Hacking Preferences and Documents part 1

Photoshop, ImageReady, and Bridge all use preference files to store application settings. For example, the Adobe Photoshop CS2 Prefs file contains all the options for general display; history logs; file saving; cursor; transparency and gamut; units and rulers; guides, grids, and slices; plug-ins and scratch disks; and memory allocation. The file lives in the Adobe Photoshop CS2 Settings folder, along with a host of other files that keep track of your Preferences and settings, such as Color Settings, New Doc Sizes, and so forth. Settings for Adobe Camera Raw, Save for Web, and paths are kept separately in the Registry by Windows, whereas the Mac OS keeps them in the Preferences folder, located in the user’s Library folder.

Restoring Prefs

When you are satisfied with your customizing of Photoshop, it’s a good idea to save the Adobe Photoshop CS2 Settings folder. You can find the folder in the following location for Windows and Mac OS, respectively:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator or
UserName\Adobe\Photoshop\9.0\Adobe Photoshop CS2 Settings
Macintosh HD\Users\UserName\Library\Preferences\Adobe Photoshop CS2Settings

To understand the rationale behind the decision to save the settings folder, you have to know how Photoshop makes use of the files and that, occasionally, you have to delete them. Each time Photoshop closes in an orderly fashion, it updates the settings files that need updating, saving any modifications that you may have made; for example, you may have added new actions or made changes to the color settings, in which case the files relating to the Actions palette and Color Settings are updated. If Photoshop quits unexpectedly, any customized settings made since Photoshop was last closed are lost. However, occasionally, even if you quit in an orderly fashion, Photoshop may start to behave erratically. If that happens to you, you have two choices: either you can delete the settings files and let Photoshop create default settings files or you can replace the files with the saved files, hence the need to save the settings folder. To delete Prefs, take the following steps: Immediately after launching Photoshop or ImageReady, hold down Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows), Ф+Opt+Shift (Mac OS). You will be presented with a dialog box (Figure 5-1); make your choice and click the OK button.

FIGURE 5-1: The dialog box that appears when you use the modifier keys to launch Photoshop to replace the currents Prefs with factory default settings.

If the problem disappears, you can then replace the default Prefs with the saved files and reset any Preferences that were changed since you saved the Adobe Photoshop CS2 Settings folder. If the problem returns, as it can sometimes, revert to the default settings, customize them again and then resave the settings folder.

Changing Scratch Disks and Plug-Ins at Launch Time

To select an alternative scratch disk, press Ctrl+Alt (Windows),Ф+Opt (Mac OS) immediately after launching Photoshop.

If you have plug-ins installed in more than one folder, you can select an additional plug-ins folder by pressing Ctrl+Shift (Windows), Ф+Shift (Mac OS) immediately after launching Photoshop.

Specifying Update Prefs

If Bridge and Photoshop irritate you when they periodically check for the latest updates, chances are you have not clicked on the Preferences button in the Adobe Updater dialog box when it has finished checking. To do so, choose Help>Updates in either application and then, after the Adobe Updater has finished checking for new updates, click the Preferences button. Doing so opens the Adobe Updater Preferences dialog box (Figure 5-2). In the dialog box, you specify how you want to check for and where to download any available updates for Photoshop, Bridge, Help Center, and Stock Photos.

FIGURE 5-2: The Adobe Updater Preferences dialog box lets you control how and when it checks for updates, where it downloads the files to, and how it deals with the installation.

Installing Plug-Ins into a Safe Folder

Installing plug-ins into the default plug-ins folder in the Adobe Photoshop CS2 folder is quick and painless. Just point the installer to it and sit back. However, saving a little time when installing can cost a lot more time down the line. For example, when you need to reinstall Photoshop, it’s easy to accidentally delete the plug-ins folder even though you had every intention of keeping it (especially on Mac OS, where dragging application folders to the Trash is a common practice).When you come to upgrade Photoshop to the next version, you may find that you have to reinstall some if not all the plug-ins because you cannot just copy them into the new version. If you do, some of them are sure to require a reinstall, owing to the name change of the top-level folder. It all adds up to a loss of time. To avoid reinstalls and save time, you can take advantage of a little known Photoshop functionality. If you drop a shortcut (Windows) or alias (Mac OS) into any of the folders within the application folder, Photoshop can see the path and find the folder at the end of it. Therefore, by installing the plug-ins once into a designated folder away from the main Photoshop folder, creating a shortcut/alias to it, and then dropping it into the plug-ins folder, you can do away with the need to reinstall and reduce the chance of accidentally deleting the folder. You can even create shortcuts/aliases from the individual plug-ins and drop those into the plug-ins folder one at a time. That way, you can control how many plug-ins load into memory each time you launch Photoshop. Furthermore, if you don’t fancy making shortcuts/aliases, you can simply choose the designated folder in Preferences>Plug-Ins & Scratch Disks as the Additional Plug-Ins Folder and have Photoshop find it automatically at launch time.

Hacking Preferences and Documents part 2

Specifying Default Resolution for New Preset Documents When you create a new preset for a custom document size in the File>New dialog box, Photoshop uses the resolution values set in the Units & Rulers screen in the Preferences dialog box. The default resolution is 300 ppi for print and 72 ppi for screen. These settings affect all presets that you select from the Preset pop-up menu in the New dialog box. If you find yourself constantly changing the resolution, you can customize the settings. To take advantage of this opportunity, open the Preference dialog box to the Units & Rulers screen and then in the New Document Preset Resolutions section, specify a resolution for Print and/or Screen. For example, if the current setting of 300 ppi is too high or too low for your desktop printer, change it to 240 or 360 ppi, or whatever. This will change the resolution of all your presets for documents destined for print, such as Letter, A4, and so forth. It won’t affect the document presets destined for the screen, such as 640 Ч 480, NTSC DV 720 Ч 480,HDV 1280 Ч 720, or D4, unless, of course, you change the default 72 ppi. Specifying Document Width in Columns When you need to create a new document or resize an existing one to fit within the columns in a page layout program, such as InDesign or QuarkXPress, you can do it on a case-by-case basis in Photoshop. The New document, Image Size, and Canvas Size dialog boxes all support columns as a unit of measurement. This feature can prove very useful when you’re creating documents for publications that use columns as their general width measurement and you need to fit images to a given column width. To set the column size, open Preferences and then in the Units & Rulers screen, under Column Size, enter new values for Width and Gutter (the space between the columns). Matching New Document to Existing Document If you have a document open in Photoshop and you need to create another document with the same dimensions and color mode, you have a couple of ways of automating the process. One, choose File>New and then, from the Window menu, select the opened document whose dimensions and color mode you want to match. Two, create the new document and then from the Preset pop-up menu in the New document dialog box, select the document that you want to match. It should be noted that although the color mode of the new document is matched to the opened document, the color space is not; instead, the current working color space is assigned to the new document. To assign another color space, click the Advanced button in the dialog box and then choose a profile from the Color Profile pop-up menu. You might be tempted to choose a profile for a printer or a scanner. Resist the temptation and select a working space profile, such as Adobe RGB (1998), ColorMatch RGB, ProPhoto RGB, sRGB, and so forth. The working spaces are linearized and suitable for editing, whereas the other color spaces are more suited to converting to as a final step or for soft proofing. Finding the Center of a Document How many times have you needed to find the center of a document and had to resort to the calculator to find it? Here are three ways, and none requires any math: - Make sure that the Rulers are showing and then click Select>All followed by Edit>Free Transform, bring in a horizontal and a vertical guide (click a Ruler and drag into the document) so that they cross in the center, and then press Escape. The center of your document will be where the two guides cross (Figure 5-3). - Although there’s nothing wrong with the preceding method, the following is slightly quicker if the current layer is filled completely. First, make sure that the Rulers are showing and that View>Snap is turned on. Next, slowly drag in a horizontal guide to the center and then a vertical guide, letting go when you feel them snap to the center of the document.Where the two guides cross will be the center of your document. You can include the preceding steps in an action, assign a keyboard function key, and find the center of any document, regardless of its dimensions, at the press of a key. Just make sure that before you start recording, or even during the recording, the unit of measure for the Rulers is set to read in percentages and not fixed units, such as pixels. To change the units, right-click (Windows), Ctrl-click (Mac OS) on a Ruler and choose Percentages from the contextual menu. - This third method doesn’t require the rulers to be visible: Choose View>New Guide. In the New Guide dialog box, select the Horizontal radio button, enter 50% in the Position text field, and then click OK. Enter the dialog box a second time, select the Vertical radio button, enter 50% in the Position text field, and click the OK button. As with the previous method, you can record the steps as an action and assign a function key for quick access. FIGURE 5-3: One method for finding the center of a document involves Selecting All, invoking the Free Transform command, bringing in vertical and horizontal guides, and then dismissing the transform.

Hacking Preferences and Documents part 3

Comparing Documents for Differences Sometimes you need to compare two files that might look identical when opened but that you suspect differ in some minor detail. You can do this in Photoshop without having to rely on visual feedback.To do so, take the following steps: 1. Open the two files that you want to compare. 2. Select the Move tool. FIGURE 5-4: Duplicating a document in ImageReady by dragging a tab. 3. Working in the document windows, drag the contents of one file into the other by pressing Shift (holding down the Shift key will ensure that the content of the two files “pin registers”). For best results, the two documents need to have the same pixel dimensions. 4. Change the blend mode of the top layer (the one you just dragged) to Difference. 5. Merge the two layers either by using the shortcut keys of Ctrl+E (Windows),Ф+E (Mac OS) or choosing Merge Visible or Flatten from the Layers palette menu. 6. Close the original. At this stage, you can simply hover the mouse cursor over the image and see whether the color readings change in the Info palette. However, to be absolutely sure, you can let Photoshop do the work by choosing Image>Adjustments>Equalize. If the two images are exactly the same, Photoshop will warn that it cannot equalize because the image contains only one brightness value. If there is a difference, it will be accentuated and you should be able to see it (Figure 5-5). FIGURE 5-5: Comparing two documents for dissimilarity by using the Difference layer mode followed by the Equalize command. Opening a Composite Version of a Layered Document Sometimes it can be useful to open a composite version of a layered document—especially if it contains hundreds of layers and may take eons to open and you need only to do some quick retouching or editing that doesn’t require layers. To do so, hold down Alt+Shift (Windows), Opt+Shift (Mac OS) while clicking the Open button in the Open dialog box (the button and dialog box might be named differently depending on your platform).You can also hold down the same modifier keys and double-click a thumbnail in Bridge or select File>Open. One small caveat: The file must have been saved with a composite layer or Photoshop can show you only the following warning in four different languages: “This layered Photoshop file was not saved with a composite image.” If you change your mind and decide to open the layered file, just click the Cancel button. Adding Canvas Size The Canvas Size command, located in the Image menu, enables you to increase or decrease the document dimensions in any one of eight configurations, as well as equally on all four sides. To increase size, enter new units in the Width and Height text fields. To decrease size, add the minus sign before the figure. If your current canvas size is an odd size, for example, 12496 Ч 1689 pixels, and you want to increase/decrease the size by a known number of pixels, select the Relative checkbox and then add the figure in the text appropriate field. Sometimes this action can be faster than searching for a calculator or trying to do the math in your head. Adding Text and Audio Annotations When you work in a collaborative environment and need to hand off complex files, you can protect your back by adding text notes or audio annotations (Figure 5-6). In the same vein, you can include information to remind yourself while working on a document that may take days or even weeks to edit. FIGURE 5-6: A nonprintable note added as a reminder that the file has been targeted for newsprint. The notes are nonprintable and can be placed anywhere on the canvas or the document window: right in the middle to make people take note (pun intended) or in one corner of the canvas so that it’s unobtrusive. You can collapse the note window by clicking the Close button on the grab bar and expand it again by double-clicking on the note icon. The notes can be read and annotations heard in Photoshop and Acrobat. To add an annotation, select the Notes tool from the Toolbox, click in the document window, and then select options as required: 1. Enter an author name or other text. The text will appear in the title bar of the notes window. 2. Choose a font size from the pop-up menu. 3. Select a color for the title bar; this will also be used for the note and audio annotation icon. 4. Click in the note window and type your message; you can compose your message in a text editor if it’s long, perform a spell check, and then paste it. To add an audio annotation: 1. Make sure that a suitable microphone is plugged into the audio-in port of your computer and that it’s working. 2. Select the Audio Annotation tool, click in the document window, and then select options as required (see preceding list). 3. Click in the document window and then select Start in the Audio Annotations dialog box.When you have finished, click the Stop button. Notes and Audio Annotations may also be imported from a PDF or FDF (Form Data Format) file.To load, choose File>Import>Annotations and then click the Load button.

Hacking Preferences and Documents part 4

Saving Files You would think that saving files would be dead easy: Select Save and click OK. If only it were that simple. There are a few gotchas that can, well, get you. The following hacks show you how to avoid some of them, as well as how to include, exclude, and, should you need to, prevent unauthorized access to your files. Failsafe Way of Including a Background Layer Background layers are essential in some workflows because not all applications can read a Photoshop layered file. However, they will read a PSD file provided that it has the image on the Background layer or that Maximize PSD File Compatibility is turned on in Preferences (it will increase the file size and take longer to save, and that can be a big minus). Programs that cannot read features, such as adjustment layers, effects, and so forth, will ignore them and use only the composite version. If you are flattening files, it’s a good idea to fall into a workflow that minimizes the chances of your making mistakes. For example, you can create an action that duplicates documents and then flattens the duplicate for output, thus ensuring that the master layered files are kept out of harm’s way. You can also make any layer into a Background layer from the Layer>New submenu. If your data is spread over lots of layers, stamp them all into a new layer and then convert that layer into a Background layer. To stamp all visible layers into one layer, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E (Windows), Ф+Opt+Shift+E (Mac OS). Saving in Large Document Format If the file you are working on grows beyond 4GB (the maximum file size supported by the TIFF and PSD formats) and you want to save all the Photoshop features, such as adjustment layers, vector data, and so forth, you can save your document in the large document PSB file format. PSB supports documents up to 300,000 pixels in both directions. The one downside of saving in this format is that you can open it only in Photoshop CS or Photoshop CS2.To save in PSB format, select the Enable Large Document Format (.psb) option in the File Handling screen in Preferences. Password Protecting Files Do you need to send a file to a client but don’t want the client to make changes to it or print it? Save the file as a PDF and then, in the Save Adobe PDF dialog box, limit the permissions. To do so, choose File>Save As and then from the Save Type As (Windows), Format (Mac OS) dialog box, choose Photoshop PDF. In the Save Adobe PDF dialog box, select Security from the options and then select the options for Security and Permissions. You can require the recipient to use a password to open the document, print it, make changes to it, copy it, or extract data from it. Appending File Extensions Automatically Are you a Windows user? Do you constantly receive Macintosh-originated files that have either an incorrect file extension or no extension appended to the filename? Have a word with the senders and point out to them the options for automatically appending extensions. They can be found in Preferences>File Handling. The three available options are Never, Always, and Ask When Saving. Chances are they have the Never option selected because extensions are not needed by the Mac OS in the same way as they are by Windows. Saving Previews The default settings for image previews in the File Handling screen of Preferences always create an icon and a thumbnail and then embed them in your file (Figure 5-7). This is so that utilities such as Explorer (Windows) and Finder (Mac OS) can show an icon-sized preview and a thumbnail-size preview to help you locate the right files on your hard drive. FIGURE 5-7: In the File Handling section of Preferences, you can choose how you want to save previews with your file. You can change the Preferences to include a full-sized preview along with the icon and the thumbnail. This option adds a compressed JPEG that can be used by third-party image browsers, such as ACDSee, IrfanView (Windows), iView MediaPro (Mac OS), and so forth. Because it has the same dimensions as the image, it can add considerably to the file size, and you may wish to leave this option off unless you see the benefits in your third-party application. You can also choose not to include an icon or a thumbnail if you so wish by setting the Image Previews option to Never Save, or Ask When Saving.When you choose the latter option, you are given the choice in Windows to embed a thumbnail and on Mac OS an icon and or a thumbnail. Reverting an Accidentally Saved Document If you have accidentally pressed Ctrl+S (Windows), Ф+S (Mac OS) when you meant to do a Select All, or meant to press another key combo, don’t despair or throw your keyboard across the room. All is not lost.To undo any consequential damage: - Select a previous history state in the history palette, do a save, and then select the last history state to get back to where you were before the accidental save—this is one good reason for selecting Allow Non-Linear History in the History palette options. - Select the first snapshot to revert to the open document state, do a save, and then select the last history state. This recourse is available only if you have selected Automatically Create First Snapshot from the History palette options (see later in this section). Unfortunately, if you applied any color management settings when you opened the file and then saved it, there is no way of reverting to the state it was in before you opened it. For instance, if you assigned a profile or converted it to your working color space, selecting a history state or snapshot won’t revert the file back to the original state. After you have saved, accidentally or in order to revert to the original, the file on disk will be overwritten and include the changes made to the color in the Missing Profile or Embedded Profile Mismatch dialog box. This is because Photoshop bases the first snapshot on the opened document state and not the state of the file on disk. Although the Automatically Create First Snapshot option eats into your Photoshop RAM allocation, especially if the document happens to be a large document, in 16-Bits/Channel mode, or both, it’s a good tradeoff if you can spare the RAM or put up with Photoshop writing to scratch disk earlier than it would otherwise. As pointed out previously, a first snapshot can pull you out of the mire when you have to revert to the opening state at any time during an editing session, or when you have to revert elements to the opening state by using the History Brush tool (you can do the latter as long as you haven’t rotated or resized the document since it was opened). To turn the Automatically Create First Snapshot option on/off, select History Options from the History palette menu and then choose Automatically Create First Snapshot from the pop-up dialog box. Click OK.

Editing, Transforming, and Retouching Images part 1

Extracting Image Content from Backgrounds

Every day, content is extracted from its background on thousands of workstations around the globe so that it can be imposed over a different background. Therefore, it should come as no surprise to learn that Photoshop contains no fewer than three eraser tools and one filter to help you carry out this mundane but necessary task. They are, in ascending order of sophistication, the basic Eraser tool, the Magic Eraser tool, the Background Eraser tool, and the Extract filter. The next sections look at all four in detail.

The Eraser Tool

The Eraser tool has three modes: Block, Pencil, and Brush. In Block mode, the only control you have is to erase to history or to alter the size of the block by changing the magnification of the document.
- To erase, select the tool and then drag in the document. If the layer is a normal layer, pixels are erased to transparency; if you drag on a Background layer or a layer with locked transparency, pixels are painted with the background color.
- To erase to history, select Erase to History on the options bar and then choose a history state as the source in the History palette. You can also switch between normal Block mode and Erase to History by holding down Alt (Windows), Opt (Mac OS).
- To increase the block size, zoom out; to decrease it, zoom in.
- To change from Block to either Pencil or Brush mode, right-click (Windows), Ctrl-click (Mac OS) and select a mode from the contextual menu.
In Pencil mode, you can use any one of the available brush presets, control the opacity of the strokes, and Erase to History. However, the brush tips cannot be softened, nor can the strokes be anti-aliased to provide smooth edges. In Brush mode, you have access to all the following options: Opacity, Flow (the latter controls how quickly or slowly the paint is applied), Airbrush,
and Erase to History.

The Magic Eraser Tool

The Magic Eraser tool works in a similar fashion to the Magic Wand tool. The difference is that rather than create a selection based on the sampled color, it erases the pixels to transparency. Furthermore, unlike the Eraser tool, if you use the Magic Eraser on a Background layer, rather than paint it with the background color, it converts it to a normal layer and then erases the pixels to transparency. The settings on the options bar let you modify the tool’s behavior. They include:
- Tolerance—Higher settings erase more shades of the sampled color. For example, if you have a low setting and you click a red color, all instances of that red go to transparency. If you increase the settings, for example, from 32 to 64, any shades leaning toward orange on one side and purple on the other are also deleted.
- Anti-alias—Ensures a smooth edge for the area that you have extracted.
- Contiguous—Forces the tool to erase only adjacent pixels that fall within the tolerance
value.
- Sample All Layers—Uses data from merged layers to determine what data to erase.
- Opacity—Controls the level to which the erased pixels are opaque or transparent.

The Background Eraser Tool

The Background Eraser tool offers more options for controlling what is erased and what is not than the Eraser and Magic Eraser tools. The tool works by erasing the sampled color under the brush tip. It also protects any color that matches the foreground color set in the Toolbox.
- Sampling Continuous, Once, or Background Swatch—In Continuous sampling mode, the tool samples the color under the brush tip constantly as you drag. In Sample Once mode, the sample is taken only once when you click. In Background Swatch sampling mode, whatever color is set as the background color in the Toolbox is erased under the brush tip.To change the background color quickly, press X to switch the foreground and background color boxes, hold down Alt (Windows), Opt (Mac OS), sample, and then press X again to switch the color boxes back to default.
- Limit: Contiguous, Discontiguous or Find Edges—When the Limits option is set to Contiguous or Discontiguous, the erasure affects only pixels that fall within the Tolerance setting and are either adjacent to each other or disconnected, respectively. The Find Edges option ensures that the integrity of the edge detail is better protected while the sampled color is being erased from continuous areas.
- Tolerance—Lower settings ensure that only the sampled color is erased, whereas higher settings erase more shades of the sampled color.
- Protect Foreground Color—When this setting is selected, whatever color is set in the foreground color box in the Toolbox is protected from erasure. You can alter this color at any stage by holding down Alt (Windows), Opt (Mac OS) and clicking in the document.

The Extract Filter

For extracting content that contains fine, wispy detail, such as glass or hair, the Extract filter is the ideal tool of all the extract tools in Photoshop. Using it requires a little more care, but by doing multiple extractions, you can achieve results that can surpass even some of the expensive plug-ins on the market (Figure 11-12).

FIGURE 11-12: The Extract filter in action.

To extract content:
1. Copy the layer: Layer - New - Layer via Copy, or Ctrl+J (Windows),Ф+J (Mac
OS). It’s always a good idea to work on a copy because the filter will erase pixels to
transparency.
2. Choose Filter>Extract, or Ctrl+Alt+X (Windows),Ф+Opt+X (Mac OS).
3. In the dialog box, draw an outline with the default Highlighter tool (B) around the area you want to extract. Make sure that the highlight straddles the background and the outline of the object you wish to extract.
4. Next, select the Bucket tool (G) and click inside the highlighted border to fill it (clicking a filled area again with the Fill tool removes the fill).
5. Click the Preview button to see the extraction and then use the Cleanup tool (C) or the Edge Touchup tool (T) to refine the extraction’s outline.
6. Click the OK button to commit the extraction and exit the dialog box.
If you are still unhappy with the extraction, use the History brush or the other extraction tools to do any refining. For example, use the Background Eraser tool to remove any stray color around the fringes of the extracted object by using the tool’s options to protect foreground color while extracting background color (if need be, refer to the previous section in this chapter, “The Background Eraser Tool”).
Although some of the options in the Extract dialog box, such as Show and Brush Size, are obvious, others are not so obvious and have an extra kick that you can use to improve the extraction.
- Smart Highlighting—This option changes the brush tip’s behavior from that of a freewheeler to one that follows a well-defined edge closely. If it strays when it sees two well-defined edges, decrease the brush size so that the sampling area is reduced.
- Channel—Before entering the Extract dialog box, you can define an edge by creating a selection outline, creating an alpha channel, stroking the selection, applying a slight Gaussian Blur to the stroke, and, finally, inverting the alpha channel so that the stroke sits on a white background.When you select the alpha channel from the Channel
pop-up, the edge highlights automatically.
- Force Foreground—This option is particularly useful for extracting wispy objects that have no clear interior, such as a dragonfly with its transparent wings or a glass half filled with liquid. You may need to use it several times and then combine the extractions to get good results. For example, select the highlights on the first pass, midtones on the next, and so forth.
- Preview—After you have seen a preview, you can toggle between it and the original view from the Preview section of the dialog box by choosing Original from the Show pop-up menu.

Using the Toolbar

For the following please refer to the picture above to identify the location of the function on the tool-bar.

Marquee Tool
The marquee tool selects areas within a layer. It is capable of selecting an elliptical, square, single column, and single rows.

Move Tool
The move tool can move around all objects within a layer. To move entire image, Flatten the layers by selecting Layer > Flatten Image.

Lasso Tool
The lasso tool can select areas within in a layer that can’t be reached with the marquee tool.

Magic Wand
The magic wand is an automatic selection tool. It selects everything in the layer.

Cropping tool
This tool changes the size of the image. To use, Select the area you want to crop and then press enter.

Slice Tool
Makes Guidelines.

Heal Brush Tool and Patch Tool
The patch tool is another form of the heal brush. It is in the options for the heal brush. The Heal Brush deletes the high contrast of a picture and is used when retouching a photo. To use, hold down alt while clicking on the source (an area that looks like what you want the damaged part to look like) and drag the mouse around the damaged picture to repair it.

The patch tool fixes damaged parts of a picture by blending the damaged part with a better one. Just use the patch tool to select part of the image, then drag the selection to another part of the image. This will combine the selections.

Pencil tool and brush tool
Draws or paints a line. Same as the pencil or brush tool in paint. Change the color of the paint brush by clicking on the color picker.

Clone Stamp Tool and Pattern Stamp tool
The clone stamp tool duplicates part of the image. Hold down alt while clicking to choose the part of the image which you want to duplicate. Drag the mouse over the damaged area.

The pattern stamp tool can create and save a pattern you want to use over and over again. To make a pattern, use the marquee tool or the lasso tool to select part of the image. Go to Filter > Pattern Maker and click generate. Click on the floppy disk underneath the Tile History called Save Preset Pattern. This will save the pattern. Do not push OK unless you want to fill the entire image with that pattern. Press cancel and select your pattern from Pattern on the top center of Photoshop. Drag the mouse over the area with the pattern stamp tool to edit the picture.

History Brush Tool and Art History Brush
The history Brush tool can go back and undo certain changes in a picture. To delete everything you did since the opening of the picture simply drag the history brush over the area to be repaired. The history brush works best when transforming snap shots. Using the snap shot will only change certain parts of the picture and can go back in editing to change major errors. To make a Snap Shot, save the picture then click on the small camera on the bottom of the history window. The snap shot will be saved once it is named.
If you click on a previous snap shotThe Art history Brush tool can artistically undo an image and warp the original picture. Click on the top snap shot and chose what kind of brush to use on the top of the window under Style. Click on the area you want to edit with the art history brush.

Eraser tool
This can erase part of the photo in a certain layer. To erase everything in a certain area to make it white, flatten the image or go through every layer to delete that part.

Paint Bucket
Makes an area one color. To edit all layers at one time, click on All layers at the top of the window.

The Blur tool, Sharpen Tool, and Smudge Tool
To use, drag over part of photo you want to edit. The hardest part of this tool is selecting the right strength, brush size and mode. This tool is capable of blurring part of the image, undoing the blur with the sharpen tool, and slightly liquefying with the smudge tool.

The Dodge tool, Burn tool, and Sponge tool
To use any of these tools, just drag it over the image. The dodge tool can lighten an image, the burn tool darkens it, and the sponge tool soaks color out of the image.

Type tool
Puts text in a picture. Click on the picture with the type tool and select a box the size of the area you want to add text. Type in the box then adjust the size of the text box.

Pen Tool
The pen tool can make lines and be used with shape tools to create different shapes. To create lines, use the pen tool to create anchors (the little boxes on a line) and change the shape of the line by moving around the anchors.


Shape Tools
Creates shapes in the image. The custom shapes tools can create all shapes in the shape section located at the top center of the Photoshop window.

Annotation tool
This can create notes and sound effects in an image. The only difference between the note tool and the text tool is that the note comes up in a little white box and when the note is too long for the given space, there will be a scroll bar. This is usually used in PDF formats and Acrobat Documents.

The audio Annotation tool can add audio notation to the picture. To use, click on the audio notation tool and press start. Record your voice with the microphone then press stop. You can import the audio by File > Import > Annotations. Make sure the file you import is a PDF file or a FDF file.

Eyedropper tool
Samples a color from the picture, color swatches, or the color picker. To use, click on the color on the image you want to take and right click.

Hand Tool
Moves around image within an object. Is used with the zoom tool when you want to adjust the section of picture you want to look at.

Zoom tool
Zooms in on part of the picture for closer editing.

Halftone custom photoshop shape

This tutorial is going to show you a way to create halftone custom adobe Photoshop shapes. These shapes can be used in many design projects like logo design, flyer design or even as a background for another design element. They are very versatile because of their vector nature which means that they can be used at any size. Here are a few examples.

Let’s start
1) Create a new document. For this tutorial it is necessery to work on a very large file to have good results so I used a size of 3000*3000 pixels

2) Choose the custom shape tool

Make sure you have Paths Selected

3) Choose a custom shape that you want to transform to a halftone photoshop custom shape. For this tutorial I used this flower like shape.

4) Hit “P” to select the pen tool, right click on the shape and select “Make Selection”. Then go to “Select” -> “Inverse”

5) Hit “Q” to ener quick mask mode

6) Go to “Filter” -> “Pixelate” -> “Color Halftone” and use these settings

You can Change the settings depending of the shape and the result you want to achieve

7) Hit “Ctrl-F” a few times until you are happy with what you see

You should now have something like this

8) Hit “Q” again to exit Quick mask mode and go to “Select” -> “Inverse”

9) Select the paths tab and delete the path that is there. Then click on the “Make work path from selection” button (see image below)

10) Make sure you have the Pen tool (P) and right click on your image and Select “Define Custom Shape”

Give your shape a name and you have a new Halftone Photoshop shape that you can use at any time and at any size. (Don’t forget to save the new shapes you create because the next time you will reset your shapes they will be lost)

My final result.

Exploiting Filters part 1

Hacking Filters There are literally thousands of Photoshop filters that you can purchase or download for free from the Internet. The filters are designed to cover a variety of functions, ranging from filtering a file with preset settings, to adding ornamental edges, to analyzing a file scientifically. Photoshop ships with no fewer than 105 filters, plus four panels that are also classed as filters. You can use the filters to create artistic effects or fake photographic effects, or to optimize images for output. As far as usage goes, these filters can be split into four broad categories: - The standalone panels, such as Extract, Liquify, Pattern Maker, and Vanishing Point; used to extract, distort content, create custom patterns, and clone in perspective, respectively - Those that can be applied through the Filter Gallery, such as Colored Pencil, Bas Relief, Grain, and so forth; used to create artistic effects - The filters that have their own dialog boxes and can accept custom settings, such as Lens Correction, Smart Sharpen, and High Pass; used to optimize files for output - The filters that don’t have customizable settings, such as Despeckle, Sharpen Edges, Blur, and so forth; used to apply default settings for quick optimization Some of the filters are very memory hungry and can take considerable time to calculate and to apply settings, especially when the allocated RAM has been consumed and efficiency is well below 100% or you are working on large files in 16-Bits/Channel mode. In those circumstances, you can take some evasive measures before you apply a filter: purge clipboard, purge histories, close Bridge (and other applications and utilities not being used currently, such as a browser or e-mail client), increase the amount of available RAM, or reduce number of fonts and plug-ins. Decreasing or increasing the filter settings can also help. For instance, if you are using Palette Knife, decrease the Stroke Size or increase the Stroke Detail. Applying RGB Filters to CMYK Files A number of Photoshop filters work only on images in RGB color mode. So, what do you do, for example, if you want to apply the Stylize>Glowing Edges filter to an image in CMYK color mode? Your first thought might be to change the color mode to RGB and then back again to CMYK. However, mode changes are usually not recommended while you’re editing an image and should be preformed only as a last resort, or as a necessary step in a technique that will offset the damage that may be done by the mode change. Here’s a little workaround that you can use that bypasses the need for a mode change. 1. In the Channels palette, select one of the channels. 2. Apply the filter, select another channel, and then use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F (Windows),Ф+F to apply the filter again. 3. Apply the filter this way to all four channels. Now when you click the composite channel, you will find that the filter has been applied to the image as a whole and you have avoided a color mode change. Reapplying Filter Settings To reapply a filter using the previously used settings without first having to call the dialog box from the filter menu, press Ctrl+F (Windows),Ф+F (Mac OS). The shortcut works for only the last used filter. If another filter has been used in the meantime, you have no choice other than to select the filter again from the filter menu. If you need access to the last used filter and its dialog box, including the last-used setting, press Ctrl+Alt+F (Windows),Ф+Opt+F (Mac OS). Filtering a Layer Nondestructively When you apply a filter to a layer, the pixels change value and cannot be reverted without undoing all the edits that followed in its wake. The following workaround applies the filter to a layer that can be positioned anywhere in the layer stack and acts as a poor man’s adjustment layer. 1. Create a new layer above the layer to which you want to apply a filter effect. 2. Fill it with 50% gray pixels (Edit>Fill>Contents Use: 50% Gray). 3. Set its blend mode to Overlay so that only the filter effect interacts with the layer below. 4. Apply the filter (Figure 18-1). FIGURE 18-1: The Graphic Pen filter applied to a layer filled with 50% Gray, the layer’s blend mode set to Overlay, duplicated and flipped horizontally and the opacity lowered to 50%. This way of applying a filter makes it possible to modify the filter effect further by: - Using a layer blend mode other than Overlay - Duplicating the layer and then changing its blend mode - Reducing the layer’s opacity - Using the Blend If options found in the Layer Style dialog box - Turning the layer’s visibility off if the effect is no longer required Unfortunately, not all filters listed under the Filter menu can be applied this way. However, applying textures via the Texturizer filter works extremely well. The results will also differ from applying the filters directly to a layer, which is something to bear in mind. There is one other method you can use to apply a filter nondestructively, but it can be used only in the current session. It involves the use of Smart Objects. 1. Select the layer to which you want to apply a filter effect. 2. Choose Group into New Smart Object from the Layers palette menu. 3. Double-click the layer thumbnail. Photoshop will open a temporary PSB document containing the layer content (you cannot apply a filter directly to a Smart Object, but you can to the PSB document). 4. Apply the filter to the PSB document and save it.When you save the PSB document,Photoshop applies any changes you made to it to the parent file. As long as you do not close the PSB document, you can revert it using its histories, apply another filter, and then save it again to apply the filter to the parent document. You can do this as many times as you like without fear of damaging the original content.

Exploiting Filters part 2

Placing a Lens Flare Precisely
The Lens Flare filter lets you simulate flares caused by light sources shining directly into the camera lens. You can place the lens flare pretty accurately by moving the crosshair in the filter’s proxy window (Figure 18-2). However, if you need to place it more precisely, take the following steps:
1. Place the pointer where you would like to center the lens flare and make a note of the X, Y readings in the Info Palette.
2. Select the layer you wish to apply the filter to and then choose Filter>Render>Lens Flare.
3. When the Lens Flare dialog box opens, hold down Alt (Windows), Opt (Mac OS) and click anywhere in the Lens Flare proxy window to access the Precise Flare Center dialog box (Figure 18-2).
4. Enter the X and Y coordinates that you noted earlier.
5. Click the OK button to exit the Precise Flare Center dialog box.
6. Click the OK button in the Lens Flare dialog box. After you exit the Lens Flare dialog box, you will see the lens flare placed precisely where you specified.

FIGURE 18-2: Lens flare pop-up dialog box used to place a flare precisely.

Creating Seamless Patterns
Need to make seamless patterns for tiling Web page backgrounds or for filling in areas when repairing photographs? You can do it painlessly in Photoshop by using the often-overlooked Pattern Maker filter.To create a seamless pattern, just take the following steps:
1. Use a marquee tool to select a portion of your image (this will form the basis of the pattern) and then copy it onto the clipboard.
2. Create a new layer (if you don’t, the new pattern will replace the content of the currently active layer).
3. Choose Filter>Pattern Maker.
4. In the Pattern Maker dialog box, check the box Use Clipboard as Sample. 5. Next, click the Use Image Size button and then the Generate button. You can click the Generate button as many times as you like to generate another random pattern based on the current settings.
6. When you’re satisfied with the pattern, click the OK button to fill the currently active layer with the pattern.
The dialog box contains a number of settings that you can work your way through. The Offset setting determines the amount of offset for each tile; the Smoothness determines the smoothness of the tile edges; the Sample Detail setting determines the size of the image sampled for each tile (the higher the setting, the more detail included in the tile). The video buttons at the bottom of the Tile History section allow you to view all the iterations. The Save button is very useful. Any tiles you save are added to the Pattern Picker palette and may be used by any tool or command that can make use of a pattern, such as Pattern Stamp tool or Layer Style.

Working with the Lighting Effects Filter
The Lighting Effects filter adds depth to an image. It does this in two ways: by varying the lighting intensity and its quality across the image’s surface and by adding a bevel and emboss effect using the information in an alpha channel. The filter works only on RGB images in 8-Bits/Channel mode.
The filter dialog box (Filter>Render>Lighting Effects) is divided into five sections (Figure 18-3):
- In the Style section, you can select from a number of preset styles from the pop-up menu. You can also add your own by saving customized settings, or delete the current style.
- In the Light Type section, you can choose between a spotlight, directional, or omni type from the pop-up menu and specify its intensity and focus by using the sliders. You can change the color of the light by clicking the color box (white by default) and then selecting a color in the Color Picker dialog box.
- In the Properties section, you can modify the quality (how the light reflects off surfaces), the exposure, and the ambience (whether the light source is diffused by ambient light and to what extent). As with Light Type, you can modify the color by clicking the color box and then choosing a color in the Color Picker dialog box.
- In the Texture Channel section, you can elect to apply a surface texture by selecting a channel and vary the depth and height by using the Height slider.
- To the left is a small proxy window for previewing and, below that, a button for adding new lights and the Trash icon for deleting lights by dragging them onto it (you can’t select a light and click to delete; that method for deleting isn’t available).

FIGURE 18-3: The Lighting Effects dialog box. Left. Original image. Right. The image copied into a new alpha channel and then selected from the Texture Channel pop-up menu in the Lighting Effects dialog box.

Bear the following pointers in mind when you work in the dialog box:
- To add a new light source, click the light bulb icon and then drag it into the preview window, or press Alt (Windows), Opt (Mac OS), click an existing light, and then drag to make a copy.
- To delete a light, click it and then press Backspace (Windows), Del (Mac OS), or drag it onto the Trash icon.
- You can reposition a light source by clicking the point in the center of the beam and then dragging to a new position.
- To widen, narrow, or rotate a beam, click the square gray handles on the side and then drag outwards or inwards.
- To jump from one light source to another, press Alt+Tab (Windows), Opt+Tab (Mac OS).

The Smart Way to Find Edges
If you use the Find Edges filter to create selection edges for sharpening images or for creating watercolors, you may want to investigate the possibilities of Smart Blur. Contrary to what the name may imply, the Smart Blur filter can be used to find the edges and can sometimes produce better results than the Find Edges filter (it also contains options whereas Find Edges is a takeit- or-leave-it filter).
To find the edges in an image, open the filter dialog box (Filter>Blur>Smart Blur), click the Mode pop-up menu and choose Edge Only, or Overlay Edge, and then select a Quality level from the pop-up above it. As the names imply, choosing Edge Only creates edges and replaces the image detail with black, which can be knocked out quite easily by changing the blend mode to screen or by using the Blend If sliders in Blending Options; if you want to play with the edges, you may wish to work on a duped layer. Choosing Overlay Edge superimposes the edges on the image (Figure 18-4).

FIGURE 18-4: In this example, the image layer was duped, the Smart Blur filter applied (Radius 3.0; Threshold 25.0; Quality: High; Mode: Edge Only). Next, the Rough Pastels filter was applied and the layer blend mode set to Darken. The image layer was duped and positioned at the top of the stack, its opacity reduced to 12% and Blend mode set to Hard Light.

Layer effects

Layer effects was new in Photoshop 5 and makes a lot of third party plugins unnecessary. Here's a brief overwiev of these effects. Be sure to check out how to use them in the "glass spheroid" tutorial.

Dropshadow Innershadow Inner bevel

Inner Glow

Outer Bevel

Outer Glow In Photoshop 6.0 there is this new "application" called layerstyles, and it facilitates your work monstrous. With one single click, you can achieve very cool effects like this one below.