Photoshop Basics for Artists 2022 - Class/Homework Thread Part I

[AWaichulis (Anthony Waichulis)]

Here you will find all of the information (appropriate links (including Dropbox folder links for homework), notes, reminders, etc.) for Anthony’s Photoshop 101 (Photoshop Basics for Artists)

NOTE: Please respect the work, rights, and privacy of participating artists. You may view the uploaded homework efforts from the class within the Dropbox folder, but you may not download or manipulate their work in any way. Anya and I will be downloading uploaded homework or classwork images when needed/appropriate, but we will never share anyone’s images outside of the class without express permission from the author. All files in the Drobox folders will be deleted at the end of the course. In addition, please know that classes will not be recorded to respect each participant’s learning experience.

If there are files required for the week’s homework, then they will be available in a folder called “WeekX_Resources” in the appropriate week’s folder. You will need to download to files in this folder to complete the week’s homework. However, please be sure not to remove or add anything to this folder.

WEEK ONE:

Select fundamental concepts about digital images and related Photoshop image management.
The resources folder for this weel will contain one large example image file for personal homework use if you do not have a large file of your own. This will be addressed in class.

DROPBOX FOLDER LINK:

Today we discussed several fundamental aspects of digital imaging. We covered the pixel, the dot, ppi, dpi, resolution, image size, image quality (compression), file size, megapixel, megabyte, and file formats (psd, tiff, jpeg, png, gif, raw, cr2.)

Some definitions we used:

• MP (Megapixels)
  A pixel is a smallest possible element of a digital picture. A megapixel is 1 million pixels. A pixel is not necessarily a square, though for ease of use most photo imaging software suites will render them as such; it is more easily referenced to as a measurement of area.

• Resolution
  This is the number of pixels in height and width across a screen or digital image. For example, an image with a resolution of 1024 x 768 would have 786,432 pixels or 0.8 megapixels (rounded up).

• PPI (Pixels Per Inch)
  Pixels per inch is the density of pixels over a 1 inch area. You can determine the PPI of a device by taking the resolution and dividing it by the physical width and height of the device. 300 PPI is generally the highest aimed-for density, as the human eye cannot tell the difference in image quality beyond that. Displays generally use subpixels of RGB color to generate actual pixels.

• DPI (Dots Per Inch)
  In terms of physical printed images, dots per inch is the density of individual ink dots that a printer is able to generate. In comparative terms to PPI, you can’t compare the two. DPI is for printed photos, and PPI is for digital displays. In terms of conversion from resolution, a printer can treat pixels as dots and in such case a higher DPI setting would result in higher quality but also in a smaller picture. Although a printer may say “Can Print up to 2400 DPI,” that doesn’t mean that you’ll actually ever print anything with that high of a density.

We also discussed two common ppi settings relative to our focus: 72ppi and 300ppi.

“In general, 300ppi at the original size is considered minimum to reproduce the photograph well at the size of the original.”— A passage from the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative’s Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials.

Keep in mind how many of these concepts are tied together. One example given today was “a 1 megapixel image (approx. 1 million pixels) taken with a DSLR camera with a 2:3 aspect ratio would be 1200x900 pixels.”

HOMEWORK: Due in Dropbox by Oct. 12th

Scenario (please read carefully!!!): A popular gallery contacts you for a “high-res jpeg” image of one of your artworks for use in an upcoming feature in a magazine. In addition, they would like to add the image to their website. Their IT person is pretty busy as the moment and asked if you could make a second image ready for website upload. They request “a smaller version with a height ranging anywhere from 700 to 1000px.”

Please put the two files you would send to the gallery in this week’s Dropbox folder. Each “correct” file submitted in time is worth 1 point.

[AWaichulis (Anthony Waichulis)]

Here you will find all of the information (appropriate links (including Dropbox folder links for homework), notes, reminders, etc.) for Photoshop 101 (Photoshop Basics for Artists) Week Two.

NOTE: Please respect the work, rights, and privacy of participating artists. You may view the uploaded homework efforts from the class within the Dropbox folder, but you may not download or manipulate their work in any way. Anya and I will be downloading uploaded homework or classwork images when needed/appropriate, but we will never share anyone’s images outside of the class without express permission from the author. All files in the Drobox folders will be deleted at the end of the course. In addition, please know that classes will not be recorded to respect each participant’s learning experience.

If there are files required for the week’s homework, then they will be available in a folder called “WeekX_Resources” in the appropriate week’s folder. You will need to download to files in this folder to complete the week’s homework. However, please be sure not to remove or add anything to this folder.

Today we discussed the homework from Week 1, the new file format WebP, why a jpeg’s file size is larger when opened in Photoshop, file naming, goals and controls (e.g., Save As/Export), the Helmholtz–Kohlrausch effect, Color Modes (RGB, CMYK, and Grayscale,) Image Resampling, and Color Bit Depth (8, 16, and 24 bit.)

As to file naming: Moving forward, images should have the following format (where fields are appropriate):

Name_Title_Size-in-inches (height first)_Medium (if applicable)_Price (if applicable)_SMALL/MED/LARGE-or-PPI

Some definitions we used:

• Image Size Resample
  This is an option in the image sizing window that, when checked, allows the changing of the actual number of pixels in the image.

• Color Mode
  Color modes or image modes are the basis for the representation of a pixel’s color value. These modes determine how an image will be represented on screen or in print. For instance, use CMYK color mode for images in a full-color print brochure, and use RGB color mode for images in web or e-mail to reduce file size while maintaining color integrity.

Different color modes:

1. RGB mode ((Red-Green-Blue) This is a universal mode which your desktop and camera use. RGB stands for Red, Green, and Blue so it manages colors via configurations/combinations of red, green, and blue. This mode has the largest gamut of the modes we discussed.
2. CMYK mode ((Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black) The next most common mode. This mode manages color in a way that is conducive to common printing processes. This mode has a smaller gamut than RGB as print media may not be able to “hit” all the colors that your computer displays can.
Fun Fact: The K in CMYK is known as the Key, because it’s the key plate that prints all the detail in a printed image. In printing, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow plates are properly aligned with the Key plate.
3. Grayscale mode This is the most basic mode, consisting of a single channel that maps values to grays, from black to white.

WHEN CHANGING MODES:

You can change an image from its original mode (source mode) to a different mode (target mode) by going to IMAGE>MODE. Keep in mind that when you choose a different color mode for an image, you permanently change the color values in the image. For example, when you convert an RGB image to CMYK mode, RGB color values outside the CMYK gamut are adjusted to fall within gamut. As a result, some image data may be lost and can’t be recovered if you convert the image from CMYK back to RGB.

TIP: Before converting images, it’s best to do the following:

• Do as much editing as possible in the original image mode.
• Save a backup copy before converting. Be sure to save a copy of your image that includes all layers so that you can edit the original version of the image after the conversion.
• Flatten the file before converting it as the interaction of colors between layer blending modes changes when the mode changes. (We will get to this next week!)

• Color Bit Depth
  Bit depth quantifies how many unique colors are available in an image’s color palette in terms of the number of 0’s and 1’s, or “bits,” which are used to specify each color. This does not mean that the image necessarily uses all of these colors, but that it can instead specify colors with that level of precision. For a grayscale image, the bit depth quantifies how many unique values are available. Images with higher bit depths can encode more shades or colors since there are more combinations of 0’s and 1’s available.

Every color pixel in a digital image is created through some combination of the three primary colors: red, green, and blue. Each primary color is often referred to as a “color channel” and can have any range of intensity values specified by its bit depth. The bit depth for each primary color is termed the “bits per channel.” The “bits per pixel” (bpp) refers to the sum of the bits in all three color channels and represents the total colors available at each pixel. Confusion arises frequently with color images because it may be unclear whether a posted number refers to the bits per pixel or bits per channel. Using “bpp” as a suffix helps distinguish these two terms.

Most color images from digital cameras have 8-bits per channel and so they can use a total of eight 0’s and 1’s. This allows for 28 or 256 different combinations—translating into 256 different intensity values for each primary color. When all three primary colors are combined at each pixel, this allows for as many as 28*3 or 16,777,216 different colors, or “true color.” This is referred to as 24 bits per pixel since each pixel is composed of three 8-bit color channels. The number of colors available for any X-bit image is just 2X if X refers to the bits per pixel and 23X if X refers to the bits per channel.

TIP: The available bit depth settings depend on the file type. Standard JPEG and TIFF files can only use 8-bits and 16-bits per channel, respectively.

HOMEWORK: Due in Dropbox by Wednesday Oct. 19th, 12pm EST

Homework: Locate a “high-res” color version of a favorite masterwork online and save it to your desktop. Using that file, generate two grayscale versions—one should be an “unweighted” desaturation and the other, a curated, weighted version that you feel best compensates for the loss of what hue and chroma (saturation) contributions. Upload both to the homework folder as “high quality” jpegs in the ballpark of 200ppi@5x7. This is worth 4 points!!!

Bonus Scenario: You have been invited to participate in an upcoming book that explores how artists might reinterpret the value structure of their own color paintings, drawings or photographs if they were limited to grayscale. The publishers request 2 images of a single work, one with a simple unweighted desaturation, and one with an artist-curated, weighted desaturation. Both files should be print-ready, high-res (300ppi@8x10inches) but small enough to be sent via email. Please upload the two files you would send, formatted and appropriately labeled to this week’s homework folder. This bonus is with 2 points!!!

[AWaichulis (Anthony Waichulis)]

Here you will find all of the information (appropriate links (including Dropbox folder links for homework), notes, reminders, etc.) for Photoshop 101 (Photoshop Basics for Artists) Week Three.

NOTE: Please respect the work, rights, and privacy of participating artists. You may view the uploaded homework efforts from the class within the Dropbox folder, but you may not download or manipulate their work in any way. Anya and I will be downloading uploaded homework or classwork images when needed/appropriate, but we will never share anyone’s images outside of the class without express permission from the author. All files in the Drobox folders will be deleted at the end of the course. In addition, please know that classes will not be recorded to respect each participant’s learning experience.

If there are files required for the week’s homework, then they will be available in a folder called “WeekX_Resources” in the appropriate week’s folder. You will need to download to files in this folder to complete the week’s homework. However, please be sure not to remove or add anything to this folder.

Today we discussed Photoshop layers!

Photoshop layers are like sheets of stacked acetate. You can see through transparent areas of a layer to the layers below. You move a layer to position the content on the layer, like sliding a sheet of acetate in a stack. You can also change the opacity of a layer to make content partially transparent.
Transparent areas on a layer let you see layers below.

You use layers to perform tasks such as compositing multiple images, adding text to an image, or adding vector graphic shapes. You can apply a layer style to add a special effect such as a drop shadow or a glow.

A new image has a single layer. The number of additional layers, layer effects, and layer sets you can add to an image is limited only by your computer’s memory.

You work with layers in the Layers panel. Layer groups help you organize and manage layers. You can use groups to arrange your layers in a logical order and to reduce clutter in the Layers panel. You can nest groups within other groups. You can also use groups to apply attributes and masks to multiple layers simultaneously.

Sometimes layers don’t contain any apparent content. For example, an adjustment layer holds color or tonal adjustments that affect the layers below it. Rather than edit image pixels directly, you can edit an adjustment layer and leave the underlying pixels unchanged.

Photoshop Layers panel overview

The Layers panel in Photoshop lists all layers, layer groups, and layer effects in an image. You can use the Layers panel to show and hide layers, create new layers, and work with groups of layers. You can access additional commands and options in the Layers panel menu.

• Marquee tool is the basic selection tool that can select your Photoshop layer in several shapes, like rectangle, ellipse, single-pixel vertical and horizontal line, square, and circle, etc. By default, the marquee tool makes the rectangular selection. But you can change to another variant of the marquee tool according to your needs.

To learn more about this tool:

Select with the marquee tools

• Move Tool
  The Move tool helps you position selected content or layers when customizing your work.
  Just as the name says, the Move Tool moves things around your canvas. Whether that be layers, text, or selections, this tool has you covered. It can also be used to align layers to your canvas or an active selection.

Use the Move tool to move elements in a document

– What Can The Move Tool Move?

Entire Layers: Whether it be smart objects or a regular layer, the Move Tool can select and reposition an entire layer at once.

Text Layers: The Move Tool can reposition any text layer simply by clicking and dragging the text to a new position.

Selections: Any selection can be repositioned with the Move Tool, but the selected layer behind the selection will come with it.

• Cut/Copy/Paste/etc
  You can use the Move tool to copy selections as you drag them within or between images, or you can copy and move selections using the Copy, Copy Merged, Cut, and Paste commands. Dragging with the Move tool saves memory because you don’t use the clipboard.
  When you paste a selection or layer between images with different resolutions, the pasted data retains its pixel dimensions. This can make the pasted portion appear out of proportion to the new image. Use the Image Size command to make the source and destination images the same resolution before copying and pasting, or use the Free Transform command to resize the pasted content.

Understanding the Copy and Paste commands

• Copy (Ctrl-C)
  Copies the selected area on the active layer.

• Cut (Ctrl-X)
  Removes the selected area on the active layer and adds it to the clipboard.

• Copy Merged
  Makes a merged copy of all the visible layers in the selected area.

• Paste (Ctrl-V)
  Pastes a copied selection into another part of the image or into another image as a new layer. If you have a selection, the Paste command places the copied selection over the current selection. Without an active selection, Paste places the copied selection in the middle of the view area.

Additional tools from today:

• Eraser Tool
  The Eraser tool changes pixels to either the background color or to transparent. If you’re working on a background or in a layer with transparency locked, the pixels change to the background color; otherwise, the pixels are erased to transparency.

• Transform controls
  The Transform feature allows users to alter their object or selection in a variety of ways, such as scale, rotate, distort, or flip (mirror). To use the Transform feature, select a layer or create a new selections. Got to Edit in the menu, select Transform, and select the type of transformation you wish to make. (Ctrl-T.)

Special Mention: Gaussian Blur

What is Gaussian blurring?

Named after mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (rhymes with “grouse”), Gaussian (“gow-see-an”) blur is the application of a mathematical function to an image in order to blur it. “It’s like laying a translucent material like vellum on top of the image,” says photographer Kenton Waltz. “It softens everything out.” A type of low-pass filter, Gaussian blur smoothes uneven pixel values in an image by cutting out the extreme outliers.

For more information on this filter:

Using Gaussian blur in Photoshop | Adobe

Homework: 2 options: Please complete at least one of the following: 2 points.

1. Using the supplied hot-air balloon “for-use” image, please add an additional balloon. You must use only the digital materials available within the image. Figuring out how to change the color is up to you! (We cover that next week.) You need only submit the edited version as a jpeg which should be the same image size as the original (but not necessarily the same file size as you are changing information.)

2. Using a “high-res” landscape image—please add at least two elements that might further promote the perception of depth in the picture. The resulting image should be no smaller than 200ppi @5x7”. Please submit the original landscape image along with the edited version to complete this challenge.

Bonus Scenario (2 points.): With a show coming up on you quickly, you realize that you do not have much time for experimentation and/or exploration within your latest work in progress. However, you begin to think that the work might be significantly improved if a certain element was added. You know that if you don’t like it, the removal and “restoration” involved to get back on track will cost valuable painting hours. Luckily—you remember your Photoshop prowess and realize that you can take an image of the work in its current state and “photoshop” the element in there to see how it looks. Keep in mind that this exercises is focused on the impact to composition and spatial relationships. Stylistic appearance, consistent lighting. edgework, etc… will not be taken into account when grading this bonus challenge. Please include both the before and after image at no less than 200ppi @5x7”.

Completing all three challenges can earn you 6 points for this week! Good luck!

[AWaichulis (Anthony Waichulis)]

Here you will find all of the information (appropriate links (including Dropbox folder links for homework), notes, reminders, etc.) for Photoshop 101 (Photoshop Basics for Artists) Week Four.

NOTE: Please respect the work, rights, and privacy of participating artists. You may view the uploaded homework efforts from the class within the Dropbox folder, but you may not download or manipulate their work in any way. Anya and I will be downloading uploaded homework or classwork images when needed/appropriate, but we will never share anyone’s images outside of the class without express permission from the author. All files in the Drobox folders will be deleted at the end of the course. In addition, please know that classes will not be recorded to respect each participant’s learning experience.

If there are files required for the week’s homework, then they will be available in a folder called “WeekX_Resources” in the appropriate week’s folder. You will need to download to files in this folder to complete the week’s homework. However, please be sure not to remove or add anything to this folder.

PLEASE NOTE THT THIS IS OUR “HALLOWEEN CLASS” SO ANYONE IN COSTUME GETS 1 BONUS POINT FOR THE COURSE.

Here’s a few notes from todays class:

Getting to it! —Making Selections! (Ctrl-D) (De-select) (Goals and Controls)

Many of the selection tools in Photoshop are on the toolbar nested with similar tools.

When you choose a selection tool, more options appear across the top of the workspace. Options often include a set of icons describing how new selections will interact with existing ones. The first, a square, draws a new selection each time. The second, overlapping squares, adds to previous selections. The third, a filled and an empty square, subtracts the new selection from the previous. You can also subtract by holding the option key and making a new selection. The fourth, overlapping squares, keeps only the area shared by the new and previous selections.

In Photoshop, a selected area is bordered by ‘marching ants’.

• Marquee tool is the basic selection tool that can select your Photoshop layer in several shapes, like rectangle, ellipse, single-pixel vertical and horizontal line, square, and circle, etc. By default, the marquee tool makes the rectangular selection. But you can change to another variant of the marquee tool according to your needs***.***

• Lasso lets you draw freely around the object you want to select. The tool can be very imprecise without exceptional fine motor control. It is useful though when you want to make a rough selection.

• Polygonal Lasso selects shapes that consist of straight lines. These can be more complicated shapes than just squares or rectangles. Click and drag along one edge of a shape to create a line. To turn a corner, click once. The tool freezes the line at that point and lets you change direction. Next, hold the Shift key while dragging to make a horizontal or vertical line. The selection shape completes when you return to where you started or double click.

• Magnetic Lasso works like the Lasso. First, draw around the object that you want to select. As you draw, the line is drawn to prominent edges, like a magnet, to make a more precise selection. This tool works well when you are dealing with an object with a lot of curves.

Click one edge of the object that you want to select. Then, drag the line around the shape. Pins appear where the tool has locked onto an edge. The selection shape completes when you click on where you started or double click.

• Object Selection was introduced in the 2019 version of Photoshop. At first, it seems to work like the Marquee tool. First, draw a rectangle or lasso around the object that you want to select. Next, Photoshop analyses the contents of the shape to find an object within. The program then refines the selection around the subject.

• Quick Selection is a fast way of selecting a well-defined object. Click inside the object you want to select. Photoshop scans for colors and edges and expands the selection to include similar pixels. This toll is similar to a brush or eraser tool in that you can change the size, hardness, spacing, and angle of the brush stroke. Click the + icon to add to the selection.

• Magic Wand is used to select an area via color. Click on any color in your image, and the program highlights all areas containing this color. Tolerance in the options bar changes how precise the color selection is.

• Select Color Range can work like the Magic Wand tool. Select your entire image (dropdown or ctrl – a) and choose Color Range from the Select drop-down menu Select > Select Color Range. A new window opens. Select Sampled Colors from the drop-down menu and click on a color in your image. At higher levels of Fuzziness, similar colors are selected. You can also choose families of colors, like reds, from the drop-down menu. A thumbnail shows you a preview. White areas are selected. Grey areas are partially selected.

• Select Focus Area selects “in-focus” areas of your image. Go to Select > Focus Area. In the window that opens, you can adjust the focus range. Move the In-Focus Range slider to relax focus parameters or select a more precise focus. You can change the preview mode and how you want to output the selection.

• Select Subject is like the Object Selection tool–But even more “automated.” Choose the Select drop-down menu and click Select > Subject. Photoshop scans your image and selects likely subjects. Refine the selection using another tool.

Making adjustments Color (Value) - ** Remember that changes can be very destructive to the image. Always preserve an original by duplicating the layer or adding an adjustment layer.*

• Histogram is a graphical representation of the colors and tones in your photo. The bottom axis shows the range of brightness in the image from dark to light. The side axis shows the strength a given tone has at that particular brightness. Typically you’ll hear people say that the bulk of tones should be in the middle, but that’s not exactly right. A night scene of stars will have the bulk of the tones in the dark region, with a spike at the top. Same for a dark product shot on a white background.

Auto Tone – Auto Contrast – Auto Color

The Levels panel can show you the image histogram which plots the number of pixels in the whole image that have all values of intensity, from 0 to 255. Typically a “bad” image will not have pixels that go all the way from pure OFF (=0) to pure ON (=255). In other words the histogram might not have height above the base for all values across its width. PS would see this image as bland, without the full variation in intensity range of a “good” image.

• Auto Tone samples the entire image and assesses the color values individually. It goes into the Red layer, sets the darkest pixel as black, sets the lightest pixel as white, and redistributes all the other values in between the two. It then does the same for the Green layer, then finally for the Blue layer. Each color has been dealt with alone, and the result is a combination of the three. Each now has its contrast adjusted, essentially, and the result when you’ve changed each of these layers and combined them can often be quite dramatic because we now have a totally different combination of colors.

• Auto Contrast samples the three color values combined rather than splitting them apart, still adjusting the darkest pixel and lightest pixel, and still redistributing a bit in between. The result should, hopefully, be that any colors that needed a little extra punch now have it.

• Auto Color starts off the same as Auto Tone in that it splits up the colors and sets the darkest pixel to black and the lightest pixel to white, BUT rather than redistributing that remainder, it makes an attempt at getting the colors “right” by neutralizing certain midtones using a target color of RGB 128 gray and clips the shadows and highlight pixels by 0.5%. You can change these defaults in the Auto Color Correction Options dialog box.

The Brightness/Contrast adjustment lets you make simple adjustments to the tonal range of an image. Moving the brightness slider to the right increases tonal values and expands image highlights, to the left decreases values and expands shadows. The contrast slider expands or shrinks the overall range of tonal values in the image.

In normal mode, Brightness/Contrast applies proportionate (nonlinear) adjustments to the image layer, as with Levels and Curves adjustments. When Use Legacy is selected, Brightness/Contrast simply shifts all pixel values higher or lower when adjusting brightness. Since this can cause clipping or loss of image detail in highlight or shadow areas, using Brightness/Contrast in Legacy mode is not recommended for photographic images (but can be useful for editing masks or scientific imagery).

(LEGACY CHANGES ALL EQUALLY)

Levels Adjustment Panel: You use the Levels adjustment to correct the tonal range and color balance of an image by adjusting intensity levels of image shadows, midtones, and highlights. The Levels histogram is a visual guide for adjusting the image key tones.

The outer two Input Levels sliders map the black point and white point to the settings of the Output sliders. By default, the Output sliders are at level 0, where the pixels are black, and level 255, where the pixels are white. With the Output sliders in the default positions, moving the black input slider maps the pixel value to level 0 and moving the white point slider maps the pixel value to level 255. The remaining levels are redistributed between levels 0 and 255. This redistribution increases the tonal range of the image, in effect increasing the overall contrast of the image.

The middle Input slider moves the mid-tone (level 128) and changes the intensity values of the middle range of gray tones without dramatically altering the highlights and shadows.

Hue/Saturation Adjustment Panel: Hue/Saturation lets you adjust the hue, saturation, and lightness of a specific range of colors in an image or simultaneously adjust all the colors in an image. This adjustment is especially good for fine-tuning colors in a CMYK image so that they are in the gamut of an output device.

Homework: (2 points) Just like the Balloon image task that we tackled in last week’s class, using the supplied bird “for-class-use” image, please add an additional bird with altered colors. Like the balloon challenge, you must use only the digital materials available within the image. You need only submit the edited version as a jpeg which should be the same image size as the original (but not necessarily the same file size as you are changing information.)

Bonus Halloween Challenge Scenario (3 points): A prominent skeptic magazine has put out a call for paranormal investigators to submit their best paranormal photos so as to challenge their staff debunkers. Seeing the call, you quickly realize that your Photoshop prowess allows you to rise to the challenge. Please upload your entry at a size that could go to print in the Halloween edition of their magazine if applicable.

(An extra point will be awarded to anyone that submits all their homework by 10/31/22!)

With the costume bonus, a total of 7 points is available this week!

Happy Halloween!

[AWaichulis (Anthony Waichulis)]

Here you will find all of the information (appropriate links (including Dropbox folder links for homework), notes, reminders, etc.) for Photoshop 101 (Photoshop Basics for Artists) Week Five.

NOTE: Please respect the work, rights, and privacy of participating artists. You may view the uploaded homework efforts from the class within the Dropbox folder, but you may not download or manipulate their work in any way. Anya and I will be downloading uploaded homework or classwork images when needed/appropriate, but we will never share anyone’s images outside of the class without express permission from the author. All files in the Drobox folders will be deleted at the end of the course. In addition, please know that classes will not be recorded to respect each participant’s learning experience.

If there are files required for the week’s homework, then they will be available in a folder called “WeekX_Resources” in the appropriate week’s folder. You will need to download to files in this folder to complete the week’s homework. However, please be sure not to remove or add anything to this folder.

Here’s a few notes from today’s class:

Promotions!!! A hands-on review class.

• Brush Tool* The Brush Tool is a primary painting tool. It works like a traditional drawing tool by applying color using strokes. It’s located in the standard toolbar, and its default shortcut is the letter B. The Brush Tool works by adding a shaped mark on a layer, and if you continue pressing the mouse button or the pen on a tablet, several marks will be added, creating a stroke, until you release the pressure. The essential options for the Paint Tool in Photoshop are Brush Tip Shape, Blending Mode, Opacity, and Flow. You must understand those concepts before moving forward with the advanced settings.

Brush tool options

Set the following in the options bar. Options available vary with each tool.

Mode sets the method for blending the color you paint with the underlying existing pixels. Available modes change with the currently selected tool. Paint modes are similar to layer blending modes.

Opacity sets the transparency of color you apply. As you paint over an area, the opacity does not exceed the set level no matter how many times you move the pointer over the area, until you release the mouse button. If you stroke over the area again, you apply additional color, equivalent to the set opacity. Opacity of 100 percent is opaque.

Flow sets the rate at which color is applied as you move the pointer over an area. As you paint over an area, while holding down the mouse button, the amount of color builds up based on the flow rate, up to the opacity setting. For example, if you set the opacity to 33% and the flow to 33%, each time you move over an area, its color moves 33% toward the brush color. The total will not exceed 33% opacity unless you release the mouse button and stroke over the area again.

• Foreground Color is the color being applied by the brush tip and is found at the bottom of the Tools toolbar. To change the brush color in Photoshop, click on the Foreground Color and use the Color Picker to choose a new color.

• Paint bucket Tool, as the name suggests is used to paint a selected area or white area with a color or pattern with a similar color or is used to paint an uncolored area with a color or pattern.

Paintbucket Tool options:

Fill: You can pick whether to fill with the foreground color or a pattern.

Pattern: When you choose Pattern on the Options bar, you could choose a pre-programmed pattern, lots patterns from your pattern collections, or create a pattern of your very own.

Mode: You could select a fill blending mode, also, although you’ll be better served to establish your blend mode using your Layers panel because of much better editing flexibility.

Opacity: Readjust this worth making your fill semitransparent.

Tolerance: Like the Magic wand tool, you could choose a Tolerance level (0 to 255) that defines just how similar in color a pixel have to be prior to its picked for paint.

Anti-Alias: Select this alternative to assimilate the paint smoothly with the area not filled.

Contiguous: When chosen, the paint fills up just pixels that are touching within your option. When deselected, paint fills up all pixels within the Tolerance level that you define within your choice.

All Layers: This option applies paint based on the colors in all layers that are within the selection and Tolerance degree you specify.
Keep in mind: Similar to other Tools that fill, you could protect against the Paint Bucket tool from filling the transparent pixels. Just choose the transparency symbol in the Lock area of the Layers panel.

Homework: (2 points) Unfortunately, some promotional materials created on the artist’s behalf is less than stellar. This week we take the reigns and make a general multi-use advertisement (not necessarily print-ready though) that represents our efforts appropriately. Make sure that the advert contains a base image that communicates your “bona fides”, a headshot, and a general title. Submit only the single final jpg (in the usual ballpark of 5x7"@ 200ppi.) Anya will be grading this with one with fluency and legibility in mind!

Bonus Scenario (4 points): A new educational publication company has come across your work, and being obviously impressed–they offer you a lucrative deal to produce a new instructional/educational painting, drawing, or photography DVD. To get a “feel” for how you might like to be portrayed, they ask you to create a “mock-up” of the cover so that they may send it along to the production team. The goal then is to create a DVD cover that is both compelling, communicates your desired aesthetic, and clearly communicates the focus of your content (the latter being at the very least a title and a brief, to the point description or descriptive tagline.) As the production team would like to keep all options open (including the possibility of actually using your cover), the company rep also asks you to make the mockup print-ready at the standard DVD cover size of 7.1" high by 5.2" wide. Submit what you would send to the company rep!

Very much looking forward to your projects!!!

[AWaichulis (Anthony Waichulis)]

Here you will find all of the information (appropriate links (including Dropbox folder links for homework), notes, reminders, etc.) for Photoshop 101 (Photoshop Basics for Artists) Week Six.

NOTE: Please respect the work, rights, and privacy of participating artists. You may view the uploaded homework efforts from the class within the Dropbox folder, but you may not download or manipulate their work in any way. Anya and I will be downloading uploaded homework or classwork images when needed/appropriate, but we will never share anyone’s images outside of the class without express permission from the author. All files in the Drobox folders will be deleted at the end of the course. In addition, please know that classes will not be recorded to respect each participant’s learning experience.

If there are files required for the week’s homework, then they will be available in a folder called “WeekX_Resources” in the appropriate week’s folder. You will need to download to files in this folder to complete the week’s homework. However, please be sure not to remove or add anything to this folder.

Here’s a few notes from today’s class:

Today’s class was focused on the concept that the representations of your work should match the experience of the work at the easel as closely as possible.

Editing/Retouching/Repairing

• Guides and the Grid help in positioning images or elements precisely. Guides appear as nonprinting lines that float over the image that can be moved or removed. You can also lock them so that you don’t move them by accident.

• The Clone Stamp tool paints one part of an image over another part of the same image or over another part of any open document that has the same color mode. You can also paint part of one layer over another layer. The Clone Stamp tool is useful for duplicating objects or removing a defect in an image.

• The Healing Brush tool lets you correct imperfections, causing them to disappear into the surrounding image. Like the cloning tools, you use the Healing Brush tool to paint with sampled pixels from an image or pattern. However, the Healing Brush tool also matches the texture, lighting, transparency, and shading of the sampled pixels to the pixels being healed. As a result, the repaired pixels blend seamlessly into the rest of the image.

Both of these Tools let you select a sampling point. This is the part of the image you want to keep, and paint over Distractions and blemishes. The clone stamp paints a complete copy of whatever you select. However, the Healing Brush Tool keeps the Highlights and Shadows of wherever you’re painting and only paints the Color of your sampling area. This makes the Clone Stamp much more suitable for areas with defined edges, since the Healing Brush will only blur the Color and you’ll end up with messy, smudged edges.

• The Spot Healing Brush tool quickly removes blemishes and other imperfections in your photos. The Spot Healing Brush works similarly to the Healing Brush: it paints with sampled pixels from an image or pattern and matches the texture, lighting, transparency, and shading of the sampled pixels to the pixels being healed. Unlike the Healing Brush, the Spot Healing Brush doesn’t require you to specify a sample spot. The Spot Healing Brush automatically samples from around the retouched area.

• The Dust & Scratches Filter provides a more powerful way to remove noise from an image. This filter reduces visual noise by changing dissimilar pixels. The Raising the Threshold setting will limit the changes to areas that are similar in brightness. Drag the Threshold slider left to 0 to turn off the value so that all pixels in the selection or image can be examined. The radius defines the contextual area for relative change. In principle, a Radius of 30 tells Photoshop to replace each pixel with the median of the 900 pixels (30×30) around it. But if the Radius were only 3, then Photoshop would only be looking at 9 pixels. Try different settings on your image because a wide variety of results are possible.

We also mentioned polarizing filters and films today. Here’s a few videos on the topic:

Why Use Polarizers?

GREAT examples of the elimination of polarized reflected light here:

Photo101: Polarizing filters, why they're so neat...and how to use them

Notes on Polarized Light:

What we perceive as light is an example of an electromagnetic wave, made up of oscillating electric and magnetic fields. EM waves are a type of transverse wave, meaning the field oscillations are always in directions perpendicular to the motion of the wave (as well as to each other). The direction of the electric field specifically determines what is called the polarization of the light wave. The polarization is not necessarily a fixed direction; in circular polarization, the orientation of the waves rotates around the direction of the wave.

The oscillating electric field E and magnetic field B of a ray of light are perpendicular to each other and to the velocity v of the light.

Beams of light from sources like the sun or a light bulb include rays with a mix of different polarizations, and so are said to be unpolarized. If all of the light has the same polarization, then the beam is polarized. One way to produce polarized light is to pass light from a source through a polarizer, which is a device that permits only rays with a certain polarization to pass through while blocking all other polarizations.

Polarization can also occur as a result of reflection. When light shines onto a surface some of the light is reflected away from the surface, while some undergoes refraction, penetrating the surface but changing direction. The amount of light reflected versus refracted depends on the medium of the surface, as well as the angle of the light. For example, the water of a lake can appear clear from one perspective, but almost mirror-like from another.

The polarization of the light also plays a role in reflection and refraction, and in particular, the polarization of the reflected light is different than that of the light from the original source. When light shines at a certain angle, it is possible for the reflected light to become completely polarized. This phenomenon is called polarization by reflection. The extent to which polarization occurs is dependent upon the angle at which the light approaches the surface and upon the material that the surface is made of. Metallic surfaces reflect light with a variety of vibrational directions; such reflected light is unpolarized. However, nonmetallic surfaces such as asphalt roadways, snowfields and water reflect light such that there is a large concentration of vibrations in a plane parallel to the reflecting surface. A person viewing objects by means of light reflected off of nonmetallic surfaces will often perceive a glare if the extent of polarization is large. Fishermen are familiar with this glare since it prevents them from seeing fish that lie below the water. Light reflected off a lake is partially polarized in a direction parallel to the water’s surface. Fishermen know that the use of glare-reducing sunglasses with the proper polarization axis allows for the blocking of this partially polarized light. By blocking the plane-polarized light, the glare is reduced and the fisherman can more easily see fish located under the water.

If you want to understand the nature of polarized light a bit better this is a fairly easy to understand explanation (science warning! LOL!):

25 - EM waves - Polarization

Homework: Using the image “Apple_Alla-Prima_Classuseonly.jpg” (apple painting on the easel) in the Week6_Resources Dropbox folder, edit the image so that it looks as similar to the “Apple_alla_prima_edited_Classuseonly.jpg” image. The final image should be the size of the original painting ready for print (Exactly-5.5 x 5.75 inches” @300ppi.) Obviously the original does not need to be uploaded.

Bonus (you’ll have to provide your own working materials for this.) Let’s say that a gallery needs an image from you of a recent work for their website. The show is a ways off, and the painting is still wet. As such, there is a great deal of glare when facing the painting “straight on,” so a front-facing photo may be problematic. Unfortunately, you don’t have access to any specialized gear like polarizing filters and such—so your best bet is to photograph the painting at a slight angle and correct for it in Photoshop. To complete this challenge, photograph a work of yours at an angle and correct the perspective in Photoshop. Be sure to edit it conservatively so that the integrity of the original is maintained. Upload both the angled image and the corrected version as appropriate jpgs.)

Double Super-Bonus: In the resources folder is an image titled “Alla_Prima_Apple_SCAN_Forclassuseonly.” This image is one of the worst scans of an image I have seen. This is due to certain features of a scanner not being disabled (we will talk about this in a later class.) Do your absolute best to try and salvage what you can from this scan and see if you can get it as close as possible to the “Apple_alla_prima_edited_Classuseonly.jpg” (the same target as the original homework.) Keep your uploaded image size the same as the original.

Lastly! Be sure to label all homework carefully with your name included in the filename!!!

[AWaichulis (Anthony Waichulis)]

Due to the length of this class thread, we will be dividing into two parts. To continue with the class, please refer to:

Photoshop Basics for Artists 2022 - Class/Homework Thread Part II