[Visual] Introduction to Photoshop CS4 (Tutorials in progress.)

My laptop is currently broken, its going to be a little bit.
Hello everyone, and Welcome to my beginners guide to Adobe Photoshop CS4. The is my first time writing a tutorial so please bear with me, and please make suggestions to help me improve the tutorials. This is an RMRK exclusive, just because I really like you guys. I will be starting off slow, like very slow. Then working into more advanced subjects.


Getting Started

In this section, I will explain some very simple terms and concepts, that will acquaint you with the world of Photoshop.

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Adobe Photoshop CS4: is a program that allows you to create and modify digital images CS stands for "Creative Suite."


Digital Image: a Picture in electronic form.

Pixel: a very small square that represents a color, or shade. Pixels within an image can be added, deleted, or modified.

Type: this is the term Photoshop uses for text. You can create and modify it with Photoshop.


Splash Screen : a window that contains information about software, Photoshop uses a splash screen, every time it opens.

How to open Photoshop

This section is for those who are not very computer savvy, and need a little help figuring out how to open the Photoshop program.

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How to open Photoshop using windows or Macintosh

*tip*There may be shortcuts on your desktop, or immediately after your start button, if so, you may use them. Otherwise, this is the most reliable route to find your Photoshop program.

How to open with Windows

• Click Start
• Point to All Programs
• Point to Adobe Photoshop CS4
• Click Adobe Photoshop CS4

How to open with Mac

• Double click the hard drive icon
• Double click the Applications folder
• Double click the Adobe Photoshop CS4 folder
• Double click the Adobe Photoshop CS4 icon

Locating parts of Photoshop

I'm taking Grafikal's advice here, and skipping past the opening and saving portion of this tutorial... for now. If you are computer illiterate, please find other tutorials that will help you in that area, Or just ask. These terms go a little deeper into Photoshop. I will post an image explained where the following things are in a while.

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Preferences:options you can set based on your work habits.

Adobe Bridge: a program that serves as sort of a central hub for the entire Adobe:CS I will not be going to much into Adobe Bridge in these tutorials, but perhaps a little at a later date.

Workspace: Area within the photoshop program. This includes everything you see.

Tools panel: Contains tools associated with frequently used photoshop commands.

Options bar: Located directly under the application bar, it displays the current setting for each tool.

Panel: These are also referred to as palettes. they are small windows used to verify settings, and modify images.

Rulers: Used to help you measure and position objects within your workspace. They may not readily appear the first time you use Photoshop.

Assignment 1: Using Photoshop

This assignment, is about as basic as you will get. It is merely designed to get you to level 1 in figuring out how to utilize Photoshop.

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For your first assignment, I want you to find an image on the internet, or using a digital camera, scanner, or other media, and open it in Photoshop. Take a look around the Photoshop environment, and locate everything we have discussed in the Locating areas section of this tutorial. I also want you to figure out how to make rulers appear once in Photoshop. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. As I said before, we will be taking it slow at the start, but there may be a bit of a curve ball at a certain point, because I feel a lot to learning Photoshop is experimenting and figuring things out for yourself, there is only so much reading will do for you.

Working with Layers

One of the biggest reasons Photoshop can create such sophisticated pictures, is due to its ability to create and modify layers.  Layers make it possible to manipulate the tiniest details in your image, which gives you a lot of flexibility when editing an image. This section also covers what a selection is, and what Opacity is. As these are integral parts of layers.

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Selection:A portion of an image. A Marquee shows the area of which you have selected.


Opacity: the scale as to how much you can see through a layer or image.

At 100% Opacity, you should not be able to see through this image.


At 80% Opacity, you can see through the image to a degree.


Layers Panel:lists all the layers within a Photoshop file.


Layer Thumbnail:appears to the left of a layer name, and contains a mini picture of the layer.

Converting Layers

This is just a quick section covering how to convert a normal layer into a background layer. This is almost pointless, other than it is good for organizational purposes, and possibly other small things.

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How to convert a image layer into a background layer.

• Open a file with multiple layers in Photoshop.

• Delete the background layer if there is one present.
• Make sure you have the layer selected that you want to be the new background layer, then Layer>New>Background from Layer

Adding, Deleting, and Naming Layers

This section, I will be talking about the basics of adding and deleting Layers from your Photoshop image.

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There are three ways to create layers...
1. Use the New command on the Layer menu.
2. Use the New Layer command on the Layers panel menu.
3. Click the create a new layer button on the Layers panel.

There are four ways to delete layers...
1. Click the name on the Layers panel,  click the Layers panel list arrow which is located at the top right hand corner of the Layer panel, then click Delete layer.
2. Click the name on the Layers panel, click delete layer button on the Layers panel.
3. Click the name on the Layers panel, press and hold (Alt) then click the delete layer button on the layers panel.
4. Right-click a layer.

Remember to always be certain you no longer need a layer before deleting it, however it is possible to restore it by deleting the "Delete Layer state" on the history panel, of which will be explained more later.

Naming Layers

It is really easy to name a layer, just double click on the layer name, and change it to your liking. Just remember that it is usually beneficial to name things in a very meaningful way, otherwise an image with a lot of layers can get challenging to organize.

Organizing Layers by Grouping and Coloring

Photoshop comes with organizing tools to help you keep track of layers, and group related layers together. This section also discusses flattening.

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Layer Group: is a Photoshop feature that allows you to organize your layers.

Layer Comp: a powerful organizational tool that allows you to create variations of which layers are visible and the arrangement of images.

Flattening:Merges all visible layers into a single Background layer and discards all hidden layers. It is always a good idea to make a copy of your file before flattening, just in case you mess up. Flattening is beneficial because it reduces file size, and makes for better compatibility.

How to create a layer group and colorize the group.

• Click a layer, click the Layers panel list button then click New Group.
• While in the New Group Dialogue box, you can choose a color for the group, and change its name and opacity. When done just click OK.

Layer Comps

Layer Comps are used to create variations on the arrangment and visibility of existing layers. It is a powerful tool that can make your work more organized.

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You can create a layer comp by clicking the layer comps button on the vertical dock if it is visible, or by clicking window on the application bar, then clicking layer comps. Once the New Layer Comp dialogue box appears, you can create the name, and set the parameters for the Layer Comp.

Sorry everyone, I didn't have a whole lot of time to work on this today as I had expected, I was taken (semi-forcefully) To 15 games of free turkey bingo, where I won a turkey, and a whopper... Tomorrow will bring what today was supposed to.

Lol, no offense, but... this barely even qualifies as a tutorial. No one is that dumb that they can't open Photoshop, considering it's like opening every other program.

Anyways, post real tutorials. Teach people how to make batch commands, recolors, resize and maintain ppi, etc.

I think I said, i'm going to be starting off very slow, and working my way into more advanced things. Just be patient. I guess I will write basically what i'm going to be doing in the near future.

Using layers
making selections
color techniques
type
painting tools
special layer functions
special effects
enhancing selections
adjusting colors
clipping masks
transforming text

and other stuff.

This is really a more beginners-in-mind sort of tutorial, in most senses of the phrase.

tip: before using banners and text images, make sure they actually look decent first. especially if you're making a photoshop tutorial.

I don't see whats that bad about them other than section two was messed up. I'm kind of trying to just do things quickly so I can continue with the stuff that actually matters. This is kinda taking a long time to set up, obviously.

I joined because of this post, I wanna learn more, please keep it up!  Thanks


xSx

Thank you. I appreciate your words. I will do my best, even if its not good enough.