Photoshop Tutorial: Lesson 1 Introduction to Photoshop
If you have used any Microsoft program before then you will be aware of how to save, copy, paste and open a file. Photoshop works with the same principles, even though the user interface looks confusing it is segmented into different parts. With this tutorial you will get used to the interface while creating a simple document or either print or web.
The Photoshop Graphic User Interface (GUI) is segmented into three different parts. All of these parts will do different things and you will need them at different times. Think of Photoshop as a series of events that will eventually be put together for a outcome, almost like a series of mathematical sums to get a total.
This is where you save, open and create a new document. This built like every program ever made!
In this section you will find the Text tool and Brushes tool. These are used to create things depending on your needs.
This is a extension of Text & Artistic tweaks because once you have selected something you can edit it accordingly. So for example if I chose the Text tool, I could then adjust the font and font size.
Don’t let layers confuse you, you can have hundreds of these at a time. Think of them as a pile of paper in front of you, all layered up and like in Photoshop the one at the top of the pile you can see nearest to you!
These are like real life photo effects; such as filters, colour adjustments and gamma effects. This is because after all, Photoshop was originally created for photography effects.
Creating a new document can be difficult especially if you don’t know what you want. Here are the steps to opening the right document for you.
1. Open Photoshop > File > New
2. You will be greeted by this small window;
The document height is in scale, you can adjust these for literally any size. If you click where it says pixels, you will notice that there are different types of measurements depending on what you need. If you click on the presets, Photoshop already has certain paper sizes already made for you such as A3 or A4.
Choosing the colour type all depends on how you want Photoshop to save your work. RGB is made for the web, so that means that it is optimised for computer monitors only and not for anything else. CMYK is designed for print, CMYK being the colours in a standard printer (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Key (Black)).
3. For the benefit of this task we will create a small web banner. Make your document as follows. Height = 200 , Width = 300. Make sure your colour mode is in RGB and then click ok.
4. Now your document is ready to edit, Click on the paint bucket icon and fill your canvas with a colour.
To select a colour click on the palette directly below the paint bucket tool.
5. Click on the text icon and add some text to your image. Simply drag the area in which you want to add text. Remember the additional tweaks section to change fonts, font size etc.
6. Well done you have created a simple web banner. Have a play around with Photoshop to see what else you can do for now. Do not be scared to try something as there is nothing you can do wrong at this point. So get familiar with the layout and spend some time testing things out.
You should end up with something that looks like this.
Send me your outcome when you have finished.