NFS Digital Diaries: April 2012

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Photoshop selection tools

GOOD MORNING!

PLEASE HAVE AT LEAST TWO PHOTOS READY ON YOUR DESKTOP.

Today we're going to learn how to use Photoshop selection tools. We will use:

rectangular marquee (+ shift = square)
elliptical marquee (+ shift = circle)
magnetic lasso

Before we jump into the tools, let's practice zooming in and out with a shortcut.

Zoom in and out with the COMMAND and + and - keys

Rectangular marquee

We can use this tool to select rectangle or square parts of our photo. Effects that you choose while the section is selected will only apply to the selected area.

Elliptical marquee

We can use this tool to select elliptical or circular parts of our photo. Effects that you choose while the selection is selected will only apply to the selected area.
We can use this tool to create a classic vignette effect.

Create a new layer with a solid white fill (new layer --> edit --> fill --> white)
Hide the white layer
Use the elliptical marquee to draw an oval over the part of the photo that you want to "keep"
Feather the elliptical cut (select --> modify --> feather --> 30 or more)
Turn the white layer back on
Delete the oval/circle!

Magnetic lasso tool

Turn CAPS LOCK on to get a better icon
Use the [ and ] keys to change the size of the target
Hold the space bar to temporarily switch to the hand tool to reposition your image
Click your mouse to manually drop a point

TOUCH UP TRICK:

Hit Q

Select the brush tool and adjust the brush size to fit your needs

Select black if you want to deselect something from your magnetic lasso selection

Select white if you want to add something to your magnetic lasso selection

Hit Q again

When you have what you want selected, you can cut it out by choosing LAYER --> NEW --> LAYER VIA CUT. You can then use the MOVE tool to drag the cutout onto a new background. If you'd like to download a background, you may do so, but choose quickly. Today's lesson is designed to get your comfortable with these tools, not to make something groundbreaking and eternal. Try this link - click on the type you'd like to see the choices - and then click download when you find one you like. Variety of Photoshop backgrounds You can also add text if you like.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Getting Started in Photoshop: Introduction to Layers

Photoshop is a very powerful program. It is not as easy as most other programs you're used to working in. For example, if you click around enough in PowerPoint or Pixie, you can usually figure out how to do what you want to do. Photoshop, on the other hand, is WAY more complicated. It's not so easy to jump in and start playing, even for you young whippersnappers.

Having gone through this with one group of students in Quarter 1, I'm going to do it a little differently this time and see if we have an easier start. Last time I started with teaching students some of the basic tools first. We quickly came across problems, however, because they didn't know anything about layers. I realized that in order to do pretty much ANYthing in Photoshop, you have to know about layers. So guess what we're going to do first this time around? LAYERS!

The web site Photoshopessentials.com has a terrific tutorial on getting started with Photoshop layers. I am going to lead you through the steps of the tutorial, but you should have the link up too so you can follow along.

Photoshopessentials.com tutorial on Photoshop layers

I made this yesterday while during the tutorial. Pretty cool, huh?