BASIC ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS2 INSTRUCTIONS

TO SCAN IN A PICTURE USING YOUR SCANNER:

1) Insert the picture you want to scan into the scanner.

2) Open Adobe PhotoShop CS2.

3) Click on File, then on Import, then on HP PrecisionScan (or whatever the name of your scanner or scanner program is).

4) Click on the Scan button.

5) Make a  Selection  Rectangle around the area of the picture that you want to keep:

6) Move the cursor onto the borders until it changes to a Double-headed Arrow       , then click & drag the border in or out.

7) Click on the Accept button.

TO OPEN A PICTURE FILE:

1) Click on File, then on Open.

2) Find the picture you want and click once on it. 

3) Click on the Open button.

TO CLONE ONE AREA OF THE PICTURE TO ANOTHER:

1) Click on the Cloning tool button (it looks like a rubber stamp) on the vertical Tools  palette on the left.

2) While holding down the Alt key on the keyboard, click once where you want to “pick up” the color or the image elements on the picture.

3) Move the Circle Cursor with the mouse to the area where you want to start painting. (Move it far enough away from the “pick up” area so that you don’t have any overlapping of the two areas.)

4) Hold down the left mouse button and start painting.

5) Notice that the Cross Cursor  +  , which is the “pick up” area, parallels the movement of the Circle Cursor  as you move the Circle Cursor.

6) Reposition the “pick up” area if the Cross Cursor begins to stray into areas of the picture that you don’t want to transfer. (Hold down the Alt key and click once in a new area of the picture.)

TO CHANGE THE SIZE OF THE BRUSH:

1) Click on the Down Arrow next to where it says, “Brush” at the top of the window.

2) Click on the brush size you want, or click & drag the tiny slider to the left or right to make the diameter of the brush smaller or larger respectively.

3) Click on the image and start painting.

TO SMUDGE THE AREA YOU JUST PAINTED:

1) Click on the Smudge tool (it looks like a hand with the finger touching the paper). If you don’t see the “finger” button, then click & hold the mouse button down on the button that looks like a drop of water, which is the Blur tool, then click on the “finger” button.

2) Paint over the area you want to smudge with the cursor.

3) If you make a mistake, immediately hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and press the Z key. (If you want to undo the last few actions, click on Edit, then on Step Backward. Repeat this until you return the picture to the way you want it.)

TO SAVE THE FILE YOU’VE JUST CHANGED:

1) Click on File, then on Save As.

2) Type in a new name for the file, such as “Grandson’s picture.jpg”  (without the quote marks).

Tip:  It is a good idea to create multiple copies of the file you are working on, so that if you mess up, it is easy to go back to a previous version of the file. Every 30 minutes or so, you should save the file you are working on as:  Grandson's picture 1.jpg, then Grandson’s picture 2.jpg, then Grandson’s picture 3.jpg and so on. If you mess up the file you are working on (e.g., Grandson’s picture 3.jpg), then you can click on File, then on Open, and open Grandson’s picture 1.jpg or Grandson’s picture 2.jpg file, and start working on it again.

TO PAINT WITH THE PAINTBRUSH OR AIRBRUSH:

1) Click on the Eyedropper button. Click on an area of the picture that has the color or texture that you want to paint with.

2) Click on the Paintbrush or Airbrush button on the Tools palette.

3) Change the size of the brush if you need to. (See the section above on how to change the size of the brush.)

4) Hold down the left mouse button and paint on the image with the brush cursor.

Remember: If you make a mistake, immediately hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and press the Z key. (If you want to undo the last few actions, click on Edit, then on Step Backward. Repeat this until you return the picture to the way you want it.)

TO CHANGE THE BRIGHTNESS AND CONTRAST OF THE IMAGE:

1) Click on Image, then on Adjustments, then on Brightness/Contrast.

2) Click & drag the sliders to adjust the brightness and contrast of the image.

3) Click on OK.

4) If you make a mistake, immediately hold down the Ctrl key and briefly press the Z key once. This will undo the editing changes you just made.

TO RESIZE THE IMAGE:

1) Click on Image, then on Image Size.

2) Under Document Size:, change the height to whatever you want (but  it is usually a good idea to keep it under 4 or  5 inches). The width will automatically change to keep the ratio of the height and width the same.

3) Change the pixels to 150 pixels/inch (dots per inch) if you are going to print this image (or e-mail it to someone who only wants to print it out). Change the pixels to 72 pixels/inch if you are going to e-mail the image or post it on a web site. (Computer monitors can only display 72 pixels/inch at best.)

4) Click on OK.

5) The image will be much smaller (on the screen, too). To make it larger or zoom in  (but only on the screen), click on the Magnifying Glass button on the Tools palette on the left, then click once  in the center of the picture.

6) To make the image smaller or zoom out  (but only on the screen), hold down the Alt key on the keyboard, then click once in the center of the picture.

TO SAVE THE MODIFIED IMAGE:

1) Click on File, then on Save As.

2) Click on the Down Arrow next to the Save to: location, then scroll up and click on Desktop, or the My Pictures sub-folder in the My Documents folder, to make the image easier to find. (Remember that this is a copy of the original image. You will still have the original image in the original location or sub-folder.)

3) Be sure to save the image file as a JPEG.

4) Leave the file name the same (but remember it or write it down), or change the file name to something a little more descriptive (for example, Grandson’s picture 1-31-06.jpg).

5) Click on Save.

6) Click & drag the tiny slider to the right to make the file size larger (but sharper), or to the left to make the file size smaller (but the picture fuzzier). [This is the "compression level" of the picture.] The file should be smaller if you are going to e-mail the picture or post it on a website (such as on eBay.com). It should be larger if you want to print it out and have it as sharp as possible.

7) Click on OK.