CHU HAI COLLEGE OF

HIGHER EDUCATION
Photoshop CS6 Notes
These notes are for those who study the course JCM 106.
KEN KAY
2012/11/29

Table of Context
1 Basic Training ................................................................................................................................ 3
1.1 - Photoshop Settings............................................................................................................... 3
Exercise 1.1 Adjusting Program Settings .......................................................................... 3
1.2 - Opening a File...................................................................................................................... 6
Exercise 1.2 Opening Image Files .................................................................................... 6
1.3 - Scrolling and Zooming ........................................................................................................ 7
Exercise 1.3 Using the Zoom Tool .................................................................................... 7
Exercise 1.4 Handy Scrolling Methods............................................................................. 8
Exercise 1.5 The Navigation Palette ................................................................................. 8
Exercise 1.6 Zooming with the Keyboard ........................................................................ 9
Exercise 1.7 Customizing Palettes .................................................................................. 10
2 Painting and Drawing................................................................................................................... 11
2.1 - Creating new Images ......................................................................................................... 11
Exercise 2.1 Creating a New Canvas .............................................................................. 11
3 Colors & Saving ........................................................................................................................... 13
3.1 - Image Modes ..................................................................................................................... 13
Exercise 3.1 Converting Image Modes ........................................................................... 14
Exercise 3.2 Using Foreground and Background Colours .............................................. 15
4 Selection ....................................................................................................................................... 17
4.1 - Selection Marquees ............................................................................................................ 17
Exercise 4.1 Using Selection Marquees .......................................................................... 18
Exercise 4.2 Copying and Temporarily using the Move Tool......................................... 19
4.2 - Selection Lassos................................................................................................................. 20
Exercise 4.3 Using the Lasso Tool .................................................................................. 20
Exercise 4.4 Using the Polygonal Lasso Tool ................................................................. 23
4.3 - Magnetic Selection Tools................................................................................................... 24
Exercise 4.5 Using the Magic Wand Tool ....................................................................... 24
Exercise 4.6 Using the Magnetic Lasso Tool .................................................................. 25
4.4 - Selection Masks ................................................................................................................. 29
Exercise 4.7 Editing a Selection Mask............................................................................ 29
4.5 - Cropping and Resizing Images .......................................................................................... 33
Exercise 4.8 Adjusting the Canvas Size .......................................................................... 33
Exercise 4.9 Cropping to a Selection .............................................................................. 35
Exercise 4.10 Using The Crop Tool ................................................................................ 35
Exercise 4.11 Resizing an Image .................................................................................... 37
4.6 - Additional Selection Tips ................................................................................................... 38
5 Layers ........................................................................................................................................... 39
5.1 - Creating Layers .................................................................................................................. 39
Exercise 5.1 Creating new Layers from Selections ........................................................ 39

Exercise 5.2 Rearranging Layers .................................................................................... 42

Exercise 5.3 Create more Layers .................................................................................... 43
5.2 - Blending Layers ................................................................................................................. 44
Exercise 5.4 Layer Blending Modes and Transparency .................................................. 44
Exercise 5.5 Using a layer mask ..................................................................................... 45
Exercise 5.6 Putting it all together .................................................................................. 46
6 Touching Up ................................................................................................................................. 48
6.1 Sharpen and Blur Tools ........................................................................................................ 48
Exercise 6.1 Using the Sharpen, Blur and Smudge Tools............................................... 48
Exercise 6.2 Using Sharpen Filters ................................................................................. 49
Exercise 6.3 Using Blur Filters ....................................................................................... 50
6.2 The Clone Stamp Tool.......................................................................................................... 51
Exercise 6.4 Using the Clone Stamp tool ....................................................................... 51
6.3 Healing and Patching ........................................................................................................... 52
Exercise 6.5 Using the Healing Brush and Patch Tool ................................................... 52
6.4 Red Eye ................................................................................................................................ 53
Exercise 6.6 Reducing Red Eye ...................................................................................... 53

Lecture 9A&9B Adobe Photoshop

1 Basic Training
In this section well look at some essential things you need to know in order to use Photoshop
effectively. First of all, well take a look at customizing Photoshops settings and layout to suit your
needs. Then well get you familiar with the Photoshop environment. Last of all, well get acquainted
with the many tools that Photoshop provides for viewing an image in different ways.

1.1 - Photoshop Settings

Before you begin using Photoshop, it can be worthwhile to customized the settings to suit your style of
work and to suit the capabilities of your computer. If your computers a fast one, you might want to
increase the options available. On an older computer, you might increase performance by scaling back
certain options. In the following exercise well change some of the options.

Exercise 1.1 Adjusting Program Settings

1) Open Adobe Photoshop. Depending on your screen resolution, Photoshop will look similar to the
example below. Some of the important areas are labeled.

Menus

Options Bar

Tool Palette

Palettes

Status Bar

2) From the Edit menu select Preferences and then select General or press [Ctrl] [K]. Options like the ones
below will appear.

3) Click on Performance in the list on the left of the options window. This allows you to change to other
options categories without having to return to the Edit menu. You can also change to other options
categories by clicking the Prev and Next buttons.
4) The History States option under the Performance category (usually set to 20) specifies how much
information will be kept in the History list. If you have a computer with a lot of memory to spare,
increasing this number makes it possible to have more undo levels stored in the history list which can
be useful. If you think your computer can handle it, change this setting to a higher number.
5) Use the list at the top or the Next button to move to the Units & Rulers settings.

6) Your choices here will depend on whether you are using Photoshop more for print graphics or for
online graphics. Click on the dropdown list next to Rulers to display a list of available measurement
units.
When you are working mainly with graphics that will be displayed on screen it is best to change the
ruler to pixel measurements. For the time being well set it to millimetres, which is well suited for
print work.
7) Return to the Performance options.

One of the options in here allows you to adjust how much of your computers RAM will be used by
Photoshop. If you use a lot of other programs at the same time as Photoshop, you can reduce the
number to make sure Photoshop isnt using too much memory. Otherwise, you can increase the
number to improve Photoshops performance. As a general rule, its best to make sure that
Photoshop has enough memory available to cover the largest files you might be working on.
8) Use the slider to change the Maximum Used by Photoshop to 70% of the available memory.
9) Click OK when done to close the options.

1.2 - Opening a File

Opening files in Photoshop is much the same as in other applications though some extra options are
available that you may not be used to. The standard open option works as you would expect. You can
open files in the following ways.
From the File menu select Open or use the [Ctrl] [O] keyboard shortcut. This will display a fairly typical
file open dialog like the one shown to the right.

Exercise 1.2 Opening Image Files

1) Use any of the methods from the previous page to open the images called 1-cat.jpg and 1-rose.jpg

As the images open, they will be automatically zoomed out if necessary so that the whole picture will
fit in the available space. In the example above, the images have been displayed at 50% of their
normal size. The bar along the top of each image displays the file name, the zoom amount and the
color mode (which is explained in a later section).
2) Select the Window menu and then select Arrange and Tile. Both images will display side by side.
3) Select the Window menu and then select Arrange and Float All in Windows. Each image will now
display in an overlapping view. You can re-arrange the position of each window by dragging the
grey title bar above the image.
You can also re-size the floating windows by dragging the border of an image.
4) Select the Window menu. A list of open files is at the bottom of the menu with a tick next to the
currently active file.
5) Use the menu to swap between active files or Hold down the [Ctrl] key and press [F6]. This is another
way to switch between open files.

1.3 - Scrolling and Zooming

Changing the view for an image is essential in working with Photoshop. Sometimes you will need to see
a whole image while other times you will want to zoom in close for detailed edits. Photoshop provides a
wide range of methods for viewing an image.

Exercise 1.3 Using the Zoom Tool

1) Click the Zoom icon
on the tool palette to the left of the screen (The icon is near the bottom of
the bar). You can also select this tool by pressing the [Z] key. Your mouse pointer will now change to
an hourglass shape with a + sign in it when it is over an image.
2) Click on an image to zoom in. The spot you clicked on will become centered as Photoshop zooms in
on the image.
3) Click again on the image.
Each time you click, Photoshop will zoom in one more level. The zoom levels follow set amounts. I.e.
100%, 66%, 50%, 33% etc.
4) Keep on clicking until you reach 3200% magnification. The + sign will disappear from your mouse
pointer to indicate that you can zoom no further. At this level of magnification, the individual pixels
in the image appear as large squares.

5) Hold down the [Alt] key on your keyboard. A sign will appear in your mouse pointer indicating that
you can zoom out.
6) Click while the [Alt] key is still held down to zoom out one level.
7) Double-click on the Zoom icon. This will take you to 100% magnification.
8) With your zoom tool still selected, drag on your image.
Dragging in to the right or down will zoom in while dragging to the left or up will zoom out.
9) Click the marquee tool or any of the other icons on the tool palette so that the zoom tool is no longer
selected.
10) Hold down [Ctrl] and [Spacebar] to temporarily enable the Zoom tool. This can be very handy if you
are using another tool and want to quickly change the magnification without having to deselect the
tool you were using.
11) Hold down [Alt] and [Spacebar] to temporarily enable the Zoom out tool.

Exercise 1.4 Handy Scrolling Methods

1) Using one of the methods shown in the previous exercise, zoom in on the rose image so that you are
at 200% magnification.
2) Like many programs, Photoshop provides scrollbars to enable you to move to different parts of the
file (an image in this case). Use the scrollbars along the bottom and right edge of the image to move
around the image.
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In addition to using the scrollbars you can use the hand tool to move around the image.
3) Click on the hand icon on the tool palette or press the [H] hey to select the hand tool.
While your mouse is over the image, your mouse pointer will appear as a hand shape. Move your
mouse over the flower image. Hold your mouse down and drag to change the part of the image that is
currently visible.
4) Click on one of the other icons on the tool palette so that the hand tool is no longer selected.
5) Hold down the space bar. As long as the space bar is held down, the hand tool will be active. This can
be useful when you want to quickly move around the image without deselecting the tool you are
currently using.
6) Double-click on the hand icon in the tool palette. The zoom level will change so that the whole image
fits neatly in the available space. If your palettes are in standard locations around the edge of the
screen it will fit around them as well.

Exercise 1.5 The Navigation Palette

Photoshops Navigator Palette provides several useful tools for zooming and moving around a document.
The bottom section of the palette displays some tools for zooming in on an image and are labelled below.
If the navigator palette isnt showing, you may need to select it from the Window menu to display it.

Click to zoom in
Click to zoom
Enter a number in this box
to zoom to that level of
Drag the marker right to zoom in and left to zoom out.

1) Try some of the navigator palettes zoom tools to zoom in on the image.
2) The main area of the navigator is taken up with a preview of your image. When you are zoomed in on
an image, a red rectangle in the preview indicates which part of the image is visible. You can drag
the red rectangle around the preview to move around the image the same as you would with the hand
tool.
3) Try using the preview to move around the image.

Exercise 1.6 Zooming with the Keyboard

Several keyboard shortcuts are also available for zooming. Photoshop has a lot of keyboard shortcuts
but people who take the effort to remember some of them can work much quicker and more effectively.
1) Make sure you are zoomed in on the rose image.
2) Press the [Home] key to move to the top left corner of the image.
3) Press the [End] key to move to the bottom right corner of the image.
4) Press [Page Up] and [Page Down] to scroll up and down the image.
5) Hold down the [Ctrl] key and press [Page Up] and [Page Down] to scroll left and right in the image.
6) Use the mouse wheel to scroll up and down (depending on your settings this may zoom instead).
7) Hold down the [Ctrl] key and use the mouse wheel to scroll left and right.
8) Hold down the [Ctrl] key and press [+] to zoom in one level.
9) Hold down the [Ctrl] key and press [-] to zoom out one level.
10) Hold down [Ctrl] and [Alt] while pressing the [+] and [-] to resize the window as you zoom in and out
(this will only work if your image is in a floating window).
11) Hold down [Ctrl] and press [0] (zero not the letter O) to zoom so that the image fits on the screen
(same as when you double-clicked the hand tool earlier).
12) Hold down [Ctrl] and press [1]. This will change to 100% magnification.
Most of these options are available on the View menu as well as with shortcuts, though some options
are only available from the menu.
13) From the View menu select Print Size. This will zoom so that the image is displayed at a size that is
approximately the same as its print size.

Exercise 1.7 Customizing Palettes

Like a younger sibling, Photoshops palettes can be useful sometimes, but other times they just get in
the way. Fortunately, it is easy to customize the palettes to suit your work preferences. The following
steps show just a few of the ways that this can be done.
1) Move your mouse over the icon in the top right corner of the Color
palette as shown to the right.
2) Click the icon to display a list of options for that palette (different
palettes will have different options.
3) Double-click on the name of the palette. This will collapse the palette to a smaller size.
4) Double-click the same icon again to return the palette to its normal size.
5) Press the [Tab] key. All palettes will be hidden.
6) Press the [Tab] key again to unhide the palettes.
7) Hold down [Shift] and press [Tab] to hide all but the Tools and Options palettes (along the left and
top).
8) Hold down [Shift] and press [Tab] again to unhide the other palettes.
At the bottom of the tool palette is the change screen mode icon.
Clicking this will switch between the standard screen mode you are in
now, full screen with toolbars and full screen without toolbars. If you
click and hold your mouse button on the icon these three options will
appear as a menu. You can also switch between these three modes by
pressing [F] on your keyboard.
9) Press the [F] key or use the icon to cycle through the screen modes.

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2 Painting and Drawing

2.1 - Creating new Images
Photoshop contains many useful tools for painting and drawing on an image. However, these tools are
useful for more than simply painting and drawing lines on an image. They can also be extremely useful
for touching up images and for use in special artistic effects on an image. The skills learned in this
section will be used frequently in the sections which follow. Most of these exercises will focus on the
use of the Brush tool with its associated options & techniques. Many of the same options apply to other
tools you will discover.

Exercise 2.1 Creating a New Canvas

In Photoshop, the term canvas is used to refer to the area occupied by an image. When you create a new
image, you are creating a new canvas ready to create a picture on, just as a painter might grab a blank
canvas to paint on. Remember though that it takes more than a paint brush and a blank canvas to make a
work of art. Likewise, knowing how to use Photoshop wont make you an artist any more than knowing
how to type will make you a poet. It can certainly help you to make good use of your talents though and
even improve on them.
1) If you still have any images open in Photoshop, then from the File Menu select Close All or press
[Ctrl] [Alt] [W].

2) Create a new canvas by going to the File menu and selecting New or by pressing [Ctrl] [N]. A dialog
like the one below will appear.

The Name box allows you to specify a name for the image. You can also do this when you save the
image.
3) Enter Painting Practice in the Name box.
The Preset box provides you with certain standard image sizes to choose from. Some of the more
common ones in the list are explained below. Using Adobe Photoshop CS6 Painting and Drawing
Standard photo sizes in the Photo category. For example, the photo prints you would normally get

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from a Kodak store would be approximately 4 inches high and 6 inches wide.
Common screen resolutions in the Web category. For example, if you were creating an image to be
used as a Windows wallpaper background, you could select a standard screen resolution preset such as
1024 x 768.
4) Leave the Preset box on Custom which allows you to specify your own image dimensions.
5) Set both the Width and the Height to 500 with Pixels selected as the unit. You can also specify
dimensions in other units such as centimeters or inches.
6) Change the Resolution to 300 pixels / inch. This is a common setting for images that will be printed.
7) Change the Color Mode option to CMYK Color if it isnt already. Color Modes are explained in the
next section.
8) Leave the Background Contents option as White.
9) When all of the options are as they appear in the example on the previous page, Click OK.
A new image canvas will be created.

Saving Images
Photoshop is capable of saving images in many different formats. Generally though, it is best to save
your work in Photoshops own PSD format and only save a copy in a different format when youre
ready to use the completed image elsewhere. This is because PSD files remember additional Photoshop
specific details about your image such as layer and channel information. Keeping your working copies
in this format ensures that you wont lose any information when you save and you can always come
back to it when you need to do additional editing.
1) From the File menu select Save as or press [Ctrl] [Shift] [S].
2) A dialog like the one below will appear. If you specified an image name when you created the file
then that name will be filled in already for the filename. Make sure the filename is Painting Practice.
3) Make sure the Format is set to Photoshop *.PSD which should be the first format in the list. Normally
the last format used will be selected by default.
4) Click Save to save the image.

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3 Colors & Saving

Color is important in most art forms. For example, a painter needs to know how to select and mix colors
to produce the right tones in a picture. A Photographer needs to understand how different lenses, filters
and film types can affect the colors in the final print. Likewise, in Photoshop the quality of your work
will often depend on how well you can work with color.
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Color modes
available for
new images.

3.1 - Image Modes

As discussed in previous sections, raster images are made of pixels. Each pixel can be a different color,
though the range of colors for each pixel depends on the images colour mode. When you create a new
image in Photoshop, one of the options you can choose is the colour mode of the image. You can also
convert existing images to different colour modes, though image quality often suffers when converting
from one mode to another. Some of the colour modes supported by Photoshop are described below.
RGB Mode
RGB (Red Green Blue) images are made up of three channels. One channel is for the red tones in the
image, one for the green tones and one for the blue. Each of these channels combines, to create the
colours in the image. This is similar to the way a TV screen uses red, green and blue dots to make a
picture.
CMYK Mode
CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow Black) mode is the preferred mode for work that will be printed. That is
because professional printers generally print with a mix of cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink. In
Photoshop, a CMYK image has four channels. Each channel represents one of the colours by a

percentage value. I.e. a higher value for a particular channel means that more of that colour is being
used. If you imagine the image being printed, then more ink creates a darker image. Similarly, higher
values in each channel leads to darker colors. In the example below, the Cyan channel shows the areas
of the image where cyan ink would be used in printing the image. Darker areas show that more cyan ink
would be used in those areas of the image during printing.
Greyscale Mode
What we often think of as a black and white image is not really black and white. Rather it is made up of
many shades of grey ranging from white through to black. A greyscale image has only one channel.
This channel has 256 values from 0 (black) to 255 (white). Photoshop can also be set to show greyscale
value as a percentage, where 0% is white and 100% is black.
Bitmap Mode
Bitmap mode images use only white or black pixels with no shades of grey used. The same picture used
as a greyscale image above is shown below in bitmap mode.

Exercise 3.1 Converting Image Modes

1) Open the 1-rose.jpg image in Photoshop.
The title bar across the top of the image will tell you that this is an RGB image. JPEG files can only be
saved as RBG or Greyscale images.

The number 8 after RGB indicates that the image has 8 bits per channel.
8 bits = 28 = 256 colours per channel
3 channels make a 24 bit image since 224 is approximately 16.7 million colours (or 256256256).
2) From the Image menu select Mode and then select CMYK Color.
You may notice a slight change in the colour of the image as the colour mode is changed. This mode is
more suitable for accurate reproduction of work that will be
printed professionally.
3) From the Image menu select Mode. You will notice that the
Bitmap and Duotone modes are not available as you cant convert a colour image to either of these
modes. Select Grayscale from the Mode menu. You may get a
message confirming that you will lose colour.
When you convert an image to greyscale mode, the colour information
is lost. Changing the image mode back to RGB or CMYK makes it
possible to add colour but wont restore the old colours. The only way
to restore the colour is to use the undo command or History Palette to
reverse the mode change.

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4) From the Image menu select Mode. You will notice that
all of the image modes are now available. Select Bitmap
from the modes. A dialog like the one to the right will
appear.
5) Leave the Resolution options as they are and click OK.
You will now have a 2 bit image. In other words, the
image only has 2 colours (22) which are black and white.
There are no grey or coloured pixels. The effect is most
obvious at 100% magnification as shown to the right.

Exercise 3.2 Using Foreground and Background Colours

1) From the Edit menu select Fill.

2) Make sure the Use option is set to Foreground Color and click OK.
The image will now be filled with the foreground colour. You can also use the Fill option to fill your
image with the background colour. Additionally, some shortcuts can be used.
3) Press [Ctrl] [Delete] to fill the image with the background colour.
4) Press [Alt] [Delete] to fill the image with the foreground colour.
The toolbox has a Fill tool

which works in a similar way to the menu option. The Fill tool is also

grouped with a Gradient tool.

5) Hold your mouse button on the Fill tool to show the Gradient tool and then select the Gradient tool.
You can also use the [Shift] [G] tool to select the Gradient tool.

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6) The Options Palette along the top will show gradient options. The first of these allows you to choose
from several gradient presets. Make sure the first one (foreground to background) is selected.

16

7) Next on the Options Palette is a selection of gradient types.

Make sure the first

one is selected.
8) Drag across the image to create a gradient fill. The point you start dragging from will have the
foreground colour. The point you finish dragging at will have the background colour. The areas in
between with have an even colour blend.

9) Try using some of the other gradient styles.

Linear gradient

Radial Gradient

Angle Gradient

Reflected Gradient Diamond Gradient

10) Click the Switch Foreground and Background Colours icon near the colour picker icons or
press the [X] key to swap the foreground and background colours.
11) Click the Default Foreground and Background Colours icon or press the [D] key. This will
change the foreground colour to black and the background colour to white.
12) Save the image as Colours.psd and close the image

4 Selection
When you are working with raster images, it can be difficult to select the part of the image you need to
edit. That is because your computer wont be able to distinguish different parts of the image and will
only see it as a collection of pixels. For this reason, knowing how to select areas in an image is crucial
to being able to work effectively in Photoshop. Fortunately, Photoshop provides a wide range of tools to
make the task simpler
Several marquee tools are available for selecting shaped areas in an image. A range of lasso tools can be
used for selecting less regular shapes. Other tools such as the magic wand tool and selection masks
make it possible to be very precise in what parts of the image you select.

4.1 - Selection Marquees

Photoshops tool palette provides four selection marquee
tools. A selection marquee is an outline that is created
around a certain part of an image. That part of the image can
then be copied, coloured etc without affecting the rest of the
image.
The four standard marquees are described below.
Rectangular - Used to select rectangular shaped areas. Holding down [Shift] while you select forces a
symmetrical square shaped area. Holding down [Alt] while selecting selects from the
middle outwards.
Elliptical - Used to select elliptically shaped areas. Holding down [Shift] while you select forces a
symmetrical circle shaped area. Holding down [Alt] while selecting selects from the
middle outwards.
Single Row / Column Use to select single line of pixels either horizontally or vertically.
The Marquee tool is selected with the [M] key. You can use [Shift] [M] to switch between the
rectangular and elliptical marquee tool.

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Exercise 4.1 Using Selection Marquees

1) Open the file called Selections.png. This image contains several shapes that we can use as
practice in selecting parts of the image.

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2) Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool by clicking on the icon or by pressing [M]. Your mouse will
change to a cross shape + when it is over the picture.
3) Move your mouse to the top corner of the rectangle in the picture.
4) Drag to the opposite corner to select the rectangle. A moving outline will surround the selected
area.
5) From the View menu select Extras or press [Ctrl] [H]. The area is still selected but the marquee
border has been hidden which can be handy if you dont need it showing.
6) Press [Ctrl] [H] to show the selection marquee again.
You can cancel a selection by clicking outside the selected area, though that is a bad habit to get in
to since its generally not a good idea to click on your picture without a specific reason. A better
way is to use the deselect command.
7) From the Select menu select Deselect or press [Ctrl] [D].
8) Try selecting other rectangular areas while holding down the [Shift] key, the [Alt] key and both.
9) Use the [Ctrl] [D] shortcut after each one.
10) From the Tool Palette, switch to the Elliptical Marquee Tool by holding your mouse on the
Rectangular Marquee Tool icon and then clicking the Elliptical Marquee Tool icon, or by pressing
[Shift] [M].

Rectangle shapes are easy enough to select from one corner to another but not ellipses since they have
corners. It isnt as hard to estimate the centre of an ellipse though so selecting from the centre out using
the [Alt] key is a lot simpler. The circle in the Selections image has a spot in the centre to make it easier.
Because we want to select a perfect circle shape, we will need to hold down the [Shift] key as well.
11) Move your mouse over the spot in the middle of the circle.
12) Hold down the [Shift] and [Alt] keys and then drag outwards until the circle is selected.
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13) If your selection wasnt quite centred, move your mouse inside the selected area and drag to
reposition it. You can also use your arrow keys to nudge it a small amount in any direction you
need.
14) Leave the circle selected.

Exercise 4.2 Copying and Temporarily using the Move Tool

1) Select the Rectangular Marquee tool and select the rectangle shape.
Just as you can temporarily select the Move and Zoom tools using shortcuts, you can also temporarily
select the move tool by holding down the [Ctrl] key while another tool is selected.
2) Hold down [Ctrl] to temporarily select the Move tool.
3) Hold down the [Alt] key as well as the [Ctrl] key to change the move tool to copying mode.
4) Drag the rectangle down to the orange area at the bottom of the image. This time a copy of the
selected rectangle will be left behind instead of being filled with the background colour.
5) With the rectangle still selected, hold down [Ctrl] and press the arrow keys on your keyboard to move
the selected area by a small amount in each direction. This can be an easy way to make fine
adjustments to your positioning.
6) Move the rectangle in to the position shown below and then press [Ctrl] [D] to deselect it.
7) Press [Ctrl] [Shift] [S] for Save as.
8) Save the image as a Photoshop PSD file named Selections.psd.

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4.2 - Selection Lassos

Photoshops lasso tools allow you to select areas that arent a regular shape. There are three lasso tools.
The regular Lasso tool allows you to make freehand selections. The Polygonal Lasso tool is used to
make straight edged selections. The Magnetic Lasso tool has been introduced in recent versions of
Photoshop to combine the features of the lasso tool with the features of the Magic Wand tool. You can
select the Lasso tool with the [L] key and you can switch between the lasso tools using [Shift] [L].

Exercise 4.3 Using the Lasso Tool

1) Zoom in so that you can clearly see the front of the car.

2) Select the Lasso tool by clicking the icon on the Tool Palette or by pressing [L]. Your mouse pointer
will change in to a lasso shape when it is over the image.
To select using the lasso tool, you need to make sure that the tip of the lasso is over the area you want to
begin selecting from.
3) Move your mouse over the top corner of the left headlight.
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4) Carefully drag around the border of the headlight to select it.

5) Selecting areas of the image can be difficult with an unusually shaped mouse pointer. Press the [Caps
Lock] key to change the mouse pointer to a crosshair shape. The mouse pointer will stay in this shape
for as long as Caps Lock is turned on and will also work with many of Photoshops other tools.
6) Press [Ctrl] [D] to deselect the headlight and then try it again with Caps Lock turned on.
If you dont go all the way around the shape then your starting and finishing points will be joined by
a straight line to complete the selection.
Selections can also be refined by adding and subtracting areas. If you select while holding down the
[Shift] key you will be adding to what is selected. If you select while holding down the [Alt] key you
will be subtracting from what is selected.
7) Hold down the [Alt] key and select the yellow part of the headlight. Since we are removing from the
selection, it doesnt matter if you stray in to the red area. In fact, its a good idea to do just that to
make sure you dont miss any of it.

8) Hold down the [Shift] key while selecting the same section of the other headlight. You might want to
turn on [Caps Lock] while you do it.

9) Press [Ctrl] [H] to temporarily hide the selection marquee (the headlights will still be selected)

10) Set your foreground colour to blue

11) From the Edit menu select Fill or press [Shift] [F5].
12) In the Fill dialog set the following options.

22

Because we have an active selection, only the selected areas of the image will be affected by the fill.
13) Click OK to add the fill. The middle section of the headlights should now have a light blue tint.
14) Press [Ctrl] [H] to redisplay the selection marquee and then press [Ctrl] [D] to deselect the
headlights.

15) Press [Ctrl] [S] to save the changes to the file.

16) Press the [Caps Lock] key to change the mouse pointer back to its normal shape if it has been turned
on as the crosshair might not be so helpful when you are using other tools (or if you start to type).
17) Change the view to 100% magnification (you can use the [Ctrl] [Alt] [0] shortcut).
18) Practice selecting areas of the image using each of the selection tools you have used and using the
[Shift] key, the [Alt] key and both together.

Exercise 4.4 Using the Polygonal Lasso Tool

1) Switch to the Polygonal Lasso tool by selecting it from the Tool Palette or by pressing [Shift] [L].
2) Click in one of the corners of the star shape.

23

2) Click in the middle of the top section.

3) Move around the rest of the shape, clicking on each corner. When you return to the starting point, a
small circle will appear next to your mouse pointer to let you know you can complete the selection.

4) Hold down [Ctrl] and [Alt] and then drag the selected shape to place a copy of it in the bottom

6) Press [Ctrl] [D] to deselect the copied shape.

7) Press [Ctrl] [S] to save your changes.

4.3 - Magnetic Selection Tools

Photoshops magic wand tool can be used to select areas of a similar colour in the image. While it is
being used, you can click on a part of the image, and all areas that have a similar colour will also be
selected.
The most important option with the magic wand is the tolerance options. Remember that each channel
in an image has 256 shades. The tolerance can be any value from 0 to 255. If a lower number is set for
tolerance, then only colours that are very close to the colour of the pixel you click on will be selected.
With a higher tolerance more will be selected. With a tolerance of 0, only colours exactly the same as
the pixel you click on will be selected. Sometimes you may need to try it a few times with different
tolerance amounts before you get it right.
The Magnetic lasso tool works like the regular lasso tool, except that the selection will follow parts of
the image where there is a sudden change from one colour to another.

Exercise 4.5 Using the Magic Wand Tool

1) Select the Magic Wand tool by clicking the icon in the Tool Palette or by pressing [W].
2) In the Options Palette, set the tolerance to 15.
3) Click inside the rectangle to select it.
4) In the Options Palette turn off the Contiguous option. This will mean that all similarly coloured areas
of the image will be selected, not just adjacent areas.
5) Click on the Deselect the rectangle and then click on it again. Now all similarly coloured areas will
be selected.
6) Turn the Contiguous option back on.
7) Click on the windscreen of the car. Only part of it will be selected.
8) Change the tolerance to 60 and try again. It should all be selected now depending on which part of the
windscreen you clicked on.

9) Select the Rectangular marquee [M] and make a rectangular selection around the whole car.
10) Switch back to the magic want tool [W].
11) Hold down [Alt] and click inside the area around the car to remove it from the selection. Now the
only the car should be selected.

24

25

12) Copy the car to the bottom area of the image, deselect and save the changes to the file.

Exercise 4.6 Using the Magnetic Lasso Tool

The Magic Wand tool is useful when you are selecting areas that are a similar colour as seen in the
previous exercise. Its not so useful when there are no such areas. This is where the Magnetic Lasso
comes in handy.
1) Open the image called park.jpg. We will use this image as the background for another image that we
will work with.
2) Open the image called portrait.jpg.

We need to select the boy so we can copy him in to the other image. There are no obvious areas to use
the magic wand tool with and tracing around the subject with the Lasso tool would require an
unreasonable amount of precision. The Magnetic Lasso provides an ideal solution. As you trace around
an area with this tool, the selection marquee will snap on to areas of the image where there is a sudden
change in contrast.
3) Selecting an irregular shape like a human in a photo requires a lot of precision which is easier at
higher magnification. Zoom in on the picture so you can see a close up view of the area shown
below.

26

4) Select the Magnetic Lasso tool from the Tool Palette or from the
[Shift] [L] shortcut.
5) Take a look at the options available in the Options Palette. You will
notice three settings in the middle of the palette. In some cases you may need to change these options
to improve your results with the tool.
Width

How far from your current position Photoshop will check for colour changes.

Edge Contrast

How much difference in colour there needs to be before the tool detects the change.

Frequency

How frequently Photoshop will add fastening points.

6) Click on a point along the edge of the area you want to select.

7) Slowly move the mouse around the edge of the area you are selecting. There is no need to hold the
mouse button down. A selection marquee will follow the outline based on the colour contrast
between the area you are selecting and the surrounding area. At regular intervals, Photoshop will
place Fastening Points, small dots which indicate anchor points for the selection. If you want to
make sure the selection goes along a certain path (such as when you get to a corner) you can click to
place your own fastening points wherever you need them.

You may need to

click to make sure
a fastening point is
placed in spots like
these.

8) If you accidentally get a fastening point where you dont want one, press [Del] to remove the last
point placed (pressing [Esc] will cancel completely if needed so you can start over again). Dont
worry if its not too exact. Well neaten up the selection later.

Unwanted
fastening
points can be easily
removed. Press [Del]
until you get back to the
last good point and then
continue making your
selection.

9) When you reach the edge of the window, hold down [Space] to switch to the hand tool. Then you
can move the image, allowing you to continue selecting around the edge.

27

10) It can take a long time but it gets easier with practice. Continue tracing all the way around the
outline of the boy until you reach the bottom of the picture.

28

Tracing along the bottom of the image wont give a very good selection since there is no obvious line to
follow. While you are using the Magnetic Lasso tool you can temporarily select either of the other Lasso
tools. Clicking while holding down [Alt] will temporarily engage the Polygonal Lasso tool. Dragging
while holding down [Alt] will temporarily engage the regular Lasso tool.
11) Hold down [Alt] and click on the bottom right corner of the area we are selecting to temporarily turn
on the Polygonal Lasso.

12) Move the mouse across to the bottom left corner and click to create a straight lined selection across
the bottom (You can hold down [Space] and use the hand to move across).
13) You should now be back near your starting point. You can press [Enter] to close up the selection
area or if you want to be more precise, you can move your mouse over your starting point and click
when a small circle appears next to your mouse.

14) Zoom out to see the whole selection.

29

4.4 - Selection Masks

Even using an advanced tool like the Magnetic Lasso wont always give you perfect results. You may
still have unwanted bits selected or there may still be important bits missing from the selection. You
could use [Shift] and [Alt] along with the lasso tools to perfect the selection but that could be a little
tedious with a complex image.
A mask is generally used to hide something. In Photoshop, a selection mask is used to indicate the parts
of the image that are not selected. You can edit and refine a selection mask using your standard painting
and drawing tools. Selection masks allow you to adjust the selection using your painting tools which is
both easier and more precise.

Exercise 4.7 Editing a Selection Mask

15) Click the Edit in Quick mask icon on the Tool Palette.

The areas of the image that are not selected will now be shaded with a red colour (the mask).

30

In some pictures, a red tinted mask might be difficult to see against the rest of the image but it can be set
to any colour you want to make it easier to see. Its only for editing the selection and its colour will
make no difference to the final image.
1) Display the Channels Palette. Remember that if a palette is hidden you can display it from the
Window menu.

You will see that the quick mask has been added to the channels palette. It is shown in italic text to
indicate that it is only a temporary channel.
2) Double click the Quick Mask channel in the list to show its options.

3) Click the Color box to display the Colour Picker. Change the colour to one that will be easier to see
against the rest of the picture (such as green). If you need you can also change the opacity option to

adjust how much of the image will be visible through the mask though 50% is usually a pretty good
amount. Click OK to close the Quick Mask Options.

31

4) Select the Brush tool [B].

Make sure the brush opacity is set to 100%.

5) Set the background and foreground colour to their defaults [D].

You can edit the mask by simply painting over it. Any parts that are painted over with black will add to
the mask (add to the parts that are not selected). Any parts that are painted over with ill take away from
the mask (add to the parts that white w are selected).
6) Paint a line over the unshaded part of the image.
7) Click in the Edit in Standard Mode icon to see the result.

8) Return to Quick Mask mode.

(you can press [Q] to switch between the two modes)

9) Swap the foreground and background colours [X]

to make white your painting colour.

10) Paint over the line you just drew to remove it.
11) What follows is an exercise in painting. Zoom in on the image and neaten up the edges of the
selection, using the following as a guide. Use your own judgement in selecting brushes and sizes.

In this example, part of the hair that

should have been selected has been
missed. Painting over it using white
as a foreground colour will uncover
it (using a smaller brush is a good
idea).

In

this

32

example,

part

of

the

background that we dont want was

selected. Painting over it using black
as the foreground will cover it with
the mask so that it wont be selected.

12) Return to Standard Editing Mode [Q].

13) Save a copy of the image in Photoshop format [Ctrl] [Shift] [S] as portrait.psd.

4.5 - Cropping and Resizing Images

Cropping an image refers to trimming the edges of an image to removes bits you dont need. It can be
very handy when you want to correct a photo where the camera wasnt aimed straight or where you
want to concentrate on a smaller section of the photo.

33

One way you can crop an image is to use adjust the size of the image canvas. Changing the image
canvas to a smaller size will trim off the edges of the image to make the new size.
Another way is to Make a selection and then use the crop command on the image menu. This will trim
off all the parts of the image outside the selected area.
The third way is to use the versatile crop tool. This tool allows you to carefully select the area of the
image that will be kept before trimming off the rest.

Exercise 4.8 Adjusting the Canvas Size

1) Open the image 1-rose.jpg.
2) Select Canvas Size from the Image menu or by right clicking on the bar across the top of the image.

34

3) You can change the measurement units if required. Set the units to mm if that is not already selected.
4) Change both the height and width to 200.
5) Click on the top-middle Anchor point. This will mean that the top, middle part of the image
will be the point that all other changes are measured from. When the image is trimmed, the
trimming will occur on the other three edges.
6) Check that the options appear as below and click OK.

7) If a message like the one below appears, click Proceed.

The image will now be trimmed to fit the new size.

8) Close the image without saving changes.

Exercise 4.9 Cropping to a Selection

1) Open the selections.psd file.
2) Make a selection around the bottom car. It doesnt matter what type of selection you use. A
rectangular marquee or a lasso selection would be equally effective since were only using the
selection to set the boundaries of what will be cropped.

35

3) From the Image menu select Crop. The image will be trimmed to the edges of the selection.

4) Deselect [Ctrl] [D] and then close the file without saving the changes.

Exercise 4.10 Using The Crop Tool

1) Open the portrait.psd file if it is not already open.
2) Select the Crop tool by clicking the icon on the Tool Palette
pointer will change shape when you move it over the image.

or by pressing [C]. Your mouse

3) With the crop tool selected, drag a rectangular shaped area around the boys head.

36

The picture is darkened around the area you selected to indicate what will be cropped. You can drag the
small markers around the edge of adjust the cropped area
4) If necessary, resize the crop area so it is similar to the example above.
5) Move your mouse pointer outside the crop area and it will change in to an arrow shape.

When

your mouse pointer is outside the crop area you can drag to rotate the crop area. The centre of
rotation is marked by a point inside the crop area (which you can drag to move). Drag outside the
area, rotating the crop area to the angle shown below.
6) Drag inside the crop area to move it if necessary.
To complete the crop you either press [Enter] to complete the crop or [Esc] to cancel the crop.
7) Check that the crop area matches the example shown below and press [Enter] to complete the crop.

Exercise 4.11 Resizing an Image

1) Open the file 1-cat.jpg.
2) Select Image Size from the Image menu or by right clicking on the bar across the top of the image.

37

The image size options will appear.

At the bottom you will see a Constrain Proportions option. As long as this is selected, height
and width will be linked as indicated by the chains. This means that if you adjust the height, the
width will change also to keep the image proportions. Changing the width will also change the
height. Its best to keep this option on except in cases where you specifically want to stretch the image
out of proportion.
The top section displays the image dimensions in pixel measurements which are useful if your image is
going to be used on screen. The middle section shows the image dimensions in print measurements such
as millimetres or inches which is useful if you intend to use the image for printing. It also shows the
resolution which will determine the level of detail in the printed image. The examples on the following
page show the effect of images at different resolutions.

4.6 - Additional Selection Tips

If you want to quickly adjust the size of a selection marquee, you can use the Transform Selection
option on the View menu. Try it out by making a selection and selecting the Transform Selection
option. You can then resize the selection in the same way that you resize a crop area with the crop
tool.

In the Select menu, try out some of the Modify options (such as expand which can increase the area
covered by your selection).

When you select an area, you can choose a Feather option from the Options Palette before making
a selection or from the Select menu after making a selection. Feathering softens the edge of the
selection. To test it out, try the following:

Select an area on an image.

From the Select menu choose Feather [Alt] [Ctrl] [D] and enter a feather amount of 20.

Press [Ctrl] [Shift] [I] to inverse the selection or select the Inverse option from the Select
menu. Now everything outside the marquee will be selected, but the selection will have a
feathered (soft) edge.

Press [D] the set your background colour to white.

Press [Ctrl] [Delete] to fill the area with your background colour and then deselect [Ctrl] [D].
You will see the effect of the feathered selection

Selection made without feathering

Selection made with feathering

When you are using the crop tool, you can use the [Shift] key and the [Alt] key to modify your
selection just as you can with the rectangular marquee tool
<END OF Chap 9A>

38

5 Layers
One of the most useful features of applications like Photoshop is the ability to work with layers. Layers
allow you to have several pieces of images in the same file, which can be arranged on top of each other
to create a complete image. The following examples show the sort of things that can be done with layers
in an image.
39

Change the order of overlapping image elements

Change the position of overlapping elements

5.1 - Creating Layers

In Photoshop, you can create a new layer with nothing on it which can be used for editing. You can also
create a new layer by either cutting or copying a selected section from an existing layer. Additionally, a
new layer may already be created when you paste a copied section from another image or when you add
additional image components such as text. The exercises which follow will use examples of some of
these methods.

Exercise 5.1 Creating new Layers from Selections

1) Open Selections.psd.
2) Select the upper rectangle in the image using any method learned previously.

40

3) From the Layers menu select New and then Layer via Copy [Ctrl] [J].

4) Select the circle shape using the elliptical marquee tool (remember you can hold down [Shift] to make
the selection circle shaped and hold down [Alt] to select from the middle).
5) From the Layers menu select New and then Layer via Cut [Shift] [Ctrl] [J].

A message like the one shown here will appear. You cant select the circle because it is on a different
layer.
6) Click OK to close the message.
7) View the Layers Palette (usually grouped with the Channels Palette).

You will see 2 layers. The top layer will be a new layer you have just created (most likely called Layer
1). The other one will be your Background layer. When you create a new image, it will usually have a
background layer unless you created a new image with the transparent option. When a layer is selected it
means that any edits or selections will affect that layer and not the other parts of the image. You can
click on a layer to select it.

41

8) Click on the Background layer to select it.

9) Select the circle shape if it is not still selected.
10) From the Layers menu select New and then Layer via Cut [Shift] [Ctrl] [J].
This time there shouldnt be a problem since youve selected the layer that the circle is on. Look in
the Layers Palette and there will now be three layers. Next to each layer you can see a small preview
of the layers contents which helps you to know which layer is which. A good way to identify layers
is by changing the properties of a layer.
12) Double click on the name of the first layer (which should contain the rectangle).

Type Rectangle as a new layer name and press [Enter].

13) Rename the second layer as Circle. You can also change the colour of a layer in the Layer Palette.
14) Right click on the Rectangle layer and select a colour for the layer from the menu.

15) Change the colour of the circle layer.

Exercise 5.2 Rearranging Layers

One of the big benefits of layers is that it is easy to rearrange different parts of the image.
1) Select the Rectangle layer in the Layers Palette.
2) Temporarily select the move tool by holding down [Ctrl]. If that doesnt work for some reason (it
may not work when certain tools are selected, you can select the move tool by pressing [V] or by
clicking the icon in the Tools Palette.
42

3) Move the rectangle to the right. You will see another rectangle underneath since we created the new
layer by copying the selection.

4) Select the Circle layer in the Layers Palette.

5) Move the circle to the right. Since we created the circle layer by cutting, the area left behind by the
circle will be filled with whatever your background colour is.

5) Move the circle so that it overlaps the rectangle.

The circle will cover the original rectangle that is a part of the background layer, but it will be covered
by the new rectangle layer. The stacking order is determined by the order in the layers palette.
6) In the layers palette, drag the circle layer so that it is above the rectangle layer.

The circle will now cover both rectangles.

Exercise 5.3 Create more Layers

1) Select the top car in the image using one of the methods learned in the previous section (Hint-make
sure you have the background layer selected first).

43

2) From the Edit menu select Copy or press [Ctrl] [C].

3) From the Edit menu select Paste or press [Ctrl] [V] to paste the selection as a new layer.
4) Rename the new layer as Car. You can change the layer colour if you want.

To create a new blank layer you can go to the Layer menu and then select New and Layer, or press
[Shift] [Ctrl] [N]. You can also click on the new layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette.

5) Use one of the methods just described to create a new layer.

6) Move the new layer below the Car layer and rename it Shadow (If you used the menu to create the
layer you would have already been asked for the layers name).

7) Select the brush tool by pressing [B] or clicking

8) Set the brush options as follows.

Turn on the airbrush option -

Select a brush diameter of 30 pixels with a hardness of 0%

Set the flow to 2%

Change

the

foreground

default colours with the icon

colour to black. You can do this quickly by choosing

or by pressing [D].

9) Use the airbrush to gently shade in a shadow under the car. Because you are doing it on a layer under
the car, it will be behind the car and wont affect the car layer itself. Also, because it is on a different
layer, if you dont like the result it is easy to fix it without ruining the rest of your image.

5.2 - Blending Layers

Once you have an image with more than one layer, the layers can be blended together in a variety of
ways. One way is to use modes. By default, a layer will block out any sections of layers that it covers.
Blending modes allow you to combine layers in a variety of ways. Another way is to use layer
transparency settings to simply make a layer partially transparent. A layer mask can also be used to hide
parts of a layer a bit more selectively.

Exercise 5.4 Layer Blending Modes and Transparency

1) Select the Circle layer.
2) Locate the Opacity option on the layers palette. To use this option you can either
click the arrow and drag the slider or you can enter amounts in the box. Higher amounts mean the
layer will be more opaque. Lower amounts mean the layer will be more transparent.
3) Adjust the Opacity to see how the Circle layer looks on different settings.

100% opacity

70% Opacity

30% Opacity

4) Select the Rectangle layer.

5) Move the rectangle so that it overlaps the car (remember you can hold down [Ctrl] to temporarily
access the move tool).

44

The Modes options one of the first options you will find in the layers palette.
Clicking on Normal will display a list of layer blending modes. These are exactly
the same as the modes you used earlier with the painting tools. Selecting a
mode will affect the way the layer will blend with layers that are beneath
it. These layer blending modes are often used to create special visual
effects in an image.
6) Try some blending modes to see how the rectangle will blend with the car beneath it.

Multiply mode

Difference mode

Overlay mode

Color mode

Exercise 5.5 Using a layer mask

1) Make sure you have the new image with the car layer selected.
2) Create a layer mask by clicking the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette.
A layer mask thumbnail will appear next to the layer thumbnail in the layer palette. It will be all
white indicating that the entire layer is currently visible. A layer mask is very similar to a selection
mask. With a layer mask, you paint over areas with black that you want to be hidden. Painting over
hidden areas with white will make them visible again. Painting over areas with any other colour will
make them partially visible. The layer mask thumbnail will show the hidden areas of the image. The
main benefit of a layer mask is that it allows you to hide parts of a layer without actually deleting
pixels. Time to test it out.
3) Press [D] to set your foreground and background colours to the default colours. Normally black will
be the default foreground colour with white as the background but the reverse is true with a layer
mask. Press [X] to swap the colours so that black is the foreground colour.
4) Press [B] to select the brush tool. Select a brush size that is big enough to see clearly so you can see
the effect on the layer mask. Make sure the Mode is set to normal and Airbrush off, with Opacity
and Flow set to 100.
Before painting on a layer mask it is important to make sure you actually have the layer mask

45

selected, otherwise you might end up painting a black streak across your layer. If the layer mask is
selected, it will have a thick line around the layer mask thumbnail. Otherwise the layer thumbnail
will have the line around it. If in doubt it doesnt hurt to click on the layer mask thumbnail before
painting on the mask.
5) Make sure you have the layer mask selected and paint a line across the car. The area you paint across
will become transparent.
6) Paint some more lines across the car to make more areas transparent. The transparent areas will be
shown as black areas on the layer mask thumbnail.
7) Press [X] the swap the colours so that white becomes the foreground colour.
8) Paint across the lines you have created. Transparent areas you paint across with white will become
visible again.
9) Make black the foreground colour again. Set the brush Opacity to 50%. Paint over the car and the
affected areas will become partially transparent.
10) Press [D] to set default colours again (white will be the foreground).
11) Press [Alt] [Delete] to fill with the foreground colour (white) and make the whole layer visible
again.
12) Press [G] to select gradient tool.
13) Drag across the image to create a gradient that will change from transparent to opaque.
14) Hide the background layer. The transparent areas will show a checker pattern.
15) Close the new image without saving it.

Exercise 5.6 Putting it all together

See how good you are at working with layers by completing the following.
1)

Open the files Portrait.psd (which should have your saved selection from an earlier section) and
Park.jpg.

We are going to copy the boy from the Portrait picture in to the foreground of the park picture.
2) Make sure the Portrait image is selected. If your images are in the tabbed layout then make sure you

46

click the File tab for the Portrait picture.

3) The tabbed view allows us to switch between open pictures while
viewing one at a time. Since well be working with more than one
picture here it can be useful to have them both showing. From the
Window menu select Arrange. Then select one of the options that
allows for viewing more than one image at a time such as Tile or
Float All in Windows. In the following example, the Tile option has been used.
4) Display the channels palette. Your saved selection should be at the bottom of the channels list (if its
not then bad news youll have to select it all over again).
5) Hold down [Ctrl] and click on the Outline channel to quickly activate the selection.
6) Hold down [Ctrl] to temporarily activate the move
tool since we will be moving (copying actually)
the selected area to the park image.
7) With the move tool still selected drag the selection
to the other image (You can hold down [Shift] as
well if you want the selection to be placed in the
middle of the other image, but were going to
move it around once its there anyway so its not
so important).
8) Once the selection is copied, you can close the Portrait image since its no longer needed.
9) The boy will now be a new layer in the Park image. Rename the new layer as Boy (If you still have
the Channels palette showing you will need to switch to the Layers palette).
10) Press [Ctrl] [T] to activate Free Transform. Move and resize the boy so that the size and positioning
are similar to the example below When you are re-sizing make sure you are dragging a corner and
holding down [Shift] so the height and width stay in proportion. Press [Enter] when your size and
positioning are about right.

11) If your original selection was a bit rough, you may have extra bits around the boy that dont belong.
Now is a good time to apply a layer mask and then use an appropriate brush to neaten up the edges.
12) Save the image as Park.psd.

47

6 Touching Up
In the last section we looked at adjusting colours to improve your image. In this section well look at
various ways of touching up your images to fix problems with the images or just to improve the way that
they look.

6.1 Sharpen and Blur Tools

Some of the tools in Photoshop are provided to either increase the clarity of a blurred image or to blur
parts of an image. These tools can be used to improve the overall quality image and are also useful in a
wide range of visual effects. To touch up small areas of an image, the blur,
sharpen and smudge tool are all grouped together on Photoshops tool palette. The
filter menu also contains a wide range of filters that can work on either a whole
image or selected areas of an image. If you are working with layers, filters will usually work on the
currently selected layer.

Exercise 6.1 Using the Sharpen, Blur and Smudge Tools

1) Open the image called shadow.jpg.
2) From the Tool Palette, select the Blur tool.
The Options palette will show you brush settings similar to
the ones found in drawing tools such as the brush tool. You
can adjust the size of the brush to determine the size of the
area you will blur. You can also lower the strength option
to make the blur effect happen more gradually, or increase
the setting to make the blur effect more rapid.

3) Drag the blur tool around the image until everything but the girl has been blurred.
4) Select the Sharpen Tool [R].
Youll notice that the options for the
sharpen tool are similar to the
options for the blur tool.
5) Drag the sharpen tool over the girl to increase the clarity of
that part of the image. Be careful not to do it too much.
Excessive use of the sharpen tool can have unattractive
results.

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Drag the sharpen tool over the girl to increase the clarity of that part of the image. Be careful not to
do it too much. Excessive use of the sharpen tool can have unattractive results.
6) Select the Smudge tool.
The smudge tool

works as though you were dragging your finger through wet paint. The strength

option determines how much the image will smudge when you drag your mouse.
7) Test the smudge tool by dragging it over the image.
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8) Turn on the Finger Painting setting in the options palette. This will cause the
currently selected foreground colour to be mixed in with the area you smudge.
9) When you have tested the tools, press [F12] to revert the image to its saved
state.
Normal smudge
Smudge with finger painting

Exercise 6.2 Using Sharpen Filters

1) Make sure you have the original (unmodified) shadow.jpg image open.
2) From the Filter menu select Sharpen. The Sharpen and Sharpen More filters will both improve the
clarity of an image or selected area, with the
Sharpen More filter having a stronger effect.
Sharpen Edges is similar, though its effect is
mainly focussed on areas of the image where
there is a large contrast in colours. The Unsharp
Mask filter allows you to adjust the amounts of
the filter.
3) Select the Unsharp Mask filter.

4) Make sure the Preview option is ticked and adjust the options to see their effect on the image.
5) When you have found a combination of setting that you like, click OK to make the changes.

Exercise 6.3 Using Blur Filters

1) Press [F12] to revert the Shadow.jpg image to its
saved state.
2) From the Filter menu select Blur. Like the Sharpen
filters, the Blur filters give you a range of options.
The Blur and Blur More filters do the opposite of the
Sharpen and Sharpen More filters seen in the last
exercise. If you want more control over the amount of
blur, the Gaussian Blur filter allows you to change
the amounts.
3) Select the Gaussian Blur filter.
4) Make sure the Preview option is selected and adjust the Radius
so you can see the effect on the image.
5) Click Cancel to exit the filter options.
6) From the Filter menu select Blur and then Motion Blur. This
filter simulates the effect of photographing a moving target
with a camera set to a slow shutter speed.
7) Try the different options and then click Cancel to exit the
filter.

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6.2 The Clone Stamp Tool

One of the most widely used tools for touching up photos is the Clone Stamp Tool. This tool works by
sampling a part of your image and then allowing you to paint a copy of that area over other areas. It is
useful for duplicating parts of an image or for removing problem areas in an image.
To use the Clone Stamp, you first need to select what area you are sampling. This is done by holding
your mouse over the area you want to sample and then clicking while holding down [Alt]. Then you can
paint over another part of your image (using any brush size or type) and the area you sampled will be
copied to the areas you paint over.

Exercise 6.4 Using the Clone Stamp tool

1) Open the image called beetle.jpg
We could duplicate the beetle by sampling the area where the beetle is
and then painting over another brick in the image, or we could remove
the beetle by cloning another part of the image over it. Well start with
duplicating the beetle.
2) Select the Clone Stamp tool [S] from the Tool Palette
3) Move your mouse over the beetle and hold down [Alt] while clicking to
mark the pixels you want to clone from.
4) Select a suitable brush size / type from the Options Palette and then
paint over the area you want to clone the beetle to.

Notice while you are painting that a small cross appears over the spot you are cloning from. Now
well try using the same technique to remove the beetle by cloning part of the blank wall over the top
of it.
5) Revert the image to its saved state [F12].
6) [Alt]-click to sample a part of the image in the middle of a brick.
7) Paint over the beetle to replace it with the sampled brick area as shown below.

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6.3 Healing and Patching

More recent versions of Photoshop have some more advanced tools for touching up photos. The Healing
Brush performs a similar function to the Clone Stamp tool. The difference is that it not only clones
pixels from elsewhere in the image, it also matches the lighting and shading of the sampled area with the
cloned area to create a more seamless match. The Patch tool works in a similar way to the Healing Brush
tool except that it allows you to fix large areas at a time

Exercise 6.5 Using the Healing Brush and Patch Tool

1) Make sure the beetle.jpg image is opened and reverted to its saved state.
2) Select the Healing Brush tool from the Tool Palette [J]
3) [Alt]-click to sample from the middle of one of the bricks in the image.
4) Paint over the part of the image where the beetle appears. It will be
covered the same as it was with the Clone
Stamp tool, except that the result will usually be a lot smoother with
the healing brush.

The Patch tool allows you to smooth over a large area. You can either select part of your picture and
drag it over the part you want to copy over (using the Destination option) or you can select a part of
the picture you want replaced and then drag it to the area you want it to be replaced with (using the
Source option). Well try using the latter method.
5) Revert the beetle.jpg image to its saved state [F12].
6) Select the Patch tool from the Tool Palette [J]

7) With the Patch tool selected, drag an outline around the beetle.

8) Position your mouse inside the selected area and then drag the selected area to a blank brick in the
image. The area you had selected will be replaced with a copy of the area you dragged it to. Like the
Healing Brush, colours and lighting will be matched to ensure a smooth blend.

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6.4 Red Eye

Youve probably seen photos of people where their eyes looked red. This occurs when a photo is taken
with a flash that is very close to the lens which is the case with most compact cameras. The flash light
reflects off the retina at the back of they eye causing the red appearance. Some cameras have features to
reduce the occurrence of red eye but many photos that are otherwise very good suffer from this problem.
Fortunately it can be fixed.

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Exercise 6.6 Reducing Red Eye

The Colour Replacement Tool allows you to selectively replace colours in parts of an image with your
selected foreground colour. This can be a useful tool for fixing red eye in photos.
1) Open the image eyes.jpg.
2) Select the Colour Replacement Tool [B]

from the Tool Palette (it is grouped with the regular

brush tool).
3) Select a dark foreground colour. In most cases black is a
good choice so you can press [D] to select the default
colours (black foreground and white background).
4) The pupil of someones eye in a photo is usually a small
area so it might be useful to zoom in before editing (you
can use the [Ctrl] [+] shortcut until youre in close
enough).
5) From the Options Palette, make sure the Mode is set to Colour. It might also be a good idea to select
the Sampling:Once icon as this will make sure that the only colours that will be replaced are those
that are the same as the colour you click on.

6) Select a brush size suitable for painting over the small area of the pupil.
7) Move your mouse over a red part of the eye and paint over it to darken the red colour.

For those who are using more recent versions of Photoshop there is an even better way. A tool
especially for red eye reduction is included.
8) Revert the picture to its saved state [F12].
9) Select the Red Eye Tool [J]

from the Tool Palette.

10) Now with the tool selected, you can simply click on the red pupil to

correct the problem. This tool generally gives very good results as you will see from trying it.

<END>

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