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Home / Blog / Design & Multimedia / Photoshop

Photoshop

How to produce great graphics in Adobe Photoshop.

See also:
  • Paths and the Pen Tool
  • Using Photoshop's Selection Tools

Drawing with Photoshop’s Pen Tool

18 February 2002 / 3 Comments

Now that you know the theory of Photoshop paths, it’s time to explore Photoshop’s Pen tool and other related tools.

Most of the drawing and editing of paths can be done via the tools under the Pen tool icon in the Tools palette. Click and hold the mouse button on this icon to bring up all the other tools:

Pen tool in the Tools palette

Let’s briefly go over these tools now, and what you can use them for.

  • The Pen tool is probably the tool you’ll use most. With this tool you can create the straight lines and curves that make up your paths.
  • The Freeform Pen tool is designed to let you create paths quickly by just drawing freehand with the mouse. It’s not very good for creating precise paths though.
  • The Add Anchor Point tool allows you to insert additional anchor points into your path, effectively splitting a line segment into two. This is useful if, say, you’ve created a curve already but you want to turn the curve into a more complex shape. You can also add anchor points using the Pen Tool, provided you have the Auto Add/Delete option set – just move the mouse over the line segment you’d like to add a point to, and click!
  • The Delete Anchor Point tool removes anchor points from your path. As it removes a point, it joins up the two line segments either side of the removed point into one long line segment. This is good if you’ve accidentally created too many segments (it’s best to create as few as possible!) or if the Freeform Pen tool has created too many for you! You can also delete anchor points using the Pen tool if Auto Add/Delete is set – move the mouse over the point you’d like to delete, and click.
  • The Convert Point tool allows you to convert a smooth anchor point to a corner anchor point, and vice-versa. More on this tool later!

[Read more…] about Drawing with Photoshop’s Pen Tool

Photoshop Paths Explained

11 February 2002 / Leave a Comment

In this introductory tutorial, you’ll learn about Photoshop’s Paths feature. Paths are a powerful tool and a big topic to cover. They’re also quite tricky to get the hang of, but once you do, you’ll never look back!

Enjoy…

[Read more…] about Photoshop Paths Explained

Modifying Selections in Photoshop

31 October 2001 / 1 Comment

Once you’ve made your basic selection using one of Photoshop’s numerous selection tools, there are a lot of things you can do to play around with it. In this tutorial we’ll look at:

  • feathering
  • anti-aliasing
  • adding and subtracting
  • bordering
  • smoothing
  • expanding and contracting

[Read more…] about Modifying Selections in Photoshop

Working with Photoshop’s Quick Mask Mode

24 October 2001 / 2 Comments

Photoshop’s Quick Mask mode is a really versatile way to select things. Instead of creating marquees as you do with the other tools, you can “paint” the selection using any of Photoshop’s painting tools. You can even use the other selection tools on the Quick Mask, as if it was a regular image. This makes the Quick Mask mode a very powerful feature of Photoshop.

[Read more…] about Working with Photoshop’s Quick Mask Mode

Selecting with Photoshop’s Color Range Command

15 October 2001 / Leave a Comment

Photoshop’s Color Range command is great for selecting particular colours in your image — for example, all the reds, or all the greens. You can then work on these specific colours — turning them from green to red, for example, or removing particular colours from the image.

This command doesn’t work well for selecting particular areas of your image (such as a foreground object), as it has a tendency to only partially select pixels, and often selects unwanted parts of your image that are a similar colour. But it’s great for selecting colours to work on!

[Read more…] about Selecting with Photoshop’s Color Range Command

Using Photoshop’s Quick Selection and Magic Wand Tools

10 October 2001 / Leave a Comment

In this tutorial you’ll look at two very quick and easy ways to make selections in Photoshop: The Quick Selection tool and the Magic Wand tool.

[Read more…] about Using Photoshop’s Quick Selection and Magic Wand Tools

Selecting with Photoshop’s Marquee and Lasso Tools

26 September 2001 / Leave a Comment

Selections are a great way to work on parts of your image independently, rather than manipulating the image as a whole.

Once you’ve selected a part of an image (e.g. a person’s head or other object), you can then manipulate this object separately from the rest of the image. This means you can cut the object out; add drop shadows; adjust the brightness/contrast; warp it; apply effects and filters easily – in fact, anything you like!

In this series of tutorials you’ll explore the various selection tools in Photoshop. On this page we start with the marquee and lasso tools.

[Read more…] about Selecting with Photoshop’s Marquee and Lasso Tools

10 Useful Photoshop Tips for Beginners

5 September 2001 / Leave a Comment

Just starting out with Adobe Photoshop? Here are 10 handy tips to help you get up to speed.

[Read more…] about 10 Useful Photoshop Tips for Beginners

Brushed Metal Effects in Photoshop

16 August 2001 / Leave a Comment

Brushed metal text example

In this tutorial we’ll look at using some of Photoshop’s tools to produce realistic brushed-metal effects. You can easily apply these effects to text or to other objects such as geometric shapes and interface bars.

[Read more…] about Brushed Metal Effects in Photoshop

Introduction to Photoshop Layers

17 July 2001 / 2 Comments

This beginner’s tutorial explains the concept of layers in Photoshop. Layers are a very powerful tool for image editing, and are a fundamental tool in Photoshop for creating complex images.

[Read more…] about Introduction to Photoshop Layers

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