Photoshop anyone?

Hi!

my dp has just installed photoshop for me, as i told him i wanted a photo editing program... the only problem is, i have no idea what im doing with it!

i tried reading the help section, but it all goes into a blur.. i usually like to figure things out for myself, but this one is wayy over my head!

i had a play around with some of the things, but all i can manage to do is like change the 'texture' look of the pic... lol

can anyone tell me if there is more to photo shop!! lol

Rachy

You can do heaps on photoshop, i've got 7.0, got it about a month ago. What are you wanting to do? Maybe (maybe :rolleyes: lol!) I can help?

P.S. Took me AGES to work it out, and I still think there is heaps more to it that I have no idea about!

Rachael, what are you trying to do first of all? Is it just general photo manipulation? I should be able to give you a hand if you can tell me what you want to do. I can give you some lessons ;)

Its great once you get the hang of it!! It is hard to work your way around to begin with.
Like the girls said let us know what you are trying to do and we'll see if we can help :) (BTW I am still learning a lot of it too :) )

Tanya

I've been fiddling around with it for about a year and I still have problems doing stuff lol.

What version is it?
Get in to your library and get a book so you can sit down with it on your lap in front of the PC and work through stuff.
There is also a great help section and if you google photoshop tutorials you will find heaps out there. It's just a matter of spending the time to practice it.

eg if you want to learn how to remove red eye then put into google "photoshop red eye removal tutorial" and there will be stacks of online stuff.

Yesterday I was determined to make a watermark for my photos and I found both how to make one and then how to make it an action from an online tutorial :D

We have Photoshop (Dh is a photographer so knows what he is doing) but I've not had much luck with it. I use Fotostation Pro instead - much simpler and more streamlined for home use.

Defintely do a tutorial or two. Or get lessons from someone. It is a professional program and can do sooooo much stuff! But I am coming to realise that you have to 'speak its language', LOL! I too like to work things out myself, and you can do that on ps to an extent, but its good to learn the basics from someone or a tutorial first, IMO.
Good luck with it and happy snappin!

Yeah, I use Photoshop a bit. Same here, drop me a line if there is anything specific I can help you with.

My tip - if you only have to to learn one thing - learn about Layers and Layer Blending Options. Opens up an absolute world of possiblities....

thanks everyone :)

i already use my kodak program to remove red eye & crop the photos, but i'd like to do more. ive seen a lot of photos on things like myspace etc that have different colour tints to them, one person had a picture at a park, the little girl in the pic and the thing she was playing on was in colour, and the background was black and white... looked gorgeous... also another had a close up of a bub with blue eyes, and everything else was black and white. i want to do things like that!!

hope that all makes sense! i'd love it if someone could help me!!

Rach

I have paint shop pro and that's hard enough to work out, I'd really like to get photo shop, how much did it cost you?
I hope you can figure it out soon!! I agree google tutorials, that's what I do with my program and there's heaps that tell you exactly what to do.

Ok I help with the colour with black & white background :)

What you need to do is open your picture then copy it, so ctrl a (select all), ctrl c (copy), ctrl n (new), enter, ctrl v (paste). Change that new one into B&W. Then copy & paste it over top of the coloured one. Use the erase tool to remove the B&W parts where you want the colour to be seen. It can be really fiddly, but it looks very cool once it's done. I usually tweak the contrast on the B&W as well, to make it even more dramatic.

oh Sarah... lol... I do it completely differently to you!!

How do you do it Tanya?

ohhh Sarah i love you.. lol

i was looking through all the tab thingys, the one that says filter.. it has all different things you can do... what are they for? (if that makes sense... like, how do i use them?)

i would be happy just to try a few things, anyone got a particular edit they like to do??

thanks for all the replies!!

how do i change it to black and white?!?!?! lol

ohh i got it... lol

ok, how do i go back to the colour one?? omg... lol

ok, i apologise for all these posts.. lol i managed to have a black and white photo with blue eyes.... looks gorgeous... while doing that i found where to change the brightness etc.. which will help!! lol

any idea if i can change a pic to have like a pink tint, or blue... ?? :)

You have to make sure the photo is in RGB mode not B&W then in that same menu, go down to colour balance & fiddle with the slides in there to get it where you want :)

You'll have to convert some of these to jpgs and post in your gallery for us to look at now, LOL!!

i will tonight, i have to go out now,m but im happy i have managed to do somothing with PS..

thanks for all your help!! i may have some more questions later.. lol

Hey Rachy,

If you want to switch between layers, go to your layers palette, and click on the layer you want. It will be highlighted in grey when it is the 'active' layer. You can also hold and drag the layer so that it is above or below another layer. You can't do this with a background layer though. If you want a 'background' layer to behave like a normal layer, right click and select "Layer from background". It will convert the background layer to a 'normal' layer.

To get different colour effects, the technique Sarah_H suggested (creating different layers then erasing the bits that you don't want in each layer) is the easiest, but yes, it can be fiddly! Depending on your version of photoshop and the image, you can also try using the smart select tool (easier than manually creating a path - what's called deep-etching an image). This is the little tool that looks like a magic wand. It has a lot of limitations, but the one advantage of using it is that you can then save the outline of the image as a 'path' which can be used on other layers - anyone who wants to know how to do it, just shout!

Some shortcuts to make erasing easier are ('m on Mac, so some of these shortcuts might be a bit different on a pc):
- Select your erase tool, and to change the brush size right click, a little menu should come up with options for diameter, and hardness. 0% hardness has a very soft edge, and 100% is a totally hard edge. A softer edged brush will look more natural than a hard edged brush. Start with a big brush, then do the fine details zoomed in with a small brush.
- To zoom in or out, use "ctrl +/-". You can also select the zoom tool whilst in erase mode by holding down option + space bar for zooming out, and ctrl + space bar for zooming in.
- To move around the screen whilst in erase mode, hold down the space bar (a hand will appear) and drag with your mouse.

Another way to get a single layer black and white is to use the hue and saturation tool. Copy and paste your image into a new layer (another way is to go to your layers window, right click on the layer you want to copy and choose duplicate layer), then select "Image + Adjustment + Hue / Saturation". Drag the "Saturation" slider down to 0%. This is also useful if you want to make part of a shot almost black and white, but not quite, so that the subject appears much brighter.

And also, if anybody is interested, you can adjust contrast / brightness manually using the Levels control (ctrl + L). This will allow you to control your shadows (with the black arrow), your midtones (grey arrow) and highlights (white arrow) separately. To increase contrast, move the black and white arrows a little closer towards the centre (this will make the shadows darker and the highlights brighter/whiter). Moving the grey arrow left will make your midtones darker, and lighter if moved right.

The filters will create different artistic and technical effects and are lots of fun! The artistic effects are good, especially if you want to make your photo look like a painting, for example. Things like the sharpen filters will have less noticeable effects, these are correction tools rather than artistic tools.

Like Michael suggested, an understanding of layer blending options will let you do some really cool things. It doesn't even matter if you don't understand them properly (or at all!), you can still have fun with them. At the top of the layers window is a drop down menu showing the blend mode options, and next to it is a control for opacity. "Normal" is the standard blend mode, and the opacity control will make it more or less transparent. The other modes, eg: Multiply, Overlay etc, define the relationship the layer has with other layers and how they interact. These can be used both creatively and technically (eg: defining how an image prints).

If you want to know about other settings in photoshop and what they mean, give me a shout. But you will find lots of really good information in online tutes, there's heaps of them out there!

Sorry if I've bored the pants of people... I just realised how much I've been rambling on!

Happy photoshopping!

i have posted about 3 photos in my gallery, all ive done is the B&W/colour photos so far, they are a bit rough, once i have the hang of it, ill take more time :)

Loving photoshop!!

thanks girls!

Rach

They're fantastic pics Rachy - well done!! You'll have photoshop down like a pro in no time, if this is what your first efforts look like!