Basic Photoshop

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Lesson 1a: Menu Bar

Let's get started by exploring the basic elements of the Photoshop workspace. There are four main
counterparts to the Photoshop workspace: the menu bar, the status bar, the toolbox, and the palettes.
In this lesson we'll be learning about the menu bar.
The Menu Bar

The menu bar consists of nine menus: File, Edit, Image, Layer, Select, Filter, View, Window, and Help.
Take a few moments now to look at each of the menus. You may notice that some menu commands
are followed by ellipses (...). This indicates a command that is followed by a dialog box where you can
enter additional settings. Some menu commands are followed by a right pointing arrow. This indicates
a submenu of related commands. As you explore each menu, be sure to take a look at the submenus
as well. You'll also notice that many commands are followed by keyboard shortcuts. Gradually, you'll
want to get to know these keyboard shortcuts as they can be incredible time savers.
As we make our way through this course, we'll be learning
the most useful keyboard shortcuts as we go along.
In addition to the menu bar, Photoshop often has context
sensitive menus for accessing some of the most likely
commands depending on which tool is selected and where
you click. You access the context sensitive menu by right
clicking in Windows, or pressing the Control key on a
Macintosh.
One of the most convenient contextual menus can be
accessed by right clicking/Control clicking on the title
bar of a document for quick access to the duplicate
command, image and canvas size dialogs, file
information, and page setup. If you already know how to
open an image, go ahead and try it now. Otherwise, you'll
learn how in the next section.
Lesson 1b: Status Bar

Let's continue our exploration of the Photoshop workspace. There are four main counterparts to the
Photoshop workspace: the menu bar, the status bar, the toolbox, and the palettes. We looked at the
menu bars in the first section. In this lesson we'll be learning about the status bar.
The Status Bar
Now take a look at the status bar along the bottom edge of the Photoshop workspace. The status bar
is often taken for granted or overlooked entirely, but it can be a valuable tool. You'll need an open
document before the status bar will display any information, so let's open one now.
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Go to the File menu and choose Open, locate an image file and open it now. If you don't have an
image file handy, you can find several in the Stockart folder of the Photoshop application CD. CtrlO/Cmd-O is the keyboard shortcut to open a file. This is the same shortcut used by most applications,
so it should be an easy one to remember. If you are a Windows user, you can quickly open a file by
double clicking on the application background. (Since there is no application background on the Mac
OS, there is not a Macintosh equivalent to this shortcut.)
To the far left of the status bar you will see the magnification level of the active document. You
can swipe your cursor in this area and type in a new number to change the magnification of your
document. Go ahead and try it now.
To return your document to 100% magnification, locate the zoom tool in the toolbox and double
click the button. The keyboard equivalent to this shortcut is Ctrl-Alt-0/Cmd-Option-0. (We'll explore
more of the toolbar a bit later.)
To the left of the magnification display on the status bar, you

will see a display of document sizes. The number on the left displays the uncompressed size of the
image if it were to have all layers flattened. The number on the right displays the uncompressed size
of the document including all layers and channels. It's important to know that both of these numbers
will usually be larger than the final file size of the saved document. For more on the Document Sizes
display, look up Document Sizes option in the online Help file.
Next to the Document sizes display there is a small black
arrow that pops up a menu. You'll find this arrow other
places in the Photoshop workspace, so when you see it,
remember that there is a menu hiding there. In this case,
the menu allows you to change what is displayed in this
area of the status bar. In addition to Document Sizes, you can optionally choose to display Scratch
Sizes, Efficiency, Timing, or the current tool. You can look up each of these items in Photoshop's online
Help for more information.
Next in the status bar, you can see useful information about the tool you have selected. If you still
have the zoom tool selected, your status bar should say "Zoom In" if you are outside of the document
area. Move the cursor into the document area and you will see the status bar display instructions for
using that tool. Now hold down the Alt/Option key and the status bar will show "Zoom Out" and the
cursor will change to a minus sign. Next try the Ctrl/Commandkey in conjunction with the zoom tool
and observe the tips displayed in the status bar. Try the other key combinations such as CtrlShift/Cmd-Shift, or Ctrl-Alt/Cmd-Option while observing the status bar instructions.
Let's review each of the zoom tool options:
No modifier key = click to zoom in; click and drag to zoom into a specific area
Double click = zoom to 100% magnification
Ctrl-Alt-0/Cmd-Option-0 = zoom to 100% magnification
Alt/Option = click to zoom out
Ctrl/Cmd = temporarily toggles to the move tool
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Here are a few more zoom shortcuts we have not yet covered:
Double click the
Hand tool = zoom to fit the screen
Ctrl-0/Cmd-0 = zoom to fit the screen
Ctrl- /Cmd- (plus sign) = zoom in
Ctrl--/Cmd-- (minus sign) = zoom out
Lesson 1c: The Toolbox

Photoshop workspace: the menu bar, the status bar, the toolbox, and the palettes. We've already
covered the menu bar and the status bar. In this lesson we'll be learning about the toolbox. Since this
is a general overview of the toolbox, the materials here are useful for any version of Photoshop.
The Toolbox
You got a jump start on learning about the zoom tool while we were studying the status bar
in the last section. Now let's explore more of the Photoshop toolbox. If you have the Quick
Reference Card that came with Photoshop, it would be a good idea to locate it now. If you
cannot locate a copy, Version 6.0 users can find a PDF file of the Quick Reference card on
the main level of your Photoshop installation CD. Version 5.x users can find a diagram of the
toolbox and all hidden tools on page 25 of the Photoshop 5.0 User Guide.
When you look at the toolbox, notice how some of the buttons have a tiny arrow in the
lower right corner. This arrow indicates that other tools are hidden under that tool. To
access the other tools, click and hold down on a button and the other tools will pop out. Try
this now by clicking on the rectangle marquee tool and changing to the elliptical marquee
tool. The hidden marquee tools are shown here.
Now hold your cursor over one of the buttons and you should see a tooltip
appear that tells you the name of the tool and its keyboard shortcut. All the
marquee tools have a shortcut of M. An easier way to switch between the
different hidden tools is to use the keyboard shortcut along with the Shift
key modifier. For the marquee tools, theShift-M combination toggles
between the rectangular and elliptical marquee tools. The single row
marquee tools are less often used and must be selected from the toolbox
flyout. Another shortcut for cycling through the hidden tools is
to Alt/Option click on the toolbox button.
Take a few moments now to familiarize yourself with the tool names using the tooltips. Use the
shortcuts you've just learned to explore all the hidden tools. As you select each tool, note the hints
provided in the status bar area for each tool. Don't worry about using each tool for now; we'll get to
that soon enough. For now, you should just get to know the tool locations and their icons.
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Moving down in the toolbox, we come to the color swatches. This is where the
foreground and background colors are displayed. The tiny arrow to the top right
allows you to swap foreground and background colors. The tiny black and white
swatch symbol to the lower left allows you to reset the colors to the default of
black foreground and white background. Hold your cursor over those two areas to
learn the keyboard shortcuts. To change a color, simply click on either the
foreground or background color swatch and select a new color in the color picker.
Experiment by changing the foreground and background colors and then resetting them back to
defaults.
The next two buttons on the toolbox allow you to toggle between quick mask and selection
mode. We'll learn more about this later in future lessons.
Below that you have a set of three buttons that allow you to change the appearance of the
workspace. Hold your cursor over each button to see what it does. Notice the keyboard shortcut for all
three is F. Hitting F repeatedly toggles between all three modes. Try it now.
This is a convenient place to mention a few more shortcuts for modifying the workspace appearance.
Feel free to try them out as you read. When in either of the full screen modes, you can toggle the
menu bar on and off with the Shift-F key combination. In any screen mode you can toggle the
toolbox, status bar, and palettes on and off with the Tab key. To hide only palettes and leave the
toolbox visible, use Shift-Tab.
The last button on the toolbox is for moving your document to ImageReady. We will not be exploring
ImageReady in this course.
Before we move on to the palettes, let's review what we learned about the toolbox:
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An arrow indicates a flyout of hidden tools.

Each main tool has a single letter keyboard shortcut assigned to it.
The Shift key combined with a tool shortcut allows you to toggle the hidden tools.
D = resets the foreground color to black and background color to white.
X = swap foreground and background colors.
F = toggles screen modes
Shift-F = Turns menu bar on and off in full screen modes
Tab = toggles the toolbox, status bar, and palettes on and off
Shift-Tab = toggle only the palettes on and off
Lesson 1d: Palettes

Photoshop workspace: the menu bar, the status bar, the toolbox, and the palettes. All that's left to
cover now are the palettes. Since this is a general overview of the palettes, the materials here are
useful for any version of Photoshop. You'll need to have an image open for this lesson, so go ahead
and open one now.
The Navigator Palette grouped with the info and Options Palettes
Notes for Version 6.0

In version 6, the options
palettes is replaced with
the options bar. The
When you first open Photoshop, the palettes are stacked along the right
brushes palette has
edge of your screen in palette groups. The first group contains the
become part of the
Navigator, Info, and Options palettes. Next is the Color Swatches, and
options bar, and three
Brushes palettes. Below that are the History and Actions Palettes. Finally, new palettes have been
you have the Layers, Channels, and Paths Palettes.
added: Styles, Character
and Paragraph.
The Palettes
Palette groups can be moved around in the workspace by clicking on the title bar and dragging. Each
palette group has a collapse and a close button in the title bar area. Try the collapse button for each of
the palette groups now. You'll notice the button works as a toggle, clicking the button a second time
after the palette is collapsed will expand the palette again. You may also notice that some palettes do
not completely collapse. Try collapsing the color palettes and you'll see that the color ramp is still
visible.
Color Palette Partially Collapsed

Color Palette Expanded
Color Palette Completely Collapsed
For palettes that partially collapse, you can completely collapse them by holding down
theAlt/Option key as you press the collapse button. You can also collapse a group by double clicking
on any of the palette tabs. To display a collapsed palette, just click once on the palette tab if it's in the
back of the group, or double click if it's in the front of the group.
Palettes can be resized either by holding your cursor over an edge and dragging when the cursor
changes to a double pointing arrow, or by clicking and dragging on the right corner. Only the Color,
Options, and Info palettes are not resizable.
Notes for Mac Users 6

I have received reports
that the function keys to
When you click the close button on a palette group it closes all the
show/hide palettes do
palettes in the group. To display a palette that is not shown, you can
not work on the Mac.
either choose the command from the Window Menu, or display the palette
Mac users will need to
using its keyboard shortcut. They are:
access these commands
from the Window menu.
Enter or Return = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only)
Double click tool button = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only)
F5 = Show/Hide Brushes Palette
F6 = Show/Hide Color Palette
F7 = Show/Hide Layers Palette
F8 = Show/Hide Info Palette
F9 = Show/Hide Actions Palette

And don't forget these which we learned in the last lesson:
Tab = Show/Hide Toolbar and all Palettes

Shift-Tab = Show/Hide all Palettes
To bring a grouped palette to the front of the group, click on the palette's tab. You can also ungroup
and rearrange the palettes by clicking on a tab and dragging it outside of the group or to another
group. Try it now by dragging the navigator palette out of it's default group. Then put it back by
dragging it back onto the palette group.
skip
In version 6, several palettes can be grouped in one large super-group. To do this, drag a
palette to the bottom edge of another palette group. An outline will appear long the bottom
edge and then you can let go. Now the two palettes will be attached, but not overlapping.
You can attach several palettes this way to create one massive palette collection.
Docking two palettes
Two palettes that have been docked
Also in Photoshop 6.0, you have a palette well in the

options bar. You can drag palettes to this area and they will
remain there hidden until you click on the palette tab to reveal it. (If you cannot see the
palette well of the options bar, you will need to adjust your screen resolution to at least
1024x768 pixels.)
Another common feature of all the palettes is the palette menu.
Notice the small arrow in the upper right corner of each palette. If
you recall from our lessons on the menu and status bar, this
indicates a pop-out menu. Whenever you see me refer to a palette
menu throughout these lessons, you'll know I mean this menu for
whichever palette is being discussed. Take a look at the palette
menu for each of the palettes now. Notice that each individual
palette has a unique menu.
Practice showing, hiding and moving the various palettes, click on the palette tabs to familiarize
yourself with each palette, and take a look at each of the palette menus
while you're at it.
In Photoshop 6, the
commands to reset and
If you'd like to return the palettes to the default locations after you finish
save palette locations
experimenting, go to File > Preferences > General and click the button to
have moved. Reset
reset Palette Locations. If you always want to start Photoshop with you
Palette Locations is
palettes this way, uncheck the box "Save Palette Locations" box while you
under the Window menu.
are there. If you work with many large images you may prefer to keep
Preferences is under the
your palettes collapsed along the bottom edge of the Photoshop
Edit menu.
workspace to give you the maximum space for documents. We'll take a
closer look at each of the individual palettes in future lessons.
Lesson 1: Review
It may not seem like we have covered very much so far, but you may be surprised at what you've
learned. Let's review what we have studied in Lesson 1.
You learned how to find hidden menus and tools when you see a small arrow on a menu, palette, or
tool button.
You learned how to identify many of the most commonly used keyboard shortcuts.
You learned how to take advantage of tool tips and hints in the status bar area.
You learned how to open a file.
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You learned how to change the foreground and background colors, swap colors, and reset colors to
defaults.
You learned how to change screen mode, as well as hide and show the toolbar, palettes, and menu
bar.
You learned how to move, arrange, group, hide and show the palettes.
You learned how to access additional palette options through the palette menu.
You learned several ways to zoom in and out of documents.
Let's review each of the keyboard shortcuts and commands we've discussed so far:
Zoom shortcuts:
No modifier key = click to zoom in; click and drag to zoom into a specific area
Ctrl- /Cmd- (plus sign) = zoom in
Double click the Zoom tool = zoom to 100% magnification
Ctrl-Alt-0/Cmd-Option-0 = zoom to 100% magnification
Double click the Hand tool = zoom to fit the screen
Ctrl-0/Cmd-0 = zoom to fit the screen
Alt/Option with zoom tool = click to zoom out
Ctrl--/Cmd-- (minus sign) = zoom out
Type any number into the status bar magnifation level display.
Opening a File:
File > Open

Ctrl-O/Cmd-O
Double click the application background (Windows Only)
Screen Mode and Display:
F = toggles screen modes

Shift-F = Turns menu bar on and off in full screen modes
Tab = toggles the toolbox, status bar, and palettes on and off
Shift-Tab = toggle only the palettes on and off
Palettes:
Enter or Return = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only)

Double click tool button = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only)
F5 = Show/Hide Brushes Palette
F6 = Show/Hide Color Palette
F7 = Show/Hide Layers Palette
F8 = Show/Hide Info Palette

F9 = Show/Hide Actions Palette
Other Shortcuts:
D = resets the foreground color to black and background color to white.

X = swap foreground and background colors.
M = marquee tool
Shift-M = toggle rectangular and elliptical marquee tools
Lesson 2a: Navigator Palette and Hand Tool

Now that you've gotten familiar with the Photoshop interface, I'm sure you're eager to get started
working with documents. Let's get right to it. In lesson one, we learned several ways to zoom in and
out of documents. Now let's look at the Navigator palette and hand tool for even more ways of
navigating a document.
First, the Navigator palette. If yours is not showing, display it now using any of the methods you
learned previously.
You'll also need to open a document. In the center of the Navigator palette, you'll see a small
thumbnail representation of your image, surrounded by a red outline representing the visible area of
your document. If your entire image is visible, the outline surrounds the entire thumbnail. If you look
at the palette menu, you can choose palette options to change the color of the outline.
Below the thumbnail, we find even more controls for zooming. The
text entry field lets you type in any magnification number, and the slider lets you adjust magnification
up and down, and the two buttons on either side of the slider allow you to zoom in and out by set
intervals.
If you move the slider all the way to the right, you'll see the maximum zoom level is 1600%. Move the
slider back and forth a few times slowly and observe the red outline in the Navigator preview. As you
can see, it gives you a visual clue as to what part of your image you are viewing. Click anywhere in
the Navigator preview to move the focus to that area of the image. Click and drag in the preview to
pan around your document. Remember, you can drag the edges of the navigator palette to change its
size. The preview will increase as you increase the palette size.
Another way to pan around a document is with the Hand tool. When the hand tool is selected you
can just click and drag in your document to pan the visible area. Try it now. Okay, now that you've
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tried it... make that the last time you ever use the Hand tool because I am going to tell you the one
keyboard shortcut you will find yourself using all the time: Spacebar= Hand tool.
No matter which tool is active, the spacebar always temporarily activates the hand tool. Learn it; use
it; and never look at the hand tool again. I'm not even going to bother telling you the shortcut and
modifiers for the Hand tool; if you're curious, you know by now how to find that out.
At any time while working, when you need the most accurate representation of what you're working
on, you should set the magnification to 100%. At any other magnification, there is going to be some
level of distortion. Remember the current magnification level will always be displayed in the status bar,
the navigator palette, or in the title bar of the document window.
Lesson 2b: New View and Duplicate

While we are learning about zooming and panning, it's a good place to introduce the New View
command.
Choose View > New View (Window > Documents > New Window in Photoshop 7) and another window
containing the same document will appear. This is not a duplicate image (notice the file name
displayed in the title bar is exactly the same). It is merely a second view of the very same image. Any
edits you make in either window will appear in both windows. This allows you to set two different
magnifications for the same image simultaneously. You'll find this very useful when you need to zoom
way in on part of a document for editing fine details, and at the same time you can see the results of
your editing in actual size.
And that leads us right to the Duplicate command. This command is found under the Image menu, but
I find it most convenient to access by right clicking on the title bar (Windows only). Choose the
Duplicate command now and you'll be prompted for a new file name. By default, Photoshop appends
the word "copy" to the end of the original file name.
Duplicating an image is a handy thing to do when you want to preserve your original, or if you want to
continue editing, but you think you may want to return to a certain state at some point in the future.
Duplicate, continue editing, and if things go wrong along the way you can just do away with the
duplicate and return to the previous version. (The snapshot feature of the history palette is actually a
better way to do this, but we'll learn about that later.)
The next command on the title bar context-sensitive menu is the Image Size command (also found in
the Image menu). This is where you change the size and resolution of your images. Before we get into
using the Image Size command, we need to cover some fundamentals of image size and resolution.
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This is always a confusing topic for many people, so you might want to take a break now and
approach the next section with a clear head.
Lesson 2c: Image Size and Resolution

If you're not familiar with the various ways for defining resolution, visit my glossary entry
forresolution and spend some time studying the related resources there. For this course, we'll only be
discussing images in terms of pixels per inch, or ppi. First we need to understand some fundamentals
about resolution.
Contrary to what you might think, ppi is not the same as dpi. Almost everyone these days has a inkjet
printer so let's think about your inkjet printer for a moment. How many colors of ink are in your inkjet
printer? Most of them have at least four and possibly six ink colors. When your printer lays down ink,
it lays it down in overlapping dots of these four or six colors. Images are made up ofpixels and
Photoshop defines resolution in pixels per inch. In a typical RGB image, a single pixel represents one
color out of the millions of colors that can be reproduced on-screen.
So how can a printer with only six colors of ink reproduce millions of colors? Well, certainly not by
printing a single dot for each pixel in your image! In reality, for each pixel in an image, your printer
may lay down several dots of overlapping color that mix together to make up the color of that single
pixel. All this is said to help you understand why you would use an image resolution setting of 150 ppi
in Photoshop in order to output an image with a printed resolution of 300 dpi. It's simple; your printer
needs to use more than one dot to represent the color of a single pixel.
To clear up another confusing matter, resolution (ppi or dpi) has no bearing at all for images that will
be viewed on screen. The only thing that means anything for screen display is the pixel dimensions;
that is, the number of pixels that make up the width and the number of pixels that make up the height
of the image.
If you've been told that you need to use 72 or 96 ppi for the Web, it's only because that is
approximately what a typical monitor can display. But, because we have the ability to adjust the pixel
dimensions of our monitor, and because monitors come in varying sizes, an image with the same pixel
dimensions is not always going to appear the same size on screen on every system and with every
monitor. However, an image that is 100 by 200 pixels will always be 100 x 200
pixels, unless you resample that image. And that brings us right back to the image size dialog box...
Lesson 2d: Image Size Dialog Box

If you haven't yet, choose the Image Size command now and let's take a look at this dialog box.
First we have the pixel dimensions of the image. The drop-down menu allows you to change the
dimensions using percentages instead of pixel values.
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The next section is the Print Size. The default here is inches, but you can change it to cm, points,
picas, or percent. For this course we'll only be dealing with inches. Also under print size is the
resolution setting defined in either pixels/inch (ppi) or pixels/cm.

In version 6, this section is labeled "Document Size" instead of "Print Size." In my
opinion, Print Size was less confusing, but who can say what the reasoning was behind
the change.
Now notice the link icons to the right of both the width and height entry fields. This means the height
and width are linked together, so when you change the value of one, the other is changed
proportionally. Try typing a number into any of those fields and observe how it effects both the height
and width. To unlink the height and width, you can uncheck the constrain proportions check box. You'll
rarely want to do this, though, because it distorts your image.
The Resample checkbox determines whether or not you preserve the pixel data in the image and it has
a direct effect on the resolution field of the image size dialog. Resampling an image always involves a
change in the pixel dimensions. The general rule is this:
When you are changing the onscreen size of an image you usually want to select the
resample checkbox, modify the pixel dimensions, and set the resolution to 72.
When you are changing the print size of an image you will generally want to leave the
resample box unselected, and either adjust the print dimensions or the resolution to get the results
you need.
As you increase the print dimensions, your resolution decreases (thus, print quality
decreases).
As you increase resolution, the print size must decrease based on the amount of pixel
data available.
If you do not have enough pixel data to get the print size and resolution you need, then you'll have
to resample the image and Photoshop will create new pixels. This often results in poorer quality print
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results, so you need to judge which is the lesser of two evils: the loss in quality from reduced
resolution or the loss in quality from resampling.
Next to the resample check box, you'll see the menu where you can choose the interpolationmethod
Photoshop uses to create new pixels.
Bicubic is the default and gives you the best results.
Bilinear is faster but not as accurate as Bicubic.
Nearest Neighbor does not anti-alias at all and is very fast, but because it does not blend the
pixels, it results in a jagged appearance.
Lesson 2e: Canvas Size

The next command on the title bar context-sensitive menu (Windows only) is the Canvas Size
command This command is also found in the Image menu and must be accessed from the Image
Menu on Macintosh.
Canvas Size allows you to change the overall size of the document canvas without altering the
contents of the document. When you increase the document size, the new canvas area is added in the
current background color or it will be transparent if you have no background layer. Normally you'll only
be using Canvas size to increase the size of the canvas, but it can be used to decrease (or crop) the
canvas also.
Open an image and choose the Canvas Size command so you can look at the dialog box now.
As you can see the current size is shown at the top. There are fields for entering new width and height
dimensions. You can enter your dimensions as percentages, pixels, inches, cm, points, or picas. The
anchor diagram lets you specify how the canvas is modified. By default, the middle box is selected
which adds an equal amount of new canvas on all sides of your image (assuming you're increasing the
canvas size). When you select any of the other squares, the canvas is modified in the opposite
direction. For example, pressing the bottom middle square will add space to the top of your canvas.
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Try it now by entering new numbers in the width and height to increase the canvas size, leaving the
middle anchor square selected. Assuming your background color is the default white, you should have
extra white space added all all sides of the canvas. Choose Edit > Undo (or Ctrl-Z/Command-Z) to
undo the change and then choose a different background color. Try the Canvas size command again
using a different anchor selection and see how it effects your image. Experiment with Canvas Size
until you're comfortable with it.
By the way, if you enter some number in the dialog box and you change your mind and want to get
the original numbers back, hold down the Alt/Option key and the Cancel button will change to a
Reset button. Pressing reset will return all values to what they were. This trick works in just about all
of Photoshop's dialog boxes, and it comes in very handy, so you'll want to add this one to your
essential shortcuts list.
The Canvas Size command is fine when you want to add an equal amount of space to your canvas, or
when you know the exact dimensions you need to adjust, but there is a much more intuitive and
flexible way to increase, and decrease, your canvas size visually... the Crop tool.
Lesson 2f: Crop Tool

In Photoshop 5.x, the crop tool is hidden under the marquee tools. In version 6 it has its own toolbar
button. But the crop tool has a very easy keyboard shortcut to remember, so you'll rarely need to
bother with selecting it from the toolbox. The shortcut for activating the crop tool is C. The crop tool in
Photoshop can actually do much more than crop your images. As I mentioned in the last section, the
crop tool can be used to increase your canvas size. It can also be used to rotate and resample images,
and in Photoshop 6 it can be used to quickly correct the perspective of an image.
Let's start by exploring the most common use of the crop tool... cropping, of course! Open any image
and select the Crop tool. To select an area to be cropped, just click and drag in your image and when
you let go, the crop marquee will appear. There's no need to be precise when making the first
selection, because you can edit your selection before committing to the crop. You can always save
some time if you get it right the first time; however, the default crop cursor makes it somewhat
difficult to see exactly where your selection begins and ends.
The selection point actually begins and ends at the very center of the crop tool, approximately
where I've placed a red dot in the screen shot here. If you want exact precision however, you
will want to switch to a crosshair cursor. At any time, you can switch from standard to precise
cursors by enabling the Caps Lock key. This works with the painting tools as well. Try it out. You may
find that the precise cursor is hard to see in some backgrounds, but it's nice to have the option when
you need it.
OK, now pick which ever cursor preference you like and drag out a crop selection on your image.
Notice the hollow boxes in the corners and on each side of the selection marquee? These are called
handles because you can grab onto them to manipulate the selection.
Move your cursor over each of these handles and you'll notice it changes to a double pointing arrow to
indicate that you can resize the selection border. Make some adjustments to your crop selection now
using the handles. You'll notice if you drag a corner handle you can adjust the width and height at the
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same time. If you hold the shift key down while dragging a corner handle it constrains the height and
width proportions.
You'll find if you try to move the selection border to just a few pixels from any of the document edges,
the border automatically snaps to the document edge. This makes it nearly impossible to trim just a
few pixels from an image, but you can disable this snapping behavior by holding down
the Ctrl (Windows only) key when you get close to an edge. On Windows or Macintosh, you can toggle
snapping on and off by pressing Ctrl/Command-; or from the View menu.

In Photoshop 6, the cropped area is shielded with a gray screen. This makes it easier to
visualize how the cropping affects the overall composition. You can change the shielded
area color and opacity from the options bar after you make a crop selection. You can also
disable the shading, by unchecking the "Shield cropped area" checkbox.
Now move your cursor inside the selection marquee. The cursor changes to a solid black arrow
indicating that you can move the selection. Holding the shift key while you move the selection
constrains your movements.
But that's not all... move your cursor to just outside one of the corner handles and you'll see it change
to a double pointing curved arrow. When the curved arrow cursor is active you can rotate the selection
marquee. This allows you to crop and straighten a crooked image at the same time. Just align one of
the crop edges to a portion of the image that should be horizontal or vertical, and when you invoke
the crop, it will rotate the image to conform to your selection. The center point on the crop marquee
determines the center point to which the marquee is rotated. You can move this center point to
change the center of rotation by clicking on it and dragging.

In Photoshop 6, after you draw the crop selection, you have a checkbox on the options bar
to adjust the perspective. This is useful for photos of buildings where there is some
distortion. When you select the perspective check box, you can move your cursor over any
of the corner handles and it will change to a shaded arrow. Then you can click and drag
each corner of the crop marquee independently. To correct perspective distortion, move
the top corners of the selection marquee inward, so that the sides of the selection are
aligned with the edges of the building you want to correct.
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In version 6 you
can also use the
If you change your mind after you've made a crop selection, you can back
out of it by pressing Esc. To commit to your selection and make the crop check mark button on
permanent, you can press Enter or Return, or simply double click inside the options bar to
commit to the crop, or
the selection marquee.
the X button to cancel
the crop.
In Photoshop 6, if you are cropping a layered image, you can
choose whether you want to delete the cropped area permanently,
or just hide the area outside of the crop marquee. These options
will appear on the options bar. The hide option retains those pixels,
but resizes the canvas so they are not visible. This area outside
the visible canvas is called "big data" and you can make it visible
again by choosing Image > Reveal all. The delete/hide options will
be dimmed when cropping a background layer or when using the
perspective option. Keep in mind that the hide option requires
more memory and disk space when you save the file.
Take a few moments now to practice cropping and manipulating the crop selection using all the
methods we've discussed so far. You can return your image to its original state at any time by going to
File > Revert.
I also mentioned that you could resample an image via the crop tool. To do this you'll need to use the
crop options palette (or the options bar in Photoshop 6). The options palette for any tool can be
accessed by double clicking on the toolbar button.
In the crop tool options, there is a check box for Fixed Target size. When
this checkbox is activated, you can alter the image resolution. The Front
Image button fills in the fields with the current image size and resolution,
otherwise, the last used numbers will be remembered. Resampling with
the crop tool is a bit difficult to describe; I suggest you read about it on
page 59 of the Photoshop 5.0 User Guide (or look up Fixed Target Size
Option in the online Help) and experiment with it to get a feel for how it
works.
In version 6, there is no
check box; however,
typing numbers into the
width, height and
resolution fields alters
the image resolution
rather than cropping.
Lesson 2f Exercise: Crop Tool Practice

Now let's get some practice working with the crop tool. Right click each of these files names and
download the images to your computer so you can practice these exercises:
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croppractice1.jpg
croppractice2.jpg
Practice Exercise 1
Changing Shape, Increasing Canvas Size & Adding Borders
Before Cropping
After Cropping
Crop the image to get the results shown above. Below is a screen shot of the approximate
selection you'll need to make.
Next use the crop tool to expand your canvas size and add a black border to the image at
the same time. First select black for the background color. Next make a crop selection and
drag the borders outside of the document area as show to the left. When you're happy with
the selection, commit to the crop and you should get something like the example here.
Practice Exercise 2
Rotating with the Crop Tool
After Cropping
Before Cropping
Crop the image to get the results shown
above. Below is a screen shot of the
approximate selection you'll need to make.
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In Photoshop 5, you can also crop to a selection using the rectangular marquee tool. When
a rectangular selection is active, just choose Image > Crop.
Lesson 2g: History Palette

Now that we've learned some basic commands for modifying images, it's important to understand how
to undo these changes and correct mistakes. In learning about the Canvas Size command and crop
tool, I snuck in a couple of ways for undoing your changes. These were Ctrl-Z/CommandZ for Undo and the File > Revert command.
You may have noticed already that the Undo command acts as a toggle for Undo and Redo, so you can
only Undo the last action taken. And the Revert command takes you all the way back to the state of
your image when it was last saved. So what if you want to undo more than one action, but you don't
want to completely revert to the last saved state? That's where the History Palette comes in.
Let's look at the history palette now. At the top of the palette is a
small thumbnail icon and the file name of your image. Whenever
you open an image, Photoshop creates a initial "snapshot" of the
image and lists it here in the history palette. A quick way to revert
your image is to click this initial snapshot. You can add new
snapshots to the history palette at any point by choosing new
snapshot from the History palette menu or clicking the new
snapshot
button.
Try it now. Open any image, make some obvious editing changes
such as changing the image size or cropping. Create a snapshot. Now click the first snapshot in the
list. The image reverts to its original state. Click the second snapshot and you'll be returned to the
edited version. Combined with the History Brush, snapshots can be a very powerful tool. We'll learn
more about that later. For now, let's get back to looking at the History palette.
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Below the snapshots there is a dividing line, and a list of all the recent changes you have made to the
image. You can undo any of these recent changes just by clicking the last change you want to revert
to, or by dragging the tiny arrow slider that appears next to each state. The slider is useful if you're
not sure how far back you need to go because it allows you to preview the changes as you move it up
or down.
By default, Photoshop only lists the last 20 actions you have performed on an image and anything
older is purged from the list to allow more memory for Photoshop. If you have a lot of memory, you
can increase this number through the History Options command in the History palette menu. If you'd
prefer to keep more memory available for Photoshop, it's a good idea to get in the habit of creating
snapshots of your image at key points throughout the editing process, then you can still revert to an
earlier state.
Along the bottom of the History palette are three buttons. The first button creates a new
document and works just like the duplicate command When you duplicate the image, all history states
are deleted for the duplicate. The next button creates a new snapshot. This is quicker than using the
menu command but it does not give you dialog box to name the snapshot. The snapshots will
automatically be named in numeric sequence. The third button deletes the current state or snapshot
depending on what is selected in the palette.
There's a lot more I could tell you about the History palette, but it is all explained very well in your
User Guide (Pages 167-172 in the Photoshop 5.0 User Guide and pages 69-73 in the Photoshop 6.0
User Guide). We'll cover more about the History palette as required in future lessons, but if you want
to learn more you can read these pages in your User Guide or the online help.
But before we move on, I just want to point out some important things you should know about the
history palette and Snapshots:
History and snapshots are not saved with an image. Closing and reopening an image will clear
all history states and snapshots.

Reverting to a previous state and then editing your image eliminates all history states that had
come after it.

Deleting a state deletes everything after it, unless the non-linear option is selected.
Ctrl-Alt-Z/Command-Option-Z moves backward through the history states.
Ctrl-Shift-Z/Command-Shift-Z moves forward through the history states.
Lesson 2h: Saving Images

Now that we've covered some of the more basic editing functions in Photoshop, you're going to need
to know how to save your images.
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To save an image in the native Photoshop file format, you would simply choose File > Save or CtrlS/Command-S. To save the file under a different name, you would choose the File > Save
Ascommand (Shift-Ctrl-S/Shift-Command-S).
Where things can get tricky is when you need to save the file in a different format. If you have
Photoshop 5.5 and you're saving an image intended for the Web, it's best to use the Save for
Web command (Alt-Shift-Ctrl-S/Option-Shift-Command-S). Save for Web allows you preview up
to four different settings and compare the results before committing to the Save. One important thing
to know about Save for Web is that your image will always be exported with a resolution of 72 ppi, so
if you need to retain the print size and resolution, it's best not to use Save for Web.
For more on the Save for Web command, see my overview for descriptions of each element:
Save for Web
When saving your class assignments for these lessons, get in the habit of
using the Save for Web command since your assignments will be posted Notes for Version 6.0
In Photoshop 6, the
to the forum.
If you are using Photoshop 5.0 or you need to save to another format
that's not for the Web, you'll want to use the Save A CopyCommand
(Photoshop 5.x only).
Save a Copy command

was eliminated and this
functionality has been
moved to the Save
Ascommand.
For more on saving images and file formats, visit these links:
Graphics File Formats
Formatting That File
Congratulations! It may not seem like we've covered very much, but you now have all the skills you
need to prepare images for posting on the Web, sending via email, and printing on your home printer.
Lesson 2: Review
Before moving on to your assignment, take a few moment to refresh your memory on what we've
learned in this lesson.
Spacebar = Hand tool
View > New View to view the same image at different magnification.
Right click/control click on the title bar for easy access to common document editing functions
including Duplicate, Image Size, and Canvas Size.
As you increase the print dimensions, your resolution decreases (thus, print quality decreases).
As you increase resolution, the print size must decrease based on the amount of pixel data available.
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If you do not have enough pixel data to get the print size and resolution you need, then you'll have
to resample the image.
Edit > Undo (Ctrl-Z/Command-Z)
Hold down the Alt/Option key in any dialog box and the Cancel button will change to a Reset button
which you can then press to restore your original values.
Crop Tool = C
The Caps Lock key toggles between standard and precise cursors.
Shift key constrains movements when dragging selection border.
Prevent the crop border from snapping to the edge of your canvas by holding down the Ctrlkey
(Windows only) or pressing Ctrl-;/Command-;.
Use the Fixed Target Size Option of the crop tool for changing image resolution while cropping.
File > Save (Ctrl-S/Command-S)
File > Save As (Shift-Ctrl-S/Shift-Command-S)
Save for Web (Alt-Shift-Ctrl-S/Option-Shift-Command-S)
Lesson 2: Homework Assignment

Your assignment for Lesson 2 incorporates most of the commands and tools you have learned so far.
First find an image of yourself, a pet, a child or grandchild, etc. If you don't have any digital images of
your own you can use, find one on the Web or in a CD image collection.
Open this image in Photoshop and crop away any unnecessary portions of the image. You want to give
the image a clear focal point and eliminate the distractions. If the image needs straightening, do that
also when you crop it.
Next resize your image so that neither the height or width is more than 200 pixels in dimension.
Pick a background color other than black or white and add a narrow border to the image either with
the canvas size command or the crop tool.
Save the image as a JPEG using the Save for Web command. Experiment with the JPEG quality
settings and observe the file size as you do. Try to find the best compromise between file size and
image quality.
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After you export the image as a JPEG, return to the Save for Web dialog and this time choose the GIF
option. Experiment with the color depth and dithering settings and observe the file size as you do. Try
to find the best compromise between file size and image quality.
Photoshop 5.0 users: Since you do not have the Save for Web feature, you'll have to save your work
using the Save a Copy command instead. The GIF option is found under File > Export > GIF89a. Even
though you don't have visual comparisons with the Save A Copy command, I would encourage you to
save several variations of your files using different settings and compare the results. Try to find the
image with best compromise between file size and image quality and upload this image for your
assignment.
Lesson 3a: Color Primer

This lesson deals primarily with color and color selection methods. Because this is a beginner's course,
we are not going to go into all the intricacies of working with color and understanding color theory, but
you do need to understand some basic principles. For more in-depth discussion on color theory as it
relates to graphics software, you can visit this site's color resources. Otherwise, scroll down to begin
this lesson.
Before you dig in to this Photoshop lesson, I strongly suggest you familiarize yourself with some
terminology and basic concepts through the following links:
Color Talk
An introduction to color in print and on the Web, from Desktop Publishing Guide Jacci Howard Bear.
Graphics Fundamentals: Distinguishing Photoshop Color Modes
"Images come in many colors -- and color comes in many flavors. The RGB colors on your monitor are
not the same as CMYK colors of your printer. To get the best results, you need to know which color
mode to use when in Adobe Photoshop so your images look good. Here's a short course on
Photoshop's color modes." This article from ElementK Journals provides overviews of Grayscale, RGB,
CMYK, and Lab Color modes.
Glossary
Please review the following glossary pages for definitions of the terms used in this lesson.
RGB
CMYK
Out of Gamut
Web Safe Palette
Hexadecimal Color
Lesson 3b: The Color Picker

Let's start by looking at the Photoshop Color Picker. Bring up the color picker by clicking one of the
color swatches on the toolbox.
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In my screen shot, black was the currently selected color when I brought up the color picker. Notice
that there is a small circle in the lower left corner of the color picker area, this circle surrounds the
selected color. Click anywhere else in the color picker and the circle will follow. (Continued below...)
Notice the two squares just left of the cancel button. The color shown on top is the
currently selected color, the color on the bottom is the color you are replacing. If you
see a triangle with an exclamation mark, it means you have selected a color that is out
of gamut for CMYK. Below the out of gamut alert, Photoshop displays the closest color
that is within the CMYK color gamut. If you see a small cube displayed, it indicates that
the color selection is not "Web-safe." Below the Web safe alert, Photoshop displays a tiny swatch of
the closest Web-safe color match. Clicking on either of the closest match swatches will change the
selected color to the closest match.
Now take a look at all those numeric entry fields on the right lower quadrant of the dialog box. These
allow you to enter numeric color values in a variety of ways. The default for the color picker is to
choose colors by Hue. You should have a dot next to the H in the color picker if you are still using the
default preferences. As you move the color picker from left to right in the large color box you are
adjusting the saturation of the hue. Try it and you'll notice the numbers next to the S change from 0
(far left) to 100 (far right). Moving the color picker up and down adjusts the brightness of the hue. As
you move the color picker up and down notice that the Bvalues change from 0 to 100 as well. To
change the Hue, you can click in the narrow rainbow-colored strip next to the large color picker area,
or you can drag up and down in this space.
For this course we will be choosing colors with the default color picker arrangement, so I am not going
to cover the other numeric entry fields, but I would like to encourage you to explore them on your
own. At some stage in this course I may ask you to select a specific color by its RGB values. In these
cases, you would enter numbers in the corresponding numeric fields for R, G, and B. For example, the
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RGB values for 50% gray are R128-G128-B128 and would be entered like this:
Notes for Version 5.5 and 6.0

In Photoshop 5.5 and higher, the color picker will also have a checkbox to display only
Web colors. This restricts the color picker to only displaying colors in the Web-safe
palette. In addition, you also have a field where you can enter the hexadecimalcolor
codes used in HTML. This field is indicated with the # sign.
Lesson 3c: Color & Swatches Palettes

In addition to the color picker dialog box, Photoshop provides two palettes for selecting color: the
Color Palette, and the Swatch Palette.
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The color palette provides a color ramp along the bottom of the palette for quickly picking an
approximate color. As you move your cursor over the color ramp, it changes to an eyedropper. Clicking
in the color ramp changes the foreground color. Alt/Option clicking on the color ramp changes the
background color. The current foreground and background colors are displayed in the color palette in
addition to the toolbox.
If a color is out of gamut, the color palette will also display the gamut alert.
The sliders in the Color palette allow you to refine your color choice by adjusting each
slider or by entering values into the numeric entry fields. Right-clicking/Controlclicking on the color ramp allows you to change the way the color ramp is displayed. The
Color Palette menu also allows you to change the way the color ramp is displayed, and allows you to
change the sliders displayed on the color palette for selecting colors using RGB, HSB, CMYK, or other
color spaces.

In Photoshop 6.0, the color ramp has two larger areas
with black and white swatches. This makes it a bit easier
to select pure white or pure black from the color ramp.
We've learned so many options for choosing colors already, it's hard
to imagine ever needing another one, but Photoshop has it! Take a
look at the swatches palette now.
The default swatches are a generic set of colors, but the true value
of the Swatches palette is in its ability to load custom swatch
collections. With a set of custom color swatches you can restrict yourself to specific colors without
having to remember any numeric color values. For instance, you can create a custom swatch from the
colors in a company logo, and use those colors when working on other projects for the company.
Here's a few color swatch actions you can try on your own:
Left click selects a foreground color

Alt-click/Option-click selects background color in Photoshop 6.0. In Photoshop 7.0, Ctrlclick/Command-click selects the background color.
26
When you move your cursor over an empty spot in the swatch palette, it changes to a paint
bucket and you can click to add a new color to the swatches palette. (In Photoshop 6, you'll be
prompted to name the swatch.)
In Photoshop 6.0, when you hold the Ctrl/Command key down and move your cursor over a
swatch, the cursor changes to a scissors icon and you can click to delete a color. In Photoshop 7.0,
use the Alt/Option key to delete a color.
To change the color of a swatch, select the new color using the color picker, move the cursor
over the color swatch that you want to replace, and hold down the shift key. The cursor changes to
a paint bucket and you can click to replace the old color with a new color.
In Photoshop 6, you can double click on a color to rename it.
You can revert to the default swatch palette by choosing Reset Swatches from the Swatches
palette menu.
You can also load, replace, and save swatch collection from the Swatches palette menu.
Lesson 3d: Custom Swatch Exercise

You can imagine how time consuming it would be if you had to create a custom swatch collection by
choosing and adding colors one at a time. You'll be glad to know that you can create a custom palette
from the colors in an existing image.
Let's try it now using the About logo. Save this image to your hard drive and open it in Photoshop.
The image opens in RGB color mode. In order to create a swatch collection from an image, we must
first convert it to a indexed palette image. To do this, go to the Image menu and choose Mode >
Indexed Color.
The indexed color dialog box appears. You can read more about
the options in the dialog in the online help, but for this exercise,
just make the following selections:
Palette: Perceptual
Colors: 128
Forced: None
Transparency: unchecked
Dither: None
Click OK, and the image is converted to indexed color mode, and
the color palette of the image is displayed in the swatches
palette (version 5.x only).
To save the swatches for future use, go to Image > Mode > Color Table > Save. Give the file a name
and then cancel out of the color table dialog. Color Tables are saved as ACT files. You can store the
files anywhere and load them from the Swatch Palette menu. When loading a color swatch the default
file name is set to ACO, so in order to load the ACT file you'll need to change the Files of type menu to
look for ACT files. Once the Color table is loaded into the swatches palette you can save it again as an
ACO file for ease of use; this step is not necessary, however, since the swatches palette can load both
ACO and ACT files.
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You'll find some additional color swatch files in the Goodies folder in your Photoshop application folder.

In Photoshop 6, you'll find some additional options on the Swatches Palette menu. Most
noticeably you'll find that you can load swatches directly from the menu. As long as the
ACO swatch file is located in your Adobe\Photoshop 6.0\Presets\Color Swatches folder,
the swatches will be listed on the menu, saving you a few steps when loading custom
swatches. If you add a new swatch file while Photoshop is running, you'll need to close
and reopen Photoshop before they will appear in the menu.
Another difference in Photoshop 6 is that you have the
option to view swatches as thumbnails or as a list. The
list view shows a larger color swatch with the color name
next to it. In thumbnail view, you can still see the color
names by holding the cursor over the swatch for a few
moments.
Also in Photoshop 6, you'll find there are two
icons along the bottom of the swatch palette for creating new swatches and deleting
swatches. You can drag swatches from the palette to these buttons to add and remove
colors from the swatch collection.
Lesson 3e: Eyedropper & Info Palette

With the eyedropper tool you can pick up colors from any open image. The keyboard shortcut for
the eyedropper is I. Simply click with the eyedropper in your image to change the foreground
color. Alt/Option click to change the background color.
When the color picker dialog is on-screen, your cursor will automatically change to the eyedropper
anytime you move it outside of the color picker dialog to an open document. Whenever a painting tool
is active, can temporarily switch to the eyedropper to change the foreground color by
pressing Alt/Option.
Double click on the eyedropper toolbox button for the eyedropper options (In Photoshop 6 the options
are on the option bar.) The options allow you to specify a single pixel sample, a 3x3 average, or a 5x5
average. In most cases, the 3 by 3 average works well. This averages the color of the nearest 3 pixels
surrounding the area where you click. You can also change the sample area options by rightclicking/Control-clicking anywhere in the image when the eyedropper is active.
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The eyedropper can be used in conjunction with the Info palette to
read color values from your images. Display the info palette, then
select the eyedropper and move it over your image. By default,
the Info palette displays the RGB and CMYK values, as well as the
X and Y coordinates of the cursor. When making a selection, the
Info palette also displays the width and height of the selection.
Notice the tiny arrows next to
on the Info Palette. You
you? Yes... there is a menu
icon pops up a menu that
displayed in the info palette.
the eyedropper and crosshair icons

remember what that means, don't
under there! Clicking on the tiny
allows you to change the values
Another thing to notice about

yet another way to identify
gamut. As you move the
at the CMYK values displayed
percent (%) sign changes to
a color that is out of gamut.
the Info palette is that it gives you

colors that are outside of the CMYK
eyedropper over your image, look
in the Info Palette. When the
an exclamation mark (!) it indicates
If you hold the Shift key down while the eyedropper is active, you can place color samplers
on your image. These samplers allow you to continuously display color readings for specific
points on your image. You can place up to four samplers in an image. Place a couple of
sampler points on your image now and notice what happens to the Info Palette. It expands to show
the sampler readings. These are useful for doing advanced color correction work.
To remove a sampler, hold the shift key down and move the cursor directly over the sampler target;
the cursor will change to a pointer and then you can click and drag it outside of the document window.
You can hide the samplers without removing them from the Info Palette menu. You can also choose
the color sampler tool directly from the toolbox (hidden under the eyedropper), but it is much easier
to just remember I for eyedropper and shift for the sampler tool.
Lesson 3: Review and Homework

Bitmap mode means the image consists of only pure black and pure white. A bitmap mode image is
called a one-bit image and is also known as line art.
Grayscale mode means that the image contains 256 levels of gray plus black and white. Grayscale
mode is also called 8-bit.
RGB stands for red, green, and blue. This image mode is a full color image. Because it uses one 8-bit
channel for each color -- red, green, and blue -- it is called a 24-bit color image (8 red 8 green 8 blue
= 24).
CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. This color mode is used in four-color process
printing, and is not usually used during the editing process.
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Index mode allows you to limit the colors used in an image to specific palette. The indexed palette can
have up to 256 unique colors.
The out of gamut alert is a small triangle with an exclamation mark that appears when a color is
selected that will shift when the image is converted to CMYK mode.
The Web-safe alert is a small cube that appears when a color is selected that will shift or dither on
systems that cannot display more than 256 colors.
Whenever the cursor appears as an eyedropper, you can click to change the foreground color.
The keyboard shortcut for the eyedropper is I.
Holding Alt/Option down when a painting tool is active temporarily changes to the eyedropper for
selecting a new foreground color.
You can place up to four color samplers in your image by holding down the shift key when the
eyedropper tool is selected.
Homework Assignment:
Select an image that has a pleasing range of colors. If necessary, crop the image to isolate the areas
of color that are most pleasing. Convert the image to index mode. Save the Color Table (ACT) and
then convert the color table to a custom swatch file (ACO) as described inLesson3d. Post your swatch
file to the forum to share with your classmates. Here's an example I created from the following image:
Lesson 4a: Selection Tools

In this lesson we're going to be exploring all of Photoshop's selection tools plus masks, alpha
channels, and transformation of selections. The selection tools include the marquee tools, the lasso
tools, and the magic wand. However, we are also going to discuss many more ways of making and
refining selections using Quick Mask Mode, alpha channels, and the transform selection command.
We use selections in Photoshop to isolate editing to specific areas in an image, or for cutting out
portions of an image. Similarly, masks are used to protect specific image areas from being modified,
or for removing portions of an image. For a more thorough overview on the differences between
masks and selections, see part two of my article, All About Masks.
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Unless you're entirely new to Photoshop, you probably have some familiarity
with the marquee selection tools. It's difficult to do much of anything in
Photoshop without them. These include the rectangular marquee, the
elliptical marquee, the single row horizontal, and single row vertical marquee
tools. As you learned in a previous lesson, the shortcut key for the marquee tools is M and Shift
M toggles the rectangular and elliptical marquee tools. Let's look at some additional shortcuts for the
marquee tools:
Holding down the shift key while dragging a selection marquee constrains the selection to a
square or circle.
Holding down the shift key while dragging a selection marquee when an existing selection is
active adds to the selection.

Holding down the Alt/Option key while dragging a selection marquee when an existing
selection is active subtracts from the selection.

Holding down the Alt/Option key while dragging a selection marquee creates the selection
from the center out from where you initially clicked.

The Shift and Alt/Option modifier keys can be used together when making an initial selection
to constrain proportions and draw from the center.

The Shift and Alt/Option modifier keys can be used together when another selection is active
to create a selection from the intersection (the areas where the two selections overlap).
To reposition a selection while you are in the process of drawing it, hold down thespacebar.
As long as the spacebar is held down you can move you selection, when you let up on the space
bar you can go back to drawing your selection. The selection will not be finalized until you release
the mouse button.
You can move a selection after it has been finalized by moving the cursor inside the selection
marquee as long as the marquee tool is active. The cursor will change to look like this
and then
you can click and drag the marquee into a new position. You can also use the arrows on your
keyboard to reposition a selection.
Ctrl/Command-A selects the entire image.
Ctrl/Command-D removes the selection.
Shift-Ctrl/Command-I inverts the selection.
Ctrl/Command-H acts as a toggle to hide the marquee but preserves the selection.
In Photoshop 6, you can also choose the add/subtract/intersect modifiers from the set of
buttons on the options bar.
In Photoshop 6, the Ctrl/Command-H shortcut toggles more than just the selection
marquee, so you may need it to press the key combination multiple times before the
marquee is hidden. You can control what items this toggle controls by checking them off
31
in the View > Show submenu.
The marquee tools have some options you can access by double clicking the tool to bring the options
palette to the front. You can adjust the feathering, anti-aliasing, and style.
Feathering lets you fade the edge of the selection, but in most cases you will leave this
setting to zero since there are more accurate ways of feathering a selection after it has been
drawn.
Anti-aliasing smoothes out the edges of the selection. You'll rarely, if ever, need to deactivate
this. It will be unavailable for the rectangle selection tool because rectangles always have hard
edges.
The style menu lets you make more precise selections.
When constrained aspect ratio is chosen you can choose the ratio of width to height.
With both values set to 1 you would only be able to draw a perfect square or circle. With a width
of 1 and a height of 2 you would create a selection that is two times higher than the width, and
so on.
When fixed width is chosen you can enter a width and height in pixels and just click
once to make a selection of that exact size.
Take some time now to try all these options using the marquee selection tools. When you're ready,
continue on to the next lesson on the lasso tools.
Lesson 4b: Lasso & Wand Selection Tools

In this lesson we'll be discussing the three lasso tools. The shortcut key for the
lasso tool is L and Shift L toggles between the three lasso tools.
The regular lasso tool allows you to make freehand selections. Just click and drag to draw the
selection. Whenever you let up on the mouse button, your selection will automatically close, forming a
straight line between the start and end points. The shortcuts for adding to and subtracting from the
selection are the same as the marquee tools. Here's some additional lasso tool shortcuts:
If you want to draw straight lines with the lasso tool, you can hold down the Alt/Option key
and make a series of single clicks instead of dragging.

You can toggle between freehand and straight line mode by pressing the Alt/Option key while
you are drawing the selection. This is a bit tricky, you need to make sure you press or release the
key wile the mouse button is down or you will close the selection.
You can hold down on the delete key to erase recently drawn line segments.
You also have feathering and anti-aliasing options with the lasso tool.
The Polygonal Lasso tool is used to draw straight line selections. You can make the polygonal lasso tool
work just like the regular lasso tool by holding down the Alt/Option key to draw freehand selection.
32
One difference with the Polygonal lasso tool is that you can use the Shiftkey to constrain the selection
lines to 45 increments. If you are drawing a straight line selection you can press the delete key at
any time to remove the last segment. To remove multiple segments, press delete repeatedly.
If you used the polygonal lasso tool to make a freehand selection you can hold down thedelete key to
slowly erase the line. This also requires a bit of coordination, because you will have
the Alt/Option key already held down to draw freehand. What you need to do is let up on
the Alt/Option key and hold down delete. Then when you have erased as much as you'd like, you
can go back to pressing down the Alt/Option key to continue your selection in freehand mode.
The Magnetic Lasso tool works similarly to the other lasso tools, but
it has special powers that can detect areas of contrast and it will
snap to the edges of the object you're trying to select. Because of
these special powers, the magnetic lasso has more options than the
other lasso tools. These options are explained in my magnetic lasso
tutorial, which is part of the assignment for this lesson.
You can temporarily switch to the regular lasso tool behavior while using the magnetic lasso by holding
down the Alt/Option key and dragging. Or you can temporarily switch to polygonal lasso tool
behavior by holding down the Alt/Option key and clicking. The Delete key allows you to delete
points. Here's some additional lasso tool shortcuts that aren't mentioned in my tutorial:
You can adjust the lasso width as you draw using the arrow keys or the [ and ] keys.
You can adjust the frequency as you draw using the ; (semicolon) and ' (apostrophe) keys.
You can adjust the edge contrast as you draw using the , (comma) and . (period) keys.
Closing selections with the polygonal lasson and the magnetic lasso is a little bit different than the
freehand lasso tool. With these tools there's two ways to close the selection:
If you move the cursor within a few pixels of the starting point, you'll see a tiny circle appear
next to the cursor and it means that when you click once the selection will close.
If you're not near the starting point and you want to close the selection you must double click.
If you're using the polygonal or magnetic lasso tool with the Alt/Option key to make
freehand selections, you must let up on the Alt/Option key first, and then you can double click
to close the selection.
Last, but not least, is the Magic Wand tool. The magic wand makes selections based on color
similarity. The shortcut for the magic wand key is W.
Double click on the magic wand tool to bring the options palette to
the front.
The tolerance setting controls the range of color that will be
selected and has a range from 0 to 255. To select a small range of colors enter a low number, for a
wider range of color, select a high number.
33
The Use all Layers option allows you to select based on the data from all visible layers (we'll be
learning more about layers in the next lesson).
When contiguous is checked, the selection only includes adjacentpixels
of the same color range. If you wanted to select islands of color all at
once, you would deselect the contiguous option.
The contiguous option is

only available in version
5.5 and higher.
As with the other selection tools, you can use Shift to add to the selection, and Alt/Option to
subtract from the selection.
Lesson 4c: Selection Exercises

Let's practice what we've learned so far by making some basic shapes with the selection tools.
Start with a new document (File > New), 400x400 pixels, with a white background.
For these exercises we'll be making basic shapes by filling the selection.
To fill a selection with the background color, you can hit the Ctrlbackspace/Command
Delete key.
To fill with the foreground color, hit Alt backspace/Option Delete.
For the first shape draw a square, then subtract a circle and fill with black.
Use the polygonal lasso to make a diamond shape

(don't forget the shift key to constrain the angle).
Then invert the

selection (Shift Ctrl/Command I) and fill with
white. Since this is just practice our shape won't
be perfect, but we could use grids and rulers for more precision.
34
Go to the view menu and turn on rulers or hit Ctrl/Command-R. Turn on the grid next from the view
menu or by hitting Ctrl/Command-". Double click on the ruler and change the units topixels. Click
Next and set the grid lines for every 50 pixels with 5 subdivisions.
Use the grid to help you draw a perfect triangle.
Add a rectangle to make a

house shape.
Then use more rectangles to make a door and window.
With the single row marquee tool you can add a line to form the
base of your drawing.
See if you can figure out how to make the half circle
window and the tree on your own.
35
Then use the magic wand in combination with other
tools and modifier keys to change the color of the
house.
And I'll bet you thought you couldn't draw!
Here's some additional shapes you can try to recreate
on your own for practice. Remember to use the grid as
a drawing aid. You can toggle grid snapping on and off
by pressing Ctrl/Command-;. I've left the grid visible
in these screen shots to give you clues on how the
shapes were created.
Lesson 4d: Select Menu Commands

Now let's take a look at some of the commands found on the Select menu.
We've already covered some of the shortcut keys for the most often used commands:
Select All = Ctrl/Command-A
Deselect = Ctrl/Command-D
Reselect = Shift-Ctrl/Command-D
Inverse = Shift-Ctrl/Command-I
Next is the Color Range command. This is another way of making selections based on color similarity,
but unlike the magic wand tool, you have a bit more control and can refine your selection visually. To
learn more about this command, see the online help file or page 142 of the Photoshop 5.0 User
Guide or page 144 of the Photoshop 6.0 User Guide.
The feather command allows you to soften or blur the edges of your selection
by a specific number of pixels. You can experiment with it on one of your own
images to create a soft vignette effect. Here's how:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Make an oval selection

Feather by 10-20 pixels
Invert the selection
Fill with a background color.
The feather command is usually fine when you just need to feather the selection by a few pixels, but
in most cases, you need a more visual approach. I'll be showing you a better alternative to the feather
command when we discuss Quick Mask Mode very soon.
Next up is the Modify submenu which includes the commands Border, Smooth, Expand, and Contract.
36
Border creates a selection that frames the border of previously selected area. The border can be any
size from 1 to 64 pixels. See the example below where the circular selection was converted to a border
selection of 10 pixels.
You'll rarely ever use this

command, and if you fill
the border selection with
a color you'll see why. It
makes a fuzzy selection.
Original Selection
Converted to 10 pixel
border selection
If you wanted to outline a selection with a hard edge, you'd be

better off using the Stroke command. If we step back in the
history palette to before we used the border command, we can
choose Edit > Stroke.
Set the width and the location of the
stroke, and you get a nice hardedged border like the one to the
right.
The Smooth command smoothes out any sharp angles in your selection. In the example below, the
first outline resulted from a freehand selection with the lasso tool that was stroked. The second outline
is the same selection after apply the smooth command with a radius of 10. For the third outline,
smooth was applied again with a radius of 10.
Try this out on your own. Remember, you can stroke a selection and then move the selection over by
clicking inside it and dragging.
Expand and Contract are pretty self explanatory. Expand makes the selection larger by a specific
number of pixels; and contract makes the selection smaller by a specific number of pixels.
Original Selection
Expand Selection 10 pixels
Contract Selection 10 pixels
37
The Grow command expands a selection to includeadjacent areas that are similar in color to the
current selection. The Similar command expands a selection to include non-adjacent areas that are
similar in color. In the example here, I first made a rough lasso selection of the inside of the leaf.
Using grow, the selection expands to the entire leaf as shown below.
Using similar, the selection expands to include most of both leaves.
38
This is similar to the contiguous option for the Magic Wand tool. Grow is equivalent to having
contiguous checked, and similar is the equivalent of have contiguous unchecked. Feel free tosave this
image to experiment with on your own.
Lesson 4e: Transforming Selections

The Transform Selection command gives you much more control over modifying selections.
When you invoke the transform selection command, a bounding box will appear
around your selection, similar to the box that appears when you use the crop tool. The box has
handles just like the crop bounding box that allow you to drag and stretch the bounding box. The
same keyboard shortcuts you learned for transforming the crop bounding box can be used with the
transform selection bounding box:
Holding down the Ctrl/Command key while dragging a middle handle allows you to skewthe
bounding box.
Holding down the Ctrl/Command key while dragging a corner handle allows you to distortthe
corners independently.
Holding down the Alt/Option key when dragging a corner handle resizes the bounding box
from the center.

Holding down the Alt/Option key when dragging a side handle applies the transformation to
both sides of the bounding box like a mirror reelection.

Shift constrains the movements and can be used in conjunction with the other modifier keys.
You can rotate the selection by moving the cursor just outside of a selection handle. The
cursor will change to a double pointed arrow to indicate that you can rotate.
You can flip a selection by dragging one handle all the way across the bounding box to the
other side.
To commit the transformation, double click inside the bounding box.
To reject the transformation, hit Esc.
You can access additional transformation commands by right

clicking/Option clicking inside the bounding box for the context
sensitive menu. The context sensitive menu allows you perform
transformations numerically.

If you have Photoshop 6, you can
transform numerically via the options bar.
39
Practice transforming selections to make the following shapes:
Click the thumbnail to download a larger version of this image to practice making a selection of the
headlight using the transform command:
Next up we'll learn how create and edit selections visually with Quick Mask Mode, and we'll discuss the
save and load selection commands when we learn about alpha channels.
Lesson 4f: Quick Mask Intro
40
We continue our lesson on selections with Quick Mask Mode and Alpha Channels. There's a reason
we're discussing these two things together, because they are very similar to work with. Later, when
you learn about layers, these same principles can be applied for working with layer masks and
adjustment layers.
You can think of a mask or an alpha channel as a more visual way to represent a selection. Think back
to earlier in this lesson when you used the feather command on a selection to create a soft vignette
effect. You could use numeric values for the feathering amount, but there was no way to see the
results of the feathering until you deleted the background.
Let's get an introduction to Quick Mask mode by creating a vignette effect a different way. Open an
image and make an elliptical selection.
The Quick Mask buttons appear directly under the color palette on the toolbox. The shortcut
key for Quick Mask is Q and this acts as a toggle to turn Quick Mask Mode on and off.
After making your elliptical selection, tap the Q key to switch to Quick Mask mode. The non-selected
areas of the image are visible through a red screen.
The red shading indicates the masked (or non-selected areas). Now we want to
feather the selection to create the vignette effect... but, what's this? The Select >
Feather command is disabled. No fear... instead of feathering the selection, we can use
the Gaussian Blur filter to get the same results. The difference is, we'll be able to see
those results in real time.
Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. You may need to
click and drag in the small preview area to bring the
image into view. However, if you click the preview
can preview the changes in your actual image.
edge of your
check box, you
Since we went into Quick Mask mode before

Gaussian Blur filter, the effects are only applied to
invoking the
our mask.
Now drag the

to a range
pixels and observe
Radius slider up
between 10-20
the Quick Mask.
OK the Gaussian
Blur dialog.
Tap the Q key to
exit Quick Mask mode.
Invert your
selection.
Fill with white.
41
While this may seem like more steps than using the feather command, it's better because you can get
a pretty good idea if your blur amount was right before making any drastic changes. With the
feathering method it may take a few tries since it's basically guess work and you won't know if you
guessed right until you fill the background.
That was the quick intro; there's actually a whole lot more you can do with Quick Mask. But first, let's
explore some of the Quick Mask options.
If you double click either of the Quick Mask buttons on
the toolbox, you can change the options.
If you prefer the colored area to represent the selection
instead of the mask you can change that here. If the
default red overlay color isn't working for your image,
you can click the color square to change it to something
that works better. And finally, you can adjust the opacity
of the overlay color. Feel free to experiment with these
options on your own.
Lesson 4g: More Quick Mask

Now let's observe some other aspects of working in Quick Mask mode.
Make your channels palette visible. By default it will show you a grayscale representation of each of
the three color channels: Red green and blue. Now make a selection and switch to Quick Mask mode.
You'll see a fourth channel appear in the channels palette labeled Quick Mask. A Quick Mask is actually
a temporary alpha channel. And an alpha channel is essentially a selection that has been saved. Any
editing that you perform in Quick Mask mode can also be performed on an alpha channel and viceversa. The only difference is that the alpha channel becomes part of your image (when it is saved in a
format that supports them) and the Quick Mask is lost as soon as you exit Quick Mask mode and
deselect.
42
What else can we do in Quick Mask mode? Well, you'd be surprised. Basically, any editing function that
can be applied to a grayscale image can also be applied to a Quick Mask or alpha channel. You can
paint on it, apply curves and levels adjustments, even use the other selection tools within Quick Mask
mode. We've already experimented with applying filters, and you'll find that many of Photoshop's
filters can be used in Quick Mask mode for interesting effects. You can invert a mask using the same
invert command that you use to invert the colors in your image, Ctrl-I/Command-I.
You may also notice that when you switch to Quick Mask mode, your foreground and background
colors automatically revert to default black and white (don't worry, your previous color selection will
still be there when you exit Quick Mask mode). This is because the mask is actually a grayscale
representation of a selection. When you look at the Quick Mask in your channel palette, the black
areas represent what is completely masked and the white areas represent what is unmasked (these
will be the selected areas when you exit Quick Mask mode). Of course, you can also have partially
selected areas and these are represented by shades of gray. When you paint on a mask, black adds to
the mask and white erases the mask. For further explanation of this, you may wish to read my
article, All About Masks.
Let's try a quick exercise that will really help illustrate this.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Open any image.

Type Q for Quick Mask Mode, then hit Alt-Backspace/Option-Delete to fill with black.
Then go to Filters > Render > Clouds.
Look at the thumbnail in the channels palette and you can see it is filled with
varying shades of gray.
Click the small eyeball next to the RGB channel at the top of the palette and
you'll see the Quick Mask in grayscale. Click the space where the eye was to
6.
reveal color image again.

Toggle out of Quick Mask mode. The selection marquee is just a bunch of
7.
squiggly lines that don't tell you very much!

Now hit Backspace/Delete to fill with white and your image should have a smoggy hazy
appearance. The areas of the mask that were darkest show the most change and the areas that
were lightest show the least change.
If you find you prefer working in Quick Mask Mode over using the selection tools, you can duplicate
many of the commands in the Select menu by going into Quick Mask mode and using other Photoshop
filters and commands. Here's Quick Mask equivalents to some of the Select menu options:
Expand can be achieved with Filter > Other > Maximum

Contract can be achieved with Filter > Other > Minimum
Feather can be achieved with Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur (try motion blur or radial blur for
other effects.
Select > Inverse can be achieved with Image > Adjust > Invert or Ctrl-I/Command-I
Border can be achieved with Filter > Sketch > Photocopy. (Experiment with the sliders)
After applying the Select > Border command, you can switch to Quick Mask mode and use
Image > Adjust > Levels to give the border a hard edge. In fact, you can use this anytime you
need to convert a feathered selection to a hard edge.
And of course, you can make free-form selections by using any of the painting tools in Quick
Mask mode.
43
Continue on to learn how to save selections as alpha channels and work with the channels palette.
Lesson 4h: Alpha Channels and the Channel

Palette
Before we move on to some mask and alpha channel exercises, let's discuss alpha channels and the
channels palette.Anytime you think you may need to reuse a selection, you can save it permanently in
an Alpha Channel. To do this, make a selection, choose Select > Save Selection and a dialog box will
appear.
By default the selection will be saved with the current document, but you can pull down the menu to
make a new document from the selection. In most cases you will save the selection with the current
document. In the Name field, you'll want to type a name for your selection so you can identify it when
it's time to reload the selection.
The Operator options would be available if your document already contained an Alpha channel. You
can add, subtract and intersect the selection with an existing alpha channel. Or, as usual, you can
create a new channel.
An image can contain up to 24 channels, including all color channels. These alpha channels are saved
even when you close and reopen an image, but only when the image is saved in a format the
supports it. These include Photoshop's native format (PSD), PDF (Photoshop 6.0 only), PICT, TIFF, and
RAW.
Your saved selections appear in the channels palette. To load a saved selection, you would choose
Select > Load Selection (but I bet you knew that!). If your document contains more than one alpha
channel you would choose the one you want from the Channel drop down menu. You can also invert
the selection as you load it. If you had an existing selection already made you can use the Operation
options to add, subtract, or intersect the selection. Otherwise, New will be the only available
operation.
44
You can also work with saved selections via the channels palette. Take
a minute to save a few selections so you can follow along while we
discuss the channel palette. To view a channel as grayscale, just click
on it in the channel palette. To view the selection as an overlay with
the composite image still visible, click the eyeball next to RGB and the
eyeball next to the thumbnail of the channel you want to see as an
overlay.
When a channel is selected in the channels palette, any editing you
perform is applied only to the channel, just as if you were in Quick
Mask mode. Double clicking on the channel brings up its options and
allows you to rename a channel. To the far right of the thumbnail,
you'll see the keyboard shortcuts for selecting specific channels. It's
handy to remember Ctrl-~/Command-~ to select the RGB
composite image.
You'll also notice a row of buttons along the bottom of the channels palette. These
buttons allow you to load a channel as a selection, save a selection as a channel, create a new empty
channel, and delete a channel. If you want a dialog box to appear so that you can name the selection
when you use the button method of saving a selection, hold down the Alt/Option key when you click
on the button. To create a new alpha channel based on an existing channel, drag one of the channels
to the create channel button. A duplicate channel will appear which you can edit. Again, hold
down Alt/Option for a dialog box. To delete a channel, drag and drop it onto the far right button with
the trash can icon.
Lesson 4i: Quick Mask & Alpha Channel Practice

Here's some practice exercises to help you get familiar with Quick Mask mode and alpha channels.
Exercise 1: Rounded Rectangle
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Open a new image 100h x 200w pixels.

Create a rectangular selection
Enter Quick Mask Mode
Filter > Blur Gaussian Blur
10 pixel radius
Image > Adjust > Levels
Drag the black and white sliders toward the center as shown in the screen shot.
45
Voila! A rounded rectangle selection.
Exercise 2: Coloring
Download this image. I've created several selections for various parts of the butterfly and saved the
selections as alpha channels. Practice loading alpha channels and filling selections to color the image.
Exercise 3: Create a gradual fade.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Open any image

Switch to Quick Mask mode.
Select the linear gradient tool.
Set the gradient options for foreground to background.
Click and drag to fill the mask with a gradient (hold shift to constrain it to a
6.
straight line).
Exit Quick Mask mode. [Note the selection marquee appears as if the image is half selected.
7.
That's because the marquee only appears where pixels are more than 50% selected.]
Type D to reset default colors.
46
8.
Hit Backspace/Delete.
Exercise 4: Combine selection tools and Quick Mask for faster selections.
1.
Save this flower image.
2.
3.
Use the magic wand with a tolerance setting of about 100 and click on the yellow petals.
Most of the petals should be selected. If you need to, choose Select > Similar to select more of
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
the petals.
Switch to Quick Mask Mode.
Make a selection of the inside of the flower and remove the mask by filling with white.
Invert the mask (Crtl-I/Command-I).
Exit Quick Mask Mode.
Fill with White.
Exercise 5: Create an interesting edge effect without expensive filters.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Open any image.

Make a rectangular selection staying about a half inch from all edges of the
image.
Switch to Quick Mask Mode.
Go to Filter > Brush Strokes > Spatter
Adjust the preview window so you can see the edge of your mask and move the sliders until
you are pleased with the effect. I used a radius of 20 and smoothness of 4.
Invert the mask.
Exit Quick Mask Mode.
Fill with white.
Try this same technique with these filters for other edge effects:
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Distort > Ripple

Distort > Glass
Distort > Ocean Ripple
Artistic > Underpainting
Blur > Gaussian Blur (10-20 pixels) followed
Sketch > Torn Edges
Sketch > Water Paper
Stylize > Diffuse (apply multiple times)
by
by
by
by
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
>
>
>
>
Pixelate
Pixelate
Pixelate
Pixelate
>
>
>
>
Color Halftone
Crystallize
Crystallize
Mosaic (10)
by Image > Adjust > Poserize (5-10)
47
If you'd like additional practice with selections, Quick Mask, and alpha channels, seePhotoshop Masks
& Selection Techniques for links to tutorials from around the Web. Be aware, however, that some of
these tutorials may include features and commands we have not yet covered in this course.
Lesson 5a: Intro to Layers

Up to now all the work we've done in these lessons has been on a background layer. You
may have discovered that working on a background layer can be very unforgiving. Any
editing you do on a background layer permanently alters the pixels of the background and
the only way to undo those changes is by using the history palette. When you begin to
combine layers with the Photoshop features you've learned up to this point, a whole new
realm of Photoshop's power will be opened up to you! So, let's get started...
What is a layer?
If you're totally unfamiliar with layers in graphics software, they can be a bit difficult to
grasp. You can think of each layer in a document as a sheet of clear transparent film. When
you paint on one of the sheets, you can still see through the unpainted areas of the sheet.
When you stack the sheets, the painted areas on the lower sheets will show through the
transparent areas of the sheets above. In Photoshop, the transparent portions of a layer are
displayed as a gray and white checkerboard pattern (unless the image contains a
background). The checkerboard pattern is not really part of the document, it's just there to
help you identify the transparent areas.
Take a look at the examples here. The large image shows
the three layers stacked. The three smaller image show the
contents of each layer. You can tell by the way the objects
overlap that the fish is at the bottom of the stack, the
butterfly is in the middle, and the star is at the top of the
stack. Photoshop treats each layer as if it were a separate
document so that any editing functions are only applied to
the active layer.
When you open an image such as a digital photo in Photoshop, normally the image opens
with only a background layer. The background is a special layer that cannot have
transparency and always remains on the bottom of the stack. When you stack additional
layers above the background, the background will show through the unfilled portions of the
layers above it. A background can be converted to an ordinary layer by double clicking on
its name in the layers palette. You can type a new name for the layer at that time or accept
the default. Naming your layers as you create them is a good habit to get into, because it
helps you identify your layers in the layers palette more easily.
48
In Photoshop, you use the layer palette for managing the
layers in a document. Here's a screen shot of the layers
palette for the example above. (I've enlarged the
thumbnails for this screen shot so you could better see the
layer contents.)
You're likely to find that the layers palette is one of the
most often used elements of the Photoshop interface. In
fact, you may find it useful to rearrange your palette
placement to allow maximum space for the layers palette.
Personally, I like to keep the least used palettes collapsed
at the bottom of the screen, leaving the entire right side
free to expand the history palette and the layers palette. If
you have Photoshop 6, you can use the palette well in the
options bar to hold some of the lesser used palettes. And if
you're fortunate enough to have a multi-monitor
configuration on your computer, you can really maximize
your workspace.
There are considerable differences in the layers palettes in Photoshop 5.x and 6.0, so I have
divided the layers palette overview into separate pages according to your version. Choose
your Photoshop version below to continue on to the layers palette overview.
Lesson 5b: Layers Palette - Version 5.x

The layers palette shows you the stacking order of the various layers in your
document along with a thumbnail to help you identify each layer at a glance.
As mentioned previously, only a single layer can be edited at one time. The
active layer will be highlighted in your layers
palette.
In addition, the active layer will have a paintbrush symbol

in the small square just left of the thumbnail. Double-
49
clicking on a layer in the palette allows you to rename the layer, and gives
you access to some advanced blending options that we will not be discussing
in this course.
You'll also notice a small eye icon for each layer. Clicking on this icon lets
you toggle the layer visibility on and off. This way you can temporarily hide a
layer if it's in your way. Hiding a layer also prevents it from printing. You can
easily hide or reveal several layers in a row by quickly swiping across the
column of icons as you hold down the mouse button. To hide all layers except
one, you can hold dow the Alt/Optionkey as you click the eye for the layer
you want to remain visible.
Although editing functions can only be applied to one layer at a time, there
are a few functions which can be performed on a series of layers. For
instance, moving layers, copying layers between documents, and aligning
layers. To perform these functions, you will need to link the layers that you
want to work with.
To link layers to the currently active layer, you would click in
the second square (left of the thumbnail) in the layers palette.
A link icon will appear in the space to indicate that the layers are linked. As
with the visibility icon, you can quickly link several layers by swiping across
this column with your mouse. To unlink several linked layers with one click,
you can Alt/Option click on the paintbrush icon for the active layer. We'll
discuss moving, copying, and aligning layers more later.
Now take a look at the bottom row of buttons on the layers
palette. These icons allow you to add a layer mask, create a new layer, and
delete layers.
If you click the delete layer button, you will be asked to confirm that you
really want to delete the active layer. If you want to delete the layer without
confirmation, you can drag the layer from the layer palette stack and drop it
on the delete button.
When you click the new layer button, a new, empty layer is created above
the currently active layer. The new layer will be given a name such as layer
1, layer 2 and so on. If you want to name the layer when you create it, hold
down the Alt/Option key when you press the new layer button. To create a
new adjustment layer, hold down the Ctrl/Commandkey while pressing the
new layer button. (We'll talk more about adjustment layers later on in this
lesson.) To quickly duplicate a layer, drag the layer from the layer palette
stack and drop it onto the new layer button. The duplicate layer will have the
same name as the layer being copied, with the word "copy" appended to it. If
you want to give it a different name at the same time, you can hold down
the Alt/Optionkey as you drag and drop the layer onto the new layer button.
50
The far left button on the layer palette is for adding layer masks. We'll talk
about this more later on in this lesson.
To change the stacking order of layers, you simply
click and drag them into a new position in the
layers palette. A thick line will appear to indicate
where the layer will be placed when you let up on
the mouse button (see screen shot at right).
Now let's look at the options at the top of the
palette.
The menu at the top of the layer palette allows you to set the blend mode of
each layer. Blend modes alter the way a layer interacts with the layers below.
The default blend mode is normal, which has no effect on the layer.
I could take a lot of time explaining how each of these blending modes
operate, but to be honest, it involves math and science that I don't fully
understand myself; secondly, it's already been done by others much better
than I could attempt (see links at right). Besides,
More About Blend
working with blend modes is not something you can get Modes
a handle on by reading about. This is one of those
Blend Modes for
things that you must experiment with. So, I strongly
Beginners
encourage you to set aside some time and visit the
Layer Blending
links in the sidebar to the right while you experiment
Modes
and explore the blend modes. I've selected a variety of
links because each one provides different explanations and example images
and will give you a better overview of the range of effects you can achieve
with blend modes. You can download this example image to your hard drive
to use as you experiment. We'll learn some practical uses for many of the
blend modes in future lessons.
Next to the blend mode menu is the opacity
control for the layer. 100% opaque means that
there is no transparency to the layer. In the
example shown here, I've adjusted the opacity of
the star layer to 50%. Notice how the layers below
show through. As you move the slider left, the
layer will become more and more transparent until
you get to the far left where the layer content
disappears entirely.
51
You can control the opacity level using your mouse with the slider control, or
numerically using the number keys on your keyboard. Tapping 1 on the
keyboard sets the opacity to 10%, 2=20%, and so on up to 0 for 100%. For
even more precision, you can tap two numbers in quick succession to set the
opacity to a specific two-digit value, such as 75%.
Take some time to experiment with the stacking order and opacity controls
using the example image you saved earlier.
The opacity setting controls the transparency of the layer overall, however, it
is possible to have varying levels of transparency in a layer, even if that layer
is set to 100% opacity. You do this using the painting tools, eraser, layer
masks, and so on. Many of Photoshop's painting tools have their own opacity
control that is independent of the layer opacity.
I hope that last paragraph didn't confuse you too much, because the next
option we'll be talking about is the preserve transparency checkbox... and it
really has the potential to confuse! This box allows you to edit on a layer
without changing the transparency level of the pixels in that layer. The best
way to explain this is with an example.
In the image we've been working with, set the
opacity of one of the layers to 50%.
Now pick a color (I used green) and fill the layer
with that color.
Result = the entire layer is filled with the color
giving the layer a 50% green tint in my case.
Now undo
change and
check box.
that
check the preserve transparency
Fill the layer with your color again.
This time,
pixels are
same
before you
only the layers where there were

filled, and those pixels retain the
transparency values that they had
filled the layer. 50%, in this case.
This
checkbox effects any type of editing
you do on the layer, including painting, filling, and filters. For another
experiment, try the gaussian blur filter with preserve transparency
unchecked, then undo and apply it again with the box checked.
52
Preserve transparency isn't that difficult to understand, really, but it has the
potential to really confuse you if you select it at some point and then forget
that it's turned on! Whenever you encounter a tool or function that just
doesn't seem to be behaving as it should, check to see if this option is
selected before you panic.
Lesson 5c: Layers Palette - Version 6.x

The layers palette shows you the stacking order of the various layers in your document
along with a thumbnail to help you identify each layer at a glance. As mentioned previously,
only a single layer can be edited at one time. The active layer will be highlighted in your
layers palette.
In addition, the active layer will have a paintbrush symbol

in the small square just left of the thumbnail. Doubleclicking on a layer in the palette gives you access to layer
styles, as well as some advanced blending options that we will not be
discussing in this course. Unlike previous versions, renaming a layer in
Photoshop 6 requires you to Alt/Option double click on the layer name.
You'll also notice a small eye icon for each layer. Clicking on this icon lets
you toggle the layer visibility on and off. This way you can temporarily hide a
layer if it's in your way. Hiding a layer also prevents it from printing. You can
easily hide or reveal several layers in a row by quickly swiping across the
column of icons as you hold down the mouse button. To hide all layers except
53
one, you can hold down the Alt/Optionkey as you click the eye for the layer
you want to remain visible.
Although editing functions can only be applied to one layer at a time, there
are a few functions which can be performed on a series of layers. For
instance, moving layers, copying layers between documents, and aligning
layers. To perform these functions, you will need to link the layers that you
want to work with.
To link layers to the currently active layer, you would click in
the second square (left of the thumbnail) in the layers palette.
A link icon will appear in the space to indicate that the layers are linked. As
with the visibility icon, you can quickly link several layers by swiping across
this column with your mouse. To unlink several linked layers with one click,
you can Alt/Option click on the paintbrush icon for the active layer. We'll
discuss moving, copying, and aligning layers more later.
Now take a look at the bottom row of buttons on the
layers palette. These icons allow you to (left to right) work with layer effects,
add a layer mask, group layers into sets, create adjustment layers, create a
new ordinary layer, and delete layers. For now we're only going to discuss
the last two buttons.
If you click the delete layer button, you will be asked to confirm that you
really want to delete the active layer. If you want to delete the layer without
confirmation, you can drag the layer from the layer palette stack and drop it
on the delete button.
When you click the new layer button, a new, empty layer is createdabove the
currently active layer. The new layer will be given a name such as layer 1,
layer 2, and so on. If you want to name the layer when you create it, hold
down the Alt/Option key when you press the new layer button. To create a
new layer below the active layer, hold down theCtrl/Command key while
pressing the new layer button. To create a new layer below the active layer
and give it a name, use both modifier keys while pressing the button.
To quickly duplicate a layer, drag the layer from the layer palette stack and
drop it onto the new layer button. The duplicate layer will have the same
name as the layer being copied, with the word "copy" appended to it. If you
want to give it a different name at the same time, you can hold down
the Alt/Option key as you drag and drop the layer onto the new layer
button.
We'll talk about the other buttons in this palette later on in this lesson.
54
To change the stacking order of layers, you simply

click and drag them into a new position in the
layers palette. A thick line will appear to indicate
where the layer will be placed when you let up on
the mouse button (see screen shot at right).
Now lets look at the options at the top of the
palette.
I could take a lot of time explaining how each of these blending modes
operate, but to be honest, it involves math and science that I don't fully
understand myself; secondly, it's already been done by others much better
than I could attempt (see links at right). Besides, working with blend modes
is not something you can get a handle on by reading about. This is one of
those things that you must experiment with. So, I strongly encourage you to
set aside some time and visit the links in the sidebar to the right while you
experiment and explore the blend modes. I've selected a variety of links
because each one provides different explanations and example images and
will give you a better overview of the range of effects you can achieve with
blend modes. You can download this example image to your hard drive to
use as you experiment. We'll learn some practical uses for many of the blend
modes in future lessons.
Next to the blend mode menu is the opacity
control for the layer. 100% opaque means that
there is no transparency to the layer. In the
example shown here, I've adjusted the opacity of
the star layer to 50%. Notice how the layers below
show through. As you move the slider left, the
layer will become more and more transparent until
you get to the far left where the layer content
disappears entirely.
You can control the opacity level using your mouse
with the slider control, or numerically using the number keys on your
keyboard. Tapping 1 on the keyboard sets the opacity to 10%, 2=20%, and
so on up to 0 for 100%. For even more precision, you can tap two numbers in
quick succession to set the opacity to a specific two-digit value, such as 75%.
Take some time to experiment with the stacking order and opacity controls
using the example image.
55
The opacity setting controls the transparency of the layer overall, however, it
is possible to have varying levels of transparency in a layer, even if that layer
is set to 100% opacity. You do this using the painting tools, eraser, layer
masks, and so on. Many of Photoshop's painting tools have their own opacity
control that is independent of the layer opacity. I hope that last paragraph
didn't confuse you too much, because the next option we'll be talking about
is the transparency lock... and it really has the potential to confuse!
Below the blend mode and opacity controls, you have a series of checkboxes
for locking various editing functions. From left to right the lock can be applied
to:
transparency,
image pixels,
position, and
all of the above.
When any of the locks are activated, you will see a

small lock icon appear to the right of the layer in
the layers palette. When all locks are activated, the
lock icon will turn solid. You'll notice the background layer always has its
transparency and position locked. This cannot be changed without promoting
the background to a layer.
The transparency lock allows you to edit on a layer without changing the
transparency level of the pixels in that layer. The best way to explain this is
with an example.
In the image we've been working with, set the
opacity of one of the layers to 50%.
Now pick a color (I used green) and fill the layer
with that color.
Result = the entire layer is filled with the color
giving the layer a 50% green tint in my case.
Now undo that change

and check the
layer with your color
transparency lock. Fill the

again.
This time, only the

pixels are filled, and
same transparency
before you filled the
layers where there were

those pixels retain the
values that they had
layer. 50%, in this case.
56
This transparency lock effects any type of editing you do on the layer,
including painting, filling, and filters. For another experiment, try the
gaussian blur filter with transparency unlocked, then undo and apply it again
with the transparency locked.
The transparency lock isn't that difficult to understand, really, but it has the
potential to really confuse you if you select it at some point and then forget
that it's turned on! Whenever you encounter a tool or function that just
doesn't seem to be behaving as it should, check to see if this or any of the
other locks are selected before you panic.
The image pixels lock disables all painting tools for that layer. You can
still move and transform the layer contents, adjust opacity settings, and
change blend modes, but you cannot paint directly on it.
The position lock is self explanatory. You can't move or transform a layer
that has its position locked, but you can still paint on it, apply layer effects,
and change blend modes.
And if you hadn't guessed already, the last lock is the same as selecting
all three locks.
Lesson 5d: Important Layer Information

Photoshop 5.x is limited to a maximum of 100 layers per document. This is plenty for the
average user, but be careful if you suspect you are getting close to this limit. ImageReady
does not have this 100 layer limitation, so it's possible to open the image in ImageReady
and add more than 100 layers, but you will not be able to reopen this file in Photoshop.
Photoshop 6.0 does not have the 100 layer limitation. In fact, you can have a
maximum of 8000 layers (including layer sets and layer effects). However,
this is further limited by the amount of memory in your system.
In Photoshop 5.x layers are only preserved when you save the image to
Photoshop's native PSD format. In Photoshop 6.0 and up, layers are
preserved when you save to PSD or TIFF format. (In Photoshop 6.0, you must
enable "advanced TIFF options" in preferences before you can save layers in
TIFF format. In 7.0 and up, you are not required to change preferences.)
When working on layered images, it is always a good idea to save a working
copy of your layered file in the native Photoshop format for future editing
purposes. To reduce the image file size and for compatibility you will usually
need to export a second copy of the file to an alternate format determined
by the intended use.
57
In Photoshop 5.x, when you want to save a layered file in a format other than
PSD, you will need to use the Save a Copy or Save for Web command.
When you do this the image will be flattened, meaning that all layer
information will be merged into a single background image and any hidden
layers and will be discarded.
In Photoshop 6.x, you can use the Save As command and the image will be
flattened automatically when you choose a format other than Photoshop PSD
or Photoshop PDF. A warning will appear to alert you that some image data
will be lost when using a format that does not support layers.
While more and more graphics programs are adding support for the
Photoshop (PSD) format, it's important to know that most of these
programs do not support all of Photoshop's layer features such as layer
effects, layer masks, and adjustment layers. Before porting layered
Photoshop files to other programs, it's best to simplify layers as much as
possible. You do this by flattening the file manually or by merging layers
together. We'll learn more about how to do this in the coming lessons.
It's also important to know that an image's color mode can affect the way
layers interact with each other. For this reason, any time you convert a
Photoshop document from one color mode to another, you will be prompted
to flatten the file first. You may continue without flattening, but be aware that
your results could change drastically depending on what layer effects and
blending modes you may have used. Of course, if you don't like the results
you can always undo the conversion and flatten your image before changing
modes again.
Lesson 5e: Moving, Copying & Transforming Layers

Once we begin to work with layers, the next tool that becomes essential is the Move tool. The
keyboard shortcut for the Move tool is V. You can also switch to the move tool temporarily when
almost any other tool is active by holding down the Ctrl/Command key. The exceptions are the Pen
tool and the Hand tool in Photoshop 5.x, plus the Slice and Shape tools in Photoshop 6.0.
The move tool, as you would expect, is used when you need to move the contents of a layer, but it is
also used for selecting layers and copying layers. As with all the tools we've been learning about, there
are a few key combinations that modify the behavior of the Move tool:
Holding down the Shift key with the move tool constrains your movements to straight lines or
45 degree angles.
Holding down the Alt/Option key creates a copy of the layer and moves it at the same time.
You can combine these modifier keys to copy the layer and constrain movements at the same
time.
You can also manipulate the contents of a layer with the Free Transform command. This command
works just like it does for selections, so review that section if your memory needs refreshing. When
you are in free transform mode, a bounding box appears around the layer contents and you can move,
58
scale, rotate, skew, distort, and flip the layer contents by using the mouse and keyboard
combinations. When layers are linked, your transformations will be applied to all linked layers,
although only the active layer will have the bounding box around it in Photoshop 5.x. Transformations
can also be applied numerically using the Edit > Transform submenu. Please take some time to
experiment with layer transformations on your own.
In Photoshop 5.x, if you double click on the move tool's toolbox button, the option palette will display
the move tool options. The Pixel Doubling option doubles the size of the pixels in the preview window
only when the move tool is being used. This results in faster drawing of the screen. Unless you find
the move tool noticeably slow, you should not need to use this option. The Auto Select Layer option
allows you to change active layers by clicking in the document with the move tool rather than going to
the layers palette. Some people find this convenient, and others find it a nuisance, I suggest you
experiment with it to find out your preference.

In Photoshop 6.0, the move tool options appear on
the options bar. The pixel doubling option from
Photoshop 5.x was removed, but the Auto Select Layer option is still available. In
addition, there is an option to show a bounding box on the active layer. This makes the
auto select option much more useful, because you can see exactly which layer is active,
even if your layers palette is hidden. It also makes it very easy to switch into free
transform mode, just by moving the cursor to one of the handles and invoking a
transformation. When you switch into free transform mode, you'll notice the bounding
box turns from a dotted line to solid, and your options bar offers input fields for applying
numeric transformations. To apply transformations and exit free transform mode, double
click inside the bounding box, press Enter on your numeric keypad, or press the check
mark on the options bar. To exit free transform mode without applying transformations,
press Esc on the keyboard or the X on the options bar.
In Photoshop 6, you'll also notice some
additional buttons on the options bar for the
move tool. These will be grayed out unless you have 2 more more layers linked. These
buttons allow you to align and distribute linked layers and they work just like the Align
and Distribute Layer menu commands in Photoshop 5 which are discussed later.
If the move tool is active and you right/control click in a layer, you will get a pop-up menu that
allows you to choose from a menu of all layers that have pixels under the point where your cursor was
clicked. Experiment with this shortcut on the sample file from the last lesson byright/control clicking
various areas in the document. Of course, this is only useful if you've named your layers logically, so
it's a good idea to get in the habit of naming your layers.
Here's some additional layer selection shortcuts:
Alt right click/Control Option click selects the top-most layer under the cursor
Holding Alt/Option and hitting the left and right [bracket] keys allows you to cycle through
the layers. The left bracket key [ moves down through the layers, and the right bracket key] moves
up.
59
Alt/Option Shift [ selects the bottom layer.

Alt/Option Shift ] selects the top layer.
These commands are also available from the Layer > Arrange submenu.
The move tool can also be used to copy layers from one document to another by dragging and
dropping. Simply dragging one layer from one document to another will copy that layer into the other
document in the position where you release the mouse button. To copy a layer to another document
and have it centered, hold down the Shift key as you drag and drop. This works at all times, with one
exception: if the two documents have the exact same dimensions, holding the shift key while dragging
the layer will put the copied layer in the exact same position that it was in in the document you're
dragging it from.
This brings me to a nifty tip that actually has nothing to do with layers or the move tool. If you are in
the new document dialog box and you want your new document to be the same dimensions as
another document that is currently open, you can go to the window menu and choose the open
document and the numbers in the new document dialog will adjust themselves automatically! This
handy little trick works in the image size and canvas size dialog boxes too. Try it out!
OK now, back to layers and the move tool... you can also copy
layers between documents by dragging and dropping them
from the layers palette onto another document window.
However, if you want to copy several layers at the same time,
you must link the layers and then drag and drop them from
one document window to another using the move tool. You
cannot drag & drop linked layers from the layers palette.

Photoshop 6.0 has a new feature
called layer sets. With layer sets
you can group several layers into a
set to reduce clutter in the layer
palettes and manipulate several
layers at once. It's similar to layer
linking, but much more powerful
because you can have multiple
That's just one of the situations when you may want to link
layers. Other times you will need to link layers are when you layer sets. Layer sets are beyond
the scope of this course, but you
want to merge several layers together. This is done through
can learn more about them
the Merge Linked command on the Layers menu. The
keyboard shortcut to merge linked layers isCtrl/Command E. beginning on page 213 of your
User Guide, or from the online Help
file.
You will also want to link layers when you need to align and
distribute them. This allows you to adjust the position of layers in relation to other layers. To learn
more about the Layer Align and Distribute commands, see my overview on Layer Alignment. The
overview was written for Photoshop 5.5, but it applies versions 5.0 and 6.0 just the same. The only
difference in Photoshop 6.0 is that they can be accessed much more easily via the buttons on the
options bar instead of navigating through submenus of the Layer menu.
Lesson 5f: Advanced Layer Features

I want to briefly introduce you to a few more advanced layer features. I won't be discussing these
features in depth, but I do want to touch on them, because we may use some of these features in
upcoming lessons.
60
Layer > Group with Previous
The Group with Previous command under the Layer menu allows you to use one layer as a mask for
other layers. When you define a clipping group, the lowest layer in the group becomes the mask for
the other layers in the group. Since layer clipping groups are a more advanced feature, I am not going
to discuss them in great detail here. However, I will show you some simple examples of where you
might find them useful. If you'd like to explore them further, see pages 275-276 in the Photoshop 5.0
User Guide, or pages 218-219 in the Photoshop 6.0 User Guide.
One useful application for grouping layers is when you want to fill text with a photo or fill. Sure, you
can make a selection from the text and paste into it, but then the text would not be editable. For this
exercise, I've created a file with a white background, a rainbow filled gradient layer, a (hidden) texture
layer, and text layer. Save this file to your hard disk and open it in Photoshop. We're going to fill the
text with a gradient and then apply a texture. (When you open the file in Photoshop 6, you may get a
message that some layers need to be updated. Click Update if you see this dialog box.)
Since the bottommost layer is always the clipping layer, first you will need to move the text layer
below the gradient and texture layers.
1.
Use the layers palette to drag the layers into this order from top to bottom:
Texture
Rainbow
Photoshop
Background
Next make the Rainbow Gradient layer active, and choose Layer > Group with Previous orCtrl-
G/Command-G.
The text is now filled with a gradient.
Make the Texture layer active and visible by clicking on the layer name.
Group this layer by hitting Ctrl-G/Command-G. (Another way of grouping the layer is
toAlt/Option click on the border between two layers in the layers palette.)
At this point the texture is blocking out the gradient fill. We'll use layer blending modes to
apply the texture to the rainbow fill. Change the blend mode of the Texture layer to Luminosity.
Now you have textured, colored text that remains editable!
Are you beginning to see the power of Photoshop's layers? Well, hold on to your mouse, because this
is only the beginning!
Layer Masks
Layer masks are very much like quick mask selections or alpha channels, but they are linked only to a
single layer. They can be edited and are saved with your document when you save in the native
Photoshop file format. Layer masks can be started from scratch, or applied from an existing selection.
Layer masks are especially powerful because they allow you apply transparency to a layer without
permanently destroying the pixels in the layer. As long as the layer mask is linked to the layer,
61
portions of the masked layer can be hidden and revealed without harming the original pixels. Layer
masks are ideal for creating composite images and montages.
Adjustment Layers
Adjustment layers are special layers that are used to make adjustments to the underlying layers. Most
of the items under the Image Adjust menu can also be applied by Notes for Version 6.0
using an adjustment layer. Using an adjustment layer has a
distinct advantage, because... well, because it's adjustable! In
Photoshop 6.0 moves all the
other words, if you apply a Hue/Saturation adjustment to an
layer effects into a common
image, and then later decide the change is too drastic, you can
dialog box called Layer Styles
double click on the adjustment layer and revise the settings. In
and adds the following new
addition, adjustment layers have built-in layer masks, so you can
effects: Satin, Color Overlay,
erase the adjustment from selected areas by painting on the
Gradient Overlay, Pattern
adjustment layer with black. Painting on the adjustment layer
Overlay, and Stroke. Photoshop
with shades of gray allows you to selectively fade the adjustment.
Layer Effects
Layer effects are special effects that can be applied to a layer.
The great thing about layer effects is that they are fully editable
and dynamic. You can modify the contents of a layer and the
layer effects automatically change as the layer contents change.
You can also adjust various aspects of the layer effects. In
Photoshop 5, the layer effects include Drop Shadow, Inner
Shadow, Outer Glow, Inner Glow, Bevel & Emboss, and Color Fill.
All of these effects could be created in Photoshop, prior to the
addition of the layer effects feature in Photoshop 5, however, it
required many layers and steps, and if you changed the contents
of the layer the effect would have to be recreated from scratch!
Learn more about layer effects in this overviewwritten for
Photoshop 5. Photoshop 6 users will find it useful, too, but the
dialog boxes will look a bit different.
6.0 also offers more options for

modifying the all the layer
styles, including those that were
introduced in version 5.0.
The dialog box for layer styles in
Photoshop 6 is not quite as
intuitive as it was in Photoshop
5.5. When you apply layer
effects in Photoshop 6, you put
a check mark in the box next to
the effect name to apply the
layer effect, but you must click
on the layer name to access the
options for each effect.
Photoshop 6 Fill Layers

Fill layers are unique to Photoshop 6. A fill layer can contain a solid color, gradient, or pattern. When
you designate a layer as a fill layer, the fill can be changed very easily by clicking its icon on the layers
palette. Fill layers also have layer masks attached, so portions of the fill layer can be nondestructively
erased, just by painting on the layer mask.
Photoshop 6 Shape Layers
Another type of layer new to Photoshop 6 is a shape layer. Shape Layers are essentially fill layers with
vector clipping masks (as opposed to raster layer masks). The contents of shape layers can be
changed on the fly, just like Fill layers. The clipping mask is an actual vector shape that can be
manipulated through the direct selection tool and, unlike a raster layer mask, vector shape masks will
always have crisp, sharp edges.
Note: When advanced TIFF options are enabled in Photoshop 6.0, layer masks and adjustment layers
are also preserved for TIFF files. However, layer effects, shape layers, and fill layers are not preserved
in TIFF files.
62
We'll practice using layer masks, layer effects, and adjustment layers as we progress further in the
course, but first we need to cover more of the basic tools. We'll pick up next week with working with
text.
Lesson 5: Layers Review

Let's review what we've learned about layers in this lesson.
To promote a background to a layer, you can double-click on its name in the layers palette.
This icon allows you to toggle layer visibility on and off. Hidden layers do no print, and they are
discarded when an image is flattened.
Alt/Option clicking on this icon will hide all layers except
the one clicked on.
This icon indicates the active layer. When other layers are linked to the active layer, you
can
Alt/Option click on this icon to unlink the layers with one click.
This icon indicates a linked layer. The link icon may also appear between a layer thumbnail and the
layer mask thumbnail on layers whick include a mask.
This button allows you to add a mask to a layer.
This icon allows you to add a layer. Clicking on the icon creates the new layer above the active
layer. If you press the
Alt/Option key when clicking this button you have the option of naming the
layer as you create it. To duplicate an existing layer, drag it from the layers palette and drop it on this
icon. By dragging and dropping a layer onto the icon while holding the
Alt/Option key down, you
can copy a layer and rename it at the same time.

This icon allows you to delete layers. Simply clicking on the button will prompt you for
comfirmation. You can drag and drop a layer from the palette onto this icon to delete without
confirmation.
Opacity of 100% is the equivalent of no transparency. Opacity can be controlled numerically by
tapping the number keys on the keyboard.
The transparency lock freezes the transparency of the layer on a pixel by pixel basis, enabling you to
edit the layer without changing the transparency of individual pixels.
63
Photoshop 5.x is limited to 100 layers per document. Photoshop 6.0 can have a maximum of 8000
layers but system resources may prevent you from reaching the maximum.
Layers are only preserved in Photoshop's native PSD format. When saving layered files to other
formats in Photoshop 5.x, you must use the Save a Copy or Save for Web command. In Photoshop
6.0, you must use the Save As or Sae for Web command. Layered images will automatically be
flattened when saving to formats other than PSD.
The keyboard shortcut for the Move tool is V.
You can switch to the move tool temporarily when almost any other tool is active by holding down
the Ctrl/Command key.
Holding down the Shift key with the move tool constrains your movements to straight lines or 45
degree angles.
Holding down the Alt/Option key creates a copy of the layer and moves it at the same time.
The shortcut to free transform a layer is Ctrl-T/Command-T.
Layer selection shortcuts:
Alt right click/Control Option click selects the top-most layer under the cursor
Holding Alt/Option and hitting the left and right [bracket] keys allows you to cycle through
the layers. The left bracket key [ moves down through the layers, and the right bracket key] moves
up.
Alt/Option Shift [ selects the bottom layer.
Alt/Option Shift ] selects the top layer.
Change layers via a pop-up menu of layer names by right/control clicking in the document.
To copy a layer from one image to another ans have it centered, hold down the Shift key as you drag
and drop with the move tool.
In the New File, Image Size, and Canvas Size dialog boxes, you can automatically fill in the
dimensions from any open window by choosing the window from the Window menu while the dialog
box is open.
You can copy several layers to another document at once by linking the layers and dragging from the
layers palette to another document window.
The keyboard shortcut to merge linked layers is Ctrl/Command E.
Ctrl-G/Command-G makes a clipping group from linked layers. You can also Alt/Option click on the
border between two layers in the layers palette to make a clipping group.
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Lesson 6a: Working With Type - Intro

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, but sooner or later there comes a time when you're
going to need to combine words and pictures. And that's where Photoshop's type tool comes in.
Up until version 6 of Photoshop, type features in Photoshop were fairly limited. In version 5, scalable
type layers were introduced, allowing you to scale and edit type without starting over from scratch,
and in version 6 type features were vastly improved with the introduction of on-screen type entry,
character and paragraph formatting, and type warping.
Scalable type layers are vector-based, meaning they can be scaled and edited without a loss in quality.
Some functions-such as filter effects-cannot be performed on type layers without converting the
vector data to pixels. This process is known as rendering or rasterizing the text. Once text is rendered
it is no longer scalable and editing must be done on the pixel level.
While the type features in Photoshop 6 have been greatly expanded, Photoshop was never meant to
replace a dedicated page layout or vector-based illustration program, so there are some text features
still not available in Photoshop-such as type that flows along a path.
The majority of type features are quite different between Photoshop 5.x
and 6.0, but one of the things they have in common are the antialiasing options. Although text within Photoshop behaves as vector type,
In Photoshop 5.0, antialiasing for type is either

on or off. You do not
have a choice of varying
levels as you do in
Photoshop 5.5 and up.
when the type is output, it is generally still output as raster data. (The
exception is text layers when output from Photoshop 6.0 to a PostScript
device.) Anti-aliasing blends the edges of your type so that it appears
smoother. Photoshop 5.5 and higher offers various degrees of antialiasing for type: none, smooth, crisp, and strong.
None - No anti-aliasing. Use this option for very small text, under 10-12 points.
Smooth - The average setting to make text appear smoother.
Crisp - Results in slightly sharper edges than the the smooth option.
Strong - Makes text appear heavier than the smooth option.
There are also some common typography formatting options you'll want to understand when you
begin working with the type tool in Photoshop. They are leading, kerning, and tracking. Experienced
desktop publishers and designers will probably be familiar with these options which allow you to finetune the line and letter spacing of type. We won't be discussing them in detail in this course, but you
can learn more about them with these links and resources on About's Desktop Publishing site:
Letter and Line Spacing - Understanding and effectively using linespacing and letterspacing.
Kerning headlines. Setting leading. Using tracking.
Tip: If you have certain fonts that you generally only use in your Adobe software, you can
install these fonts in the Adobe font location instead of the standard font folder for your
operating system. On Windows systems, the Adobe font folder is located in:Program
Files\Common Files\Adobe\Fonts. On Macintosh systems, it is located in:System
Folder\Application Support\Adobe\Fonts. Fonts installed in these locations will be
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available in most recent versions of Adobe software, but they will non be available in other
applications. It's a great way to make more fonts available to your creative applications
without having them loaded along with the operating system.
Lesson 6d: Photoshop 6.0 Type Tool

The shortcut key for the type tool is T. In Photoshop 6, most of the type tool options are available
from the options bar once the type tool has been selected. The first thing you'll see in the options bar
is a set of four buttons.
The two buttons in the first group toggle between creating a new type layer, or creating
a type mask. The two buttons in the second group toggle between horizontal text and vertical text.
To create an ordinary type layer, you would select the type tool, make sure the type layer button is
depressed, then click in your document and begin typing. Alternatively, you can click and drag a
rectangle shape with the type tool to create a column of text that fits the rectangle. This is useful
when you need to create large blocks of text. Before you click in your document, take a moment to
look at the I-beam cursor that appears when you move you mouse into the document area:
Notice
the small horizontal line that intersects the I-beam This line indicates the baseline of the type. It is
useful when you need to align the baseline of your type with another object in your document, or for
aligning type to a guideline.
Now click in your document, type some text, and we'll take a look at
the Type Tool options. You can set your type options via the options
bar before you begin typing, or you can use the options bar to
selectively edit text while you are in type edit mode. You can change
the formatting of individual words or characters by dragging over
them in the preview area to select them, then changing options.
The first two menus in the options

bar allow you to choose the font and style. If you're not sure what
font you want to use, you can highlight the text in the document area,
activate the font menu, and use the arrow keys to browse all your
available fonts. The styles available will be dependent on the font selected.
The next two menus allow you to change the text size and anti-aliasing.
Some common point sizes are available from the font size menu, or you can swipe over the numbers
in the field and type any number. The anti-aliasing options have already been discussed.
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Next up are the alignment options, color picker, text warp and
the palettes button. The alignment options from left to right are: left aligned, centered, and right
aligned. Additional alignment options are available through the paragraph palette which we will discuss
later.
To change the type color, click on the color swatch and choose a new color from the color picker, or
you can pick a color from your document by moving the cursor outside of the color picker window
while it is open. Unlike previous versions, Photoshop 6.0 allows you to select individual characters and
apply multiple colors to text in a single text layer.
The next button is for creating warped text. The palettes button opens the paragraph and character
palettes. We'll discuss warped text and the type tool palettes later.
Lesson 6e: Photoshop 6.0 Type Tool (continued)

While you're in type edit mode, you can hold down the Ctrl/Command key and the cursor will change
to the move tool allowing you to reposition text without leaving type edit mode. You'll also notice when
you're in type editing mode, that the standard Enter/Return key begins a new line.
ou can accept you type and exit type editing mode one of three ways:
Hit the Enter key on the numeric keypad.

Click on any other tool in the toolbox.
Click the checkmark on the options bar.
To exit type editing mode without adding the text you can press the Esc key or click the X on the
options bar.
Once you've placed some text in your document, you will notice a
new layer that contains the text. All type layers have a T in the
thumbnail area of the layers palette. Double-clicking on the T
thumbnail icon will return you to text editing mode with the text
automatically selected for making changes. If you select the type
tool and click on some existing type in the document, it will
automatically activate the type layer and put you in type edit
mode.
A type layer can be moved with the move tool and further
manipulated in free transform mode. Unlike ordinary layers, when you transform a type layer, the text
remains crisp and sharp. When scaling type in free transform mode, remember to hold down
the Shift key while dragging a corner handle to maintain the type proportions. Of course, you can
make your text taller or wider using free transform mode to distort the proportions.
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When a type layer is active, you'll also find some additional options on
the Type submenu of the Layer menu. You can create a work path
from the text, convert the text to a shape, convert between horizontal
and vertical type, change the anti-aliasing, convert line text to
paragraph text and vice-versa, and warp text.
In Photoshop 6, when you want to paint on text or apply filters to it,
the type has to be converted to pixels. This is called rasterizing or
rendering the text. To rasterize text in Photoshop 6, you can right
click (Windows) or Control-click(Mac) on the type layer name in the
layers palette and choose Rasterize Layer from the pop-up menu. You
can also rasterize type by choosing Layer > Rasterize > Type. When
you rasterize type in Photoshop, you lose the type editing and
formatting options and it is no longer scalable. Before rendering a
type layer, it's not a bad idea to make a duplicate of the layer first
and hide the duplicate unrendered copy. This way, if you decide you
need to make changes to the type, you will not have to recreate the type completely from scratch.
Here's a brief exercise that will demonstrate the differences between type layers and rendered type:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Create a new document 400x400 pixels and add some text approximately 72 points in size.
Duplicate the layer twice so you have three copies of the text and move the text so you can
see each copy.
Render one of the layer copies.
Now free transform the rendered layer and scale it to fill the width of your document.
Now free transform the unrendered layer to about the same size. Notice how blurry the
rendered layer is while the type layer remains crisp?
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6.
Now zoom in on the type layer and look closely at one of the curved letters. See how the edge
pixels consist of varying colors? This is how the anti-alias smoothing effect is created.
When you use the type mask tool instead of the type layer tool, the options are the same, but when
you click in your document the document fills with a mask overlay-just as if you were in Quick Mask
mode. As you type, the text is punched out of the mask. When you accept the text, you end up with a
type selection rather than a filled type layer. Once you have created a type selection, it functions just
like any other selection.
When you create vertical type, the type is placed with the characters upright reading from the top
down. The alignment buttons change in the type dialog screen to indicate vertical alignment options. If
you want to create type that can be read by tilting your head sideways, you will need to create
horizontal type and then use the free transform command to rotate the type as needed. Or you can
select the text and choose rotate from the character palette's menu.
Continue on for an overview of the paragraph and character palettes and type warping in Photoshop
6.0.
Lesson 6f: Type Palettes and Text Warping

This will just be a summary of the options available in the character and paragraph palettes for quick
reference.
The Character Palette
Section 1: Font and Style
Section 2: Font Size, Kerning, Leading, Tracking
Section 3: Character Height, Character Width, Baseline, and Color.
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The Character Palette Menu allows you to apply faux bold and faux italics to fonts that do not include
these styles within the typeface. You cannot warp type that has Faux Bold formatting. When vertical
type is selected the rotate command becomes available. The following additional styles are also
offered: all caps, small caps, superscript, subscript, underline, strikethrough, ligatures, and old style.
Factional Widths varies the spacing between characters to make it more readable. In some instancessuch as for small type to be displayed on-screen-you may get better results by disabling this option.
The Paragraph Palette
Section 1: Align and Justify

Align - Right, Center, Left
Justify - Last Line Left, Last Line Centered, Last Line Right
Full Justify
Section 2: Indentation - Left Margin, Right Margin, First Line
Section 3: Spacing Before and After Paragraph
Section 4: Enable/Disable Hyphenation
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The Hyphenation Dialog Box
The Justification Dialog Box
The Warp Text Dialog Box
The Warp Text Dialog box allows you to bend and distort type in a variety of
ways. The style menu allows you to choose from 15 different warp styles. Warp
effects can be applied to the entire type layer whether it is line text or paragraph
text. On paragraph text the warp is applied to the bounding box. Once you
choose a warp style, you can adjust the effects using the other options in the
dialog box.
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The horizontal and vertical radio buttons control the orientation of the warp.
Bend controls the amount and direction of the warp. For instance, an arc effect will become
more pronounced the closer you move the slider to the end of the scale. The left half of the scale
creates a downward arc. The right side of the scale creates an upward arc.
The Horizontal and Vertical distortion sliders allow you to apply perspective to the warp effect.
Now that you know how to create type layers and type masks, let's combine this new knowledge with
what we have learned so far to create some type effects!
Lesson 6g: Type Exercises 1-5

I've kept the instructions brief, but all steps involve tools and commands we've covered in previous
lessons. Post to the forum if you get stuck or need a hint.
Drop Shadow - Manual
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Open a new document and type some text about 72 points.

Duplicate the type layer.
Change the text color on the bottom layer to black.
Move the black text layer several pixels down and to the right.
Render (rasterize) the black text layer.
Rename this layer "shadow."
Apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian with a radius of about 2-5 pixels depending on the type size.
Adjust the opacity of the shadow layer as desired.
If the drop shadow is placed over a multicolored background image, set the blend mode to
multiply for better results.
Of course with Photoshop 5 and up, you can create drop shadows quite easily using layer effects or
layer styles, but it never hurts to know how to do them the old fashioned way!
Outlined Type - Manual

Ctrl/Command click on the layer in the layers palette to make a selection from the text.
Create a new layer below the text layer.
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
Method 1: Apply a stroke: black, 2 pixels, outside.

Method 2: Select > Modify > Expand > 2 pixels and fill with black.
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Outlined Type - Automatic
Photoshop 6: Layer > Layer Style > Stroke

Photoshop 5: Layer > Layer Effects > Outer Glow (Set opacity to 100 and intensity to 600.)
3D Text - Manual
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Open a new document and type some text about 72-100 points.
Duplicate the type layer twice. You should have three identical layers.
Move the bottom-most layer two pixels up and two pixels left and change the type color to
white.
Move the middle layer two pixels down and two pixels right and change the type color to
black.
Fill the background with the same color as the topmost type layer.
Optional: For a softer look, merge the three type layers together and apply a 1-2 pixel
gaussian blur.
Automatic - Use the Bevel & Emboss layer style/effect.

Perspective Shadow
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Change the text color on the bottom layer to black.
Type Ctrl-T/Command-T to enter free transform mode.
Hold the Ctrl/Command key down and drag the top middle handle to the right to skew the
6.
7.
8.
black type layer.

Rasterize the black type layer and lock the layer transparency.
Select the gradient tool and set the options for black to white.
Click once at the baseline of the type, then hold the shift key down and click again at the
9.
tallest point of the shadow layer.

Bump the shadow layer up one pixel.
Motion Text
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Open a new document and type some text about 72 points. Italics work well.
Rasterize the bottom layer.
Filter > Stylize > Wind: Method-Wind, From the Left
Move the Wind layer a few pixels left.
Filter > Blur > Motion Blur: Angle-0, Distance 10-15 pixels.
Adjust the position of the blurred layer again if necessary.
Reduce the opacity of the blurred layer to about 60-80%.
Lesson 6h: Type Exercises 6-10

Glow Text
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Set the text color to black.
Change the color on the lower layer to a bright color.
Rasterize the bottom type layer.
Apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian with a radius of about 3-8 pixels depending on the type size.
Fill the background with black.
Automatic - Use the Outer Glow layer style/effect.

Inner Glow and Cut-Out Text
1.
2.
3.
Create a new document with a white background.

Duplicate the background layer.
Select the Type Mask tool and type some text. In Photoshop 6 and up, you will select the
4.
5.
type tool, then select the type mask button on the options bar. Note that this does notcreate a
new type layer. The type mask tool creates a type selection on the current layer.
With the text selection active press Delete to punch out the text from the top layer.
Duplicate the punched out layer.
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6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Deselect.
Active the bottom punched out layer, lock its transparency, and fill with black.
Unlock the transparency.
Apply a Gaussian Blur about 3-5 pixels depending on the size of your text.
This gives you an inner glow effect.
Shift the blurred layer down and right to emphasize the cutout effect.
If desired, fill the background with a different color.
Automatic Method (Photoshop 6 and up) - Make you text white and apply the Inner Shadow layer
style.
See-through Text
1.
2.
3.
4.
Open a photo or texture and add some text about 72 points.

Set the text color to 50% gray (R120, G120, B120).
Apply the Bevel & Emboss layer style/effect. Adjust the options as desired.
Set the blend mode for the type layer to hard light.
Double Emboss
1.
2.
3.
4.
Open a new document and fill the background with any color.
Add some text of the same color as the background.
Apply the Bevel and Emboss layer style with the pillow emboss option.
Hold the Ctrl/Command key down and click the the thumbnail icon for the type layer to load
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
the type as a selection.

Go to Select > Modify > Expand> 5 pixels.
Create a new layer under the type layer.
Fill the selection with the same color you have been using.
Deselect
In the layers palette, drag the layer effects from the type layer and drop it onto the new layer
you created in step 6.
Lesson 7a: Painting Tools- Intro & Paint Bucket

It's time to get to know Photoshop's painting and erasing tools. While Photoshop isn't a natural media
painting tool like Painter, the painting tools are still an integral part of just about anything you do in
Photoshop. In addition to painting with color, they can be used to make selections, create
transparency, and much more. The tools we'll be discussing in this lesson include the pencil, line,
paintbrush, airbrush, eraser, paint bucket, and gradient tools. We'll also be discussing the Edit > Fill
command and pattern fills. We've got a lot of ground to cover, so let's get started.
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Painting in Photoshop generally involves picking a tool, picking a brush, setting options and painting.
Since picking your tool is the first step, it's important to understand the differences between them.
The Paint Bucket

The Paint Bucket is the simplest of the painting tools. It used to fill areas with solid color or patterns.
The paint bucket tool works much like the magic wand selection tool in that it fills with color based on
color similarity as determined by the tolerance setting you choose in the tool settings. In Photoshop
5.x, the shortcut key for the paint bucket is K. In Photoshop 6, this tool shares a toolbox space with
the gradient tool and the shortcut key was changed to G. Shift-G switches between the paint bucket
and the gradient tool in Photoshop 6.
Take a look at the Paint Bucket options now by double clicking on
its toolbox button, or in Photoshop 6, by selecting the tool. Notice
that the paint bucket has a blending mode menu and opacity
control, just like the layers palette. These allow you to change the
way the paint blends with the pixels you are painting on the same
layer. This is somewhat different from the layer blend modes
because the layer blend modes change how the pixels blend with all underlying layers, and the paint
blend modes change how the pixels blend with existing pixels in the same layer. We'll explore the
blending modes a little later when we get to the practice exercises. I also want to point out that there
are two extra blend modes that are only available with some of the painting tools: behind and clear.
Painting in behind mode gives results similar to what you would get if you painted on a layer
below another layer, but instead your paint is applied to the same layer. Where the existing pixels
are not completely opaque, your new paint will mingle with it; where it is fully transparent, the new
paint will show through; and where it is fully opaque, the new paint will not appear at all. You can
try this by scribbling some paint on a layer, then filling that layer in behind mode with the paint
bucket.
Clear is only available on layers other than the background. It allows you to use the Paint
Bucket or Line tool to erase pixels to transparency.
The tolerance setting in the paint bucket options works just like the tolerance setting of the magic
wand and allows you to control the similarity of the color that is replaced when you click with the Paint
Bucket.
Anti-alias smoothes the edges of the fill color slightly.
The contents menu (Photoshop 5.x) or source menu (Photoshop 6) lets you choose between the
foreground color and a pattern fill. In Photoshop 5.x, the pattern option will be unavailable until you
define a pattern. In Photoshop 6, when pattern is selected, the available patterns will appear as a
menu on the options bar. We'll talk more about pattern fills later.
The Use All Layers checkbox allows you to fill a layer other than the one you are sampling.
The Contiguous option (in Photoshop 5.5 and later only) controls whether the fill is applied to adjacent
areas only. When unchecked, the fill will be applied to all areas in the image that match the tolerance
setting. When checked, it only fills adjacent pixels that match the tolerance setting.
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Fill Command
More than likely, you will find yourself using the
paint bucket very little, so I don't want to spend a
lot of time on it. I tend to use the Edit > Fill
command and the foreground/background fill
shortcut keys more often. With the Fill command
you can choose from the foreground or
background color, a pattern, the active history
state, black, 50% gray, and white. You also have
opacity controls and the same blend mode options.
Continue on to the next page to learn about
Gradient and Pattern Fills.
Lesson 7b: Gradient, Pattern & Line Tools

The Gradient Tool
The Gradient tool allows you to apply graduated color fills that blend from one color to another.
Gradients are not just limited to two-color gradations, you can create custom gradients using several
colors and varying levels of transparency for unlimited variations.
The Gradient tool shortcut is G. In Photoshop 5.x, Shift G toggles the five types of gradient fill types.
In Photoshop 6, the gradient fill type is selected from the option bar and Shift G toggles between the
gradient and paint bucket tools.
There are five types of gradients: Linear, Radial, Angle, Reflected, and Diamond.
The gradient tool options allow you to choose and edit gradients. As
with all the tools, the options can be accessed by double clicking
the toolbox button in Photoshop 5.x, and via the options bar in
Photoshop 6.
The transparency checkbox enables gradients with transparency,
otherwise the transparent areas are filled with the neighboring color.
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Dither adds a slight bit of noise to the gradient to reduce banding when gradients are printed.
Reverse flips the order of colors in the gradient.
The gradient style is selected from the menu on either the options palette or the options bar. In
Photoshop 5.x, the edit button allows you to edit and create new gradients. In Photoshop 6, clicking
on the gradient preview in the options bar brings up the Gradient Editor.
Pattern Fills
You can also use patterns as paint and fills in Photoshop. Patterns are handled a bit differently in
Photoshop version 5 and version 6.
In version 5, you need to define a pattern every time you want to use a different one. Defining a
pattern is simple, just make a selection and choose Edit > Define Pattern. Anytime a pattern is
defined, the tools and commands that required a pattern fill will show that option. When you want to
use a different pattern, just select it and choose the define pattern command again. Note that you can
only define a pattern from a non-feathered rectangular selection.
In Photoshop 6, pattern fills are selected from a menu of patterns in the options bar. To add a new
patterns you just open the image and choose Edit > Define Pattern. You can also define a pattern from
a portion of the image by first making a selection.
As mentioned previously, patterns can but used as fills with the paint bucket and the Edit > Fill
command. You can also paint with patterns using the Pattern Stamp
toolbox location with the rubber stamp (AKA clone) tool.
tool. This tool shares the
The pattern stamp works like a paintbrush, but instead of solid color paint, it paints with the currently
defined pattern. The aligned check box causes your pattern to line up even if you stop one brushstroke
and start a new one. When aligned us unchecked, the starting point of the pattern is reset each time
you make a new stroke.
The Line Tool

The line tool is used to create straight lines and arrows.
In Photoshop 5, the line tool short cut is N and the toolbox location is shared with the Pencil tool. The
line width and arrowhead locations can be adjusted through the options palette in Photoshop 5.x.
When arrowheads are selected, you can modify the arrow shape by clicking the shape button.
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In Photoshop 6, the line tool is shared with the Shapes tool. In the options bar,
you can choose whether to create the line as a shape layer, a path, or a filled
region. Since we haven't discussed shapes or paths yet, you may want to stick to
creating lines as filled regions for these lessons, but feel free to experiment with
shapes and paths on your own. When the line tool is active in the options bar,
you can click the arrow next to the shape buttons to invoke the geometry option
where you can turn arrowheads on or off and adjust the shape and size of the
arrowheads.
Here's an example of the variety of arrowhead shapes you can create by changing the width, length,
and concavity.
All the other painting tools require you to select a brush. Continue on to the next page to explore
brushes and the brushes palette.
Lesson 7c: Brushes and Fade Command

Brushes
In Photoshop 5, the brushes reside in a floating palette. In Photoshop 6, the brushes palette is
attached to the option bar as a drop-down menu. In Photoshop 6.01 only, you can also access the
brushes palette by right-clicking in the document when any painting tool is active or by pressing the
enter key.Photoshop comes with a set of standard brushes with many more brushes available on your
Photoshop CD which you can find by searching for ABR files. The shape, hardness, and spacing of the
round brushes can be modified, and you can also create your own custom brushes from any selection.
You can only adjust spacing on custom brushes. You reset, save and load brushes through the brushes
palette menu.
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We'll do some exercises with custom brushes a little later in this lesson. For now, I'll just introduce you
to some basic brush palette functions. Obviously, you can select a brush by clicking on it in the
palette. When you're painting, though, it can be cumbersome to go to the brushes palette every time
to need to adjust the size or shape of your brush, so there are some keyboard shortcuts that are very
beneficial to learn. The shortcuts changed between versions 5 and 6, so I will explain them separately.
Photoshop 5:
Double clicking on a brush allows you to change the diameter, hardness, spacing, angle, and
roundness. When you make adjustments by double clicking the brush, it changes that brush in your
brushes palette.
If you want to make a new brush without changing an existing brush, choose New Brush from
the palette flyout menu.

To cycle through the brushes in the palette while painting, use the bracket keys [ and ] to
cycle through the brushes in your palette.

Holding the shift key down while pressing the bracket keys will take you to the first or last
brush in the palette.
Photoshop 6:
Clicking on the brush preview in the options bar allows you to change the diameter, hardness,
spacing, angle, and roundness.
When you make adjustments to a brush you can click the preset button
to add it to the
brushes palette. You can also choose New Brush from the palette flyout menu to make a new
custom brush.
To adjust the brush size on-the-fly while painting, use the bracket keys [ and ].
Holding the shift key down while pressing the bracket keys will adjust the hardness of the
brush.
Go ahead an experiment with the brush options. You can return to the default brushes at any time by
choosing reset brushes from the brush palette menu.
Fading Brush Strokes, Fills, and Filters
All the painting tools have the ability to be faded using the
Fade command. In Photoshop 5.x, this command is under
the Filter menu. In Photoshop 6.x, it was moved to the
more logical Edit menu. After applying any paintstroke,
fill, or filter, you can select this command to fade it back
so it blends with the original pixels. You can also use it to
apply a blend mode if you forgot to set the blend mode
before applying paint.
Continue on to learn about the Pencil, Paintbrush, and Airbrush tools.
Lesson 7d: Pencil, Paintbrush & Airbrush Tools
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The Pencil Tool

The pencil tool allows you to apply paint that always has a hard edge. The shortcut key for the pencil
tool is N in Photoshop 5.x. In Photoshop 6, the tool is shared with the Paintbrush and the shortcut key
is B. Shift B toggles between the Paintbrush and Pencil tool.
Notice the brush palette when the pencil tool is active. All the brushes will have hard edges. Only the
brush spacing can be changed while the pencil tool is active.
The pencil tool has an Auto-Erase option that allows you to paint over the foreground color with the
background color and vice-versa. When auto-erase is enabled, if the background color is detected
when you first click the mouse button, you will begin painting with the foreground color; if the
foreground color is detected, you will be painting with the background color. What purpose could this
function possibly be useful for? Beats me! In fact, I must confess that in all the time I've been using
Photoshop, I can't remember ever having used the pencil tool! With that in mind, we won't be
spending any more time discussing this tool, but it's there if you need it.
The Paintbrush Tool

Let's move on to the Paintbrush. This is probably the painting tool you will be using most often. The
shortcut key is B. The Paintbrush tool applies color to your document similar to the way a traditional
paintbrush would apply paint on paper or canvas. We've already discussed blend modes and opacity
settings, but when you look at the paintbrush options you will see a few things we haven't yet
discussed.
Wet edges applies paint that acts more like watercolor paint or
markers. When you paint with a soft brush, the paint is more
translucent in the center of the stroke and darker along the
edges of the stroke. With a hard edge brush at 100% opacity,
the paint still has some translucency, just as markers or
watercolor paints would have. When Wet Edges is not active, a
soft edge brush stroke at 100% opacity will be opaque toward
the center and fade out along the edges. A hard brush at 100%
opacity will be completely opaque, but unlike the pencil tool, the
edges will be smooth and not jaggie.
You'll also notice a fade
option in the options
palette. If you have
located under a pop-out at
Photoshop 6, the fade options are

the right edge of the options palette.
This pop-out is called the

available for any tool that
brush dynamics menu and is

requires a brush selection.
In Photoshop 5.x, you can

you can also fade the size
"step" specified in the fade
tip, so don't be confused
fade the opacity only. In version 6,

and color of brush strokes. Each
options is the equivalent of the brush
into thinking it is a pixel or other
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type of measurement. Hence, the fade-out rate is going to vary with the spacing of your brush. We'll
experiment more with the fade options in some of the exercises coming up.
If you have a pressure-sensitive tablet, you'll want to use your tablet's pressure sensitivity to achieve
fading, but these options are there to allow you to work with fading even if you don't have a tablet.
For those that do have a pressure sensitive tablet, the paintbrush options palette (Version 5.x) and
brush dynamic menu (Version 6.0) are where you would go to make adjustments to the way
Photoshop reacts to stylus pressure.
The Airbrush Tool

The airbrush tool works more like a traditional airbrush or spray paint. Its shortcut key is J. The
airbrush puts paint on a bit lighter than the paintbrush tool, but when you hold your mouse button
down without moving the cursor, the paint builds up just like it would if you were to hold the nozzle
down on a can of spraypaint. Fortunately, with digital spraypaint, we don't have to worry about it
dripping down the front of our document if it gets too thick. :-) Instead of adjusting the opacity for the
airbrush tool, you set the pressure. The higher the pressure is set, the thicker your paint will go on.
The airbrush is especially useful for painting subtle shading and highlights. With a pressure-sensitive
tablet, you can really get exceptional control with the airbrush tool.
A Few Painting Tricks
By default, Photoshop is set to show the painting cursors at the actual brush size. This setting can be
changed through your Preferences (under the Edit menu in Photoshop 6; the File menu in Photoshop 5
and earlier.) In most cases you'll want to leave it set to brush size. You can easily toggle to precise
cursors without going through the preferences dialog by pressing the caps lock key.
Anytime you have a painting tool active, you can press the Alt/Option key to temporarily switch to the
Eyedropper and pick up a new foreground color from anywhere in the document.
You can adjust the pressure of the airbrush tool or the opacity of the other painting tools by pressing
the numeric keys on your keyboard instead of going to options.
While a painting tool is active you can cycle through the blend modes using Shift -(minus) and Shift
(plus). These shortcut keys also cycle through the layer blend modes when non-painting tools are
active. I don't know about you, but I can never remember which blend mode I need by name, so this
shortcut to cycle through them is very handy.
Now that we know how to paint, the next logical step is learning how to remove the paint! That's
where the eraser tools come in.
Lesson 7e: Eraser Tools

In Photoshop 5.0, there was only one eraser tool, but in Photoshop 5.5, two new eraser tools were
added: the background eraser and the magic eraser.
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The Eraser Tool
The eraser tool shortcut is E. The standard eraser tool has four painting modes to choose from:
paintbrush, airbrush, pencil, and block. These modes work just like their painting tool counterparts,
except for the block tool, which as you can probably guess, is a simple square block. The difference is,
instead of painting the foreground color onto your document, the eraser tool paints in transparency...
Unless your layer is a background, in which case, the eraser tool paints with the current background
color.
The eraser tool options are basically the same as the painting tools, with the addition of one new
option: Erase to history. When you erase to history, it works just like the history brush. Instead of
painting in transparency or the background color, you are painting from the active history state in the
history palette. You can temporarily switch to Erase to History by holding the Alt/Option key down
while the erase tool is active.
The Magic Eraser
The Magic Eraser works just like the magic wand, but instead of making a selection, it immediately
converts the pixels to transparent. It's also very similar to using the paint bucket in clear mode. The
areas to be erased are controlled by adjusting the tolerance and contiguous options. Clicking once
erases all the the pixels that fall within the tolerance range. If the magic eraser is used on a
background layer, the background is automatically promoted to a layer.
This tool is best for when you have a background that is fairly solid in color. It just takes one click with
the magic eraser and your background is gone. In general, though, you'll need to experiment with the
tolerance settings until you get better at being able to eyeball the correct tolerance level.
The Background Eraser
The background eraser also erases to transparency, but instead of using only the tolerance range, it
continuously samples the background colors in your document as you erase. It's useful for
backgrounds that have a range of colors in the background, but where the background colors are still
distinct from the foreground object you want to isolate. It works best with a fairly large brush.
To use it you would position the crosshair over the color you want to be erased, and use a series of
single clicks to eat away at the background, or slowly drag along the edges of the object you're trying
to isolate.
The most important thing to remember with this tool is to be very careful to keep the crosshairs away
from the object you want to keep. When using this tool, you may notice some bits of the foreground
object becoming slightly transparent along the edges. You needn't be terribly concerned with this,
because you can always paint those bits back in using the Erase to History option or the History Brush.
The background eraser is a great tool for quickly isolating an object, but it does have a tendency to
leave stray translucent pixels in the background. You'll almost always want to drop a solid white
background layer behind the object and do some cleanup after using this tool.
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Now that you've been introduced to these tools, it's time to start using them. Over the next several
pages, you will work through 10 exercises utilizing each of the painting tools combined with many
other features we've learned so far. Feel free to save your work and post your results to
the interactive classroom. Before you begin, you'll need to download and unzip this file which contains
all the files you will need for these exercises. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to
extract the zip file.)
Lesson 7 - Exercise 1: Coloring with the Paint Bucket

Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 7.
(Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)
Exercise 1 - Dolphins
Open the image lesson1e7.psd. We're going to color this image and apply several layer effects to
produce the image shown here.
The first thing we need to do is promote the background to a layer so we can keep the lines separate
from the color fills. Double-click the background and name it "lines" and set the blend mode to
multiply. Setting the blend mode to multiply will allow the layers below to show through the white
areas on the lines layer. By using the multiply blend mode, we don't have to worry about removing the
white areas.
Add another layer and drop it behind the lines layer. Name this layer "Sea."
Choose the paint bucket tool and set the options to "Use all Layers." This will allow us to sample from
the lines layer, but paint onto the Sea layer. Make sure the Contiguous button is checked and that the
Sea layer is the active painting layer.
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Show the Swatches palette and begin filling the background areas of the dolphin image with various
shades of blue-green.
Remember you can press the Alt/Option key to pick up colors from your document.
Once the Sea layer has been filled in, create another new layer, name it dolphins, and drop it below
the lines layer.
Fill each section of the dolphins with various shades of gray. You may need to zoom in close to catch
some of the smaller areas.
When you finish filling in the dolphins, switch to the pencil tool and use the pencil tools and the
eyedropper toggle to fill in any tiny areas that may have been missed.
Now lets give the picture some dimension by applying layer effects. I used different amounts of Inner
Bevel on each layer. Experiment with the layer effects until you come up with something you like.
Next we're going to add a watery texture to the Sea layer.
In Photoshop 6, use the Pattern Overlay layer style and set the Pattern to "Satin" and the blend mode
to Soft Light. You might want to drop the opacity down and scale the pattern smaller.
To add the watery texture in Photoshop 5, you will need to use the water texture included in the zip
file for this lesson. Insert a layer above the Sea layer. Open the water texture. Define it as a pattern
and use the paint bucket to fill the layer with the pattern. Remember to uncheck use all layers and set
the contents to pattern. Now change the blend mode of the layer to hard light and drop opacity down
to about 50%. Your texture may not look exactly like my example because I used the pattern layer
effect in Photoshop 6. If you've got a better water texture, feel free to use it instead.
I've included the layered PSD file of my finished project in the zip file. You can open this file and
examine it if you get stuck. The extra layer for the Photoshop 5 instructions are included in the file as
a hidden layer.
Lesson 7 - Exercise 2: Straight Lines

Exercise 2 - Straight lines
With the painting tools you can constrain your strokes to straight lines.
To make connected straight lines lines click once, then move the cursor, hold the shift key down, and
click again. If you keep the shift key held down after the second click, you can continue clicking to
make connected straight lines.
85
To make perfectly horizontal or vertical lines, click the mouse
cursor, then before moving the cursor, hold the shift key down
while keeping the mouse button pressed. While the shift key is
down, you can drag the mouse either left or right, up or down,
and it will stick in a straight line until you let up on the shift key.
This takes some practice.
Try to duplicate the image shown here by practicing these key
combinations. Don't forget you can use the grids and guides to aid
with alignment. This file is named lesson7e2.gif in your zip file.
Lesson 7 - Exercise 3 - Painted Flower

Exercise 3 - Painted Flower
Open the lesson7e3.jpg flower image for exercise 3.
Promote the background to a layer named "flower picture."
In Photoshop 5, make sure the background color is set to white and choose Layer > New >
Background. In Photoshop 6, choose Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. Set the color to white and
then drop this layer to the bottom of the layers palette.
Use the eyedropper to pick up a purple color from the petals near the center of the flowers.
Add a new layer named petal outlines, and trace around the petals using the Wet Paint option of the
paint brush tool.
Drop the opacity down on the flower picture layer if desired.
Create another new layer named petal paint and start painting in the petal color. Experiment with both
the airbrush and the paintbrush. Also experiment with the fade options to paint in some of the darker
veins of color. Don't worry about going outside the lines. I will show you how to fix that next.
If you've gone outside the lines on the petals, use the magic want to select the area outside of the
outlines on the petal outline layer. Make sure the magic want is NOT set to use all layers. Once you
have your selection, switch back to the petal paint layer and press delete/backspace to crop off the
paint outside of the lines.
Next you can hide your two petal layers and add a new layer for the flower center. First pick a brown
color and use a large soft brush with Wet Edges OFF to lay down a base for the flower center.
86
On yet another layer, you can use a custom brush to paint the yellow pollen onto the flower center.
The brush I used was a textured brush from the default brushes.
At this point you may find it helpful to move the original flower photo above your painting layer and
drop the opacity way back so you can just barely see it. Be sure to switch back to your pollen layer
before painting again if you do!
Start painting with a brownish yellow using randomly placed clicks. Gradually increase the intensity of
the yellow and pile it on for more depth.
When you've finished you can hide the original flower photo, and drop the petal paint layer below the
petal outline layer to see the result.
If necessary, make a selection based on the petal outline layer, then switch to the petal paint layer and
fill it more. Make the center part of the petals darker and add more veining.
On the brown flower center layer, use a textured brush with the eraser tool to texture the edge of the
flower center.
Here's my very crude, 10-minute example:
I've deliberately left the steps a bit vague here to encourage your own experimentation. We're not
going for a photographic replica here. The point is to develop your skills with a variety of Photoshop's
painting tools. Keep working on it and practicing with this photo or some of your own until you've got
something you're comfortable posting in the classroom forum.
Lesson 7 - Exercise 4: Erase to History

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Exercise 4 - Erase to History
In this exercise, we're going to use the erase to history option to paint selective color back into a
photo that has been desaturated. Obviously, this technique will only work with a photo that started out
in color. Our next exercise will involve adding color to a grayscale photo.
First you want to open the file and check the history palette to see the an initial snapshot has been
created. If you don't have a snapshot create one now.
Next go to Image > Adjust > Desaturate. This removes color without changing the color mode of the
image.
Select the eraser tool and check the erase to history box in options.
Select a brush and begin painting from the center of the middle strawberry.
As you get to edges, use the keyboard shortcuts you learned for varying the brush size and hardness.
See if you can paint in the strawberry's color without ever moving your mouse to the brushes palette.
If you accidentally paint color where you don't want it... don't panic! Just switch to the paintbrush
tool, set the paint color to any shade of gray and set the paint mode to Saturation. When you paint
with gray in saturation mode, it desaturates the image.
Are there easier ways of doing this exercise? Yes, using layers would have been easier, but the beauty
of Photoshop is that you have so many options and you never know when one method will offer an
advantage over another.
88
Lesson 8a: Retouching Tools Intro

All of us strive to capture the perfect picture every time, but we all know that perfect image can be a
rare and elusive thing. That's where the magic of Photoshop's retouching tools comes in. The
retouching tools include Blur, Sharpen, Smudge, Dodge, Burn, Sponge, Rubber Stamp, and the History
Brush. While all of these tools have value, the two most important retouching tools are the rubber
stamp and the history brush, so we'll be spending the most time discussing those.
At this point in the course, the Photoshop 5.x users should have a good grasp on how to access the
options palette, and the Photoshop 6 users should be familiar with the options bar. For the remaining
portion of the course, when I say "options" Photoshop 5.x users should know to double click the tool
button to access the options palette, and Photoshop 6 users look to the options bar. If a tool is not
behaving as you think it should, you can reset the tool to default options from the options palette
menu in Photoshop 5.x or by double clicking the far left icon on the options bar in Photoshop 6.0.
All of the retouching tools use the brushes palette, and many of them have opacity or pressure
controls, and blend mode options. Because we've discussed these options in previous lessons, I will
not be repeating those explanations again. You may either review those lessons or consult your
Photoshop User Guide if you need a refresher. I will only be discussing any new options within these
tools.
The "Use all layers" option has also been discussed, but it deserves repeating here because it is so
important to the retouching process. When use all layers is enabled, it allows you to sample from one
layer, while painting your corrections onto another layer. If you use a new empty layer to paint on your
corrections, you never have to worry about making a mistake, because you can just go back and erase
from the layer containing your corrections.
Photoshop's Snapshot features is also extremely valuable in the retouching process. Always make a
snapshot before you begin your corrections and after... there's nothing more satisfying than being able
to flip back and forth between the before and after results to see what you've accomplished. You'll also
want to get in the habit of taking snapshots periodically in the editing process so you can return to a
previous state if things start going in the wrong direction. Remember, however, that snapshots do not
get saved with your image. Once you close the image, any snapshots are deleted. If you want to save
a snapshot permanently, you'll have to create a new document from it and save it under a different file
name.
Here's a tip you'll use often when working with the retouching tools: the New View command. This
command is located under the View menu and it allows you see the same image with multiple zoom
levels on screen at the same time. When making image corrections it is always best to check your
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image at 100% magnification, but you will also want to get in close as you work. Rather than
constantly switching zoom levels, simply choose View > New View and another window will appear.
Zoom one window in on the area where you're working, put the other one to 100% magnification, and
position the windows so you can see them both. And don't forget the spacebar shortcut for quickly
switching to the hand tool temporarily as you work in a zoomed view.
With that out of the way, let's get on to the tools...
Lesson 8b: Blur, Sharpen, and Smudge Tools

We'll start with the blur, sharpen and smudge tools. With these tools, the name
pretty much says it all. They don't require that much explanation, but a few
tips are always helpful!
The keyboard shortcut is R and you can toggle between the three tools using Shift R.
Blur - blurs the area where you paint.

Sharpen - increases contrast in the areas where you paint.
Smudge - blends the pixels where you paint simulating the action of dragging a finger through
wet paint.
Each of these tools has a mode option and a pressure setting. The pressure setting determines how
strong the effect is applied. With the sharpen tool especially, you will want to keep the pressure
setting very low. Too much sharpening can have some really disastrous results. If you need to see it to
believe it, just crank that pressure up to 100 and make a couple swipes across any image.
I think you'll find you will not use the sharpen tool very often at all. The Unsharp Mask filter is much
better at overall sharpening. The sharpen tool is useful primarily for popping out highlights on shiny
objects, or maybe to give an important object a little extra "pop" after you've resampled an image.
Remember to use it sparingly, though, and always create a snapshot first because it's so easy to
overdo it.
The blur tool is useful for removing small facial blemishes and smoothing out wrinkles. It's easy to get
a bit carried away with the blur tool when working on a face. Things will be looking great as you start,
but if you overdo it, your image will begin to have an obvious retouched appearance if you're not
careful. One way to avoid overdoing it is by using the lighten and darken blend modes with the blur
tool. For instance, if you want to tone down freckles or diminish a pimple, you would use the blur tool
in the lighten mode. In lighten mode, only darker pixels are blended and it will tone down freckles and
blemishes without completely removing them. By the way, once you blur pixels with the blur tool,
those pixels are permanently altered and you can't bring them back into focus again with the sharpen
tool.
The smudge tool is grouped with the retouching tools, but it's actually used more often in painting. For
retouching purposes is can be use to quickly rub out a minor blemish, touch up the shine on
someone's lip stick, and so on. It can also be useful for blending out the jaggies that can sometimes
90
occur when sizing up an image. This is another tool you want to be careful not to overdo and be sure
to keep the pressure setting low. The smudge tool has a finger painting option that applies a dab of
the foreground paint color each time you click.
Lesson 8c: Dodge, Burn, and Sponge Tools

Next we have the tools with odd names: dodge, burn, and sponge. These tools get their names from
traditional photography where, in the darkroom, light could be blocked out
(dodged) in order to make portions of an image lighter, or light could be passed
through a small concentrated hole to darken (burn) an area.
These tools are known as the toning tools and that should help you remember the keyboard shortcut
of O. As usual, you can toggle between the three by pressing Shift-O.
Dodge - Lightens pixels where you paint.

Burn - Darkens pixels where you paint.
Sponge - Saturates or desaturates the pixels where you paint.
The dodge and burn tools work best on grayscale images. On color image the dodge tool will wash out
color and details, the burn tool will just turn the area black or sunburned-looking. In a grayscale
image, these tools are used to lighten shadows or overexposed areas and to darken underexposed
areas. They have a unique option for "range" with choices of highlights, midtones, and shadows.
When set to highlights, only the lightest areas are affected.

When set to shadows, only the darkest areas are affected.
When set to midtones, only the middle tones are affected.
They also have an exposure option which controls how intense the effect is. Generally you want to use
both of these tools with a fairly low exposure. You will probably rarely bring it over 25%.
In grayscale images, one example where the dodge tool is useful would be for removing dark shadows
from under a person's eyes. An example where the burn tool would be useful would be to reduce the
shine on a persons face from light reflecting off it. In addition to working with grayscale images, dodge
and burn can also be useful for adding highlights and shadows on cartoon-style drawings and artwork.
The sponge tool allows you to adjust the color saturation where you paint. It has two modes:
desaturate and saturate. The pressure option controls how strong the effect is applied.
Desaturate mode dulls the colors, turning them gray.

Saturate mode intensifies the color, making them brighter.
If you have an image that was converted from CMYK mode to RGB mode, you will generally find the
colors are somewhat dull and washed out. You can use the sponge tool in saturate mode to brighten
them up. Conversely, when you're working on an image in RGB mode that is eventually going to be
converted to CMYK, you can watch for out-of-gamut colors and use the sponge tool in desaturate
mode to bring those colors back into the CMYK gamut. In desaturate mode, the sponge tool is also
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useful for toning down colors in the background of an image when you want to make a foreground
object stand out, or for giving a color photo a vintage, colorized appearance.
Lesson 8d: Clone Stamp Tool, History & Art History Brushes
In our last lesson we had an introduction to the pattern stamp tool. This tool shares the toolbox space
with the clone stamp tool which is probably the most often used of the
retouching tools. The stamp tools share the keyboard
shortcut S and Shift-S toggles between the two.
Options include the paint mode, opacity, aligned option, and use all layers. Ordinarily you'll use the
clone stamp with the aligned option checked. When it's unchecked, your cloning is reset to the source
point each time you release and click again with the mouse.
Don't overlook the blend mode options. The lighten and darken blend modes can be extremely
valuable in working with the clone stamp to avoid that obvious retouched appearance. Adjusting
opacity can help, too.
To use the clone stamp you must first define the clone source. To set the clone source, you click in
your image while holding the Alt/Option key. Your cursor will change to the stamp tool and when you
click, the source is set. Next move your cursor to the area where you want to copy the clone source.
As you click and drag you will see a crosshair that moves along with the brush cursor, indicating the
center of the clone source. You can even clone from one image to another by setting the clone source
in one image, then activating the destination image, and dragging the brush cursor. If you arrange
each window so you can see the source and destination, it will be easier to work this way.
When using the clone stamp tool, you want to take care to align your source and destination brush
carefully. It helps to find a horizon line of some sort and make sure the brush edges is aligned with it
when you set the source point and when you make that initial click. As long as you have those first
two clicks aligned, you know they will remain aligned until you reset the source point. You'll have a
chance to practice this with many of the exercises coming up.
We've already worked with the history brush a little bit in the previous
lesson and I don't believe it requires much more explanation here. The
History brush shares the toolbox space with the Art History brush. The
shortcut is Y and Shift Y toggles the two.
Remember to create snapshots often and you'll always be able to paint back portions of an image from
a previous state using the History Brush. Snapshots aren't the only thing you can use a the source for
the history brush, however. Any item listed in the history palette can also be used to paint from. So,
for example, if you applied a filter but forgot to create a snapshot first, and you want to bring back the
unfiltered state of the image in selected areas, set the source to the point in the history palette just
before you applied the filter and begin painting. The opacity and mode options let you refine your
techniques and create interesting effects as well. The history brush is one of the most revolutionary
new tools to come to Photoshop. Learn it. Use it.
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Exercise- Curves and Sponge Tool
Roll your mouse over this image to see the original untouched photo.
In this image the boy on the right looks like his momma used cheap detergent because his jacket is
dull and washed out. In fact, the entire image looks a little washed out to me, so let's first take a
detour into the curves dialog box and darken up the midtones a bit. (I know we haven't reviewed
curves yet, so for now, just follow my instructions and don't worry about why you're doing it. It will
help you get comfortable in the dialog box without the stress of learning how it works just yet. We'll
discuss curves in more detail in a future lesson.)
Go to Image > Adjust > Curves and grab the middle point of the diagonal line and drag it slightly
down and to the right. Just enough to give the line a slight curve.
This darkens the midtones while preserving the full tonal range of the image.
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Now I want to darken up some of the darker tones too, so click on the lower left section of the curve
and move it down ever so slightly. Just enough to give the curve a bit more of a J shape.
See my screen shot to see how your curve should look.
When you get the curve adjusted, click ok. Already it is a big improvement. But kids clothes should be
bright and colorful, so let's use the sponge tool to brighten up the jacket a bit.
Set the sponge tool to saturate and pressure of 40%.
Paint over the jacket of the boy on the right. Be sure to catch the yellow sleeve that's peeking out
from behind the ear of the other boy.
You can also pop over to the other boy and zap the colorful parts of his clothes with the sponge tool
too. Denim is supposed to be faded so we can leave that area alone.
Now take a snapshot and use the history palette to toggle the before and after snapshots back and
forth. What a difference... You're on the way to becoming a master retoucher!

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1

Lesson 1a: Menu Bar

The Menu Bar

Lesson 1b: Status Bar

To the left of the magnification display on the status bar, you

Lesson 1c: The Toolbox

An arrow indicates a flyout of hidden tools.

Lesson 1d: Palettes

Notes for Version 6.0

Color Palette Partially Collapsed

Notes for Mac Users 6

Enter or Return = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only)

Double click tool button = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only)

F5 = Show/Hide Brushes Palette

F6 = Show/Hide Color Palette

F7 = Show/Hide Layers Palette

F8 = Show/Hide Info Palette

F9 = Show/Hide Actions Palette

Tab = Show/Hide Toolbar and all Palettes

Notes for Version 6.0

Docking two palettes

Two palettes that have been docked

Also in Photoshop 6.0, you have a palette well in the

File > Open

Screen Mode and Display:

F = toggles screen modes

Enter or Return = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only)

F8 = Show/Hide Info Palette

D = resets the foreground color to black and background color to white.

Lesson 2a: Navigator Palette and Hand Tool

Lesson 2b: New View and Duplicate

Lesson 2c: Image Size and Resolution

Lesson 2d: Image Size Dialog Box

Notes for Version 6.0

pixels, it results in a jagged appearance.

Lesson 2e: Canvas Size

Lesson 2f: Crop Tool

Notes for Version 6.0

Notes for Version 6.0

Notes for Version 6.0

Lesson 2f Exercise: Crop Tool Practice

Changing Shape, Increasing Canvas Size & Adding Borders

Rotating with the Crop Tool

Lesson 2g: History Palette

all history states and snapshots.

come after it.

Lesson 2h: Saving Images

Save a Copy command

Lesson 2: Homework Assignment

Lesson 3a: Color Primer

Lesson 3b: The Color Picker

Notes for Version 5.5 and 6.0

Lesson 3c: Color & Swatches Palettes

Notes for Version 6.0

Left click selects a foreground color

Lesson 3d: Custom Swatch Exercise

Notes for Version 6.0

Lesson 3e: Eyedropper & Info Palette

the eyedropper and crosshair icons

Another thing to notice about

the Info palette is that it gives you

Lesson 3: Review and Homework

Lesson 4a: Selection Tools

active adds to the selection.