Adobe Photoshop 5.0 for Beginners

Learn about Photoshop 5.0 so you can make your photos and original artwork look their best. While learning this program, take the time to understand the concepts on which the program's tools are built. Layers and selections are two such concepts. Learn how selections work by trying out the selection tools on the tool palette. Learn how layers work by experimenting with the commands under the "Layers" menu.

Selections

Whether you're using Photoshop to make new images or edit existing ones, you'll need to understand how to select image elements. Selections let you focus on a particular image area to work on. The selection tools in Photoshop 5.0 includes the rectangular marquee and the "Magic Wand" selection tool, which lets you select elements with a uniform color with a single click. You can quickly recognize selection tools on the tool palette by the dashed lines surrounding them. For example, the rectangular marquee icon is a dashed rectangle. Once you've clicked one of the selection tools, click a point on the image area you want to select, then drag the mouse to enclose the whole area. Release the mouse to complete the selection. Photoshop indicates the selection state by showing a moving dashed line around the region you selected.

Transforming Images

One of the many advantages that digital painting programs like Photoshop 5.0 have over traditional visual arts media is that you can more easily scale, rotate and move image portions. You generally perform these operations after selecting an image area with the program's selection tools. To move a selected region in Photoshop, click the tool palette icon shaped like a four-headed arrow. Then click on the selection and drag the mouse to move it.

Painting

Despite its name, Photoshop 5.0 isn't just for editing photos. You can paint with it too. The "Pencil" and "Paintbrush" tools make this task possible. To start painting in Photoshop, begin choosing a color you'd like to paint with by clicking the color swatch at the bottom of the tool palette. When the color dialog box appears, click a color, then click "OK" to close the box. Click the mouse on the canvas and drag to start painting. Erase by clicking the eraser icon on the tool palette, then dragging on the image region you'd like to erase.

Layers

Photoshop's layers are virtual transparencies. They let you stack images atop one another to form a composite image you can easily edit by changing an individual layer. The images on each layer don't interfere with those on other layers, so whatever you paint or erase on one layer only affects that layer. You can see a list of layers in your Photoshop image by clicking the "Window" menu's "Layers" command. This action displays a palette showing a list of all layers. To select a layer for editing, click its icon in this palette. Hide all images on a layer by clicking the palette's eye icon.

References

• "Adobe Photoshop 5.0 Classroom in a Book"; Adobe Creative Team; 1998