Week 4 | PS

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******NOTE: ALWAYS BRING A BACK UP OF ALL YOUR FILES IN TO CLASS ON A FLASH DRIVE. ALSO, PLEASE BRING IN HEADPHONES TO EACH CLASS SO THAT YOU CAN REVIEW VIDEOS WHILE DOING IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENTS.******* 

PHOTOSHOP

Best Practices for File NamingAccurate file-naming – Special characters – Underscore – Date

YYYY_MM_DD _FileName_Version

Adobe Illustrator vs Adobe Photoshop

They share much of the same functionality BUT Adobe Illustrator is used for creating vector graphics and vector text, while Photoshop is used to create raster graphics (or bitmaps). Vector graphics are  made of lines and curves that contain mathematical objects called vectors (Illustrator). Raster graphics (or bitmaps) contain tiny dots of color (also called pixels or bits)(Photoshop). In Photoshop the image is the combination of many of these dots/pixels with the final result being the appearance of a solid image. You to edit images by changing the pattern of the pixels by lightening or darkening them, and by rearranging their pattern.

Summary: Photoshop is the primary tool for editing photos and Adobe Illustrator is the preferred tool for creating vector graphics. Note:  Bitmap graphics (photos) are much larger in file size than vector graphics because information for every single bit must be saved to the file. Every time you change the file and resave it you lose quality. Change the size of a raster graphic and your quality will be changed. Vector graphics can be scaled to any size without losing quality.

Adobe Illustrator will allow you to convert a vector image to a raster image. You can also import raster images, but the images themselves cannot be edited in Illustrator.

See the example below of a vector and a bitmap below.

Intro to Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard tool for working with digital images. Whether the image comes from a digital camera, scans, stock imagery, Web-ready artwork, or even vector graphics, all of them can be manipulated in Photoshop. Used for both enhancing and manipulating photographs as well as creating original artwork, Photoshop is used by photographers, designers, videographer and 3d artists.

Adobe Photoshop Overview

Adobe Photoshop CAN:

  • Rotate an image
  • The Crop  Tool: Crop or resize images
  • Modifying Color
  • Crop an image
  • Align an image
  • Correcting Exposures
  • Adjust tonal properties such as lightening a dark image
  • Restoring and Retouching Images
  • Combining multiple images into composites
  • Simulating a variety of lens effects
  • Color correction of images
  • Dust and scratch removal
  • Opening or saving in a variety of file formats
Adobe Photoshop CANNOT:
  • Make a blurry photograph sharper
  • Increase the size of a low resolution image b to a large one
  • Change a raster based image into a vector based image
  • Photoshop integrates with InDesign for print production, After Effects for video compositing and Illustrator for print design.

The Photoshop CS6 Interface

This video covers the basics of the Photoshop interface, from changing the interface’s color, finding the Tools bar, the Options bar and exploring Photoshop’s panels.

Background Save and Auto Recover

PSD vs JPG vs GIF vs PNG

PSD preserves all the layers in your file. You should ALWAYS save a copy of your image as a PSD. Once you’ve done that, then consider which file format below best fits your needs.

Image File Formats: There are three primary image file formats used for graphics viewed on the web. Each of these file types were designed for the purpose of compressing memory usage. Each file type does this a different way.

Jpeg
Jpegs work well on photographs, naturalistic artwork, and similar material; not so well on lettering, simple cartoons, or line drawings. JPEG is “lossy,” meaning that the decompressed image isn’t quite the same as the one you started with. (There are lossless image compression algorithms, but JPEG achieves much greater compression than is possible with lossless methods.) JPEG is designed to exploit known limitations of the human eye, notably the fact that small color changes are perceived less accurately than small changes in brightness.

Gif
Graphics Interchange Format. A format used for displaying bitmap images on World Wide Web pages, usually called a “gif” because .gif is the filename extension. These files use “lossless” compression and can have up to 256 colors.

Png-8 and Png-24
PNG is a compression scheme that has two main benefits: it is a lossless compression image format and it holds alpha channel information. Originally, the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format was designed as a royalty-free format, which would replace GIF and JPEG. Png-24 allows for smooth blending between alpha and opaque.

Image Size
When speaking about image size on the web, there are three possible interpretations of this that you must take into account.

File Size refers to the amount of disk space an image occupies (in KB or MB). Image Dimensions refers to the physical size of the image, expressed in height and width.

Resolution refers the pixel density of an image. This is expressed in pixels per inch (ppi). Images are displayed on the web at 72 dpi. Printed images are generally of higher resolution.

Compression

Compression shrinks down the file size of the photo so that it loads on the user’s computer quickly, but maintains a certain level of quality.

Saving

Click the Save button to save your image. ALWAYS save your original photo for archiving, or if you intend to reopen it later PRIOR to using the save for web.

Save and Export

There are two ways of saving a photo in Photoshop. The first is to use the Save As… dialogue, the other is called Save for Web & Devices… which is used to save your photos in preparation for publication to the Web.

1) Save as: I recommend saving the file type as a Photoshop or .PSD file, which will also save extra Photoshop-specific information about your photo and allows you to go back to the file at a later date and manipulate all layers. You will not lose any quality when you re-save it multiple times. Saving as a .jpg, .png or .gif compresses the photo allowing you to use it on the web.

2) Save for Web: Use this when you are ready to export your photo for publication to the Web.  The Save for Web allows you to see how your photo will appear once it’s published to a Web site. Optimized will show you how your photo will appear once it’s published on a Web site, and 2-up/4-up will show you comparisons so you can see how the different levels of compression will affect your photo when saving. These are automated ways to save your image for the Web.

Photoshop | Creating New Documents

LAYERS

Photoshop Essentials | What Is a Layer?
Exploring layers: what they are, how they’re created and the different layer options that are available.

The Brush Tool

An introduction to the Brush tool, and its available customization options. Whether you’re looking to paint a masterpiece or retouch a photo, the Brush tool is a crucial tool to understand!

TUTORIALS

  • ASSIGNMENT | ACCESSING TOOLS #1

Download the attached zip file which includes PSD files for this accessing tools assignment here.

  1. Select the Brush tool. By default, your brush tool is loaded with black paint.
  2. Click once on the foreground color to open the pick so you can select a different color in you foreground.Select a blue color to use to brighten up the sky.
  3. Click on the Brush Preset Picker to see your option for size and hardness.
  4. Click and drag the size slider, to the right until you reach 100px. Make sure the Hardness slider is at 0%. You’ve just changed the brush to a large soft brush that will blend well with the edges of the strokes.
  5. Click and drag anywhere on the image one time to create a brush stroke across the image. Click Command Z to undo.
  6. Click and hold the Painting Mode drop-down menu and select Color from the bottom of the list.
  7. Click the arrow to the right of the Opacity option to see the slider Change Opacity to 20%.
  8. Click and drag on the upper right corner of the image. You’ll be brightening the sky.
  9. Note: You can build up color by releasing the paint brush and painting over the same area.
  • Save image 1 with new filename.
  • Example: 2015_Smith_John_AccessingTools_v1
  • ASSIGNMENT | BRUSH TOOLS #2
  1. With the car photo still open:
  2. Select the Brush tool.
  3. Click the Swatches tab.
  4. Click the color calle Pure Red Orange.
  5. With the Brush tool selected, start painting in the upper-left part of the image, adding orange to the sky.
  6. Paint the sky until the orange blends in.
  • Save image II with new filename.
  • Example: 2015_Smith_John_BrushTools_v1

  • ASSIGNMENT  | HIDDEN TOOLS #3

  1. Click and hold on the Brush tool to see the hidden Pencil, Color Replacement and Mixer brush tools.
  2. Select the Mixer Brush Tool and release. The Color Mixer tool is now the visible tool. The Mixer Brush simulates realistic painting techniques.
  3. Change the foreground color at the bottom of the Tools panel. The Color Picker appears.
  4. Position your cursor on the Color Slider and click and drag until shades of orange appear in the Color Panel.
  5. Click once in the Color Pane to select and orange color or type in the RGB: R:235 G:169 B:24.
  6. Click on the Brush Preset picker button in the Options bar and set the following attributes for the Mixer Brush tool.
  • Size: 175 px
  • Hardness: 20%
  1. Click once on the Useful mixer brush combinations drop-down menu and select the Moist, Light Mix preset.
  2. Press Command+0. (This is the keyboard shortcut for Fit on Screen.
  3. With the Mixer Brush tool still selected, start painting in the upper-left areas of the image to create a shade of orange blending in from the corner.
  4. Repeat this for all four corners in the image.
  • Save image III with new filename.
  • Example: 2015_2.16.Smith_John_HiddenTools_v1

  • ASSIGNMENT | COMPOSITE #4

Download the attached zip file which includes PSD files for this composite assignment here.

  1. Watch the video below that describes how to create a composite photo and recreate the barn/chicken/cow image.
  2. Using the farm image, try adjusting the stacking order of the layers in the composite image
  3. Scale and move the layers to place the cow and rooster in different positions.
  4. Add your own images to the composition, adjusting their position and scaling.
  5. Save the images as JPEG files using the different compression options and presets to determine the impact these have on quality and file size.
You should end up with a total of FIVE different images. Upload them to your Flickr site and label them:
YYYY_MM_DD _YourName_Farm_01
YYYY_MM_DD _YourName_Farm_02
YYYY_MM_DD _YourName_Farm_03
YYYY_MM_DD _YourName_Farm_04
YYYY_MM_DD _YourName_Farm_05

Tag your images in Flickr with the following tag:

 interactivemediaramapo AS WELL AS add additional tags. 

  • ASSIGNMENT  |  PHOTO COMPOSITION #5

Experimenting with New Vector Capabilities

  1. Open file: ps0101.psd – image of a skier
  2. Save it as: ps0101_work and choose Photoshop format
  3. Select the Rectangle tool – click and drag to create a large rectangle that covers the right half of the image. (You’ll notice a Rectangle 1 vector layer has been added in the Layers panel)
  4. With the Rectangle 1 vector layer active, click Fill in the Options bar, and then click the Pattern button.
  5. Select Grey Granite as the pattern.
  6. Click and hold the Rectangle tool and select the hidden Custom Shape tool.
  7. Click the arrow in the Shape drop-down menu to see default shapes.
  8. Click the gear icon and select Nature category.
  9. Choose Append – Select the Snowflake shape – Click on the Path operations – select Subtract Front Shape.
  10. Position mouse in the middle of the left side of the Rectangle shape and press and hold the Option key. Click and create to create a large snowflake.
  11. Click the Path Selection tool to reposition.
Continue with the following:
  1. Adding a mask to a Vector layer
  2. Using the new brush tips
Adding strokes to vector images
Cloning your new snowflake
Adding text layers from another document
  •  ASSIGNMENT | COMPOSITE #6

Variations on the ski project.

Use the PSD file from composite assignment v1 above and change the pattern from grey granite to the selection of your choice. Change the nature shape in the first version to a shape of your choice. Change brush tip, gradient, font, color, size of the text and anything else you want to make it look different. When you finish, save the file as follows: 2015.2.Smith_John_Composite_v2

  •  ASSIGNMENT | MAKING THE BEST SELECTIONS #7

Download all project zip files below. Unzip the files and place all files in one folder on your desktop.

PS04_01  PS04_02 PS05_03 PS04_04 PS04_05 PS04_06 PS04_07 PS04_08 PS04_09


When you finish, save the file as follows: 2015.2.16.Smith_John_Selections

Making the Best Selections

  •  ASSIGNMENT | Marquee Tool #8

Open image ps0501 here. Open image ps0501_done here.

Use the image above to create an overlay with text.

  1. Select the Rectangualr Marquee tool, (the square with the dashed lines). Choose View > Snap and make sure it’s checked.
  2. Position your cursor in the upper-left side of the guide in the care image, and drag a rectangular selection down toward the lower-right corner of the guide. A rectangular selection appears as ou drag, and it stays active when you release the mouse. You’ll now apply an adjustment layer to lighten just the selected area of the image. You are lightening this region so that a text overlay can be placed over that part of the image.
  3. If the Adjustments panel is not visible, choose Window > Adjustments and click on the Curves icon;the Properties panel appears. (Click on the Curves button to create a new Curves adjustment layer.)
  4. Click and drag the upper-right anchor point (shadow) straight down, keeping it flush with the right side of the curve window, until the Output text field. The rectangular selection in the image is lightened to about 20% of it’s original value.
  5. Go back to the Layers panel, click the box to the left of the text layer named poster text; the Visibility icon (the eye) appears, and the layer is now visible. The text appears over the lightened area.
  6. Save your file and name it as follows: 2015.2.16.Smith_John_Text_MarqueeTool
  7. Upload to your blog and Flickr and save your .psd file.
  •  ASSIGNMENT | Creating a Square Selection #9
  1. Click on the image background in layers.
  1. Select the Rectangle tool.
  2. Click and drag while holding the Shift key  to create a constrained square.
  3. Let go of the mouse and see the square. Notice the dotted lines. This means you can move the square around.
  4. Click on the Curves icon and change the opacity.
  5. Click on the Selection tool and position the cursor over the selection region. Now you’ll notice a scissors appears. This means that if you move the selection, it will cut out a portion of the photo. The pixels will be deleted.
  6. Press Command Z to undo.
  7. Reselect the square, then choose Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Click and drag the Hue sliders to cange the color of the selection region.
  8. Add text.
  9. Save your file and name it as follows: 2015.2.16.Smith_John_Text_MarqueeTool_Square
  10. Upload to your blog and Flickr and save your .psd file.
  •  ASSIGNMENT | Creating a selection from a center point #10 
  1. Select the Background layer in the Layers panel, then click and hold the Rectangular Marquee too and select the hidden Elliptical Marquee tool.
  1. Draw a circle selection from the center of the image.
  2. Place your cursor in the center of the tire, and hold down the Option and Shift key.
  3. Click and drag to pull a circular selection from the center origin point.
  4. Release the mouse.
  1. If you need to nudge the circle around, use the up/down, left/right arrows.
  1. Click Select > Transform Selection. You’ll see a bounding box appear around your selection Use the bounding box’s points to adjust the size and proportion. Note: To scale proportionally, hold down the Shift key when transforming. Press the Enter key to accept changes.
  1. Follow the directions from in-class exercise #1 starting at no. 3 to add the opacity and then the text.
  2. Save your file and name it as follows: 2015.2.16.Smith_John_Text_MarqueeTool_CenterPoint
  1. Upload to your blog and Flickr and save your .psd file.

 ASSIGNMENT | Changing a selection into a layer #11
By moving a selection to its own independent layer, you can have more control over the selected region while leaving the original image data intact.
  1. Make sure the Background layer is selected.
  2. Select the tire with the Ellipse tool holding down Option/Shift.
  3. Press the Command and J key to create a new layer. You’ll then see the new layer in your layers panel.
  4. Apply a filter: Choose Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. You’ll see a dialog box.
  5. Type 0 in the Angle text field and 45 in the Distance text field and press OK. You’ll see the motion blur applied.
  6. Save your file and name it as follows: 2015.2.16.Smith_John_Text_MarqueeTool_ChangingLayer
  7. Upload to your blog and Flickr and save your .psd file.
Homework | Week 4  
  • Complete all assignments listed in this class post.
  • ASSIGNMENT | PHOTOSHOP BASICS 
  1. On your blog, answer the following:
  • Describe two ways to combine one image or another.
  • What is created in the destination image when you cut and paste or drag and drop another image file into it?
  • What are the best formats (for prints) in which to save a file that contains text or another vector objects?
  1. Delicious:  Tag three sites that focus on Photoshop and any of the items we learned in class today. Write a comment in Delicious about why you think each one would be a good resource for this class.
  1. If you did NOT finish the farm assignment in class, please finish it for homework.
  • FINISH all tutorials not completed in class.

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