10 TIPS FOR PHOTOSHOP

BEGINNERS
WITH AARON NACE

Instructor Biography: Aaron Nace

For over five years, Aaron Nace has been teaching photography
and photo manipulation to millions of users across the world
at every skill level. Initially a hobbyist while earning a Bachelor
of Arts degree in Industrial Design from North Carolina State
University, Aarons expertise in Photoshop developed rapidly. His
creative portfolio of retouching, compositing, and conceptual
work grew quickly, and he soon became a globally recognized
Photoshop master. His images have been published on MSNBC.
com, AOL.com, and The Huffington Post. Ever since, he has been committed to sharing
his methods of creative conceptual photography both online and in-person.
Website: www.aaron-nace.com

10 Tips for Photoshop Beginners

SAVING FOR THE WEB IN PHOTOSHOP
Internet browsers are designed to use sRGB color space.
For a more accurate preview of what your image will look like online use Save for Web
and Devices. FILE > SAVE FOR WEB....
NOTE: Be sure to save your large, layered file separately from your version for the web!
Dont use large files on the web. It takes much longer for your website to load.
In the SAVE FOR WEB dialog box you can easily resize the image by changing the Width
(w) or Height (h) in pixels on the lower right side.

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See the size of your image on the lower left and easily resize the image by changing the Width (w) or
Height (h) in pixels on the lower right side.

Just below the image you can see how big your file will be at different settings and how
long it will take to upload. Hit the down-facing arrow next to this information to change
the default download speeds.
Its a good idea to change the Quality setting to the lowest number possible while still
maintaining good visual quality.
In the lower left of the dialog box
you can click on the PREVIEW
button to open the image in your browser to see what it will look like as well as get all
the information about the image such as size and dimensions.

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START LEARNING COMMONLY USED TOOLS

Marquee Tool- creates a selection of
the document in various shapes such
as rectangle or ellipse. Use the shift
key while dragging to maintain the
marquee ratio. Use the space key while
dragging to reposition your selection.
Move Tool- use it to
move objects or layers.
Click

on

the

Transform

Show

Controls

box at the top of the

document

to

access

the ability to Transform

your object or layer.
(make it bigger/smaller
or change its shape.)
Lasso Tool- A freeform selection tool. It allows you
to draw a specific selection.

Magic Wand Tool- Helps you select areas that are

similar to an area you click on. Change the tolerance number at the top of the
document to make the tool more or less sensitive.
Eye Dropper Tool- Allows you to grab a color from your document. It can be
accessed when using the Brush Tool by holding down the Alt (or Option) key.

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Healing Brush Tool- Allows you to easily

remove small things such as blemishes by
looking at surrounding pixels.
Clone Stamp Tool- Allows you to easily remove
small things such as blemished by exactly
copying from an area that you choose.
Brush

Tool-

Allows

you to paint color onto

things

such

as

the

document, layers and

masks.
With the Brush Tool
selected, right click
to

easily

access

various brushes and

their settings.
You can also simply hold down Control + Option and drag your brush to the left or
right to change its size or up and down to change its hardness.

MAKE THE MOST OUT OF SELECTIONS

Using selections can help you change only
the area you want affected. Your cursor will
turn into a plus sign when you hold down
the Shift key and will allow you to add to
your existing selection. Remove unwanted
portions of a selection by holding down
the Alt or Option key to get a little minus
cursor.

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Marquee Tools- selections in the shape of rectangle,

circle
Lasso Tool- Allows you to draw any shape selection
you want.
Polygonal Lasso Tool- Drawn any shape selection
with straight lines
Refine Edge- A button at the top of the document
will open a dialog box with lots of options for your
selection such as feathering the selection edge.
Hide Selection- Command or Control + H will hide
your selection so you can see how your edges look.

USING LAYER FX WITH THE TYPE TOOL

Start by creating a type layer and adding some type. Click on the type layer in the Layers
Panel to access the Layer Style options.

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Drop Shadow- use the sliders to affect the elements of the drop shadow such as Distance,
Spread and Size. You can change the angle of the shadow to match your image.
Bevel & Emboss- adds a highlight on one side and a shadow on the other. Outer Bevel
and Inner Bevel are the most commonly used.
Use Global Light Option- When this box is checked it will keep all the angles of your
lighting options across all styles consistent.
Gradient Overlay- creates a color overlay that changes color from top to bottom

ADJUSTING COLOR WITH CURVES AND LEVELS

You can make things lighter and darker but you can also affect color and contrast.
LevelsAdd

levels

layer

by

clicking on the Adjustment

Layer icon at the bottom
of the layers panel and
selecting Levels.
Make the darks darker by
grabbing the black slider
and moving it to the right.
Make

lights

lighter

by

moving the white slider to

the left. The middle slider
affects the mid-tones.
Output Levels- These sliders determine what tone is allowed to be either the lightest or
darkest tone in the image.

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Curves- Add a curves

layer by clicking on
the Adjustment Layer
Icon at the bottom of
the layers panel and
selecting Curves.
Use

the

RGB

drop

down menu in both

the Curves and the
Levels options boxes
to affect only certain colors within your image.
Cross-Processing StyleFrom the RGB drop down menu, select blue. Use the dark slider to change the output
levels so that blue becomes stronger in your shadow areas. Move the white slider to add
yellows into the highlights.

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USE LAYERS, MASKING AND GROUPING AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE

Using layers allows for nondestructive
editing so you can go back and easily
change edits youve made to your image.
Unlock a layer- Hold Alt or Option key
and double click the layer
Group layers together- Hold Control or
Command + G
Name your groups to keep track of various parts of

Color Code layers- right click on the eye your images

next to the layer you want to color code.
Choose the color you want from the list.
Change Existing Layer Effects- Click on
the FX dropdown on the layer you want
to edit to bring up the Layer Style options
box.
Masking Groups- Select the group in your
Layers Panel. Click the Layer Mask icon at
the bottom of the panel (rectangle with
the dark circle). Now the mask will affect
every layer in that group.

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KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS SAVE A LOT OF TIME

Shortcuts to useful and often used actions using keyboard instead of the mouse and onscreen menus.
Setting

up

shortcuts-

EDIT>

personalized
KEYBOARD

SHORTCUTS... or you can use

keyboard shortcut Option, shift,
command + K. Scroll down the
list to find the action you want to
create (or change) the shortcut
for. Click on the action so that it
is highlighted then type in your
desired shortcut. (hold down the
actual keys, dont type out the
words). If the shortcut is already
in use a notification will pop up. Click the OK button to save the changes.

HAVE SOME FUN WITH THE FILTER GALLERY

FILTER> FILTER GALLERY
Its easy to go overboard
with filters but you can
use them to create some
interesting

effects.

Be

sure to play with the

setting sliders to test
effect

strength.

Layer

effects by clicking the

new layer button and
choosing a new effect.

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CLONE STAMP AND HEALING BRUSH

Clone Stamp- makes a direct copy from the area you have chosen as the source
Healing Brush- uses surrounding pixels color and the source areas texture
Do your healing and cloning on a
new layer, above your image. At
the top of the document, make
sure the SAMPLE dropdown is
set to Current & Below.
These tools will turn your brush
into a preview of your sample
area.

BLEND LAYERS TOGETHER FOR MORE BELIEVABLE EFFECTS

Quickly test what various blending modes will look like by using the move tool to select
the layer to be blended, hold down the SHIFT key and use the + and - keys to scroll
through the various modes.

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Notes:

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