Tutorial For Adobe Photoshop - Photoshop Made Easy

If you talk to a web developer or a graphic designer or even a photography aficionado about Photoshop, they will go into raptures about its abilities. It is a fact though that Photoshop is able to perform many more functions than its name might allude to.

Editing and repairing photos apart this software is capable of creating almost boundless imagery. But before one gets to be good enough to do that one should get one’s basics right. The first thing you have to learn is that projects in Photoshop come with different layers. Layer one could contain your stock, layer two might keep your background and layer three might have brushing. You can always play around with these layers to create dramatic effects. To access a layer, click the box near it so that an eye appears. To make the eye go away, just click again.

In order for you to create a new layer, you can click the sticky note type of display which reads new layer. To get rid of a layer, click on delete layer. When you wish to change the name of the layer, you need to right click on layer properties and change the name.

Stock stands for any picture that you may be planning to use. PSD is a Photoshop document, which is really the project you are undertaking. You need to save it in.psd in file>save as and you will be able to carry on with your work. For other people to view it, it will have to be saved as an image file like.jpg, or.png or.gif in file>save for web.

Brushes on the other hand stand for pretty much what the name suggests. With brushes you can paint on your picture, create things like different swirls, and designs and so on. You start with the basic ones and as you go along you might want to download better ones. To be able to use these brushes you would have to get the file into the Photoshop folder, which by default would be C:/program files/adobe/Photoshop/presets/brushes.

Filters again do what you might expect them to do. You can pass your pictures through Filters to get them a totally different look. Filters can be accessed by going to filter>filter gallery. There is also the option of downloading additional filters. There are quite a few interesting ones. Options such as distort>twirl and gaussian blur allow you to respectively swirl and blur your images

Then there are Gradients which are really palettes of colors. Once you form a gradient map, and drag you will have a rainbow of colors, which you can use as you wish. To be able to access Gradients, you need to click on the shaded box which says gradient tool.

Similarly their other basic tools like Patterns, Textures, Stock Renders/Pre-Cut Stock, The Pen Tool, Image Adjustment Tools and Blending Options need to be understood. Be sure to practice and hone your skills. Really, it is not that difficult to master Photoshop.