Adobe Photoshop 2021

For Beginners

Complete Beginner to Pro Illustrated Guide to Master

Graphics Designs and Image Editing Skills with
Latest Tips & Tricks

Tech Demystified
Copyright © 2020 by Tech Demystified Incorporated
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic,
electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by
any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the
publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles
and reviews.

ISBN - 9798711673231
 CONTENTS
CONTENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE
GETTING STARTED WITH IMAGE EDITING
GETTING FAMILIAR WITH THE HOME SCREEN
LAUNCHING INTO PHOTO EDITOR
ANATOMY OF PHOTOSHOP MAIN INTERFACE
ANATOMY OF PHOTOSHOP MAIN INTERFACE
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP TOOLBOX
CHOOSING EITHER SINGLE OR DOUBLE COLUMN TOOLBAR
HIDDEN TOOLBAR’S TOOL
MOVING AND SELECTION TOOLS
CROP AND SLICE TOOLS
MEASUREMENT TOOLS
RETOUCHING AND PAINTING TOOLS
DRAWING AND TYPING TOOLS
NAVIGATION TOOLS
UNDERSTANDING MENUS APPEARANCE
OPENING AND SAVING IMAGE WITH PURPOSE
OPENING FILE FROM ADOBE BRIDGE
IMPORTING AND PASTING IMAGES
CHAPTER TWO
WORKING WITH LAYERS
GETTING TO KNOW LAYER
TYPES OF LAYERS
CONVERTING BACKGROUND TO A LAYER
CREATE A NEW LAYER FROM THE SCRATCH
POWER OF PHOTOSHOP COMPOSITION
TRANSFORMING LAYER
USING LAYER VIA COPY AND LAYER VIA CUT
ADDING LAYER MASK
INTRODUCING ADJUSTMENT LAYER
DUPLICATING LAYERS
CHAPTER THREE
WORKING WITH TYPE TOOL
UNDERSTANDING TYPE BASIC
MAKING USE OF THE TYPE TOOL
FORMAT AND CHARACTER PANEL
CREATING PARAGRAPH TYPE
USING THE TEXT ON SHAPE TOOL
 MASKING WITH TYPE
STYLIZING AND WARPING TYPE
WARPING YOUR TYPE
CHAPTER FOUR
MAKING AND MODIFYING SELECTION
DEFINE SELECTION
CREATING RECTANGLE AND ELLIPTICAL SELECTIONS
PERFECTING SQUARES AND CIRCLES WITH SHIFT AND ALT
GETTING STRAIGHT WITH THE POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL
MODIFY YOUR SELECTION
WORKING WIZARDLY WITH THE MAGIC WARD
ELIMINATING WITH THE ERASER TOOLS
THE ERASER TOOL
BACKGROUND ERASER TOOL
MAGIC ERASER TOOL
REFINE THE EDGE OF A SELECTION
FEATHERING A SELECTION
CHAPTER FIVE
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
CHAPTER SIX
CORRECTING CONTRAST, COLOR, AND CLARITY
USING BRIGHTNESS AND ADJUSTMENT
COLORIZING A PHOTO
OPENING CLOSED EYES
CHAPTER SEVEN
DRAWING AND PAINTING
SPLASHING ON COLOR WITH THE PAINT BUCKET
WORKING WITH MULTICOLOR GRADIENT
WORKING WITH COLOR PICKER
DRAWING MULTIPLE SHAPE
PENCIL TOOL
CHAPTER EIGHT
SIMPLE MAKEOVER
CROPPING, RESIZING AND STRAIGHTENING IMAGES
CROPPING AWAY WITH CROP TOOL
RESIZING YOUR IMAGE
EDITING IN QUICK MODE
FIXING SMALL IMPERFECTION WITH TOOL
RETOUCHING WITH THE HEALING BRUSH TOOL
QUICK MODE AUTO MODE
AUTO SMART TONE
AUTO COLOR CORRECTION
AUTO HAZE REMOVAL
 CLONING WITH THE CLONE STAMP TOOL
ZEROING IN WITH THE SPOT HEALING BRUSH
REPOSITIONING WITH THE CONTENT-AWARE MOVE TOOL
LIGHTENING AND DARKENING WITH DODGE AND BURN TOOLS.
SMUDGING AWAY ROUGH SPOT
SOFTENING WITH THE BLUR TOOL
FOCUSING WITH THE SHARPEN TOOL
SPONGING COLOR ON AND OFF
REPLACING ONE COLOR WITH ANOTHER
CHAPTER NINE
PLAYING WITH FILTERS, EFFECTS, STYLES, AND MORE
HAVING FUN WITH FILTERS
APPLY FILTERS
WORKING IN THE FILTER GALLERY.
FADING A FILTER
MIXING UP WITH BLEND MODE
APPLYING BLENDING MODE TO A FILTER
GENERAL BLEND MODES
DARKEN BLEND MODES
LIGHTEN BLEND MODES
USING PHOTOMERGE
CHAPTER TEN
INDISPENSABLE TIPS AND TRICKS
CONCLUSION
 PREFACE
Welcome to Adobe Photoshop 2021 user guide, you must have probably
heard of Adobe Photoshop, if not it is an imaging and graphic design
software for designing photos, creating 3D artwork and editing videos. It
doesn’t matter if you have experience of graphic design or not. Adobe
Photoshop is for both business and personal uses. This user guide has been
packaged in such a way to develop the prerequisites skills and knowledge
that you need to exploit and make the best out of Adobe Photoshop, it’s for
all categories of users beginning with those who do not know Photoshop by
starting from the basic level which is foundational level for the new beginner
and stretched to the intermediate user by introducing them to the several new
tools, adjustment and editing methodology and workflow options.
This user guide takes you through the beginner level of the primary adobe
design applications with rigorous in-depth research in such a way that
explains them in a logical manner by establishing a path that will blur the
previous orientation of the user in respect of the buttons and gadgets that
seem confusing; his guide has come to make it easier to operate those button
and gadget via one on one-step process to take through this user guide.
It is not a new thing about adobe Photoshop in regards to its constant
interface alteration which might make the new button and gadgets seem
different a little bit for the previous user, no qualms, this is a messiah user
guide for every puzzle is been broken down to the simplest for both beginner
and intermediate users.
In the course of going through this user guide, you will get to know how to a
bitmap image, adding shadow and effects to your various image, above all
you’ll be equipped with the understanding of how to become a professional
digital artist. Without vain repetition, let’s dive into adobe photoshop 2021
proper for a full understanding of the leverages you can gain from Adobe
Photoshop.
INTRODUCTION
Adobe Photoshop came into being by the joint works of the two art brothers,
John and Thomas in 1987 to be precise, they invented Adobe Photoshop to
take technology to the next level in respect of making the image more
attractive by creating additional effects to it which is what they inherited
from their father, their initial intention was to name the Photoshop Image pro
but the name has already been taken by another producer.
Their major reason behind this innovation is to take image and photo to
another level by creating additional effects which will make image
worthwhile and lively which is why it is called “Raster Graphic Editors’’
because it has been a powerful tool used in creating and editing images and it
can be saved in various formats, making a transparent image in the below
layers of the image, adding several models of color such as lap color and
lots more.
The first version of the Adobe Photoshop that was released is Photoshop
0.63 in 1988 but it was not released to the public, it was released to test its
effectiveness by its creator, after that, there was first initial release to the
public on February 19, 1990 as Photoshop 1.0 which is only for Macintosh.
Other Photoshop released is an improvement over the previous release,
though I can’t mention all Adobe Photoshop released but I will mention the
significant ones which will prompt me to mention a notable release in
November 1992 which is Adobe Photoshop 2.1 that was the first version of
the application software that captured the operating system of both Mac and
the Window.
Another remarkable version was also released in November 1996 which is
Photoshop 4.0 which brought two distinguished features “Action and
Adjustment layers”. The action was a useful feature that allows a designer to
make more than one command and effects to a single action, while the
Adjustment layer allows the designer to attach an effect to a group of layers
which in return will save a significant amount of time while working with
Photoshop; for you to know their efficacy and are still present in all the
current version that was released afterward.
As I have said earlier, every new release has one or more improvement over
the previous. In a nutshell, another latest version has been released which is
Adobe photoshop 2021 which comes with a lot of amazing features that are
capable of making more powerful and lively editing, fully in support of
Camera models, lenses fix the bug issues and lots more. To discover the new
ways to unlock Adobe Photoshop 2021 version, stick to this carefully packed
user guide for a way out from the adobe Photoshop puzzle.
 CHAPTER ONE
GETTING STARTED WITH IMAGE EDITING
GETTING FAMILIAR WITH THE HOME SCREEN
The present Adobe Photoshop home screen offer users Adobe creative cloud
series of apps that are more than recently opened files. You can as well
browse and sort those files and display them in thumbnail or list form.
Also, on the home screen, you have access to Adobe online web tutorial,
starting from basic videos on getting started with layers and cutting out
images to advance stage. Lastly, it is this place where you can make a
creation for your new document. Let’s quickly dive into what a home screen
can offer you.

As you open your Photoshop without going directly to the

workspace, you will be presented with an Adobe Home screen.
The major part of its’ space is the recent files being arranged
either in ascending or descending order.

Menu items are located at the top left of your screen. Home is
there by default, when you click on Learn Button, it will display
pages of available tutorials out of which you can select.
Lightroom Photos. follow the Learn Options, when you click on
it, it will display a page of lightroom images that are stored
online. You may select them for import and they will be
downloaded and opened in Photoshop.

The PS Icon located at the top left corner is the link to the
Photoshop workspace, simply click on it to open though, it will
open without an image because you have not started any work on
 it. However, you may click on the home button to return to the
home screen.

LAUNCHING INTO PHOTO EDITOR

The first process of getting started with Photoshop is to start by creating a
new document or open a file. To create a new document:

For proper understanding, let’s start from the new project work
by clicking on “ Create New” to create a new project or
document, scroll to the right, up and down to select the desired
template.
After the template selection, adjust for the properties at the right
side by starting from any of your choice, the project name,
width, height, orientation, resolution, color mode and click on
create.

For the color mode, choose RGB color. This stands for Red,
Green and Blue. These are the colors that best suit Photoshop.
For the photo dimension, I will recommend 880 pixels wide/450
pixels tall, while for the resolution 72 pixels/inch will be good.
Once you are done with the filling of the document properties.
Then click Create New, to open a new document and begin your
work on it.
The new project work will be opened on the workspace which is completely
blank and white. It is called Canvas which is full of a pixel that you can
change.

You can use your mouse wheel to increase or reduce the size of the project
work by dragging the mouse in and out.

ANATOMY OF PHOTOSHOP MAIN INTERFACE

There is an in-built amazing interface within your Photoshop. Immediately
you launch into Adobe Photoshop, you will notice the menu bar at the top
side of the program and at the left side you will see a sidebar in which the
main tools are being arranged. Lastly, at the right side, there is a layer tool
and color tool for adjustment you may wish to make. The main screen is a
composition of dark slate grey area, slightly lighter Menu, sharp white
Option menu and lot designs that makes Photoshop background looks
fantastic and as well makes its image and photo looks exceptional. Let’s
check what Adobe Photoshop can present to you as its use.
ANATOMY OF PHOTOSHOP MAIN INTERFACE

A. Menu Bar : This is an options menu bar.

B. Tool Options Bar : This is the bar that shows the available
option which is attached to every tool selected. For instance, if
you pick a brush tool there will be having an option such as size,
softness and a lot more.
C. Document Window : Each document you open will have its
separate bar that shows its identity, such as document name,
current scaling and color space being in use.
D. Toolbar or Palette : This is the place to find the main editing
tools, once you click on an individual tool, they will show
separate function you can do with them.

E. Document Details : This shows you the compressed and real

size of your document.
F. Active Image : This represents the interface of a large area to
work on your image with a darker background color.
 G. Ruler s: This is used to measure the exact position of your image
and you can drag guidelines from here for text and layer line up.
H. Search and Share : a link to search for any content, amend the
workspace arrangement and sharing your image on social media.
I. Palette s: There are various interchangeable palettes that you can
select from the Window menu.
J. Layer Palette : This is an area of the current image layer you are
working on. The layer at the top of the stack will be shown above
those below.
K. Layer Option : It gives you the right to add effects, adjustments,
layers style and other options that you can add to your currently
active layers.

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP TOOLBOX

The Photoshop toolbar hasn’t changed much, it only changed a little bit
during the introduction of the Layers and Move tool in 1994. The only visible
change is that of the toolbar that can be expanded, as a result of the increase
in the size of the monitor with the addition of few tools. Nevertheless, if you
have sound knowledge of the previous Photoshop version with its picture in
your heart, you will still have the fragrance of being at home with the latest
version.
The left side box is the Photoshop toolbox, you have to make it your good
and intimate friend because the beauty of your editing and graphic work
depends on how best you can use the toolbox, the tools box has been
arranged for what they do.
CHOOSING EITHER SINGLE OR DOUBLE COLUMN TOOLBAR
The toolbar by default appears to be single but you can make it double-
column by clicking on the top double arrow which will make it to be
expanded and shorter. Click the double arrow again to return it to the single
column toolbar again.
The top part features are Selection, Cropping and Slicing tools,
these are the tools that you can use to select the part of the image
you want to edit and enhance, it can help you to crop out some
parts and slicing out the part that is not needed.

The second part features are Retouching and Painting tools.

They are used to clean and eliminate unwanted spots on your
image or product items and to color the image as well erasing
certain parts in such a way to enhance the image either by
sharpening or blurring.
 The bottom and last section features are the tools for Drawing
and Typing. You can use them to write the text on your image, or
to draw on your image by using a hand pen tool. The hand pen
tool will be covered in the following section.

HIDDEN TOOLBAR’S TOOL

Each toolbar is represented by the default tool or the current tool that is in
use. However, many tools are available more than what you can see. To see
other tools that are hidden behind the default tool, you have to click the Small
Arrow in the bottom right of that tool icon, alternatively by right click on the
default or the current tool in use and you will be able to see the full available
tools.

MOVING AND SELECTION TOOLS

BUTTONS TOOLS USES
Move It is used to moves layers, selections,
and guides within a Photoshop
document.

Artboard It allows you to easily design multiple

web layouts for different screen sizes.

Rectangular it is used to draw rectangular selection

marquee outlines. Press hold and shift as you
drag to draw a square selection.
Elliptical It is used to draw elliptical selection
Marquee outlines. Press and hold Shift as you
are drawing a perfect circle selection.
Single Row It is used to select a single row of
Marquee pixels in the image from left to right.

Single It is used to select a single column of

Column pixels from top to bottom.
Marquee
Lasso It allows you to draw a freeform
selection outline around an object.
Polygonal It surrounds the object with a
Lasso polygonal, straight-edged selection
outline.
Magnetic When you move your mouse cursor
Lasso around the object, it will snap the edge
of the selection outline.
Object It will select an object when you draw
Selection a rough selection around an object.
Quick It selects an object easily by painting
selection over the object with a brush.

Magic Wand it picks an area of similar color when

you single click on it. You can check
 the Options bar to examine how the
“Tolerance” value sets the range of
color.

CROP AND SLICE TOOLS

BUTTONS TOOLS USES
Crop It is used to crop an image to cut out or
remove unwanted areas.

Perspective It is used to crop an image and fixing

crop common problems or distortion.

Slice It is used to divides an image or layout

into smaller parts that can be exported
or optimized separately.

Slice Select It is used to select individual slices

created with the slice tool.

Frame It allows you to place an image into

rectangular or elliptical shapes.

MEASUREMENT TOOLS
Buttons Tools Uses
Eyedropper It samples the colors of an image. For a
better representation of the sample
area’s color, you have to increase
“Sample Size”.
3D Material It is used to sample material from a 3D
Eyedropper model.
 Color This displays the color value for the
Sample selected area of an image. You can
sample as many as four areas at a time.

Ruler It aids in measuring angles and

locations. It Is good in positioning
images and elements, just at the place
where you want them.
Note It allows you to attach text-based notes
to your Photoshop document. Notes will
be saved as part of the PSD files.

Count It counts the number of objects in an

image manually or counting
automatically the selected areas in the
image.

RETOUCHING AND PAINTING TOOLS

Buttons Tools Uses
Spot Healing It removes blemishes and other minor
Brush problems area in an image quickly.

Healing Brush This one helps to repair larger problem

Tool areas in an image by painting over them.
Hold Alt (Window)/Option (Mac) and
click to sample the good texture, then
paint over the problem area to repair the
problem.
Patch It draws a Freeform selection outline
around a problem area, then repairs it, by
dragging the selection outline over an
area of good texture.
Content-Aware it is used to select and move a portion of
Move an image to a different area. Photoshop
fills the holes in the original spot
automatically, using the element of the
surrounding area.
Red Eye It removes common red-eye problems in
photos, resulting from the camera flash.

Brush It is used to paint-brush strokes on a

layer or layer mask. It is referred to
primary painting tool.
Pencil The pencil tool is used to paints hard
edges while the brush tool is used to
paint soft edges.
Color Is used to replace the color of an object
Replacement with a different color.

Mixer brush It simulates elements of the real painting

like, mixing and combining colors and
paint wetness.
Clone Stamp Is the best basic of Photoshop retouching
tools, it is used to samples pixels from
one area of the image and paints them
over pixels in another area.
Pattern Stamp Is used to paint pattern over the image.

History Brush It paints a snapshot from an earlier step

into the current version of the image. You
 can find the previous history from the
history panel.

Art history brush It also paints a snapshot from the

previous version into the image, but it
uses stylized brush strokes.
Eraser It is used to erases pixels on a layer
permanently. It can also paint in an
earlier historical state.
Background It erases areas of similar color in an
Eraser image by painting over them.

Magic Eraser It selects an area of similar color and

deletes them permanently.

Gradient Tool It used to draw gradual blends between

multiple colors with the Gradient Editor,
you can create and customize your
gradient.
Paint Bucket It fills an area of similar color with
Tool relevant color or pattern. The area you
clicked will affect the range of color in
line with the tolerance value.
3D Material It lets you sample material from one area
Drop and drop it to another area of your model
or 3D layer.
Blur It simply blurs and softens areas you
paint over with the tool.

Sharpen Tool It sharpens areas you paint over.

 Smudge It smears and smudges an area you paint
over. It can as well be used to create a
painting finger effect.

Dodge It is used to lighten an area of the image

you paint over.

Burn It darkens the areas you paint over.

Sponge It decreases and increases the color

saturation of the painted area.

DRAWING AND TYPING TOOLS

Button Tools Uses
Pen It lets you draw accurate shapes, vector,
selection and paths.

Freeform It permits you to draw freehand paths or

Pen shapes. As you are drawing, the anchor point
will be added automatically.

Curvature It serves the same purpose as Pen Tool, but

Pen easier than Pen Tool.

Add Anchor It is used to add additional anchor points

Point along the line.

Delete Click on an existing anchor point along a

Anchor Point path with the Delete Anchor point to remove
such a point.
Convert Click on a smooth anchor point, with the
Point Convert tool to convert it to a corner point
and click on the corner point to convert to a
smooth point.
Horizontal It is used to add standard types to your
type document.

Vertical type It is used to add type vertically from top to

bottom.

Vertical type It is used to create a selection outline in the

Mask vertical shape format or type.

Horizontal It is used to create a selection outline in the

Type Mask horizontal shape format or type.

Path It is used to select and move an entire path at

Selection once. And it is represented with black color.

Direct It is used to select and move an individual

Selection path segment, anchor point, it is represented
with white color.
Rectangle It draws rectangular paths, vector shapes or
pixel shapes. Press and hold Shift, as you
drag to set the shape to a perfect square.
Rounded It draws shapes with rounded corners. Press
Rectangle and hold Shift to draw a square with rounded
corners.
Ellipse
 It draws elliptical vector shapes, paths or
pixel shapes. Press and hold Shift as you
drag for the perfect circle.
Triangle It was just included in Photoshop 2021. It is
used to draw a triangle. Hold Shift to draw
an equilateral triangle or round the corner
with radius Options.
Polygon It’s just included in Photoshop 2021 also. It
is used to draw polygonal shapes with any
number of sides. You can turn polygons into
stars with the Star Ratio Options.
Line It is also 2021 updated. It helps to draw
straight lines or arrows. Control the
appearance of the line with stroke color and
weight.
Custom It lets you select and draw custom shapes.
Shape You can create your own or choose from
Photoshop in-built custom shapes.
NAVIGATION TOOLS
Buttons Tools Uses
Hand It can be used to click and drag an image
around on the screen to view different areas
when zoomed in.
Rotate It’s used to rotate the canvas so you can view
View and at the same time, edit the image from
different angles.

Zoom Click on the image to zoom in a specific area.

Press and hold Alt(Windows)/Option(Mac),
and click with the zoom tool to zoom out.
UNDERSTANDING MENUS APPEARANCE
The more you examine the Menus, the more you will get understanding of
Photoshop’s intricacy and versatility. Photoshop has about eleven Menus
with additional Sub-Menus, it’s very essential to be acquainted with the
significant keys for quick and effective use of Photoshop. Let’s quickly check
the key Menu and Sub-Menu of Adobe Photoshop:

The key Option It gives you Options This is a Zoom Edit has a
here are: New (is to effect changes to level control, lot of
used to create your whole image besides it is a amazing
new document), such as mode (color control for the features
Open (to open an type), image size, snap function, such as
existing canvas size, and such as Copy,
document), Save image rotation, most guidelines, Paste, and
(to save your importantly especially when Cut
current in the Adjustment Sub you are laying out features,
default file and Menu which on its a design or Spell-
own substantial inputting text into checker
location), Save
enough to find its the image. s for
as (An Option to
way out as a correcting a
save in a separate main menu. mistake,
different format
and location and With Adjustment Fill, Stroke
different file Sub Menu, you can content-
name) Automate effectively control aware
and scripts on your image such scale, Free
(supply the as Curves, transform
improvement Brightness/Contrast, as well as
batch processing level, Saturation the
and automated and lot more. keyboard
editing Options). shortcut.

Layers are New text Is not needed After the

important handling and always, but it remaking of
features of presentation holds some the filters,
Photoshop, the Option has been indispensable there has been
added to the feature like the
 most Significant latest version of Arrange and availability of
are New Layer, the Photoshop, it Workplace Sub exceptional
New can be found in Menus, to control ones such as
Adjustment panel’s options at the layout of tabs, Amazing
Layer which can the top of the Windows and the Adaptive
allow you to menu. Other key various tool Wide-Angle
create non- 3D text and palette and panels. features,
destructive Special language liquidity filter,
editing layers. Options. lens distortion
to the image. correction,
and other
There is Mask,
essential
Flatten, and
filters and
Merge option as effects.
well.
Note: you may not need some of the Sub-Menu Option. And as a result,
there is an arrangement to edit the menu you want to see and use, to do that
simply:

Go to Edit.
Swing to Menus.
Under the Menus tab, tap the Show/Hide icon for each item you
want to hide.

OPENING AND SAVING IMAGE WITH PURPOSE

With the attempt to create a befitting masterwork, you should be able to open
and navigate to your various image assets and transfer them to your
Photoshop workspace to start work on them. Photoshop has its format for
managing and locating your images in Adobe Bridge format. Let’s check the
way to open, save and edit your image.
After you are done with the creation of a new document, then it is necessary
to check other available Options. Out of the available option is opening an
image or a photo. To open a document :

From the top of your File Menu click on File.

Select open (Cmd + O), and there will be a display of your
stored images where you can browse through computer folders to
check the desired image.

Immediately you’ve found the image you are looking for, you can
either highlight on it (or many Images at once) or click on the
open button at the lower right of the browser window and they
will open up in Photoshop or you double click on the image in
question.
OPENING FILE FROM ADOBE BRIDGE
Adobe Bridge can also be used to search for images rather than a standard
browser. Adobe Bridge will display and arrange those images in date order
and addition of certain keywords making them easier to search for when next
you see them again. To open an image from Adobe Bridge:

Click on File.
Tap Browser in Bridge from the drop-down (Alt+Cmd+O).

You can single out image and add keywords or select them in
mass and add keywords specific to each of the images you have
currently selected, then all the keywords will be displayed
alongside the attached images. In Bridge, you can browse your
image just the same way you browse the window browser. Aside
 from the control that the Bridge has over your image and more
image data that is available, as it is shown in the image below.

Immediately you got your desire image, highlight it and right-

click for context menu options. In this guide, we will open
with Adobe Photoshop 2021 option.

Note : If you open any image and you don’t add any new layer during the
editing process till you save it, it will only be saved in its original jpeg
format. However, if you involve layers and adjustment during the process
of editing, it will simply be saved in PSD format to keep those layers.
IMPORTING AND PASTING IMAGES
Pasting content into your document makes your document very unique.
Pasting a document shouldn’t be a difficult task but rather an easy task. It
starts with opening the image or photo import such photo to another
document or another photo and begin the designing and editing process.
Understanding this process is a pre-requisite to Adobe Photoshop as it
represents a stepping stone to an image editing and digital manipulation
tool for photographers and designers. Without much ado, let us quickly
dive into the process of importing and pasting images into the document:

After you must have made a blank document, the next is to fill
your document with the necessary image.
Images may be imported into your documents through two option
which is either Place Embedded Option by covering image as
an object. And can be edited in your active document but which
will still contain editing within it.

Or the Place Linked Option which means, after you have placed
an image into your document, the document will retain the link to
the original file so that if you edit the original image. The
subsequent time you look at the document that is containing your
image, it will update to the latest saved version.

Navigate to the folder that contains the first image you want to
use, highlight on it and click the place button or double click on it
to open the image on its document blank layer. You have to know
that the layer name will change to the image name immediately
you open the image in the document layer.
Then do the necessary adjustment such as moving, cropping,
rotating the image before you place it finally on the layer. You
can click and drag the Cover Control Points to scale the image
to fill your document, then press enter as soon as you finish the
changes.

Then for the second image, follow the same process by going to
the file and click embedded again, and flip through for the image.
For this course let’s make use of reptile animal character into the
new layer. Place the new image and use the control points to
scale the image then drag to your preferred position.
Both images selected will be placed on Smart Object so far they
are embedded. If you check the bottom right corner of the
thumbnail, you will notice a Small Icon that represents a Placed
Object. Once you are alright with the two, then you can convert
them to standard pixels.

To convert them into standard pixels, simply right-click on your

layers to call up the context menu. Flip down the list to see the
Rasterize Layer Option, then select the Rasterize layer option
to convert each of the Smart Object to a normal pixel-based
image which reacts exactly like standard photos.
You have successfully created a basic document with two layers.
With this simple ideology, you should be able to exploit an
opportunity of taking various image elements and particularly
join them to create surprise artworks.
 CHAPTER TWO
WORKING WITH LAYERS
GETTING TO KNOW LAYER
Understanding layers is the foundation basics of editing, it is the core part of
Photoshop image editing. With layers, the elements of the image are added up
and displayed in descending order, though you can later change the order of
the layer in the stack. Layers can include transparency and as a result, lower
layers can be visible through higher layers. You may apply effects,
adjustments and operations to an individual layer or all the layers at once,
layer can be turned on or off, you can as well delete any layers without
affecting others.
To understand the principle and concept of layers, you have to see them as a
pile of glass panels with the element that makes up the image painted onto
them, while you are looking down on them from the top to check how they are
stacked up.
Layers grant you the chance of editing your image non-destructively by
changing one element of a layer without affecting other layers. Let us take for
instance, if you are about to perform any adjustment or effect on the layer but
are not very sure if the result will be okay, you can simply make a duplicate
layer and set the original to be invisible. Then proceed to carry on your
editing on the duplicate, if at the end the result is not okay by you, then you
may delete it and go back to the original one.
TYPES OF LAYERS
Layers are of four main types:

1. Pixel layer : It contains all the graphical elements of the image.

2. Text layer : It contains text information and you can edit and
resize them as well.
3. Vectors layer : It contains vector information such as work paths
and shape.
4. Adjustment layer : It contains embedded commands, the
commands that affect the layer below.

Note : The drawback to using the layers is the file sizes that will be
accumulating as you continue adding layers and attached information. It
 greatly increases the size of the file and thus immediately you are done
with editing before saving the picture you have created; you have to
flatten the single image that contains all the layers you merge.
STUDYING YOUR PATH AROUND THE LAYER PANEL AND
SELECTING MENUS IS AN ESSENTIAL PART

(A) Adjustment Layer: it helps you to add any adjustment

effects such as Brightness, Contrast, levels and Saturation. This is an
alternative link to the main layer menu.
(B) New Layer Group : This is the link to create a new layer
group inside which you can drag and drop layers and it will help you
arrange your layers even if the composition is complicated.
 (C) New Layer Link: A link to create a blank new layer
directly over the current above the active layer.
(D) Layers delete button: Click on it to delete the currently
active layer or you can drag the layer into the button to delete it.

CONVERTING BACKGROUND TO A LAYER

Anytime an image is opened or you create a new document with white or
colored background, such an image or document will contain a single layer
called the Background layer .

You can as well change the background layer into a regular layer, simply
double click on the background layer within the layers panel which is filled
with a new layer window. The default name for the new layer will be layer 0
in the new layer window. Type a new layer name into the Name text box,
after you are done renaming the layer, click on the Ok button.

Immediately such background layer will become a regular layer that can be
moved, blending modes may be added to it including enablement to change
the opacity on the layer.
Alternatively, you can change your background layer to a regular layer by
moving to the layer menu and selecting New, then select a layer from the
background.

CREATE A NEW LAYER FROM THE SCRATCH

To create a new layer, click on Create New Layer icon [ It is similar to a
piece of paper with the lower-left corner folded} on the bottom left layers
panel.

Note : When you create a new layer, such a layer will be placed above the
layer that was selected before creating the new layer. Each new layer will be
awarded a default name of Layer 1, 2, 3, 4. And so on.

To change the name of the layer, click twice on the layer name to choose the
existing name and then type the new name for the new layer.
POWER OF PHOTOSHOP COMPOSITION
We have gotten to that crucial level of getting to know the essence of what
Photoshop is all about. To be realistic working with layers in a document
together with the importation of various images and graphics is an essential
part of how Photoshop functions. Nevertheless, opening such Photo and then
adding layers of adjustment over it is what makes Photoshop the inspiring
image. You can augment or add features to your favorite image to makes it
look more resounding or creating fantastic compositions by combining
various images or part of them excitingly will arouse your viewers' longing
they could do it well exactly like that.
TRANSFORMING LAYER
To exploit Photoshop composition power:

Let us begin with opening the base image by clicking on File

Then dive to Open (Cmd + O) and Flip to where the image you
want to use as the background was saved. Without wasting much
time, as you are familiar with it from the previous knowledge, for
this part woodland has been chosen.

Follow the same process to open the browser to the front and
search for it, then drag the next image you will be using to the top
of the base image.
Hope you aware, the next layer has its separate layer which will
be named after the title of the file. In our illustration here the
sorcerer sits on top of the base image on a new layer.

Let us drop another image (sleepy dragon) by making it sits

nicely in the background. But a little issue occurred, dragon
appears to block the foreground character, this is exactly where
the layer functions very well.
To correct this issue, simply click and hold the mouse over the
very layer that contains the dragon, drag the layer to sits under the
layer containing sorceress. Immediately after the adjustment of
the foreground and the dragon behind it, the image will be more
excellent.

As you are aware each element has a separate layer, then they can
be manipulated and edited independently of each other. For
example, the dragon will be amazing if it was on the other way
around. As a result, let us flip the layer horizontally for much
awesome looking composition.

At this point, you can still go to the layer palette to click on

Create A New Layer Button so that you can add a layer
between the dragon and the base image which is called shadows.
Then you can proceed to use a soft black brush to add some
shadow to anchor to make the ground creature more realistic.
So far the figure and the dragon are smart objects, then you can
choose to Rasterize layer from the menu and convert them to
normal pixel images by right click in each of the layers after you
must have satisfied with the final placement, size and orientation.

Lastly in between the sorcerer and the dragon, there will be a

layer of mist that contains white brush marks which mean to
complete this composition, its opacity has dropped to about 47%.
USING LAYER VIA COPY AND LAYER VIA CUT
One of the essential Photoshop skills that makes it widely acceptable
is the enablement, to cut out one image part and merge it to another
image entirely. One of the key skills that you cannot do without is the
selection and cutting of an image which in turn enhance, improve and
manipulate the image. This stage will take you through the process of
cutting one image part and use it in another. Stay calm, it is not as
difficult as you imagine it is, let us check it out:

We have already gone to the file and selected the two images we
want to merge; they consist of moody woodland and cosmonaut.
Let us deal with the cosmonaut image first because we want to
take it out from his background.

We may choose to use the Lasso Tool to draw freehand to draw

around the outline of the spaceman, but it will take much time and
too tricky which may not be the best when there are suitable tools
with lesser time consuming are available in the Photoshop store.
Thus, let us make use of the Quick Selection Tool, select it from
the tool Option Panel located at the top and then ensure you
enable the Auto-Enhance to refine any selection you have made.

Let’s make use of a relatively small brush size of about 10 pixels,

then begin to click and drag the tool across the outline of the
cosmonaut. Be careful not to drag outside the edges of the suit’s
outline, then the Quick Selection tool will start to make the
selection as it is going automatically.
Immediately you are done selecting the suit, you can refine it
further by using the Select and Mask tool. You may click on it
and then use the Refine Edge Brush tool to brush over any area
that might require some specific refinement like the lower leg and
glove of the cosmonaut.
Once you are satisfied with the refinement, tap ok to continue and
go back to the main image, then swing to Edit and Click on Copy
from the Edit drop-down to copy all the pixels inside the
selection area you have created. Now click the document tab of
the other image to open it.
In the other document, swing to Edit and click on Paste from the
Edit drop-down to paste the selected to cut out cosmonaut into
this document on its separate layer which is called “layer 1” by
default. You can as well move, scale and rotate it until you have
it the way you want it against the woodland background.

We use a soft black brush tool on a new layer of cosmonaut’s

layer by brushing on a few anchors to cut out figure to the ground
of the woodland layer, the cut out makes it looks very cool.
ADDING LAYER MASK
The ability to add masks to those layers is one of the most important aspects
of what makes the layer so versatile, because it opens the eyes of the users to
their full creativity. It is a powerful tool that you can use to hide and blend
part of one image on a layer and control how they interact with one another.
Besides, Layer masks can be used together with an adjustment layer which
will also provide the same hiding and revealing function part of the effect
you have chosen. Let quickly dive into the process of covering up part of a
base image and allow part of another image to show through to transform the
look of the original:

We have opened a File of Lagoon along with a Sky, we aim to

replace the sky with something excited. However, it is masking
only that can give us such a result.
We have checked through the file and have been able to find an
amazing sky that can replace the original image mountain
perfectly. What we are to do is to drag and drop the sky image
into the active document on its layer, you can then proceed to
scale the image to make the sky fill most of the frame.

Let us set the new layer to be invisible for some minutes, while
the background image is set active by clicking its layer then
navigate to the toolbar Click on the Quick Selection Tool which
will in turn allows for simple selection based on detecting
contrasting edges.

If you examine it critically, you will notice that the outline of the
featureless sky is well defined against the mountain and thus
Quick Selection Tool can easily select the sky alone by simply
click with the tool on the area of the sky and slowly drag the
cursor around the sky area to select more of the sky as the cursor
is going.
Set the top layer active and visible again, as you are doing it you
will notice you are actively selecting the area that surrounds the
sky area (indicated by the line and black known as Marching
ants) will be spread. Now we are about to turn the area into a
mask which will hide the area outside the selection.

Setting the selection active, find your way down to the layer
palette Options to choose Add Layer Mask and a mask will be
added to the top layer in the exact shape of the selection you
made. The area inside the selection is white while the one
outside the selection is black.
The white-masked area indicates that part of the layer be seen
while the black part signifies the mask hide that part of the layer.
The result here showed that the interesting sky area of the top
layer is visible while the featureless sky is hidden on the layer
below.
 You can view the Mask on its own. Press the Alt key on your
keyboard and the left key on the mask. The Quick Selection Tool
will perform a decent assignment that will make you discern the
mountain and the featureless sky. When you press on the Alt and
left-click on the mask again, the screen will change back to
normal view.

You can move around the sky in the top layer but keep the mask in
its exact position, you may click on the small chain icon layer
thumbnail and the layer mask thumbnail which will unlink the
image from the mask so that either the image or mask can move
without affecting the other.

INTRODUCING ADJUSTMENT LAYER

Another aspect of Photoshop that grant you access to non-destructive
image editing is an Adjustment layer. What does this denote, it means
anytime you use an adjustment layer to affect an image, you can remove
the adjustment you made later and the image will return to his original
version. Besides with Adjustment Layer you can save your work as a
PSD and create a document with everything that you need. Having the
mindset that original based is preserved, which means you can go back to
it and make further adjustments. Let us get started with Adjustment Layer:

Let’s first check through our image files to select an image that
makes it step one of the Adjustment Layer, now we have gotten
the image but is a little underexposed and not bright enough. No
qualm, Adjustment Layer got us covered.

Allow the image to remain as a locked background image.

Navigate to Layer Option Panel and click Adjustment Layer
Button or Create New Fill and choose Brightness and
Contrast from the drop-down list, then the Adjustment Layer
will come above the main image.
The properties panel will show forth. But if it does not show, just
double click on the Adjustment Layer thumbnail (do not misuse
Mask for thumbnail) then the properties panel will appear in
respect of that specific adjustment. In this respect, we have
clicked on Brightness and Contrast which is why two Slides
control the brightness and contrast.

This particular image Brightness is now been improved +50 and

-8 Contrast adjustment which makes it look better. But there is
still an issue with the dark look, that is too black without any
visible appearance, no cause for alarm let us make use of another
Adjustment Layer tool that can lighten the issue.
Click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer again, then
click on Levels to add level1 Adjustment, which will now come
above brightness 1 level and grant you more control over any
shadows, mid-tones and image highlights than what Brightness
and Contrast alone can do.

Click on the Middle Slider and move it to the left then all the
middle tones will get lighter. You may as well Shift Black Point
Slider below just a little to the right to remap solid black to
progressive lighter tones and darker areas. You can notice at this
level it is showing more light detail.

Let us proceed to adjust the color of the image. The color of the
image looks down a little, let us try to boost the vibrancy of the
image by clicking again on the Adjustment Layer and choose
Hue and Saturation from the drop-down list, then put it on the
growing layer stack.

The decision to boost Saturation depends on individual taste, let

us adjust Hue as a+5 Adjustment, Saturation +49, and
Lightness +6. Remember all these adjustments are on the layer
and thus they can be removed or modified at any moment without
any difficulty.
 You can stretch your adjustment to the level of using Gradient
Map. Gradient uses two-color, in this case, let us blends dark
purple into bright orange.

ADJUSTMENT LAYER COMBINATION

When you add up your layer and merge them into one effect, and then
transfer the combination to any other image so that it can have exact look
and the same feel. You may wonder if that is possible no qualm let’s go
through it:
DUPLICATING LAYERS

Having gotten your base image, navigate to the bottom of the

layer and click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer
Button, such as alteration of the tone and color of the original
image.

Getting this amazing look is a combination of four Adjustment

layers. And if you wish to transfer that combination to a separate
image without any alteration, you only need to make a copy of the
adjustment layer combination you have used for the original
image and apply them to the new image.
As I have said earlier, you can combine all the four Adjustment
and turn it into a single effect so that you can apply them all into
another image, without any need for further Adjustment. But
before you start the appliance on the current document, you must
have gotten a locked background.
`Navigate to the File, Click on Export from the File drop-down,
Click on Color Lookup Table from the Export drop-down and
Type your combined effect Filename, then you have to open up a
new image on which you want to apply your combined effect.

Click on Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer buttons, then

choose Color Lookup to add a New Adjustment layer. From the
color lookup properties, choose Load 3D LUT and move to
where you saved your File in the previous step, perhaps you
saved multiple formats, Cube is an original choice.
The image is now having its color remapped by the Color lookup
1 adjustment layer, using the Cube file you selected as its guide.
The image has to take a completely new look different from the
original style without any need for a lot of Adjustment layers.
 CHAPTER THREE
WORKING WITH TYPE TOOL
UNDERSTANDING TYPE BASIC
Photoshop permits the production of normal horizontal text and vertical text
your file anytime they are needed. You can use the same to create Masks. You
can as well structure your text in form of cool amazing logos.
MAKING USE OF THE TYPE TOOL

After you must have opened your image or your files depend on
what you want to do, then navigate to the toolbar on the right and
click on the Horizontal Type Tool.

Immediately you tap on the Type tool, your Options Menu at the
top of your screen will show up what is available for that
particular tool you have clicked. With that option, you can choose
your desire font, the size and weight of the font you want and
other necessary options.
 Drag with the Type on an area of your image to create a new text
layer and then look at default text to show you what your font and
your size will look like, you can type any of your desire text. But
for this case let us type the word “WAVES”.

FORMAT AND CHARACTER PANEL

For more formatting options, go to Windows , then select the Character to
view the character panel, if you want to move the text, you will need to select
the Move tool, click and drag it to the desired location.

Panel Menu: it includes no break, which means no breaking

space between two words to remain on the same line.
Leading: it helps you to adjust your line-height for your text,
Auto setting is good.
Kerning: to set the space between two characters, Metric is
the default design for your font, Optical allows Photoshop to
set it for you.
Baseline: Moves selected characters above or below the
baseline commonly used are subscript and superscript.
Fauxbold and Italics: You may ignore this if possible, use the
bold or Oblique version of your selected fonts.
All caps and small caps: to capitalize your font text.
Other Options: all other options such as underline, control,
character, sub and superscript with others.

CREATING PARAGRAPH TYPE

For larger pieces type of text like paragraph or lists, you will have to:

create a text box line, then choose your horizontal Type Tool.
set your formatting option, then click and drag diagonally on the
canvas to create a rectangular text box.
you can then proceed to paste or type your text into the box.
The text box is a fixed size, immediately the text reaches the right edge, it
wraps onto a new line and if the text is longer than the box you made you will
have to resize the box to make the rest visible.

Click Control + T and then hold shift and drag one of the handle bags to
increase the box size
USING THE TEXT ON SHAPE TOOL
In Photoshop you are not limited to rectangular text boxes. There various
shape tools or even manually draw a shape with the pen tool and then fill
those shapes with the text.

Select any of the shape tools or you use the pen tool.
 Set the Tool Mode to a path in the top left corner of the Options
Bar,
Then draw your shape on the Canvas.

Then grab your horizontal type tool and click inside the path you
have drawn and the shape will be turned into a text box.
Then set your text alignment to center and type your text into the
box.
Using a shape tool for your text is useful when you need to wrap
text around your image or other objects inside your design.

MASKING WITH TYPE

The last part of Photoshop’s main text is the Horizontal Type Mask Tool
and Vertical Type Mask Tool . These tools do not place text on canvas, they
rather create text-based shapes that you can use in your design. However, it
is very essentially important to select the correct font before you start
because returning to edit is not allowed.

You can start either by opening an image in Photoshop or you can select a
layer that contains some color and navigate to the toolbar to select one Type
Mask tools and set your font. Then click Canvas and start your typing, when
you done typing click enter and your text will turn into a selection.

You will perceive the area inside the text displays the image
clearly. And outside the text is presently colored red which
signifies that at the next process of masking, you will not be able
to select the same mask format anymore.
Click on Commit Change Button, the text will change into an
active selection which will give you a couple of option. Then
click on Selection Tool that resembles Lasso Tool, right-click on
the tool and select Layer via copy for you to copy the area inside
the text to a new layer.
You can navigate to the Layer Option Panel to choose to add a
Mask if you want to and the entire image of the text will be
covered with Mask leaving the area inside the Selection visible
when masking. Do not forget that white reveals and black hides.
Other two ways to use Type Mask:

1. Add a texture to your text. Click the Add Layer Mask button
located at the bottom of the Layers panel, then the background
will be transparent, letting the text shape containing the texture
from the original image.

2. Fill the text with the background color. Press CTRL +

Backspace to cut out the text and replace it with your currently
selected background color.
STYLIZING AND WARPING TYPE
After you have gotten the basic setting Options Bar, there are a remaining few
you need to know if you must get best from the type tool.

1. Text Direction : Switching between Horizontal and Vertical

text.
2. Anti-aliasing : Set how smooth or crisp you want your text to
look.
3. Warp Text : it will distort your text with 15 preset styles.
4. Open character/paragraph panel : for adjusting character
settings.
5. 3D : Switching to Photoshop’s 3D view.

WARPING YOUR TYPE

You can then highlight your text by clicking on the Create Warp
Text icon in the Options menu so that you can add some Warp
Text which comes from several effects such as Arc, Burge,
Fisheye and Flag. I will be taking you through a simple example
with a Slider to control Bend and Distortion.
 CHAPTER FOUR
MAKING AND MODIFYING SELECTION
DEFINE SELECTION
Selection and modifying certain parts of an image is essential to Photoshop
function. Part of the basic features of Photoshop is the enablement to modify
only one part of an image leaving the rest untouched with the help of
Selection and there is a lot of tools menu operation that help in realizing this
objective.
There are a lot of selection tools but the most basic are Rectangular and
Elliptical Marquee tools . They can allow you to manually select the simple
shape of any size, you can as well select several areas either separate or
joined together. Lasso tool has various tools as well that you can use to
select an area of irregular shape, freehand area and lot more. Let us
maneuver to the process of making a selection and check the various option
under it.
CREATING RECTANGLE AND ELLIPTICAL SELECTIONS
The Elliptical Marquee Tool works exactly as the Rectangular Marquee Tool
aside from the curve shape it can draw. The size and aspect ratio can be set
with help of the Rectangular Marquee Tool, a ratio of 1 x 1 can draw a circle
while the other ratio will draw ellipses of various sizes.

Let us try to draw an Ellipse around your selection, assume there is a

rectangle, then start from one corner and continue drag to the diagonally
opposite corner. It may seem tricky to get at the first trial, alternatively
simply hold down the Alt key and start right from the center of where you
want your ellipse to be.

On Rectangular Marquee let us try to draw a simple rectangular

shape after you might have selected Rectangular Marquee Tool.

You may either draw it with a freehand rectangle or you set the
Size or Ratio by using tool options. Let us draw one with a
perfect square selection by setting a 1x 1 ratio.
PERFECTING SQUARES AND CIRCLES WITH SHIFT AND ALT

Let us check on how to draw a square by clicking on that point

where you want one of the corners to be, then hold and drag it to
the Diagonally Opposite Corner Side, you will then notice
“Marching ant” following the cursor as it makes a line of the
selection box.

You may use the Paint Bucket tool to fill the area you have
selected and you will notice that those four edges are too sharp.
You can then make a soft-edged selection by typing a specific
number into the Feather box. The higher the number you typed to
the box, the greater how the edge will be blur.

After you have drawn a selection and filling, you will be able to
notice the edge is now blurred with the Marquee “Marching ants”
line staying at the very middle of the blur area.
Note: you may want to select more than one area or feel like add to your
current selection, simply hold the shift button and it will temporarily put the
tool into “Add Selection” mode.
GETTING STRAIGHT WITH THE POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL

When shapes are becoming more complex, Polygonal Lasso Tool

is needed. If you wish to draw complex freehand drawing make
use of Polygonal and the mouse, it may seem tricky but continue
practicing it, you will get to master it.

After you have selected your Polygonal Lasso Tool, proceed to

click around the edge of the area you want to select. As soon you
complete the loop you are making or you double click, the
selection will be completed automatically and you will be able to
notice the “Marching ants” border.
You should be aware that an ideal tool for cutting or copying a
complex shape out from the background is polygonal Lasso Tool
Selection and you can make the part you cut out or copy as part of
another picture. Polygonal Lasso is helpful especially when the
case has lots of straight and regular edges that you can follow
with ease.
MODIFY YOUR SELECTION
Modify selection in Photoshop simply means to refine selections. The
standard tools for selection are Lasso, Magic Wand, Marquee, they are all
good for making a basic selection of regular, well-defined shapes. Their only
shortcomings is the inability to pick out soft-edged or fined shapes that have
always been an issue.
WORKING WIZARDLY WITH THE MAGIC WARD

Let us for instance and examine this studio image setting that has
too much light which is not in good alignment with the plain
background and thus there is a need to separate it from the
background. However, because it is plain background it may be
kind of difficult to use ordinary selection tool like Magic Wand.
Nevertheless, let us give it a try and check its result:
The result makes the edge around the model’s hair look very
terrible, as a consequence of using Magic Wand selection
because the image area has an uneven edge, while the Magic
Wand has an inherent inability to distinguish between the fine
edge of the hair and the background.
ELIMINATING WITH THE ERASER TOOLS
The eraser tool has a little similar function to a brush and uses the same
palette options. It is varied from the standard brush tool because it can render
pixels from a layer transparent by allowing those layers beneath to display
through.
The Eraser tool also has tool options like opacity, Flow and one unique one,
Erase to history, which can be used together with the history palette to select
undo changes in layers. The mode option being used by Eraser are Brush,
Block and Pencil. There are other types of Eraser options that you can use if
you click and hold on the Eraser tool, they are Background Eraser and Magic
Eraser. The background layer will erase part of the background by converting
the background into a layer while the Magic Eraser tool combines the Magic
Wand tool with the Eraser tool and selectively connecting areas of color.
THE ERASER TOOL
Let examine one example with the Eraser tool to understand the technique
very well:

Just like a real-world eraser, the Eraser tool erases the pixels
from your image. Whichever color you have selected as your
background will be the same you will use to erase pixel data
from the image just exactly like if you are using a solid colored
brush. You likewise set the Opacity and Size of the eraser.

If the image is on the layer, it means erasing pixels will show a

transparent area instead. Furthermore, you may alter the Size and
Opacity of the Eraser Tool. And you can set the transparent area
to be fully or partially transparent which will depend on Brush
opacity setting.
BACKGROUND ERASER TOOL

The Background Eraser tool is very useful for the targeted

removal of certain parts of an image. It reacts somehow like
Color Replacement Tool but in this case, any pixel color beneath
the cursor is removed, leaving the transparent area when it is on a
layer.
You may change the Size and Tolerance of the brush, including
the softness and spacing of the brush you use. Tolerance serves as
the key to the sensitivity of the brush to changes in color. High
Tolerance simply means more varied color under the cursor
position.

In respect of this illustration, the blue can be erased sky from the
image simply by placing the cursor over the blue to be removed.
As you click and drag the mouse whichever blue that falls under
the cursor position will be erased, but the white color will not be
changed since they are not blue.
MAGIC ERASER TOOL

On the part of Magic Eraser Tool is a worldwide erasing tool.

Adjust your tolerance for more to be included or lower to select
out fewer shades of the target color at the cursor position. As you
click on the blue sky, large swathes of that color will be removed
with each click of the mouse.
REFINE THE EDGE OF A SELECTION

Fortunately, enough “Select and Mask” has been patched into

the latest Photoshop version which can make a finer distinction.
You will find Select and Mask very simple to use, begin with
Magic Wand or Polygonal Lasso selection set as close as
possible to the very edge of the hair or edge selection.

Then click on Refine Edge Button on the tool options bar in the
dialog windows, check the box Marked Smart Radius and then
set the brush size with the square brackets keys so that it will be
large enough to cover the area that surrounds the hair. Continue
by painting around the edge which will overlap both the model
and the background as well. After you are done painting around
all the edge areas that you want to refine.
Simply click on Ok for it to start to recalculate the edge, you
should be able to notice that the later result is a better
improvement over the earlier one.
There are other tools you can use to modify a selection that will give you the
finer result, to access those tools, navigate to Select Menu and click on
Modify , and there will be an option drop-down which is Border, Smooth,
Expand, Contract, and Feather, they are very easy to use and helpful as well.
Let us try to check on each of them:
Border can be used to create around your original selection by
using the Paint Bucket Tool. It will convert the single-line
selection into a Border of a specific width, be careful so that the
border will not extends the equal amount from either side of your
original selection.

Smooth is the tools that erase the wrinkles and kinks from the
line of your selection, it works perfectly if you have an object
smooth-edged selection. But it will round off the corner if happen
to be any irregular shapes, the bigger the value of the smooth
selection, the smoother and less detailed the selection will be.

Expand exactly as its name denotes, its works is to expand the

size of the selection by a particular number of pixels. The bigger
the value of your selection expansion, the smaller the detail and
shape of the original selection will become.
 The Contract is the exact opposite of Expand, it shrinks the size
of the selection by a particular number of pixels, for the Contract
options, the more you contract the selection, the higher the
original selection shape’s and details will be.

FEATHERING A SELECTION
Feather simply soften the edge of the selection by the Radius
program in the dialog box. Copying and pasting selection into a
background feather seems probable to be the best and useful
option.
 CHAPTER FIVE
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
You can perform almost everything you have in Photoshop in such a quick and
fastest way. Almost all your program’s functions can be quickly coded with the
combination of two or more keys. Knowing those shortcut keys will speed up your
work greatly. Let me quickly take you to some commonly – used shortcuts that can
fast track your image editing work. Though there are many shortcuts let focus on
the key one for easy understanding.
CREATE NEW DOCUMENT CREATE NEW LAYER

PASTE FROM CLIPBOARD REDO LAST STEP

INVERT SELECTION COPY TO

CLIPBOARD

CLOSE ALL DOCUMENT CLOSE CURRENT

DOCUMENT

LEVELS ZOOM IN
VIEW

CURVES ZOOM OUT

VIEW

CUT TO CLIPBOARD FREE

TRANSFORM

FIT ON SCREEN INCREASE BRUSH

 SIZE

DECREASE BRUSH SAVE CURRENT

DOCUMENT
SIZE

100% ZOOM TURN SNAP-ON OR

OFF

SHOW RULERS BRING CURRENT LAYER

TO TOP

SAVE AS SELECT ALL ON

CURRENT LAYER

UNDO LAST STEP DESELECT

ALL

SHOW OR HIDE GRID MOVE CURRENT LAYER

UP
MOVE CURRENT LAYER DOWN TOGGLE LAST
STATE

HELP SHOW OR HIDE

GUIDE
 CHAPTER SIX
CORRECTING CONTRAST, COLOR, AND CLARITY
USING BRIGHTNESS AND ADJUSTMENT
If you want to brighten your photo quickly and easily, brightness is the best
option. Brightness and Contrast are found in an Adjustment layer in the
palette on the right or you should go to the Image menu , and move next to
the Adjustment menu . Brightness and Contrast has been improved over
time; the adjustment includes the tonal balance to adjust the brightness of
your images.
The overall brightness of the whole photo will be increased anytime the
Brightness Slider is shifted to the right, though the new algorithms retain a
significant balance in shadow tones. You can twist or adjust the effect of it
with Contrast Slider , the result is extremely acceptable.

COLORIZING A PHOTO
At times you may feel like sample the color you want to use for your
document. That is not a difficult task, let us quickly go to how to sample
color in Photoshop;

Let us assume the picture you are about to use has no color and
therefore, it is requested for the color background. Then the
image subject is to be removed from its background and there is a
need to place a color behind it.
Next, navigate to the bottom of the Layer Palette and click on
the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon and select from
the number of the available layer adjustment. For this case, select
Solid Color and the color picker “specifically” solid color will
open.
You should know that the default color for Solid color is always
black, except you have chosen color which is the active
foreground color. The new color Fill 1 layer will be put on top of
your cut out subject. You have to click and drag so that it will be
placed below the subject. Now your subject should have sat on a
black background.

Double click on the Color Fill 1 thumbnails (note that the

thumbnail is different from the masks) and the color picker will
show up again, then hover your cursor over any Photoshop
workspace then left-click and hold. Whichever area your cursor
is, the color below it will directly become the new background
color.

Navigate the cursor over your subject’s cheek and in no time, the
background becomes the color, then hover the cursor on top over
her lips and it becomes a pink color. Put the cursor over her iris
and the background will become a steel blue color which is a
great job though there is still more to it.
Having the color picker still active, resize the Photoshop window
and create another window beside it. For this case, we will open
a browser and searched for “ Earth color Swatches”. Having
your color picker active hover your cursor on top of the contents
of the other window to sample even more colors.
OPENING CLOSED EYES
Gone are those days that you will have to throw your picture away because
the eyes are shut, the latest version of Photoshop has dealt with it accurately.
And thus, if you have another example of a face where the eyes are opened
and they look alike in respect of color and lighting, you can quickly replace
those closed eyes for open ones:

Navigate to the File and then to your primary photo storage where
your photo is kept open either by selecting it and clicking the
Open Button or by Double Click the Image.
Move to Enhance Menu, then swing to Open Closed Eyes and
the Open Eyes dialog will appear, there you can choose the
compatible Eye source to open your main eyes with.
If it happened you have little selection that you can try instantly
with, just like two female and two male sets of sample eyes on
your photo.
For an excellent and fantastic result, check for a photo that nearly
matches the color and lighting of your original photo. You can
click on choose from the computer and search for your
appropriate picture.

As soon as you get the compatible image, double click on it to

load it as an eye source and then click on the eye source
thumbnails to apply it to your image. Click Ok when you are
done.

The new eyes format you have found will be mapped over your
original image and it will be blended as possible it can be. Once
you are satisfied with the result, you should save it under another.
 CHAPTER SEVEN
DRAWING AND PAINTING
SPLASHING ON COLOR WITH THE PAINT BUCKET

The Paint Bucket tool grants you the chance to fill areas with
solid colors, you can set the Opacity, Blend modes, and
Tolerance. If the tolerance is high in setting, it simply means it is
going to use edge detection to decide areas that can be filled,
while the low setting tolerance means it is going to ignore it.

The entire layer can be filled or you can use it to fill a specific
area depends on what the edge encounter. Let us check the
example we are having for this case which is a cartoon character
on a white background. If you check its outline you will notice it
is quite well-defined and thus, clicking the paint Bucket means
the background can easily be filled with a color.
Under the options heading, you will see an option for Contiguous
Fill, if you tick it, it will only be filled with neighboring colors
but if it is not ticked it will simply mean all matching color in the
image will be filled, it does not matter their position in the
picture.

Furthermore, for the paint bucket, the Pattern fill option is

available, you have to adjust the Tolerance Settings and
Opacity Values in this place as well, then select a pattern and
use such to fill the whole layer, in this cartoon, the black
background can be filled with texture.
WORKING WITH MULTICOLOR GRADIENT

Gradient tools allow you to fill your entire layer and area of
your image with colors, such colors can fade from one to another
or fade from color to transparent, gradient tool needs a filled
shape which should be defined by a selection that means it does
not use edge detection.

Click on the Gradient Picker and pick that very gradient you
want to use, then select a Preset from the list, preset range from
foreground to transparent to multiple color gradients, access them
with a click of a button.
You may choose to create your gradient, simply click on the
Gradient Editor and add the specific option called color stops
to a basic gradient. Adjust their color and then define if they are
solid or transparent. Note that any custom you made can be saved
as a preset.

Let us consider a camera on a white background, as an

illustration, the background has an active selection around it
which can be used to enclose the gradient when it is added. You
can draw out a start point and an endpoint that the gradient will
follow as you click and drag the cursor.
As you release the mouse, the current gradient will be applied
and it will fill the active selection around the camera. The default
gradient type is Linear, which means the gradient travels on a
straight path from the start color to the end color.
 If needed, you can change the gradient type you are using from its
default to any other type such as radial, angles, reflected, and
diamond gradients. Their blend mode and opacity can be
adjusted, it can be reversed and transparency and the Dither can
be turned off or on.

WORKING WITH COLOR PICKER

This is a tool that gives you a small eyedropper cursor in such a

way that when you clicked on a photo, it will pick the color
beneath the cursor position and makes it the active foreground
just as its name indicates.
 Anytime you want to use a color picker, you have to choose
whether the samples should be a single-pixel or a 3 x 3 average
or 5 x 5-pixel area to create an average when it samples color, it
can sample across all layers or single layer.

DRAWING MULTIPLE SHAPE

Photoshop provides you with the custom shape tool to select from
several predefined shapes and add them as vector shapes on a
new layer. Select the color and layer style from the style picker.
Besides you may choose either they are of fixed size or
unconstrained and also if you can add to a shape or subtract from
it.
Immediately you have done with your setting, you can draw out
the selected shape on your photo, you can click and drag from the
corner outward or from the center to draw the shape from the
cursor position, the shape will be filled with your chosen color
when you released the mouse button.
You can add your vertical text option as well, text that can help
your masks and the ability to fix the typed text to a path or shape,
this example displays the butterfly ‘s outline with sample text
following the outline of the shape.

PENCIL TOOL
The pencil tool has been programmed to act just like a real-world
pencil, besides it is a hard-edged tool that has several preset
pencil tip shapes to draw with. You can as well select Size,
Opacity and Blend Mode for your pencil strokes along with its
color.
You can then start to use your mouse or tablet to sketch and draw
with the pencil as you want. It is either you draw directly over
your existing image or you create a new layer and draw on the
new one you create to preserve the version of the original one.
 CHAPTER EIGHT
SIMPLE MAKEOVER
CROPPING, RESIZING AND STRAIGHTENING IMAGES
At times, it may happen to have too many surroundings in the picture and you
feel like focusing on the main image or the complete image is too big, that it
is necessary to make it smaller or even at the time the image may be bend or
not completely straight to the extent that you may feel like straighten it, all of
them is an easy task. Let us use this illustration of grazing horse on the
grassland to explain the case:
CROPPING AWAY WITH CROP TOOL

To crop out irrelevant surrounding that surrounds your image, you

will need the service of the crop tool. Simply move to the tool
palette and select the fourth one when you count from the top. It
looks more or less like two sets of squares.
Simply click on any corner and drag the box around the area you
do not want anymore. It may seem difficult at first trial or maybe
you are unable to get the exact size, no qualms, because you still
have the chance to adjust the box size by making use of the drag-
handles that are on each side and corner, press enter to complete
the cropping process.
RESIZING YOUR IMAGE

To resize an image, you have to go to the Image Menu, and

Choose image size or click on Cmd + Alt + I for the shortcut on
your keyboard.
Once you click on the Image Size, there will be a dialog box,
check the box marked Resample image and open the drop-down
options panel below it, now we are about to reduce the size of
the picture and you may choose your preferred Resampling
Mode.
You can enter the Width that you want your image to be in the
pixel’s dimensions panel, you may use 800 pixels as that will be
an ideal size for the website but the height is going to change
automatically to make the aspect ratio be the same. As soon you
are done with the information, press Ok for picture resizing.
Then return to the image menu but you will be choosing Canvas
Size, you may prefer to use the shortcut by pressing Cmd + Alt +
C. Canvas size is simple to use if you want to extend the
dimension of your current document by adding extra pixels to the
image. You should note that this goes beyond simply resizing the
picture.

If you check the current size in pixels located at the top of the
panel with the width of 800 pixels, you should go to the lower
window and change it to 650 pixels. If the position of your main
subject is not at the center of the frame, you can change the anchor
 point by clicking on the Arrow surroundings in the box below
depending on where you want to place it. There will be a
warning notice that you are about to cut out part of the image,
simply ignore it. You have just resized the image to 800 x 650

EDITING IN QUICK MODE

There are several methods to edit your image which in turn make your image
looks great. Let’s examine the Quick mode method of editing:
FIXING SMALL IMPERFECTION WITH TOOL

Let us start from the Quick Mode workspace by bringing in a

little bright image of a pier that needs some editing to make it
looks great, let us get started with the process by removing the
large black spot at the top right, perhaps it is affecting the lens
which in turn may be spoiling the shot.
Navigate to the toolbar and select Spot Healing Brush to
remove the blemish or the Healing Brush to remove the spot.

Having your Spot Healing Brush Tool, you are good to use to
paint directly on top of the blemish and then works out what you
want to fill it with by examining the area around it. The best
options tool Spot Healing Brush employ for any type of blemish
are Proximity Match and Content-Aware.
RETOUCHING WITH THE HEALING BRUSH TOOL

Having your Healing Brush Tool, you will be able to select an

area to be the clone source by clicking on a clean part of the
image which is very next to the blemish. The selected area will
then clone over the blemish as you paint over it. The clone source
will then be blended without any interruption.

You may feel like altering brush size for full effectiveness, you
can do that with the help of the Size Slider in the tool options
panel or you press the left and right bracket keys. When you press
left [it will reduce the size] and press to the right will [increase
the size]. It allows you to clone accurately and the detail that may
be needed.

Looking at the image now you will perceive that the blemish has
gone, let us try to make the image look livelier and more
attractive. Layers should have been the best option but are not
available in the Quick mode, the simplest way to affect the image
is to navigate to Adjustment from the taskbar.
Inside the Adjustment panel. You can select Smart Fix and
choose from many options that bring change to the image and
getting back the details in the highlights and shadows, swing over
each one of them to see a preview of the effect that you may
likely apply over your photo. Click on the one you prefer to
apply.

Let us proceed and flip to Exposure Adjustment and so that you

can choose either image Brighter or Darker, you can as well
swing over several options to see each of the preview effects or
you can use a slider to provide more refine adjustment to the
brightness of the image.
The best key that controls the brightness of your highlights is the
control panel. There are other two under the control panel which
are Midtones and Shadows you can adjust each of their tabs for
more refine and subtle control of the tonal options.

The intensity and color of your image can be controlled in the

Color Panel. Raise the Saturation higher or use the Vibrancy
to increase the most crushed color first. Hues will let you shift
the entire color palette for a fantastic color effect if you need it.
Balance Panel offers you to shift your color Temperature from
cold to warm while the Tint allows you to add either an
increasingly green color cast or a magenta cast to aid you in
offsetting any inconsistency or contradiction in your original
image.

Lastly, let us maneuver to the Sharpen panel and apply levels of

Sharpness to your image, but careful not to overdoing it, creating
artifacts and halos as the contrast increases and bright unwanted
highlights will show around the area of high contrast in your
photo.
QUICK MODE AUTO MODE

There are a lot of Auto features you can use to improve your
image, they can be accessed under Enhance Menu but they are
quite wide and they do not give accurate fitness, thus you have no
precise control over the outcome if at all you want to exercise
some more control over them, there are somethings to put in
place. Let us look at those things.

AUTO SMART TONE

 Navigate to Enhance, then to Auto Smart Tone (Shift + cmd +
T), an active panel will appear in which you can drag the cursor
around the grid. Each grid corner shows a possible outcome that
can be attained by shifting the cursor further in that direction.
Continue moving till you get the desired result.

AUTO COLOR CORRECTION

Navigate to Enhance Once again, then move to Adjust Color,

lastly to adjust curves, where you can adjust the Midtones,
Highlight and Shadows of your image including the number of
preset that you can select to enhance the color of your image and
option to adjust tone sliders manually.
AUTO HAZE REMOVAL

Another enhancement option with a light touch is the Haze

Removal tool, simply move to Enhance as usual, then swing to
Haze Removal (Shift + Cmd + Z). The effect may be too strong
but there are sliders to amend the strength of Haze reduction that
you may apply including the sensitivity of the Haze detection.

CLONING WITH THE CLONE STAMP TOOL

Clone stamp is also known as Clone Brush, it remains an accurate and
suitable way to retouch an image, it helps to remove unwanted objects such
as skin blemishes, dust, dirt and other irrelevant objects from your pictures.
Though there is a recent development which brought Healing tool and content
aware fill, yet Clone stamp remains the best tool in removing unwanted dirt
because it employs manual process which consumes a lot of time but with
excellent and amazing result. Let quickly examine a sports motor with a good
shot of action and flying dirt. If you check the image you will realize that flag
in the foreground and the telephone line was a bit distracting and Clone
should be the fittest and suitest to eliminate both flags and the telephone line
from the shut:
Navigate to the toolbar and choose a Clone Stamp Tool. If you
check the image you are working on you will realize that a brush
size of {80-100} pixels will be ok, and set the brush hardness
between {0-25}%, let us begin with the flag located at the lower
corner.

Ensure you tick the Aligned option which means that the
sampling area will be moving as your brush move, if not the
clone stamp will be sampling the same area repeatedly until you
change it.
Check for the clean grass area that is next to the flag, then press
the Alt key. The command you made will bring a small target
icon. Whatever under this target is the sample to be used as the
starting point of the cloning. You have to left-click to confirm it
as your sample area.
You can now begin to move the cursor over the top of the flag,
with the level of your target area from the last step. It is
displayed as overwhelming in such a way to see what is about to
clone on top of your flag. Simply click and drag your mouse
down the pole and the grass next to it will clone over the top
removing the pole.

You can then proceed to select another target sample to the right
of the flag and also clone grass from that side too over the
remaining area of the flag. You can then check ahead perhaps you
can see any repeated areas that stand out as being cloned, you
may then select a new target area and clone in some new grass to
have the same pattern occurring.

You may now navigate to the second flag on the left side and
make a new sample clone over the pole just as the same way you
did with the first flag. The look for clearly repeated as you are
cloning the clean areas on top of the flag pole.

What remains now is the green flag, let’s remove it by sampling

the area of the mud to the left of it and then cloning over the
remaining top part of the flag. At last, we can now move further
to remove the telephone line from the top of the shot using the
same technique and pattern you used for the previous flag.

The inconsistent nature of the flying of dirt across the frame will
be kind of useful in sampling the area directly above the
unwanted telephone line and thereafter clone the sample on top of
it, you can then click on the telephone line and drag the mouse to
your left side to clone the patch of dirt directly above it as you
are doing it.

After the completion, judge the result and check if you can see
any repeating patterns that still give the game away, then simply
clone over such areas over the offending repeated parts with
random grass and sky as necessary.
ZEROING IN WITH THE SPOT HEALING BRUSH
Removing skin blemishes may be a challenge. Spot healing brush is effective
at removing such though it can also create some issue during the process, do
not worry let me show you easy ways of getting most from your Spot Healing
Brush tool:

We are having an image of a pretty lady but with acne on her face,
we wish to retouch it without clear indication because almost all
the area is clean, let us employ a Spot Healing Brush as it is the
only suitable choice for this type of issue.
For non-destructive adjustment, make a new layer above the main
image and name it “Retouch”, any work or adjustment made will
be shown on this layer, then select the Spot Healing Brush from
the toolbar Brush Hardness of about 75 pixels. Ensure the Sample
in all Layer is thoroughly examined.

Set the new “Retouch Layer” to be active, so that any cloned

pixels will be added only to the “Retouch layer only, Preserving
the image under it. In as much you have checked Sample All
Layers, Pixel data from the main still be patched on the new
layer.

As you begin brushing over the blemishes by starting from her

eyebrow, the outcomes may be kind of blur or stain and the
healing process may remove parts of the brow. In another way, if
you navigate to the Options Menu in the top left of the screen and
select Lighten, you will be more accurate in your healing.
Try to undo what you have done and try the tool, setting your
Lighten mode active, you will perceive that the darker blemishes
are removed, but more of the hair part is left untouched, with the
issue at hand, the Lighten Mode focuses the darker pixels of the
blemish not that of the lighter pixels of the hair.

You may now proceed to focus the darker blemish pixels around
the face. If you view the “retouch” layer on its own, you will
notice you have successfully cloned new pixel data on this layer
by preserving the original image under it with a non-destructive
edit.
REPOSITIONING WITH THE CONTENT-AWARE MOVE TOOL
As a result of advancement in technology, Photoshop has moved
further in respect of content-aware moving tool introduction, which is
being split into Content-Aware Fill and Move. It very helpful that you
can fill in blank areas of an image with the estimation of the
surrounding area, we have a particular handy for filling those
triangular edges that are left after rotating an image for instance when
leveling the horizon line.

Let us begin with an image that is just been rotated, leaving those
empty triangles, select the Magic Wand tool and choose the Plain
Areas.
Then navigate to the Select Menu and click on Modify then next
to expand. You can then enlarge the selection area by a fair
amount. Considering this picture 12 pixels should alright.

Next, go to the Edit menu and select the Fill, fill option will be
shown. Content-aware should be there by default, perhaps it is
not there, you can choose it from the drop-down menu.
Be expecting a short pause process as the Photoshop analyzing
the image, though it will fill the blank areas with the texture
derived from the content of the immediately surrounding area.

Now let moves to the second tool, the Content-Aware Move

tool aims to select a particular object on the background and
move it to a new area of the image. The Content-Aware should
automatically fill in the area that you moved from and also blend
in the moving object.
Content-Aware move tool is not used often, unless the object you want to
move is on virtually plain ground, whichever case, it is simpler to use the
Clone Stamp but some users find the Content-Aware Move tool useful.
LIGHTENING AND DARKENING WITH DODGE AND BURN
TOOLS.
Dodging and Burning is an essential part of photo editing, dodging is the
process of lightening an image at the darkroom stage by reducing the
photograph print exposure that exists in that particular area While Burning is
the exact opposite of dodging, it makes the image darker when the parts of the
image are exposed for longer onto the print.
Let us take for a sample of the white and black image, for example, the image
is suffering from, in contrast, let us make use of the dodge and burn principle
to create more life into it. We selectively add brightness and contrast to
produce the stronger image:

Open the image you want to adjust with dodge and burn. In this
case, we have selected black and image that its contrast has been
reduced to able to exercise the effectiveness of the dodge and
burn procedure.
This specific process is a destructive one, and thus, let us begin
to press [ Cmd + J] to make the duplicate layer and give it a
name layer name “dodge” it is on this layer you will start your
“dodging” process on.

Quickly drive into the Toolbar and select the Dodge Tool from
the Dodge and Burn fly-out panel. Then proceed and click on the
Context menu above and choose the Range Button in which
there will be a drop-down menu where you can choose
Highlight. This means we are only affected by the brightest of the
tones in the image.
Set your Exposure Value As 10 Percent and be very sure that
Enable airbrush button is selected and Protect Tones is ticked
which means that the dodge effect can be added slowly and tones
and other details cannot be erased with one click.

Next, choose Soft Round Brush which you will be using to apply
the effect. The size to be taken is to correspond with the
resolution of the image you are working with. Simply set the
Hardness Value to be 0 % percent.
Gently moves the mouse and as you are moving the mouse click
and drag over the lighter area and highlights in the image. You
will perceive that with each move of the brush, the tones are
getting lighter and brighter. Keep working over the nose, cheeks,
beards and eyes.

The level to which you will lighten the area of the image wholly
depends on the personal taste. Now we had performed some
additional brightening. It simply shows the difference in contrast
from the image will begin work with.

AT this very stage, you may save yourself and conclude it as

done, nevertheless, we have just covered one aspect of the Dodge
and Burn technique, at this level let us add some burn to the
image and give it a name to increase its drama.
Click on the “Dodge” layer to check if it is still active, Press
[Cmd + J] to duplicate this layer. Click on a new layer and give
it the name “Burn” you can keep working in the previous layer,
we simply duplicate it to be able to compare the effects to see the
differences.
Navigate your Toolbar, and this time around you will be
selecting the Burn Tool from the Dodge and Burn fly-out panel.
For the Burn, you should ensure the Range Value is set to
shadows while that of Exposure Value should be 5% or
thereabout as you are about to burn effects to be equally clever in
their application.
Start painting over the darker areas of the face such as under the
eyes, nose and the shadow at the right side of the face. The aim of
this is to darken existing dark areas to increase the tonal range
between them and the highlights.
Perhaps the image size is required, you can make the size of the
brush larger or smaller by pressing the bracket key on your
keyboard. This key “]” will increase the brush size while this key
“[’’ will decrease the brush size.

You can as well go to the Context menu to change the Range

Value to Mid-Tones, which will grant you access to the tonal
values that sit between the highlight and shadows area.
We have successfully performed dodged(lightened) and burned
(Darkened) in the key areas to lift the original low-contrast
image, the image is more impressed and livelier than what set of
contrasts and brightness could not do.
SMUDGING AWAY ROUGH SPOT
The Smudge Tool helps you to spread the pixels of your photo across the
screen for a creative effect. You can adjust the brush type and set the size and
strength of the effect like that of sharpening and blurring. The finger-painting
button adds color to your smudged pixels.

SOFTENING WITH THE BLUR TOOL

The Blur Tool is used for adding blur to a particular area of a photo. You can
select a brush type and adjust its Size and Strength values for an intense or
subtle blurring of the subject.

FOCUSING WITH THE SHARPEN TOOL

Sharpen Tool makes use of Brush Tool in applying sharpening to

your image on picture. It is a target method of adding sharpness to
your image. Select your desire brush type and adjust the size and
strength values to get the desirable effects.

When applying sharpening to your image be very cautious as not

to overdo or outdo it and thus destroy the image with over
sharpening. Ensure that the Protect Detail button is ticked and
then you can start to apply the sharpening effects.
SPONGING COLOR ON AND OFF

Your sponge offers you two modes of settings, which are

Saturate and Desaturate. You can control the size of the setting
including the flow of the effects you are adding to your image.
You will set the type of Brush you want to use to apply the effect
as well.
The sponge tool is very easy to use for adding targeted Saturation
or Desaturation to the image. It is advisable to set the Flow of
these Brush around 10%. Then continue building up the
application of the color Saturation, the removal of color entirely,
or simply lessens the vibrance of areas in the image.

To use the Sponge Tool, click and drag it over the areas you
selectively want to Saturate nor Desaturate. Continue to brush the
 areas to increase the level of the effects you are applying. In this
case, brushing using the Desaturate option later changes the
affected area to grey.

REPLACING ONE COLOR WITH ANOTHER

Replacing one color with another in Photoshop is a very tasking assignment,
there is a certain selection that can be used alongside the Hue and
Saturation controls, an individual color of the object can be replaced with
another color without any stress. Let us check how we can replace a yellow
taxi chassis in a shot with the Red color:

We can start with the Magic Wand Tool which is the fittest tool
for selecting large areas of the same color and thus we are going
to use it as a starting point here, try to set the Tolerance level to
about 24-30. It should be able to pick out the chassis without
much problem.

If you wish to add a bit, you can make use of Magic Wand
because that is the area where it functions most than other, simply
click on an area that has mid-tones for the whole area you want to
select and you will later realize that the Magic Wand will select
an area that surrounds it. The size of the selection will depend on
the setting of the tolerance. You can add more area by holding
down the shift key and carefully click on the areas around your
starting selection, perhaps Magic Wand chooses some parts of the
background, you can undo it by pressing Cmd + Z and retry it
again with much care. You can also reduce the tolerance settings
downward if such an occurrence keeps occurring.
After you have successfully selected all the affected areas with
Magic Wand Tool, you can then complete the selection process
with the Lasso Tool, by adjusting the Feather To Zero which
will produce a sharp-edged selection, alternatively, you can also
make use of the selection Lasso tool.
Hold down the shift key to add more areas to your selection once
again. If at all you want to remove any selection areas such as
rind or core, you can do the subtraction by holding down the Alt
key and then going around those areas with Lasso Tool.
After you are done with the selection of all the bits you want to
replace. You can then Save the Selection for later use, to save
you from repeating the word if at all you later cage your mind.
Notwithstanding there are several numbers of filters we can use
at this stage, the most excellent way to change the selected area is
the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness option. This applies to most
editing programs. It is under Enhance Menu in Elements.
Three option is available under the Hue and Saturation setting.
Leave the Lightness slider to preserve the whole brightness of the
object, afterward, you can then experiment by moving the
Saturation and Hue sliders around, as you are moving the Hue
slider, the color will begin to shift through the spectrum of colors
or you may produce subtle changes with the lower saturation
settings.

If you do not like the result you can clear the selection by
pressing the Cmd+D shortcut on your keyboard, but if you are
delighted with the result, you save the result. You may save the
final image as a PSD file in Photoshop or Elements, the selection
may be saved as an Embedded File as well.
 CHAPTER NINE
PLAYING WITH FILTERS, EFFECTS, STYLES, AND MORE
HAVING FUN WITH FILTERS
One of the most Photoshop powerful effects is Filters. If you understand how
to use them properly, they can increase the quality of your images, artistic
effects and recreate a various number of photographic, it can even distort
them in many ways which may be very tedious and time-consuming.
There is a unique feature for each filter that you can adjust and manipulate
before you apply them. You can as well combine the effects of two filter by
applying them one after another, but the result effects depend on the order to
which you apply the filter for instance running Blur followed by Add Noise
will give you a blurry image with sharp dots but if you reverse the
combination, it will give you fuzzy dot. So far you can arrange filters in any
other and thus there is no specific limit to the different ways to their
appliance and combination.
APPLY FILTERS
Using a filter is such an easy task, by simply go to the Filter menu and select
whichever filter you want. Some will be applied immediately as you click
them while other some option to be filled before you can apply them. Follow
the following tips in using the filters:

1. If you are applying a filter to part of your image, simply use the
selection tool to select the desire portion before running the filter.
2. Hold Alt as you are dragging to see the real-time preview of the
effects.
3. If there is availability of the preview window, you can drag the
preview image to view different portions of it. You may employ
the + and – button to zoom in and out.
4. You may apply a filter to individual color channels and you may
apply it to layer masks as well.
WORKING IN THE FILTER GALLERY.
Filter gallery is a quick preview of how filter or filter combinations will
look like before you apply them to your image. Almost all filters can be
accessed in the filter Gallery but some cannot such as “Render Filter”. You
can simply apply such by choosing them from the Filter Menu.

Let us quickly examine a different part of the Filter Gallery window and its
functions:

Real-time preview: it displays how the list of filters will look

like on your image. You may use control in the lower-left
increase or decrease the preview size.
 Available Filters: you have to expand the folder and reveal the
filters inside by simply clicking on the triangle that is next to each
folder icon.
Filter options: this deals with the settings control of the filter you
are using. You can only adjust the filter you have selected.
List of filters: you can use the list of filters to arrange which
filter you are applying and in which order. Drag a filter up and
down in the list changes its order. You may hide a filter effect in
the list by clicking once on the Eye icon and show a filter effect
by clicking it again. Click on the page icon located at the bottom
side to add another filter to the list and the trash icon also located
at the bottom to remove the selected filter from the list.

FADING A FILTER
Fading is used to fade a filter that has been applied by clicking on the fade
command from the Edit menu, you can as well change the opacity and
blending mode of the filter effect.
It serves the same function as that of blending mode and opacity of the image
layer except for the original image that displays through instead of the below
layer and therefore, if you fade a filter to 0 percent(%) opacity you will be
having original image but if it is 100 percent (%) opacity you will be seeing
the full effect of the filter you apply.

MIXING UP WITH BLEND MODE

Blending mode controls how the filter’s results are blended with the image
below, it compares the content of two and extracts changes based on the
content of both.
APPLYING BLENDING MODE TO A FILTER

1. Apply a filter to an image.

2. Click the triangle next to a filter’s name.
3. From the drop-down menu select blending mode.
4. Choose your desire mode from the list.

GENERAL BLEND MODES

It is the default mode; it performs no additional change to how layer contents
interact.
DARKEN BLEND MODES
Every lighter pixel than blend is replaced, darker ones are not.
LIGHTEN BLEND MODES
It evaluates each channel and uses the base or blend color; whichever one is
lighter.
USING PHOTOMERGE
With the help of Photomerge, you can take the number of shots and knit them
seamlessly together to create a special wide panorama that may stretch from
horizon to horizon if needed. After you have taken the first shot, the camera
will display the edge of that super-command on the monitor so that it can
match up the position of features in successive shots, creating a long
continuous photo, display it in a panoramic scene. When you finished it well
the result can be very amazing and stunning but attaining a satisfactory, result
is not very easy. Let us use this five-shot sequence as an illustration:
After you have gotten your panorama pictures from your camera
into your preferred folder in your personal computer, it simply
means you are ready to fire up Photoshop and knit them together
into a panorama. Search for those files in your hard-drive and get
them all open on your Photoshop. You may then go to the
Window, then next to the Arrange menu to view all of them at
once in their various arrangement, simply to have a glance at the
last minutes' exposure view.
Inside your Photoshop, Photomerge is located in the File Menu
under Automate alongside the other automatic processes.

Within your Photomerge window, there are various offers for the
number of options to which you can arrange your panoramic shot.
Auto option will work well for our selected landscape panorama.
Simply click on add Add Open Files Button to get your five-shot
added to the Photomerge List and then click on the top two
options and also the down option in an attempt to fill blank areas
with the Content-Aware tool.
Instantly as you click on the ok, the merging process will
commence and it will be completed automatically. It may take
some time to complete the merging process, most especially if the
PC is too slow or the image selected is of very large big files.
After the panorama has been completed, you will be seeing some
areas of the program that need to warp the pictures to correct for
perspective. At this point, the Content-Aware tool will be
attempting to add something that looks a bit like sky and sea
which depends on how well the fill works. You can crop out
these areas if you desire.
At the same time, you may use the Crop Tool to straighten out any
slight slope or tilt in your horizon, but hopefully, you may not
need it. The finished result is always wonderful just like this
picture we are having below after the merging process.
 CHAPTER TEN
INDISPENSABLE TIPS AND TRICKS
AWESOME TIPS AND TRICKS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Adobe Photoshop users prefer that their photos look fantastic and that certain
part of their image looks great. That is not a problem if you can get yourself
familiar with the right tool and how to use them very well, as such will be
helpful and fast-track your editing work.
Let me quickly take you through awesome tips and tricks that I found helpful
in my photo editing work:
(1) Bird’s eye views :

Simply hold down letter H, then click and drag and you will be
given a little view box.

Simply drag the box to the side of the image to dash out to view
full and zoom in, with the little box which is called bird’s eye
 you can zoom in anywhere in the image.

(2) Over scroll:

Over scroll help you to move your work space around the
Photoshop instead of making Photoshop fill the whole screen, so
that you can be able to work in the middle of the screen.
Go to Photoshop preferences on windows and select Tool from
drop down menu.
 As soon you click on Tool, there will be pop up menu then
choose selected option and you will be taken to the image
below.

Click on the over scroll and you will be able to see the whole
image and navigate it into the middle and any other part of the
work space. Its function is to help your work space not to be
locked

(3) Photoshop Search:

It is quite understandable when you forget a specific tool but it

will be too bothersome if you forget its location as well, which is
where Photoshop search comes to be of help.
Swing to the top right of the Photoshop main window.
You will see a search icon, click on it to search anything, not
tool alone but other essential stuffs such as tutorial, lightroom etc.
(4) Blend layer mode:

The Blend mode is a powerful tool provided you know how to

use it. You can use blend mode to set gray, use the slider below to
remove the darker or lighter pixels. You can apply blending mode
to the image with use of the blank adjustment layer.
Simply click on the adjustment layer, and choose curve and
snap it into your layer.
Do not even do anything to it at all, just change the mode like
multiply which will make it darker overlay it.

Add more contrast soft light but in sort of a more subtle way to
brighten the screen up.
 You can sort the brightness of the image a little bit or darken the
image a little bit, whatever you want to do, you can do it with
blank adjustment layer.

(5) Sprint loaded move tool:

 As you are using any tool, hold down Ctrl to switch to the Move
tool.
As soon as you are done with the move tool release Ctrl key and
you will immediately return to the original tool.

(6) Convert the Background layer:

You can quickly convert the background layer to an editable layer

by simply double-clicking on its icon in the layers panel.
And tap on Ok from the pop-up menu.

(7) Painting a selection:

You can paint a selection using quick selection tool icon by

double-clicking over the quick selection icon.
Ensure your selected area is ticked and choose a suitable color,
for this case I will be choosing green color.

Press Ok to activate quick mask mode and simply paint the

green mist all over what you want to select in such a way to
make a big soft edge selection that you can blend in with your
image.
Tap letter Q to quickly enter into quick selection mode, and it
will make it more bluish or more purplish, and then we have
gotten painting selection with quick selection.
(8) Quickly hide layers:

Feeling like focus on one layer, but other ones are in the way
disturbing your work on a desired layer, no qualm.
Hold down the Alt key and click on the Eyeball icon you want
to isolate.
When you want them back again click on the Alt again and they
will switch right back on.
(9) Creating multiple stroke Effects on Text.

Why settle for a single stroke when there are two or three.
Double-click the text layer to apply a Stroke layer effect.
Press the Plus icon to add another Stroke. You can add as many
as you wish.
(10) Warping Text in Photoshop:

Select your text layer and the Type tool.

Check the top-right of the Type tools bar and you will notice T
icon with a curve line under it.
Tap the T icon to see a slew of built-in text arcs and bends.

(11) Creating a Rain texture:

At time we can take picture during raining period...and that is

another effect on the image...if there is no rain and ones feels like
having that effect, that is rain texture. Rain dropping add some
drama to your image though at times, nature may not permit and as
a result you have to make artificial rain by yourself.
 Creating a new layer filled with black and adding some noise.
And a slanted Motion Blur set the layer to Screen
Add some contrast and there will be immediate rain.

(12) Making a guide in Photoshop:

You can create a guide in the Photoshop work space, simply by:
Clicking and dragging on the side ruler.
However, if you do not see any rulers you can command the ruler
by pressing Ctrl + R.

(13) Making use of Blur Gallery:

Add more ginger to your photos via background blurring.

Duplicate your image and move to Filter.
Then go to Blur Gallery and next to Field Blue.
 Set your blur and then mask out your subject, so that they may
not blur along with the background.

(14) Change Brush’s Flow Rate:

Are you encountering any trouble in blending the shadows? That

is when Brush rate flow comes to play an important role.
Select the brush and check the uppermost of the toolbar.
You will see the slider, lower the brush stroke from the slider.
Then the passing of each brush will slowly build up color which
will be accurate for shading and lighting.

(15) Copy layer from document to document:

Select the layer you want to copy, probably I want to grab all
my adjustment layer here, press Ctrl + C to copy.
Go to another layer which happen to be the recipient and press
Ctrl+V to paste them.
 (16) Straightening Viewpoint:
This help in straighten one’s work, if you are doing complete photography,
you have to straighten up some photos. To straight up an image you have to:

Select the layer and move to filter, then to camera raw filter.
And proceed to click on this little tool which is called
transform tool and choose a guided that will guide you in
drawing lines of area that have to be straight.

Draw the line right from the top of the paper and bottom of
the paper, and both side of the image to be straight line across,
leave the remaining for camera roll to straighten them.
Then take another line for both sides, and both sides should be
vertical straight line up and down, leave it for camera roll to
straighten them out right.

Now you can proceed to use the crop tool to trim it down.
 After all this, you should have a wonderful and straightened out work
from the camera

(17) Changing any color:

Changing whatever color in a quick way should not be a problem with the
use of:
Color replacement brush that is located below the brush in
conjunction with color sampling mode which majority of users
prefer to use contiguous sampling and tolerance of 30 which is
absolutely perfect.
Simply pick a foreground color, for this case we want to turn the
brown crab into the blue crab.

You have to ensure that the Plus icon go over the area you want to
change its color by making it affect the color of the crab body
which will start changing the color of the crab.
 Obviously the easiest and quickest means to change color of
anything is this, even the intricate objects.

(18) Middle Gray Eyedropper:

Gray eyedropper is basically used to locate an area of your photo that should
be gray. Examine the below image, you will perceive that the color is heavy
green cast, we may even say that the roof look too absurd.

To use eyedropper, we are going to:

Shade the heavy area that is direct to sunlight which will
diffuse light and give white balance.
After you have click on the shaded area, you will see the whole
image being adjusted to make sure it does not have green color
cast any more. In essence, middle gray eyedropper may be
likened to be a lifesaver and a great time saver in Photoshop.
 CONCLUSION
After thoroughly going through this Powerful Adobe Photoshop user manual,
you must have understood the essence of Photoshop to the immediate
environment and how to manipulate such a tool to your best advantage.
At this level, you must not be ignorant of how to apply multiple non-
destructive editing to an image by duplicating the layers which is a means of
keeping the image and carry out editing on a separate layer, and modify them
independently and accordingly. Also, the ability to blend different layers,
masking area of an image to protect it from editing level down to pixel level.
Wish you the very best moment with Adobe Photoshop.