Photoshop 7 Intermediate (3 hours)

This is an intermediate course and you should have a basic working knowledge of Adobe Photoshop. Today will will cover advanced cropping; non-destructive image editing, basic color correction, filters, creating actions to automate tasks.

One Program, Multiple Ways

As you work with Adobe Photoshop you will discover that there is often more than one way accomplish the same task. In this class we might do something that takes more steps than it should. We do this for a couple of reasons. We are trying to learn the tools, we are becoming familiar with the work area, and last, we are allowing for self discovery later on.

Modifier Keys

In photoshop several keys allow you to change how the tools work or adjust setting without leaving the tool you are in. Here is but a few

Wanted Action	Mac OS Key(s)	Windows OS Key(s)
Bring up Hand Tool	spacebar	spacebar
Bring up Zoom Tool	spacebar + command	spacebar + control
Bring up Zoom-Out Tool	spacebar + option	spacebar + alt
Reset default colors (Black foreground and White background)	d	d
Swap foreground and background colors	x	x
Constrain Shape (Marquee, Shape Tool, Crop, etc.)	shift + drag	shift + drag
Add to selection	shift	shift
Remove from selection	option	alt
Toggle Views	f	f
Hide all tools	tab	tab
Undo last step	command + z	control + z

Cropping

Cropping can be achieved with several different tools. Today, we will use the crop tool, the marquee tool and basic selection to make our crop.

The Crop Tool is the most basic cropping tool. To make a crop, just select the tool and drag across your image. Once you release the mouse you can grab the boxes at the corner or sides of the selection to change the size and shape of the crop. Double click within the selection or press the enter key to accept the crop.

Selecting

When using the Magic Wand or other selecting tools, you have the option to change the "Tolerance," if the selection will be "Anti-aliased," if it will be a "Contiguous" selection and if it should "Use All Layers" for a basis of the selection.

These examples will show you how the each setting influences the selection.

Tolerance:

Original Image	Tolerance: 10%	Tolerance: 30%
Tolerance: 50%	Tolerance: 70%	Tolerance: 90%

Anti-aliased:

Anti-aliased: Deselected	Anti-aliased: Selected
		*Dark area represents selection.

Contiguous Selection:

Original Image	Contiguous: Selected	Contiguous: Deselected

Use All Layers:

Original Image	Use All Layers: Selected	Use All Layers: Deselected

Adjusting the brightness and contrast of your image.

To adjust the brightness and contrast of your image, you can use Brightness & Contrast, Levels, and Curves. Brightness & Contrast is the most simple and easy to use, while Curves is the most powerful and most difficult to master. Levels is the somewhere in the middle and is what we will use today.

Go to Image -> Adjust -> Levels to bring up the Levels Dialog Box. In the dialog box you will see and image that looks like a mountain scene. This is a representation of the shadows (left most area) and highlights (right most area) in your image. Under the shadow area, there is a dark triangle. Click-and-drag to the right to darken the image.

File Formats: Pros and Cons

Here is a sample of the different file formats with their pros and cons. This is not a complete list.

 

	Format	Windows Extension	Layer Support	Alpha Support	Color Mode Support	Number of Colors Supported	Compression
	Photoshop Document	.PSD	Yes	Yes	Grayscale, Indexed-Color, RGB, CMYK	48-bit truecolor, 16-bit grayscale	Lossless
	Tag Image File Format (TIFF)	.TIF	Yes (not compatible with some older software)	Yes	Grayscale, Indexed-Color, RGB, CMYK	48-bit truecolor, 16-bit grayscale	LZW (Lossless), ZIP, or JPEG
	Macintosh Picture File Format (PICT)	.PCT .PIC	None	Yes	Grayscale, Indexed-Color, RGB, CMYK	32-bit truecolor, 8-bit grayscale	Optional Bit Compression or JPEG
	Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)	.JPG	None	None	Grayscale, RGB	32-bit truecolor, 8-bit grayscale	JPEG (Lossy)
	Graphics Interchange Format	.GIF	None	Yes	Grayscale, Indexed-Color	8-bit color, 8-bit grayscale	LZW (Lossless)
	Portable Network Graphics (pronounced ping)	.PNG	None	Yes	Grayscale, Indexed-Color, RGB	48-bit truecolor, 16-bit grayscale	Lossless
	Encapsulated PostScript	.EPS	None	Clipping-Path	Grayscale, RGB, CMYK	32-bit truecolor, 8-bit grayscale	Lossless