PhotoShop: Some basic image manipulation
The purpose of this document is purely to put to paper some of the things I have learned in recent weeks about using PhotoShop. At the end of this you will be able to basically create a new PSD file with a white background (the canvas), put some guides in place, paste a new image into the canvas and manipulate aforementioned image. The manipulation will involve resizing the image, skew it, setting it’s opacity and skewing it.
Before we get stuck in, here just a few things that you might want to be aware of. To undo any action hit CTRL+Z. Also always make sure that you have selected the layer that you wish to make changes to. OK let’s get started.
First off create a new PSD file (either from File/New or by hitting CTRL + N). This should provide you with a dialogue prompting you for some info. So give your file a name and set the width and height to 800* 600.
Next we are going to add some guides to the file we created. To this end just place your mouse over the numbered part of your ruled, click and keep clicked, all the while dragging your mouse either vertically or horizontally over the page. As you do this you should see a dotted line moving about with your mouse, this is your guide. Move it to about 1 inch from the border and let go of your mouse. The dotted line has now been replaced with a blue line, which is your guide. You can still move it, by simply clicking on it, should you not be happy with it’s position. Do the same thing for all borders so that your guides are about 1 inch away from all borders.
OK! Now let’s grab a picture and paste into the file. I just took a snapshot of my web site (ALT + Print Screen). Then I returned to PhotoShop and just hit CTRL+V (the universal convention for pasting). The image should have pasted itself as a new layer. If it hasn’t just undo your last move by hitting CTRL+Z, then add a new layer (Shift+CTRL+N) and try pasting again. Once the screenshot is on your canvas you will need to re-size it. From the Edit menu go down to Transform and from that submenu choose Numeric? There make sure that just the Scale option is selected and set the values for width and height to 50. Also make sure that the scale is set to percent the box for constrain proportions is ticked.
Next we are going to use the Rectangular Marquee tool (from the tools floating menu) to just grab the part of the image that we want. In order to this I recommend that you zoom in (CTRL++) first and then start off in the top left hand corner and drag your mouse to the bottom right hand corner of the bit you wish to display. Once done just hit CTRL+C to copy that selection. Then delete the layer you were working on and next all you really need to do is paste (CTRL+V) your selection back onto the canvas. Again make sure that it’s on its own layer.
Now we get onto the “serious” image manipulation stuff. First we are going to give this image a drop shadow. From the layer menu select Effects and from that drop down menu choose Drop Shadow. This brings up another dialogue. I just tend to use the defaults, but if you feel adventurous have a play and see what the other options do. Make sure that the Preview box is checked so that you can see what the effects will look like. Once you are happy click OK.
Next let’s set the Opacity. As I am planning on having different images over lapping, it would be nice to have the merest suggestion of what is lying underneath it. This is where Opacity can help us. Double click on the Layer you wish to work on in the Layer floating tool box. This should bring up another dialogue, giving you the name of your layer and telling you that the opacity is currently set to 100%. Experiment with the different settings and choose the one you like best (I chose 85%).
As a final step we shall now skew the image slightly. Again we will be using the Numeric transform (accessible from Edit/Transform/Numeric). Make sure this time that the box for Scale is not ticked and that Skew is. I am just going to skew my image slightly, by leaving the horizontal set to zero, but setting vertical -10 degrees.
Right you should now have an image that is slightly translucent, has a drop shadow and is angled at -10 degrees. That’s pretty much what we set out to do. What I’ll show you next is how to do this to multiple images in one go. So here goes first grab another couple of screenshots, make sure they are trimmed, set to the right scale (50%) and on separate new layers.
Once you are done, go back to your layers floating tool bar and select one layer. A little paintbrush should appear next to it. Now we move onto the next layer, where that paintbrush would be if the layer was select, click the left mouse button. A little chain symbol should appear, this indicates that both layers are now linked. This in essence means that any changes made to the selected layer will be applied to the linked layers as well, but only for transformations such as skew and scale. So go ahead and modify the layer as you did for the first layer. Unfortunately the drop shadow and opacity you will need to set individually.
As a final step we will use the guides to place our images on the canvas. So go ahead select the first layer we created (first however make sure that all layers are not linked, you do this by clicking on the little chain next to the layer). Move it so that right most border lines up with the right most guide and the left tip of the screen shot is flush against the bottom most guide. If you have snap to guides enables the positioning should be a easy (you can check under View, if they aren’t then just do Shift+CTRL+;). The image you want to appear last, align the left most border with the left guide and right most tip with the upper guide. Now you can position the remainder of your images between the two. This is a bit iffy and requires patience to get the positioning just right (sorry not aware of any tol that does this for you).
One problem you may encounter when moving your layers around is that one layer may be further in the foreground than you wish. In order to remedy this, simple select the layer in the floating layer tool bar and keep it selected (i.e. keep the left mouse button pressed) and drag it up the list of layers until you have reached the position you want it in.
That’s it you now now know how to use use guides, position images accordingly and can do some basic manipulation, involving scale, skew, opacity and drop shadows. Hope you enjoyed this.