Photoshop Basics Tutorials

Get started with Photoshop with our exclusive Photoshop Basics tutorials! These lessons are perfect for beginners or anyone who just needs to refresh their skills, covering the essentials you need to know to get up and running with Photoshop quickly!

Photoshop CS6 Basic Tools for First-Time Users

If you have experience working with Photoshop you will probably have an easy time switching to Photoshop CS6. On the other hand, if this is your first time using Photoshop you may feel somewhat intimidated by Photoshop CS6. While this is perfectly understandable, the good news is if you acquire some very basic knowledge of photo edits in CS6 you will likely find that Photoshop is a tool that you will never want to be without. Let’s get started.

Importing Images for the First Time

Photoshop CS6 is a tool for editing and working with different types of images. So before you begin you must have a few images in mind that you want to work with and have them saved in an area on your PC such as My Pictures or another location of your choice. Then to get started you simply click on the arrow icon on the left-hand toolbar and then click on File on the upper toolbar. Choose Place from the drop-down menu and then browse to the location where your image is stored. Click on the image you want to use and then click Place or press the Enter key.

Getting Started with the Crop Tool

Although cropping may not seem like an exciting new tool it is designed to be much easier for the beginner to use in Photoshop CS6. If you consider the primary editing feature that most people do with their photos, is cropping the image in addition to adjusting the colour and other editing tasks. The number one thing beginners always want to know how to do is crop an image.

The Photoshop cropping tool has not been enhanced in the past until Photoshop CS6. This time it has been improved for usability regardless if you are a beginner or an experienced user. To get started simply click on the Crop tool on the left-hand toolbar and apply it to the corner of the image. Then simply drag the handles or you can use the well-known manual crop feature.

If you want to keep all of your image data before cropping, simply remove the check mark from Delete Crop Pixels to prevent the program from discarding the data until you want to remove it. To accept the Crop edit you made simply click on the check mark on the upper right-hand side. If you want more of the old image back you simply click the Crop tool again on the right-hand toolbar and use the handles to bring some of the image back.

Introduction to the Blur Gallery

If you have a photo with multiple activities in the picture and you want to draw attention to more than one aspect, you can use the blur gallery which contains three features which include Filled Blur, Iris Blur, and Tilt Shift. You can access these settings by clicking on Filter on the upper toolbar and then choosing Blur from the drop-down menu. These features allow you to do things with an image that you cannot do with a traditional camera.

As an example, if you take the Iris Blur and apply it to the image and then work with the blurring adjustments directly from the interface, you can reshape the blurred area or dial the blur up or down using the centre of the Iris Blur feature. You can then choose another object in the photo and create the effect again which allows the two effects to be viewed simultaneously. This allows you to enhance the image beyond what you can typically do with a camera.

Patching Photo Imperfections

In previous versions of Photoshop if you tried to patch photo imperfections it would try to sample from the nearest area such as the edge of the photo. Now you can patch imperfections using the Content-Aware patch tool by simply clicking on the pulldown menu next to Patch on the upper toolbar and choosing Content-Aware. Next to Adaptation, choose Very Strict from the drop down menu. Click on the Patch tool on the left hand toolbar and outline the imperfection and drag.

After that it will look like

These are a few of the key features that will help you get started with using Photoshop CS6. Once you practice using these options. You can start experimenting with some of the other great tools in CS6 that are available which will help you achieve professional photo results.

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