Getting Started: Free Photoshop Tutorial

Topics covered in this Photoshop tutorial:

Zooming, Scrolling, Getting around, Tools, Copying & pasting

Exercise Preview

Photo by Priyanka Singh on Unsplash

Exercise Overview

In this exercise, you’ll start learning the basics of viewing/navigating around images and use some basic Photoshop tools.

Getting Started

1. Download the class files. Refer to the Downloading the Class Files page at the beginning of the workbook on how to download and install the class files.

2. Launch Photoshop.

   NOTE: This book has been tested with Photoshop 2020. If you’re using an older or newer version, most things should still work the same or similarly.

3. Go to File > Open.
4. If you see a window for Cloud documents, click On your computer.

5. Navigate to Desktop > Class Files > Photoshop Class and double–click on pomegranate.jpg to open it.

Restoring Photoshop’s Default Settings

1. Let’s reset Photoshop’s settings, so you have the same settings as this book assumes. Go to Window > Workspace > Essentials (Default).
2. Go to Window > Workspace > Reset Essentials.

3. At the top of the screen is the Options bar. As shown below, to the right of the Home icon, Ctrl–click (Mac) or Right–click (Windows) on the tool icon:

   

4. From the menu that appears, choose Reset All Tools.

   

5. Click OK to confirm.

Navigating an Image: Zooming & Scrolling

1. In the Tools panel (the toolbox on the left side of the Photoshop window), click on the Zoom tool .
2. In the image, position the cursor over the pomegranate and click once to zoom in.
3. To zoom back out, hold Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) and click once in the image.
4. Let’s see a more interactive way to zoom. In the Options bar at the top of the screen, find the Scrubby Zoom option.

5. Based on what you see in your Options bar, do the following:

   • If Scrubby Zoom is checked (the default) hover over the pomegranate and drag right to zoom in and drag left to zoom out.

   • If Scrubby Zoom is unchecked or grayed out drag a box over the area you want to see and then release the mouse.

     

6. To see the whole image again, choose View > Fit on Screen.

7. Instead of using the Zoom tool , we can also use keystrokes:

   • Zoom in by pressing Cmd–Plus(+) (Mac) or Ctrl–Plus(+) (Windows).
   • Zoom out by pressing Cmd–Minus(-) (Mac) or Ctrl–Minus(-) (Windows).
8. Zoom in a few times so you only see a portion of the image.
9. To scroll around the image, hold the Spacebar and drag anywhere on the image. When done, let go of the mouse and the Spacebar.

10. To see the whole image again, choose View > Fit on Screen.

Using the Brush Tool

1. In the Tools panel, choose the Brush tool .

2. At the bottom of the Tools panel, click on the Foreground color swatch:

   

3. In the window that opens, choose a color as shown below.

   

4. Click OK.
5. Drag anywhere on the image to paint with the brush.

6. Let’s change the brush color. Towards the bottom of the Tools panel, click the Default Colors icon to set the Foreground color to black and the Background color to white.

   

7. Let’s change the brush as well. As shown below, in the Options bar at the top of the screen, click on the Brush Preset picker.

   

8. Use the sliders to change the Size and Hardness.
9. Drag anywhere on the image to paint with the new brush.
10. You can use Edit > Undo to undo. By default Photoshop can only undo the previous 50 steps (although that can be changed in preferences). You can also see your past steps in the History panel, so open it by going to Window > History.

11. Click on the step before the Brush Tool. This undoes all the brushing.

    

Basic Selections & Copy/Paste

1. In the Tools panel on the left, choose the Rectangular Marquee tool .
2. In the image, drag a selection box (marquee) that encompasses any one of the pomegranate seeds.
3. Choose the Move tool .
4. In the Options bar at the top of the screen, uncheck Auto-Select.
5. Drag anywhere inside the selection and move the pomegranate seed some else.
6. Because the seed is already selected, we’d like to make a copy of it. But before we do, on the right of the screen, look in the Layers panel to see that there’s only a Background layer.
7. Do an Edit > Copy.
8. Do an Edit > Paste.
9. You won’t see major changes in the image, but look in the Layers panel on the right to see a new layer named Layer 1.
10. Drag the seed to move it. Now you’ll be able to see that you are moving the copy!

11. We don’t need this copy, so let’s delete it. As shown below, in the Layers panel, drag Layer 1 to the Trash button at the bottom right of the panel.

    

    TIP: You can also delete a layer by making sure you have no marquee selection (choose Select > Deselect) and pressing the Delete key to delete the selected layer(s) in the Layers panel.

Using the Clone Stamp Tool

Using the Clone Stamp is like copying and pasting, but on the same layer. In later exercises, you’ll come to see it’s a powerful retouching tool. Let’s see how it works.

1. In the Tools panel, choose the Clone Stamp tool .

2. Position the cursor over the thing you want to copy. In this case, one of the pomegranate seeds.

3. Option–click (Mac) or Alt–click (Windows) to target it as the source area to be copied.

4. If you’re still holding Alt/Option, let go of it now.

5. Move the cursor a white part of the background, where we want to add a new seed. Notice the cool preview.

6. Drag over the image to paint a new seed. The seed you targeted in the last step will be cloned here.

7. That’s it for our Photoshop warm up. Close the image and do not save the changes.