Hello people, welcome to this tutorial! I am going to explain you here how
to start with Adobe Photoshop CC in very easy steps!
Leave feedbacks in comments in case you find any mistake in pronunciation.
Check the video description for the index of what is explained here.
Adobe Photoshop is a software leader in graphic and image editings. Beside
Lightroom or Photoshop Elements, Photoshop is the most professional one
and the most general one, that can be applied on images or photos or
logos as well.
First of all, let's create a new workspace. Go to File and then to New...
The new window states how your new project must be. Decide its name on top.
Decide then its size through width and height in the middle. This size is
referred to the white and blank workspace you are going to work on. Digit
the correct value on the left, and the measurement unit on the right. You
can set also the color resolution. Choose 16 or 32 bits. Choose to set your
background in solid white or without any color, so with transparency.
Then go to OK.
Any empty space shown in your workspace is always represented through
squares in white and grey. This means that there is nothing drawn in such
space. The size of the workspace can be modified anytime, through the Crop
Tool, the the fifth icon in the Tools Panel. Click and drag an area. This
selects the area of the workspace to keep. All the rest will be cut and
deleted. To accept the crop done, just go to the OK symbol in the top right
corner, otherwise just press Escape from your keyboard.
There are two ways to fill your workspace. One is to generate images and
shapes. The other one is to open and edit images already existing. Let's
open an image. Go to File and then to Open and then browse. A new window
will be opened to welcome it, beside your original workspace. Let's now see
how to manage an image fully.
At first, this image is totally in one piece and a single object. When you
will have more objects on your workspace, you will need the Layer window.
Go to Window and tick on Layers. This will open this window if closed. In
case you don't find windows in the future, because closed, you can always
open them through here.
The Layers window shows you, for each single object on your workspace, a
single layer, listed all here. The Background in italic is simply the
default layer created when you opened the image. Double-click on the lock
icon on the right to unlock it, and so edit it in the future.
To cut, copy and paste in Photoshop, just press CTRL+X, CTRL+C and CTRL+V
from your keyboard. However, this does work just if you have selected an
area first.
So let's select the image. Go on the left, in the Tools Panel. This
contains all you need to edit and create in Photoshop. It is better to keep
it always opened. Click on the second icon of the list, the Rectangular
Marquee Tool. Then just click and drag the whole image you have. The moving
dashed line represents what you have actually selected. Now, through the
keys explained before, you can go on cutting, copying or pasting. Just
remember to have the layer selected in blue or you can't.
Look at the Layers window. If you paste more objects, more layers will be
automatically created. So that, for each object, there is actually a layer
that identifies it.
To delete a layer, you need to right-click on it and go to Delete layer.
will be deleted with it. There are other ways to select parts of an image.
If you right-click on a button in the Tools Panel, you will see the other
options related to a particular button. So, instead of the general
rectangle marquee tool, you can choose to select an elliptical area, or a
single row or column of pixels. More advanced are the Lasso selection Tools.
These are selections made more through freehand. Lasso is totally freehand.
Just hold your click and move your pointer to define the selection area.
The Lasso does close the area auto. The Polygonal Lasso Tool defines a
polygonal personalized area, where a side is created whenever you click.
Double-click then to close the selection area.
The Magnetic Lasso Tool instead, is more advanced. It creates anchors
whenever you click, and the selection area moves along edges of colors
revealed by the image itself. Right click to close the area.
With Marquee and Lasso Tools the selected area and be moved anytime. Just
approach the pointer inside such area and click and drag to move it.
The third button is used to make automated selections, very good in case
the areas to be selected are pretty complex to be made by hand. Quick
Selection Tool is very awesome, since it selects shapes in your image that
are related somehow, like the particular shape revealed or the color
changes. Mind that this selection may not work in case you have smoothness
or gradients. Make sure to change the Brush properties on top of your
software, where you see a number. You can change the diametrical size of
the selection point, and so on. To go on selecting and including new areas,
make sure to go on clicking. In case you mistake a selection click, just
press CTRL+Z from your keyboard. This always undoes an action. Otherwise
you can go to Edit and Undo. In case you want to undo more actions, just
open the History window in the Window section, and just go backwards as
you need.
Magic Wand Tool selection does the same of the Quick Selection, but the
selection is not cumulative. So for each click you will have single
selections only.
Selections are very important in Photoshop. If you want to edit or apply
any effect, these are applied only on the selected region of the selected
layer. So that, if you use the copy and the paste command, the copied and
pasted project is the selected area of the layer highlighted blue on the
right. In fact, if the selection area does stay the same, but it's
different the layer selected, you will paste in the end the part related to
the Layer selected at that moment. So make sure to select the area and the
layer interested before going on with any action.
You can eventually select more than one single layer, just hold CTRL down
and go on selecting or deselecting the layers in the list. If more layers
are selected, the editings are applied on all and just the layers selected.
Mind that some actions, like the simple cut, can't be done in case
you selected more than one layer. Keep in mind the Smart Object. This
simply puts together two or more layers existing, and treated like a single
layer. Just select such layers and right click on them and go to Convert
to Smart Object. An icon in a corner will remind you such created.
It is particular the Copy Merged, that you find in the section Edit. This
actually copies what is inside the selected region, without caring about
the layer selected. It is copied what you see with all the layers
overlapped, so what you see on your screen.
While working in your project, it is important to manage layers correctly.
In the Layers window, you can hide and shown layers by clicking on the eye
next to each layer. Remember that an hidden layer or object can't be seen
or either modified. It is treated like a non-existing object.
Double-click on a layer to rename it. Make sure to do it so that you
remember the object that the layer is containing.
Very important then is the order of the layers.
This order does set the order of visibility between objects. If a layer is
above another one, the first one is shown above the second one in your
workspace. You can change such order by clicking on a layer and dragging it
up and down. In the future, you may want to lock a layer. A layer locked is
a layer whose object that can be seen, but can't be edited or moved in any
way. To lock a layer just select it and click on the lock icon right above.
Let's see now how to create shapes and to manage objects fast.
Above the Hand button, you find a rectangle button by default. If you
right-click on it, you have the full list of the shapes that you can draw.
Select one and just click and drag properly to draw such. Notice that such
objects admit filling and stroke, indicated through the two icons above,
next to shape. Click on such icons to change the colors of the filling and
the stroke associated. You can then change thickness and size the way you
like. New in Photoshop CC is the dynamic Properties window. This opens
auto when you draw shapes. This window describes it in full, such as stroke
and filling color, gradients or patterns applied. You can edit fast the
stroke angles as well. Choose your personalized color with the icon more
on the right. Remember that, the white rectangle with a red diagonal line
means no color, so invisible or not present. Shapes created are represented
in the Layers window through a rectangle shape in a corner.
Any kind of layer, or shapes or pieces of images can be managed pretty
easily. First of all select the layer or layers you want to treat. This
must be always done. You will often use the Selection Tools. While these
are selected, start editing. If you want to move the object fast, simply
hold CTRL down and drag the object. A rectangle will tell you the offsets
applied. Then, if you want to scale, rotate, or deform the object selected,
you need to go to Edit and to Transform. Then choose between Scale, Rotate,
Flip, and so on.
Remember that is always applied on the layer or layers selected first.
Confirm the transformation applied by accepting in the top right corner.
While in any transformation function, you can edit all through the bar on
top, inserting the precise values. Keep in mind that you can keep the
aspect ratio constant through this icon between W (width) and H (height).
Whenever you want to zoom in and out your workspace, you can use the Zoom
Tool through the lens icon on the left. Otherwise, simply hold ALT down and
use your mouse wheel. Whereas, if you want to move around your workspace,
just use the Hand Tool and drag with your mouse. Or just hold Space down
and move.
Very well, now let's save our project! Go to File and then to Save As...
Choose the name of the file to save. Through format you choose how to save
your work. Choose .png or .jpg if you want to render your image. For
example a background to use in YouTube. Keep it mind that the .png files do
save transparency, which can be seen in your workspace with grey and white
squares alternated. Whereas .jpg ones turn these transparent areas in white
areas, so with total opacity. However, for .jpg files, you can choose the
quality for the image rendered. The higher is the quality, the more size
the file will have.
Save as .psd if you want to save your work as a Photoshop project file.
This means that you are saving the whole list of layers, their order, and
all the editings and the smart objects inside. This is made to modify your
work in a second time.
Very well, this is all to start with Photoshop CC! Watch the next video to
get into image and photo editings in full or create a logo!
Thanks for watching!