Gauging interest on Photoshop "How-to's"
 

Well, like the title says, I'm trying to see if people would be interested if I did some photoshop how-to's.

Please list what kind of how-to's you would be interested in....

I always want to learn....

Bump for others to see and comment about what kind of "how-to's" they would like to see!

I'd like to know the basics....
I would sincerely appriciate any help!:)

someone's already done the hard work for ya......

http://www.digimods.co.uk/tutorials/tutorials.htm

I think that's a good idea... I can contribute too. I've been using photoshop since version 3.0 and teach it part time.

start basic, and work your way up. thanx for doing this!

Great!!

+1 I just bought CS2 a few weeks ago. Some of the basics I can figure out, but I could always use the help. And of course always moving to more advanced stuff would be cool.

how about some questions.... what are some of the things that people want to learn?

Well, I really do not know what there is to learn. I am pretty overwhelmed with how extensive Photoshop is. My biggest problem (early in my experience with Photoshop) is selecting things. I use the magic wand most of the time and vary the threshold to get harder areas, but no matter what tool I use it takes quite a while to select what i want to select. I guess that is my first question.

The most obvious selections tools in PS are:

1. Marquee select tool, from this you have a choice of rectangular, eliptical and single row. Tool makes a selection based on the shape (rectangular or eliptical) Modifier Key (shift -contrains selection, keeps horizontal and vertical dimensions of the selection the same.

2. Lasso tool, from this you have a choice of lasso, polygonal lasso and magnetic lasso. Modifier Key ( will get to later ) The lasso tool is used to draw selections by freehand. Polygonal lasso tool connects points in selection via a straight line ( good for buildings edges, et cetera. ) The magnetic lasso uses a algorithm to try to hold to the edge of an object.

3. Magic wand makes selection based on similar pixels in a given area. Tolerance is the amount of difference in pixel value allowed to make the selection.

Those are the basic selections tools. The key to using the selection tools is to combine them and use modifier keys. Holding down shift with any selection tool on an existing selection will add to the selection. Holding down the control key with any selection tool on an existing selections will subtract from the selection.

Beyond this you can also modify selections from the select pull down. Feather will soften the edge of the selection, so the selection fades off. Also select modify allows you to further modify selections by contracting, smoothing or expanding selection.

Another overlooked selection tool is the pen tool. This tool is a bit tricky to use, but if you have alot of straight lines and smooth curves you can use this too trace the selection and make a path. From the Paths dialog you can convert path to selection, this is great for mechanical edges.

Lastly the Holy grail of selection tools, for me at least. is the letter "Q"

with a selection made if you hit "Q" on the keyboard ( bottom of tool pallete box with circle in it looking thing) this will give you a visual representation of your selection. You can paint in to add the the selection, you can erase, blurr, sharpen anything you need to alter the selection. Hit "Q" again and it turns back into a selection.

I think that learning how to make selection and target certain areas to manipulate if one of the most important lessons to learn in photoshop.

Hope this helps

Bump for suggestions for the How-To's. I'll be finishing up exams next week and will have a little bit more time on my hands to work on these.

I'd like to know how to change objects to look like carbon fiber.... hoods, etc...

How and where dou you get the program to PS?? That would help me out...

Are you gettin tired of doing everyones request?? :D

Ummm, if you want a LEGAL version, you should probably buy it... but you can always look around for it and find it other places if you know what I mean.

click me for a free 30 day trial of CS2.


Eh, it's really not that bad. As long as they are pretty clear about what they want done and post decent pictures for me to work with I really don't mind it (my gf does though, she tells me I spend too much time on them though ;) )

So this is what I'm looking at for Photoshop How-To's so far
1) Request courtesy (what to do and not to do)
2) Window Tint
3) Color Change
4) Carbon Fiber
5) Wheel Swaps
6) Lowering

Any other ones that people want to see, suggestions?

Also, is anyone willing to "proof" these to see what I may have missed when I start working on them??

there are a bunch of methods to do those things, these are possible solutions.

window tint: 1. create a blank new layer 2. trace windows with lasso tool 3. fill with black 4. reduce opacity of layer and or change blending mode to darken.

method b 1. trace windows with lasso tool 2. create levels adjustment layer 3. change white output level from 255 to a lower amount.

Color Change: 1. trace body with lasso tool 2. create selective color adjustment layer 3. tweak color

method b. 1. trace body again 2. create hue saturation selective color 3. tweak color ..... this method also works to tint windows.

method c 1. create blank new layer 2. trace body 3. fill with desired color on desired new layer 4. change blending mode from normal to color

wheel swap: 1.pic a wheel pic that closely matches the perspective of the image you will paste into. 2. paste wheel onto a new layer 3. reduce opacity of that layer from 100 to 60, so you can see how things align 4. use edit>transform>distort to fix perspective. 4 erase out extranious stuff

carbon fiber: somewhere in here

lol, I know how to do them... I'm just judging to see if that's the kind of stuff people would be interested in for detailed how-to's (with pictures)!

:D

i'm suprised people aren't too interested.