Photoshop the whole thing

Digital Photography Workshop How to improve your pictures How to use imaging software How to use your camera

Loading pictures onto the Computer From a memory card Via a USB Cable from your camera From a memory stick From an existing file in a folder From the internet

Available software Freeware like Picasa or Gimp Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, ArcSoft Windows Programmes like Photo Editor Some may come bundled with a camera, scanner or printer

Photoshop: The Basics This is a Professional Package We are using CS- (Creative Suite) The simpler “Photoshop Elements” is sometimes given with PC packages

Even if you don’t have access to Photoshop it will be useful to learn some of the skills It will enable you to see the potential of post production editing It replicates some of the darkroom functions you may be familiar with Photoshop has functions/tools that look similar to many other packages

Open the Photoshop Programme from the Go/programmes menu In a moment you will be able to add one of your images to manipulate but please watch the demonstration as we go along.

This is what your workspace should look like If it doesn’t click on Window for a drop down menu or drag out the window so that it fills the page.

Check the items you need, these are the minimum for ease of use

You can now save it in case you lose bits when working

To open an image you can: Open “New” in File and paste from a file or the internet “ Open” an existing picture File “ Browse” a whole folder of pictures “ Import” from a scanner or camera

This image has been opened from an existing file

This is like an overlay of tracing paper on a picture. The blue colour tells you this is the one you are working in This image has been pasted from the internet into a blank background so it becomes a Layer

Photoshop can be a very creative piece of software: ..but let’s learn how to tweak pictures first ..to improve tone and colour ..and get rid of blemishes

Set up your desktop now and open and image (we can help)

One of the simplest changes can be made with the Crop Tool … which lets you edit the proportions of your “Composition” Composition is a major aesthetic consideration

Here’s where you can adjust tone

But these are a rather crude tool

A more controlled way is to use the Levels slider

The histogram has three sliders for highlight, midtones and shadow A poorly exposed picture will have gaps at either end and the sliders must be brought up to the edges to get a proper tonal range

More precision and control is now possible

This can do other adjustments. There are many ways to arrive at the same result. Experiment, you can always “undo”

Undo or Step Back here .. or go back in History

If you want to turn your picture to black and white you can use Grayscale mode in the Image menu ..but you lose all colour information for other effects

Then add tints using other options like Colour Balance

Those are the minimum “after effects” you need to produce better pictures Most software will do these edits Take some time now to familiarise yourself. Try different images

Those are the minimum “after effects” you need to produce better pictures Most software will do these edits Take some time now to familiarise yourself. First, how to save!

When it comes to saving…. …” Save” covers over the previous version ( so BEWARE)

“ Save As” allows you to choose the Name, size, format and Location

You are asked if you want to make the Photoshop file more compatible, but this flattens the file and loses all the layers and history. ..so uncheck this box if you want to work on the file later

There is a drop down menu Photoshop files are large and don’t always open in other applications

The most common file format is a JPEG which opens in almost all other Programmes

This is known as a “lossy” format as it compresses quality, You will be asked what resolution to save at (useful for e-mails, websites where size matters) ..but remember we want large/quality prints for display

Next we will look at some of the other editing options available for more advanced users

Now you have your image there are three main ways of working with it

Tools with a black arrow in the corner have options

To select areas of your image to work on you can use this tool called the Marquee tool which makes and cuts a shape

..or you can use this tool called the Lasso

..or you can use this tool called the Magic Wand

The magnetic lasso is the most useful for cutting out difficult shapes

The area cut round is highlighted with a dotted line To select it hit return

Like most tools there are settings you can alter

Feathering softens the edge of your “cut out”

Width tells the cursor how close to “stick”

Edge contrast tells the cursor how much difference to notice between colours/tones

Frequency tells the cursory how many sticky points to make

If it runs away with you, Backspace takes you back along the line

Remember to press return and the area is selected

Remember your adjustments are to a specific Layer, so if you cut out and paste a small section, you work on just that area

Copy and paste will give you a new layer of the area cut out (in this case just the eye)

By switching off the eye symbol you can miss out a layer temporarily and see what is “underneath”

Using “Transform” in the Edit menu or “Adjustments” in the Image menu

Transform changes size/angle etc

Adjustments can do colour, contrast, brightness etc ,,,in this case to the background layer, and note that the eye area that was cut out has stayed as it was

As long as you haven’t saved over the original picture you can go back by clicking on History

..or Step Backwards/Undo in the Edit Menu

Now for some more radical and creative manipulations

If you wanted to improve this shot by removing the distracting background there are two ways

The clone stamp which copies parts of the picture from one area to another You can adjust quantity and pressure here You can adjust size and type of brush here (for all menus using a drawing tool) You can adjust what you are painting with here

To select the area you copy you place the brush and hit Alt button You can then place the brush in the area to paint over

With care and the right settings you can copy and overpaint from one area to disguise another You can use the Clone tool to edit out any distracting element

The other method is to select an area with the Marquee tool, copy and paste it

Then use the Transform tool to stretch the new Layer (find it in the Edit menu)

Change the opacity so you can see what you are doing

Then use the Eraser tool to rub through to the Layer below ..and reveal the Image carefully with a new background

Turn the Opacity back to 100% and the background sits in place

To make your picture into one flat image, use the Layers menu. This flattens all the Layers, or “Merge Down” means the live blue Layer to the one below “ Merge Visible” means all the open layers that have an eye symbol active

Anything you copy in Photoshop…..

The size is then changed in Edit/Transform/Scale

Then using Image Adjustment and Filters the colour, tone, contrast, grain, light etc altered to hide the join

“ Filters” has a multitude of drop down menus and sub-menus to change the look of your Image (or layers within the image)

Picking one gives you a Preview of how it will look and the variations possible Other versions of Photoshop may not look like this

Changing the sliders…. Changing the effect….

Especially with multiple Layers and rubbing through

If printing pictures at home, always use Print Preview to check size/paper…

Page setup lets you choose Paper Size from a drop down menu

Scale to fit Media will crop to paper size or you can specify the percentage

Finally, how to add text to pictures using the Type tool

Choose font Change size, colour etc

There are more options if you right click the Layer

Adding shadows, texture and so on

These can be changed again later by clicking here

Remember the type is also a Layer so can be distorted …

..and have filters etc applied

This is only the basics. There are help guides built in. ..and tutorials on the Internet Good luck, have fun, be subtle

Photoshop the whole thing

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