Adobe Photoshop - 10 Tips for New Users
The default product for photo editing is Adobe Photoshop. Developed by two brothers, one of whom wrote the program and the other had the idea of making a widely image editing program. The amount of possibilities is too much to explain quickly, but if you want to decorate your photo or strengthen your photo with some text, read these 10 tips.
Tip 1: Determine your goal
Before you start editing photos or other visual images, first think about what you want to use it for. Is it a photo for you? Do you want to print something, a photo or something else? In what color scheme? Will it be a YouTube video? Every use has different guidelines so that your product will look as good as possible and will need as little time as possible to load on your computer or those of others who see your photo.
A few guidelines:
Resolutions :
- For a YouTube video: 1280x720B, HD quality;
- For a photo on the web: 72 pixels per inch (everything above that makes loading slow);
- For a photo to print: 300 pixels per inch.
Colour: Colour:
- For images you use on a computer: RGB color code;
- For images you are going to print: CMYK (printers use these codes).
Size : :
- If you want to print on plain paper size: 21x29.7 cm (8.5x11 inches);
- If you want to choose: custom: let yourself be set height and width;
- When using existing picture/photo: ‘clipboard’ option, your work window adjusts to the dimensions of the image you use.
Tip 2: Work with layers
One of the most useful applications in Adobe Photoshop is working with layers. Your original photo is your first layer and anything you add, change or delete then (if you are handy) on another layer. If you have something that you do not like later, you simply remove the layer, without having disappeared all the other work you have done – on another layer.
Think of transparent plastic sheets on which you record your change and which are then placed over the orignee. You have the order in your own hand, so if you change something, pay attention to which layer you do it and whether it will still be visible through the layer that follows.
For example, a ‘photo layer’ will always be visible, even though you have created a nice text; the text layer should therefore always be on top of the photo layer. At the bottom of your screen, you’ll see a screen where you can see each layer and where you can also change the order by dragging layers above or below each other.
Tip 3: Deform or mirror image
If you want to distort, change or turn your photo to the other side, for example because it makes the composition seem more balanced, you want to have a person look in a different direction or any other reason, click on the ‘edit’ button and then ‘transform’. Your photo or image is now in a new framework in which you can make changes. One click on your right mouse button and you can choose from the options.
When you choose an action, click on ‘Enter’ and the program takes care of the rest. For more extensive changes such as deform, you start in your ‘change framework’ and then click with your mouse on the corner from which you want to distort, drag it to the place you want and then click ‘ENTER’ to have the assignment executed.
Tip 4: Use the correct ‘P’ unit of measurement in Adobe Photoshop
Length, width, height, can all be measured in centimeters or millimetres. In this program you can also measure with pixels, points or percentages; 3’Ps. The amount of data you can collect and then work with it is great. Projects can therefore be made more colourful and specific and you can make it your ‘brand’. The more you work with Photoshop, the more logical and useful these functions become. As a handle for all these units of measurement... the more pixels, points or colors you use how ‘heavier’ your image becomes and the longer it takes for that to be loaded.
Tip 5: Use the right selection function
To cut out photos or parts of them, use the following functions:
- Marquee: which allows you to select a certain shape that you can still adjust in size or pull out in shape.
- Lasso: this allows you to outline your own selection but it is rather inaccurate. To do your selection neater, you can connect the dots together by putting points and then cutting it out. But the most accurate option is the Magnetic Lasso with which you can really follow a circumference and for example cut the air or background from the foreground or a picture inside.
- The magic wand (Magic Wand): is for selecting specific colors of your image; useful if you want to cut out the steel blue sky in the background at once or remove the widened whipped cream on a pie tip.
- - Quick Selection. - Yeah. This function combines the color selection and outline selection of the last two and is the easiest to use. Click and drag to select your area.
Tip 6: Decorate the image
At a time when you can’t see a model that doesn’t look great while you see the wrinkles per day increasing or that birthmark on your noses grow or the bags under your eyes claim more space from your cheeks every day, you can do something about it.
- Fading: to disguise small unevenness and blur wrinkles;
- Lighter making (dodge): with which you can give yourself a little more light in your face and polishing them a bit;
- Or heals (literally ‘spot healing’): this function takes the average of the pixel colors to the place you select and fills the ‘pustuff spot’ with it.
Tip 7: Add text
You can add text by pressing the T button on the left side of your screen. In the window that opens, type your text. You can determine the size, the font and the color. If you want to use them about a photo, remember to make the background transparent via opacity. And if you have more than one rule, it is useful to write each line on a new layer so you can better place them with each other and control over the rule spacing you want.
Tip 8: Use special shapes (custom shape tool)
Instead of just a text, you want to show a number of stars as a sign of your service orientation, or you want text on an ‘banner’, choose one of the shapes in the ‘custom shape tool’ that place on another layer and make it as big or small as you need. The text in the text layer can be placed over it as you would.
Tip 9: Use Adobe Photoshop short cuts
Instead of using the different expand menus for each action, you can also teach the following short cuts. On the internet you can find whole lists but here 10 many quick actions. If you are working on a PC, use the Ctrl key; on an Apple the Command key with a number of short cuts, otherwise you only use the letter/key as indicated.
The base:
Start / New N
Cut F2
Copy F3
Paste F4
Play back: F12
To select:
Lasso / magnetic lasso: L
Magic Wand W
Cropping (crop) C
Vervise :
Special shapes (custom shape) U
Making Pixels Lighter O
Getting rid of unevenness J
All combinations can be found on the Adobe website.
Tip 10: Practice makes perfect, so keep practicing
Yes, it may be a killer but certainly with a program like Adobe Photoshop very honestly. It is not for nothing that it is a program used by graphic designers. Those who know the tricks of the trade, who have learned to work with the right number of pixels and know which percentages work best for the kind of image they want. YouTubers can make their videos with this program....it has unprecedented possibilities and when you start this program can be quite confusing. So watch some videos on You Tube, buy or get a book from the library or take some lessons, it will make your experience a lot more enjoyable and give you better results faster.