Photoshop gurus

[lazarus]

Okay, I've about given up. For some reason, I can't get my head wrapped around Photoshop, and none of the online tutorials I've found really do anything to help.

So, is the book "Photoshop for Dummies" any good? I just need something to help me get going and really figure out the basics. Once I get that down, I'm hoping I can figure out the more subtle and advanced stuff.

But I can't even do basic stuff right now, and it makes my head hurt.

[Qutzupalotl]

1. Check out the layers pallette.

Chances are, when you can't do what you want, the wrong layer is active. You can only work on one layer at a time.

When you're done, you'll probably want to flatten the image (Layers menu) so you can save it as a JPEG or whatever. If a project is intricate, I like to keep a copy in Photoshop format, since it retains the layers (although a multi-layer TIFF will work too).


On edit: you asked about the book. I'm sorry, I haven't read it. I just worked through the tutorials that came with Photoshop years ago. (Do they still provide those?)

[lazarus]

5. Not that I can tell

I'll look around again.

[Don Claybrook]

2. What do you want to do with PS?

There are lots and lots of things one can do with Photoshop. I'm a photographer (amateur), so I've concentrated on learning retouching techniques, "digital darkroom" stuff. I haven't played with lots of the other features, the non-photorealistic stuff. I'd recommend focusing on a smaller subset of Photoshop to start with.

And although I haven't read the Photoshop for Dummies book, I don't like that series. I have a Photoshop Bible and a Photoshop for Photographers book. I use the "bible" just for reference, and I've read the photographer's book cover-to-cover.

[lazarus]

4. I may look at the Bible then

I want to do the fun stuff. You know, FARK style stuff.

And when I get the money to get into photography, which I really want to do, then I'll be emailing you. :D

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Completely self taught here- via play

I got a copy of it about 10 years ago w/a used computer I bought from a friend.. just started messing around with it. I can't speak for anyone else, but personally I find my attitude towards something like that goes a long way in determining my ability to learn it.. i.e. if I treat it as a chore, or a job, I wont go near it. But if I just play with it, man I learn fast. For me, photoshop has been the greatest toy... I can't recommend any books cuz I've never touched 'em. A lot of stuff in photoshop is fairly self-explanatory, I'd say you just need to get comfortable with the interface. I would suggest that you don't let it intimidate you- don't worry about the stuff that you don't know, start with a few simple things, in terms of tweaking images and whatnot- and work from there. Have fun with it, if possible.

[lazarus]

6. I'll go back and try

I really want to play with this. I've got tons of stuff I want to do. That's why I was just looking for something to sort of get the learning curve going, as it were.

I will say, the interface isn't bad, just a bit complex.

Again, I don't want to just jump into things, but I'm finding even the most basic stuff is giving me fits. Just cutting out a head from an image or something. I just can't get it to look right, and have no idea how to do it. I know, lasso, that sort of thing, but it never seems to work.

One question: Does really enlarging the image, working with it, then shrinking it back down work? Does the expansion and subsequent compression affect things adversely?

[Warren DeMontague]

8. Hmmm.

Don't know which version you're using, but with the lasso, there may be a little window up on the top that says "feather".. If that is set to 0px, you will copy the head in question just as the lasso defines it. by changing that number to something else, like 3, you can blur the edges of what it is you're copying. This is nice if you're trying to copy the features of one person's face and put them on someone else's head- gives it kind of a cool effect.

My experience with enlarging and subsequently shrinking images is, yes, after a while you will lose some image quality. If you're really just trying to play with small details on an image, you might be better off just zooming in on it and working with it that way, rather than actually changing the size of the image itself (does that make sense?) the magnifying glass is good for that, otherwise you can use "zoom in" and "zoom out" under the view menu.

Hope that helps-
Good luck!

[lazarus]

10. ah, yes

I hadn't noticed the zoom feature, that's what I was looking for.

I'm using 7.0, btw. I just realised a mistake I've been making: I was using the lasso to crop, and that doesn't work. I need to copy. D'oh!

That's the sort of thing I just haven't quite caught yet.

Ever felt really stupid at something? I'm very, very smart, but Photoshop makes me feel stoopid.

[Warren DeMontague]

11. It's not a question of intelligence

it's a question of familiarity.

I'm pretty smart, but it doesn't mean I could fly the space shuttle without first learning what all the knobs and buttons do.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

12. Get the Photoshop "Wow" Book

They haven't released the one for CS yet, but one of the ways I learned (starting with Photoshop 4) was to use the Wow book...which comes with a CD packed with actions, layer styles, brushes, tool presets, etc...do some of the "one-click" stuff, deconstruct how it's done, play while learning, learn by doing, etc.

Jack Davis is one of the top acknowledged Photoshop gurus. His book will definitely get your learning curve going, and you will be motivated to learn.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0321123972.01._PE32_PIdp-schmoo2,TopRight,7,-26_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321123972/qid=1091917851/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/103-3901296-9682228

[lazarus]

18. What's "CS"

I keep seeing Photoshop CS books. I presume that's different from just the 7.0 I have?

[Qutzupalotl]

19. Creative Suite

It's the successor to version 7.0, I think. Illustrator and InDesign are now at CS.

[TrustingDog]

7. here's some tutes...

a google list:
http://www.google.ca/search?q=photoshop+tutorials&ie=ISO-8859-1&hl=en&meta=

hope this helps. PShop is a hugeBeast... heheh, i've been working in it for years and still have things to learn about it.

gl.

[lazarus]

9. Here's a basic thing I'm dying to do

Okay, this is weird, but it's because of the nickname my sister uses on another board I frequent.

She uses the nickname DaisyDonut (it's derived from her beloved dog).

So I wanted to just get a standard image of a glazed donut, at say a 15 degree angle so you can tell it's a donut, with a daisy growing out of the middle.

Seems easy, no?

So, how would I do this?

The donut images I've been able to find are either
this without the text:

or this


Actually, I found this one, it's perfect, I think:



Next, I to do a GIS for a daisy.



Actually, this is one exactly what I wanted, except I'd need to put the petals back:



So, what do I do? I figure I need to get a blank of both the donut and the daisy first, right?

[sendero]

13. Put the donut...

.... on one layer and the daisy image on another (new) layer.

The only tricky part here is making the non-daisy portions of the daisy layer transparent.

There are several ways to do that, and the best one depends on the image. The easiest to understand would be the Extract function. It will let you draw a loose line around the part of the image you want to save (the actual daisy) and then it will "figure out" the edges. It won't do a perfect job, but there are touch-up tools you can use afterward to make it nice.

Photoshop is awesome but it is not trivial to learn to do some of these things. If you decide to stick with it, I recommend a book called "The Photoshop 7 WOW! Book". Works for me :)

[Warren DeMontague]

14. Nah-- here's what you do.

get the donut and the daisy into photoshop, if you haven't already.

the donut you should be able to isolate easy enough. Actually, you don't really need to do anything to it, just make the image big enough to accomodate the daisy. So go to "image" and then "canvas size"... you'll see windows for width and height. Under height, put in something like "5" (the measurement should be in inches, if not change it with the pull down window to the right) before you hit "OK", there's a little deal at the bottom that says "anchor". There should be a white window in the middle with arrows radiating outward. Click on the bottom middle window (think hollywood squares) this will mean that when you change the size of the image, the part that stays the same is on the bottom, rather than being in the middle. It makes more sense to see it than it does to explain it.

Now, with the flower- if you go over to the lasso tool icon, you can right click it to get to something called the magnetic lasso. This thing is kind of tricky to work with, but if you move slowly, you can generally select along the lines of an object in an image. To close the selection you need to get back to the first point, or else hit the enter key. Remember that if you don't select everything you want the first time, rather than starting over, you can always add to the selection by holding down the shift key while using the lasso or other selection tool, and you can subtract from the selection by holding down the alt key. Another handy tool for selection/deselection is that magic wand right next to the lasso- it will, ideally, select an area of pixels that are similar. You can change the range of pixels it will select by increasing or decreasing that number in the window up top that says "tolerance" when you have the tool selected. If you manage to select, say, everything except the daisy, then you can go up to "select" and choose "inverse", and, viola, you've got the daisy selected.

You also might want to find a picture of a daisy that doesn't have so much noise in it-- google image search is always good for that kind of stuff. Might be easier to isolate the daisy from the background without all that grainy stuff going on.

once you get the daisy isolated, copy it, then paste it onto the donut. You may want to click "Show bounding box" at the top of the screen, this will make it easier to resize images just by clicking on them. The daisy will now be a new layer. Once you get it the size you want and where you want, go to layer, click merge visible, and you're done.

This is just a general guide for what you want to do, and in photoshop there's usually several diff. ways to skin a cat. But hope it helps.

Edit: also, if you have too much of the non-daisy portions of the image, before you merge the layers, you can use the eraser tool to erase the parts you don't like-- without doing anything to the donut. Until the layers are merged, you can edit the daisy layer, for example, without touching the donut layer. If you get open the layers window, you will see which layer is highlighted- that's what you're working on right now. By clicking the other layers you can switch.

[TrustingDog]

15. or just use the eraser... lasso can be tricky for newbies...

open both pics and resize the daisy proportionately.

work on two layers
donut and one for daisy

place daisy on top of the donut (sized to what you want it) in the right spot, then take your 'eraser' tool (can make the brush size a bit small to get all the small corners, etc.) and erase the background from the daisy and you'll see your donut underneath.

then make it as a jpeg when your're finished.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. Yeah, there's several diff. ways to get there. n/t

[Elidor]

16. I hope I can be helpful and concise

To remove the backgrounds from your images, select the lasso tool. Use the view menu or keyboard shortcuts to zoom in to 200% or better.

Hold down the alt key (Option on Mac), and click on an edge of the daisy. Follow the edge a short distance and click again, going all the way around. Every time you click, you set another selection point. When you have outlined the subject to your satisfaction, release the mouse and the alt key. (I could do it myself easier than I can explain the whole process.)

Command-I or Control-I to invert your selection. This selects everything except what you outlined. Hit your delete key and and then Command-D to deselect.

Command-A to select all and Command-C to copy.

Paste your daisy in a previously cut out version of your donut. I'll spare you from masking out the lower part of the donut for now - just select the desired portion with the lasso tool and delete it.

I hope that helps. I wouldn't mind doing it for you, but you'll open a wonderful new world when you learn the selection tools and basic editing. And as someone stressed above, be sure you know which layer you're trying to edit. Photoshop is the coolest program.

Post your results!

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

20. Photoshop Bible

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0764541781/qid=1092073129/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/104-2772392-9893506?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

[DS1]

21. Couldn't tell ya, never bought a dummies book. But

yes, there's an initially steep learning curve, but things worth doing aren't always easy ;-)

[thisismyboomstick3]

22. What areyou using it for?

Web? Graphic Design, Photography?