In the Womb of the Rose - Photoshop guidelines

:::Notes on Photoshop:::

Using the PHOTOSHOP TOOL BAR

In the tool bar you can use:

1. Select – various shapes to surround your image so you can copy it, change the size or move it to a new part of the canvas.

2. Select Line tools - if the colours are the same you may need to draw a line to select with the line tool

3. Magic Wand will select one colour so you can change, move, cut, or copy it. It will not select a variegated colour easily – you will have to hold down the option key to make it select more than one area.

4. Magnifying helps you look more closely at images in detail so that you can be more accurate

5. Move – when this is highlighted you can move the selected image anywhere on the page – and into another file if you wish.

6. Fill you can put in an entirely new colour in an area on top of the original design by selecting an area and filling it by chosing a colour with the eyedropper and with fill.

7. With the Clone stamp whereby you can pick up a patch of colour from one part of the design and copy it somewhere else - good for use with a glass palette selection.

8. Brush - various widths with hard or soft edges and different wieghts. The can be used to add colours on different layers where you can adjust them in terms of transparency by moving the pointer on the opacity bar when you select a colour/brush. (Tip - use the soft edged brushes as they make a better blend)

9. Crop will make the whole of your image smaller

10. Eraser: will take out things you do not want. Magic Eraser takes out the whole of flat background colour. Erasers can be different sizes

This is a guide for anyone new to using Photo Shop who would like some ideas to start. If you do not need this then move on to the next page - Workshop Guidelines For those of you who would like to use on screen tools here are some useful suggestions for using Photoshop. However I would advise using a good teaching programme - The Mac Academy CD-Rom is excellent. The tutorials in PhotoShop are very useful.

Making Files

PhotoShop and other CAD packages have several useful features by which you can now change the image. Save files of some of the stages as you go along. These are good reminders and are equivalent a sketchbook. You should save your design under a new name each time under a new name (i.e. name/your initials1.psd) just in case.)

First check Image/Canvas Size in Image - Size: Decrease the size of the image by changing the measurements in the boxes - half the original size would be best to start (12cm x18cm). Tick Image Constrain in the the Image size menu and it will reduce size in proportion. Save it as name/your intials1.tif - i.e. kali/daw1.tif. You can then make the Canvas size bigger in this menu f you want to add more background to the image.

LAYERS

Working on different layers allows you to change the design but keeps your original safe underneath. (You should save this layered file as a psd (photoshop document) so that you can enable layers. (I.e. name/your initials1.psd)

You can name your layers Colour, Lead line, Clear Space, Details, Border and then do the work on each one separately until you are satisfied. You can throw a layer away if you do not like it and start again. Note you have to remember to check that you are working on the right layer which will be highlighted blue in the layer palette.