More Image Editing
Advanced Selections
Saving for the Web

 

PhotoShop More Image Editing

 

 

Gradient Tools

A gradient is a gradual change from one color to another. The Gradient Tools allow you to make all kinds of interesting designs, with lots of appealing colors. Gradients also allow you to color and recolor objects more naturally.

The below gradient fades from blue to white.

 

The Gradient tools are found on the toolbox. Each one kind of looks like the gradient it draws.

 

To use the Gradient tools:

  1. Use the selection tools to select the area to apply the gradient.
    If you dont make a selection, the gradient will apply to the whole image.
  2. Select a Gradient tool.

  1. Choose the type of gradient you wish to apply

 

  1. Drag across the area that you want the gradient to make its change in.
    The gradient needs you to tell it how quickly to fade from one color to another.

 

The two most often used gradient types are:

Foreground to Background: The gradient fades from your chosen foreground to background color.

Foreground to Transparent: The gradient fades from your chosen foreground color to transparent nothingness. Note that the transparency will not remain transparent when saved for the web. Itll turn to white.

 

Notice that Gradient tools have opacity settings on the Options Bar. Try laying different gradients over each other at different opacities. Youll get some cool effects.

You can use the gradient tool to realistically color 3-D images that fades from one color to another. In the following image the pair was colored with a circular gradient, fading from red to green.

 

Blurring an Image

Sometimes youll get a grainy image. Or, maybe you cut and pasted into your image, and now the image has harsh edges. No problem, youll blur your way to happiness.

 

Blurring with Filters

Filters can be used to blur a selected area in any image. The most useful of the blur tools is the Gaussian Blur. To blur part of an image:

  1. Select an area to blur with the selection tools.
    Sometimes different areas will call for different amounts of blur. Its not always a good idea to blur the whole image all at once.
    You will often get a better result if you feather your selection a little bit.
  2. Click FILTER-> BLUR-> GAUSSIAN BLUR

 

The Gaussian Blur window should pop up:

 

  1. Adjust the radius until the image is blurred to your liking. If you blur too much, dont worry about it. Youre going to learn a cool trick in a minute.
  2. Click OK

 

 

Blurring with the Blur Tool

The Blur Tool can be used to blur small areas, or areas that are too hard to select, like hair, or rough edges from a cut and paste.

 

Sharpening an Image

Sometimes your image will be too blurry. Maybe there were photographic problems, scanner problems, or maybe PhotoShop blurred the image when you enlarged it. Never fear, you can sharpen images, too.

Sharpening works by adjusting the contrast and brightness in select areas.

Almost all images can benefit from light sharpening.

 

Sharpen with Filters

 

When I cropped and enlarged the below image, PhotoShop blurred it slightly.

 

Lets fix it, shall we?

To Sharpen an Image:

  1. Select an area to sharpen with the selection tools. If you dont select anything, PhotoShop will sharpen the entire image. In this case, Im sharpening the whole image
  2. Click FILTER-> SHARPEN-> UNSHARP MASK
    I know that "unsharp" sounds like the opposite of what you want. "Unsharp" refers to how the filter accomplishes its goal. Often, sharpening an image can lead to pixilated, grainy images. In an attempt to avoid this, Unsharp Mask makes a blurred copy of the image and compares the blur to the original. If a line is in both images, PhotoShop assumes it is an image property and not a stray pixel. Using this cool technique, the Unsharp Mask filter only sharpens some parts of the image while leaving smooth colors alone.

 

The Unsharp Mask Filter has three different sliders for you to mess with.

Amount: If PhotoShop decides to sharpen a group of pixels, "amount" dictates how much sharpening is applied. Amount is usually set relatively high, between 50%-200%.

Radius: If PhotoShop decides to sharpen a group of pixels, "radius" dictates how far PhotoShop looks from any one pixel when designating areas to receive increased contrast. If a pixel is designated for sharpening, PhotoShop will also sharpen pixels around it. As the Radius increases, PhotoShop will sharpen larger surrounding groups of pixels. The Radius is usually set to a low number, between 1-10.

Threshold: If neighboring pixels are the same color, PhotoShop will leave them alone. If theyre real close in color, PhotoShop will leave them alone. If pixels are different enough, PhotoShop will increase the contrast, making them even more different and sharpening the image. Threshold controls how different pixels need to be before sharpening is applied to them. The Threshold is usually set to a low number, between 0-5.

Amount: 100%, Radius: 1.0, Threshold: 8

 

Try this one:

  1. Open Temple.psd
  2. Apply Level adjustment (IMAGE-> ADJUST-> LEVELS)
  3. Apply sharpening.
  4. Hit CTRL/CMD + Z to undo. Hit CTRL/CMD + Z again.
    By undoing back and forth you can check your work.

 

Sharpening With the Sharpen Tool

You can also use the sharpen tool to sharpen small areas. The Sharpen tool is found on the tool box.


Automating Difficult Tasks with Actions

If you wanted to apply a soft edge glow to your image you have to do about twenty different things to it. Or you could click on the "Soft Edge Glow" Action, and PhotoShop would do all twenty moves for you. Actions are basically recorded steps set up to achieve a desired effect. You can apply actions that make it look like rain is pouring down in your image, or other actions can make your photo appear to be sepia tone (that old time aged photo look). Actions can be applied to text for some super cool text effects, or they can neatly add a fashionable border to your image. You can even record your own actions.

Keep in mind that actions actually apply a number of different formatting changes to your image. You can examine each move in the history palette. If you applied an action that you dont like, youll have to back up a number of moves before you return to your original image.

 

To Apply An Action:

  1. Open an Image.
  2. Open the Actions Palette
  3. Open the Default Actions by clicking the triangle next to the folder.

 

The triangle shows that there are more choices under the main folder. You can use the scroll bar on the right side of the actions palette to look through the actions.

  1. Select Sepia Toning, and click the "play" triangle at the bottom of the Actions Palette.
    When you click play, PhotoShop will take the necessary steps to turn an image into Sepia Tone. Sepia Tone is an old style photography development.

Notice that "Sepia Toning" says "(layer)" next to it. This signifies that the action will apply to a layer. Sometimes actions will say "(selection)" or "(type)" next to it. This is your clue that you must have a selection or a type layer active.

 

Next to some of the actions you will see a . This graphic tell you that PhotoShop will as you questions about how to proceed. For example, if an action calls for blurring, PhotoShop might ask you how much you want to blur. If youd rather not be asked any questions, turn the off by clicking it until it goes away.

 

Sometimes an action will stop halfway through. Basically, its asking you "do you like it this way, or should I keep going?" If you want to keep going, click the play arrow again.

 

Undoing Actions

Remember that actions are multiple step automations, executed for you by your friendly neighborhood PhotoShop. If you hit undo after an action executes youll only undo the last step of the action. If you want to return the image to its pre-action state, youll have to back up on the history palette.

 

Loading More Actions

PhotoShop comes with so many cool actions, youll just die.

 

To load more actions:

  1. Click the Actions Palette Arrow-> Choose Load Actions

  1. Navigate to the Actions Folder
    1. PC: C Drive-> Program Files-> Adobe-> PhotoShop-> Goodies-> PhotoShop Only-> Actions
    2. Mac: Hard Drive-> Applications-> Adobe-> PhotoShop-> Goodies-> PhotoShop Only-> Actions
  2. Choose which actions you want to use. My favorites are the image and text effects.

 

Recording Your Own Actions

There may be some multi-step task that you have to do over and over, or maybe you have to do the same multi step thing to a bunch of different images. You can record an action to suit your needs. Actions can record any menu choice or button, but cannot record mouse movements.

 

To record an action:

  1. Click the Actions Palette Arrow-> Choose New Action

 

Youll need to choose what set (folder) you want to store your new action in.

 

  1. Click Record
  2. Youre recording now. Notice that the big red "record" button is pushed in on the Actions Palette. Whatever you do will be recorded into the action.
  3. When youre done recording, click the stop button on the Actions Palette.

Youve recorded an action!

 

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