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Wiley Photoshop Cs4 For Dummies

1. update to the Adobe Camera Raw plug in at www adobe com products photoshop cameraraw html You will find installation instructions for the update there Make sure to read and follow the installation instructions exactly Saving your files You must use the Save or Save As command to preserve changes to your images And after you save and close an image those changes are irre versible When working with an important image consider these three tips Work on a copy of the image file Unless you re working with a digital photo in the Raw format discussed in Chapter 7 make a copy of your image file as a backup before changing it in Photoshop The backup ensures that should something go horribly wrong you can start over You never actually change a Raw photo Photoshop can t rewrite the original file so you re always in effect working on a copy 1 Open as a Smart Object Rather than choosing File Open make it a habit to choose File Open As Smart Object When working with Smart Objects you can scale or transform multiple times without continually degrading the image quality and you can work with Smart Filters too Save your work as PSD too Especially if your image has layers save it in Photoshop s PSD file format complete with all the layers before using Save As to create a final copy in another format If you don t save a copy with layers going back to make one little change can cost hours of work
2. while you re rotating a red arrow indicates the image s true up Double clicking the Rotate tool icon in the Toolbox restores the image s orientation This feature is not available on older computers with less powerful video cards Figure 1 3 Rotate while you work without damaging the image s quality 12 Part Breezing through Basic Training Over the past few updates Photoshop has developed some rather powerful illustration capabilities to go with its digital imaging power Although Photoshop is still no substitute for Adobe Illustrator Photoshop certainly can serve you well for smaller illustration projects Keep in mind that Photoshop is a raster art program it works with pixels and vector art work is only simulated in Photoshop Photoshop also has a very capable brush engine which makes it feasible to paint efficiently on your digital canvas Figure 1 4 shows a comparison of raster artwork the digital photo left vector artwork the illustration center and digital painting right The three types of artwork can appear in a single image too Simulating vector artwork with Photoshop s shape layers is presented in Chapter 11 and you can read about painting with Photoshop in Chapter 14 Figure 1 4 You can use Photoshop with raster images vector artwork and even to paint Photoshop CS4 includes some basic features for creating Web graphics including slicing and animations but Web work is
3. Fade 7s x e Unsharp Mask to r change the blending Mode Normal H gt iv Preview mode from Normal LEE to Luminosity Sharpening only the Figure 1 10 Compare the original blur with a reduction using luminosity of your the Fade command image whether with this technique or in the Lab color mode prevents unwanted color shifts along edges in your images Color modes are discussed in Chapter 6 Or you might apply the Motion Blur filter and then choose Edit Fade Motion Blur yes the name of the command actually changes for you to reduce the opacity of the blur to 75 That gives you the appearance of a back and forth motion while leaving the subject more readily recognizable see Figure 1 10 Installing Photoshop Need to know If you haven t yet installed Photoshop CS4 or the Adobe Creative Suite here are a few points to keep in mind Install only into the default location Photoshop is a resource intensive program Installing it into the default location harddrive Applications on a Mac and C Program Files for Windows ensures that it has access to the operating system and hardware as necessary Installing into any other location or attempting to run Photoshop across a net work can lead to frustrating problems and loss of work in progress Disable all spyware and antivirus software before installing Antivirus software can intercept certain installation procedures deeming them to be hazardous to your com
4. best done in a true Web development program such as Dreamweaver Photoshop s companion pro gram Adobe Bridge even includes the Output panel to help you create entire Web sites to display your artwork online and PDF presentations for on screen display complete with transition effects between slides Read about Bridge s Output panel s capabilities in Chapter 16 Other things you can do with Photoshop Although Photoshop isn t a page layout or illustration program you certainly can produce simple brochures posters greeting cards and the like using Chapter 1 Welcome to Photoshop only Photoshop See Figure 1 5 One of the features that sets Photoshop apart from basic image editors is its powerful type engine which can add edit format and stylize text as capably as many word processing programs Photoshop even has a spell check feature not bad for a program that s designed to work with photos eh Even if you don t have the high end video features found in Photoshop CS4 Extended you can certainly supplement your video editing program with Photoshop CS4 even if Photoshop can t open and play movies you capture with your video camera From Adobe Premiere or other professional video programs you can export a series of frames in the FilmStrip format which you can open and edit in Photoshop Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended Although there have been different versions of Photoshop for years
5. If you attempt to close an image or quit Photoshop without saving your work first you get a gentle reminder asking whether you want to save close with out saving or cancel the close quit as shown in Figure 1 8 18 Parti Breezing through Basic Training Keyboard shortcuts Adobe Photoshop Keyboard shortcuts are customiz A Sr a ea able in Photoshop check out Chapter 3 but some of the basic ae nD shortcuts are the same as those you i use in other programs You open Adobe Photoshop C53 copy paste save close and quit just Sava changes to the Adobe Photoshop chourent MC Egg before closing as you do in Microsoft Word your e mail program and just about any am ce other software I suggest that you keep these shortcuts unchanged Figure 1 8 Photoshop reminds you if you even if you do some other shortcut haven t saved changes to an image customization Photoshop s incredible selective Undo Here s one major difference between Photoshop and other programs Almost all programs have some form of Undo enabling you to reverse the most recent command or action or mistake Like many programs Photoshop uses the 36 Z Ctrl Z shortcut for Undo Redo and the Option Z Ctrl Alt Z shortcut for Step Backward which allows you to undo a series of steps but remember that you can change those shortcuts as described in Chapter 3 Photoshop also has however a couple of great features that let you partially undo Paint
6. Photoshop versus Photoshop LE versus Photoshop Elements as with the prior release of Photoshop Adobe is offering two different versions of Photoshop CS4 Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended both have all of Photoshop s powerful image editing vector drawing painting and type capabilities Photoshop CS4 Extended also includes some very specialized highly techni cal features for use In science research and video editing and for use with 3D modeling pro grams These features are introduced in Chapter 17 So if you have Photoshop CS4 rather than Photoshop CS4 Extended should you feel cheated or like a second class citizen Nope Unless you specifically need those extended features there s no real reason to purchase them But what if you got Photoshop CS4 Extended as part of a Creative Suite or Adobe Bundle package of software did you pay for something you don t need Well sort of yeah but not really The folks who re really paying extra for the extended features are those who purchase Photoshop CS4 Extended as a stand alone program The additional cost they pay funds the research and development of the extended features So why didnt get to choose between Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended when ordered my Bundle or Suite Buying software shouldn t be as complicated as say ordering a cup of coffee Caf de caf half caf Latte espresso cappuccino White brown or raw sugar Cream half and half mi
7. Web site one page at a time sliced and optimized and even with animated GIFs You also have tools that you can use to simu late 3D in Photoshop CS4 such as Vanishing Point see Chapter 10 Page layout in Photoshop isn t particularly difficult for a one page piece or even a trifold brochure Photoshop has a very capable type engine consider ing the program is designed to push pixels rather than play with paragraphs Chapter 1 Welcome to Photoshop 5 Photoshop even shows you a sample of each typeface in the Font menu Choose from five sizes of preview shown in Figure 1 6 in Photoshop s Preferences Type menu However you can t link Photoshop s type contain ers so a substantial addition or subtraction at the top of the first column requires manually recomposing all of the following columns After all among the biggest advantages of a dedicated page layout program are the continuity using a master page or layout and flow from page to page If you work with layout regularly use InDesign w Myriad Pro O Myriad Pro Sample O Myriad Std mace 2 A News Gothic Myriad Std Sample O News Gothic Std A News Gothic Sample T Nicotine 3 ees aos O News Gothic Std sample A Nuptial Script ae Tr Nicotine Sample _ EEE Sap O Nueva Std Sample O Myriad Pro A Nuptial Script Sample Myriad Std Sampla A News Gothic Sample GOLR AME gt amp 1 2 O Mews Gothic Std Sample Tf Nicotine iyi Myriad Pro O Nueva Std Sample A Nupt
8. commands If you have lots of plug ins consider dividing them into groups accord ing to how and when you use them Sort or install them into separate folders Hint Plug ins that you use in many situations can be installed into multiple folders When you need to load a specific set do so through the Photoshop Preferences Plug Ins pane by designating a second plug ins folder and relaunching Photoshop 22 Part Breezing through Basic Training If you love fonts use a font management utility If you have hundreds of fonts over the years I ve somehow managed to collect upward of 7 500 fonts use a font management utility to create sets of fonts accord ing to style and activate only those sets that you need at any given time Too many active fonts can choke the Photoshop type engine slowing performance The Mac OS has Font Book built right in or you can use the excellent Suitcase Fusion from Extensis www extensis com Extensis also offers Suitcase for Windows
9. e 1 1 Figure 1 1 Basic Photoshop Take photo edit photo print photo Drink coffee optional Whether captured with a digital camera scanned into the computer or cre ated from scratch in Photoshop your artwork consists of tiny squares of color which are picture elements called pixels Pixels and the nature of digi tal imaging are explored in depth in Chapter 2 Photoshop is all about chang ing and adjusting the colors of those pixels collectively in groups or one at a time to make your artwork look precisely how you want it to look Photoshop by the way has no Good Taste or Quality Art filter It s up to you Chapter 1 Welcome to Photoshop 1 to decide what suits your artistic or personal vision and what meets your professional requirements Some very common Photoshop image editing tasks are shown in Figure 1 2 namely correcting red eye and minimizing wrinkles both discussed in Chapter 9 and compositing images see Chapter 10 Astronaut image courtesy of NASA Figure 1 2 Some common Photoshop tasks New in Photoshop CS4 is the powerful ability to rotate the image on screen while you re working Not rotate the image itself Photoshop has had that capability for ages but to rotate the appearance of the image in the work space This is especially handy when doing delicate masking and painting enabling you to orient the image on screen to best suit your stroke As you can see in Figure 1 3
10. ial Script Samet Myriad Std O OCR A Std Saspie Myriad Pro Sample A News Gothic Myriad Std sample A News Gothic Sample News Gothic Std News Gothic Std Sample TT Nicotine Semple Tr Nicotine O Nueva Std Sample A Nuptial Script Nueva 5td OCR A Std A Nuptial Script OCR A Std Figure 1 6 Font previews in five delicious flavors Dreamweaver is a state of the art Web design tool with good interoperability with Photoshop However if you don t have Dreamweaver and you desper ately need to create a Web page Photoshop comes to your rescue After laying out your page and creating your slices use the Save for Web amp Devices command to generate an HTML document your Web page and a folder filled with the images that form the page see Figure 1 7 One of the advantages to creating a Web page in Dreamweaver rather than Photoshop is HTML text Using Photoshop all the text on your Web pages is saved as graphic files HTML text not only produces smaller Web pages for faster download but it s resizable in the Web browser 1 6 Part Breezing through Basic Training Flower the Leader m m EZ Ge local disks 7 abt eee F index_0l glf a j FNE m Index hoenl lndex_02 gif Blooms toga 7 T index_04 giF THE kE k F Index_O5 gif Greenery a oy 7 E index_O6 giF TEA F indesx_OF gif shrubbery p AOSD l index _O amp giF HS pe 2 a T index O9 giF Evergree
11. ies other than Adobe can be installed into a folder outside the Photoshop folder You can then make an alias Mac or shortcut Windows to that folder and drag the alias shortcut to Photoshop s Plug Ins folder If you have a multibutton mouse right click the folder to create an alias shortcut Control click if you re still using a one button mouse Why install outside the Photoshop folder Should you ever need to gasp reinstall Photoshop you won t need to reinstall all your third party plug ins Just create a new alias shortcut and move it into Photoshop s new Plug Ins folder Check for plug in updates Go to the manufacturer s Web site for each of your third party plug ins and check for updates This is especially important if you re using an Intel based Mac Unless the plug ins have been updated Universal they won t run There s a workaround how ever In the Finder go to harddrive Applications Adobe Photoshop CS4 Right click or Control click on the program icon and choose Get Info In the Get Info window select the option Open Using Rosetta Photoshop will run more slowly but you ll have your un updated third party plug ins available When the plug ins are finally updated or you decide speed is more important re open Get Info and deselect the Open Using Rosetta box If you have lots of plug ins create sets Plug ins require RAM com puter memory that Photoshop uses to process your editing
12. ing to undo with the History Brush You can use Photoshop s History Brush to partially undo just about any filter adjustment or tool by painting You select the History Brush choose a his tory state a stage in the image development to which you want to revert and then paint over areas of the image that you want to change back to the earlier state You can undo as far back in the editing process as you want with a couple of limitations The History panel where you select the state to which you want to revert holds only a limited number of history states In the Photoshop Preferences General pane you can specify how many states you want Photoshop to remember to a maximum of 1 000 Keep in mind that storing lots of history states takes up computer memory that you might need for pro cessing filters and adjustments That can slow things down The default of 20 history states is good for most projects but when using painting tools or other procedures that involve lots of repetitive steps such as touching up with the Dodge Burn or Clone Stamp tools a larger number perhaps as high as 60 is generally a better idea Chapter 1 Welcome to Photoshop 1 g The second limitation is pixel dimensions If you make changes to the image s actual size in pixels with the Crop tool or the Image Size or Canvas Size commands you cannot revert to prior steps with the History Brush You can choose as a source any history state that comes after
13. lk or skim Small medium large super or el grosso maxmo It could get quite confusing Imagine trying to wade through all of the thousands of products if Adobe marketed every possible combination as a separate Bundle or Suite or Studio You d spend so much time trying to find your perfect bundle you d never get to use the software 13 1 4 Part I Breezing through Basic Training O GreetingCard Outside psd 16 7 2004 Bauer O Connel L RGB 8 P i z FI 4 5 fe T 1 3 10 Sometimes a pvwplkiu ig just plain Doc 24 1M 32 8M 1 6m ihe Doc 240M 7 62M Figure 1 5 You can use Photoshop to create cards posters and brochures If you don t have specialized software Admittedly Photoshop CS4 just plain can t do some things It won t make you a good cup of coffee It can t press your trousers It doesn t vacuum under the couch It isn t even a substitute for iTunes Microsoft Excel or Netscape Navigator it just doesn t do those things However there are a number of things for which Photoshop isn t designed that you can do in a pinch If you don t have InDesign you can still lay out the pages of a newsletter magazine or even a book one page at a time With Bridge s Ouput panel you can even generate a multipage PDF document from your individual pages If you don t have Dreamweaver or GoLive you can use Photoshop to create a
14. mm a CUCU OTe Welcome to Photoshop In This Chapter What Photoshop does very well kind of well and just sort of well What you need to know to work with Photoshop What you need to know about installing Photoshop A dobe Photoshop is without question the leading image editing program in the world Photoshop has even become somewhat of a cultural icon It s not uncommon to hear Photoshop used as a verb That picture is obvi ously Photoshopped and you ll even see references to Photoshop in the daily comics and cartoon strips And now you re part of this whole gigantic phenomenon called Photoshop Whether you re new to Photoshop upgrading from Photoshop CS3 or earlier or transitioning from Elements to the full version of Photoshop CS4 or Photoshop CS4 Extended you re in for some treats Photoshop CS4 has an intriguing new look that enables you to do more and do it more easily than ever Before I take you on this journey through the intricacies of Photoshop I want to introduce you to Photoshop ina more general way In this chapter I tell you what Photoshop is designed to do what it can do although not as capably as job specific software and what you can get it to do if you try really really hard also review some basic computer operation concepts and point out a couple of places where Photoshop is a little different than most other pro grams At the end of the chapter I have a few tips for you on installi
15. ng Photoshop to ensure that it runs properly 1 0 Part I Breezing through Basic Training Exploring Adobe Photoshop Photoshop is used for an incredible range of projects from editing and cor recting digital photos to preparing images for magazines and newspapers to creating graphics for the Web You can also find Photoshop in the forensics departments of law enforcement agencies scientific labs and research facili ties and dental and medical offices as well as in classrooms offices studios and homes around the world As the Help Desk Director for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals NAPP my team and I solve prob lems and provide solutions for Photoshop users from every corner of the computer graphics field and from every corner of the world People are doing some pretty amazing things with Photoshop many of which are so far from the program s original roots that it boggles the mind What Photoshop is designed to do Adobe Photoshop is an image editing program It s designed to help you edit images digital or digitized images photographs and otherwise This is the core purpose of Photoshop Over the years Photoshop has grown and devel oped adding features that supplement its basic operations But at its heart Photoshop is an image editor At its most basic Photoshop s workflow goes something like this You take a picture you edit the picture and you print the picture as illustrated in Figur
16. ns n ee al T index_10 giF was cae cap z T indes 1Lglf we a A TE index_13 gif He in ts a 7 2 iant nutrition 5 E l doei THE i ht HE index Layer 4 jpg son amp humidity index_Layer 5 gif 10 mas spacer gil wirections 15 items 12 1 GB available Figure 1 7 You can create an entire Web page in Photoshop Viewing Photoshop s Parts and Processes In many respects Photoshop CS4 is just another computer program you launch the program open files save files and quit the program quite nor mally Many common functions have common keyboard shortcuts You enlarge shrink minimize and close windows as you do in other programs Reviewing basic computer operations Chapter 3 looks at Photoshop specific aspects of working with floating panels menus and submenus and tools from the Options bar but I want to take just a little time to review some fundamental computer concepts Launching Photoshop You can launch Photoshop start the program by double clicking an image file or through the Applications folder Mac or the Start menu Windows Mac users can drag the Photoshop program icon the actual program itself to the Dock to make it available for one click startup You can find the file named Adobe Photoshop CS4 inside the Adobe Photoshop CS4 folder inside the main Applications folder Chapter 3 shows you the Photoshop interface and how to get around in the program Never open an image int
17. o Photoshop from removable media CD DVD your digital camera or its Flash card Zip disks jump drives and the like or from a network drive Always copy the file to a local hard drive open from that drive save back to the drive and then copy the file to its next destination You can open from internal hard drives or external hard drives but to avoid the risk of losing your work or the entire image file because of a problem reading from or writing to removable media always copy to a local hard drive Chapter 1 Welcome to Photoshop 1 Working with images Within Photoshop you work with individual image files Each image is recorded on the hard drive in a specific file format Photoshop opens just about any image consisting of pixels as well as some file formats that do not File formats are discussed in Chapter 2 Remember that to change a file s format you open the file in Photoshop and use the Save As command to create a new file And although theoretically not always necessary on the Mac I suggest that you always include the file extension at the end of the file name If Photoshop won t open an image it might be in a file format that Photoshop can t read It cannot for example open an Excel spreadsheet or a Microsoft Word DOC file because those aren t image formats and Photoshop is as you know an image editing program If you have a brand new digital camera and Photoshop won t open its Raw images check for an
18. puter s health That can lead to malfunctions crashes lost work frustration and what I like to call Computer Flying Across Room Syndrome If you use antivirus software and if you use Chapter 1 Welcome to Photoshop 2 1 Windows you d better turn it off before installing any program espe cially one as complex as Photoshop You might find the antivirus pro gram s icon in the Windows taskbar or you might need to go to the Start menu use All Programs to locate the antivirus software and disable it On Mac check the Dock And don t forget to restart your antivirus soft ware afterward If you already installed Photoshop and antivirus soft ware was running at the time I urge you to uninstall and reinstall Reinsert the Photoshop CS4 CD and launch the installer to use the built in uninstall feature If you use autobackup software shut it down too Never run auto backup software when installing software Like antivirus software it can also lead to problems by interfering with the installer Connect to the Internet and activate right away It s best to run the Photoshop installer while your computer is connected to the Internet That enables Photoshop s activation process to happen right away making sure you can get started as soon as the installer finishes 1 If you have third party plug ins install them elsewhere Third party plug ins those filters and other Photoshop add ons that you buy from compan
19. the image s pixel dimensions change but none that come before Here s one example of using the History Brush as a creative tool You open a copy of a photograph in Photoshop You edit as necessary You use the Black and White adjustment on the image to make it appear to be grayscale In the History panel you click in the left column next to the step immediately prior to Black and White to designate that as the source state the appearance of the image to which you want to revert You select the History Brush and paint over specific areas of the image to return them to the original color appearance see Figure 1 9 There you have it a grayscale image with areas of color compliments of the History Brush OD CRW_1942 CRW 16 7 RGB 16 9 CRW_1942 copy 66 7 RGB 8 HISTORY PL O B Duplicate image El Reduce Hotsa El Despeckle f image Size z El Unsharp Mask EL Black amp White El History Brush ii 2 a a a a a a a a a a ae Figure 1 9 Painting to undo with the History Brush 20 Part Breezing through Basic Training Reducing to undo with the Fade command Immediately after applying a filter or adjustment or using most of Photoshop s tools you can choose Edit Fade and change the opacity or blending mode with which the previous step was per formed You might for example apply a sharp ening filter and then Fade choose Edit

Wiley Photoshop Cs4 For Dummies

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