PhotoShop History, PhotoShop Brushes, and PhotoShop Colors

 

Were getting ready to change an image with PhotoShops powerful painting tools, but before you can effectively use the painting tools youll have to learn how change your brush sizes, choose appropriate colors, and affect multiple undos.

Ready?

 

Getting Started

1.      Open Emily.psd

2.      Select the paintbrush tool from the toolbox

3.      Click and drag all over poor old Emily.

What a mess.

Most painting tools work by clicking or clicking and dragging in the image.

4.      Revert

 

Multiple Undos & History

Even perfect people make mistakes. The makes of the AWDSF web design course have even made a few. When you first start editing with PhotoShop, youll make plenty. Undo allows you to back-up past your mistakes. You can undo one move by clicking EDIT-> UNDO, but youre better off using the shortcut:

CTRL/CMD + Z.

 

If you hit CTRL/CMD + Z more than once, youll just toggle back and forth between your last and current action. This is incredibility useful when trying to decide if you like an image better now, or before your most recent change.

 

To back up more than one step, you can hit:

CTRL/CMD + ALT + Z

 

Or, you can use the History Palette. The History Palette gives you a visual representation of your last moves, and allows you to instantly back-up a number of actions.

 

To use the History Palette:

1.      Revert Emily.tif (FILE-> REVERT)

2.      Quickly select her face with the lasso tool. Dont worry about accuracy.

3.      Draw on her face with the paintbrush.

4.      Apply a filter (any one) to the selection

5.      Open the History Palette, and scroll all the way down.

 

Youll notice that the last moves youve done are on the History Palette.

 

6.      To back up, find the action you want to back up to, and click it.

 

You can back-up as many moves as you like.

 

Setting the number of steps in the History Palette

Your computer has to remember everything youve done in the History Palette. This takes memory away from the working functions of PhotoShop. By default, the history palette remembers 20 moves. You can set that number higher or lower depending on your memory considerations.

1.      Click the History Palettes palette arrow.

2.      Choose History Options

3.      Set the number of undos in "Maximum History States"

 

Brushes!

When you paint with the paintbrush, or any other painting tool, youll put a certain amount of paint on the canvas. Sometimes youll only want to paint one pixel, sometimes youll want to paint across a large area. Just like in real life, the bigger brush you use, the more paint youll put on the canvas. You can custom make brushes, and use specially shaped ones for interesting effects.

 

Remember, that it is most often easiest to edit images when zoomed in. You can work on a pixel-by-pixel basis with startling results.

 

Important Preference Settings for Brushes

Normally when you paint in PhotoShop your cursor will look like the tool youre using. This isnt very helpful if youre trying to carefully paint with a big brush. You can change your cursor so it looks like your brush.

1. Click FILE-> PREFERENCES-> DISPLAY & CURSORS

2. Make sure Brush Size is selected under Painting Cursors.
   This option will allow you to see how big the brush youre using is, while youre using it.

 

If you have the "Caps Lock" set on your keyboard, the tool will revert to a "precise" setting, showing you a cross hair. Beginners often get stuck with Caps Lock on, and they cant figure out why their brush isnt displaying correctly.

 

To Change Brush Size

 

1. Choose the paintbrush from the tool palette.
2. Click the brush size on the Options Bar.

 

3. Choose a different brush size.
   Scroll down, theres a bunch of brushes.
   Notice that some brushes are hard, while others have soft edges.
   The brushes that are too large to display correctly list their diameter (distance across) in pixels.
4. Experiment painting with different brush sizes

 

Creating New, Custom Brushes

You can create brushes to fit your every need.

1. Click the brush pallet arrow-> choose New Brush

2. Adjust the brush options.

Your new brush will pop-in last on the palette.

 

Colors In PhotoShop

At the bottom of the toolbox youll see the color choosing area.

Foreground Color: Most painting tools paint with the foreground color.

Background Color: Some tools erase with the background color. The background color can also be easily switched with the foreground color, making it handy for back-up.

Flip Foreground and Background Color: The Foreground and background colors switch places

Restore Default: Foreground changes to black, background to white.

 

Choosing Color

To choose a foreground color:

1. Click the Foreground Color Indicator on the toolbox.

2. The "Color Picker" will pop up
3. Adjust your color hue on the rainbow slider. Choose your color in the big box on the left.

4. Click OK

 

To select only web safe colors, choose "Only Web Colors" in the lower left corner of the Color Picker. Note that using web safe colors in a photograph is useless. Only worry about web safe colors if youre building a solid color image.

 

To Choose From a List of Colors:

1. Choose Custom on the color picker.

 

Youll see a list of colors. These are print ink colors. None of them are web safe, but feel free to use them in photograph editing.

 

Choosing Colors with the Swatch Palette

You can choose colors using the swatch palette. Simply click a swatch to set the foreground color. Alt+Click to set the background color.

 

Web Safe Swatches

PhotoShop comes with a bunch of other swatch collections. You have to load them into the Swatch Palette.

1. Click the Swatches palette arrow-> choose Replace Swatches
   Replace Swatches deletes the current swatches. Load Swatches add a new set of swatches to the end of the current list.

 

2. Navigate to the Swatches Folder in your hard drive
1. PC: C Drive-> Program Files-> Adobe-> PhotoShop-> Goodies-> Color Swatches
2. Mac: Hard Drive-> Applications-> Adobe-> PhotoShop-> Goodies-> Color Swatches
   **(Some Macs will not have an "Adobe" Folder)
   
   
3. Choose one of the available web palettes.

 

Choosing a Color from Your Image

You can choose a color from your image by using the eyedropper tool

Simply choose the eyedropper and click a color in your image. Hold ALT to choose a background color. It may help to zoom way in to choose the correct color.

 

After choosing a color, you can edit it by changing its hue, saturation, and brightness in the color picker.

Remember, to open the color picker, click on the foreground color in the toolbox.

 

Filling a Selection with a color

You can fill a selection with the foreground or background color.

1.      Make a Selection

2.      Click EDIT-> FILL

3.      Continue to Painting Tools | Back to Courseware