Lesson 5: Photoshop

PNG (Portable Network Graphics): (most common formats and how they are used)

PNG was developed as an alternative to GIF for displaying images on the Web. It uses lossless compression and supports transparency. *Lossless compression*: a compression technique that does not lose any data in the compression process. --"packs" data into a smaller file size by using a kind of internal shorthand to signify redundant data.

Raster disadvantages

The primary disadvantage of raster images is that they cannot be scaled in size very well. If you try to enlarge a raster image, it will look grainy and distorted.

Vector disadvantages

The primary disadvantage of vector graphics is that they are generally filled with a solid color or a gradient. They can't display detailed image properties (photo) as a raster graphic does.

Photoshop Tools and Toolbar Overview

The toolbar is where Photoshop holds the many tools we have to work with. There are tools for making selections, cropping and retouching images, adding shapes and types, and many more!

Blending flowers

images to use: -white flowers -sunflower -purple flower Techniques: -combination images -transform -smart object -filter -blend mode

the three most common uses for image files are

web, print, and video production.

TIFF or TIF: VIDEO PRODUCTION FORMATS

See Print Production Formats above.

Vector

*This type of graphic is based on mathematical formulas and are mostly used for line art, illustrations, and embroidery.* Vector graphics are based on mathematical formulas. A vector graphic is made up of small points that combine to make lines and images. These are mostly used for line art, illustrations, and embroidery (Tarpinian, 2010). sharp clean edges at any size

Raster

*This type of graphic is made up of pixels and are best for photographs.* is an image that is made up of pixels. Pixels are small squares of information. Raster graphics are good for rich, full-color images such as photographs. Raster graphics are excellent when handling shading and gradients (Tarpinian, 2010). pixelated edges depending on size and image resolution

The default file extension for a work in progress is called PSD (Photoshop Document).

A PSD file has a maximum of 30,000 pixels for width and height and a file length limit of 2 gigabytes.

Raster advantages

1. *All-Over Editing:* In Photoshop, you can easily blend and manipulate individual pixels without worrying about unique shapes. This feels more like using a paintbrush or can of spray paint and requires less precision in some respects. Comic book artists frequently use vector programs to draw clean ink lines and raster programs to paint colors freely. 2. *Subtle Gradients and Detail:* Vector artwork lends itself to creating images with flat colors and solid shapes; it can create complex lighting effects in Illustrator, but it's a lot harder. This is why photographs use raster formats like JPEG.

Objectives

1. Use Adobe Photoshop tools to "enhance" an image. 2. Demonstrate knowledge of retouching and blending images. 3. Identify design elements when preparing images. 4. Create a blended image (combining multiple images). 5. Manipulate images using Adobe Photoshop. 6. Publish digital images using Adobe Photoshop.

Best Practices

1. Use non-destructive editing techniques (adjustment layers, smart object layers, effects). 2. Remember that layers are viewed from the topmost layer to the bottom layer. 3. Duplicate a layer before making changes such as healing or cloning. 4. Change a layer to a smart object before applying a filter. 5. Use the crop tool to straighten an image. 6. Resize an image for the web to less than 5 MB. 7. Use masking techniques to apply effects to specific parts of an image.

Photoshop Toolbar

At the top, we have Photoshop's *Move and Selection tools; the Crop and Slice tools are directly below them*. Below are the *Measurement tools*, followed by Photoshop's many *Retouching and Painting tools* Next are the *Drawing and Type tools*. And finally, we have the *Navigation tools* at the bottom.

EPS (Encapsulated PostScript): (PRINT PRODUCTION FORMATS)

EPS files may contain vector and bitmap data. EPS is a subset of the PostScript format. -Because it is a common file format used in print production, most graphics software programs support the EPS format for importing or placing images. Some software applications cannot preview the high-resolution information in an EPS file, so Photoshop allows you to save a particular preview file for use with these programs, using either the EPS TIFF or EPS PICT option. EPS supports most color modes and clipping paths, commonly used to silhouette images and remove backgrounds.

GIF (Graphic Interchange Format): (most common formats and how they are used)

GIF files display limited (indexed) color graphics on the Web. It is a compressed format that reduces the file size of images, but it only supports a limited number of colors and is thus more appropriate for logos and artwork than photographs. GIF files support transparency.

We explored the questions:

How can you use Adobe Photoshop tools to "enhance" an image? How can you retouch and blend images? How do you create a blended image (combining multiple images)? How can you manipulate images using Adobe Photoshop? How do you publish digital images using Adobe Photoshop?

Another type of Photoshop file is PSB (Photoshop Big), a large document format.

It extends the PSD's maximum height and width limit to 300,000 pixels and grows the length limit to around 4 exabytes (Techopedia, 2020).

What are Layers?

Layers are like transparent panes of glass stacked on top of one another, which allow different parts of each layer to show through. *Layers fall into two main categories:* 1. *content layers*: These layers contain different types of content, like photographs, text, and shapes. 2. *adjustment layers*: These layers allow you to adjust the layers below them, like saturation or brightness. Adjustment layers are nondestructive editing because they don't change anything about the original image.

Layers

One tool Photoshop professionals use with almost every project is *layers.* Learning to use layers is probably the most important thing you can do to improve your Photoshop skills.

Photoshop (PDF): (PRINT PRODUCTION FORMATS)

Photoshop PDF files are highly versatile, as they may contain bitmap and vector data. Images saved in the PDF format can maintain most Photoshop features' editing capabilities, such as vector objects, text, and layers, and most color spaces are supported. Photoshop PDF files can also be shared with other graphics applications, as most of the current versions of graphics software can import or manipulate PDF files. Users can even open Photoshop PDF files with the free Adobe Reader software.

TIFF or TIF (Tagged Image File Format): (PRINT PRODUCTION FORMATS)

TIFF is a common bitmap image format. TIFF supports most color modes and can save images with alpha channels. Most image-editing software and page-layout applications support TIFF images up to 2GB in file size. While Photoshop can also include layers in a TIFF file, most other applications cannot use these extended features and see only the combined (flattened) image.

PSD (Photoshop document): (PRINT PRODUCTION FORMATS)

The Photoshop format (PSD) is the default file format and the only format, besides the Large Document Format (PSB), that supports most Photoshop features. Files saved as PSD can be used in other Adobe applications, such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Premiere, etc. The programs can directly import PSD files and access many Photoshop features, such as layers.

Vector advantages

There are two advantages to Vector Images. *Infinitely scalable* — Print your designs as billboards without ever getting pixelated! *Smaller file size* — Four points and a curved line define a vector circle. Hundreds of thousands of pixels represent a raster circle. *Smooth shapes* — No pixels mean that your curves won't reveal jagged pixels (aliasing). *Integration with other technology* — Since math defines vectors, you can do cool things with the points and paths, like animating individual shapes with javascript.

Smart Objects

These are essentially layers that contain image data from raster or vector images, such as Photoshop or Illustrator files. Smart Objects preserve an image's source content with all its original characteristics, enabling you to perform nondestructive editing to the layer. In Photoshop, you can embed the contents of an image into a Photoshop document. In Photoshop, you can also create Linked Smart Objects whose contents are referenced from external image files. The contents of a Linked Smart Object are updated when its source image file changes. Linked Smart Objects are distinct from duplicated instances of a Smart Object within a Photoshop document. With Linked Smart Objects, you can use a shared source file across multiple Photoshop documents, a familiar and welcome concept for web designers.

TARGA (Truevision Advanced Raster Graphics Adapter): VIDEO PRODUCTION FORMATS

This format supports millions of colors and alpha channels.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group): (most common formats and how they are used)

This is a common format for digital camera photographs and the primary format for full-color images shared on the web. JPEG images use lossy compression, which degrades the quality of images and discards color and pixel data. Once the image data is lost, it cannot be recovered. *lossy compression*: irreversible compression is the class of data compression methods that uses inexact approximations and partial data discarding to represent the content. --These techniques are used to reduce data size for storing, handling, and transmitting content.

"Adobe Photoshop is

extensively used for raster image editing, graphic design, and digital art. It makes use of layering to allow for depth and flexibility in the design and editing process, as well as provide powerful editing tools, that when combined, are capable of just about anything" (Techopedia, 2020).

Adobe Illustrator

is also used for creating graphics and 2D designs, but unlike Photoshop, it works with vector images. Vector images are defined by points and paths and rely on pixels (though vector images can be converted to raster file types). Vector filetypes include SVG, EPS, and PDF.

Adobe Photoshop

is one option for this type of work. As its name implies, Photoshop is *primarily designed to manipulate photos, but many people use it to create graphics.* Photoshop is primarily used for creating raster images (i.e., images made of pixels like JPEG or PNG).