How to Customize a Picture With Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop has revolutionized the ways in which people edit, manipulate and improve digital photography. The influence of this program has extended to the vernacular, as the term "photoshopping" has become interchangeable with image editing. Additionally, the program has grown in recent years to become the industry standard for this type of manipulation. You can use Photoshop software to customize your own images at home.
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Instructions
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Crop your image. One of the simplest ways to customize your photo involves cropping it to remove unwanted background noise or emphasize a particular object. For example, if you have an image of a house next to a garbage bin, you can remove the garbage bin by selecting only the part of the image you want to keep (in this case, the house). Simply select the rectangular marquee tool on your Tools palette (it looks like small rectangle made of dotted lines), then click and drag your mouse over the part of the image you want to keep. When you have finished your selection, click "Image" on your menu bar and select "Crop" from the drop-down menu.
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Add text. Things like humorous captions, titles and explanatory text can bring perspective and meaning to a photograph, and Photoshop makes the process very easy. To add text, simply click the Text tool from your Tools palette (it looks like a capital letter T), click the cursor in the spot where you would like the text to appear and begin typing. You can then change the font, size, color and other attributes in the Options window. Depending on your Photoshop version and settings, this may appear as a small window on the right side of your screen or as a bar directly beneath your menu bar. If it does not appear at all, click "Window" on your menu bar and select "Options" from the drop-down menu.
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Adjust the colors of your image. To change the color scheme of your image, select "Image" from the menu bar then scrolldown to "Adjustments" on the drop-down menu. From there, select "Color Balance" and adjust the amount of red, green and blue to alter the appearance of your picture. From the "Adjustments" window, you can also change the brightness and contrast of the image by selecting "Brightness/Contrast" and "Levels." If you would like to remove the color from your image completely, select "Image" from the menu bar, then scroll down to "Mode" and select "Grayscale." This will give you a vintage-looking, black-and-white photo.
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Explore the filter gallery. Photoshop provides numerous filters to create a variety of effects ranging from stained glass to watercolors. Simply click "Filter" on the menu bar and choose the filters that suit your image. To create a pixelated effect, choose "Mosaic" and adjust the properties to your liking. To create a sand-like quality in your image, choose "Grain." Newer versions of Photoshop contain a "Filter Gallery" option under "Filter" on the menu bar, in which you can see every filter in real time and preview them one by one, but in older Photoshop versions, you can still select the filters one at a time and preview them in the Filter window. See which filters work best for you.
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