Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
For those of you who are first learning Photoshop, I'm going to show you a couple
of quick tips
that are often overlooked and then later, I'll show you how to save an image
without its background. The first tip will show you how to brighten dark areas
of your photos
without washing out their lighter areas. I'll make a copy of the photo,
so we can use the original to compare the results against.
I'll press Ctrl + J on Windows or Cmd + J on a Mac
to make the copy. Go to Image,
Adjustments and Shadows/Highlights.
The Shadows/Highlights panel will open. By moving the amount sliders
or entering values in the percentage boxes, you can lighten shadows
and darken highlights independently of each other. Make sure the Preview option
is selected in the Dialog box
if you want the image to be updated as you make the adjustments.
I rarely open the other options, since my main concerns
are to brighten the shadows and finesse the highlights. Placing the shadow slider
at zero
reverts the image to its original state. As I slide the amounts back and forth
you can see how the shadows and the highlights are effected
and do so independently of each other. Keep in mind,
every photo has its unique characteristics, so the amounts you set for
its shadows and highlights
are specific to that photo. For this photo,
I'll set the shadows and highlights both at 56%.
Once you set the amounts, click OK or press Enter or Return.
As I toggle back and forth, you can see how this feature
enhances the details in both the shadows and highlights.
For the next tip, if you have version CS5
or later, I'll show you how to quickly straighten an image in a photo
that contains "keystone" distortion. If you're working
on CS6 or later, open your "Perspective Crop Tool".
If you're working on CS5, open your Crop Tool
and check the "Perspective" box.
Drag a rectangle over the general
area that you want to put into perspective and ultimately crop.
Align each corner of the crop boundary
with the corners of the image.
When the corners at the Perspective Crop Tool are aligned to the corners of your image, simply click the arrow key
at the top to instantly crop your image in perspective.
I've been asked by many people how to save an image without its background,
so I'll show you how to do it in it in last tip. Let's say we want to save this logo
without its background and without its soft outerglow
and drop shadow. I'll open the effects
and click off the eyeballs of the effects
I don't want. Lastly, and most importantly,
I'll hide the background. We should see just the image you want to save.
Notice the background is a pattern of grey and white boxes,
which indicates that it's empty. The next step is to trim
our image, so go to Image and Trim.
I'll trim it based on the top, left pixel color,
but frankly, I found it doesn't matter which option you choose
as long as the "Trim Away" corners are checked. Once you click OK
or press Enter or Return, your images crop to its edges,
thereby saving space and file size. To save it,
.go to File and Save As. Name the file
and save it as a PNG also known as a "Ping" file.
Then, click Save. When the PNG option window appears,
I generally choose "None" for Compression and "None" for Interlace.
For Compression, older versions of Photoshop use "Smallest/Slow",
but for recent versions, just click "None".
Interlacing makes download time seem shorter, but it also increases file size.
Click OK to save it. If you open your PNG image,
you'll see that it exists on a transparent background
and it'll retain any and all transparencies within your image.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!