The images I create pretty much depend on Photoshop. There are some amazing photographers out there who can create a thing of beauty with their camera. I ain't one of those. If you are interested in photography and Photoshop, I'll share with you everything I know about it, which is by no means definitive. As we move forward I hope others will join in to share their knowledge as well.
Photoshop CS4 is many things to many people….depending on what the goal is. Since I tend to make composite images almost exclusively, masking is super important. I need to select various elements from several diferent photos and combine them into a new composition.
In this screencast we take a look at masking another object that has translucent areas…..bee wings. We explore complex selections using Alpha Channels, Layer Masks, and brushing in opacity. I use these techniques all the time. It is important to understand Alpha Channels and what you can acomplish with them. While I touch on Alpha Channels here, this is by no means a definitive tutorial on them. Maybe the next time I’ll address Alpha Channels exclusively.
Please don’t be afraid to leave comments. How else can I get feedback on how to improve my screencasts?
In this screencast we take a look at masking an object that has translucent areas…..plenty of fine fibers, and lots of complexity….a “fuzzy” dandelion. We explore complex selections using Color Range, saving selections as Alpha Channels, Layer Masks, and even a Blending Mode Brush trick…….in Overlay mode! There’s lots of useful information here, so I hope you take the time to check it out.
Photoshop has many keyboard shortcuts….too many to memorize in fact. There are some that get used much more than others. Here are the ones I use every day.
Keyboard Shortcut
Summary
Space Bar
Pressing the space bar activates the hand tool for as long as the space bar is held down. Hold down the space bar, and in CS4 you can “glide” to where you want in the image.
Command/+ (control/+ on PC)
Zoom in. Press and hold the Command key and hit the “+” key. Every time you hit the key you zoom in by 100% increments.
Command/- (control/- on PC)
Zoom out. Press and hold the Command key and hit the “-” key. Every time you hit the key you zoom out by 100% increments.
V
Activates the Move tool
B
Activates the Brush tool
Left Bracket “[“
Decrease brush size
Right Bracket “]”
Increase brush size
Shift/L Bracket “[“
Increase brush edge softness
Shift/R Bracket “]“
Increase brush edge hardness
X
Swaps the foreground and background color in the Tools palate
D
Changes foreground and background to default of White and Black respectively
Option/Command C (alt/control on PC)
Calls the “Canvas Size” dialog box
Option/Command I (alt/control on PC)
Calls the “Image Size” dialog box
P
Activates pen tool
Option/Delete(alt/delete)
Fills selection with foreground color
Command/Delete(alt/delete)
Fills selection with background color
There are more…many more…but these shortcuts are the ones that get me through the day.
In this screencast we take a look at how to edit photos non-destructively with Camera Raw and Smart Objects in Photoshop. I show you some very cool and useful editing tools in Camera Raw, how to bring RAW images into Photoshop as Smart Objects, and how to do “round-trip” editing between Camera Raw and Photoshop……without changing a single pixel! I think you’ll agree it’s THE most flexible way to edit your photos.
You don’t need to know everything there is to know about Bridge in order to use it effectively. I came up with a work flow that is the quickest and easiest way to:
View the photos on your camera card
Decide which ones to copy over
Convert to DNG
Rename them
Copy them into a folder on your machine
Instead of trying to explain every function offered in Bridge, I just give you what you need to get work DONE!
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