First Lesson : Basic Step

Hi, guys!
Call me Somi or Avel or Happy,
whatever you want.
This is our first lesson
and it will be about the basic
step to do Photoshop.

I am using Photoshop CS2 right now,
but I used to use Photoshop 7.0.
There is not much difference, but,
I hope amateurs use ver 7.0 first.

Okay, let's open photoshop first!


it's quite simple, isn't it?
so, let's see what are the tools.

hehe, i pressed the type tool,
which I use to type something.
That tool is 'horizontal type tool'.

I will name the tools:

Rectangular Marquee /Move
Magnetic Lasso / Magic wand
Crop / Slice
Spot healing brush / Brush
Clone stamp / History brush
Eraser/ Gradient
Blur / Burn
Path Selection / Horizontal Type
Pen / Rectangle
Notes / Eyedropper
Hand / Zoom
Foreground colour / Background colour
Edit it Standard Mode / Edit in Quick Mask Mode
Standard Screen / Full screen with menu bar / Full Screen
Edit in ImageReady

and more and more and more.

Now, you can guess all the functions from the name of all the tools.
Shall we learn how to make simple name tag ?

Basic Retouch and Colorization

This tutorial will show you how to do a basic retouch, change the colorcast of an image and colorize some of its elements.



Step 1. We will use this Naomi Watts image: 




Duplicate the layer then go to Filter -> Noise -> Median...and enter a value of around 3 pixels. Then go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur... and enter 5 pixels.

Step 2. Add a layer mask (by pressing the third button on the lower part of the Layers Palette) to the layer you have just blurred and fill it with black. Then pick a soft, medium sized brush and start painting with white on the layer mask. Make sure you avoid any lines on the face; use it only on the skin, to get a smooth, professional effect. Vary the brush size and opacity depending on the area. Avoid blurring the eyes, lips or hair.

After you finish this step, you should get something like this:





Step 3. Add a Curves adjustment layer with the following settings:





Step 4. Add a Selective Color adjustment layer with the following settings then fill its mask with black.

Reds: -55 0 0 0
Neutrals: -20 +15 –40 +5

Now paint with white over the lips and you will notice they’ll turn a light pink. Make sure you follow the edges of the lips properly.

Step 5. Add another Selective Color adjustment layer with these settings:

Yellows: -100 0 0 0
Whites: 0 0 0 –25
Neutrals: +20 –10 –50 +8

Fill its mask with black and carefully paint with white over the eyes.

Step 6. Go to Layer -> Flatten Image, then to Filter -> Sharpen -> Smart Sharpen... and use the following settings:





Finally, go to Image -> Canvas Size… and choose black as a color, 40 pixels for both Width and Height to add a stylish outer border.

The final result: