Computer icon of Adobe Photoshop in computers
Screenshot of Adobe Photoshop software
Welcome
once again everyone! How do you do? Are you feeling fine today? In that case, I
am going to continue our journey to the next chapter, which is the introduction
of image editing software namely Adobe Photoshop. Honestly speaking, I don’t
have any experience in handling image editing and I’m willing to learn because it
looks fun and interesting. Manipulating images look cool and I want to try and
it was difficult for a beginner level like me. Anyway, we start the topic by
introducing Adobe Photoshop first before we go deep into the software. Let’s
go!
Adobe
Photoshop is
a raster graphics editor developed and
published by Adobe Systems for Windows and OS X. Photoshop
files have default file extension as .PSD, which stands for
"Photoshop Document." A PSD file stores an image with support for
most imaging options available in Photoshop. These include layers with masks,
transparency, text, alpha
channels and spot colors, clipping
paths, and duotone settings. This is in contrast to many other file
formats (e.g. .JPG or .GIF) that restrict content to provide streamlined,
predictable functionality. A PSD file has a maximum height and width of 30,000
pixels, and a length limit of 2 Gigabytes.
Photoshop
files sometimes have the file extension .PSB, which stands for
"Photoshop Big" (also known as "large document format"). A
PSB file extends the PSD file format, increasing the maximum height and width
to 300,000 pixels and the length limit to around 4 Exabytes. The
dimension limit was apparently chosen arbitrarily by Adobe, not based on
computer arithmetic constraints (it is not close to a power of two, as is
30,000) but for ease of software testing. PSD and PSB formats are documented.
Because
of Photoshop's popularity, PSD files are widely used and supported to some
extent by most competing software. The .PSD file format can be exported to and
from Adobe's other apps like Adobe
Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, and After Effects, to make professional standard
DVDs and provide non-linear editing and special effects
services, such as backgrounds, textures, and so on, for television, film, and
the web. Photoshop's primary strength is as a pixel-based image
editor, unlike vector-based image editors. Photoshop also
enables vector graphics editing through its Paths, Pen tools, Shape tools,
Shape Layers, Type tools, Import command, and Smart Object functions. These
tools and commands are convenient to combine pixel-based and vector-based images
in one Photoshop document, because it may not be necessary to use more than one
program.
Upon
loading Photoshop, a sidebar with a variety of tools with multiple
image-editing functions appears to the left of the screen. These tools
typically fall under the categories of drawing; painting; measuring
and navigation; selection; typing; and retouching.
Some tools contain a small triangle in the bottom right of the toolbox
icon. These can be expanded to reveal similar tools. While newer versions of
Photoshop are updated to include new tools and features, several recurring
tools that exist in most versions are discussed below.
Pen
Tool.
Photoshop
includes a few versions of the pen tool. The pen tool creates
precise paths that can be manipulated using anchor points. The free
form pen tool allows the user to draw paths freehand, and with the magnetic
pen tool, the drawn path attaches closely to outlines of objects in an
image, which is useful for isolating them from a background.
Measuring and navigation
The eyedropper tool
selects a color from an area of the image that is clicked, and
samples it for future use. The hand tool navigates an
image by moving it in any direction, and the zoom tool
enlarges the part of an image that is clicked on, allowing for a closer view.
Selection
Selection
tools are used to select all or any part of a picture to perform cut, copy,
edit, or retouching operations.
Cropping
The crop tool
can be used to select a particular area of an image and discard the portions
outside of the chosen section. This tool assists in creating a focus point on
an image and excluding unnecessary or excess space. Cropping allows enhancement
of a photo’s composition while decreasing the file size. The "crop"
tool is in the tools palette, which is located on the right side of the
document. By placing the cursor over the image, the user can drag the cursor to
the desired area. Once the Enter key is pressed, the area outside of the
rectangle will be cropped. The area outside of the rectangle is the discarded
data, which allows for the file size to be decreased. The "crop"
tool can alternatively be used to extend the canvas size by clicking and
dragging outside of the existing image borders.
Slicing
The "slice" and slice
select tools, like the crop tool, are used in isolating parts of
images. The slice tool can be used to divide an image into different sections,
and these separate parts can be used as pieces of a web page design once HTML
and CSS are applied. The slice select tool allows sliced sections of an
image to be adjusted and shifted.
Moving
The
move tool can be used to drag the entirety of a single layer or more if they
are selected. Alternatively, once an area of an image is highlighted, the move tool
can be used to manually relocate the selected piece to anywhere on the canvas.
Marquee
The marquee tool
can make selections that are single row, single column, rectangular and
elliptical. An area that has been selected can be edited without affecting
the rest of the image. This tool can also crop an image; it allows for better
control. In contrast to the crop tool, the "marquee"
tool allows for more adjustments to the selected area before cropping. The only marquee tool
that does not allow cropping is the elliptical. Although the single row and
column marqueetools allow for cropping, they are not ideal, because
they only crop a line. The rectangular marquee tool is the
preferred option. Once the tool has been selected, dragging the tool across the
desired area will select it. The selected area will be outlined by dotted
lines, referred to as "marching ants". These dotted lines are called
"marching ants", because the dashes look like ants marching around
the selected area. To set a specific size or ratio, the tool option bar
provides these settings. Before making a selecting an area, the desired size or
ratio must be set by adjusting the width and height. Any changes such as color,
filters, location, etc. should be made before cropping. To crop the selection,
the user must go to image tab and select crop.
Lasso
The lasso tool
is similar to the "marquee" tool, however, the user can make a custom
selection by drawing it freehand. There are three options for the
"lasso" tool – regular, polygonal, and magnetic. The regular
"lasso" tool allows the user to have drawing capabilities. Photoshop
will complete the selection once the mouse button is released. The user may
also complete the selection by connecting the end point to the starting point.
The "marching ants" will indicate if a selection has been made. The
"polygonal lasso" tool will only draw straight lines, which makes it
an ideal choice for images with many straight lines. Unlike the regular
"lasso" tool, the user must continually click around the image to
outline the shape. To complete the selection, the user must connect the end
point to the starting point just like the regular lasso tool. "Magnetic
lasso" tool is considered the smart tool. It can do the same as the other
two, but it can also detect the edges of an image once the user selects a
starting point. It detects by examining the colour pixels as the cursor move
over the desired area. A pixel is the smallest element in an image. Closing the
selection is the same as the other two, which should also should display the
"marching ants" once the selection has been closed.
Quick Selection
The quick
selection tool selects areas based on edges, similarly to the magnetic
lasso tool. The difference between this tool and the lasso tool
is that there is no starting and ending point. Since there isn’t a starting and
ending point, the selected area can be added onto as much as possible without
starting over. By dragging the cursor over the desired area, the quick selection tool
detects the edges of the image. The "marching ants" allow the user to
know what is currently being selected. Once the user is done, the selected area
can be edited without affecting the rest of the image. One of the features that
makes this tool especially user friendly is that the SHIFT key is not needed to
add more to the selection; by default, extra mouse clicks will be added to the
selection rather than creating a new selection.
Magic Wand
The magic
wand tool selects areas based on pixels of similar values. One click
will select all neighboring pixels of similar value within a tolerance level
set by the user. If the eyedropper tool is selected in the
options bar, then the magic wand can determine the value needed to evaluate the
pixels; this is based on the sample size setting in the eyedropper tool.
This tool is inferior to the quick selection tool which works much the same but
with much better results and more intuitive controls. The user must decide what
settings to use or if the image is right for this tool.
Eraser
The eraser tool
erases content based on the active layer. If the user is on the text layer,
then any text across which the tool is dragged will be erased. The eraser will
convert the pixels to transparent, unless the background layer is selected. The
size and style of the eraser can be selected in the options bar. This tool is
unique in that it can take the form of the paintbrush and pencil tools. In
addition to the straight eraser tool, there are two more available options –
background eraser and magic eraser. The background eraser deletes
any part of the image that is on the edge of an object. This tool is often used
to extract objects from the background. The magic eraser tool
deletes based on similar coloured pixels. It is very similar to the magic
wand tool. This tool is ideal for deleting areas with the same colour
or tone that contrasts with the rest of the image.
Colour Replacement Tool
The
Colour Replacement Tool allows you to change the colour, while maintaining the
highlights and shadows of the original image, of pieces of the image. By
selecting Brushes and right clicking, the Colour Replacement Tool is the third
option down. What is important to note with this tool is the foreground colour.
The foreground colour is what will be applied when painting along the chosen
part of the image with the Colour Replacement Tool.
We move on to the next topic which is photo manipulation. Photo
manipulation is the application of image
editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception after
the original photographing took place. A mere enhancement or correction is
known as retouching, while doctoring refers
to more involved processes, which often purposefully deceive the viewer or
misrepresent the scene.
With
the advent of computers, graphics
tablets, and digital cameras, the term image editing encompasses
everything that can be done to a photo, whether in a darkroom or
on a computer. Photo manipulation is often much more explicit than subtle
alterations to color balance or contrast and may involve overlaying a head onto
a different body or changing a sign's text, for examples. Image editing
software can be used to apply effects and warp an image until the desired
result is achieved. The resulting image may have little or no resemblance to
the photo (or photos in the case of compositing)
from which it originated. Today, photo manipulation is widely accepted as an art form.
Examples of
Image Manipulation
.jpg)
Before (up) and after (down) pictures of a Hollywood actress
Before (up) and after (down) pictures of Joseph Stalin and 'his vanished' Commissar
We move on to the next topic which is photo manipulation. Photo
manipulation is the application of image
editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception after
the original photographing took place. A mere enhancement or correction is
known as retouching, while doctoring refers
to more involved processes, which often purposefully deceive the viewer or
misrepresent the scene.
In this website, it
teaches us on how to recreate an image manipulation by using Adobe Photoshop.
Few steps are were highlighted as the main step such as ‘preparing the
background’ as the image manipulation process starts here. I’ve included some
image that had been manipulated / adjusted by using Adobe Photoshop and here’s
the examples:
Cool hah??We can do lot more unique and catchy image manipulations and more complex by adding special effects and this website has a lot
of complex image manipulations in which they also provide tips and guidance on
how to make a similar photo for us to try. Here are the examples of photos from
the website itself.
As you can see in this
entry, it focused more on the learning process of using Adobe Photoshop. The
steps that been introduced did helped and guided especially for the beginner
levels whom had an interest in using Adobe Photoshop whether in their workplace
or as their leisure time. Adobe Photoshop for me is an art form software that
help to manipulate images with a specific reason.
That’s enough for today folks! We will
continue on with the topic on visual technology for dissemination for the next
entry and see you soon!
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