Photoshop CC 2019 - Up to Speed

By Roger Hyttinen

The Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 Up To Speed guide helps you to get up and running quickly with Adobe's powerful photo editing and management system.  This handy step-by-step guide is written from scratch, starting with basic Photoshop topics and moving on to more advanced features of the program, designed to help you to become more productive more quickly.   Though comprehensive, the information in this book is presented in a clear, concise manner with screenshots providing helpful visual guidance all along the way.

In no time at all you'll be navigating Photoshop's interface, importing, rating, and filtering your photos, managing your photo library, making exposure and color adjustments, fixing common image problems, printing your photos, creating photo books and presenting your images on social media and the Web. 

Some of the topics include:

Learning the Interface

About Images in Photoshop

Using Photoshop Panels

Changing Screen Modes

Creating a New Image

Saving Your Work

Setting the Foreground and Background Color

Using the Color Picker & Color Panel

Using the Swatches Panel

Coloring with the Brush Tool

Coloring with the Paint Bucket Tool

Using the Eyedropper Tool

Working with Gradients

Using the History Panel

Using the History Brush Tool

Using the Magic Eraser Tool

Using the Background Eraser Tool

Using the Pencil Tool

Using the Clone Stamp & Patter Stamp Tool

Using the Dodge and Burn Tools

Using the Sponge Tool

Using the Healing Brush & Spot Healing Brush Tools

Using the Patch Tool

Using Content-Aware Fill

Using the Content-Aware Workspace

Using the Color Replacement Tool

Using the Marquee & Lasso Tools

Using the Paste Into Command

Using the Magic Wand Tool

Using the Quick Selection Tool

Cropping Images

Feathering a Selection

Transforming a Selection

Creating, Selecting & Deleting Layers

Linking and Hiding Layers

Merging Layers

Setting Layer Opacity

Using Layer Comps

Locking Layers

Using Blending Modes

Color Coding and Renaming Layers

Adding Adjustment Layers & Fill Layers

Creating Smart Objects

Auto-Aligning & Auto-Blending Layer Contents

Resizing, Scaling & Rotating Images

Skewing Images

Adjusting Distort and Perspective

Warping Images

Adjusting Brightness and Contrast

Setting Hue and Saturation

Adjusting Shadows and Highlights

Setting Color Balance

Using Levels & Curves

Replacing & Matching Color in an Image

Converting an Image to Black & White

Placing Images into Frames

Using Adobe Bridge

Using Type Tools 

Warping Text

Using the Type Mask Tool

Using the Shape Tools

Using the Pen Tool

Using the Path and Direct Selection Tools

Transforming Paths

Working with the Paths Panel

Understanding & Using Filters

Saving a Selection as a Channel

Loading a Channel as a Selection

Working with Layer Masks

Blending Images with a Layer Mask

Using Actions

Using Guides, Grids & Rulers

Using Smart Guides

Using Batch Rename

Using Image Processor

Auto Cropping and Straightening Images

Optimizing Images for the Web

Using Libraries to Store Content

Adjusting images using Camera Raw

...and Much More​

• Language: English
• Publisher: PCM Courseware, LLC
• Release date: Feb 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781943005147

Roger Hyttinen

Roger Hyttinen a fiction author of titles including A Clash of Fangs and A Touch of Cedar. His latest projects include a YA series featuring a high school medium who read Tarot cards and a Werewolf novel featuring a handsome prince, all of which should be released later this year. He has a Master's degree in Foreign Language & Literature and has worked as a French teacher, an English teacher, a technical writer, and a computer programmer. He currently lives in the chilly midwest with hopes of eventually moving about 1200 miles south.

Book preview

Adobe Photoshop CC 2019: Up To Speed

R.M. Hyttinen

Copyright & License Notes

Photoshop CC 2018: Up to Speed

By R.M. Hyttinen

Copyright © 2019 by R.M. Hyttinen. All rights reserved.

Published by PCM Courseware, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

https://pcmcourseware.com

ISBN: 978-1-943005-14-7

Examples used in this book are fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, incidents, organization or events is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors and omissions. Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of information contained within.

If you found this book helpful, please consider leaving a review wherever you purchased this book. Also consider telling your friends about it to help me spread the word about my book.

Thank you so much for supporting my work!

License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold, given away to other people or used in any type of training classes. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite e-book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Trademark Acknowledgements

Adobe, Lightroom and Adobe Creative Cloud are registered trademarks of the Adobe Corporation. All other known trademarks have been appropriately capitalized and are the property of their respective owners.

Introduction

As the author and founder of PCM Courseware, I am delighted to bring you the next in our Up To Speed series of guides: Photoshop CC 2019 - Up To Speed. Since 2003, PCM Courseware has been publishing innovative Print-On-Demand electronic courseware for both the PC and the Macintosh and beginning with the Up to Speed series, we are now creating software guides for everyone, not just for software trainers.

My mission is to create guides to make learning technology concepts easy, no matter what kind of learner you are. The guides are simple to use yet comprehensive in their effectiveness. Many readers find the step-by-step approach of our manuals to be a valuable self-study resource as well as a handy reference.

You do not need to read the book sequentially, although this can certainly be helpful if you are just starting out with the Mac operating system. I’ve written the book from scratch, starting with basic Photoshop topics and moving on to more advanced features of the software, designed to help you to become more productive more quickly.

If you are looking to accomplish a specific task, be sure to take advantage of the handy Table of Contents.

So let’s get started with Photoshop CC 2019 – Up to Speed!

CHAPTER 1 - THE BASICS

Introduction to Photoshop CC

Welcome to exciting world Adobe Photoshop! Photoshop is a powerful graphics design and image-editing program with which you can create sophisticated and impressive graphics for the Web or for print. With Photoshop, you can create, combine, modify, and enhance digital images for print or for the Web. Photoshop contains powerful capabilities that few software programs can match.

Photoshop CC is different from other versions of Photoshop in that it is no longer sold as a stand along package but is now part of the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription service. That is to say, Photoshop CC is now only available via subscription through Adobe. As of this writing, you can subscribe to Photoshop alone, subscribe to the photographer package (which includes Photoshop and Lightroom) or subscribe to the entire Create Cloud suite. What’s nice about this new business model is that you no longer have to wait a year or longer for Photoshop updates – Photoshop CC is updated on a regular basis, meaning that you will now always have the latest version.

Once you enter in your Adobe ID (You will need one in order to subscribe to Photoshop CC), the software will download to your computer. Once downloaded, you then launch Photoshop as you would any other application – on the Mac, open the Applications folder and then double-click the Adobe Photoshop CC icon. The method for opening Photoshop if you are using Windows will vary, depending on which version of Windows you are using. If you purchased Photoshop as part of the Adobe Creative Suite package, the application file may be located under the Adobe CC folder.

To open Photoshop, do this:

1. If using a Mac, select Go > Applications from the Menu Bar and then double-click the Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 icon.

2. If using Windows, click the Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 icon on the Start Screen or on the Start menu.

The Photoshop Start Screen

When Photoshop opens, the Start Screen displays. The Start Screen will display a thumbnail of the last 20 images you’ve opened, allowing you to quickly open an image that you recently worked on. You can change how many images displays from the Photoshop Preferences (Preferences > File Handling, and change Recent File List Contains up to 100 files).

You can change the sort order of the image thumbnails by clicking the list next to the word Sort and choosing how you want to sort the image. Options include: Name, Last Opened, Size and Kind. Once you choose how you want to thumbnails to be sorted, your can change the sort order by clicking the upward or downward pointing arrow.

In additional to sort order, you can also choose to display the recently opened files list in either Thumbnail view or in List view. Thumbnail view (the default) displays a tiny version of the image whereas List view displays the File Name, the date last opened and the format of the file, such as JPEG or Photoshop.

If you have a large list of files, you can filter the display by words in the file name. Click in the Filter recent files box and type in the word by which you want to filter. The display will only list those files matching the criteria you entered.

You can also display files that you’ve synced with Lightroom Mobile by clicking LR Photos in the left pane. If you’d like to check out some of the available tutorials for some Adobe applications, click Learn. Clicking on any of the tutorials will open that tutorial in your Web browser. To return to displaying recently opened files, click Home.

To create a new Photoshop document, click Create New in the left pane or to open an existing file, click Open and then navigate to the folder where the file is located. Whenever you’re working on a file, the Start screen closes. When you close a file without exiting Photoshop, the Start Screen will redisplay.

To clear the recent files list, choose File from the menu, point to Open Recent and then click Clear Recent File list.

You can jump back to this Start screen at any time from within Photoshop (even if you have an image opened) by clicking the Home icon on the top-left corner of the window.

To return back to Photoshop, click the Photoshop icon on the top left corner of the Start Screen window.

To use the Start Screen, do this:

1. Choose which types of files to display in the Start Screen by clicking Recent, CC Files or LR Files.

2. To change how the Start Screen files are sorted, click the list next to the word Sort and choose how you want to sort the list. Click the arrow to the right of the sort list to toggle the sort order.

3. To view the images in List view, click the List icon on the top left of the center pane. Click the Thumbnail icon to view the images in Thumbnail view.

4. To filter the image, click in the Filter Recent Files box and type in a word or phrase by which you want to sort.

5. To open an existing file, click Open in the left pane and then navigate to the location where the file is located. Select the file and then click Open.

6. To create a new photoshop document, click Create New in the left pane, click one of the pre-formatted document presets and then click Create. To create a custom sized document, enter in the desired values in the Width and Height boxes.

7. To clear the recently opened files list, choose File from the menu, point to Open Recent and then click Clear Recent File list.

Learning the Interface

When Photoshop opens, you will see the Tools panel, the Options Bar, the Menu Bar and the following default panel arrangement: Color, Swatches, Properties, Adjustments, Layers, Channels, Paths and Library.

The Tools panel (formerly called the Toolbox) is the long vertical bar located on the left side of your screen. The Tools panel contains tools that you can use to create and edit images. There are tools for selecting images, painting images and adding type to images, just to name a few.

The long bar on top of the screen is called the Options Bar. The Options Bar is context sensitive and displays specific options for the tool that is selected. For instance, if you click the Paint Brush Tool, the Options Bar will only display options for the Paint Brush Tool, such as brush type and opacity.

The center area is the Image Preview Area or the Document Window where the image that you’re working on is displayed. This is also sometimes referred to as the Art Board or the Canvas. Any adjustments you make to an image are reflected in this area.

On the right side of the screen are the Photoshop panels (previously referred to as palettes). Panels are small moveable windows that are used to modify and monitor images. Panels contain easy access to many Photoshop commands. You can add and remove panels from the working screen as you wish. To add a panel, choose Window from the menu and select the panel you wish to display. Panels will be covered in more detail in a later lesson.

The Dock is a dark gray container located on the edge of your screen that can hold one or more Panels.

The default workspace is called the Essentials workspace. There are other pre-defined workspaces that you can set: Graphic and Web, Photography, Painting, Motion and 3D. For instance, if you mainly use Photoshop for working on photos, then you might find the Photography workspace to your liking. To change workspaces, click Window on the menu, point to Workspace and then click the workspace you want. If you make changes to your workspace such as rearranging, adding and removing panels, you can always revert to the original settings by choosing Window > Workspace > Reset [workspace name]. For example, if you are working with the Essentials workspace and want to revert to its default settings, choose Window > Workspace > Reset Essentials from the menu.

Opening an Existing File

Opening an existing Photoshop file works the same way as opening files in other applications – select File > Open from the menu and then navigate to the folder that contains the file you wish to open.

When you open an image in Photoshop, it is displayed inside a window frame. Like other windows, you can move the window by clicking on the Title Bar and then dragging the image to a new location on your screen. To resize the image window, move your mouse pointer over the edge of the window frame until the pointer transforms into a double black arrow. Then click and drag inwards or outwards until the image window is the desired size.

To open an existing file, do this:

1. Select File > Open from the menu.

2. Navigate to the folder that contains the image file you wish to open.

3. Select the file to open.

4. Click the Open button.

5. To resize the image frame, click the resize button on the lower right corner of the image window and drag inwards or outwards.

6. To move the image to a new location on your screen, click the Title Bar and drag the image window to the new location.

About Images in Photoshop

There are two main types of computer graphics – bitmap and vector. Bitmap images (also called raster images) use a small grid of colors known as pixels. The sharpness of an image depends on the number of pixels in it. A pixel is the smallest measurement of resolution. The more pixels in an image, the sharper the display. The size of the image on your screen is determined by the number of pixels along the height and width of the image as well as the monitor setting.

The resolution of an image depends on the number of pixels that print per inch. Thus, the higher the resolution, the more (and smaller) pixels there are. Bitmap images are resolution dependent. Because they contain a fixed number of pixels, they can lose detail or appear jagged if they are scaled to a different size or are printed at a lower resolution that they were created for.

Vector graphics are not made of pixels but rather consist of lines and curves defined by mathematical objects called vectors. These are considered resolution independent graphics. That is to say, they can be scaled to any size without losing their clarity.

Using the Status Bar

When an image is opened, Photoshop displays information about the active document on the Status Bar located on the bottom of the image window. On the bottom left corner of the Status Bar, the current zoom image percentage is displayed, which you change by typing over the existing value in the zoom percentage box. Next to this, the document size is displayed (in kilobytes) in the Status Bar Info Box. The document size is separated by a slash – the first value on the left side of the slash represents the flattened size of the image and the value on the right side of the slash represents the size of the opened file.

Although the document size is displayed by default on the Status Bar, you can change the information that is displayed by clicking the small black triangle to the right of the Status Bar Info Box and then selecting from the following options:

Document Sizes – displays the flattened size and the current opened size of the active document.

Document Profile – Displays the color profile information about the active document.

Document Dimensions - Displays the width and the height of the document in pixels or inches.

Measurement Scale – Displays the current measurement scale of the image.

Scratch Sizes - The scratch sizes are separated by a slash – the value to the left of the slash represents the amount of scratch disk space (the space taken up on your hard drive) required by Photoshop and the value on the right represents the total amount of scratch disk space available.

Efficiency – Displays a percentage value of how efficient Photoshop is, based upon available memory and scratch disk space.

Timing – Displays the amount of time required to perform the last command or modification.

Current Tool – Displays the active tool.

32 Bit Exposure - Displays a slider for adjusting High Dynamic Range images.

Save Progress – Displays whether changes have been saved

Smart Objects – Displays missing and changed Smart Objects.

Layer Count – Displays the number of layers in the active document.

To display width, height, channels and resolution information, click directly on the info box on the Status Bar.

To Use the Status Bar, do this:

1. Observe the zoom percentage on the bottom left corner of the Status bar.

2. To change the zoom percentage, double-click in the zoom percentage box and type in the new value.

3. Click the right-pointing black triangle to the right of the Status bar Info Box and select the desired option to display.

4. Click directly on the info box on the Status bar to display width, height, channels and resolution information.

Using the Tools Panel

When Photoshop launches, the Tools panel (also called the Toolbox or Toolbar) appears on the left side of the screen. Each tool on the Tools pane is represented by an icon that you click to activate that specific tool. The Tools panel contains everything that you will need to work with images in Photoshop. This includes tools that allow you to type, select, paint, draw, edit, view and annotate images. Other tools on the Tools panel allow you to change the foreground and background colors, and work in different modes (standard mode, maximized screen mode, full screen mode or full screen mode with menu bar). Note that once you select a tool, it remains active until you select another tool.

By default, Photoshop display a single-column Tools panel in which all of the tool icons are displayed in one single column on your screen. If you prefer a two-column Tools panel, click the double-arrow icon on top of the Tools panel to toggle between the single and double column display.

Some of the Tools on the Tools panel are hidden. A small black triangle on the lower right-hand corner of a tool indicates that there are hidden tools. To display hidden tools, click on the tool icon and hold down the mouse button until a pull-out menu appears listing the hidden tools. You can also right-click on the tool to display the hidden menu.

Whenever you hover your cursor over the Tools in the Toolbox, you’ll get a rich tooltip, complete with image. You can disable Rich Tooltips from Photoshop Preferences. To do so, choose Photoshop > Preferences if using a Mac or Edit > Preferences if using Windows, point to Tools and then uncheck the Use Rich Tooltips box. Uncheck the Show Tooltips checkbox to disable all tooltips.

What’s nice about the Tools panel is that you can customize it to your liking, such as removing tools from the Tools panel or changing the group in which a tool resides. To do so, right-click the three dots (…) toward the bottom of the Tool panel and click Edit Toolbar.

If there are tools that you know you’re never use, click the tool from the Toolbar window and drag it to the Extra Tools window. You can move a tool from one group to another by dragging the tool to the desired group. If you want to change the keyboard shortcut for a tool, double-click the shortcut in the Toolbar window on the left and type in the new shortcut.

You can even save more than one Tools panel configuration. To save the active Tools panel layout, click Save Preset and type a name for the layout. You can load your saved preset at any time by choosing Load Preset and choosing the layout you want. If you want to reset the Tools panel to its default factory settings, click the Restore Defaults button.

Rather than displaying a comprehensive list of all of the tools available in Photoshop at this time (and expect you to memorize each one!), each tool will be introduced at the time we work with it. If you wish to find out what a specific tool is, move your mouse pointer over any tool icon on the Tools panel and wait a moment until a small yellow box appears, indicating the name of that particular tool.

Tip: Each tool in a tool group contains keyboard shortcut that you can use to activate the tools in the group. For example, the J key activates the tools in the Healing Brush Tools group and L activates the tools in the Lasso group. Hold down the Shift key and then press the keyboard shortcut to browse through all of the hidden tools in that group.

To Use the Tools Panel, do this:

1. Move your mouse pointer over any tool icon on the Tools panel to display an informational tag indicating the name of that particular tool.

2. To activate a tool, click on the tool’s icon on the Tools panel.

3. To display a tool’s hidden menu (hidden icons are represented by a black arrow in the lower right-hand corner of the icon), click-and-hold on the tool’s icon whose hidden tools you wish to display

Or

Right-click on the tool’s