Program: Adobe Photoshop
Some bundled computer deals include a digital camera. This Masterclass tutorial
is for those of you that are new to digital photography as part of computer
ownership and will use Adobe's Photoshop program to demonstrate how to download a
digital photograph and then add effects to it.
Part 1: Dragging the image in
Digital cameras store the images as digital media, which means you can load the
photographs straight onto your computer.
> Plug your digital camera into the PC
>Start your computer up
>When Windows has booted up double click on 'My Computer'
You will notice in the file that there are two extra removable disks, F and G. These
are the internal memory of the camera.
>Click on the file to open
>Click once on an image to see a preview
>You can drag images onto the desktop of your PC
>Go to the 'Start' menu and select 'Programs'
>Select 'Paintshop Pro' from the file and open it
If you don't have Paintshop Pro, Photoshop or Photo Editor are equally good programs
for carrying out an editing task as we are going to do here. With the image open we
are going to add some effects to the image.
>Open the 'Layers Palette'
>Click on the layer, click on the 'Duplicate' button
>Click 'OK'
It is better to duplicate an image before you start adding effects, there are many
tools within Photoshop that allow you to add effects, we were using the 'Sponge' tool.
>Click on the 'Sponge' tool
Toppers' tip: Check Windows version for drivers
Part 2: Cutting
With the 'Sponge' tool selected, go to the tool options dialogue box Change
the 'Pressure' with the slide rule Go over the part of the image you want to change
with the sponge There are two choices with the sponge, you can either saturate to
add colour, or remove the colour
With the colours changes we decided to cut the background out of the image and add
a new one. To cut the existing background out we used the 'Lasso' tool, within
the 'Lasso' tool there are three options. For this cut we were using the 'Magnetic'
option, the advantage of this tool is that as we have changed the colour, the lasso
will trace around the changed area.
>Trace around the changed area with the mouse and 'Magnetic Lasso'
>Go out side of the frame and trace around the outer edges of the image
>Go to the 'Edit' menu and select 'Cut'
We now want to add a new background to our image from another image that we on our
digital camera.
>Go to the 'File' menu and select 'Open'
>Click on an image you want to use
>Click on 'Open'
Part 3: Special Layers
We are now ready to add a new background to our image from the other picture.
>With the image go to the 'Select' menu and select 'All'
>Now go to the 'Edit' menu and select 'Copy'
>Return to the original image you were working on
>Go to the 'Layers Palette'
>At the bottom of the palette is a 'New Layer' button
>Click on the button to create the new layer
>Go to the 'Edit' menu and select 'Paste'
Your new background will paste right over the top of the original image, this is
because layers work from
the back to the front and each new layer you add will be at the front. To change the
layer order around:
In the 'Layers Palette' click on a layer and drag it on top of another to get the
order as you want. The above process would be the same if you are adding text or
further backgrounds.
