Inquiry Photoshop 101

[The Witch]

Please help me understand this confusing shit

any tips at all are helpful. and i literally no nothing so don't worry about what i don't know right now.
@Six @Big Casino those are the only people i know that use ps but if anymore do please helpah me outta

specifically, psds. i know how to use them (the drag thing) but idk i feel like it's complicated and im messing up

EDIT:

fuck it

way too fucking messy for my taste

 

[Six]

I'll be moving this to the GFX Lounge's Help Service.

What exactly do you mean with dragging? And what is it that you'd like to know? I don't mind giving tips at all.


What Photoshop are you using? =]

 

[The Witch]

CS5.

IDK how to explain it, everything seems strange in PS.

For example, when I duplicate a layer why must i do the whole tedious 'name it' bullcrud? In GIMP I can just say dupe layer and it appears. Is there a shortcut or a way to stop that? I know it sounds simple but it's annoying.

Another thing.

why in god's name is there so many boxes? it looks terrifyingly messy. is there a way for me to minimize them? and could you explain what they do.

my other problem is everything seems really tedious. i guess i'm use to gimp but it seems really repetitive. i feel like i have to make a few clicks just to do some simple thing. like font...my god that is tedious.



i'm pretty much clueless when it comes to this thing. i've looked up beginners tuts but they're badly made.

oh, and when I open a PSD they work, but they don't always match up with the size of what I want the psd to go with. my question, is there a way to resize psds?

 

[Jdeadevil]

If you highlight a layer, you can press CTRL+J to duplicate it, doesn't usually come up with a dialogue box asking you to name it. Also you can drag and minimize pretty much every toolbox there, lol

 

[The Witch]

another thing, not sure if i mentioned it already but resizing... how do i do that?? in gimp there is something that you can just right click on a layer and expand it or 'match' it to the below layer canvas. is that possible in ps?

i'm so incredibly frustrated with this messy system i feel like abandoning it lmao idk why im laughing i really need to grasp ps


deadevil, thank you for that tip! extremely helpful!

 

[Six]

Cali, everything you just numbered bar 7 are settings you can set to your own preferences. One can contain layers, 5 does in this case.

Number 7 is just your main background for the graphic pieces you make on.

Will go in to more detail if you need, but this is pretty basic. All the windows you see are just preference settings. Like Layers Settings, Text, etc etc.

As you can see I got rid of most of mine.

Resizing = Ctrl + T, and then hold shift to keep the right proportions.

 

[Jdeadevil]

Lol, forgot about CTRL+T. Sometimes I'd go back to clicking the box twice thinking to myself "I'm sure I knew of an easier way to do this".

Lady POTUS: You're welcome. It takes time to get used to new software, try and be patient with it and it'll come naturally. Before Photoshop 7 I used to use Paint Shop Pro 7, which was confusing because they were both the seventh version. Mainly it was to recolour objects on the Sims, but then I noticed there was a tutorial on how to make custom MSN emoticons on Photoshop 7. But to cut a long story short, there is so much stuff out there for Photoshop than any alternative, like tutorials, downloadable brushes and even plugins. It's basically the industry standard, so don't give up.

 

[Mystical_Gaming]

One thing to keep in mind when learning programs like Photoshop it is a professional tool. It is not something you can just pick up and learn in a few days. It's complicated because it has all the options and power to do premium image editing and manipulation made for professionals. Don't let this discourage you but it is something to keep in mind. This program was made for a select group of people and hence the reason why it can be so confusing and look like a cockpit from an airplane rather than a program.

I highly suggest starting with some tutorials that go over the basic layout and usage of the program. I know youtube has lots. The main focus is your layers panel, tools panel, and work area. The layers panel is where all your 'images' go. These stack on top of eachother to make the image you want. The tools panel is where you find all the common editing tools like the pen tool, shape tool, gradient tool, and so on and so forth. Lastly your work area is your canvas where your composition is displayed.

Photoshop may seem like a hassle but once you grasp the tools your work efficiency will improve. I used to tutor people in college for programs like After Effects and Autodesk Maya and those programs trump photoshop's skill gap ten fold. All it takes is time and patience when learning a complex tool. I can't stress this enough: you can't learn a program like photoshop and think it's a "complete all button" in a few hours. It takes a lot of work to harness the program and know fully how to utilize each tool to their fullest potential.

Like Six, I have a very basic layout in my photoshop (don't mind my desktop background, I work on dual screens hence the reason why the layers panel is undocked to the far right):

I don't need any of that crap the program initially opens up with except my layers and character/paragraph windows really. I suggest starting with the basic tools on the far left and then getting to know the layers panel and what buttons do what and how to use blending modes and adding effects to a layer and such. 90% of the stuff I do is in the layers panel and the other 10% of the layer manipulation is done with the menu bar for filters or layer color adjustments.

The last thing I will say for now is if two people tell you two different methods to achieve the same goal neither one of them is wrong (unless its a very tedious time wasting process). Many artists can get awesome results using very different tools and methods so find what works best for you as you learn photoshop more.

 

[The Witch]

right. thanks for the help guys.


I was wondering if there is a fit to canvas option in ps like there is in gimp? when i open a psd it's the size of the original canvas... i was hoping to get it to resize to my new canvas size... how do i do that?

nvm, i googled it and looks like there is no way. which is strange because... GIMP allows this