How to use Photoshop?

Learning to work in Photoshop is a dream of many users. Money, traffic, time is spent on downloading and installing the program. However, often everything ends after clicking on the executable file "Photoshop.exe". Looking at the editor window that opens in front of him, filled with all sorts of palettes and graphic tools, at the extensive menus with sets of specific commands, the beginner falls into a slight stupor. And remembering the stories of "experienced", peppered with complex Photoshop terms, he suddenly realizes that this is not his. And completely in vain.

Let's try to debunk the myth about the incomprehensibility of Photoshop, which has been accompanied by one of the best graphics editors for many years. In order to understand how to use Photoshop, just start the program and study this article. Of course, it is impossible to cover even a hundredth part of this powerful program in a small review, but it is quite possible to get a vaccination against fear of it.

First of all, let's draw up a preliminary plan for learning the basics of working in Photoshop. It will consist of three points:

  1. Organization of the program workspace.
  2. Principles of work.
  3. Some helpful hints.

Now it remains only to follow this plan, and we will succeed.

Studying the architecture of the Photoshop desktop

The first step, it is the most difficult...

Let's assume that Photoshop has already been downloaded, installed and a shortcut is displayed on the desktop. The version of the program used for our purposes does not really matter. Any one with the ending CS or CC will do. For example, the authors have Adobe Photoshop CC 2014, you can use any other that has the above abbreviations. Without fear, we click on the program icon and wait for some time for the application to load (the opening speed depends on the power of your PC).

Finally, the main editor window appears in front of us.

Looking around the area

Immediately reassure the user. Despite the formidable appearance, there is nothing complicated in the picture that opens, if you understand what you see in front of you. First, go to the "FileHere the user sees the names “File”, “Editing” familiar from other programs... However, there are also specific menus inherent only to graphic editors. Let's dwell on them in more detail.

  • Image. The main purpose of this menu is to work with color, tone and image dimensions.

  • Layers. The main "highlight" of the program, which appeared in the 3rd edition of Photoshop (for today, 15 versions have already been developed). It is layers that allow you to work wonders when working with an image. Almost all the settings for this basic editor element are collected here.

  • Filter. A magical land for a beginner. Applying a filter to an image can change it beyond recognition.

We deliberately did not describe the rest of the program menus. Many of the points in them are familiar to most users. But the above tabs are the basis for working in Photoshop. And all the teams in them are created specifically for working with graphics. In versions with abbreviations CS and CC, there is also a "3d" menu, but it is not so popular yet.

Note. Remember: Photoshop has a big lifebuoy - any action, or even a whole series of actions, can always be undone.

Toolbar

In the working area of ​​the program, on the left side, there is a toolbar. It contains everything you need to draw and process a picture by hand.

And here you can find both banal "brush" and "pencil", and very exotic "Magic Eraser" or "Magnetic Lasso". They are all called the same - either by clicking on the desired shortcut, or by hotkey. Moreover, if you press and do not release the left mouse button on a miniature with the drawing tool you need, then with a short delay a plate with its additional varieties will appear.

After selecting a tool, you will see how its attributes appear under the panel with the main menu. They can be changed and customized.

Document window

It can be called more beautifully - canvas, that is, a place where the process of our creativity is reflected. It is called from the "File" menu by the "New" command or by the "Ctrl N" keyboard shortcut.

Everything is pretty clear here, except that you should pay attention to the status bar located at the bottom. It provides basic information about the parameters of a new document. By clicking on the triangle with the mouse, you will see a lot of interesting information.

Palettes

We turn to the most important and interesting block of the program - to the palettes. There are a great many of them in Photoshop, and their number grows from version to version. For example, there are already 27 of them in the SS, and in the next issues there will be even more. However, the main palette, without which work is impossible, has always been and remains the "Layers" palette.

This is the main, great invention of the developers of Photoshop, and today it is present in almost all serious graphic editors. Layers in Photoshop can be compared to sheets of tracing paper, which are superimposed on a drawing paper, and each has something depicted on it. And when the last sheet is superimposed, we see the final image. You can do a lot of fun things with layers. They can be disabled, deleted, made invisible, combined into groups and made to act on one command - in general, there are still many different operations that are performed using layers.

The second palette that I would like to dwell on is the History palette. It is also a very important element, without which work in the editor would turn into torment. It is especially important for a beginner who wants to learn how to learn how to use Photoshop, and, of course, makes a lot of mistakes at first.

The History window allows you to undo your actions for an almost infinite number of steps. That is, you can embody the most violent fantasies on canvas without fear of ruining the final result. Any action can be canceled at any time. You can take a picture of the canvas, go far ahead in your work and suddenly realize that everything is wrong and you are at a dead end. What to do? This is not a problem in Photoshop. You just click on the picture taken many "centuries" ago and you will be taken to the time that is captured on it. And calmly start working in a new direction. This is what the History palette is.

To view all the palettes of the program, just open the "Window" menu. The most basic windows of Photoshop are collected there. And here's what a picture looks like with open palettes:

Impressive, isn't it? By the way, in the latest versions of the program (CS and CC), it became possible to choose a ready-made module of the working environment you need.

There are 6 pre-configured workspaces here. Of these, the most popular are "Drawing" and "Photography". You can customize your desktop to fit your needs and save it.

It will immediately appear in the media selection column. The screenshot shows a desktop customized for the needs of the authors of the article, with the Styles palette open:

Please note that next to the permanently open main windows (on the left) there is a vertical working panel, on which you can display the icon of any palette you need for quick access to it.

We join the battle

So, having received the most basic concepts of the structure of the program, we will try to create some simple drawing with their help. Let it be, for example, a 3d ball. We will assume that Photoshop has already been loaded, and we proceed directly to work.

  1. Go "FileOf course, it can be configured later, in Photoshop there are almost no irreversible actions, but it is better to do it right away - it is just much faster. Enter the name of the "Ball" layer in the window that opens and assign it any color (in our case, red). For a beginner, this is much more convenient and facilitates further work. When an image consists of a large number of layers, an inexperienced Photoshop user can easily get confused and make mistakes. Give each layer its own name and color, and everything will become much easier.

  2. Select the "Oval region" on the toolbar. By default, there is a rectangle there, but this is easily fixed - hold down Shift and press M. As a result, we get what we need - an oval.
  3. Again, hold down Shift and move the cursor from the center of the canvas to any side. We need a clamped Shift to get a perfect circle. If you want to align the resulting dotted circle (in Photoshop, such a dotted line is called "running ants"), then just become the pointer inside the circle (the cursor will change its shape to an arrow with a square) and move the circle wherever you want.

  4. Main part. We look to the right at the "Layers". We should have the "Ball" layer selected. Click on the gradient image (G) in the toolbar or press Shift G (if the gradient is hidden), as in the case of the oval, and go to the attributes panel.

    Adjust it as follows:

    • Radial gradient.
    • Normal mode.
    • Inversion - check the box.

    Everything else is default.

  5. We take the final step, which will magically turn our incomprehensible picture into a full-fledged drawing. We place the mouse cursor at the top of the ball, not very far from the inner border, and drag it down without releasing the left key of our manipulator. This is a rough diagram. You can safely experiment as much as you like. As we remember, you can undo everything in Photoshop, at least a thousand times. You can see the result of our first work in the screenshot.

  6. Now we only have to preserve the fruits of our labor. First press Ctrl E (flattening layers). Next we go "File

    Therefore, it is better to place it on any disk other than the system disk, where it is located by default.

  7. Be sure to highlight the Layers and History palettes when customizing your workspace. For a beginner Photoshop user, these panels are the most in demand. There are many legends on the web about wizards who work without visual display of palettes at all (when you press TAB, all panels disappear or, conversely, appear), using exclusively keyboard shortcuts. In theory, this is possible, but certainly not for a beginner.
  8. The program is designed so that almost any action can be performed in several ways, ranging from simple moves lying on the surface, and ending with multi-moves hidden in the depths of the editor. Moreover, in many cases, a more complex method expands the capabilities of the operations performed, and this can significantly change the final image. Here is an example on the theme of our 3d ball:

    Here we have applied the "Layer Style", where the number of settings is simply huge and, accordingly, you can get a slightly different result.

But when taking the first steps, try to be guided by the classic rule - from simple to complex. This will help you avoid a lot of mistakes and frustrations. Even the "gurus" of this legendary editor admit that they do not know all the intricacies of the program. Therefore, do not be upset if something does not work out at the beginning. With due persistence, an understanding of how to use Photoshop will surely come. Adobe Photoshop is the program that will repay you triple the effort you put into learning it. Good luck!

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