One photographer’s thoughts on Why and How to learn Adobe Photoshop

[or, the ramblings of an incoherent man] by Norb Veit

Introduction

Until about a year ago I kind’a despised computers ‘cuz they were always making something which should be easy, frustratingly hard.  Moreover, they (computers seem to be possessed by evil spirits) were always out to irritate and aggravate me by erasing data, locking up or throwing me off line after first throwing out the e-mail letter I had been typing for a half an hour.  Things have changed, the computers still do all of those nasty things to me but I’ve learned to cope and found out that they actually do it to everyone.  Anyway, about a year ago I bought and tried to load Photoshop.  Why?  I just thought I should learn something new and I wanted to start to print my images and maybe even try to build a web site.  Well things did not start off so well ‘cuz the non-returnable software which I ordered on line to save money turned out to be for Apple computers and I owned the IBM variety.  After some quick talking, UPS'ing and re-ordering, I finally installed Photoshop 6.01.  I waited about 2 months to start to learn it.  I was frightened by the thought of having to learn something so ponderous.  Its interface was so full of hidden menus, choices, tools, palettes, icons, thumbnails and a bunch of other stuff that made absolutely no sense to me. 

I struggled over the next 9 months reading books, working through tutorials, finally going to a class or two, reading, trying, reading, studying etc.  The problem was that Photoshop was a really big elephant to eat and digest.  It was so big, that I really didn’t have any idea on what was important to learn and what was not.  Nor did I perceive any logical way of deciding what to learn or where to start or where to emphasize my studies.  Photoshop has many thousands of features / controls / tools / strange names / unfamiliar terms / key board short cuts / undocumented features etc.  So why would anyone want to really learn this?  Or at least why would a photographer want to do this?

Why learn Photoshop?

Have you ever used a split neutral density filter?  Do you use warming filters?  Do you want to make the best possible images?  Do you want to print your images?  If you answered yes to one or more of these then consider this.  In Photoshop you can make a spilt neutral density filter that follows the jagged mountain range.  You can color correct your images if you didn’t have a warming filter or if the one you had didn’t completely do the job.  Do you want to make your images equal what your eyes saw when you took the picture rather than what the limited light bandwidth film saw through a camera lens?  Would you like to share your images with others in a format that is a little more viewable than a slide, cheaper than print processing and truer in color fidelity than what is available through film negative processing?  What it really comes down to is do you want to improve your photography or not? When I say photography, I mean the art of photography.  (This would be a great topic for another article but let’s stay on track.)

How to Learn Photoshop

OK.  You decided you would take the plunge and start to learn Photoshop.  Where do you begin?  I am not going to teach Photoshop in this article.  Instead, I would like to give you a logical (and therefore easier to remember) series of concepts or tools with which you can organize your Photoshop studies to make them more productive and more efficient.  With a road map, you can find your way easier and at your own speed.  Also, with a road map you will know which Photoshop tools / features are important to you as a photographer and how they fit, work, compliment or form a basis for some other feature which you will likely need.  Before I lay the road map on you let me make some general comments about Photoshop.

Photoshop is THE industry standard image-editing package.  It is also the industry standard package of graphics artists.  It’s also one of the most important software packages for web page development.  It is also the industry standard package in the image printing industry.  So it's pretty versatile? As a consequence, Photoshop probably has a few things that you don't need. Also, this versatility comes with a complex interface that it might be a little daunting.  I for one was confused for months.  Yet finally, things started to make some sense and the pieces started fitting together.  So without further ado, this is what I would do if I could do it over. First, I wished I had taken the time to understand five or six terms which would have helped me know where to look for a feature. To that end I have created a downloadable annotated image file which you can print on standard paper. It describes many important terms like Pop up menu, Option bar, Palette, Icon, Thumbnail, Layer mask, Adjustment layer, and Tools palette. Take 5 minutes and find these terms in the download file. If you just remove the mystery associated with the preceding terms it will make your learning much easier later on. To Download the file click here > Download Now (this might take a minute)

What goal is at the top of the pyramid?  To make your images better!  What then are the best Photoshop tools (and by tools I don’t mean the tools in the tool palette, I mean features) for doing this?

The Best Photoshop features for making your images better:

1. Adjustment layers  (never adjust an image any other way ‘cuz you can’t undo it or tweak it later unless you use an adjustment layer).  You can adjust hue & saturation, lightness with Levels or Curves, Color Balance, Solid color, Gradient and some other adjustments.  Never, ever, never use Image>Adjustment>Brightness & Contrast.  Adobe put it there just to fool you into destroying your images. 
2. Layer masks for restricting the effects of your adjustment layers.  Why would you want to do this?  Maybe one part of your image is too dark or to light. The dodging and burning tools are crude and cannot be undone but you can tweak or undo light and dark areas with layer mask adjustment layers. By the way, you can edit a layer mask by holding down the alt key and clicking on the layer mask thumbnail in the layers palette. If you want to see an overlay of the mask press the \ key (the one above the Enter or Return key).
3. Layers – you need to understand how these work if you are going to be able to make adjustment layers, layer masks, multiple layers etc. etc.  This means becoming familiar with the dreaded Layers Palette down in the lower right hand corner of your Photoshop workspace. Fear not!  Keep in mind that a layer is just like a piece clear vinyl that you can put over your image then you can draw glasses and moustaches on all your subjects in the picture but you're actually drawing them on the vinyl.  So, you can always see what the subjects looked like without moustaches by lifting up the vinyl.  Each layer of clear vinyl could have something different on it and each vinyl layer is like a Layer in Photoshop.  A cool thing about layers is that you make as many as you want, you can turn them off, throw them away or just lessen their effect by tweaking the opacity slide
4. Blending modes – I have to admit that I still don’t know these as well as I should, but most good Photoshop books have examples of what each of these modes do.  The blending modes affect how the layers interact.  If you want your layers to play nicely together you have to eventually understand blending modes You can easily cycle through the blending modes and see the effect it has on your image by clicking on a layer then pressing Shift and +. Each time you press Shift and + the blend mode will change to the next mode on the list.
5. So how do you make the best layer masks? You have to draw them, select them or use the channels palette to start the mask.  So this means you have to learn a lot (I mean a ton) about how to draw or select something.  Do you have to be an artist (like a painter artist)?  No, but you should get familiar with the paintbrush tool in the tool palette.  While you’re there you should get to know the eraser tool.  You should also figure out how to pick colors or trade the foreground and background colors.  Why?  ‘cuz if you paint with black on a layer mask you add to the mask.  If you paint with white you erase the mask.  Remember the layer mask restricts the effects of the adjustment layer by "masking" out the adjustment.  The only part of your image that gets affected is the part that shines through the white part of the mask. It is also important to understand how to use Threshold, Levels and Curves adjustments in concert with the channels palette. These tools will allow you to enhance channel-based masks and reduce your effort in creating excellent masks.
6. Painting – understand that you can paint with hard edge or soft edge brushes; you can adjust the amount of paint going down (kind’a like the opacity settings in the Layers section).  You can change the size of your brushes {use the right and left bracket keys [, ] ); you can even change the blend mode (darn, I didn’t learn it in the layer blend mode like Norb told me to, now he’s telling me they’re in the paintbrushes too!) You can paint straight (if you remember to hold down the Shift key).
7. Selections – This is the meat and potatoes of getting the best layer masks.  You need to learn a lot about how to select things.  (See the Photoshop tips article)  There are probably a dozen selection tools and many more tips and methods.  Here is a brief run down of the ones you really should get to know and get to know when to each tool is right for the job.  The following list in order of what Norb thinks is most important (or at least the ones he uses or should use the most)
   1. Pen tool and Direct Component selection tool Ctrl – Click on layer to put a selection around everything on the layer
   2. Ctrl-Shift-I = select everything that wasn’t selected and unselect the stuff that was selected.  (Sometimes it’s a lot easier to select what you don’t want then inverse it).
   3. Magic wand (sometimes referred to as the tragic wand because many times it looks like the right tool to use but it isn’t),
   4. the Lasso tool,
   5. the Shift Key (add to the existing selection), the Alt key (subtract from existing selection),
   6. the keyboard short cut for zooming in (Ctrl - spacebar- click & Alt-spacebar-Click),
   7. keyboard short cut for moving the image around (hold down the space bar and drag the image with your mouse),
   8. the History palette (you need this to undo your selection goofs),
   9. Quick mask mode (<- this selection tool is a winner),
   10. the background eraser tool,
   11. the Extract tool (under the Filter command),
   12. the Select commands including feather, modify, expand, reduce, grow, save and load,
   13. the rectangle (marquee) tool, and last but not least,
   14. the Color Range menu

   If you can’t master selections, you won’t be able to do all that Ansel Adams stuff that he did in the darkroom.  It’s worth the effort.  Keep learning until you get it.  By the way there is an excellent, informative video on mastering Selections.  It’s available to members of National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP).  If you aren’t a member you should think about becoming one.  They have the best, most comprehensive Photoshop training I’ve seen so far. 

   Filters – Unsharp mask.  This is the one to use and know.  Don’t use any of Photoshop's other sharpening tools in the Filters-->Sharpen menu. When using unsharp mask, stay below 100% and keep the radius to 3 or less pixels. Avoid over sharpening which will create color halos around edges within your image.  Often settings above 100% will degrade your image.  Also don’t apply the unsharp mask filter to your only scanned image because you can’t undo it (unless you back up in the history palette while the file is still open.  Once you save the file the history in the history palette disappears). (Filters – Blur- Gaussian Blue is a good tool for removing grain and controlably removing dust and specks.)
8. Eyedropper tool – you need this to sample colors and to pick colors. Zoom tool – gotta get in close some times to see what you’re doin’ (Ctrl+ and Ctrl- are keyboard short cuts for zooming and they function even when there's a dialog box on the screen.) The cloning tool – sometimes you have to repair bad scans or blemishes in your image Healing brush – really nice for removing spots, noise, wrinkles.  Don’t use this tool on pictures of toads.  And there is a limitation to this tool if your subject doesn’t have any skin that isn’t wrinkled (like Skip).

Okay, so that’s about it.  There are many other things worth learning about like the history brush, channel mixer, gradient controls, LAB mode, alpha channels, resolution, printing, color management etc. etc.  but I like to keep my lists to even dozens. I hope you find this article of some use and interest.  Don’t be intimidated by all the jargon.  Don’t be intimidated by the computer or the Photoshop interface.  You can master this stuff and bring your beautiful images to their highest potential.  Along the way you will learn a lot of interesting things.  So get out there and get started.

PS - Photoshop Elements not as comprehensive as the full blown version of Photoshop.  I wouldn’t buy this watered down, version of its blue blood, pure bred, turbo charged, feature rich big brother, the one, the only Photoshop (yes, I do own Adobe stock).