Beginners' Guide to Adobe Photoshop
Introduction to Photoshop
Click File > New, and create a new image of any size you desire.
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1 – Setting Adobe Photoshop's Undo option
Press Ctrl+K to bring up the Preferences window. (In Adobe Photoshop 5.0, you'll need to click on the Settings tab, on the File menu.)
Change your "Redo Key" to Ctrl+Shift+Z. This enables you to press Ctrl+Z while working to undo your last actions. Remember this.
Change your "Redo Key" to Ctrl+Shift+Z. This enables you to press Ctrl+Z while working to undo your last actions. Remember this.
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2 – Using Adobe Photoshop's Layers window
The Layers window shows the various layers that your image is made up of.
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[/URL][/URL][/URL]To make a new layer, click the New Layer button, as shown by the red arrow.
[/URL][/URL][/URL]To make a new layer, click the New Layer button, as shown by the red arrow.
To work on a different layer, click on that layer. The eyeball will apear next to that layer.
You can drag layers up and down the list.
Remember – create a new layer for each part of your image. This allows you to go back and edit the layers individually. Every Adobe Photoshop novice at some time makes a masterpiece, only to find out that they did it all on one layer, and now they can't remove those pink clouds they put on it.
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3 – Learning about Selection
One of the most important concepts in Adobe Photoshop is Selection.
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Use this tool on your image to select an area of the image. This lets Photoshop know that that's the area you want to work on.
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4 – Adding to a Selection and making a square
To add to a selection, hold Shift before dragging.
To make the selection exactly square, start dragging, then hold Shift.
You can press Ctrl+D to "deselect" and remove the selection at any time.
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5 – Elliptical Selections and subtracting Selections
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To move the selection, just click inside it and drag.
Holding Alt while selecting subtracts that area from the selection. I've done that with the Ellipse Selection Tool.
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6 – A Selection exercise
If you're following this tutorial in Adobe Photoshop, see if you can make these shapes.
Other relevant Adobe Photoshop tools
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[URL="http://www.mdmn.net/up/c0ac534e39.gif"][URL="http://www.mdmn.net/up/c0ac534e39.gif"][URL="http://www.mdmn.net/up/c0ac534e39.gif"][URL="http://www.mdmn.net/up/c0ac534e39.gif"][URL="http://www.mdmn.net/up/c0ac534e39.gif"][URL="http://www.mdmn.net/up/c0ac534e39.gif"][URL="http://www.mdmn.net/up/c0ac534e39.gif"][URL="http://www.mdmn.net/up/c0ac534e39.gif"][URL="http://www.mdmn.net/up/c0ac534e39.gif"][URL="http://www.mdmn.net/up/c0ac534e39.gif"][URL="http://www.mdmn.net/up/c0ac534e39.gif"][URL="http://www.mdmn.net/up/c0ac534e39.gif"][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]Magic Wand – Summons elves.
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7 – Choosing a colour
Now that you know how to select an area in Adobe Photoshop, we can look at some tools that can do something with that area.
Before we get started on colouring your selection, you'll need to pick a colour.
This part of the Toolbox is where you select your colours.
This part of the Toolbox is where you select your colours.
The top square is the foreground colour. If you use a brush or paint bucket, it will apply this colour.
The bottom square is the background colour. It has various purposes, but it's also a good place to store a second colour that you're using.
Click on either square to change its colour.
Click the arrow to swap the two colours.
Click the little squares to reset the colours to black and white.
Click the arrow to swap the two colours.
Click the little squares to reset the colours to black and white.