Adobe Photoshop CC For Dummies

Peter Bauer is a member of the Photoshop Hall of Fame and an award-winning fine-art photographer. The author of more than a dozen books on Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, computer graphics, and photography, he is also the host of video-training titles at Lynda.com and a contributing writer for Photoshop User magazine.

• Introduction 1About This Book 1Conventions Used in This Book 2Icons Used in This Book 3How to Use This Book 3Part 1: Getting Started with Photoshop CC 5Chapter 1: An Overview of Photoshop 7Exploring Adobe Photoshop 7What Photoshop is designed to do 8Other things you can do with Photoshop 9Viewing Photoshop’s Parts and Processes 10Reviewing basic computer operations 10Photoshop’s incredible selective Undo 12Installing Photoshop: Need to know 14Chapter 2: Knowing Just Enough about Digital Images 17What Exactly is a Digital Image? 18The True Nature of Pixels 18How Many Pixels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin? 21Resolution revelations 21Resolving image resolution 22File Formats: Which Do You Need? 30Formats for digital photos 31Formats for web graphics 33Formats for commercial printing 34Formats for PowerPoint and Word 36Chapter 3: Taking the Chef’s Tour of Your Photoshop Kitchen 37Food for Thought: How Things Work 38Ordering from the menus 39Your platter full of panels 40The tools of your trade 42Get Cookin’ with Customization 44Clearing the table: Custom workspaces 44Spoons can’t chop: Creating tool presets 47Season to Taste: The Photoshop Settings 48Standing orders: Setting the Preferences 48Ensuring consistency: Color Settings 55When Good Programs Go Bad: Fixing Photoshop 57Chapter 4: From Pics to Prints: Photoshop for Beginners 59Bringing Images into Photoshop 59Downloading from your digital camera 60Scanning prints 61Keeping Your Images Organized 66Creating a folder structure 66Using Adobe Bridge 67Renaming image files easily 69Printing Your Images 71Cropping to a specific aspect ratio 71Remembering resolution 73Controlling color using File ➪ Print 74Considering color management solutions 75Printing alternatives 76Sharing Your Images 77Emailing and AirDropping your images 78Creating PDFs and websites 78Part 2: Easy Enhancements for Digital Images 79Chapter 5: Making Tonality and Color Look Natural 81Adjusting Tonality to Make Your Images Pop 82Histograms Simplified 82Using Photoshop’s Auto Corrections 84Levels and Curves and You 85Level-headed you! 86Tonal corrections with the eyedroppers 89Adjusting your curves without dieting 90Grabbing Even More Control 92Using Shadows/Highlights 93Changing exposure after the fact 96Using Photoshop’s toning tools 96What is Color in Photoshop? 97Which color mode should you choose? 98Does a color model make a difference? 101Why should you worry about color depth? 102Making Color Adjustments in Photoshop 104Choosing color adjustment commands 106Manual corrections in individual channels 117The People Factor: Flesh Tone Formulas 118Chapter 6: The Adobe Camera Raw Plug-In 121Understanding the Raw Facts 121What’s the big deal about Raw? 123Working in Raw 124The Camera Raw Interface 126Camera Raw’s Tools and buttons 126The histogram 132The preview area 132Workflow Options and presets 133Making Adjustments in Camera Raw’s Edit Panel 134The Basic section 134The Curve section 137The Detail section 137The Color Mixer section 138The Color Grading section 138The Optics and Geometry sections 140The Effects section 141The Calibration section 141The Camera Raw Cancel, Done, and Open buttons 142Chapter 7: Fine-Tuning Your Fixes 143What is a Selection? 144Feathering and Anti-aliasing 146Making Your Selections with Tools 148Marquee selection tools 148Lasso selection tools 152The Object Selection tool 153The Quick Selection tool 153The Magic Wand tool 154Select and Mask 155Your Selection Commands 156The primary selection commands 157The Color Range command 158The Focus Area command 159The Select ➪ Subject command 160The Select ➪ Sky command 161Selection modification commands 161Transforming the shape of selections 161Edit in Quick Mask mode 163The mask-related selection commands 164Masks: Not Just for Halloween Anymore 164Saving and loading selections 165Editing an alpha channel 165Adding masks to layers and Smart Objects 167Masking with vector paths 167Adjustment Layers: Controlling Changes 168Adding an adjustment layer 168Limiting your adjustments 170Chapter 8: Common Problems and Their Cures 173Making People Prettier 174Getting the red out digitally 174The digital fountain of youth 175Dieting digitally 176De-glaring glasses 179Whitening teeth 179Reducing Noise in Your Images 179Decreasing digital noise 180Eliminating luminance noise 181Fooling Around with Mother Nature 181Removing the unwanted from photos 181Eliminating the lean: Fixing perspective 185Rotating images precisely 187Adding a beautiful sky 188Part 3: Creating “Art” in Photoshop 189Chapter 9: Combining Images 191Compositing Images: 1 + 1 = 1 192Understanding layers 192Why you should use Smart Objects 194Using the basic blending modes 195Opacity, transparency, and layer masks 198Creating clipping groups 199Making composited elements look natural 200Making Complex Selections 201Vanishing Point 204Creating Panoramas with Photomerge 208Chapter 10: Precision Edges with Vector Paths 211Pixels, Paths, and You 212Easy Vectors: Using Shapes 213Your basic shape tools 214The Custom Shape tool 216More custom shapes — free! 217Changing the appearance of the shape layer 219Simulating a multicolor shape layer 220Using Your Pen Tool to Create Paths 221Understanding paths 222Clicking and dragging your way down the path of knowledge 222A closer look at the Paths panel 226Customizing Any Path 229Adding, deleting, and moving anchor points 230Combining paths 232Tweaking type for a custom font 233Chapter 11: Dressing Up Images with Layer Styles 235What Are Layer Styles? 235Using the Styles Panel 237Creating Custom Layer Styles 239Exploring the Layer Style menu 239Exploring the Layer Style dialog box 241Layer effects basics 242Opacity, fill, and advanced blending 251Saving Your Layer Styles 254Adding styles to the Styles panel 254Preserving your layer styles 255Chapter 12: Giving Your Images a Text Message 257Making a Word Worth a Thousand Pixels 258A type tool for every season, or reason 260What are all those options? 262Taking control of your text with panels 266The panel menus — even more options 269Working with Styles 271Putting a picture in your text 272Creating Paragraphs with Type Containers 274Selecting alignment or justification 276Ready, BREAK! Hyphenating your text 277Shaping Up Your Language with Warp Text and Type on a Path 278Applying the predefined warps 278Customizing the course with paths 279Chapter 13: Painting in Photoshop 283Discovering Photoshop’s Painting Tools 284Painting with the Brush tool 286Adding color with the Pencil tool 289Removing color with the Eraser tool 289Working with Panels and Selecting Colors 290An overview of options 290Creating and saving custom brush tips 293Picking a color 294Fine Art Painting with Specialty Brush Tips and the Mixer Brush 297Exploring erodible brush tips 297Introducing airbrush and watercolor tips 297Mixing things up with the Mixer Brush 298Filling, Stroking, Dumping, and Blending Colors 300Deleting and dumping to add color 300Using gradients 301Chapter 14: Filters: The Fun Side of Photoshop 305Smart Filters: Your Creative Insurance Policy 306The Filters You Really Need 307Sharpening to focus the eye 308Unsharp Mask 308Smart Sharpen 310Shake Reduction 311Blurring images and selections 312The other Blur filters 315Correcting for the vagaries of lenses 316Cleaning up with Reduce Noise 320Getting Creative and Artistic 321Photo to painting with the Oil Paint filter 321Working with the Filter Gallery 322Push, Pull, and Twist with Liquify 325What Are Neural Filters? 327The original Neural Filters 328Neural Filters in public beta testing 329Proposed Neural Filters 330Do I Need Those Other Filters? 330Adding drama with Lighting Effects 331Maximum and Minimum 331Bending and bubbling 332Creating clouds 332Part 4: Power Photoshop 333Chapter 15: Streamlining Your Work in Photoshop 335Ready, Set, Action! 336Recording your own Actions 337Working with the Batch command 342Find It Fast with Discover 344Creating Contact Sheets and Presentations 344Creating a PDF presentation 345Collecting thumbnails in a contact sheet 347Scanning Multiple Photos in One Pass 349Sticking to the Script 350Chapter 16: Working with Video and Animation 353Importing and Enhancing Video Clips 353Getting video into Photoshop 354Adjusting the length of video and audio clips 356Adding adjustment layers and painting on video layers 357Transitioning, titling, and adding special effects 358Transforming video layers 361Rendering and exporting video 361Creating Animations in Photoshop 362Building frame-based animations 362Creating frame content 363Tweening to create intermediary frames 365Specifying frame rate 366Optimizing and saving your animation 366Part 5: The Part of Tens 367Chapter 17: Ten Specialized Features of Photoshop CC 369Using Smart Object Stack Modes 370The Mean Stack Mode 372Working with 3D Artwork 372Creating 3D objects 373Adding 3D objects 373Rendering and saving 3D scenes 374Measuring, Counting, and Analyzing Pixels 374Measuring length, area, and more 374Calculating with Vanishing Point 376Counting crows or maybe avian flu 376Viewing Your DICOM Medical Records 377Ignoring MATLAB 378Chapter 18: Ten Ways to Integrate Your iPad 379Using Sidecar to Add an iPad to Your Screen 379Sidecar System Requirements 380Arranging Your iPad’s Screen 380Mirroring the Screens 381Maximizing the Screen Space 381Making Use of Photoshop on the iPad 382Using the Cloud with Photoshop on the iPad and Desktop 383Using Other Adobe iPad Apps 384Does the iPad Replace My Wacom Tablet? 384Setting Wacom Tablet Preferences for Touch Keys and Touch Ring 385Chapter 19: Ten Things to Know about HDR 387Understanding HDR 387Capturing for Merge to HDR Pro 389Preparing Raw “Exposures” in Camera Raw 390Working with Merge to HDR Pro 391Saving 32-Bit HDR Images 394HDR Toning 394Painting and the Color Picker in 32-Bit 395Filters and Adjustments in 32-Bit 396Selections and Editing in 32-Bit 397Printing HDR Images 397Appendix: Photoshop CC’S Blending Modes 399Index 403