r u s h p r o p e r t i e s

C r e a t i n g c u s t o m b r u s h t i p s

U s i n g t h e H i s t o r y a n dA r t H i s t o r y b r u s h

This chapter introduces you to Photoshopsmore arty tools, the Brushes. However, as wellsee, you can use these versatile tools for farmore than just painting

everything else in Photoshop, andgetting the most out of the Brushtools involves finding out all thelittle secrets and features buriedinside the program. Actually theyrenot that secret but its surprising howfew of the shortcuts some Photoshopusers know. Its usually those whohave been using it since the earlydays that know all the best tips.

Spoilt for choiceIn a way, the later, feature-richversions spoil you by giving you somany options to work with. TheHistory palette, introduced inversion 5, is a fantastic time-savingdevice. Its also an incredible feature

that takes the basic Photoshopfunctions and multiplies theircapabilities tenfold. The Historypalette essentially adds a kind ofnon-linear undo to the program.Previously undo was limited to justhopping back step-by-step. TheHistory palette displays all youroperations (up to a maximumnumber that you specify) in a list,complete with the tool used and itsicon. By clicking on any of thesesteps you can immediately jumpstraight back to the document as itwas at that point in time.

Even more impressive is theability to store permanent snapshotsof the state of the document at any

time. These will not fall off theback like items in the undo listwould when the list exceeded thenumber of steps set in thePreferences. However all this powerand flexibility comes at a cost: disk space. The History states canconsume very large amounts ofscratch disk space, the randomstorage bin that Photoshop uses as akind of virtual memory.

Performance figuresKeep a large amount of hard diskspace free for Photoshop as muchas 2 to 4GB if working on largeimages. Ideally, partition your diskand dedicate one part to Photoshop.



Page 41 Dual Brushes offer the userunprecedented levels of detail

Page 45 The Art History Brush allowsyou to turn an image into a painting

Page 34 Photoshops brush editingsystem gets the most from Brush tools

Page 35 Access Photoshops hiddenextras for more versatility

Page 36 Learn about the importance ofSpacing, Flow and Opacity for brushes

Page 43 The History Brush offerssuperb photo manipulation options

The Brush tool can be found inthe fourth row of Photoshopstoolbar. When selected, the optionsbar displays quite a few settings forthe current Brush such as Opacity,Flow and whether it is in Airbrushmode or not. There are also pull-down menus for the Apply mode,Brush Shape preset and the newBrush Editing palette.

Brushes are used to apply colouredpixels to an image. They take theircolour from the current ForegroundColour swatch. The Colour palettecan be used to choose colours in a

number of different ways by usingthe small gradient strip at the base,the sliders or the Swatch tab.

The Brush tool

Brushes offer some of Photoshops mostflexible features. So where can you find them?


Chapter 3

The Color palette lets you choose colours invarious ways via a gradient strip, sliders orswatches, which are located in their own tab

Back and forthYou can set twocolours, a foregroundand backgroundcolour, and switchbetween them whilepainting with theBrush tool by pressingthe [X] key.

The Brush presets arelocated here at the top-left ofthe Options palette when theBrush tool is selected.

The Brushes palette can beaccessed by clicking this iconin the Brush tools Option bar.

The basic Brush settings,such as Size, Shape andAngle as well as the spacingcontrol can be accessed byclicking the Brush Tip Shapesection at the top, thecontrols of which display atthe bottom of the palette.

The Brushes palette is veryversatile but can seem a bitcomplicated at first. Its farmore advanced than inprevious versions.

Choose the display optionfor the presets from thepreset menu. You can displaythe presets as a list or asicons if you prefer.

The panel can beexpanded by dragging thebottom-right corner.

THE BRUSH INTERFACE AND CONTROLS

Using Brushes

There is a huge range of customisable andpreset brushes. Heres how to use them



The key to opacity You can also reduce

opacity using thenumeric key pad.

Pressing the 0 key setsthe opacity to 100%,

while pressing the [5]key sets the opacity to

50%. Pressing the [1]numeric key sets the

opacity to 10% and so on.

Nimble numeracyTo get an intermediateopacity value like 15%,

type 1 followed quickly by 5 on the

numeric keypad.

In this case the paint builds,accumulating opacity the more and

more you paint.This is very useful for buildingup tones and colours in an image gradually.You can see the effect clearly here. Where thestrokes double back and cross each other thecolour intensifies.The downside is that theindividual dabs are also visible.

4

Flow is like opacity but is a dynamicproperty. Whereas opacity sets a value

for the maximum amount of opacity, Flow setsthe minimum amount. With the Flow settingvery low, say 10%, and opacity set to full, youcan paint with what seems like a low opacity,except when you paint over the strokes youhave just applied.

3

The Opacity of the brush defines howtransparent the paint is that is, how

much of the colour underneath showsthrough the paint. By default it is set to 100%,but you can reduce this using the Opacityslider in the Options bar.

2

Once you select the Brush tool you canchoose a Brush Shape from the Brush

preset drop-down menu in the Options bar.Each preset is saved at a given size, indicatedbelow the brush preview icon in the presetlist.You can alter this by dragging the masterdiameter slider.

1

Using Brushes continued


Chapter 3

Brush size shortcutYou can change thebrush size up and downin 10 point incrementsusing the squarebracket keys [ and ].

More shortcutsOn this months CDyoull find PDF filesthat contain all thepossible keyboardshortcuts for both PCs and Apple Macs. .

You can also turn Spacing off using the check-box in the Brushes palette.

When its off, Photoshop applies spacingdepending on how quickly you draw yourstroke.This can be good or bad, dependingwhat you want the stroke to look like.

8

In order to counteract this effect, youneed to use an even lower Flow setting.

Here the flow has been reduced to 3% for a5% spacing value.You can see that the strokesappear much smoother and build nicely as weapply more paint.

7

By reducing the Spacing you can getbetter results when using a low Flow

setting. Here the Spacing is reduced to 5%,which means each dab overlaps by 95% of itsdiameter.This results in a much smootherstroke, but its also more opaque, as the brushtends to self build.

6

This brings us on to the Brushes palette,which is opened by clicking the icon at

the top-right of the Options bar.The palettecontains a setting called Spacing.This controlshow frequently Photoshop places a dab ofpaint as you drag the brush.The defaultsetting of 25% makes each dab overlap thenext by three quarters of its diameter.Heres the result from a low Flow setting.

5



Brush shortcutsLots of Photoshopstools use the same

brushes interface.Youcan use the same

shortcuts to changebrush size and pop upthe preset panel with

any of them.Take alook at the PDF files

included on the CD fora full list of shortcutsfor both PC and Mac.

Straight aheadTo paint perfectlystraight lines click

once to place the starpoint of the stroke

then shift-clickelsewhere. A straight

stroke will joint thetwo points.

Also, while painting you can choose anew colour from the image by holding

down the [Alt] key.The Brush tool changes tothe Eye Dropper, allowing you to sample acolour from any pixel.

12

When painting an image using brushesit can be a chore moving to the Options

bar to change brush size and shape. Howeverthe preset pop-up is available right beneathyour mouse if you right-click in your image.Mac users should hold down [Ctrl] and clickfor the same effect.

11

Soft brushes are very useful especiallywhen used with other tools such as the

Rubber Stamp, which uses the same brushinterface as the Brush tool. A Hardness of100% is not totally hard, however.There is stillsome edge smoothing because of the effect of anti-aliasing (on the right stroke). If youwant a totally hard brush (left stroke) switchto the Pencil tool.

10

Other brush properties includeHardness.This defines how sharp the

edges of the brush are and can be varied from0 to 100% in the Brushes panel.The brush onthe left has a hardness of 100% while the oneon the right has a Hardness of 0%.They areexactly the same diameter, but notice that thesoft brush seems smaller because its edgesare less opaque.

9

The Brushes palette is where itall happens. Its Photoshopsanswer to its previous lack of naturalmedia tools. In truth, its not really anatural media simulation system, butrather an extension of the brushdynamics features that previousversions of the program already had.

When you open the Brushespalette you are faced with anoverwhelming array of controls andthey do take a while to becomefamiliar with. Most of the controlsare to do with the dynamics of thebrushes how the brush properties

vary during use. Photoshop allowsyou to set the various properties,such as scattering, colour and huevariation. These can stay fixed,respond to cursor speed or fade overa pre-defined distance. This gives you a large additional range ofnatural, organic variances to yourbrush strokes which would nototherwise be possible with a mouse.However, to get the most from thebrush dynamics, and experiencetheir intuitive feel, you shouldreally invest in a graphics tablet andpen, such as the Wacom Intuos.

Exploring the Brushes palette

The basics of the Brushes palette and presetsand how they affect the look of your strokes


Chapter 3

Take a tabletWith a graphics tabletattached, the brushparameters canrespond to penpressure, speed and tilt(if supported).Theresult is that you cancreate brushes that areresponsive to yourtouch and work morelike real artists tools.But you can also set upthe dynamics so thatthe brushes perform ina totally unnatural waytoo, if you wish.

Brush shape is the final part of the jigsaw when creating and

editing brushes. The standard brushes offer a circular shape

that can be hard or soft, round or oval and rotated at any

angle. But there are a number of special brushes that are

more graphic in nature. These can be selected from the

Preset menu and there are many more that come with

Photoshop but are not loaded by default.To load a preset

library choose one from the Brush preset panel menu (the

triangle at the top-right).You are then asked to Replace or

Append the current list. Append adds the selected library

to the current list of brushes, rather than replacing it.

CHOOSING YOUR BRUSH SHAPEHaving the right brush shape for the task is the key to success

The preset brush libraries have manydifferent brush shapes.The menu is atthe top-right of the preset brush pop-up

There are 13 sections in theBrushes palette, displayed in alist down the left-hand side. The firstof these is the Presets section essentially a duplicate of the Presetpull-down menu in the Option bar.You can choose a brush preset fromthe list, or load new ones from thepop-up menu at the top-right of thepalette. At the bottom is a preview of how the current brush strokewould behave, and above that is theMaster Diameter slider. At the verybottom are the New Brush andDelete buttons. Clicking the New

Brush button creates a new preset,which you can name and save toreuse another time.

The Brushes palette in detail

Having seen the Brush palettes potential, letsdelve deeper into the Brush Preset features



The Brush Presets section at the very top storescomplete brush settings, including the type of tip shape and the dynamics settings

Saving your presetsYou can save the

currently loaded set ofpresets as a library

using the Save Brushescommand in the pop-

up menu at the top-right corner of the

palette.The library issaved as a .abr file,

which only Photoshopcan read.

Size Jitter Controls thevariation in size of the dabs ina stroke. The higher the value,the greater the variation.

Minimum Sets thesmallest size the brush willreach when it is jittered.

Control These menusdefine what dynamicsattribute controls theparameter. Fade reduces theeffect of the parameter over acertain distance, entered inthe numeric field. Otheroptions are Off, Pen Tilt, PenPressure and Stylus Wheel.

Minimum Roundness Sets the minimum value thatis reached when randomlyjittering the Roundness.

Tilt Scale Enabled whenthe Pen Tilt option is selectedin the Control pop-up.Adjusts the tilting sensitivity.

Angle Jitter If the brush isasymmetrical you can jitterthe angle of the dabs, but noton a perfectly round brush.

Roundness jitter This toolrandomly alters the amounta brush is squashed orrounded on one axis.

THE TOOLS OF BRUSH DYNAMICS

ZinioNoteInsert=TrueAlign=Middle

Scattering

Scattering is a great way of adding randombrush strokes to images. Heres how it works


Chapter 3

Better late than neverBrushes in laterversions of Photoshophave more options tocontrol their behaviour.If youre using an olderversion you may findthat some of thefeatures that wevementioned do not apply.

Scatter effectsWide Scatter settingscan be used to createrandom but evenvariation in tone orcolour on yourartwork. Use it withselections to controlthe placement of the effect.

Count Jitter simply varies the number inthe Count setting per dab, and is not

very noticeable in most situations. Note thatthere are Control pop-ups in the Scattersection so you can link the parameters tographics pen tilt, pressure and scroll wheel,or fake the effect of distance.

4

The Count slider multiplies each dab bythe number shown. instead of a single

dab, a setting of 5 in the Count slider willproduce five times as many dabs, each ofwhich may be scattered. Because it increasesthe density of the brush dabs you may want tolower the Flow setting of the brush.

3

When the Both Axes option is enabledthe scattering takes place perpendicular

to the stroke and along it. Most of the timeyoud leave this option off, unless you want avery randomized stroke, almost like a spray.

2

The Scattering section is great fun.Thisadds a random scattering of the dabs

and is a great way to add random, organicstrokes to images.The Scatter slider controlsthe amount of scattering perpendicular to thestroke direction.

1

Textures and Dual Brushes

Achieve seriously complex brush effects withadditional features of the Brushes palette



Precise strokesDont forget gradientselections are a greatway to control where

paint will go on animage.You can blend

or fade away yourstrokes very precisely

using these gradients.

Go easyDual brushes are the

key to getting moredetailed brush strokes

in less time.They aremore suited, however, to

be used sparsely ratherthan as dense strokes.

Enabling Scattering is a good idea.

Enabling all of the numerous othersettings and it becomes like playing

with wet paint, and great fun. It only takesseconds to spray the canvas with incrediblydetailed patterns and colours, and work themtogether like real paint.

4

Colour Dynamics takes the concept ofscattering and jitter but applies it to the

colour properties of a brush.You can achievevery complex and detailed strokes using thesettings in this section.

3

Enabling the Dual Brush option makesthings really interesting.This feature

adds a second brush tip to texture the mainone. It has its own Spacing, Size, Scatteringand Count settings and is mixed in using anApply mode chosen from the pop-up menu atthe top of the panel.

2

The rest of the parameters are operatedin much the same way as the Scattering

section that we looked at in detail.The bestthing to do is to experiment with the settings by playing around with them. Here the Texturesection is enabled.This lets you add texture to the brush tip using one of Photoshopspreset textures.

1

The History Brush seems a bitof a mysterious tool in thePhotoshop toolbox for bothnewcomer and veteran alike, and forthat reason is one that often getsoverlooked. This is usually becauseveteran Photoshoppers have got usedto the way Photoshop used to workbefore the advent of the HistoryBrush and old habits die hard.

But its worth getting to know thisunusual tool because, together withits indispensable partner the Historypalette, it should turn out to be atotal delight to any newcomer.

Every time you perform an action,such as painting a stroke, applying afilter, or deleting a layer, that step isstored in the History palette as astate. By clicking on any of these,you can return your document to thestate it was in at that point. Now,heres the best bit by clicking onthe small icon box next to a historystate in the History palette, youearmark that layer as the source forthe History Brush. When you thenpaint on the image with the HistoryBrush only those pixels will bereturned back to the earmarked state.

The History Brush

Discover Photoshops secret weapon forretouching and photo manipulation


Chapter 3

Step back inHistoryThe History Brush letsyou paint previousstates of the currentdocument over thecurrent state.Thismakes it a powerfultool for selectivelyapplying filters to an image.

Photoshop 5 onwards has two kinds of undo. Theres the

normal [Ctrl]+[Z] undo ([Command]+[Z] on a Mac), which

undoes and redoes the last action you performed. This can

be handy to flip back and forth, checking the result of your

last action.There is also History.You can step backwards in

History using [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Z] (thats [Command]+[Alt]+[Z] for

Mac users). By repeatedly pressing this shortcut, you step

back further and further through the history. To go forwards

again press [Ctrl/Command]+[Shift]+[Z]. Set the number of

states stored in History by going to Preferences > General

and entering a new number in the History States field.

HISTORY AND UNDOSo whats the difference between Undo and History?

You can set Photoshops maximumnumber of History states from theGeneral section in Preferences

Using the History Brush

The History Brush is a powerful and flexibletool, but has all the simplicity of a normal brush



Size does matterTo paint with History

states the source statemust be the same size

as the currentdocument. if you

resized an image youwill not be able to use

any states prior tothat as a source for

the History Brush.

United statesIn order to paint with

History states, thesource state must also

be the same colourspace. If you changed

this you will not beable to use any statesprior to that point as

a source for theHistory Brush.

Now we can change the History sourceto the Inverted state, select the History

tool and a fancy brush and paint. Wherever wepaint the pixels in the image will be inverted.Obviously you can use this technique with anyeffect, filter or adjustment you like.

4

We want to get the image back as is wasso that we can selectively invert it, but

undoing the last step also clears the statefrom the History, which is no good. Instead wemark the uninverted state as a History source.Choose Edit > Fill and set the Fill mode toHistory, et voil, back to normal but withHistory intact.

3

Typing [Ctrl/Command]+[I] inverts theimage, turning the shades and colours

to their opposites.This will be be the basis forthe effect we want to achieve using theHistory Brush, and it has been saved as a statein the History palette.

2

A good use of the History Brush is toapply an effect to an image in localised

areas without the need to construct a mask orselection first. Heres our starting image towhich we want to apply some special effects.First of all we resized it to make it a bit smaller.

1

Using the History Brush continued


Chapter 3

Filter tipYou can use this sametechnique of Brushingusing History toselectively apply anyfilter to an image.

Early editsIn earlier versions ofPhotoshop you couldopen part of a largeimage and edit it,placing the editedpart back into thelarge image oncefinished.That was inthe days when RAMwas expensive.

Now we select the Gaussian Blur stateas the source for the History Brush and

paint in the image precisely where we want itto be blurred, leaving the unblurred pixelsintact to create a forced depth of focus effect.

8

Now we return the image to its originalstate by selecting the unblurred state as

the History source then using the Edit > Fillcommand set to History mode.

7

So, we follow the same steps as beforeexcept this time we blur the whole

image by Applying the Gaussian Blur filterinstead of inverting it.

6

Heres another example of the sametechnique. Well use History to fake a

depth of field blur effect on this 3D image.Normally you might do this using a depthrender as a mask, but what if you forgot tosave one?

5

Art History Brush

The History Brush has an even more creativecousin meet the Art History Brush



Historic detailEven if the detail has

been obliterated, youcan bring it back by

using a smaller brush,because the original,

untouched image isused as the source.

Pick a modeThe Art History Brush

can be applied indifferent blending

modes: Darken,Lighten, Hue, Colour,

Saturation and Luminosity.

You can carry on adding details back,changing brushes and styles until you

get the result you want. Here we went backand lightened the original image then usedthis as the source, enabling us to add in somedetail in the darker part of the face.

4

That blocks out the image nicely. Nowwe can paint some of the finer details

back in. Changing the brush to a much smallerradius lets you add back some details, but youcan do this only to certain areas. Weve used a3-pixel brush, and the Loose Medium Stylefrom the History Brushs Options bar.

3

Heres how it works. Open any photo,preferably one that will work well as a

painting.You dont need to perform anyaction to set things up, just select the currentstate as the History Source and select the Art History Brush. We used the Impressionistpreset from the pop-up menu at the verytop-left of the Options bar and painted overthe image.

2

The Art History Brush is one of thosebizarre but fun features Adobe comes

up with once in a while. Basically, it is used toconvert any image into one that looks hand-painted.The original photo is on the left, andthe Art History conversion on the right.

1

Chapter 4

USING THECLONING ANDHEALING TOOLS

Cloning is a very simple andobvious concept in imagemanipulation. Take pixels from overhere and duplicate them over there.Thats really all there is to it. TheClone tool, also known as theRubber Stamp, is Photoshopsimplementation of this techniqueand offers you a great deal of powerfor retouching images.

The tool works by samplingpixels at one location in an image, or even in a different documentaltogether, and painting them in adifferent location using what isessentially a brush. The Clone tooloffers most of the properties of thenormal Brush tool size, hardness,

In this chapter

L e a r n h o w t o w i e l d t h eC l o n e t o o l ( R u b b e rS t a m p ) l i ke a p r o

U s i n g b l e n d i n g m o d e st o g e t b e t t e r r e s u l t sw h e n c l o n i n g d i f f i c u l tt e x t u r e s l i ke s k i n

L e a r n h o w t o c l o n ep i xe l s b e t w e e nd o c u m e n t s

Wo r k i n g w i t h t h eH e a l i n g a n d P a t c ht o o l s t o i m p r ov ep o r t r a i t s a n d p h o t o s

P e r f o r m s p e c i a le f f e c t s a n d i m a g em a n i p u l a t i o n t r i c k su s i n g C l o n i n g

The Cloning and Healing tools in Photoshopoffer an elegant way to fix damaged photos,correct bad scans and generally clean up your images.Theyre great fun to use too

tip shapes, dynamics and blendingmodes, but applies these to cloning.In addition to these the Clone toollets you clone not only pixels from asingle layer but from the whole of amulti-layered document. This can bea very powerful feature for advancedusers but can cause problems if youdont keep your wits about you.

Seamless samplingWhen sampling pixels from a multi-layered, composite image you mustbe aware of any Adjustment layerspresent. If you sample a compositeimage with say, a Hue/SaturationAdjustment layer applied to it,boosting the saturation, cloning on

to layers below this adjustment layerwill result in the cloned pixels beingboosted twice. If your intention is tohave a seamless result, your hopeswill be dashed, so it always pays tobe aware of this.

In version 7 of Photoshop, Adobeintroduced a tool that takes theconcept of cloning to the next levelin terms of ease of use, known as theHealing tool. Cloning is a great toolto have but as we saw earlier, it cantake some effort to get a seamlessresult, especially when the samplepoint pickings are slim and whendealing with multi-layered images. It can take quite a bit of practice toachieve smooth results.

Healing, however, lets you clonepixels over a problem area but ratherthan simply overlaying them, as theClone tool does, it blends them withthose they are replacing, using someclever algorithms.

Skin careAs you may have guessed, theupshot of such technology is thatyou dont need to be nearly socareful in your cloning whenblending the blemishes on the faceof a subject in a portrait, forexample. The Healing tool willintelligently blend the pixels to getthe best result (at least most of thetime), which works well on skin.



Page 52 The new Healing tool canmake someone look years younger

Page 51 Revive damaged photos andimages with cloning techniques

Page 53 The Healing Patch tool is agreat way to fix up photos

Page 48 Cloning copies parts of yourimage and transplants them elsewhere

Page 49 The Clone tool can removeunwanted parts of an image

Page 50 Less-than-perfect portraits can be fixed up in seconds

The Rubber Stamp (Clone) tool

The Rubber Stamp tool is useful for copyingpixels from one part of an image to another


Chapter 4

Sample modeWhen you hold the [Alt] key down the Clonecursor changes fromthe brush outline tocrosshairs to show thatits in sample mode andallowing more precise sampling.

Precision paintingUse the Caps Lock keyon any brush tool toactivate PreciseCursor mode.

Now we can clone the boy. Releasingthe [Option] key returns to normal

cloning mode. We can clone over the face ofthe boy at the top-right, replacing his with theface of the boy from the lower-left. We cancarry on and make as many clones as we like.

4

Selecting a 20-pixel soft brush we firstset the Sample point from which to

clone.To do this we hold down the [Alt] keyand click where we want to sample from inthis case the face of the boy in the lower-rightof the photo.

3

To ensure that we can easily return tothe original if necessary, we first make a

copy of the image as a new layer. Selecting theClone tool we can see the Options bar looksmuch like the Brush tools. At the far right aretwo extra options though: Aligned and Use All Layers.Turn off the Aligned check-box.

2

Lets focus on the more creative and funaspects. Heres a great example of what

cloning is all about our source image is atypical group portrait.

1

Removing unwanted elements

Cloning is ideal when you need to seamlesslyeradicate an unwanted part of an image



In the rightmeasure

Use the Measure toolto drag along the top

edge of one of thebench slats to read its

angle, then use theEdit > Transform >

Rotate command.Theangle that you just found will

automatically beentered in the rotation field.

Online tutorialsYoull find a host of

handy tutorials to helpyou take your

Photoshop skills furtherat the website of our

sister magazine,Computer Arts.

www.computerarts.co.uk

With a bit of effort we can remove theman entirely from the image. Note that

to do this successfully we need to stop whenthe alignment of the image begins to drift,and take a new sample point.

4

It sort of works but the cloned part ofthe bench does not