Photoshop Tutorial Thread

This thread is dedicated to helping people learn the basics skills of photoshop, and maybe some more advanced ones. I welcome people to post their own tutorials just make sure you didn't just copy one from another site.

I also welcome people to post their own works done in photoshop for constructive criticism and other such things as that.

Please recognize as well that this is the first tutorial/beginners guide that i've ever written and if there is any holes or things that just don't make sense, make sure you let me know!

I'm using Adobe Photoshop v 7.0, if you are using a different version instructions may vary slightly.

Before the first tutorial, which will show you how to make stars, here are a few of the VERY basics of photoshop.


Tools - 1
Labelled #1 is your tool bar. You have probably seen many of these tools using paint or another program like that. Any that you do not recognize can be identified by simply rolling the mouse over the icon.

Most of the tool icons have small arrows in the lower right hand corner. This indicates that there are similar tools underneath (best way I can describe it) them. To access these other tools, all one needs to do is right click on the tool icon and the other tools will be listed. For example, if you right click on the rectangular marquee tool (very top left of the tool bar) you will see a list of 3 other tools, the circular marquee tool, the single row marquee tool, and the single column marquee tool. Scroll over and click and you will select said tool.

Layers - 2

The layers of Photoshop are some of the most important things about creating things in photoshop.

When creating a new document you will always start off with a background layer. This layer is locked as indicated by the padlock on the right side. This means that you cannot move it and do other things (haha, i kinda forgot, someone want to give me a hand here?). To lock and unlock a thread just press the padlock keep right above the layers pallette. To unlock the background thread you must double click the work 'background' and rename it to anything. It will unlock the thread and allow you to move it where ever you want.

To create new layers you simply go Layer > New > Layer... or press the icon in your layers palette that looks like a square with an edge pulled down.

There are also different kinds of layer settings, such as Screen, Color dodge, color burn. But if you are just beginning it is easier to leave that to later.

You will learn most about layers in experimenting with your pictures and using trial and error.

Filters - 3

Filters are another important part of PS. They include all the cool special effects you see so many people use. The best way to learn about layers is to get any random picture and try every filter out on it. Just use Ctrl+Z to undo it after each one.



And that was my VERY brief explination of some of the basics of photoshop. Most likely I will be adding to this as people request different things or people give me advice as to what should be included. Now to the first tutorial.

HOW TO MAKE STARS

This one is a LITTLE complicated so don't worry if you are a beginner and cannot get it 100%. Just remember to ask questions.

Step 1: Make a new document (File>New). Make it however big you want, I made mine 500x500.

Step 2: Reset your colors (d) and fill the background black (Alt+Backspace). Create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer) and fill that one with black too.

*Quick tip* Try to name your layers. It helps you to keep track of the different layers you have. To do this you double click the name of the layer. In this case we have 'Layer 1', to change it, double click it and rename it 'little stars' */Quick Tip*

Step 3: Here's where the fun part starts. While your 'Little Stars' layer is selected, go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Make the amount 68, distribution - gaussian, and have monochronamic checked and press ok.



Step 4: Now we change the levels. Press Ctrl+L to bring up the levels box. Put these settings in and press OK.



Step 5: Now we need to copy the little stars layer. You'll be doing this a lot later so make sure you get this step, if not, again, just ask.

To copy a layer you can go Layer > duplicate layer> and ok. Or you can drag the actual layer itself in the layers palette to the new layer icon (Sqare with folded edge). If you don't understand this use the first way.

Anyways, copy the little stars layer and change the name to 'medium stars'.

Step 6: Here's where it might become a little tricky to some people. Now you have to zoom out quite a bit from your picture. You can either use the Zoom palette at the top right which should say 100%, or you can use your mouse wheel. Either way, do that to the point where there is a lot of grey on all sides of your picture.

Then go Edit>Transform>Scale and drag the edges so that they are twice as big as your original picture. Click the arrow tool again and press okay when it asks you if want to apply the transformation.

Change the layer mode to linear dodge.



Step 7: Do the exact same thing as step 6, only this time copy the 'Medium Stars' layer and rename it 'large stars'. Make the 'large stars' layer twice as big as the 'medium stars' layer. Remember to set the layer mode to linear dodge.

This is what you should have so far.



Step 8: Pick the eraser tool and scroll down until you find the little maple leaves. Now start first with your 'little stars' layer and work your way up. Erase sporatically, randomly, try not to hold down, just do little clicks.

Here's what mine looks like afterwards.



Step 9: Merge all star layers into one. To do this, click the 'large star' layer and press ctrl+e twice. This should merge all of them into one.

After merging it is time to add some color. Press ctrl+U to bring up the hue/saturation box. Check the 'colorize' box in the bottom right corner and just play with the levels until you find something you like. I chose a bluish color.



I'm not entirely too please with it, but hopefully it looks like a field of stars, and hopefully so does yours. Please post what you have including any of your own modifications.

This can be the backdrop to countless things using PS. Here are a few of my better examples.




Kinda hard to see the stars, but they're there!

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