Adobe Photoshop CS6 Bible

1122 Pages·2012·74.49 MB·English

by  Brad Dayley

Photoshop® CS6
BIBLE

Photoshop

® CS6
BIBLE

Lisa DaNae Dayley
Brad Dayley

Photoshop® CS6 Bible

Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
10475 Crosspoint Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46256
www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-118-12388-1

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Brad
For D, A, & F!

DaNae
As always, to Brad, my hero, my biggest fan, my best friend.
Always and Forever.

About the Authors

Brad Dayley is a senior software engineer with almost 22 years of experience creating com-
puter software. He has been working with Photoshop for 21 years, enjoying the transition of
Photoshop from a simple image editor to the powerhouse it is today. He is the author of sev-
eral books. He is an avid amateur photographer and spends most of his free time in the
remote areas of the western United States with his wife DaNae and four sons (wherever a Jeep
can get them).

DaNae Dayley has been working with Photoshop for 18 years and is still constantly amazed at
the cool stuff it can do! With a degree in Advertising from Brigham Young University, DaNae
has owned and operated a media creation business for 17 years, incorporating writing, graphic
design, and video editing over the years. She also enjoys teaching Photoshop classes locally.
She has co-authored several books with her husband Brad Dayley and is the author of
Photoshop CS3 Extended Video and 3D Bible and Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 in a Snap. DaNae
lives in Utah with her husband Brad and their four sons. When she is not at her computer, she
can be found in the great outdoors (with a camera), preferably in a Jeep!

Credits

Senior Acquisitions Editor
Stephanie McComb

Project Editor
Jade L. Williams

Technical Editor
Dennis Cohen

Copy Editor
Marylouise Wiack

Editorial Director
Robyn Siesky

Business Manager
Amy Knies

Senior Marketing Manager
Sandy Smith

Vice President and Executive Group
Publisher
Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher
Barry Pruett

Project Coordinator
Patrick Redmond

Graphics and Production Specialist
Andrea Hornberger

Quality Control Technician
Melissa Cossell

Proofreading
Evelyn Wellborn

Indexing
BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services

Vertical Websites Project Manager
Richard Graves

ix

Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxi

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxiii

Part I:
Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS6
1

Chapter 1: Introducing Adobe Photoshop CS6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Discovering the Versatile World of Photoshop ........................................................... 3
Knowing when to use Photoshop .................................................................... 4
Understanding the limitations of Photoshop .................................................... 5
Looking at What’s New in Photoshop CS6.................................................................. 6
Summary ............................................................................................................ 14

Chapter 2: Exploring the Photoshop Workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Touring the Workspace......................................................................................... 15
Cruising the Photoshop menu bar ................................................................. 16
Looking at the document workspace ............................................................. 18
Changing the view size of a document .................................................. 18
Viewing document information ............................................................ 20
Arranging the view of multiple documents ............................................ 21
Understanding the Toolbox and tool options bar............................................. 24
Understanding panels.................................................................................. 25
Using workspace presets .............................................................................. 27
Exploring the Photoshop Menu Bar........................................................................ 27
Using the File menu .................................................................................... 28
Exploring the Edit menu .............................................................................. 28
Using the Image menu................................................................................. 29
Ruler Tool.......................................................................................... 30
Count Tool......................................................................................... 31
Record Measurements.......................................................................... 31
Set Measurement Scale........................................................................ 31
Select Data Points............................................................................... 32
Place Scale Marker .............................................................................. 33
Understanding the Layer menu..................................................................... 33
Examining the Type menu............................................................................ 33
Using the Select menu................................................................................. 35
Exploring the Filter menu ............................................................................ 35

Contents

x

Contents

Understanding the 3D menu......................................................................... 36
Using the View menu................................................................................... 36
Proof Options ..................................................................................... 37
Extras and Show................................................................................. 38
Rulers ............................................................................................... 40
Snap and Snap To............................................................................... 41
New Guide, Lock Guides, and Clear Guides ............................................. 41
Lock Slices and Clear Slices.................................................................. 41
Exploring the Window menu......................................................................... 41
Using the Help menu................................................................................... 42
Photoshop Help.................................................................................. 43
Deactivate ......................................................................................... 43
Exploring Panels.................................................................................................. 44
Understanding the Tools in the Toolbox................................................................. 46
Configuring Presets.............................................................................................. 50
Selecting tool presets .................................................................................. 51
Managing presets ........................................................................................ 52
Creating presets.......................................................................................... 54
Setting Preferences.............................................................................................. 55
Updating General preferences ....................................................................... 56
Arranging Interface preferences.................................................................... 61
Setting File Handling preferences ................................................................. 62
Adjusting Performance preferences ............................................................... 65
Configuring Cursors preferences.................................................................... 67
Setting Transparency & Gamut preferences..................................................... 68
Using Units & Rulers preferences .................................................................. 69
Adjusting Guides, Grid, and Slices preferences................................................ 71
Configuring Plug-ins preferences................................................................... 72
Setting Type preferences.............................................................................. 72
Adjusting 3D preferences ............................................................................. 73
Customizing Shortcuts and Menus ......................................................................... 74
Customizing menus ..................................................................................... 74
Customizing shortcuts ................................................................................. 75
Summary ............................................................................................................ 78

Chapter 3: Performing Image Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Exploring File Types............................................................................................. 79
Understanding compressed versus uncompressed ............................................ 80
Using raster versus vector ............................................................................ 80
Introducing HDR images .............................................................................. 81
Understanding image files............................................................................ 81
Photoshop (*.PSD; *.PDD).................................................................... 81
Tagged Image File Format (*.TIF; *.TIFF)............................................... 82
Joint Photographic Experts Group (*.JPG; *.JPEG; *.JPE) ........................ 82

xi

Contents

JPEG 2000 (*.JP2; *.JPX)..................................................................... 82
CompuServ GIF (*.GIF) ........................................................................ 82
Portable Network Graphics (*.PNG) ....................................................... 83
Bitmap (*.BMP; *.RLE; *.DIB)............................................................... 83
RAW (*.RAW; *.CR; *.CR2; *.DNG; and several others)............................. 83
Portable bitmap (*.PBM; *.PGM; *.PPM; *.PNM; *.PFM; *.PAM)................. 84
Wireless bitmap (*.WBM; *.WBMPI)....................................................... 84
Encapsulated PostScript (*.EPS; *.AI3; *.AI8; *.PS; *.EPSP; *.EPSF).......... 84
Photoshop PDF (*.PDF; *.PDP).............................................................. 85
Personal Computer eXchange (*.PCX).................................................... 85
PICT (*.PCT; *.PICT) ............................................................................ 86
Pixar (*.PXR) ..................................................................................... 86
Flash XML Graphics (*.FXG).................................................................. 86
Google Earth 4 (*.KMZ) ....................................................................... 86
Photoshop Big (*.PSB) ........................................................................ 86
OpenEXR (*.EXR) ................................................................................ 87
Cineon (*.CIN).................................................................................... 87
Interchange File Format (*.IFF; *.TDI) .................................................. 87
Scitex CT (*.SCT) ................................................................................ 87
Targa (*.TGA; *.VDA; *.ICB; *.VST) ....................................................... 87
Radiance (*.HDR; *.RGBE; *.XYZE)........................................................ 87
Understanding video files ............................................................................ 88
Supporting 3D file formats ........................................................................... 89
Supporting the DICOM file format ................................................................. 89
Creating and Opening Images................................................................................ 89
Creating a new image .................................................................................. 90
Opening an existing image ........................................................................... 91
Opening an existing image as a specific file type ............................................ 92
Saving an image.......................................................................................... 93
Resizing Files and Adjusting Resolution ................................................................. 95
Understanding resolution............................................................................. 96
Changing the image size and resolution......................................................... 96
Understanding the resolution and size relationship................................ 96
Understanding resizing algorithms in Photoshop.................................... 97
Adjusting the image size and resolution................................................ 98
Changing the canvas size ............................................................................100
Cropping and Straightening Images ......................................................................101
Using general guidelines for cropping a photo...............................................102
Getting rid of background clutter ........................................................102
Preserving aspect ratio.......................................................................102
Applying the rule of thirds .................................................................102
Giving your subject somewhere to go...................................................103
Closing in on your subject ..................................................................104
Telling a story with a photo................................................................105

xii

Contents

Cropping an image .....................................................................................105
Using the Crop tool............................................................................105
Cropping an image to a different perspective........................................108
Cropping using the Selection tools.......................................................109
Straightening an image...............................................................................109
Rotating and flipping images ..............................................................110
Rotating while cropping .....................................................................111
Using the Crop and Straighten tool......................................................112
Using the Ruler tool...........................................................................112
Trimming a border......................................................................................114
Summary ...........................................................................................................114

Chapter 4: Understanding Colors, Histograms, Levels, and Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Knowing Color Basics ..........................................................................................117
Understanding color...................................................................................118
Looking at color, intensity, and the human eye.............................................118
Understanding Channels and Levels......................................................................119
Adjusting with Histograms...................................................................................119
Understanding histograms...........................................................................120
Determining overexposure and underexposure in an image.....................120
Determining color balance in an image.................................................121
Using the Histogram panel..........................................................................122
Setting Histogram panel options .........................................................123
Selecting channels.............................................................................124
Selecting a source..............................................................................125
Understanding statistics.....................................................................126
Adjusting images with the histogram tools ...................................................127
Using the handles to adjust the histogram ...........................................128
Using the eyedroppers to adjust the histogram .....................................129
Adjusting levels with the Curves tool ...........................................................130
Understanding curves ........................................................................130
Using the Curves tool.........................................................................131
Working in Different Color Modes .........................................................................133
Understanding the different color modes......................................................134
Bitmap .............................................................................................134
Grayscale..........................................................................................135
Duotone ...........................................................................................136
Indexed color....................................................................................137
RGB color..........................................................................................139
CMYK color .......................................................................................139
Lab color ..........................................................................................139
Multichannel.....................................................................................140
Learning about bits per channel ..................................................................140
Choosing Colors ..................................................................................................141
Choosing colors with the Color Picker tool ....................................................141
Using the Color panel .................................................................................144

xiii

Contents

Using the Swatches panel ...........................................................................145
Selecting color from an image with the Eyedropper tool .................................147
Understanding the Color Sampler tool ..........................................................148
Using the HUD Color Picker .........................................................................149
Summary ...........................................................................................................150

Chapter 5: Applying History and Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Understanding Photoshop’s Non-Destructive Features .............................................151
Using the History Panel.......................................................................................153
Understanding the History panel .................................................................154
Configuring the History panel.............................................................154
Navigating through history states .......................................................156
Using snapshots ................................................................................156
Creating documents ...........................................................................157
Deleting history ................................................................................157
Painting from history .................................................................................157
Using the Eraser tool in the History panel ............................................158
Using the History Brush .....................................................................160
Making use of the Art History Brush....................................................160
Using selections when painting history................................................160
Creating and Using Automated Actions .................................................................161
Understanding the Actions panel.................................................................161
Loading existing action sets ........................................................................164
Creating custom actions..............................................................................164
Editing actions...........................................................................................165
Adding a stop ...................................................................................166
Adding operations .............................................................................166
Moving operations .............................................................................166
Duplicating actions and operations......................................................166
Modifying operations .........................................................................167
Deleting an operation ........................................................................168
Modifying the action name and function key........................................168
Saving actions...................................................................................168
Adjusting action settings temporarily by using the toggle boxes.............168
Playing actions ..........................................................................................168
Managing the action list .............................................................................168
Summary ...........................................................................................................169

Chapter 6: Using Bridge to Organize and Process Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Working in the Bridge Workspaces........................................................................171
Examining the Bridge utility .......................................................................172
Main menu bar ..................................................................................172
Toolbar.............................................................................................173
Window panes...................................................................................174
Content view controls ........................................................................175
Using the Bridge workspaces .......................................................................176