Photoshop

[Droflet]

Can anyone help a poor struggling writer with Photoshop. I am not finding it user friendly.

 

[CupofJoe]

What are you trying to do?
and what version of Photoshop do you have?
I use CS3 [at home[ and CC21 [at work]

 

[Droflet]

Hey Joe, thanks for responding. I bought it the other day. It's Adobe creative ACC Photoshop.
Like I said, not (for me) user-friendly.

I'm trying to do the following:
Remove an image in the background and replace it with something more suitable.
Redesign and recolor two (space) ships.
Make the foreground like the background.

Any help will be very much appreciated. Once I have this completed I can publish.

 

[Droflet]

Anyone?

 

[CupofJoe]

I think you will become very familiar with layers and the lasso tools. As well as the heal and clone tools may be.
I'm not a trainer so I think it might be best to point you to the Photoshop tutorials on YouTube...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6lrxMZggMaN1u2V9N2-zrQ

My only real tip, is if you are working on something in the background make a copy of the foreground and put it in a new layer. that way you don't have to worry so much about colouring outside the lines as the important bit is stored separately.
And save lots of versions....

 

[Droflet]

Yep, I have many of the images saved.
Ah, what's a layer?
Lasso tools are the ones I use to highlight areas I wish to change?

Thanks for taking the time, Joe. Now, back to work for me. Bloody technology.

 

[CupofJoe]

Your images will be something like jpg but once you start editing them they will become PhotoShop Documents [psd].
You will have to export them back to the format you want.
First of all NEVER work on your original image. Always make a copy and work on that. I've saved to the wrong format and over written files too many times for it to be funny any more.
Photoshop layers as I know them...
If you select an area of an image and copy and paste in to the same image, Photoshop will add it as a new layer automatically and it will be the new top layer. The same is true if you add an object or text.
This is were it starts to get difficult to explain....
Layers are like the old animators acetate sheets. You can draw on one layer without affecting the others, but you can see the whole image at once. You can also turn off [remove but not delete] layers if you want to see something on a lower layer. In Photoshop you should be able to see a pane/window on the right of your screen that shows you how many layers you have and how they are stacked. You can move between layers by selecting in that pane and even move the order of the layers about by dragging and dropping in that window.
The Lasso tool lets you draw around something to select it. If you zoom in close enough you can select the outline of an object pixel by pixel. The Quick selection tool [just below it] does a similar thing but more quickly as it decides where the edges of your object should be. I'd try selecting, cutting a pasting until you get the hang of it. The trouble is that most objects do not neatly end at one pixel, they bleed or disappear over several, so there is a lot of skill in getting this right. Each time you make an object selection you can redefine the selection by changing it size [bigger or smaller] or feathering or smoothing the edges. These options are all available under the Select tab at the top of the Photoshop screen.
To keep the layers you will need to save the image as a Photoshop document [psd]. If you save it back as a jpg or png all the layers will be merged in to one.
I'd start on images that you don't care about... and work on copies of them. Have a play and see what happens.
Thing like colour changing can be relatively straightforward if you have good selections to work from.

 

[tinkerdan]

I have Corel Draw and Corel Paint.
I had to teach myself at work because that was what the previous people used.
It can be a long learning curve, however once you know the tools it gets a lot easier.
Definitely you need to learn to take advantage of the layers; especially what you are trying to do.

I had the advantage of having already used CAD software for mechanical drawing and Printed Circuit board manufacturing.

Much of the same concept with layers.

My advice is to do a search on Amazon for Photoshop guides.

Amazon.com : photoshop for dummies 2021

www.amazon.com

 

[Droflet]

Many thanks, Joe and Tink. I guess we learn by doing.

 

[JunkMonkey]

The thing to do if you want to remove anything from a layer in Photoshop is apply a layer mask: I spend a LOT of time in Photoshop and I hardly ever use the erase tool in these circumstances. I use the erase tool mostly when doing colouring, not image manipulation or drawing. Here's a simple tutorial:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/how-to/layer-mask.html

That way if you erase something by accident you can put it (paint it) back.

In this case (changing the background) I would have the background I wanted in the end result on one layer then the objects I want to place over it (and the old background) on the layer above it. Apply a layer mask to the top layer and start painting away that layer's unwanted background.


Making the 'foreground more like the background' is a bit vague so hard to give advice but Image > Adjustments is a good place to start poking about. Lots of sliders and adjustments to saturation, colour, lightness, darkness, contrast, etc. to play with in there. These adjustments will only affect the active layer so you can make adjustments on one layer (your foreground spaceship) to make it look more like the new background and then nudge the background towards looking like the space ship and so on. Play. And Don't forget 'Save As'. That will allow you to go back a few stages if you truly screw up.

 

[Droflet]

Thanks, JM. Layers, aye? Okay, I'll take a look at your post and play around with it a bit.

 

[G.T.]

I've been messing around in Photoshop myself these past weeks trying to come up with a cover that might work for me (I have no budget for a paid one). I found these Book Cover specific Photoshop tutorials to be pretty decent. About an hour and a half together though you can speed them up, they both talk slow enough.

Basic Book Cover Design in Photoshop: Covers most of the basics of layers, masks, etc.

Book Title in Photoshop: covers making your book title look good on the cover.

Both of these are mainly focused on fantasy but the Photoshop tools apply to everything.

 

[Droflet]

Thanks, GT, I'll check them out.

 

[Droflet]

Thanks, GT, I'll check them out.

 

[tinkerdan]

The forum doppelganger effect.

 

[Droflet]

Yeah, spooky. And not for the first time.