PHOTOSHOP BASICS!

Hello there people! I thought I should teach non-photoshoppers and beginners how to use photoshop! Two or three years ago I took a class at our local arts college all about photoshop! I learned a whole bunch and it got me hooked! Since then, I have used photoshop every week, and recently every day! Not to mention, that I have picked up an enormous amount of knowledge through all the photoshoppers in my life. For people that don't use photoshop, I can not stress enough how much it rocks. I couldn't have made this blog half as awesome as it is now without photoshop! It is a big chunk of money, but if you are planning on making a website and starting a business, it is a must-have. With these tutorials I am using Adobe Photoshop CS4 although many of the basic functions are similar in most of the Photoshop softwares. Lets start with the very basic basics!  (keep in mind, I am only sharing the tools/effects that I have used for this blog... like ever... so anything I teach or review with you, you will probably need to use if you start a blog).

Opening a document.

Oops! I forgot to mention that I'm using a Mac so things might be a little different!

So to open a photo, just drag it to the icon (duh).

It should open it right up and now you are free to work. If you aren't working with a photo, you simply just go to File > New.

Then it will bring up this menu.  Its pretty self explanatory, but here it is semi-labeled if you can see it.

Click OK and it will bring up your document. Done! Now I know, that was like wayyyy to easy. But let's continue.

Layers.

When you bring up your document, you might notice the layers tab-menu thingy. Here it is labeled. (any parts that I haven't labeled I don't think are important).  Except for Opacity... it's very important and useful.

Think of layers as well... layers. If one is full of black then don't expect to see the one under it thats full of white. Hope that makes sense. To really get used to all this photoshop business, you have to have a lot of practice. You get used to it after a while so this sometimes just looks impossible but its super easy.

Tool shortcuts.


On the left there should be a sidebar that looks like this:

Each of the tools is assigned a letter on the keyboard. For example, when you hit the letter "V" it automatically selects the arrow/moving tool. Here is the list of all of them.

The blur/sharpening tool doesn't have one according to my googling session and I don't use it that much anyway so its really not a problem.

Keyboard shortcut codes.

 So I could go on and on about all the shortcut codes that photoshop has. But that would be boring. So click HERE to go to the big long list of codes. Really, all I ever use is this magical one that forgives all the sins of photoshop.

Yep thats the one. Otherwise known as the "UNDO" button. I have to say I don't think that I've ever not used this button in photoshop. Because I make mistakes. A LOT of mistakes. Like too many. I have a problem. 

Colors and their codes.

 There are these two little squares in the bottom of the tool menu. What are they you ask? well they're color blocky things. Yes thats the technical name for them. Now how about you just click on them and it will bring up something like this:

It is kind of hard to look at all this nonsense over on the right. Basically you just pick your color here. Going down makes it darker, going left desaturates it, going up makes it lighter, and going right means more vibrant. The rainbow thing changes the color. Its really good to experiment with this whole menu and get used to it. Now go to the little box that has a # in front of it. Type in 6 random numbers. It should bring up some random color. thats called (or so I think) a color code. I had a picture that gave some color codes in this post. Its a great way to pinpoint exact colors and its a good way to share the exact color too. For Example," Hey George I was thinking of the color #5fd411 for your blog background".

Selection Tools.


Okay there are four main tools that select things. The magic wand tool, the Lasso tool, the Marquees, and the Pen tool. Here they are on the sidebar.

They have a multitude of uses, but basically, they select things. As simple as that. Each of them work a little differently. For example, if the background of something is completely a solid color, you can use the magic wand tool and it just selects it all. Rather than tracing the subject. With it selected, you can change the color of it or erase it.

Cropping.

This is pretty much a need to know for photoshop. So its a good thing its simple! Even apple products can crop now... so no need for crappy cheap apps now! When you click on the crop button (or click the letter "C" on your keyboard, you will see this at the top.

By dragging your mouse diagonally on the picture you can select the area you want to crop. You can always adjust it afterwards too though.

Shape tool.


This is a very simple tool and probably doesn't even need any explaining just hit "U" on your keyboard, choose the shape you want and drag it over your picture. Simple and useful!

There are like a billion different free shape packs online so you can get more shapes.

Brushes.

Let me just start with saying: I NEVER use brushes. There are about a million different ways I could use them I just don't. But that being said, when I do use them, I use ones I've downloaded... because the original packs suck. You can see what I mean by this by clicking B on your keyboard. I have found a site that I really like that has free photoshop shapes and brushes and what not it's called Brusheezy and you can go there by clicking HERE. Here is an example of using a "star brush" that looks like a twinkle and a "bokeh" brush.

I designed the logo for Stella Blue Photography. (click the photo to go to link) Its a small business run by Erica from Art Project Girl! She's super cool and you can see the header I made for her blog unvailed this  Friday 6/29/12. 

So basically with the random bits and pieces I have given you today, you can do anything. Or pretty much anything. These are all the things I have ever used for my blog. I also use photo filters and effects whose DIY's pop up on my blog pretty regularly. Hope this helps your photoshop needs! If you have any questions, just shoot me an email at knowandtellcrafts(at!)hotmail(dot!)com