Photoshop basics
[TBA].
Table of contents
Introduction
While Photoshop is a huge program, a little basic knowledge will take you a long way. This chapter will introduce you some essential basic skills:
Drawing shapes
In Photoshop ver. 22.0 (Adobe Photoshop 2021), the “Line tool” (part of the “Shapes” toolset - Shift+U) at one point no longer supported the “Pixels” mode. The following text appeared on
Adobe.com: Drawing shapes to explain the situation:
“Use the Line Tool to draw a two-point line with on-canvas controls to change length, angle, and more. The Line Tool no longer supports Pixels mode.” (my emphasis).
The “Pixels” mode was restored for tye Line Tool in version 22.3 in March 2021. However, you can still draw a line as a “Shape” and if you want an arrowhead, both set “Fill” and “Stroke” to solid colour.
Making basic selections
[TBA]
Working with layers
[TBA]
Understanding layer masks
[TBA]
Layer blend modes
Layer blend modes is part of the layer blending options. They provide different modes for a layer to blend with the layer or layers below it.
As of Photoshop ver. 22, there were 27 blend modes in total. These fall in six groups, as indicated in the table below:
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The plain blend modes (which includes the default Normal mode), just blends with the layers below based upon the settings of the slider. A setting of 0 % renders the layer invisible. A setting of 100 % renders it opaque. The Normal mode blends each pixel. The Dissolve mode blends by rendering a percetage of pixels invisible or opaque.
The darken and lighten blend modes work by making the underlaying layers darker or lighter. The most used darken mode is Multiply. The most used lighten mode is Screen.
The contrast blend modes increases contrast. The Overlay mode is the most useful of these.
The comparative blend modes provides four different ways to compare pixels between layers. Neither one of them is used very often for photo editing, but they may be used to explore effects of photo editing.
The composite blend modes allows for fine-tuing adjustments to hue, saturation and luminosity, while ignoring other parameters. The Color blend mode let you create selective colour in black and white photographs by let you adjust both hue and saturation while ignoring luminosity. The opposite mode is Luminosity. It allows for adjusting contrast without adjusting colour hue and saturation.
See also PhotoShopEssentials.com: Top 5 Photoshop Blend Modes You Need To Know.
Entering special characters
To add a bullet, on Windows, press Alt+0+1+4+9.
Source WikiHow: Add a Bullet Point in Photoshop.
Troubleshooting
If PhotoShop flickers when you open a new image, you have a too old GPU that Adobe no longer supports. The fix is to turn it off. This will provide a performance hit, thoi'
Source YouTube: Fix flickering screen.
Last update: 2014-01-05 [gh].