Photoshop Exercise

Photoshop Practice

Start here
1. Visit Andy's Flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/andylangager) and do the following for photos "Practice 1" "Practice 2" and "Practice 3":

1. Click on the photo
2. Click on the magnifying glass icon to the top right of the photo
3. Click "View all sizes" in the upper right
4. Click "Original" size
5. Control-Click "Download the Original size of this photo"
6. Change the save location ("Where") to Desktop

Click back on "andylangager" to find the rest of the photos

For Practice 1:
• Open Adobe Bridge
• Navigate to the Desktop
• Control-click on Practice 1 file and choose Open in Camera Raw
• Fix photo in Camera Raw. Try to make it as true-to-life as you can. Save straightening for Photoshop
• When you are ready to straighten, click "Open Image"
• Find the eyedropper tool (6th down on the tool bar). Hold mouse button down over it. Choose Ruler
• Zoom in (Command•+) if you need to. Draw a line with the ruler, following a line that should be straight horizontally.
• Click the "Straighten" button (it will only be highlighted after you've drawn your ruler line)
• To make sure it is straight, click Command•R for your ruler guides. Hover your mouse in the top ruler guide, click and drag down the screen. A line should appear. Bring the line down to a horizontal line to check straightness. Drag line back up to ruler guide to erase.
• When done, "Save As" -- be sure to pick Format: JPEG (NOT PSD). Quality 8.

For Practice 2:
• Open the Practice 2 image directly in Photoshop CS5 (not Camera Raw)
• Choose Image -> Adjustments -> HDR Toning…
• Try a couple different "Preset" options (it's the top drop-down menu)
• Find an effect you like. Adjust the sliders to see what they do.
• If you need to start over, hit cancel and try again
• Adjust to taste. And "Save As…" just like with Practice 1.
• Open in Camera RAW for further adjustments if needed (if you do this step, Save As.. once more when done)

For Practice 3:
• Open in Camera Raw
• Make adjustments as needed (exposure, contrast, etc.)
• Don't try to fix the spots on the white paper -- we'll do it in Photoshop
• When finished, click Open Image.
• To heal part of the image, try using the spot healing tool. (Hover the mouse over the tools on the left until you find it -- it looks like a band-aid)
• Also try using the Rectangle Marquee selection tool (second from the top) -- then,
• Select part of the image you want to fix and hit the delete key. Use "Content Aware" (the default) and hit OK.
• Try using the Quick Selection tool (third from the top -- you might have to hold the mouse down) to select only the apple. If you make a mistakes, use the same tool but hold down the option key to erase the selection.
• Once you have the apple selected, copy it by pressing Command•C
• Paste it into a new layer by hitting Command•V
• Hide the previous layer by clicking on the "eyeball" next to the background layer in the layers window
• Click "Set Foreground Color" -- toward the bottom of your tools (it is probably a black rectangle)
• Select blue -- it's up to you what tint/shade
• Go to Layers -> New Fill Layer…
• Choose Gradient…
• For Color: choose Blue (click OK)
• Change Style to Radial, click the Reverse button and click OK
• In your layers window on the right, drag your gradient layer below your 2nd layer so the blue gradient appears underneath the apple
• Save As… JPEG

Finally,
Upload all three to Flickr! Make up a great title for each.