Photoshop CS Tutorial

Introduction
In this tutorial you will learn the basics of image manipulating techniques. These techniques will be useful for customizing scanned images and images taken from other sources like the web for use in a variety of applications.

Opening Photoshop
To open Photoshop, click Start , Programs, Adobe Photoshop CS. Wait for Photoshop to load, this may take a moment to complete.

Adobe Photoshop CS

Start Button

Scanning an Image
To scan an image into Photoshop, refer to the Scanning Tutorial at the back of this guide.

Photoshop CS Tutorial
Beginning the Image Editing Process

As you can see, this image needs quite a bit of manipulation before it is usable for any sort of presentation. The next steps will teach you how to make the image look the way you want.

The Image Menu

Almost everything you need for basic Photoshop image manipulation can be found under the Image menu. It allows you to modify many attributes of the image. You can make fine or coarse adjustments and create a usable image using not much more than what is found in this window.

Photoshop CS Tutorial
Rotating the Canvas
The first step will be to rotate your image so that it is upright. This is achieved by selecting Image>Rotate Canvas. Under this menu you have several options, the most useful of which are: 180 90 CW (clock-wise) 90 CCW (counterclock-wise) Flip Horizontal is useful if your image is backwards. Flip Vertical if it is both backwards and upside down. For your image, 90 CCW is the best option.

The Crop Tool

Though your image is mostly upright, it still is slightly skewed to the right. You can rotate it that small amount to the left while at the same time cropping all the excess you dont want, out of the picture with the crop tool. To select the crop tool, either press the C key on the key board or click the crop tool on the tool bar and it will turn white to show that it is selected.

Photoshop CS Tutorial
The Crop Tool
Next, drag a box that loosely encloses your image as is shown below. Photoshop darkens the regions outside of the area of the crop to give you an idea of what your image will look like after being cropped. You can adjust the area to be cropped before actually cropping the image. To reduce or expand the crop area drag the boxes at the corners and sides of the crop area to where you want them to be. To rotate the crop area (effectively rotating the cropped image) position your cursor near the edge of the selection until your cursor turns into a pair of connected arrows bent in half. Drag the edge of the selection until youve rotated the crop area so that it is square with the edges of the DVD that was scanned. Use the boxes to move the edge of the crop area near the edge of the item scanned, this makes it much easier to line up the crop area.

Using the top edge of the DVD to square up the crop area should look something like the image to the right.

Photoshop CS Tutorial
The Crop Tool
Position the crop area so that just the word ROCKY and the head and shoulders of the image are selected, as shown. The crop is still not finalized yet. If you wanted to exit using the crop tool without making any changes you could press the ESC key. Since you want to crop, press the ENTER key to finalize the crop.

Congratulations, you have just successfully cropped your image. It should resemble the image below. Of course, there is still some adjustment needed to make the image look better.

Photoshop CS Tutorial
The Image>Adjust Menu
To adjust the way an image looks, Photoshop has a sub menu called Adjust under the Image menu. The most important tools in this menu are all in the first section. Well now use these tools to adjust our image.

Color Balance
When working with a color image, it is useful to be able to adjust the tint the image has. You may have noticed your image looks a little too yellow. To correct this select Image>Adjust>Color Balance or press Ctrl-B. Make sure the Preview box is clicked so that you can see the changes you make. To get rid of the yellow cast that the image has, drag the triangle that lies on the line between yellow and blue toward blue until the yellow tinge is eliminated. The three buttons labeled Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights, indicate which values you are changing. Hence, if there is a blue tinge to the darker regions of an image, switch it to Shadows and up the yellow content. Play with the sliders until you like the way the image looks, then hit OK.

Photoshop CS Tutorial
Levels
Now that the colors are balanced, the brightness and contrast of the image need to be adjusted. The image is still rather dark and lacking contrast. The most efficient way of adjusting these values is the Levels tool. Select Image>Adjust>Levels or press Ctrl-L. The dialog box below appears.

Shadows Slider

Midtones Slider

Highlights Slider This window shows a breakdown of the amount of each value in your image from dark to light. By dragging a slider to the left, you set a lighter value, by dragging it to the right, a darker value. The white slider is for the highlights. By dragging it to the left you brighten the lightest areas of your image. This is useful for getting rid of ghosting that happens when you scan thin paper that shows the text through the other side. The black slider is for the shadows. By dragging it to the right you darken the darkest areas of your image. The grey slider is for the midtones. Dragging this slider changes the bulk of the values in the picture, changing the contrast. Try dragging the midtones slider to the left to brighten up your image. Play with the sliders until you like the way the image looks, then hit OK.

Photoshop CS Tutorial
Output
Now that you have the image the way you want it, its time to think about how you are going to save it. The first thing to consider is what resolution you want. Resolution (also called dots-per-inch, dpi, or pixels-per-inch, ppi) refers to number of small square pieces (pixels) that make up each inch of your image. Generally speaking, the more pixels per inch (higher resolution) the better the image looks and the larger the file size is. Computer monitors can only display 72 dpi, so any pictures that are only going to be viewed on a monitor (like web graphics) should be at 72 dpi. Otherwise the picture will be huge on the website. Anywhere between 200 and 300 dpi will give you a decent print copy, but if you plan on blowing the image up, a higher resolution may be necessary.

Image Size
Photoshop has the Image Size option for dealing with resolution and dimensions. Select Image>Image Size. In the Document Size box, you can change the size of the picture as well as its resolution. If the Resample Image box is checked, when your input a new resolution, Photoshop will change the number of pixels that make up you image. If it is not checked, Photoshop will change the dimensions of the image so that no pixels are lost. Since your image is being used for the web, make sure the Resample Image box is checked, and enter 72 in the resolution box and hit OK.

Photoshop CS Tutorial
Saving
Now you are ready to save your image. Select File>Save As This allows you to change the file type and name of your image, leaving the original intact. Different file types are used for different purposes. The three most important file types are: TIFF (*.TIF) - TIFF files are used when quality is a must and file sizes can be big. JPEG (*.JPG) - JPEG files have varying levels of compression and are good for making files smaller for the web or for PowerPoint. Photoshop (*.PSD) - Often the default file type, cannot be viewed in many applications but retains properties like layers that can be useful for advanced work.

Save your image as Final in JPEG format and hit Save. Choose a quality level (higher quality = larger file) and hit OK. Congratulations, youve just completed the Photoshop tutorial.