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Photoshop is a terrific tool, but it can be a little intimidating when you first look at it because of the sheer number of features it offers. This series of tutorials is designed to put any confusion you may have about Photoshop CS4 behind you, and help you tackle your projects with confidence. There are 73 tutorials in the series that are divided into manageable chunks and specialized topics so that you can find help for the exact features you are interested in. An experienced web designer who explains all the basics of CS4 in a clear, easy-to-follow way teaches this series. You can set aside a few minutes, a couple of hours, or half a day and learn whatever you need to know to be up and running with this awesome program. Or use them to take your PS skills to the next level and try something new and different.
1. How to Set Basic Preferences in Photoshop
Length: 10:08 min
When you first begin using Photoshop, you’ll probably want to set several preferences for different functions of the program. Of course, you can always modify them later if necessary, but choosing some basic options at the beginning will help you get the most out of your software. This tutorial demonstrates how to find the fundamental preference settings of CS4 and gives suggestions for how you can set them up.
2. How to Use Photoshop’s Basic Interface
Length: 6:16 min
This lesson is very handy for beginning Photoshop users because it demonstrates several often-used features of the program. You will see numerous ways to use the Zoom Tool, learn how to arrange multiple images in your workspace and get an introduction to other vital functions of Photoshop.
3. How to Use Basic Text Techniques
Length: 12:12 min
There are many occasions when you will want to add text to your pictures in Photoshop. This video explains how to add basic headlines or full paragraphs of text. It also shows you how to change the font, size, color, and warp effects of the text you are working with. This tutorial explains how to work with the Text Tool Bar, the Character window and the Paragraph panel to access a large variety of options that will make your words look just the way you want them to.
5. How to Do Basic Retouching-Part 1
Length: 3:54 min
This lesson in the basic Photoshop series covers the use of several tools found in the program’s left side navigation pane. These include the Spot Healing Brush Tool, the Healing Brush Tool, the Patch Tool and the Red Eye Tool. The tutorial will help you make the subjects in your photos look their best.
6. How to Do Basic Retouching-Part 2
Length: 4:16 min
By using the Clone Stamp or Rubber Stamp Tool, you can touch up all kinds of problem areas on your pictures. This is true whether you are working with portraits, landscapes, still lifes or all of these. The tutorial explains how to us the rubber stamp to add a new object to your picture and the eraser to eliminate elements that were copied unintentionally.
7. How to Use Photoshop’s Basic Filters
Length: 8:31 min
There are an almost infinite number of special effects you can create by using Photoshop’s array of filters. This tutorial explains how you can use filters to make changes to an entire image or to change just the elements that you have selected from within the picture. This lesson provides a good introduction to this important tool and allows you to become familiar with some of your many options.
8. How to Use Photoshop’s Basic Selection Tools – 1
Length: 10:55 min
You will often want to make changes to only one or two elements of your photo, which need to be selected when working with Photoshop. This tutorial covers the use of the Marquee Tools in conjunction with the Option Bar to select the exact area of a picture that you need. It also explains how to use the various Lasso Tools that are an important part of Photoshop.
9. How to Use Photoshop’s Basic Selection Tools – 2
Length: 6:58 min
Photoshop provides many different ways for you select the part of an image that you want to work on. This tutorial covers some of the basic tools for selecting elements, such as the Magic Wand Tool and the Quick Selection Tool. After you become familiar with the options offered by CS 4, you will be able to choose the proper instrument for the job you are working on at the moment.
10. How to Use Photoshop’s Basic Crop & Scale Tools
Length: 9:37 min
One of the most important basic skills a Photoshop user needs is the ability to crop and scale photographs. This lesson shows you how to use these tools on an entire image as well as how you can use them to alter just one or two elements within a photograph.
11. How to Use Photoshop’s Color Selection Tools
Length: 8:39 min
As you work with Photoshop, you’ll find that you often want to adjust the colors that you see in your images. This tutorial explains several basic ways to find the color you want, to apply it to the elements that you select and create a vibrant, interesting image.
12. How to Use Photoshop’s Basic Brush Tools
Length: 8:46 min
Nearly every kind of Photoshop project requires the use of brushes and the program supplies a wide array of these tools. This lesson gives you an introduction into the basics of choosing the correct brush for the job, modifying its size, shape, edges, hardness, etc and putting it through its paces. You’ll also learn how to save a particular brush for future jobs and how to create and manage brush presets.
13. How to Create a Basic Custom Brush
Length: 4:54 min
This tutorial gives you more ideas for creating custom brushes for jobs that you do often. The technique can be a real timesaver when it comes to working on repeat projects.
14. How to Use Basic Adjustments in Photoshop – 1
Length: 9:06 min
This tutorial demonstrates a number of techniques you can use from the Image menu to make helpful adjustments to your pictures. There are three auto-tools found there that will automatically make changes to the tone, color and contrast of your picture. There are also several other commands that allow you to make manual adjustments to any of those properties and more.
15. How to Use Basic Adjustments in Photoshop – 2
Length: 5:58 min
This second lesson dealing with Photoshop Adjustments gives you a good look at adjustment layers and how they can be useful for your projects. You will learn how to add an adjustment layer and become acquainted with some of the many options you have for modifying your image with this tool.
16. How to Use Basic Layers-Part 1
Length: 8:22 min
Just about every project you work on in Photoshop will require that you use the Layers Palette. This tutorial gets you started on the basics of layers by explaining the concept and demonstrating how you can use layers to make changes to your photo without harming or changing the original image in any way. It also shows how you can use layers to add new elements to an existing picture.
17. How to Use Basic Layers-Part 2
Length: 8:32 min
This tutorial will be especially useful if you work in the advertising or marketing fields because it shows you how to use layers effectively when adding text to your photos. The lesson also demonstrates how to use Layer Styles to create some stunning effects within your pictures. You will see how to add a Drop Shadow, an Outer Glow, and several other unique looks to your photo.
18. How to Use Basic Layers-Part 3
Length: 8:01 min
This third tutorial covering the use of layers in Photoshop examines the use of some positioning tools such as aligning the top edges, vertical or horizontal centers or side edges of your various layers. You’ll also get an introduction to applying masks, which lets you choose what will and what will not be shown on a particular layer. The lesson ends with several ways to save your image. You will learn how to preserve your project so that you can easily return to it and make more changes later, and how to save a final image, as well.
19. How to Use Photoshop’s Save and Print Commands
Length: 9:44 min
In case of a power outage or hard drive failure, you should be in the habit of saving your work at frequent intervals. This lesson gives you all the information you need to save your images in changeable layers, or as final images. There are also tips for printing from Photoshop.
20. How to Use the Pen Tool
Length: 5:06 min
Photoshop’s Pen Tool allows you to create a variety of shapes in their own layers. The Pen is very versatile and can be used to add any kind of shape to your image that you can imagine. This tutorial gives you a good overview of this very useful tool.
21. How to Understand the Fundamentals of Image Size
Length: 8:07 min
The size and resolution of any image will determine whether it is suitable for enlargement or for printing or for using on a website. This lesson will help you understand the fundamentals of image size and manipulate them for the particular job you are doing.
22. How to Change the Print Resolution of an Image
Length: 6:56 min
There is a big difference between photos you plan to print out and photos you want to use on a website or in a computer application. This tutorial explains more of the basics of image size and helps you understand how to get the best-looking pictures to come from your printer.
23. How to Downsample an Image
Length: 4:37 min
When you import pictures into your computer, you may be asked if you want to convert all of them to .jpg format before you bring them in. It is a much better idea to import them as raw data so that you retain all of the contrast and definition of the originals. You can always use the techniques described in this lesson to reduce the images to a smaller size once you are working with them in Photoshop.
24. How to Use Photoshop for Successful Compositing
Length: 9:01 min
When you want to combine two pictures into a composite, you first need to make sure their sizes and resolutions match. This lesson explains how you can make two pictures compatible for merging them together.
25. How to Retouch or Resize a Subject’s Nose
Length: 5:19 min
Because of camera angles and lighting differences, the noses of your subjects may look slightly larger in a photo than they do in real life. This tutorial gives you some tricks for reducing the size of a nose while retaining the natural look of the feature. By using the Free Transform Tool, you’ll be able to achieve beautiful results that will please your subject as well as you.
26. How to Retouch a Subject’s Nose in Profile View
Length: 2:07 min
By choosing the Liquefy Tool from the Filter menu, you can make slight but appealing changes to the profile of your subject’s nose. This tutorial give you a quick overview of how the tool works to enhance even the most stunning facial features.
27. How to Add Catchlights
Length: 11:27 min
The most lifelike portraits that you see, whether they feature a person on an animal, will reveal catchlights in the eyes of the subject. These are the small bright spots that show reflected light from the subject’s environment. You can follow the directions in this tutorial to learn how to add catchlights to your pictures for an additional dose of realism.
28. How to Enhance Catchlights
Length: 4:15 min
Catchlights, the small bright spots that show reflected light in a subject’s eyes, help to give pictures, especially portraits, more depth and life-like qualities. Sometimes you may need to enhance the natural catchlights in a photo to give your image more personality. This tutorial explains how to use the brush tool to trace catchlights and give them a bit more prominence.
29. How to Add Contrast to an Image
Length: 1:56 min
This short tutorial shows you how to use the Sharpen option in the Filter menu to create an appealing contrast between a subject’s skin and the other elements of the picture. The technique provides a way to get more detail and definition in your images.
30. How to Add Contrast to Skin Tones
*Bonus Video – Length: 3:15 min
You can create lovely contrasts in the skin tones of your subjects by using the methods explained in this tutorial. By using the Channel Panel, Photoshop will help you select different sections of your image, which can be brightened or darkened according to your personal preference. The result will be sharply defined, elegant pictures that can be used for many occasions.
31. How to Change Eye Color-Part 1
Length: 2:58 min
Photoshop makes it easy to change the color of your subject’s eyes (and just about anything else that you want to give a new color to). This tutorial will show you how to use the Color Replacement Tool to change the eyes of your subjects from baby blue to golden brown or any shade in between.
32. How to Change Eye Color-Part 2
Length: 2:56 min
This tutorial illustrates another technique you can use to change the color of your subject’s eyes. It explains the use of the Quick Selection Tool for selecting only the eyes on a portrait. Then it gives directions for adjusting the Hue and Saturation settings to achieve just the shade of beautiful eyes you are looking for.
33. How to Add a Smile to Your Subject
Length: 3:29 min
If the model in your photograph does not look happy enough for your purposes, you can use the information in this tutorial to learn how to add a natural-looking smile to his or her face. It is especially useful if you have a group picture with only one or two members of the group that weren’t smiling when the photo was snapped. The Liquefy Tool found in the Filter menu is handy for this kind of job.
34. How to Color by Numbers’ and Correct Skin Tone
Length: 5:55 min
Many photographers have trouble capturing the true skin tone of a subject. This tutorial gives some useful tricks and tips for using Photoshop to recreate natural skin tone even if your original picture is less than perfect in that department.
35. How to Remove an Earring or Other Objects
Length: 5:58 min
If your portrait has an unwanted element like a strap, jewelry piece or other object that detracts from its overall appearance, you can use Photoshop to eliminate it. By using the Quick Selection Tool along with some other handy utilities, you can make it look like the unwanted parts of your photo never even existed.
36. How to Create a Digital Portrait from a Photograph
Length: 11:17 min
Graphic artists who use digital design tools often create interesting portraits. This tutorial demonstrates how you can use Photoshop to convert an ordinary photo into something that looks like it was drawn by a graphic artist. You will see how to use the Blur Tool and how to apply various filters to achieve the effect you are going for.
37. How to Correct Over- and Under-Exposed Images
Length: 5:08 min
If you do portrait photography, you may have many occasions when your model’s face is either too bright or too dark. This lesson demonstrates how you can use the Channels Palette along with a brush tool to correct these sorts of problems.
38. How to Do a Batch Resize
Length: 5:54min
When you have a group of pictures you want to use for a website, an email message or for similar purposes, you often want all of the images to be the same size for the most uniform appearance. Photoshop has a handy tool that lets you treat all of the pictures in any group you select as a “batch” so you can resize them all at once. This tutorial explains the basic process of resizing an entire folder full of images in one smooth operation.
39. How to Do a Batch Rename
Length: 5:17 min
When you import pictures into Photoshop from a camera or scanner, each image will often be given a name that consists of some numbers and letters. These kinds of names are not really useful when you need to find a particular picture in a large group. However, giving each one an individual name can be very time-consuming. That’s why Photoshop provides a streamlined way for you to give a more descriptive name to each picture in a group by treating them as a batch. This video will explain how..
40. How to Change a Photo to a Vector Image
Length: 3:54 min
If you do much graphic design work, you’ll find this tutorial very handy. Itdemonstrates how to take any ordinary photograph and transform it into a vector image that can give a cool, modern edge to a website, logo or other design element.
41. How to Use Actions
Length: 8:26 min
Using the Actions panel and some of the Batch capture tools can save you a ton of time when you come in from a photo shoot and begin to work with your images. Because changes performed in the Actions palette can be applied to all the photos in a particular folder, you’ll be able to avoid unnecessary and tedious duplication of effort. For example, if all of your photos of a certain event have a greenish cast, you can correct the problem on one picture and apply the changes to the batch.
42. How to Create an Efficient Workflow Strategy
Length: 6:46 min
As you work with Photoshop, you’ll learn that performing your alterations and touch-ups in a particular order will eliminate the necessity of re-doing some of your previous work as you go along. This tutorial gives you an overview of the most efficient workflows that Photoshop veterans use to perform modifications to their pictures.
43. How to Remove Blue Haze
Length: 5:16 min
When looking at landscape pictures, you may have noticed that objects positioned farther away from the camera often take on an unnatural blue haze. Photoshop provides some tools to help you eliminate this problem and make your outdoor scenes look beautiful and realistic. This tutorial will help you create more definition and lifelike colors in your outdoor photographs.
44. How to Combine Black & White Images with Color
Length: 3:34 min
You may have seen wedding announcements or party invitations that combine a black and white image with a color background, or vice versa. This Photoshop tutorial gives you some useful tips and tricks for creating this popular, interesting effect.
45. How to Change a Color of Photo to Match Another
Length: 10:19 min
By choosing LAB Colors from the Image>Mode menu, you can use Photoshop to create a color that matches perfectly from one image to another. The three letters in LAB, in this case, stand for Light, Saturation and Hue, and can be adjusted easily by using the technique explained in the tutorial. You can learn to change the color of any element in your photos to match a desired color from any other image.
46. How to Add the Blur of Motion to Your Photos
Length: 4:16 min
If the subject of your picture is moving, you can infuse extra excitement into the image by adding a motion blur to the background. This will make the focal point of the picture appear to be moving quickly through the surrounding area and will help the photo come alive.
47. How to Adjust Shadows, Highlights & Mid-tones
Length: 8:28 min
If you have a photo with areas that are too bright or too dark, Photoshop provides several auto tools that will help you adjust the problems. This tutorial will explain how to use the auto-color, auto-tone and auto-contrast commands to give your image a balanced, appealing look.
48. How to Fix a Blurry Photo
Length: 3:22 min
If you have a lot of trouble with the pictures that you take coming out blurred, you may need to adjust your shutter speed or invest in a tripod to keep the camera still. However, you can do a certain amount of repair on a blurry image in Photoshop that will improve its quality. This tutorial gives you the basics of this technique.
49. How to Tint Car Windows
Length: 2:32 min
This brief lesson will show you how to change an ordinary car window or windshield into a dark, mysterious piece of glass that may be hiding a celebrity… or a mob boss. There are only a couple of steps needed to make any car look like it’s ready for a presidential motorcade, which you can learn with ease.
50. How to Remove a Subject’s Scar or Tattoo
Length: 3:31 min
By using the Patch Tool (located in the same area as the Healing Brush Tool), you can make your subject’s skin look as if it has never had a tattoo or scar. This tutorial gives you the hints and tips necessary to erase these kinds of marks and make your model’s skin look unblemished and perfect.
51. How to Straighten a Crooked Photo
Length: 4:52 min
Whenever you photograph a building or any subject outside, there is a chance that your picture may come out looking crooked. This lesson will show you how to make adjustments by using the ruler at the top and side of your project so that the horizon, roof or other element in your photo has the perfect orientation to make the picture look straight and square.
52. How to Add Selective Color to a Black & White Photo
Length: 4:12 min
Making part of an image colorful while the rest of it is in black and white is a great way to add visual interest to a picture. It is also useful for bringing attention to most important element in a photograph. This tutorial shows you how to use the Quick Selection Tool along with masking techniques to get this interesting special effect.
53. How to Add Rose Cast to a Photo
Length: 6:22 min
The makers of cosmetics, lingerie and similar products often add a soft rosy glow to the images they use for their advertising campaigns. This tutorial gives you step-by-step directions for taking any of your photographs and casting them in an appealing pinkish shade.
54. How to Improve the Appearance of a Back-lit Photo
Length: 2:57 min
When you take a picture with the light coming from behind your subject, you are likely to get an image with washed-out colors that looks flat and uninteresting. This tutorial explains how you can use Photoshop to punch up a backlit image and give it more life and dimension.
55. How to Use Photoshop’s History Panel
Length: 6:27 min
If you colored outside of the lines when you were young, you may have been frustrated because there was no way you could undo that mistake. Fortunately, Photoshop has a History Panel that lets you go back in time to recreate the way an image looked before you made changes to it. This lesson explains how to get the most benefit from this tool.
56. How to Paint Back in Time with Photoshop
Length: 2:17 min
As you work on your Photoshop projects, the program will keep track of all the changes you make in a History Panel. If, for any reason, you decide that you want to go back to the way an image was before you performed some of the modifications on it, you can use the techniques explained here to go backwards in time and restore your project to the way it was earlier. The History Brush will allow you to undo just one of your changes while keeping all the other adjustments that you have made.
57. How to Make Objects Appear to be Flying
Length: 5:00min
If you have a photo of an airplane, a bird, a balloon or any other flying object, you can make it look like it is flying through billowy clouds even if the sky was clear when you took the photo. This lesson demonstrates how you can use the Magic Wand Tool, the Channels Panel and a couple of other techniques to give your airy photo added interest.
58. How to Combine Several Images into One Scene
Length: 13:16 min
This tutorial gives you a good idea of the unlimited creativity that is possible with Photoshop. It demonstrates how to use some of the selection tools to add elements of several different pictures into one, unique and emotionally charged image. The possibilities are endless when you learn this technique.
59. How to Use a Luminosity Mask
Length: 2:09 min
Knowing how to use a luminosity mask will give you the skills to punch up the color and contrast in your pictures, leading to more interesting and vibrant images. It works particularly well for landscape or cityscape photos that are lacking in verve or drama.
60. How to Create a High-Contrast Image
Length: 5:26 min
The Smart Objects command found under the Adjustments menu of Photoshop allows you to change the shadows and highlights in your image. This lesson shows how you can use this tool in conjunction with Unsharp Mask and some other tools to create special effects such as a sepia-toned wash. Your final result should be a photograph that is full of visual interest.
61. How to Create Great Black and White Images
Length: 3:53 min
Black and white photographs of the past often told a story very clearly and in great detail. Even in the age of digital photography, there is a place for creating certain black and white images that help preserve a true art form. This tutorial shows you how to take any color photograph and convert it to an energetic and lifelike black and white picture by adjusting the saturation, hue, contrast and other properties.
62. How to Create Floating Clothes
Length: 13:04 min
If you work in a clothing store or deal in merchandizing, you may want to use this technique to create fun and interesting visuals. This tutorial explains how to use the Clone Stamp, the gradient menu and several other tools to make it look like a set of clothing is floating or jumping in the sky all by itself.
63. How to Adjust the Depth of Field in a Digital Photo
Length: 5:08 min
Of course you know that the term depth of field refers to the area of your picture that will be in sharp focus. For example, if you set the depth of field between 5 and 10 feet, everything that is closer than 5 feet from your camera lens or further than 10 feet away will be blurry. This tutorial explains how you can use Photoshop to simulate a new depth of field on an image that brings the most important elements into focus.
64. How to Create a Polaroid Picture Image
Length: 7:15 min
If you create brochures or scrapbooks, you may have an occasion when you want one of your pictures to look like it was taken by an instant camera. This tutorial explains how to use several Photoshop tools in combination to get the Polaroid look even from a regular digital photo.
65. How to Swap Atmospheric Conditions of Images
Length: 2:59 min
If you have an outdoor picture with a rather nondescript sky or background, you can use the color scheme from another, more exciting image and apply it to your boring one. This tutorial demonstrates how to take the sky color from one photo and use it in another one so that it will have more appeal and depth.
66. How to Use Photoshop’s Camera Raw Plug-In
Length: 7:11 min
Photoshop comes bundled with a Plug-In called Camera Raw. This tutorial shows you how you can use this handy mini-program to make some quick and easy changes to your pictures before you start working on them in Photoshop. You will learn how to access Raw and get an overview of its basic features.
67. How to Prepare Photos with Camera Raw Plug-In
Length: 5:27 min
Using some of the tools provided in the Raw plug-in can make your job much easier once you finally begin a true Photoshop project. This lesson explains how to use some of the basic features of Raw as a way to prepare an image for importing into Photoshop. You should keep in mind that any changes you make in Camera Raw can be undone once you actually have the picture in Photoshop.
68. How to Adjust the White Balance of an Image
Length: 6:00 min
Photoshop’s Camera Raw Plug-in allows you to make quick changes to improve your images before you even import them into Photoshop CS4. This tutorial covers the use of the Bridge program, which is bundled with Adobe products, to make sorting and managing your pictures easier. It explains how to use the Raw Plug-in to adjust the white balance in an image.
69. How to Adjust the Temperature and Tint of an Image
Length: 5:58 min
Once you have used Camera Raw to adjust the white balance of your image, you might want to change its temperature and tint. This video walks you through the steps necessary to improve your image quickly before you even start working with it in Photoshop.
70. How to Reduce Noise in Your Images
Length: 3:49 min
If you take many pictures at night, you’ve probably noticed that they have a lot of unnecessary and distracting noise (pixels that appear where they are not wanted). This tutorial shows you how to reduce the extra color pixilation that is unattractive while still retaining the details that you want to preserve in your photo.
71. How to Add a Realistic Reflection to Your Image
Length: 4:15
If you would like to make an object in your picture look like it is being reflected in a mirror or in a body of water, Photoshop has some tools that make the job manageable. This lesson explains the steps you should take to add a reflection to any part of your picture.
72. How to Add an Accurate Shadow to Your Image
Length: 7:06 min
Images with natural-looking shadows often have more depth and liveliness than those without. You can use this tutorial to learn how to add a realistic shadow to elements in your picture. When you become skilled at the technique, no one will ever know the image has been “Photoshopped.”
73. How to Blend Two Images Together
Length: 6:23 min
Using Photoshop’s Move Tool allows you to take elements of one picture and add them into another. This is handy when you are shooting a group with one person missing. A skilled Photoshop user can apply these techniques to add the missing person in at a later date.
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