Now open Photoshop

Now open Photoshop


Open your photo from the File menu (tip: double click anywhere in the grey background area when you first open

Photoshop to open a file. This only works when nothing is open in Photoshop.)

First things first, get familiar with the Photoshop interface. You have the File Menu on top, Tools on the left, Tool

Options right below the File Menu, and Panels (windows) on the right.

Keyboard Shortcuts (similar to most programs): Ctrl Z = Undo (if you push this again, the second time it will redo. SeeHistory panel below to undo multiple operations); Ctrl O = Open; Ctrl N = New document; Ctrl X = Cut; Ctrl C = Copy; Ctrl


V = Paste; Ctrl S = Save; Ctrl+Shift+Alt S = Save for Web (explained below).

Some useful tips:

· The panels on the right side of the screen can be added, closed, expanded/collapsed and reorganized. They can

also be docked and undocked. Play around with them so you get comfortable organizing your screen.

· There are a number of different panels you can add to the right side of your screen. Go to Window on the File

Menu and add the History panel. This panel shows every thing you have done to your image and makes it easy

to back a few steps or to compare before and after you do something.

· Another useful panel is the Navigator. This panel lets you easily zoom in and out while showing you the part of

the image you a working on. You can use the slider, the zoom buttons on each side of the slider and drag the red

box around to navigate.

· The hand tool lets you drag the document around the screen. You can momentarily use this tool by holding

down the Space Bar as you click and drag the image.

OK, lets get started.

You might need to rotate your image: go to Image
Image Rotation

Next, you might want to make some adjustments to the Brightness or Contrast. This option has a dynamic preview


window so you see what your changes will look like. Get comfortable with these options.

In the Adjustments window you have a number of options. Experiment with some of these different tools.


In the Image window, select the option Image Size. This allows you to change the size two way: 1) by changing the Pixel

Dimensions. You can do this by Pixel size or by Percent change; 2) you can change the dimensions of the document by

inch, cm, percent, etc.

Another option when you are mosaicking multiple images is to use the Canvas Size option, right below Image Size. This

will change the canvas size, not the image size. So, if you make the canvas smaller than the image, it will crop the image.

If you make it larger than the image you will get empty space around you image. I rarely use this option unless I am

working with multiple photos on the same canvas.

Now is a good time to save what you have done. Always save your file first as a .psd (Photoshop Document) if you plan

on coming back and editing it further. This will give you more options than you have when you save it as a .png or .jpg.