Photoshop: Tutorial for beginners

Photoshop is so extensive that even professionals can learn something new every day. With this beginner's tutorial, we show beginners the most important tricks you need to know for image editing.

Photoshop for beginners: the work surface

• When you open Photoshop, you will first see a gray area in front of you. However, that will change quickly if you open one or more pictures and these occupy the central room
• To do this, simply open it as usual. Photoshop is often linked to the images as a standard program. Then you can simply click on them in Explorer. Alternatively, you can right-click on it and select "Open with". Or you can drag the files directly into the work area, and then they will also be opened.
• In addition to the menu bar, you also have the option bar at the top of the screen. The menu bar hides numerous additional functions that have not made it into the standard tools. However, many of these are also intended for advanced users. The option bar adapts to the active tool and then offers you additional setting options.
• On the left side you will see the toolbar with the most important functions for you, more on that later.
• The bar on the right usually only shows the layer menu (more on that later) and a color selection, but especially here you can set up numerous additional areas that can make your work easier.
• At the bottom of the screen you will find some additional information about your picture.
• In general, you have countless options for redesigning the work area according to your wishes, since you can move and free all elements. In addition, you can open and close many additional windows in the menu under "Window" and open predefined combinations for certain tasks with the "Work area" sub-item. Arrange can also be helpful for many images.
• The "View" menu, on the other hand, refers to the actual images that you are editing. Here you also have numerous view options.

Photoshop for beginners: the toolbar

On the left in the work area you have a thin bar with numerous symbols. These are the main Photoshop tools. If you don't see this bar, click on "Window" in the menu bar and select "Tools" at the bottom.

• First some general information about the tools: You can also activate many functions with the shortcut key, which we give you in square brackets [] after the tool name.
• Most tool icons also have a small arrow in the lower right corner. This indicates that there is more than one function in this field. If you hold down the [ALT] key and then click on the icon, you can switch to the next function. Click several times to return to the original function. Alternatively, you can right-click to open a selection menu.
• The options bar is located at the top of the screen. If you don't see them, show them in the "Window" menu under "Options". You can use this bar to change the settings of the active tool, for example by setting color opacity or selection sizes.
• At the top of the toolbar you can see the move tool [V]. You can use it to move a selection or a layer to a new position, for example. We'll explain both selections and levels later in the article.
• Next are some selection tools in the list, which we will explain to you later.
• This is followed by brush [B], correction [J] and other tools that you need to change the image directly. Details will follow later.
• At the very end, you have the color selection and some tools that affect your work area rather than the processed image - for example the hand tool [H] and the zoom tool [Z].

Photoshop for beginners: painting and correction tools

• A very popular feature of Photoshop is the red-eye tool (J). To do this, hold down [ALT] and double-click the touch-up tool icon.
• Set the pupil size and the amount of obscuration in the tool options at the top of the screen. Then choose your eyes. Photoshop does the rest.
• If you don't like the result, undo the step by pressing [CTRL], [ALT] and [Z] simultaneously. The standard combination [CTRL] and [Z], which you may know from other programs, switches the last change on and off. For example, you can view differences directly.
• Change the tool options and try again until Photoshop correctly detects and corrects the eyes.
• In addition to the correction tools, you also have various brushes [B] with which you can easily paint in the picture. There are numerous setting options here, such as other brush heads, hardness, opacity and flow.
• Leave the values ​​at 100 percent at the beginning and then test how the effects change as you tweak individual settings. This way you quickly get a feel for how you should use the drawing tools.
• The eraser [E] is of course the counterpart to the brush, with which you can correct failed drawing attempts.
• There are also filling tools and gradients [G] for large-area work. If you want to set vectors and shapes without the selection tool, there are various shape tools available [U].
• Photoshop works with a double choice of colors. You can set a foreground and a background color at any time and quickly switch between the two by pressing [X]. Use [D] to switch back to the standard black and white.
• To change the active color, simply click on the color selection in the right column. You can also double-click the color change to open a detailed color selection. With the eyedropper [I] you draw color directly from the picture and use it.
• In general, it is advisable to create a separate level for painting experiments, since corrections are easier here. You will find more information about Eben later in the article.

Photoshop for beginners: selection tools

• The second icon usually shows a dashed rectangle and is the simple selection tool [M]. You can use it to mark parts of the image that can then be cut out or edited with filters, for example. In addition to the rectangular shape, you can also choose an ellipse for circular shapes.
• The advanced selection tools [L] Lasso, Polygon-Lasso and Magnet-Lasso also allow free choice inside, which is not tied to fixed shapes. You draw freely with the lasso, the polygon lasso connects the nodes you have selected and the magnet lasso tries to automatically recognize the correct edges through pixel differences. If the Magnetlasso does not recognize the correct edge, change the contrast and frequency options (Freq.).
• Another important selection tool is the quick selection [W]. This tool automatically recognizes related objects and selects them completely. The alternative is the magic wand, which also automatically finds related objects. This works for both tools via pixel detection. If too much or too little is selected, change the tolerance in the tool options, for example.
• The crop tool [C] is useful when you want to permanently and permanently remove certain parts of the image, such as ugly edges. Just set the selection accordingly and everything outside will disappear.
• In general, you often have to help a little, especially with the automatic tools. To do this, you can use the same or a different selection tool and remove parts of the selection or add further parts of the image. Hold [SHIFT] before clicking on the image to add the new selection to the existing one. On the other hand, if you hold down [ALT] while clicking, you remove part of the selection.
• Note that you can also press [SHIFT] after you have started your selection. This has different effects. The rectangle and ellipse tool then draws equilateral rectangles or perfect circles, for example. This also works with brushes, for example if you want to draw a straight line.

Photoshop for beginners: levels

• The layers are a special feature of Photoshop. This allows you to work on an image without changing the actual image.
• Instead, place a transparent layer over the picture and draw on it, for example. If you then hide the layer, the original looks unchanged. Alternatively, you could simply color a layer black and completely cover the original.
• In this way you can sort individual work steps well, make them easy to understand and, if necessary, change them again quickly. But levels offer more than just a good overview.
• You can add effects to layers and objects on these layers, create layer masks to make only certain parts visible and easily change only parts of an image with adjustment layers.
• You can freely combine the different levels and everything you have learned about selections: for example, you can create an adjustment level that takes the color of the picture away. If you have made a selection beforehand, the appropriate layer mask will be created automatically, so that, as in the example graphic, only the left half of the image turns black and white.
• You can easily create new layers with the key combination [SHIFT], [CTRL] and [N].
• You also have suitable buttons in the level management, which you normally find on the right side of the work area. A third option is the "Layer" menu in the menu bar.
• In the level menu you can see the individual levels arranged one above the other. The higher the level in the list, the higher your priority. The level at the top covers everything. So if it's not see-through, you won't see the rest.
• You can click the respective eye icon next to the layers to hide the layer. You can show them in the same way. This makes working with layers easier and enables comparisons.
• Working with layers can also be a bit confusing, as you need to be careful which layer you have selected. You can recognize this by the blue highlighting. Sometimes the selected level is covered by another. Then you will not see what you are changing. With practice, this rarely happens.

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Photoshop for beginners: Save

• Photoshop uses its own file format: .PSD
• This format is difficult or impossible to use for people without Photoshop and is also very large.
• All data such as the levels are saved in this format so that you can continue working on your project at any time.
• Therefore, to get a picture ready and send it to your friends or use it on a website, use the "Save As" function. Select a compressed file format like .JPG or .PNG (if you have transparent parts) and set the file as you like. For example, if you only slightly reduce the quality, you will save a lot of storage space.
• All .PSD information, such as the various layers, is then compressed into a "flat" image, making the file much smaller.

In other practical tips, we will show you, for example, how to reverse colors or create color gradients in Photoshop.

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