#PHOTOSHOP 7 TUTORIAL FOR BEGINNERS HOW TO#

This enables you to change layers when it'sconvenient and avoids the accidental layer jumping you might do if Auto Selectwere enabled.ĭrag the 15ball downward so that it is between the dart and the icecream. Simply Ctrl( )+click to move to a specificobject on that layer. You can take a safer route to select a layer quickly when the Move tool isactive, however. Can you see how this option can be both confusing and hazardous toyour work? When the option is checked, if you click anywhere in theimage with the Move tool, you immediately move to the layer that was underneathyour cursor. We don't recommendusing this option if you're a novice to Photoshopor even anintermediate user. You've made the 15ball layer the current editinglayer.įigure 4.1 Move directly to a layer you want to edit by right-clicking(Macintosh: hold Ctrl and click) the area you want to edit.Īvoid Auto Select Accidents When the Move tool is selected, theOptions bar offers a checkbox for Auto Select Layer. Clickthe 15ball choice, and you will see that the 15ball layer on the Layers paletteis highlighted. As you can see in Figure 4.1, the context menu offers two layerspresently underneath your cursor, called the 15ball and the Background. Right-click (Macintosh: hold Ctrl and click) over the 15ball in theimage. Press F7 to display the Layers/Channels/Paths/And So On grouped palette.Press V to switch tools to the Move tool.Īnd remember this shortcut: When the toolbox is partially hidden orclosed, pressing V selects the Move tool directly, saving you the trouble oflooking through the toolbox for the tool you need.Open the Pocket.psd image from the Examples/Chap04 folder on theCompanion CD, and save it to your hard disk using the same name and file type.This image is 600 by 800 pixels, with a resolution of 72 pixels per inch zoomin or out if necessary to see all the contents of the image window.

#PHOTOSHOP 7 TUTORIAL FOR BEGINNERS HOW TO#

FYI,shadows are attached to everything using the glow and shadow technique you willbecome familiar with in Chapter 5, 'Working with Channels and Paths.'Let's start off slow and easy as you learn how to manipulate the orderingof layers. The image looks like any other table top scene, except this scene wasrendered in a modeling program, and everything is on different layers. Now, imagine you're Jim Carreythe only comedian whose adoptedplanet is Earth and you're asked to dump out your pockets on a table.The contents would probably be like the contents of the Pocket.psd imageyou'll work with in a moment. They can help imitate real-world compositions. This is where Photoshoplayers come in handy. The point here is that realistic image composition inherently has a depth offield things go in front of and behind other elements. This could be considered to constitute layers of things.Your keys might be above some folded money, and the folded money partially hidessome pocket change. Everything is not neatly orderedand distributed. You'll notice that from an artistic standpoint, the compositionformed by dumping your pockets is dimensional. You're probably being booked for a crime, and If someone were to ask you to empty the contents of your pockets on atable: You'll see how efficiently you can work to performcomplicated image editing. Is learning all this stuffnecessary? Yes, most certainly so once you make layers a part of your Photoshopknowledge, you will work at least twice as fast as the next (uneducated) guy orgal.įirst, we felt you'd benefit most from a potpourri-style tutorial, whereyou learn exactly what you need to know about a number of different layertools and features.

In the sections that follow, you become familiar with Layer modes, layerlocking, layer linking, clipping groups, clipping paths, layer sets, layerordering, layer deleting, and Layer effects. In passing years, Adobe has made the layers featureso powerful that today it almost overshadows Photoshop's most-used feature:the shipload of different ways you can select image areas. Layers have been a Photoshop feature since version 3.0 (shortly afterelectricity was discovered). Youcan change their color and add all sorts of wonderful effects to masksshapeswork only on layers, and that'swhy these two features are grouped into a single chapter. Vector masks are pre-designedshapesthey act as tiny portals to layers underneath the layer upon which avector mask resides, or they can appear as shapes against the background. To make image creation even easier, Adobe inventedsomething called vector masks. Why? Adobe has made creating shapes very simple, somewhat like opening atemplate of a design. Although, apparently, Photoshop layers and the Shapes tools have nothing incommon, when you get to real-world assignments, you'll find yourselfcontinually using first one feature and then the other.

Photoshop 7 tutorial for beginners