Navigating inside Photoshop - Part I

When you're going for a road-trip, what are the necessary things you must have? First, is a map. Second, is knowledge on how to measure distances using a map, right? It's the same with Photoshop. Photoshop lets you choose a measurement system to fit your project.

Having difficulty looking at the intricate details of an image? Using the Zoom tool is a great way to gain control over a document. Zooming into a section of a document makes touching-up fine details just that much easier. In addition, the Info palette gives you up-to-date information on the exact position of the cursor inside the document, as well as detailed color information that cna be indispensable in color-correcting an image.

The ability to create text, and even audio annotations, gives you the capability to record document information that might be vital to the processing of the image, and pass it on to anyone who opens the document. Photoshop's navigation and measurement systems are more than just information, they're control of the document and control of the creative process.


Changing the View Size with the Navigator Palette

Photoshop's Navigation palette gives you the overall view of the image and the ability to navigate through the document. It gives you the ability to work on small elements of the design. Once small areas are enlarged, it's easier for you to make minute changes. Zooming in (enlarging the image) lets you work on fine details while zooming out (reducing the image) lets you view how the changes affects the entire image. In the Navigator palette contains a thumbnail view and underneath it are the controls that lets you adjust the zoom of the image. Changes made within this palette are immediately reflected in the active document window.

Let's give it a quick run through by following these steps:

Step 1. Select the Navigator palette.
Step 2. Use one of the following methods to change the view size:
- Drag the triangular slider to the right to increase the zoom or to the left to decrease the zoom.
- Click the small and large mountain icons, located at the left and right of the triangular slider, to decrease or increase the zoom.
- Enter a value from .33 to 1600 percent into the Zoom box.

Tip #1: There are additional ways to zoom in using the Navigator Palette. Inside the view box (where you see the thumbnail of your image), hold down the Ctrl key, and then drag to resize the active document.

Tip #2: You can constrain the view box to drag horizontally or vertically. To do this, hold down the Shift key, and then drag the view box horizontally or vertically.

Exercise #1: Navigation Palette Shortcut. You can control the view of the document through a great shortcut. Simply click once in the Zoom input box on the Navigator palette, and then use the Up/Downarrow keys to increase or decrease the zoom value of the document by 1 percentage at a time. Not fast enough for you? Then hold down the Shift key, and use the Up or Down arrow keys to change the zoom by 10 percentage at a time. Then press Enter key to see your changes reflected in the active document window.


Changing the View Area with the Navigator Palette

We've learned that there are many ways on how to change the view size of our image in the active document window. But it's pretty hassle that everytime you want to edit another area of the image you'll always drag horizontally or vertically and adjust the sliders. Good thing is, you can change the view area of your active document window using the Navigator palette. Here's how:

Step 1. Select the Navigator palette.
Step 2. Drag the view box in the thumbnail of the active image.
Step 3. Click within the thumbnail and try to move it around the thumbnail. The position of the view box changes, which also changes the viewable area of the image in the document window.

Tip #3: If the Navigator palette is not visible, click the Window menu, and then click Navigator.

Getting Started with Photoshop CS3 - Part II

Using Shortcut Keys


One of Photoshop's key features is that almost everything can be done using keyboard shortcuts. Shortcut keys, as the name implies, let you perform tasks in a shorter time. Using shortcut keys reduces the use of mouse and speeds up your tasks. Here are the most common shortcut keys: Marquee Tool (M), Lasso Tool (L), Eraser Tool (E), Move Tool (V), Magic Wand Tool (W), Type Tool (T), New Document (Ctrl+N), Open Document (Ctrl+O), Save Document (Ctrl+S), and the list goes on. For the rest of shortcut keys, you can find them here: Photoshop Shortcut Keys.

Manage your Libraries with the Preset Manager


The Preset Manager gives you the ability to manage your library sets such as brushes, swatches, gradients, styles, patterns, contours, custom shapes and preset tools. Once a library is loaded in the Preset Manager, you can access the library's items in all locations where the preset is available. Modifications done in the Preset Manager is global, which means these are loaded everytime you open Photoshop.

Let's create a new Preset library.


Step 1. Go to Edit then Preset Manager.
Step 2. Click the Preset Type list arrow, and then select the options.
Step 3. Click the Options list arrow, and then select from the available presets then append them to your current item list.
Step 4. Click an image thumbnail then press Delete to remove any items that you don't want to include in the new preset.
Step 5. Organize their order by clicking and dragging each thumbnails to new positions inside the window.
Step 6. If you want to rename an item, click a thumbnail, click Rename and change the thumbnail name then click OK.
Step 7. Let's save our new preset by clicking Save Set button.
Step 8. Enter a file name and select a location you want to store the set.
Step 9. Once completed, click Save and then click Done.

Controlling your Workspace

A cluttered desk means a cluttered mind. Imagine that your workspace is your desk and its full of objects. You need some of it for a specific task, and the rest are not. Therefore, when you need a tool, you end up searching inside the pile of materials. So, in order to save time, keep those tools that you won't be needing at the moment. Same thing with Photoshop. Photoshop consists of a document surrounded by an options bar, toolbox, and floating palettes. Depending on how you work, your workspace may exhibit any combination of the above. For example, working with text, you'll need the Character and Paragraph palettes but not much of the Styles or Histogram palettes. In order for you to work efficiently, you need to organize your workspace. And to avoid redesigning your workspace everytime you start a new task, Photoshop allows you to create and save your own customized workspaces. Here's how it's done.

Step 1. Arrange the palettes according to your preferences.
Step 2. Go to Window then Workspace then Save Workspace.
Step 3. Type a name for your workspace then click Save.


Consequently, if you want to delete a customized workspace, simply do the following:

Step 1. Go to Window then Workspace then Delete Workspace.
Step 2. Click the Workspace list arrow, and then click the workspace you want to delete.
Step 3. Click Delete. Then confirm deletion by clicking Yes.

If at any time you want to reset all palettes back to their original configuration, simply go to Window menu then Workspace option then Reset Palette Locations.

Getting Started with Photoshop CS3 - Part I

Introduction


Adobe Photoshop, or simply Photoshop, is a graphics design and image enhancement program developed and published by Adobe Systems that runs seamlessly on the Windows and Macintosh platforms. Major designers, as well as casual users turn to Photoshop for its proven ability to create special effects and image composites; however, Photoshop's ability to manipulate digital images, restore old photographs, as well as create digital artwork from scratch, has made Photoshop the undisputed leader in the digital industry and the industry standard for graphics professionals.

Photoshop works primarily with raster documents which means images are composed of pixels. A pixel is a unit of image information. Imagine there's a wall made of bricks. Each brick represents a pixel in an image. Documents opened in Photoshop have a specific resolution.. The resolution of the image represents how many pixels the image contains. Since pixels (like the bricks in a wall) represents information, the more pixels a document contains, the more information Photoshop has to manipulate or enhance the image.

Once the image is opened in Photoshop, the designer can manipulate the image thousands of ways, everything from color correction, reducing dust and scratches in an old image, to removing a tree, or adding a missing friend.


The Photoshop CS3 window

Optimizing Photoshop CS3


Assuming you have successfully installed Photoshop in your computer, it means your desktop passed the program's physical requirements. Now we need to configure Photoshop to run it more efficient.

Photoshop requires a tremendous amount of your computer resources. If you'll be working on large documents, a poorly optimized Photoshop is equal to long wait times and it can trigger you computer to crash. That's the bad news. The good news is, Photoshop can be configured to run more efficiently. Go to Edit > Preferences > Performance tab. The Preferences dialog box should pop up and Performance category is highlighted in left. For older versions of Photoshop, go to Edit > Preferences tab. Of all the preferences, General, Plug-ins and Scratch Disks, and Memory & Image Cache, contain options that help increase the performance of Photoshop.

First, History states control the number of undos available. You can set it from 0 to 1000. Increasing this number also allows Photoshop to increase it's RAM memory usage and can decrease the overall performance of the program. You should lower the number of history states when you're experiencing slow performance problems.

Second, add scratch disks. If your hard drive has large available space on it, utilize this preference. Scratch disks are additional hard drives assigned to Photoshop. Assigning additional scratch disks allows Photoshop to divide the processing load and increase its performance.

Last, Photoshop operates in RAM memory. In order to run it efficiently, Photoshop needs five times the size of the opened document in the available memory. Therefore, the more RAM memory you can assign, the more efficient Photoshop will operate especially on large documents.



Familiarize yourself with Photoshop Tools

Photoshop has a lot of editing tools to offer which gives you tremendous control over any designing problems that may occur. There are many ways to accomplish a task, you can choose what suits best for you and your current project. For example, you need to create a selection on an image. A very popular way is to use the Lasso tools but you can still use the Quick Selection tool, Magic Wand tool, and Quick Mask Mode tool to name a few.

When you work on a document, it's important to know what tools are available, and how they will help you in achieving your design goals. Photoshop has consolidated similar tools under one button. To access multiple tools, click and hold on any toolbar button that has a small black triangle, located in the lower-right corner of the tool button. Accessing a tool doesn't necessary mean to click on that tool. All of Photoshop's tools can be accessed through a shortcut key. For example, to access the Selection tool, press "V" key. Pressing "W" key will switch to Magic Wand tool. If a tool has more than one option, such as Lasso tool, holding the "Shift" key along with the tool's shortcut lets you cycle through the tool's other options. Pretty neat eh~?! We'll have more of this shortcuts on other tutorials.

What's In Here For You

Thank you for visiting my personal weblog. This site's main purpose is to help young graphic artists and hobbyists to build a strong background in using the industry's standard program for image editing, Adobe Photoshop.

So why Photoshop? For me, it's because it offers versatility plus you can produce professional results while having fun.

Do you require to have atleast a background in image editing? Definitely, NO. We'll start with the basics until we unleash that burning passion within you.

Just a heads up, for all of my tutorials here, we'll be using Photoshop CS3 as I have it installed in my desktop. If you don't have CS3 installed in your desktop, don't worry because you can apply all you have learned here to older versions like Photoshop CS. Another thing to note is that you don't have to read my tutorials in any particular order. You can just jump in, get the information you need, then jump out. However, we'll be following a structured lessons from simple tasks to a more complex one. Let's have fun with Photoshop! ^__^