workshop notes - adobe photoshop - Primrose Park Art & Craft Centre

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For more complicated shapes of selection, which you may wish to save for future use, you can set up an ALPHA CHANNEL (see Channels Palette). 6. UNSHARP MASKING: Again, I refer you to an excellent article by Ron Wiebe in “Flash” of Jan. 2005, in which he explained the reason for the strange name and how it works. Click on FILTER-SHARPEN-UNSHARP MASK and adjust the sliders in the box that appears on screen. There are three sliders: • AMOUNT (the higher the amount, the more sharpening); try 50% - 200%. • RADIUS (the width of the edges you want to sharpen); try 0.5 -2.0. • THRESHOLD (this determines how different neighbouring pixels must be to be considered an edge); try 0-20 (Zero threshold sharpens everything). Caution: Don’t overdo this function. Watch out for strange artefacts such as halos around lines of changing contrast, speckled skin tones, etc. Also, under the FILTER heading, you’ll find features such as: • BLUR-GAUSSIAN BLUR (useful for selective focus effects and cleaning up parts of an image); • NOISE - DUST & SCRATCHES (OK for cleaning up spots on a bland sky, for example. Don’t use on an area of detail, as it will become blurred); • Also under NOISE, you have DESPECKLE (similar idea to Dust & Scratches, but without the variability) and SMUDGE. Others, such as ARTISTIC, PIXELATE, RENDER, etc. give access to a large number of special effects. I’ll demonstrate some of these, but I recommend that you experiment to see what these functions can do. 7. RUBBER CLONE STAMP/ HEALING TOOL: Again found in the TOOLBOX, these are used to clean up, remove spots or restore an image by copying tones from one part of an image to another (or to another image). You will need to select a suitable brush size from the Options Palette (or, in the case of the Healing tool, adjust the slider that appears). Select a source area (similar colour or tone to the area to be cleaned up and, preferably, close to it) by pressing ALT - CLICK; Then move to the destination area and CLICK to complete the operation. The Heal tool is similar to the Rubber Stamp (Clone tool) but offers smoother blending, texture, etc. It is good for removing facial blemishes for example. NB. It is of great help when using the above tools, to enlarge the area of image that you are working on, by using the NAVIGATOR PALETTE, VIEW-ZOOM IN/ZOOM OUT or the magnifying glass symbol in the Toolbox. 8. IMAGE SIZE, SAVE/SAVE AS & PRINT: (NB. Saving your work should be like voting; ie. early and often!) a) Check and adjust the final image size as required; b) Save the image (FILE-SAVE, or SAVE AS, if you want to save it to a different name; eg. Title\ Hires for printing; Title\Lores for emails, etc.);
c) PRINTING:Click FILE-PAGE LAYOUT; Here you specify your printer; choose your Paper Size (typically 6”x4”, A5, A4, A3) - select Portrait or Landscape format; with or without Borders; Paper type/quality, etc. Then click on FILE-PRINT (note that, if the image size is too big for the selected page layout, a dialogue box will appear asking if you want to reduce the size or proceed and allow cropped edges). You can also PREVIEW your print before proceeding. 9. MORE ADVANCED OR ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Other operations which I would like to demonstrate at the workshop are some of the other TOOLBOX functions;eg. the MARQUEE tool; the MOVE tool; the GRADIENT/PAINT BUCKET tool; the COLOUR PICKER; the PENCIL/BRUSH tool; the BLUR/SHARPEN/SMUDGE tool; the DODGE/BURN/SPONGE tool; as well as the SET FOREGROUND & BACKGROUND colours and the TEXT operations. Also, a brief look at straightening verticals might be of interest. First you have to select part or all of your image. Then: EDIT-TRANSFORM-SKEW or PERSPECTIVE, SCALE, DISTORT, etc.. When finished, press RETURN and SELECT-DESELECT. OTHER TECHNIQUES INCLUDE: • COPY (or CUT) and PASTE (Used to transfer part of one image file to another file for example; also to create photomontages, borders, etc. when used in conjunction with the CANVAS SIZE feature); • IMAGE-MODE functions (Toning prints, etc.); • IMAGE-ADJUST-CHANNEL MIXER (Another way to tone prints); • FILE-AUTOMATE-PHOTOMERGE (See notes on Panoramas); • FILE-AUTOMATE-CONTACT SHEET; • LAYERS (Some of the above operations - eg. creating text, photomontages and panoramas - create new layers automatically. If you look at the LAYERS PALETTE - click WINDOW - LAYERS in the Menu Bar if it is not visible to the right of your Desktop - you will see a layer described as "Background"; now if you add some text to your image another layer appears in the palette called "Layer 1". If you double click in this layer it will give this new layer a name according to the text you have just typed. If you click on the eye symbol at the left of the palette, it will disappear together with the contents of that layer; ie. your added text will disappear from the image; or, if you click on the eye in the background layer, your image will disappear leaving just the text. Note that the layer which you're working on must be highlighted in the layers palette (by clicking on the Layer name) to make it the "active" layer. To delete a layer that you don't want, click on LAYER (Menu Bar)-DELETE-LAYER and a dialogue box will appear asking if you wish to delete the highlighted layer name; then click "Yes" to delete. Obviously, this is just a very brief introduction to this powerful feature of Photoshop which could, in itself, be a subject for a future workshop. Note also that tutorials on the many uses of LAYERS are available in Photoshop HELP - see below); • VIEW-ARRANGE (by name, date modified etc.) is another useful function; eg. for putting photos in a folder in the required order for an AV. 10. HELP: "Hang on ...Help is on the way!" If you look at the Menu Bar again, you will see the HELP title on the right hand end. If you click on this, a drop-down menu appears with a list of items available to explain the various functions in Photoshop. Click on PHOTOSHOP HELP and a more detailed list appears, which includes a Google internet search option. It's not always easy
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Page 3: • LEVELS (a histogram appears wit

workshop notes - adobe photoshop - Primrose Park Art & Craft Centre

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