EPTMy nickname is leecH. I am 24 years old. Besides playing games i evolved a passion for a little programm called Photoshop, which years later turned into a profession of mine. Now im also working with Cienam4D which is awesome by the way. I am currently unemployed, which of course is not due to my skills but rather the economy. So i take the time i have to contribute to this awesome community and may give people who have "made some wallpepers" the chance to take it to the next level.
Also i try to work on my English. (Feel free to point out mistakes per PM, thanks
)I myself worked for clients which are some of the worlds largest and well known agencies as well as companies. Also, I had the pleasure to learn from someone who was part of the first generation of people working with Photoshop when it first came out. He´s one of the most passionate people I´ve ever met in my life. This means i have a very solid understanding of the programm itself.
I dont claim to be a master of what i am doing. Of course, as always, there are people way above the level you can reach. Also dont expect me to drop some fast knowledge on you that will turn you into a Photoshop pro. I´ll try to head you in the right direction and steer you away from dubious "tutorials" found everywhere on the web. If you like what i do here go to a bookstore and buy a book about Photoshop or buy training DVD´s. Ignore most of the things you will find on the web for free (besides this :D).
Also a very important note: I do not literally draw with Photoshop. It´s a talent i dont have. Also this will not be a step by step tutorial. I will point out things you need to know and you´ll have to figure it out for yourselfs! I will give some tips but mainly just give a rough direction how you should approach Photoshop as a hole. Maybe i do some step by step when there are people excited about it. Maybe how to retouche a car? Or make a fancy logo?
Feel free to ask any questions you like. I really hope i can motivate some people get into it or help to advance. Enough about me. Lets start :D
It´s a handcraft
You may have encountered this situation. Friends know you as the "guy who knows this kind of stuff" and asked you to trim down an image for Facebook. While Paint or opensource software may do the job – Photoshop is untouched by any other software. It is the only software used at a professional level. But how come Photoshop exists?
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/XRGKb.jpg)
Oldschool!
When the Personal Computer took over the world, people thought to themselfs how you can improve quality, reduce the price and stop wasting materials while producing printed media. Photoshop was born and many had to abandon their well payed and highly respected handcraft and switch over to a regular desk with a computer.
I dont want to go to deep into history but you should keep in mind that Photoshop is based on a real handcraft. Alot of tools and functions Photoshop has to offer can only be understood and used correctly if you know about how things were done before computers existed. This knowledge is the key between being bad or very good at Photoshop. But dont stress yourself. It´s not what comes first.
Understanding Resolution and Color Space
These are the two of the most important concepts you have to understand if you really are interested into learing Photoshop. Of course there is more but if you dont know this it´s like playing Starcraft without making workers. Again, there is much more, but this you really really need to know before you even open up Photoshop:
Resolution:
What ist your monitor resolution? 1024X786? 1600X1200? FULLHD? No it´s not :D ! This is ok to say if you want to sell something. For us we stop doing this. We will never ever again refer hight and length as resolution.
Your monitors resolution is 72 DPI in most cases. This means your monitor can display 72 Pixels per Inch. So If you change from Full HD to 1024x786 you still only have 72 Pixels per Inch. For example the Iphone 4 has over 300 Pixels per Inch because its awesome. This means if you measure one inch on your iphone you will count ~ 3times more pixels than on your pc´s monitor.
If you may have noticed its actually called Dots Per Inch not Pixels per Inch.. That is becauese those terms existed before the PC took over. Everything you print is printed in dots. Its like "pixels on paper". Ever printed out a picture which looked big on screen but tiny on paper? It´s because a decent printer prints 300 Dots per Inch. So if you feed him a 72DPI picture (standard on the web) he will shrink it down so it has the same quality on paper. Yea thats right. Your Monitor is a piece of crap compared to any magazine you read. A printed magazin, lets take FHM for example, has a 3 times better resolution compared to your Full HD TV. Now how does that make you feel about your expensive TV
?So a basic rule is:
If its for the web = 72-96 DPI
If its for printing = 300 DPI
Use this when setting up your files.
Colour Space:
This is also very very important to know. Imagine you want to make a flyer for a club or a party.
You open Photoshop, create a new document and click create. You now already made a mistake. The two important colour spaces you need to know are RGB and CMYK. Again i will take your PC-Monitor and the FHM as reference.
RGB (Red Green and Blue)
Every monitor/screen blends those three colors. It does so by having a lightsource.
Imagine holding colored transparencies in front of a lightbulb. But your "virtual" transparcies can have different intensities. This is done by bits. You have 256 bits per colour. For all three colours together this means you have over 16 Million combinations. But remember, it´s only Red, Green and Blue.
CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key=Black)
Thats how you print stuff. Your FHM constists only of those 4 colours (there a special colours but i try to make it simple).
Thats it. It´s like drawing with watercolours. You can mix them together and the more colour you put on the paper the darker the colour gets. Simple isn´t it?
Now why is this so important? If you want to make a flyer to print out you want Photoshop to translate everything you do into CMYK. If you want to do a banner for your homepage you also want the right colours. It will be much more shiny. Of course Photoshop can translate those color spaces so you wont notice it AT ALL untill you get a bit more in depth. You may not understand it completly but its ok. Just keep in mind: Web = RGB, Print = CMYK.
The Mechanics (using Starcraft terminology is awesome!)
So we open up Photoshop and there is so much going on. So many options so many windows.
You have something in mind you would like to do. But how?!?!
With different tools you can achieve the same result.
For example the "Magic Wand tool" lets you select one colour. Imagine a person standing on a white background. You want to make the background black so you need to "select" the background. The Magic Wand Tool will do this for you, just very poorly. First it seems like "oh ok, this is how you do it". No it´s not. You want to keep looking for better options to select your white background.
Just like Starcraft you should use your keyboard as much as you can. When working i´d guess i have about 20-70 APM depending on what i´m doing. I´m really fast compared to alot of people i have met because i play games. Make this to your advantage. Remember the shortcuts for the tools first. Also learn the shortcuts how to move your screen around efficiently. Some examples:
space to move
space&alt to zoom out,
space&ctrl to zoom in
ctrl&alt&0 to switch back to the 100% view
Later you can fill F1 to F12 with your own shortcuts, depending on what tools you like.
You can do crazy shit with this and learn much faster because you dont waste time on stuff you already know! It´s essential when you want to improve and be faster.
Always try out the following keys in combination with everything you do:
ctrl, Alt, Shift and Space.
For example you select something (Press M for select tool). Make a box.You now have a selection right? Now hold down Alt. See what happens. Now hold down
Alt & Shift simultaniously. Awesome right? Learn how your tools work! When you think "awww why cant this stupid programm do this" it actually can. You can find lists with all the hotkeys on the web but if you try to figure out for yourself you will have much more fun moments. Because its about having fun and figuring things out. Press your "F" key a couple of times. I love to let my interface disappear whenever i can and only work with my keyboard and mouse. Sexy, isn´t it? If you have a second monitor drag every window you can to the second screen so you only have the picture on your main screen.
Lots of people i met think you need something like a wacom tablet to be good at Photoshop. This is not necessarly true. If you only want to draw, of course you need one. But for the most part working with a mouse actually is the way to go. It´s more accurate. Also those tablets often mislead into a sloppy workstyle.
Last but not least: it will take time until you achieve a level where you can really "abuse" the programms full potential. The better you get the more powerful Photoshop gets. Hit every button you find and see what happens. Later you can combine them and do crazy combos :D
Using Layers and Masks
The layer window is your new best friend and one of the first things you have to figure out besides your tools.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/fZTM4.jpg)
Most important window on your screen!
Open up a random picture. Doesnt matter which one. Now you want to write your name on the that picture with the "brush tool". For this you make a new Layer! (the little papericon next to the trashcan).Now draw on this new Layer. You dont draw on the picture itself! You would destroy it. This is a very simple but very strong technique. Imagine the possibilities.
Lets say you have a persons face on your screen (for example White-Ra).
You select one eye, copy it to a new layer and move it around. You now have a three eyed White-Ra. If you feel like you need another eye you just copy the layer (drag layer on "new layer icon"). If you feel the next day 3 eyes was funny enough you just delete one eye. And while doing all this the basic picture stays untouched. You can also attach one layer to another (cick Alt and between two Layers). You now have a layer only affect a certain layer. Just play around with layers for a while. It will make your life much easier. You can tell the difference between someone really good and someone sloppy by only looking at the layer window!
Masks are an important addition to layers. Their main function is to "blend" images. You can add a mask to a layer by clicking on the icon with the circle inside the square (where the trashcan and new layer icons are aswell). You can can draw or do anything you want in this mask as long as its in the greyscale. White lets the image/layer shine threw while black lets the Layer dissapear. Grey will be 50% opacity. Now why would you do this? You can just earase with the earase tool right? Yes you can. But you cant draw back things you earased.
Also, when we want to change colours, for example make one eye green, we make an Adjustmentlayer with a mask (circle half black half white, near the mask icon). We then can change the colours of the picture without actually changing them. Its a layer only affecting the layers which are under it. We can just deleate it if so desired and all colours change back to normal.
You see there is a pattern. We make layers so we dont destroy our basic picture. We use masks so we dont destroy our layers. Basicly we can, at any given point, go back in time. We have complete controle. Working with layers and masks is a must and i cant stress this enough. This is a feature the first few versions of Photoshop did not had included. Crazy!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/R2iAn.jpg)
If you understand this picture you understand layers and just made a very important step :D!
That´s it for now. I will continue this blog if there is a demand for it :D I was thinking about explaining the most important tools. What tools you need to use depending on the picture and what you want to do with it. With screenshots to explain?
Hape you guys enjoyed this
-leech
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Zv7wt.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.photocanvasprint.net/rgb-vs-cmyk/images/gamut.jpg)
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