Photoshop Tutorial: Discovering the Tools panel
in Photoshop CS6
When you start Photoshop, the Tools panel appears docked on the
left side of the screen—by default it is not a floating Tools panel, as it
was in earlier versions of Photoshop. There are four main groups of
tools, separated by functionality on the Tools panel: selection,
cropping, and measuring; retouching and painting; drawing and type;
and navigation. At the bottom of the Tools panel you find Set
foreground color and Set background color, as well as Quick Mask.
A. Selection, cropping, and measuring tools. B. Retouching and painting
tools. C. Drawing and type tools. D. Navigation
tools. E. Foreground/Background and Quick Mask.
Photoshop tools for Selection, Cropping, and Measuring
Icon Tool Name Use
Move (V) Moves selections or layers.
Makes rectangular, elliptical, single row, and
Marquee (M)
single column selections.
Makes freehand, polygonal (straight-edged), and
Lasso (L)
magnetic selections.
Quick Selection
Make selections by painting.
(W)
Crop (C) Crops an image.
Eyedropper (I) Samples pixels.
Retouching and Painting Tools
Icon Tool Name Use
Spot Healing (J) Removes imperfections.
Brush (B) Paints the foreground color.
Clone Stamp (S) Paints with a sample of the image.
History Brush
Paints with the selected state or snapshot.
(Y)
Erases pixels—or reverts to a saved history
Eraser (E)
state.
Gradient (G) Creates a gradient.
Blur (no
Blurs pixels.
shortcut)
Dodge (O) Lightens pixels in an image.
Drawing and Type Tools
Icon Tool Name Use
Pen (P) Draws a vector path.
Horizontal Type
Creates a type layer.
(T)
Path Selection
Allows you to manipulate a path.
(A)
Rectangle (U) Draws vector shapes.
Navigation Tools
Icon Tool Name Use
Hand (H) Navigates the page.
Increases and decreases the relative size of
Zoom (Z)
the view.
The Tools panel is in a space-saving, one-column format. Click on the
double arrows in the gray title bar area above the Tools panel to bring
the Tools panel into the two-column view. Click on the double arrows
again to bring the Tools panel back to the default, single-column view.
Keep the Tools panel set to whichever format works best for you.
Accessing Photoshop tools and their options
With the selection of most tools comes the opportunity to change
options. In this exercise, you will have the opportunity to use the new-
and-improved Brush tool and change its options to become even more
powerful.
1 With the ps0201_work.psd image open, select the Brush tool ( ).
Look in the Options bar to see a variety of options you can change.
A. Brush Preset Picker. B. Painting Mode. C. Opacity. D. Flow
Most tools have additional options available in the Options bar at the
top of the workspace.
Note that by default, your brush is loaded with black paint. The paint
color is indicated at the bottom of your Tools panel in the Foreground
and Background color swatches. If you have not reset preferences,
you might have a different color in your foreground.
2 Click once on the foreground color to open the picker so you can
select a different color.
A. Color Pane. B. Color Slider.
Using the Color Picker, you are able to select a blue color that you will
use to brighten up the sky.
3 In the Color Picker, click once on the section of the Color Slider that
contains blue hues, and then choose a bright blue color from the large
Color Pane. Keep in mind that, depending upon the destination of your
image, you might not be able to achieve the same color of blue that
you see in the screen. Lesson 6, “Painting and Retouching,” discusses
color, and how to use it in your images, in more detail. Click OK.
Click once in the blue section of the Color Slider, and then choose a
bright blue color from the Color Pane.
Now you will change some of the Brush tool options in the Options bar
at the top of the workspace.
4 Click the Brush Preset Picker to see your options for size and
hardness. There are several options that you can change; for now you
will focus on two.
5 Click and drag the size slider, which controls the size of the brush, to
the right until you reach approximately 100 px. If the Hardness slider,
which controls the hardness or softness of the brush, is not all the way
to the left at 0%, slide it to the left now. This is now a large soft brush
that will blend well at the edges of the strokes
In the next step, you will paint and then undo it. This is to help you
understand the concept of blending and how it can make a difference
when you paint.
Change the brush size and hardness.
6 Click and drag anywhere in the image one time to create a brush
stroke across your image. Note that you have created a large opaque
streak.
7 Choose Edit > Undo Brush Tool, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Z
(Windows) or Command+Z (Mac OS) to undo the paint streak.
8 Now click and hold the Painting Mode drop-down menu; you see a
list of options that allow you to change how your paint interacts with
the image underneath. Select Color from the bottom of the list.
Select the paint blending mode named Color.
9 Click the arrow to the right of the Opacity option to see the slider.
Click and drag the Opacity slider to the left until it reaches
approximately 20%.
10 Now click and drag to paint in the upper-right corner of the image.
You see that the result is quite different and you are brightening the
sky.
Click and drag to paint blue in the upper-right corner of the image.
11 Notice that you can build up the color by releasing the paint brush
and painting over the same area. If you make a mistake, choose Edit
> Undo, or Ctrl+Z (Windows) or Command+Z (Mac OS) to undo.
To go back multiple steps, choose Edit > Step
Backward, or use the keyboard shortcut
Ctrl+Alt+Z (Windows) or Command+Option+Z
(Mac OS)
12 Choose File > Save. Keep this file open for the next part of this
lesson.
