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Photoshop CS5 For Dummies - Tips And Tricks For First Starting To Work With Photoshop CS5
June 11, 2010
This excerpt from Photoshop CS5 For Dummies offers some valuable tips for first starting to work with Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop CS5 Extended.
Launching Photoshop
You can launch Photoshop (start the program) by double-clicking an image file or through the Applications folder (Mac) or the Start menu (Windows). Mac users can drag the Photoshop program icon (the actual program itself) to the Dock to make it available for one-click startup. You can find the file named Adobe Photoshop CS5 inside the Adobe Photoshop CS5 folder, inside the main Applications folder.
Never open an image into Photoshop from removable media (CD, DVD, your digital camera or its Flash card, Zip disks, jump drives, and the like) or from a network drive. Always copy the file to a local hard drive, open from that drive, save back to the drive, and then copy the file to its next destination. You can open from internal hard drives or external hard drives, but to avoid the risk of losing your work (or the entire image file) because of a problem reading from or writing to removable media, always copy to a local hard drive.
Working with images
Within Photoshop, you work with individual image files. Each image is recorded on the hard drive in a specific file format. Photoshop opens just about any current image file consisting of pixels as well as some file formats that do not. Remember that to change a file’s format, you open the file in Photoshop and use the Save As command to create a new file. And, although theoretically not always necessary on the Mac, I suggest that you always include the file extension at the end of the filename. If Photoshop won’t open an image, it might be in a file format that Photoshop can’t read. It cannot, for example, open an Excel spreadsheet or a Microsoft Word DOC file because those aren’t image formats — and Photoshop is, as you know, an image-editing program. If you have a brand-new digital camera and Photoshop won’t open its Raw images, check for an update to the Adobe Camera Raw plug-in.
Saving your files
You must use the Save or Save As command to preserve changes to your images. And after you save and close an image, those changes are irreversible. When working with an important image, consider these three tips:
— Work on a copy of the image file. Unless you’re working with a digital photo in the Raw format, make a copy of your image file as a backup before changing it in Photoshop. The backup ensures that should something go horribly wrong, you can start over. (You never actually change a Raw photo — Photoshop can’t rewrite the original file — so you’re always, in effect, working on a copy.)
— Open as a Smart Object. Rather than choosing File > Open, make it a habit to choose File > Open As Smart Object. When working with Smart Objects, you can scale or transform multiple times without continually degrading the image quality, and you can work with Smart Filters, too!
— Save your work as PSD, too. Especially if your image has layers, save it in Photoshop’s PSD file format (complete with all the layers) before using Save As to create a final copy in another format. If you don’t save a copy with layers, going back to make one little change can cost hours of work.
If you attempt to close an image or quit Photoshop without saving your work first, you get a gentle reminder asking whether you want to save, close without saving, or cancel the close/quit (as shown in Figure 1-6).
Keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts are customizable in Photoshop, but some of the basic shortcuts are the same as those you use in other programs. You open, copy, paste, save, close, and quit just as you do in Microsoft Word, your e-mail program, and just about any other software. I suggest that you keep these shortcuts unchanged, even if you do some other shortcut customization.
Photoshop’s incredible selective Undo
Here’s one major difference between Photoshop and other programs. Almost all programs have some form of Undo, enabling you to reverse the most recent command or action (or mistake). Photoshop also has, however, a great feature that lets you partially undo. You can use Photoshop’s History Brush to partially undo just about any filter, adjustment, or tool by painting. You select the History Brush, choose a history state (a stage in the image development) to which you want to revert, and then paint over areas of the image that you want to change back to the earlier state.
You can undo as far back in the editing process as you want, with a couple of limitations: The History panel (where you select the state to which you want to revert) holds only a limited number of history states. In the Photoshop Preferences > General pane, you can specify how many states you want Photoshop to remember (to a maximum of 1,000). Keep in mind that storing lots of history states takes up computer memory that you might need for processing filters and adjustments. That can slow things down. The default of 20 history states is good for most projects, but when using painting tools or other procedures that involve lots of repetitive steps (such as touching up with the Dodge, Burn, or Clone Stamp tools), a larger number (perhaps as high as 60) is generally a better idea.
The second limitation is pixel dimensions. If you make changes to the image’s actual size (in pixels) with the Crop tool or the Image Size or Canvas Size commands, you cannot revert to prior steps with the History Brush. You can choose as a source any history state that comes after the image’s pixel dimensions change but none that come before.
Here’s one example of using the History Brush as a creative tool. You open a copy of a photograph in Photoshop. You edit as necessary. You use the Black and White adjustment on the image to make it appear to be grayscale. In the History panel, you click in the left column next to the step immediately prior to Black and White to designate that as the source state, the appearance of the image to which you want to revert. You select the History Brush and paint over specific areas of the image to return them to the original (color) appearance (see Figure 1-7). There you have it — a grayscale image with areas of color, compliments of the History Brush!
Installing Photoshop: Need to know
If you haven’t yet installed Photoshop CS5 (or the Adobe Creative Suite), here are a few points to keep in mind:
— Install only into the default location. Photoshop is a resource-intensive program. Installing it into the default location ([harddrive] Applications on a Mac and C:\Program File sfor Windows) ensures that it has access to the operating system and hardware as necessary. Installing into any other location or attempting to run Photoshop across a network can lead to frustrating problems and loss of work in progress.
— Disable all spyware and antivirus software before installing. Antivirus software can intercept certain installation procedures, deeming them to be hazardous to your computer’s health. That can lead to malfunctions, crashes, lost work, frustration, and what I like to call Computer Flying Across Room Syndrome. If you use antivirus software (and if you use Windows, you’d better!), turn it off before installing any program, especially one as complex as Photoshop. You might find the antivirus program’s icon in the Windows taskbar; or you might need to go to the Start menu, use All Programs to locate the antivirus software, and disable it. On Mac, check the Dock. And don’t forget to restart your antivirus software afterward! If you already installed Photoshop and antivirus software was running at the time, I urge you to uninstall and reinstall. (Reinsert the Photoshop CS5 DVD and launch the installer to use the built-in uninstall feature.)
— If you use auto-backup software, shut it down, too. It’s best not to run auto-backup software when installing software. Like antivirus software, it can also lead to problems by interfering with the installer.
— Connect to the Internet and activate right away. It’s also best to run the Photoshop installer while your computer is connected to the Internet. That enables Photoshop’s activation process to happen right away, making sure you can get started as soon as the installer finishes.
— Photoshop CS5 is 64-bit software (and 32-bit, too). On both Windows and Mac, Photoshop CS5 is a 64-bit program — if you have a 64-bit operating system. (Windows 7, Vista, and XP all offer 64-bit versions; the Mac OS became 64-bit with Snow Leopard, OS 10.6.) 64-bit software generally runs faster and can take advantage of much more RAM than 32-bit software. However, in a 64-bit operating system, Photoshop CS5 also installs a 32-bit version. On Windows, it’s Photoshop CS5 (x86). On the Mac, you can right-click on the Adobe Photoshop CS5 program icon (inside the Applications?Adobe Photoshop CS5 folder), select Get Info, and, in Photoshop’s Info box (shown in Figure 1-8), choose to run Photoshop as a 32-bit program the next time it starts up. Why might you want to run Photoshop as 32-bit software? You may have 32-bit plug-ins that won’t work with 64-bit Photoshop. Many third-party plug-ins (plug-ins purchased from companies other than Adobe) and even some Adobe plug-ins are not yet 64-bit capable. How do you know? Photoshop gives you a warning upon startup.
— If you have third-party plug-ins, install them elsewhere. Third-party plug-ins — those filters and other Photoshop add-ons that you buy from companies other than Adobe — can be installed into a folder outside the Photoshop folder. You can then make an alias (Mac) or shortcut (Windows) to that folder and drag the alias/shortcut to Photoshop’s Plug-Ins folder. (If you have a multibutton mouse, right-click the folder to create an alias/shortcut; Control+click if you’re using a one-button trackpad.) Why install outside the Photoshop folder? Should you ever need to (gasp!) reinstall Photoshop, you won’t need to reinstall all your third-party plug-ins. Just create a new alias/shortcut and move it into Photoshop’s new Plug-Ins folder. And don’t forget to go to the plug-ins’ Web sites to see if the manufacturers offer updates!
— If you have lots of plug-ins, create sets. Plug-ins require RAM (computer memory that Photoshop uses to process your editing commands). If you have lots of plug-ins, consider dividing them into groups according to how and when you use them. Sort (or install) them into separate folders. (Hint: Plug-ins that you use in many situations can be installed into multiple folders.) When you need to load a specific set, do so through the Photoshop Preferences > Plug-Ins pane by designating a second plug-ins folder and relaunching Photoshop.
— If you love fonts, use a font management utility. If you have hundreds of fonts (over the years, I’ve somehow managed to collect upward of 10,000 fonts), use a font-management utility to create sets of fonts according to style and activate only those sets that you need at any given time. Too many active fonts can choke the Photoshop type engine, slowing performance. The Mac OS has Font Book built right in, or you can use the excellent Suitcase Fusion 2 (Mac and Windows) from Extensis (www.extensis.com).
Adapted with permission from Photoshop CS5 For Dummies by Peter Bauer. Copyright © 2010 Wiley Publishing
Photoshop CS5 For Dummies
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Refine Edge - Best New Feature in Photoshop CS5 - Tutorial
