Day 26 – Adjustment Layers in Photoshop – Vibrance, Hue, Color Balance, Black and White, Photo Filter, Color Lookup, and Invert

Hey Guys – It’s time for the next tutorial from 30 Days to Learn Photoshop Series. Last time we discussed on Adjustment layers of Solid Color, Gradient, Pattern, Brightness, Levels, Curves, and Exposure. This is the next and the last part of the series where I’ll be discussing Adjustment layers of Vibrance, Hue, Color Balance, Black and White, Photo Filter, Color Lookup, and Invert. There are few more but you are never going to use them.

Part 1 – Everything about Adjustment Layer in Photoshop
Part 2- Solid Color, Gradient, Pattern, Brightness, Levels, Curves, and Exposure in Photoshop

Before we begin, I want to explain two things again (in case you missed any of the last two parts).

WHAT’S ADJUSTMENT LAYER IN PHOTOSHOP?

The Adjustment Layers in Photoshop are a group of some useful, non-destructive image editing tools that add color and tonal adjustments to your image. Did you read the word “non-destructive”? Yeah, all of the changes will be done without harming the original image. Means that you can go back to any point in time without any loss. It’s like a Time Machine in macOS and Win7 backup in Windows.

WHERE ARE ADJUSTMENT LAYERS LOCATED IN PHOTOSHOP?

Adjustment layers are located at the bottom of layer panel (press F7 to open).

1-1 - Day 24 - Adjustment Layers in Photoshop - Solid Color, Gradient, Pattern, Brightness, Levels, Curves, and Exposure

All the things that you’d use daily are present here. Be it Brightness, Color Balance, Photo Filter, Gradient, or even Invert are present here.

Now that you what and where of the Adjustment layer, let’s explore it. I am going to explain each layer in a two separate tutorial. In the tutorial, I’ll cover Solid Color, Gradient, Pattern, Brightness, Levels, Curves, and Exposure. The rest of the things will be covered in the next tutorial.

What is Vibrance and Saturation in Photoshop?

No photo looks worse than a washed out photo. To give life to a washed out photo, these two adjustment layers come into action.

You may feel that both of them works in the same way if you’re new to Photoshop. If you’re not new, you may feel that they work differently but you don’t know how. So, let me quickly differentiate between these two.

Vibrance – This slider only deals with the colors that are saturated. So if you drag this slider to the right, only less saturated colors will pop up. If you drag it to the left, only saturated colors will fade away.

Saturation – This slider does not work smartly. It doesn’t differentiate between less saturated color and more saturated color. If you drag this slider to the right, the entire image will become saturated.

What is Hue/Saturation in Photoshop?

This adjustment layer lets you change the hue of the image. The Hue is basically the wavelength of the image and each color has a different wavelength.

Saturation slider does the same job here.

Lightness increases the white of the color. If you drag the slider to the right, the photo will become lighter.

You can also click on the “Colorize” box to add a tint to your image.

What is Color Balance in Photoshop?

Color balance is the most advanced adjustment layer to remove the tint from an image. Here you can increase or decrease the intensity of Red, Green, or Blue in an image.

For example, I have corrected the slightly yellow tint in the demo image.


Below is the original image.

Color Balance layer has three tones. One is Highlights, one is Midtones, and the last is Shadows.

Highlights – If this tone is set, whatever modification you do in the image will be changed only in the highlights part. Highlights part of an image is the part which is overexposed as per the histogram. Sun and sky are the highlight parts of the image.
Midtones – If this tone is set, whatever modification you do in the image will be changed only in the midtones part. Midtones parts are neither bright nor dark. Sea is the midtone here.
Shadows – If this tone is set, whatever modification you do in the image will be changed only in the dark part. Leaves and branches are the shadow parts here.

What is Black and White Adjustment Layer in Photoshop?

This adjustment layer converts an image to Black and White. Although this method is not the one which I prefer to convert my images (I prefer Gradient Map because that gives crispier black and white) but this layer gives a good amount of flexibility.

You can also select the amount of luminosity of each primary color.

What is Photo Filter in Photoshop?

Photo Filter adds tint to the image.

You can choose the Filter (basically color) and start tinting your image. If your color is not listed, you can also choose some custom color by clicking on the “color” and then choose the color.

You can also smartly use this layer to remove the tint. For example – the original image has a yellow tint. Now we all know that the opposite of yellow is blue. So, if we choose the filter as Blue and increase the intensity then we can remove the yellow tint.

One thing I always recommend is to keep “Preserve Luminosity” turned on. This tool keeps the whites of the image white so that your highlights don’t get tinted.

What is Color Lookup in Photoshop?

I have never used this layer much but this gives some cool filters to your image. Below is an example. There’s not much to share about this layer.

What is Invert in Photoshop?

Invert adjustment layer inverts the image. The Invert command inverts all the pixel colors and brightness values in the current layer as if the image were converted into a negative. Dark areas become bright and bright areas become dark. Hues are replaced by their complementary colors.

This is all for today guys. Check out the rest of the tutorials from 30 Days to Learn Photoshop series.

Day 25 – Adjustment Layers in Photoshop – Solid Color, Gradient, Pattern, Brightness, Levels, Curves, and Exposure

Hey guys, welcome to another tutorial on 30 Days to Learn Photoshop series. Last time I showed you how to use adjustment layers in Photoshop but I didn’t show you all of them. We’re covering those in today’s tutorial.

Before we begin, I’d like to recall the adjustment layers that we discussed last time. They were Solid Color, Gradient, Pattern, Brightness, Level, Curves, and Exposure. Today, we’ll be learning Vibrance, Hue and Saturation, Color Balance, Black and White, Photo Filter, Color Lookup, and Invert. We’re leaving other things because you’re never going to use them.

So let’s begin and start revising few things.

WHAT’S ADJUSTMENT LAYER IN PHOTOSHOP?

The Adjustment Layers in Photoshop are a group of some useful, non-destructive image editing tools that add color and tonal adjustments to your image. Did you read the word “non-destructive”? Yeah, all of the changes will be done without harming the original image. Means that you can go back to any point in time without any loss. It’s like a Time Machine in macOS and Win7 backup in Windows.

 

WHERE ARE ADJUSTMENT LAYERS LOCATED IN PHOTOSHOP?

Adjustment layers are located at the bottom of layer panel (press F7 to open).

All the things that you’d use daily are present here. Be it Brightness, Color Balance, Photo Filter, Gradient, or even Invert are present here.

Now that you know what and where of the Adjustment layer, let’s explore it. I am going to explain each layer in a two separate tutorial this is the second tutorial (here’s the first one). In the tutorial, I’ll cover Solid Color, Gradient, Pattern, Brightness, Levels, Curves, and Exposure. The rest of the things will be covered in the next tutorial.

What is Vibrance in Photoshop?

Vibrance slider lets your picture more or less vivid. So, if you think that your image looks pale and you want to increase the color, you can use this slider. Below is the image where I added the color.

In the adjustment panel, you’ll also see another slider which is named as Saturation. If you play with that slider, you’ll see that both of them increases or decreases color.

If so, then why did Adobe provide two sliders when they work similarly?

Actually, they don’t. They both do the same job and do it differently. If you pull both sliders one by one all the way to the right, you’ll see that saturation adds more color. Vibrance only manipulates the pixel which is pale. It doesn’t touch pixels which are already saturated. This results in a balance of color. On the other hand, Saturation doesn’t discriminate. It increases the saturation of all the pixels by the same amount.

What is Hue and Saturation in Photoshop?

Hue – you’ve heard this term first on day 23 when we were discussing Camera Raw in Photoshop.

Hue changes the color of the entire image. It basically changes the hue of the image. In the below image, I have changed the hue to +42 and the hue of my photo is changed.

Saturation does exactly what we discussed in the previous section. It increases or decreases the saturation level.

Lightness does what it’s named after. It increases or decreases the lightness. Almost all the time it messes up the photo so I never use the Lightness slider.

One cool trick – if you want all the picture to be of the same color, you can use the “Colorize” checkbox. You may want to increase the saturation otherwise your photo will be of grayscale.

What is Color Balance in Photoshop?

You see tints on almost all the photos that are taken by your phone. Most of those are yellow tint and some have a blue tint. You want to remove those tints but you don’t know how. This is where Color Balance comes into the picture.

Color Balance layer corrects the color of your photos.

In the above image, I removed yellow tint and photo is looking better. This is how it was looking before.

Can you see the difference? The first photo is looking much better than the second photo.

In Color Balance adjustment layer, there are three tones – Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights. Whatever is dark in your photo is considered as shadow and whatever is light in the photo is considered as a highlight. Everything in between is considered as midtones.

In the above image, the sun and sunrays are highlights, the tree leaves and tree shadows are shadows, and the rest of things are midtones.

While correcting your color, you need to make sure that you select the proper tone. If the sun is having blue tint than you need to select highlights tone and make the changes.

What is Black and White Adjustment Layer in Photoshop?

As the name suggests, this tool lets you convert your image to black and white.

You’ll see 6 sliders. These sliders let you modify your photo appearance.

For example, if you drag the red slider to the right, the pixels which are having red color will become brighter. The opposite will happen if you drag it to the left.

A rule of thumb: To save some time, I click on the “Auto” button and then tweak the sliders. This saves me a few minutes.

What is Photo Filter in Photoshop?

I understand that Color Balance is hard to use and a bit time-consuming. You are wondering if there’s any another alternative to remove the tint in photos. Well, there is, and Adobe calls it Photo Filter.

There was a huge yellow tint in the image. After using a blue filter, most of the yellow tint is now gone. I understand the photo is slightly moved towards blue but my main aim is to show you that it can be done.

Apart from fixing tints, you can also use Photo Filter to give nice effects to your images. To choose the filter, click on the drop-down menu to choose presets or you can choose your own color by clicking on the colored square. It’s always appreciated if you turn on “Preserve Luminosity” every time. This keeps the highlights of the image bright.

What is Color Lookup in Photoshop?

Now the next thing we’re getting into is Color Lookup. You can consider as filters that you get on Instagram. It’s pretty straight-forward. Just open the Color Lookup and choose which lookup you like.

You can also create your own filter but let’s not get into that for now.

What is Invert in Photoshop?

Now the next thing that we have is Invert. It’s pretty much straightforward and you already know what it means. It simply inverts the color. If you are born in the 1990s or before, you can consider it a negative copy of the image.

The keyboard shortcut of invert is Cmd/Ctrl + I.

And that’s it!

We have not completed the adjustment layers in Photoshop. Check out what’s happening with Photoshop in TrickyPhotoshop.

Day 24 – Adjustment Layers in Photoshop – Solid Color, Gradient, Pattern, Brightness, Levels, Curves, and Exposure

Hey, folks! How was your weekend? Pretty exciting, huh? Mine was also. I hope that you also followed my last tutorial on Camera RAW. Why not? It was an amazing tutorial. I explained everything about Camera RAW. Today, we’re going to learn Adjustments Layers in Photoshop.

To apply tweaks like brightness, exposure, contrast, saturation, or etc. you don’t need to open Camera RAW every time. Photoshop gives you a nice and clean way to change it on the go. All of this can be done with the help of adjustment layers.

So, let’s begin with the most basic question.

What’s Adjustment Layer in Photoshop?

The Adjustment Layers in Photoshop are a group of some useful, non-destructive image editing tools that add color and tonal adjustments to your image. Did you read the word “non-destructive”? Yeah, all of the changes will be done without harming the original image. Means that you can go back to any point of time without any loss. It’s like a Time Machine in macOS and Win7 backup in Windows.

Where are Adjustment Layers Located in Photoshop?

Adjustment layers are located at the bottom of layer panel (press F7 to open).

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All the things that you’d use daily are present here. Be it Brightness, Color Balance, Photo Filter, Gradient, or even Invert are present here.

Now that you what and where of the Adjustment layer, let’s explore it. I am going to explain each layer in a two separate tutorial. In the tutorial, I’ll cover Solid Color, Gradient, Pattern, Brightness, Levels, Curves, and Exposure. The rest of the things will be covered in the next tutorial.

What is Solid Color in Photoshop?

Solid color fills the image with one color and you get to decide the color.

Go to Solid Color and choose the color you like and press OK. I chose a shade of Blue.

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You see that the entire image is filled with the color that you chose.

You think that what the hell. Why would I fill my entire image with a color? Hold on! You can do some artistic effects. If simply change the Blend Mode to color, I get Blue tint. Isn’t it looking nice? I know it doesn’t but don’t be rude and say yes… haha…

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What is Gradient in Photoshop?

This adjustment layer works exactly similar to the Gradient Tool that we learned a while ago. So, I am not going to much details on this. Click on it and you’ll figure out how to use it.

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What is Pattern in Photoshop?

This option lets you fill your image with the patterns of your choice. The pattern will fill the entire image.

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Like Solid Color, you can play with Blend Modes this time also. I chose Color Burn this time.

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What is Brightness and Contrast in Photoshop?

I am damn sure that I don’t need to explain these two. You did tweak these two when you edited your first digital photo around 10 years.

Ummm… Still, I’ll explain you.

  • Brightness brightens or dims the image
  • Contrast increase the difference between the whites and blacks of the image

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What is Levels in Photoshop?

This is a bit tough to explain. There is one slider with three control points named as A, B, and C in the below image.

A: Drag it to the right to increase the black
B: Drag it to the right to increase contrast and drag it to the left to decrease contrast
C: Drag it to the left to increase white

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To make things simpler, Photoshop provides presets also which are highlighted with a blue rectangle. You may want to use it.

What is Curves in Photoshop?

If you see the graph, the y-axis is divided into 4 parts. Each part represents a region. Upper parts demonstrate the light and lower parts demonstrate the shadow.

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  1. Highlight: It affects only the upper regions
  2. Light: It mainly affects the upper two regions but slightly affects lower two regions as well
  3. Darks: It mainly affects lower two regions but slightly affects upper two regions as well
  4. Shadows: It only affects lower two regions

What is Exposure in Photoshop?

The Exposure slider is probably the least mystically named of the control sliders and unsurprisingly it allows you to adjust the exposure of your photo. Dragging to the right will lighten an image while dragging to the left darkens it.

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The Offset slider isn’t obviously named, but this control has the greatest influence over the dark tones of photos. Sliding it to the right will lighten shadow areas, but you should take care as you’ll quickly see that images can start to look washed out as this is adjusted in this direction. Sliding to the left will darken your shadow areas and if you overdo this, you will start to see some unnatural color shifts occurring.

The Gamma slider has the greatest effect over the mid-tone range of your images, though the direction that you adjust the slider is counter-intuitive. To darken the image, you need to slide it to the right and vice-versa to lighten it.

This is all for today. I hope that you enjoyed the tutorial.
Check out the other tutorials from 30 Days to Learn Photoshop series.

DAY 23 – THE CAMERA RAW FILTER IN PHOTOSHOP: PART 2

Welcome back, folks! Today, we’re going on more details in Camera RAW in Photoshop. This tutorial in the continuation of my past tutorial on Camera RAW in Photoshop – Part I. Last time, I covered Basic, Tone Curve, and Detail tabs. In this tutorial, I’ll cover HSL, Split Toning, Lens Correction, and Camera Calibration.

You’re not going to use the tabs frequently that we’re going to learn today. Whenever I open Camera RAW, I use Basic and Noise 70% of the time and rest of the tabs 30% of the time.

So, let’s begin with the tutorial.

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Step 1: HSL and Grayscale in Camera RAW

HSL stands for Hue, Saturation, and Luminance. I think that there is no real estate available in Photoshop interface so Adobe decided to go with the short form.

In this tab, you can change the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance of an image or convert an image to Grayscale (Black and White).

First off, I’ll show you how to convert an image to Grayscale. All you need to do is to click on “Convert to Grayscale”.

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Now that you know how to convert an image to Grayscale in Camera RAW, time to learn HSL. If you look at the below screenshot, you’ll find three tabs which are Hue, Saturation, and Luminance.

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Let’s understand each of them one by one.

  1. Hue: Hue is the color in your image. It changes your color. Look at the first slider which is Red. If you drag all the way to left, all red present in your image will become Pink. If you drag is all the way to the right, the red in your image will convert to Orange.
  2. Saturation: Saturation is the intensity, or richness, of that color. Switch to the second tab. Now if you drag the Red to the left, the Red will become gray. If you drag the Red to the right, it’ll become more saturated any may be unpleasing to the eyes.
  3. Luminance: Luminance controls the brightness value. Switch to the third tab. If you drag it to the left, Red will get darker and then to Black. If you slide it to the right, Red to turn lighter and then to White.

Step 2: Split Toning in Camera RAW

Split Toning is the easiest way to give a very colorful effect to your photos.

Split toning involves tinting the shadows of an image in one color and the highlights in another color. Although mostly applied to black and white images, this method can quite successfully be used on color images.

In the image, I kept the image colored and applied Split Toning.

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It has three sections which are Highlights, Balance, and Shadows.

In the Highlights section, if you change the Hue slider, the highlights of the image will have a hue of that color.

The same goes with the Shadows slider.

Note: You must drag the Saturation first at least to 10 before you slide the Hue slider. This is because, if Saturation is 0 then you won’t see any difference if you drag the Hue slider.

In the Balance slider, you can set the balance between highlights and shadows. I have set it to 35% which means that whatever is less than 35% brighter than the absolute mid point, will be considered as the highlight.

Step 3: Lens Correction in Camera RAW

This tab is used to correct all the defects that a lens add.

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Let me explain each slider one by one.

  1. Distortion Amount: Even lenses worth of $2,000 distorts the image. They make the image blobbed in the middle which disturbs the lining of the images. Use this slider to remove the blobbiness.
  2. Defringe: In some images, you see either a purple or green line around the edges of things in your image. Generally, these lines are noticeable only when you zoom in the image. This defringe slider helps you to remove it.
  3. Vignette: You already know what a vignette it. It’s the black or white circular shape which fades into its background without a definite border. You can either add or remove vignette using this slider. Drag it to the right to remove and drag it to the left to add.

Step 4: Effects in Camera RAW

Adobe named this panel as Effects but I personally don’t believe that you can create any nice looking effects from this panel.

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First is Dehaze. It does what its name suggests. This slider helps to remove or add the haze in the image. Photoshop is not a magical tool so let’s not expect any magical return when using this slider. 🙂

Grain adds grain in the images. You may want to use it if you’re a wedding photographer. Most wedding photographers intentionally add grains to make the images beautiful.

You are wondering that why is Vignette also here even if you saw it in the previous panel. Both will give the same result as long as your image is not cropped. I’d like you to do a task. Close Camera RAW and crop an image. While cropping, make sure that you don’t turn on “Delete Cropped Pixels”. Once done, again open Camera RAW and try the two sliders. You’ll see the different results. I leave it to you to figure out why did you see different results.

Step 5: Camera Calibration in Camera RAW

In this tab, you can define the process in Camera RAW.

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The process version is the Camera Raw technology that Photoshop uses to adjust and render photos. The latest version in 2012.

This is the place where you calibrate the RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) of the image. You probably don’t want to change it because it is really tough for a beginner’s eyes to detect the miscalibration in R, G, and B.

That’s all, folks!

Let’s meet next week. Make sure you watch other tutorials on 30 Days to Learn Photoshop series.

Day 21: Photoshop: Shape Tool – Your Guide

Hello, guys! Welcome to my another tutorial from 30 Days to Learn Photoshop series. Today, I’ll be showing you what is Shape Tool in Photoshop. Last time I wrote a tutorial on Text Tool in Photoshop which is a must read tutorial because of two things. First being that it’s the only way to add vector text in your images. Second being that we’re going to use Text Tool in this tutorial also.

Before we begin, let me show you the final image. I just added a rounded rectangle and used the text tool.

So, let’s begin with the tutorial.

Step 1: Grab Rounded Rectangle Tool

The first thing that you need to do is to grab the Rounded Rectangle Tool.

If you hover over the Shapes in the toolbar, you’ll see 6 tools to draw shapes. You can use the combination of them to create some creative designs. The first thing that you need to do is to grab the Rounded Rectangle Tool. You can also do it by pressing Shift+U again and again until it comes.

Step 2: Choose the Background Color and Border Color

Time to choose the background color and color of the border. I am going to choose #00BFF3 as my background color and #000000 (white) as my border color.

You can do it with the help of Option bar. Background color can be chosen with the help of Fill and border color can be chosen with the help of Stroke. The numerical value next to the Stroke is the width of the border.

Now, draw the shape.

 

Note – If you don’t want to choose either background or border or even both, you can turn it off.

Simply, click on the color that is highlighted with the blue color and click on the no-fill button which is highlighted with red color. Do the same with the stroke to turn it off.

 

Step 3: Write Text

Now, we’re going to write the text. Grab the text tool from the Tool Panel or pressing Shift+T again and again until it comes. You may want to refer to my tutorial on Text Tool in Photoshop to understand the tool better.

 

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Day 20: Photoshop: Text Tool – Your Guide

Hey, guys! Welcome to my another tutorial on 30 Days to Learn Photoshop series. This time we’re going to learn everything about Text Tools that a beginner should know. We’ll cover what is it, how are we going to use it, and its option bar.

Last time we learned: Dodge and Burn Tool in Photoshop. If you want to know about it then check it out. The link will open in another tab.

The text tool is one of the most important tools in Photoshop. Be it adding a caption, write something, and creating a design (yes, design!), you can use text tools. If you’re a web designer, you can add icons also using this text tool. You probably heard of Font Awesome. Those icons can be used in Photoshop using Text Tool. The title and cast names that see in movie posters are written with the help of Text Tool in Photoshop.

Below is probably the easiest thing that you can do with a text tool.

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I just wrote a text with black color against a 30% gray background.

What is Text Tool in Photoshop?

Text tool in Photoshop helps you write texts. Be it adding a caption, some fancy title, or beautiful text effect, Text Tool got it covered.

Where is Text Tool Located in Photoshop?

You can grab Text Tool by pressing Shift+T again and again until it comes or by grabbing it from the Tool Panel.

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How to Use Text Tool in Photoshop?

Now let’s learn how to use the Text Tool

Step 1: Grab the Tool

Using a text tool is very much simple. You just grab the tool and start writing it.

As soon as the tool gets activated, your cursor will change.

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Step 2: Write the Text

Wherever you click, your text will start from there. I know that you want to write a text at a certain place. Usually what I do is that I write text anywhere in the Photoshop document and then move it.

The shortcut to move is here: Make sure that text layer is activated. Hold down Cmd/Ctrl and start dragging the text.

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Step 3: Align the Text

Photoshop CC has a very cool feature that is Snap To. What it does is that it gives you a hint whenever your text is aligned to some boundaries or layers. In the example shown below, you’re seeing two lines. The vertical line shows that my text is at center. The horizontal line also shows that my text is at center.

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Option Bar of Text Tool in Photoshop

Below is the option bar of Text Tool.

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Let’s start understanding one by one.

Note: We’re not going to touch 3D as it is for extremely advanced users and out of the scope of this article. I have written a separate tutorial for 3D. You can check that out.

  1. Font: This is where you select the font. The font, Lato, that I am using is a paid font that I downloaded from TypeKit (Adobe repository for fonts). You can find all the fonts on your desktop here. If you have installed a new font and want it to show up here, you need to restart Photoshop
  2. Font Type: This is the type of font. Your bold, regular, heavy fonts come here.
  3. Font Size: Here you can define the font size.
  4. Optimize Text: You can optimize the text for LCD, print, web here.
  5. Alignment: You can align the text to the left, center, or right aligned. There are more options to the alignment that comes when you can click on the 8th icon.
  6. Font Color: You define the font color here
  7. Wrap Text: You can give funky effects to your font here.
  8. Character and Draft Panel: Here you’ll find more options for text tool like space between characters, cases, more alignment options.

This is all about Text Tool.

 

This article is a part of 30 Days to Learn Photoshop.

Day 19: Dodge and Burn Tool in Photoshop

Hey, guys! Welcome to my another tutorial from 30 Days to Learn Photoshop series. Last time we discussed Gradeint Tool in Photoshop and today we’ll discuss Dodge and Burn Tool in Photoshop. Dodge and Burn Tool give us better control on highlights and shadows of the image. Of course, you can use your contrast bar but that feature gives us very less flexibility. All you can do is to move the slider.

Dodge and Burn tool gives you full control over the image. It takes a whole lot of time, effort, and skills but the results are much better.

So let’s begin with the tutorial.

What are Dodge and Burn Tools in Photoshop?

Dodge and Burn are two different tools in Photoshop. Dodge tool is used to brighten an area while the burn tool is used to darken an area. The feature that makes them unique is that rather than being a slider like contrast, both are brushes. So, you get the full flexibility.

Where are Dodge and Burn Tools Located in Photoshop?

You can either grab them from tool panel or press Shift+O again and again until it comes.

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How to Use Dodge and Burn Tools in Photoshop?

Now, from here the question starts. I will show you how to use both tools step by step. Let’s start with Dodge Tool.

You’ve been reading my tutorials a lot and you must have noticed that I am a huge fan of non-destructive editing. You also know that non-destructive editing means editing a photo without harming the original photo so that you can go back to your original photo anytime if you make a mistake.

This time, we’re going to do the same.

Step 1: Create a New Layer and Fill it with 50% Gray

Press Cmd+Shift+N/Ctrl+Shift+N to create a new layer. Name it anything.

Go to Edit>Fill or press Shift+F5. Choose the contents as 50% gray. Press OK.

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Now, change the blend mode of that layer to Soft Light. You’ll see that there’s no effect on the image. In fact, the newly created layer is transparent.

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This is the layer on which we’re going to use our Dodge and Burn tools.

Step 2: Select Dodge Tool

Let’s start with dodge tool first. Dodge tool is used to brighten the area. I am going to use to on the bride’s face. I’ll use it only on those places where highlights are present.

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The result will look very minimal to you and you may not notice it. But if you look at the bride’s skin in the below image, you’ll see that it is popping up a bit more.

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Step 3: Select Burn Tool

The result would be more visible after using the Burn Tool. Grab the burn tool from the tool panel or press Shift+O again and again until it comes.

Let’s apply it on the face where the shadow is present i.e. the cheeks.

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Aren’t you seeing the difference? I know that it has not made the image any better and did exactly opposite of good but the point was to show you the result.

Got the point? Yes? Great!

Option Bar of Dodge and Burn Tool in Photoshop

Option Bar of both the Dodge tool and Burn tool is exactly the same.

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Let’s understand what it is:

A: Range
This is probably the best that this tool can get. This feature restricts Photoshop to affect only the selected pixels. For example, if “Midtones” is selected as Range, Photoshop will only use Dodge or Burn Tool when you’re applying it on Midtones. It will not affect highlights and shadows.

B: Exposure
This sets the strength of the tool. If sets to 100%, the tools will be much more effecting against the one when it’s set to 30%. So Dodge tool will highlight much more when exposure is 100% as compared to the situation when it’s set to 30%.

C: Protect Tones
When turned on, Photoshop will not wipe out the details of pixels. For example, dodge tool will not make any pixels completely white so that restoration is pixels will not be possible and burn tool will not make any pixels completely black. It’s best to have this feature always turned on.

Gradient Tool in Photoshop

Hey, guys! Welcome to my another tutorial from 30 Days to Learn Photoshop series. Last time, we discussed Clone Stamp Tool in Photoshop and today, we’re going to discuss the Gradient Tool in Photoshop. You’re not going to use it much but you may use it when you want to give some artistic effect to your photos. Just look at the image below. The image is made with just 3 clicks.

Final.jpg

So, let’s start with few basic questions.

What is Gradient Tool in Photoshop?

A gradient is a tool in Photoshop which helps you make a combination of two or more colors where you can see the subtle transformation from one color to another.

FYI – You can also use Gradient with one one color.

Where is Gradient Tool Located in Photoshop?

You need to grab Gradient Tool from the tool panel or activate is by pressing Shift+G again and again until it activates.

2.jpg

How to Use Gradient Tool?

If you use Gradient Tool at the beginner level, this tool is probably the easiest tool you can ever use.

You just need to draw a line. That’s it!

Refer to the below image, are you seeing a line? That’s all you need to draw.3.jpg

So, let’s begin with step by step.

Step 1: Choose the Starting and Ending Point

As you’ve grabbed the Gradient Tool, time to check the foreground and background color.

I am going with Black as my foreground color and White as my background color.

4.jpg

Now, whenever you draw a line, the starting point will have 100% of your foreground color and the ending point will have 100% of your background color. The middle area will have a transition from the foreground to the background color.

You can see it in the image below.

5.jpg

Step 2: Creative Effects with Gradient Tool

Now let’s do some creative effects.

Create a new layer.

Head over to Option Bar and click on the drop-down button first and then click on the second option. Unlike the previous one, this gradient goes from the foreground color to transparent.

6.jpg

Now again make a gradient.

7.jpg

Now, change the Blend Mode to Color.

8.jpg

The possibilities with Gradient Tool are seamless. You can get more creative by playing with this tool.

Time to head over to the menu bar of Gradient Tool.

Option Bar of Gradient Tool

9.jpg

  1. Gradient: This is where you can choose your gradient. Just click on the drop-down arrow and you can see a lot more possibilities.
  2. Type of Gradient: Photoshop comes with 5 types of gradients. Linear, Radial, Angle, Reflected, and Diamond. The one that was shown is above example is Linear.
  3. Mode: Of course, this is Blend Mode.
  4. Opacity: This determines the opacity of your gradient. I’d like to keep it as 100%.
  5. Reverse: This one is cool. If it’s not checked, the gradient goes from Foreground color to Background color. If checked, the gradient goes from background color to foreground color.
  6. Dither: Dithering is the process of using two colors to simulate the shade of a third color by placing dots of the two colors close together. The application using the dithering process can use several strategies of placing the dots over the region showing the third color. It can place dots in particular patterns or at random. – by Chron.com
  7. Transparency: Remember that we created a cool effect in Step 2 where the gradient went from the foreground color to transparent? This is because the transparency was turned on. If it’s not, the result would’ve been a black image.

I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial.

Please support TrickyPhotoshop by sharing this tutorial with your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Day 17: What is Brush Tool in Photoshop

Brush Tool in Photoshop

Hey, guys! Welcome to another tutorial from 30 Days to Learn Photoshop series. Last time I discussed Patch Tool in Photoshop which is quite useful in facial flaws. Today, I am going to discuss probably the most used Photoshop tool that is Brush Tool in Photoshop.

Brush Tool in Photoshop is used for many tasks. Be the task is changing color, drawing, skin smoothing, etc., Brush Tool will always be there to help you. Alone Brush Tool cannot do many things but with help of other tools and blend tools, Brush Tool can do miracles. In this tutorial, I am going to show you how you can use the Brush Tool to change color.

But as usual, before we begin, let me show you before and after image.

Before

Brush Tool in Photoshop

After

Brush Tool in Photoshop

So, let’s begin the tutorial.

What is Brush Tool in Photoshop

Brush Tool is one of the most basic tool in Photoshop which is generally used for designing. It paints the brushed are with the foreground color.

Where is Brush Tool Located in Photoshop

You need to grab Brush tool from the tool panel. Alternatively, you can press Shift+B again and again until it comes.

Brush Tool in Photoshop

How to Use Brush Tool in Photoshop

Now I am going to show you how you can use Brush Tool in Photoshop.

Step 1: Choose Foreground Color

Brush Tool is probably the easiest tool that we have in Photoshop. You need to change the foreground color. It is present in the toolbar at the bottom.

Brush Tool in Photoshop

Click on the square shape box and choose your color.

Step 2: Paint it

Create a new layer by pressing Cmd+Shift+N/Ctrl+Shift+N. You, of course, don’t want your work to be destructive in nature.

Now that we have already grabbed the Brush Tool, we can simply start brushing.

Brush Tool in Photoshop

As I already mentioned, alone Brush Tool is not of much importance. So, let’s mix it with a blend mode.

Change the blend mode of the newly created layer to “Color”.

Brush Tool in Photoshop

Did you see what happened? Photoshop just changed the green color to purple.

Let’s do it with the whole image.

Brush Tool in Photoshop

Wow! With the help of a Brush Tool, we are able to change the color of an image. Look, how natural the image is looking. No one can say that the image was originally green in nature.

That’s all for today.

Now don’t just go away. Read my other articles from 30 Days to Learn Photoshop series.

Day 15: How to Use Healing Brush Tool in Photoshop

Healing Brush Tool in Photoshop

Hey, guys! Welcome to my another tutorial from 30 Days to Learn Photoshop Series. In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to use Healing Brush Tool in Photoshop. For the demo, I’ll be removing wrinkles from this beautiful lady’s face.

Unlike Spot Healing Brush Tool in Photoshop, Healing Brush is a tool is not only for minute flaws but also works for removal bigger imperfections. To demo this, let’s remove the wrinkles together.

Before I go further, let me show you the final image. Note that I could have easily taken the whole wrinkles out but that would’ve made the image looks unnatural.

Before

Healing Brush Tool in Photoshop

After

Healing Brush Tool in Photoshop

Let’s begin with the tutorial.

What is Healing Brush Tool in Photoshop?

Healing Brush tool in Photoshop is a brush tool that creates a pattern on the brushed area either by using Photoshop’s Content Aware technology or by matching its nearby pixels.

Where is Healing Brush Tool located in Photoshop?

You can activate this tool either by grabbing it from the tool panel or pressing Shift+J again and again until it comes.

1.jpg

How to Use Spot Healing Brush Tool

It’s pretty much simple to use Healing Brush Tool in Photoshop.

Step 1: Activate Healing Brush Tool

As shown above, you need to activate it by either grabbing from the tool panel or press Shift+J again and again until it comes.

Step 2: Select Source

To use Healing Brush Tool, you need to select “Source” first. By choosing the source, you are telling Photoshop that you need this area to be used on the flaws.

In the below image, I need to use the area on which I have placed the cursor. Now, when I remove the wrinkle, Photoshop will know that it needs to take this part as a reference to remove the wrinkle.

2.jpg

To select source, you need to hold down Option/Alt key.

Step 3: Brush on the Flaw

Create a new layer so that you are doing non-destructive editing. Now brush on the flaw. In the below image, the blue rectangle shows our brush and yellow rectangle shows our source.

3.jpg

Photoshop calls the brush that is surrounded by:

  • Blue color as “Target”
  • Yellow color as “Source”

Step 4: Decrease the Opacity

Let’s decrease the opacity to 45% to keep this image looking natural.

4.jpg

Option Bar of Healing Brush Tool in Photoshop

As soon as you activate this tool, you might have noticed that the option bar has changed. To make this tool even more effective, we can make use of this option bar.

Let’s understand each tweak one by one.

5.jpg

  1. Mode: This is something that we had already discussed in details on Blend Modes. This option lets you choose blend mode of the picture.
  2. Source: If we choose Sampled, Photoshop lets us choose the source that it can use as a reference to remove the flaw. This is what I chose the demo the above tutorial. If we choose Pattern, Photoshop will create a pattern to remove the flaw. In my opinion, it makes the image even more of flaw.
  3. Aligned: This is what I keep turned on most of the time. What this keeps is that it keeps the Source brush and Target brush aligned. In case you are having difficulty understand this feature, simply turn it off and try to use Healing brush tool.
  4. Sample: This lets you decide which layer to choose while taking your source as a reference. If you work non-destructively like me, it’s better to go with “All Layers”.
  5. Ignore Adjustments: If turned on, Photoshop will ignore adjustment layers when painting on your target. Generally, brightness, contrast, vibrance, etc. are called as adjustment layers. We’ll read more about it in later tutorials.
  6. Pressure: This is something you can use when you use pressure sensitive pads like Wacom tablets. If turned on, the harder you press, the harder your target gets brushed.
  7. Diffusion: Diffusion slider controls how quickly the pasted region adapts to the surrounding image. As a general guideline, low slider values are good for images with grains or fine details whereas high values are good for smooth images.

Time to wrap up this tutorial. I hope that you have enjoyed it. If you have any doubt, don’t forget to ask it in the comment section below.

Please support TrickyPhotoshop by sharing this tutorial with your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.