Welcome

Updated (09.04.08)

Welcome to my Photoshop Guide. I created this page to help others having trouble with the endless possibilities offered by Photoshop. My name's Aurora. Please read the FAQ BEFORE neomailing me.

Can you make a [insert random program here] tutorial?
Sorry, I only have Photoshop. I don't have Paint or GIMP or anything else so there's really no point in asking. I'm sure if you google "paint tutorial" or something similar, you'll find something to help you. How do you think I learned? ^^

How do I make [blank] effect?
OK, I really like getting questions and I'd love to help you...BUT...please, please, please be really specific. Send me links, pictures, anything that can help me understand what exactly you want. Be extremely descriptive. I can't read your mind :/ (I'm saying this again, I need more info to be helpful, take screenies and send them! It's very easy! (Print Screen for PCs and Shift + Command + 4 for Macs))

What version of Photoshop do you use?
I use Photoshop CS3.

How did you get it?
My dad had it and installed it for me.

Where can I get Photoshop?
The latest version is Photoshop CS3 which you can buy at adobe.com for $649 USD. If you're sneaky, you could probably get it for cheaper *shifty eyes*

Will you be my neofriend?
No. Unless we chat for quite a while.

Questions & Feedback

If you have any questions or comments please do neomail me. I would love to be able to help you. Obviously, you need to be extremely detailed so I can answer your question as specifically as I can. If you want to just drop me a neomail letting me know how you got to my page, that would be pretty awesome too :)

Link back to me

If you liked my guide and would like to help me out, feel free to post a link to it anywhere you want (shop, lookup, petpage ect). It means a lot :D

I haven't made a button yet *headdesk*

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Useful Terms

Terms you should know while using Photoshop

Fill - How much of an image is shown without affecting its layer effects.

Layer - Independent images that form together to create one final image. Layers allow you to manipulate certain parts an image without affecting other parts.

Layer Style - Effects that can be applied to an image. These include: Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Outer Glow, Inner Glow, Bevel and Emboss, Satin, Color Overlay, Gradient Overlay, Pattern Overlay, Stroke).

Opacity - How much of an image is shown.

Overlay - Adding a color, gradient, pattern or image over another.

Stroke - Adding a border to an image or text.



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Basic Tools

An introduction to the basic tools of Photoshop

Move Tool
This is also a very basic tool. It basically acts like your regular old computer mouse. Basically, it lets you can move parts of your image around.

Marquee Tool
This is one of the most useful tools you will use. This tool is used to select certain parts of an image. It comes in many different shapes. The Rectangular Marquee tool can make square or rectangular shapes. The Elliptical Marquee tool makes ovals and circles. The Single Row and Single Column marquee tools are used to select just one pixel horizontally and vertically, respectively. These two tools are very useful when making a pixel-stretched image.

Lasso Tool
The Lasso tool is an easy way to quickly select parts of your image. The Polygonal Lasso tool is essentially the same. The difference is that when using the Lasso Tool, you click and hold the mouse button as you draw while when using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, you click the mouse every time you want to draw a corner. It is better to use the Lasso Tool to draw circles or other rounded images while the Polygonal Lasso Tool makes it easier to draw sharp angles. The Magnetic Lasso tool is another version of the lasso tool. When using it, you click and let go of the mouse button and move the mouse wherever you want to draw.

Magic Wand
The Magic Wand tool is used to select a block of color. For example, if you just want to select the blue of one image, use the magic wand tool and click on the block of blue. BAM. It's selected.

Crop Tool
The Crop tool is very useful. You click on it, input the dimensions of the image and click-and-drag on your image. It's really nice to use when making icons since it lets you move the tool around to see different cropping possibilities.

Slice Tool
The Slice tool is mostly used for making web images. It allows Photoshop to separate one big image into many smaller ones. The Slice Select tool lets you modify slices already created by the slice tool.

Healing Brush
The Spot Healing tool fixes small blemishes. The Healing Brush tool allows you to fix small imperfections in your image by taking a sample of another part of your image. The Patch tool lets you select where you want to repair imperfections. The Red Eye tool fixes red eyes.

Brush & Pencil Tool
The Brush and Pencil tools allow you to paint color on your image. The difference between the two is that the brush tool is softer while the pencil tool is much harsher. The Color Replacement tool basically lets you replace a certain color with another by allowing you to paint over certain parts of your image using this brush.

Stamp Tool
The Clone Stamp tool allows you to sample part of your image to replace small imperfections on your image. The Pattern Stamp tool works a bit the same way except the pattern stamp is used with patterns.

History Tool
The History Brush tool allows you to revert parts of your image back to what it was. For example, you could change a color picture to black and white and use the history brush to revert parts of the image back to color. The Art History Brush tool allows you to turn an image into a painting.

Eraser Tool
The Eraser tool erases pixels from your selected layer. The Background Eraser tool erases pixels from the background of your image. The Magic Eraser tool works exactly like the magic wand tool except that it deletes whatever pixels are selected.

Gradient & Paint Bucket
The Gradient tool allows you to draw gradual transitions of color. The Paint Bucket tool fills areas of color onto whatever area is selected.

Blur, Sharpen & Smudge
The Blur tool decreases the con contrasts and blurs details on parts of your image. The Sharpen tool increases the contrast and sharpens details on parts of your image. The Smudge blends the pixels in your image.

Dodge, Burn & Sponge
The Dodge tool helps you lighten part of an image. The Burn tool helps you darken part of an image. The Sponge tool helps you change the saturation of part of an image.

Pen Tool
The Pen tool is used to create custom work paths and custom shapes. The Freeform Pen tool works in the same way as the Pen Tool except in does not force you to use straight lines. The Add Anchor Point tool is used to add anchor points to your work paths. The Delete Anchor Point tool deletes anchor points to a work paths. The Convert Point tool allows you to change around anchor points you already have.

Type Tool
The Type tool allows you to type anything you want horizontally. The Vertical Type tool allows you to type vertically. The Horizontal Type Mask Tool allows you to horizontally type-shaped selections. The Vertical Type Mask tool is the same except that it types vertically.

Path Selection Tool
The Path Selection tool allows you to select whatever path you have already created. The Direct Selection tool allows you to move around any direction point you have already created.

Shape Tool
The Rectangle tool lets you create a a rectangle. Hold down Shift to create squares. The Rounded Rectangle tool is the same as the Rectangle tool except the edges are rounded instead of being 90 degrees. Hold down Shift to make square. The Ellipse tool is used to make ovals and circles. Hold down Shift to make a perfect circle. The Polygon tool is used to make triangles, pentagons, etc. Just enter the number of sides you want to have on your shape. The Line tool is used to make straight lines. The Custom Shape tool is used to make a custom shape that you pick out from the selection.

Notes & Audio
The Notes tool is used for when you want to jot down some notes you want to remember on your graphics. The Audio Annotation tool does the same as the Notes tool except you record the note yourself instead of typing it out.

Color Samplers


Hand Tool
The Hand tool lets you move your image around the window that you have open.

Zoom Tool
The Zoom tool lets you move in closer to your image.

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Cropping

Learn how to crop images

Open up your image.



Take the Crop tool and select the part of the image you want to keep.



Go to Image - Crop. All done.



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Stroking

Learn how to stroke your images or make a border

Open up your image.



Select the part of the image you want to stroke around.



Go to Edit - Stroke. Choose the settings you'd like to have.

OR (!)

You can go to Layer - Layer Style - Blending Options. Check off Stroking and play with your options. I prefer this method because it allows you to go back and switch around your options. If you do the previous method you can only do it once unless you do "Step Backward" over and over.



Yay, done!

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Fill vs Opacity

The difference between fill and opacity

Fill and opacity are very similar. The difference between these two is that Opacity affects ALL parts of your image while Fill does not affect it's layer effects.

Here is a way to be able to tell the difference:



Notice how the layer effects (the border and shadow) are NOT affected in the 40% fill image while they are faded in the 40% opacity?

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Angel Effect

Soft, gorgeous, angel-like effect

Open up your image.



Duplicate your base layer. On the original layer, go to Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur. Set the radius to 1 pixel.

On the second layer, Fliter - Other - High Pass. Set the radius to about 7 pixels.



Go to Layer - Layer Style - Blending Options. Set the blend mode to Soft Light.



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Blending

Learn to blend multiple images into one

Open up your images.



Open up a new file that will fit both of your images side by side. Put the images next to each other with one overlapping over the other.



Go to LAYER - LAYER MASK - REVEAL ALL. Make sure that the foreground color is black (#000000). Take the brush tool and set the DIAMETER to 100px with the OPACITY at 60% and the FLOW to 100%. Take the brush tool and run it along the overlapped edge slowly until the image in the background starts showing through. If you mess up, you can switch the foreground color to white (#ffffff) and use the brush to replace the erased image as you see fit.



You should obviously mess around with different diameters, opacities and flows to make it fit the look your going for.

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Dotted Lines

Learn to create dotted lines

Open up your image.



Click on the brush tool. Go to Brushes - Brush Tip Shape and match your settings to mine.



Go to Brushes - Shape Dynamics and match your settings to mine.



Now if you want to just freehand your dotted line, just go ahead and draw it.



If you want to be a bit more specific, select the pen tool and draw whatever path you want to use.



Right click and select Stroke Path.... Make sure the tool selected is the brush tool. Delete the path.



OK, so I've gotten a bunch of neomails asking me why this doesn't in Photoshop 7.0 and the answer is: I don't know. I don't have Photoshop 7.0 so I can't really help you. I'll try to look for this answer on google when I'm done with this guide. I don't know when that will be. So bear with me, or better yet, look it up yourself and neomail me so I can put it up here (with credit to you of course ;))

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Cutting PSDs

Learn to cut clear PSDs.

Open up your image.



Take the pen tool and match your settings to mine.



Click around the image you want to cut out.



Once your path is closed, right click and select Make Selection... with Feather Radius set to 0 pixels with Anti-Aliased and New Selection checked off. Go to Select - Inverse. Hit Delete.



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Wavy Text

Learn to create wavy text.

Open up your image.



Select the pen tool and match your settings to mine.



Create the path where you want your text to be.



Take the type tool and click on the work path you just made. The cursor should change once you hit an area where you can type. Type up your text.



Delete the path.



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Making a Blog

A step by step walkthrough on making a blog-type layout

I started by opening a new image 400px by 400px with a transparent background.



Then I used the Paint Bucket tool to make my background layer a bright blue (#0099cc).



For the actual blog, I used the Rounded Rectangle tool, then I right clicked and clicked on Make Selection... and made a New Selection. Afterwards, I used the Paint Bucket tool again to fill it in with a light gray color (#cfd7d9). If you want to make your blog a bit transparent, just lower the opacity of the layer to your liking.



Go to Layer - Layer Style - Blending Options while your gray blog layer is selected. I used Drop Shadow and Stroke to give the blog a blue border and a small shadow.



I added a PSD of an MSPP Poogle.



Go to Layer - Layer Style - Blending Options while your MSPP layer is selected. I used Drop Shadow and Outer Glow to give the MSPP a small white aura and a shadow.



Add some text to spice up your blog. I used the font Ever After 48 pt. with a blue border.



This is obviously a very, very plain blog. I would always add something else to this like a nice background or play around with the text. This is just a template really.

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