The popularity of Photoshop among professional designers easily makes it the digital imaging industry standard. The idea that it is, in essence, a brand name that has crossed grammatical barriers makes it a true cultural phenomenon. However, don't let all this grandeur get in your way if you are an amateur photographers. Photoshop is a powerful tool for anyone who simply wants to make their personal photo collection look better.
Opening Photos With Photoshop Now that you're getting comfortable with what's on the screen, it's time to learn how to get your photo in there so you can start editing! If your photos are in digital format already (i.e. taken with a digital camera), consult the camera's documentation to learn how to transfer them to your computer. If you have photo prints, you can still edit them with Photoshop! Use a scanner to move the photos onto your desktop. Once the photos are on your computer, group them in a folder. To make it easy, call the folder something simple like "Original Photos." Then copy the folder's contents into a new folder. You may want to call this "Edited Photos." Making this duplicate set of photos to work with means that if you make a mistake at any point in the editing process, you'll always have an original copy of your photo to go back to. Now start Photoshop by double-clicking on the program. Go to the File menu and select that you want to open an image. Navigate to your "Edited Photos" folder (or to whatever you called it) and choose a photo. Now you're ready to begin!
Adjust Levels in Your Photos It's always a good idea to check a photo's levels before you do any other editing. When photos are backlit, lit poorly, or overexposed, the colors may not look quite right. Sometimes this is very obvious, but other times it's hard to tell, so always check your photo's levels. This will help you make the colors in your photos look their best. With your image open in Photoshop, find and click Edit in the menu bar. Point to Adjustments > in the drop-down menu and leave the cursor there for a second. In the menu that pops up (usually to the right), click on Auto Levels.
After adjusting the levels you should see a change in the appearance of your photo. It's okay if you don't see a noticeable difference. If there is no change it simply means that your photo looked good right from the start. After you have adjusted the levels save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows. As you work with Photoshop you will find there are keyboard shortcuts that you can use for speed up your work; the keyboard shortcut for Auto Levels is Shift + Apple + L on a Mac or CTRL + L on a PC.
Reduce Red Eye in Your Photos Everyone has fallen victim to the curse of Red Eye in our photos. Red eye has ruined more photos than silly expressions, closed eyes, and blurred photos combined. With Photoshop getting rid of red eye is a snap. With your image open in Photoshop you will want to make sure your Layers Palette is visible. Usually you can find the Layers Palette in the lower right hand corner of the window when you open Photoshop. If you do not see the Layers Palette, simply click on the Windows option in the menu bar, scroll to Layers, and make sure Layers has a check mark next to it. If it doesn't, click it once and the Layers palette will appear. In the Layers palette you will find the adjustment layer button. You can find this button at the bottom of the window. It has a half-black, half-white circle and when you move your mouse over it should have a pop-up box that says "Create new fill or adjustment layer". To activate it, click on the adjustment layer button. A menu should come up, select Channel Mixer. A window with the header Channel Mixer should open. To fix the red eye you will want to set the Red slider to 0%, and the Blue and Green sliders to 50%. Click OK. Don't be alarmed if the people in the photos look like bluish-gray-skinned phantoms. Don't worry, you haven't messed anything up, they're supposed to! You will soon fix this so they look like their regular selves again. At the bottom of the toolbar set the foreground color to black. In the toolbar, click on the brush tool. If the red eyes are too difficult to see because of their size you can go to the toolbar and select the zoom tool (magnifying glass with a +). Clicking on the eyes with your mouse will zoom in on them. When you have zoomed in to where you feel you can work on the eyes you will need to select the brush tool again. Return to the Layers palette. You should see a Background layer and a layer called Channel Mixer 1. Make sure the layer Channel Mixer 1 is selected by clicking it once. Use the brush tool to paint the parts of the eyes that looked red. They should turn red again. At the top of your screen click on the Image menu. Just like we did earlier you will want to move your mouse over Adjustments in the drop down menu. Click Invert in the sub-menu that comes up on the right. Tada we fixed the red eye! After all that hard work you definitely want to save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows. You may still see a red ring around the newly-fixed eyes; don't worry, we can fix that too. You first want to make sure the Channel Mixer 1 layer is selected (click it once). In the main toolbar, make sure the foreground color is set to white. Since it was set to black a second ago, you will have to change it. Again, using the the paintbrush tool from the toolbar, carefully paint the red ring. As you paint you should see the color change to the correct eye color. At the top of the screen, in the menu bar, click Layer. Click on Flatten Image at the bottom of the menu. Save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows. - 16732
Opening Photos With Photoshop Now that you're getting comfortable with what's on the screen, it's time to learn how to get your photo in there so you can start editing! If your photos are in digital format already (i.e. taken with a digital camera), consult the camera's documentation to learn how to transfer them to your computer. If you have photo prints, you can still edit them with Photoshop! Use a scanner to move the photos onto your desktop. Once the photos are on your computer, group them in a folder. To make it easy, call the folder something simple like "Original Photos." Then copy the folder's contents into a new folder. You may want to call this "Edited Photos." Making this duplicate set of photos to work with means that if you make a mistake at any point in the editing process, you'll always have an original copy of your photo to go back to. Now start Photoshop by double-clicking on the program. Go to the File menu and select that you want to open an image. Navigate to your "Edited Photos" folder (or to whatever you called it) and choose a photo. Now you're ready to begin!
Adjust Levels in Your Photos It's always a good idea to check a photo's levels before you do any other editing. When photos are backlit, lit poorly, or overexposed, the colors may not look quite right. Sometimes this is very obvious, but other times it's hard to tell, so always check your photo's levels. This will help you make the colors in your photos look their best. With your image open in Photoshop, find and click Edit in the menu bar. Point to Adjustments > in the drop-down menu and leave the cursor there for a second. In the menu that pops up (usually to the right), click on Auto Levels.
After adjusting the levels you should see a change in the appearance of your photo. It's okay if you don't see a noticeable difference. If there is no change it simply means that your photo looked good right from the start. After you have adjusted the levels save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows. As you work with Photoshop you will find there are keyboard shortcuts that you can use for speed up your work; the keyboard shortcut for Auto Levels is Shift + Apple + L on a Mac or CTRL + L on a PC.
Reduce Red Eye in Your Photos Everyone has fallen victim to the curse of Red Eye in our photos. Red eye has ruined more photos than silly expressions, closed eyes, and blurred photos combined. With Photoshop getting rid of red eye is a snap. With your image open in Photoshop you will want to make sure your Layers Palette is visible. Usually you can find the Layers Palette in the lower right hand corner of the window when you open Photoshop. If you do not see the Layers Palette, simply click on the Windows option in the menu bar, scroll to Layers, and make sure Layers has a check mark next to it. If it doesn't, click it once and the Layers palette will appear. In the Layers palette you will find the adjustment layer button. You can find this button at the bottom of the window. It has a half-black, half-white circle and when you move your mouse over it should have a pop-up box that says "Create new fill or adjustment layer". To activate it, click on the adjustment layer button. A menu should come up, select Channel Mixer. A window with the header Channel Mixer should open. To fix the red eye you will want to set the Red slider to 0%, and the Blue and Green sliders to 50%. Click OK. Don't be alarmed if the people in the photos look like bluish-gray-skinned phantoms. Don't worry, you haven't messed anything up, they're supposed to! You will soon fix this so they look like their regular selves again. At the bottom of the toolbar set the foreground color to black. In the toolbar, click on the brush tool. If the red eyes are too difficult to see because of their size you can go to the toolbar and select the zoom tool (magnifying glass with a +). Clicking on the eyes with your mouse will zoom in on them. When you have zoomed in to where you feel you can work on the eyes you will need to select the brush tool again. Return to the Layers palette. You should see a Background layer and a layer called Channel Mixer 1. Make sure the layer Channel Mixer 1 is selected by clicking it once. Use the brush tool to paint the parts of the eyes that looked red. They should turn red again. At the top of your screen click on the Image menu. Just like we did earlier you will want to move your mouse over Adjustments in the drop down menu. Click Invert in the sub-menu that comes up on the right. Tada we fixed the red eye! After all that hard work you definitely want to save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows. You may still see a red ring around the newly-fixed eyes; don't worry, we can fix that too. You first want to make sure the Channel Mixer 1 layer is selected (click it once). In the main toolbar, make sure the foreground color is set to white. Since it was set to black a second ago, you will have to change it. Again, using the the paintbrush tool from the toolbar, carefully paint the red ring. As you paint you should see the color change to the correct eye color. At the top of the screen, in the menu bar, click Layer. Click on Flatten Image at the bottom of the menu. Save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows. - 16732
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