The Ultimate Photoshop Guide

[blazee]

Ultimate Photoshop Guide
Hello GFX section. I have decided to make a complete guide to Photoshop and what you can do with it. I will put time out of my day to answer questions and add information to this thread. This guide will contain helpful tips, tutorials and all the answers to your Photoshop questions. I will add sub-threads to different tutorials, however I ask that you leave all feedback/constructive criticism on this thread. If you spot any grammatical errors or just want to suggest something, please post it on this thread as-well. I will also be adding download links to GFX packs made by me. I hope you all learn something about Photoshop.

How To Get Photoshop

Photoshop itself cost's $699. Although, I highly doubt many of you are going to purchase this through Adobe. On their site, they provide you with a 30-day FREE Trial. There are many ways to get the product for free, however that's not what this guide is about. To download the program, simple click HERE and follow the very simple instillation steps. Once installed, click the "Run 30-day trial" unless you have a product key.

Table of Content

Getting Started:
- Photoshop Interface Guide
- Keyboard Shortcuts
- How to add Brushes
- How to add Styles

Blending Options:
- Introduction to Blending Options
- Drop Shadow
- Inner Shadow
- Outer Glow

​

WILL BE EDITED FURTHER, PLEASE ASK ANY QUESTIONS AND I WILL MAKE TUTORIALS ​

 

[gds08]

This is really good , I've always wanted to learn photoshop but guides always seem way to complicated. I found this easy to read and learnt quite a bit already. I will be sure to save this page and be checking back regularly to see what else you have added thanks man.

 

[theSMURF]

I always wanted to know how to use photoshop lol but i never knew how to do it tbh thanks 4 this guide ima 100 % try it

 

[hold alt f4]

im really interested in learning how to make cool sigs, if you can help it would be much appreciated

 

[Lym]

Looks good so far .
Thanks for posting a guide.

 

[blazee]

Photoshop Interface

1. Canvas - Basically, that's your working area. The checkered grey/white means that its a transparent background
2. Layers - They are images or effects overlaid on top of one another. Self-explanatory. Will go into depth later.
3. Manager - Shows you what canvas you are working on. You can have multiple canvas' open.
4. Drag Tool - Allows you to move layer around the canvas.
5. Marquee Tool - The marquee tools are selection tools.
7. Magic Wand - Does alot, click HERE to find out many of the things this tool can do.
8. Crop Tool - Can remove section's of an image, basically works like all photo croppers.
9. Eyedropper - Use it and click on anything on the canvas and it will give you the exact colour code. Very useful.
11. Brush Tool - Install brushes and use them on your canvas. Very useful.
14. Eraser - Rubs out anything on the specific layer. Can use many different shapes as an Eraser.
15. Gradient Tool - Create or import you own gradient. Looks nice with text and as a background. Very useful.
16. Smudge/Blur Tool - Used whilst creating a signature or desktop background. Will go into depth later.
18. Pen Tool - Can be used for many things once you know how to use it. Extremely useful and good for creativity.
19. Text Tool - Click on the text tool and click on the canvas and you can create simple text.
20. Rectangular Tool - Can do many things. People use it for simple boxes however it can be used for more advanced creations.
21. Hand Tool - Click and drag on the canvas to move around. Pretty boring.
22. Magnifying Glass - Allows you to zoom in and out. Very handy!
23. Colour Pallet - Use this to pick you colours. By clicking it, a colour menu will come up.​

 

[blazee]

How To Add Brushes

Make sure the Brush Tool is selected.

Click on the arrow pointing down.

Click on the arrow pointing left.

Now click on Load Brushes.

Now find your .ABR (brush file) which should look like

 

[blazee]

How to add Styles​

Open Photoshop, and click on Window and make sure Styles are checked.

Now make sure you are on the Styles tab in your interface which should be located to the right of your canvas by default.

Then click the drop down arrow and click Load Styles.

Browse for your .ASL file which will import the downloaded styles. The .ASL file looks like this.

 

[blazee]

double posts sorry.

 

[blazee]

Blending Options and Layer Styles.​

Blending options and layer styles are basically the "effects" Photoshop provide you with. With knowledge and experience, these options can really make your product look nicer. Basically, the "Styles" that you download, are presets that people have made using these options. This section of the guide will show you how to add layer styles and show you what they all do.

Firstly, open Photoshop and make sure you are on the Layers tab. Also have the the layer you want to use selected by clicking on it.

Right click on the layer and select Blending Options.

After clicking Blending Options, this interface should come up.

1. New Style - After experimenting with the settings and finding something you like, this button will come in handy. Clicking New Style will allow you to save and name this preset so you don't have to remember all your effects and settings. Extremely useful once you've found a setting that you will use regularly.

2. Styles - If you click on Styles in this interface, it will bring up all the styles you have downloaded and the ones you have saved using the New Style feature.

3. Blending Options. - These are all the settings/effects you can use. Each effect has different settings you can experiment with to get it exactly how you want.

 

[Dave.]

very nice guide blazeee! i will be sure to put it to good use, thankyou very much for posting something so wonderful on sythe :love:

 

[Darkstassassin]

Nice guide! Do you know any methods you can get unlimited photoshop for free? Like after the 30 day trial.

 

[blazee]

Drop Shadow​

Drop shadow is self explanatory. It adds a shadow to the object within the layer.

This is how the Drop Shadow menu will look with default settings.

Colour: Clicking on the black box will open up a colour chart and will allow you to change the colour of the shadow.
Opacity: Will change how visible the shadow is.
Angle: The angle will act as the sun. Placing the sun in a certain position will change the way the shadow is shown.
Distance: Will change how far the shadow reaches
Spread: Will change the radius of the shadow.
Size: Will change the size of the shadow (self explanatory)
Contour: Will change the quality of the shadow

 

[blazee]

Keyboard Shortucts

File Menu shortcuts​

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S Save the opened document for Web
Ctrl+Shift+P To change Page Setup for printing
Alt+Ctrl+P Print the opened document with preview
Alt+Shift+Ctrl+I To display the info of opened file
Ctrl+Q Used to exit from adobe Photoshop

Edit Menu shortcuts​

Ctrl+Z To undo/redo the last changes
Alt+Ctrl+Z Go to one step backward
Shift+Ctrl+Z Go to one step forward
Ctrl+X or F2 Used to cut the selected area
Ctrl+C or F3 Used to copy the selected area
Ctrl+V or F4 Used to Paste the copied value

Image Menu shortcuts​

Ctrl+L To adjust the color levels
Alt+Shift+Ctrl+L To adjust the auto Contrast
Ctrl+B Used to adjust the Color and Tone balance
Ctrl+U Used to adjust the Hue/Saturation
Ctrl+Alt+X Used to Extract the selected area
Ctrl+I Used to Invert

Layer Menu Shortcuts​

Ctrl+N Used to insert new Layer
Ctrl+J Used to move Layer via copy
Ctrl+Shift+J Used to move Layer via cut
Ctrl+G To create the Group of layers
Shift+Ctrl+G To create the ungroup of layers
Ctrl+E Used to Merge the Layers
Ctrl+Shift+E Used to Merge Visible

Select Menu Shortcuts​

Ctrl+A Used to select all
Ctrl+D Used to deselect all
Alt+Ctrl+A Used to select all layers
Shift+Ctrl+D Used to reselect

Filter Menu Shortcuts​

Alt+Ctrl+X Used to extract the selected image
Shift+Ctrl+X Used to Liquify the selected image
Alt+Shift+Ctrl+X To create the Pattern Preview
Ctrl+F Used to view the last Filter

Filter Menu Shortcuts​

Ctrl++ or Ctrl+= Used to apply Zoom in
Ctrl+- Used to apply Zoom out
Ctrl+0 Used to view as Fit on screen
Ctrl+R Used to display the Rulers
F9 Used to display the Actions panel
F5 Used to display the Brushes panel
F6 Used to display the Color panel


Courtesy of how-to-photoshop.org​

 

[blazee]

Inner Shadow​

The Inner Shadow adds a shadow inside the object.

This is how the Inner Shadow menu will look with default settings. The interface is the exact same as the Drop Shadow and all settings do the same thing but on the inside of the object.

Colour: Clicking on the black box will open up a colour chart and will allow you to change the colour of the shadow.
Opacity:: Will change how visible the shadow is.
Angle: The angle will act as the sun. Placing the sun in a certain position will change the way the shadow is shown.
Distance: Will change how far the shadow reaches
Spread: Will change the radius of the shadow.
Size: Will change the size of the shadow (self explanatory)
Contour: Will change the quality of the shadow

 

[blazee]

Outer Glow​

Outer Glow applies a halo-like effect around any images, type, or shapes that is within the selected layer. The effect is similar to Drop Shadow, although this doesn't have the Angle setting. It works well with images as well as with type and shapes.

Opacity: Will change how visible the glow is.
Noise: Increasing this slider adds more random elements to the transparency levels of the pixels in the glow.
Colour: Click on the square box to choose a solid colour for the glow. Or click the rectangular box to create a gradient for the glow.
Technique: The two technique options, Softer and Precise, control how accurately the glow is applied. Softer creates the effect by applying a blur; it produces a gentler, more natural-looking glow, but doesn’t preserve the detail of the layer that well. On the other hand, Precise follows the contours of the layer accurately.
Spread: Controls how far the glow extends before it starts to blur.
Size: Adjust the size of the glow.
Contour: Use this option to specify how the glow effect transitions from opaque at the layer boundary (or at the center of the layer content if using an Inner Glow with the Center setting) to transparent at the edge of the glow. Pick a contour from the Contour box, and the glow follows that contour, working from the layer boundary (or center) on the right to the edge of the blur on the left. The higher the point on the curve, the more opaque the result. Choose from a preset contour by clicking the downward-pointing arrow next to the box, or create your own contour by clicking the graph in the box.
Range: This controls both the position of the contour within the range of the glow, and the size of the contour within that range.
Jitter: The Jitter option works in conjunction with the Gradient option, so you need to choose a gradient for Jitter to have any effect. The option adds random elements to the spread of colors and opacity levels across the gradient to produce an effect similar to Noise that applies across the whole gradient.



Information comes from: http://www.psdtop.com/blog/basic/working-with-layer-styles-understanding-outer-and-inner-glow/

 

[the_dealer]

Me like. Really good.

Are you any good with C4D?

 

[blazee]

Me like. Really good.

Are you any good with C4D?

Thank you.

Yes I know a fair bit about C4D. I might incorporate some C4D stuff once I get more stuff done here.

 

[oxodium]

damn, thanks blazee.

 

[Kinaesthic]

Great tutorial, but I'd like to see things that you write yourself, as you took this from google..
Might be that I'm mistaking whatsoever; Good work with this! And keep on going