The success of Photoshop within professional designer circles easily makes it the industry standard for digital imaging. The idea that Photoshop is, in essence, a brand name that has crossed grammatical barriers to become a noun and a verb makes it a true cultural phenomenon. If you are an amateur photographers please don't let all this hype get in your way of learning the program. Photoshop is a powerful tool for anyone who simply wants to make their personal photo collection look better.
Opening Photos with Photoshop I recommend opening Photoshop and becoming familiar with the desktop environment before trying to figure out how to get your photo in there. If your photos are already in a digital format (i.e. taken with a digital camera), you can transfer them to your computer using the USB lead that came with your camera. If your photos are actual prints you can still edit them with Photoshop! To get them into your computer you will need to use a scanner to scan the photos onto your desktop. When you finally have your photos in your computer, I recommend grouping them in a folder. To make it easy to find later call the folder something simple like "Original Photos" and place it on your desktop. If you click on the closed folder and press your CTRL button and drag you will make a copy of the folder; it is important to work with a copy of your pictures. You can right click on the new folder and rename it "Edited Photos." Working with duplicate photos enables you to always have an original copy of your photo to go back to, just in case you make an editing mistake. To add your photo to Photoshop you will first need to open your Photoshop program by double-clicking on the icon. Next click on the File menu and select open. Navigate to your "Edited Photos" folder and double click on a photo. Now you're ready to begin!
Adjust Levels in Your Photos Before you begin editing it's always a good idea to check a photo's levels. When photos are backlit, lit poorly, or overexposed, the colors tend to not look quite right. At times this is obvious, however at other times it's hard to tell, so you always want to check your photo's levels. Doing this first will help you make the colors in your photos look their best. To change the levels in your picture click on Edit in the menu bar. Move your mouse to Adjustments > in the drop-down menu and leave the cursor there for a second. In the sub-menu that pops up, choose on Auto Levels.
Save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows. Alternatively, you can press Shift + Apple + L on a Mac or CTRL + L on a PC to use the Auto Levels function. You should notice a change in the appearance of your photo. If you don't see a noticeable difference, it's okay. It just means your photo looked good right from the start.
Reduce Red Eye in Your Photos Everyone has fallen victim to the curse of Red Eye in our photos. Red eye has ruined more photos than silly expressions, closed eyes, and blurred photos combined. With Photoshop getting rid of red eye is a snap. With your image open in Photoshop you will want to make sure your Layers Palette is visible. Usually you can find the Layers Palette in the lower right hand corner of the window when you open Photoshop. If you do not see the Layers Palette, simply click on the Windows option in the menu bar, scroll to Layers, and make sure Layers has a check mark next to it. If it doesn't, click it once and the Layers palette will appear. In the Layers palette you will find the adjustment layer button. You can find this button at the bottom of the window. It has a half-black, half-white circle and when you move your mouse over it should have a pop-up box that says "Create new fill or adjustment layer". To activate it, click on the adjustment layer button. A menu should come up, select Channel Mixer. A window with the header Channel Mixer should open. To fix the red eye you will want to set the Red slider to 0%, and the Blue and Green sliders to 50%. Click OK. Don't be alarmed if the people in the photos look like bluish-gray-skinned phantoms. Don't worry, you haven't messed anything up, they're supposed to! You will soon fix this so they look like their regular selves again. At the bottom of the toolbar set the foreground color to black. In the toolbar, click on the brush tool. If the red eyes are too difficult to see because of their size you can go to the toolbar and select the zoom tool (magnifying glass with a +). Clicking on the eyes with your mouse will zoom in on them. When you have zoomed in to where you feel you can work on the eyes you will need to select the brush tool again. Return to the Layers palette. You should see a Background layer and a layer called Channel Mixer 1. Make sure the layer Channel Mixer 1 is selected by clicking it once. Use the brush tool to paint the parts of the eyes that looked red. They should turn red again. At the top of your screen click on the Image menu. Just like we did earlier you will want to move your mouse over Adjustments in the drop down menu. Click Invert in the sub-menu that comes up on the right. Tada we fixed the red eye! After all that hard work you definitely want to save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows. You may still see a red ring around the newly-fixed eyes; don't worry, we can fix that too. You first want to make sure the Channel Mixer 1 layer is selected (click it once). In the main toolbar, make sure the foreground color is set to white. Since it was set to black a second ago, you will have to change it. Again, using the the paintbrush tool from the toolbar, carefully paint the red ring. As you paint you should see the color change to the correct eye color. At the top of the screen, in the menu bar, click Layer. Click on Flatten Image at the bottom of the menu. Save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows. - 16651
Opening Photos with Photoshop I recommend opening Photoshop and becoming familiar with the desktop environment before trying to figure out how to get your photo in there. If your photos are already in a digital format (i.e. taken with a digital camera), you can transfer them to your computer using the USB lead that came with your camera. If your photos are actual prints you can still edit them with Photoshop! To get them into your computer you will need to use a scanner to scan the photos onto your desktop. When you finally have your photos in your computer, I recommend grouping them in a folder. To make it easy to find later call the folder something simple like "Original Photos" and place it on your desktop. If you click on the closed folder and press your CTRL button and drag you will make a copy of the folder; it is important to work with a copy of your pictures. You can right click on the new folder and rename it "Edited Photos." Working with duplicate photos enables you to always have an original copy of your photo to go back to, just in case you make an editing mistake. To add your photo to Photoshop you will first need to open your Photoshop program by double-clicking on the icon. Next click on the File menu and select open. Navigate to your "Edited Photos" folder and double click on a photo. Now you're ready to begin!
Adjust Levels in Your Photos Before you begin editing it's always a good idea to check a photo's levels. When photos are backlit, lit poorly, or overexposed, the colors tend to not look quite right. At times this is obvious, however at other times it's hard to tell, so you always want to check your photo's levels. Doing this first will help you make the colors in your photos look their best. To change the levels in your picture click on Edit in the menu bar. Move your mouse to Adjustments > in the drop-down menu and leave the cursor there for a second. In the sub-menu that pops up, choose on Auto Levels.
Save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows. Alternatively, you can press Shift + Apple + L on a Mac or CTRL + L on a PC to use the Auto Levels function. You should notice a change in the appearance of your photo. If you don't see a noticeable difference, it's okay. It just means your photo looked good right from the start.
Reduce Red Eye in Your Photos Everyone has fallen victim to the curse of Red Eye in our photos. Red eye has ruined more photos than silly expressions, closed eyes, and blurred photos combined. With Photoshop getting rid of red eye is a snap. With your image open in Photoshop you will want to make sure your Layers Palette is visible. Usually you can find the Layers Palette in the lower right hand corner of the window when you open Photoshop. If you do not see the Layers Palette, simply click on the Windows option in the menu bar, scroll to Layers, and make sure Layers has a check mark next to it. If it doesn't, click it once and the Layers palette will appear. In the Layers palette you will find the adjustment layer button. You can find this button at the bottom of the window. It has a half-black, half-white circle and when you move your mouse over it should have a pop-up box that says "Create new fill or adjustment layer". To activate it, click on the adjustment layer button. A menu should come up, select Channel Mixer. A window with the header Channel Mixer should open. To fix the red eye you will want to set the Red slider to 0%, and the Blue and Green sliders to 50%. Click OK. Don't be alarmed if the people in the photos look like bluish-gray-skinned phantoms. Don't worry, you haven't messed anything up, they're supposed to! You will soon fix this so they look like their regular selves again. At the bottom of the toolbar set the foreground color to black. In the toolbar, click on the brush tool. If the red eyes are too difficult to see because of their size you can go to the toolbar and select the zoom tool (magnifying glass with a +). Clicking on the eyes with your mouse will zoom in on them. When you have zoomed in to where you feel you can work on the eyes you will need to select the brush tool again. Return to the Layers palette. You should see a Background layer and a layer called Channel Mixer 1. Make sure the layer Channel Mixer 1 is selected by clicking it once. Use the brush tool to paint the parts of the eyes that looked red. They should turn red again. At the top of your screen click on the Image menu. Just like we did earlier you will want to move your mouse over Adjustments in the drop down menu. Click Invert in the sub-menu that comes up on the right. Tada we fixed the red eye! After all that hard work you definitely want to save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows. You may still see a red ring around the newly-fixed eyes; don't worry, we can fix that too. You first want to make sure the Channel Mixer 1 layer is selected (click it once). In the main toolbar, make sure the foreground color is set to white. Since it was set to black a second ago, you will have to change it. Again, using the the paintbrush tool from the toolbar, carefully paint the red ring. As you paint you should see the color change to the correct eye color. At the top of the screen, in the menu bar, click Layer. Click on Flatten Image at the bottom of the menu. Save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows. - 16651
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