How To...

CuLT

Right. To start off with I use Paint Shop Pro. I've ben using it in

its various forms for years now and it just keeps getting more useful . The link there will take you to the jasc software page where you can download the demo.
If you like it I suggest you buy it .

Paint Shop Pro (PSP) as well as Adobe Photoshop are the main tools that people use in what is commonly known as "Photoshopping" (dubbed so because Adobe Photoshop is more popular than (PSP). I'll give a quick tutorial on how to get your idea into pixels using PSP, unfortunately I know very little about Photoshop, my co-mod will most likely be a Photoshop user and be able to give a better explanation than I could .

Paint Shop Pro 7

1. Basics:

How you configure PSP on first time run is up to you, but if you are an XP user I recommend leaving everything at default, XP has a default picture viewing system which is quite snazzy so I didn't want to mess around with it. On other systems however I recommend you go through each option.

Ok, you're set up. Now what?

Well, get yourself used to the functions. Create a new image using File->New . You will be given a list of options, leave them as default for the moment, the canvas colour will be the background colour of your image.
The icons which were greyed out on the left panel will now become usable.
If you hover over them a description of what they are comes up at the bottom of the program window.
You can use the magnifying tool much easier if you have a scroll mouse, if you don't have one, the tool itself is there .
By trying out each of the tools for a while you should get the basic idea of what they are used for, image effects (selectable at the top) can be experimented with. PSP is a well made tool and you can undo a huge number of times if you need to, this is not the "3 undos" limit of MS Paint .

2. Image Editing:

I find that the tools I most often use when editing an image in PSP are the "clone brush" and the "Freehand" tool. the clone brush allows you to select an area of the image and paint the selected area on other parts of the image. The freehand tool allows you chop out pieces of an image for copying, cutting etc.

Depending on your source image you may have to up the amount of colours in the "palette" (the palette is simply the number of colours the picture has available to it). This can be done via the "Colors" option on the top menu. I recommend 16 Million colours for editing, this can be reduced later during compression.

There is no specific "way" to go about making your picture, it's all up to the individual, you are provided with the tools, but you must make your masterpiece . You will be aware of what the tools you have used can do by practicing with them and you will learn useful things, all through practice. If you have a specific problem, ask me and I'll see if I can sort it for you, the Help section is quite comprehensive though, I suggest you try that first.

4. Resources:

I suggest you check out the resources thread, this is the best way to get a good source for putting your ideas into pixels. The Know Your Nerds gallery is the best place for getting member images to mess around with.

3. Compression:

Once you have your image made you don't want people moaning at you that its "too big" or has "crappy compression". To compress your image click "Save As". You may save your image in its current state so you can edit it later my just saving it now.

Click "Save As" again and select a different filetype, I recommend either JPG or GIF. JPG is best suited to pictures that have a lot of colour (for example peoples faces, photographs, etc), wheras GIF can be used for more cartoony type images. The big difference is that GIF is limited to 256 colours, JPG is not.

Take JPG for the moment. Select it from filetypes and click "Options", then select "Run Optimizer". You will be shown a "Before and After" set of pictures. select a picture quality that you feel is appropriate, and select "Download Times". This will give you a rough idea of how long it will take people to download your image. Remember, as gifted as you may be people are impatient and you will annoy them if you have a large file size.
Save the image. Excellent! You're almost done! All you have to do is upload it now. Boards.ie provides a 2MB hosting account for its users here.

Compress your files well and you can use this amount of space quite well.

As far as I know the above information is accurate, if i've made an erro tell me . Any

extra tips from other 'shoppers are appreciated.

PiE

You'll use pretty much the same tools in Photoshop, with a few more advanced tools too.

The Clone brush is pretty much the same in both programs, Alt-Click to select an area, click on the area you want to clone over. There are also two other, more advanced versions of this - the Patch and Heal tools. They do the same job, but they also make the cloned areas "blend in" better with the background. Or something. Ah if you wan't a better explanation, RTFM :]

The Freehand tool is called the Lasso tool in Photoshop. There are four different types of lasso tool - Regular Lasso: this will follow your mouse around the image and make a selection in the shape that you drew. Polygonal Lasso will draw straight line selections only when you click a point on the image. Magnetic Lasso is extremely handy, it draws a selection automatically by keeping along the edge of a colour. So if you have a black image on a white background, it will trace the black image for you. Of course it doesnt always work flawlessly, especially when there isn't a lot of contrast in the image.

Compression in Photoshop happens when you either:

A. File -> Save As: This will give you the bare minimum of options to save as, such as filetype and quality (the higher the quality the bigger the filesize). Thankfully it gives a preview as you do it so you can see how it will look.

B. File -> Save for Web: This gives you a lot more options and better previews in a Wizard type of way but ehhh... probably won't need it too often.

That's just the tip of the iceberg of Photoshop. The best way to use Photoshop is just sit down and mess around with ALL the tools while keeping the Manual (F1) open at all times.

HTH.

CuLT

Excellent, thanks for that , Both tools would appear to be quite similar by your reply, which is useful.

[edit] Thanks to amp aswell, very useful and quite similar to PSP again.

amp

I'm sure there's better Photoshoppers than I out there but here's some tips for those using Photoshop.

Layers are your friend. More than likely your going to want to put another image (say someones head) on top of another image.

Cuting and pasting will put the head into a new layer. You'll most likely need to resize the head to fit the body. The best way to do this is Free Transform (Ctrl+T). Grab a corner and then adjust to fit. Hold down shift to keep it's proportions the same (a square remains square shaped but smaller/bigger.)

The next step is to make the head look like it's actually part of the body. There's a couple of things you need to do to create this illusion:

Colour Balance. Rarely will the two things you want to unite be the same exact shade of colour. Use this to get as close as possible.

The biggest problem however is the edges of the head. I use a combination of blurring and the erase tool. Because the head will be on a seperate layer you can use the erase tool (preferrably set to airbrush mode) to get rid of any unwanted parts of the head. Then use the blur tool on a low opacity setting to blend the edges together.

Something that still gets me is that I'd be working on a layer and nothing would happen. This is usually cos I've got the wrong layer highlighted. I usually name each layer to make it easier to know which I'm working on. But if you're still not sure which is which clicking on the eye on the layer pallette will toggle layers on and off.

Once you're finished checking that the object you have inserted is roughly similar in colour and as blurred or as sharp as it's surroundings. Add shadow by using an airbrush set to Darken as needed.

Fonts are important. If you're adjusting say a newspaper headline then you should really try and identify the font on the original and use it. If you can't then it's possible to use the existing letters to make up your new text. This is useful for movie posters and magazines.

If the letters don't exist, then sometimes you can create them with the existing fonts. For example it's quite easy to make an "m" out of a an "n" using cut n paste, or a "q" out of an "o"

Lastly, remember while the technical aspects of your creation are important, if the concept isn't funny to begin with it's a bit of a waste of time.

(I use Photoshop 7.0 in the main. PSP on occasion. Acdsee to browse my clipart. Font Glancer for a quick look at all my fonts. And as has been already mentioned, Google Image search for originals.)

Happy Photoshopping!

PiE

Originally posted by amp
Something that still gets me is that I'd be working on a layer and nothing would happen. This is usually cos I've got the wrong layer highlighted.

Aye, make sure you don't have "Auto Select Layer" enabled, can be very feckin' annoying.

Fonts are important. If you're adjusting say a newspaper headline then you should really try and identify the font on the original and use it.

On that note, these sites can be very helpful:

http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/
http://www.identifont.com/index.html

amp

http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/
http://www.identifont.com/index.html

Pie, I think I love you.

/me bookmarks with satisfied sigh

CuLT

4. Skin Tones:

This is often a big issue with 'shopped pics, if the head colour doesn't match the skin tone well, the image appears disjointed.

To correct this is relatively easy in PSP.
Select the "Retouch" tool (the small white hand icon), using the "Tool Options" toolbar, select "color to target" from the middle menu selection.

Pick the colour that best suits the image you are editing, and carefully paint over both images to make sure they merge nicely. Then just use the "Smudge" tool to blend the edges together, this is because in some cases the "blur" tool causes too much loss of definition, practically negating the work you've done to merge together by making the skintones the same .

Hobbes

As Amp said, layers are your friends. I use PSP7 as it's cheaper then Photoshop.

PSP also has layers and you should learn to use them. Also learn how to use the transparcy of layers.

For example. Lets say you want see what your hair looks like in a different colour?

1. Create a new layer over your picture.

2. On the new layer paint in a bright red colour around all your hair in the picture (don't worry if you go over a little bit).

3. Move the transparacy to around 7%-20% and it will automatically dye your hair another colour.

You can also use layers to easy move stuff under parts of the picture.

Another thing with PSP is the selection tool. Someone mentions the magic wand, lasso below. However you can get better control over this in PSP by using CTRL (Add more selection area) and SHIFT (Remove selection area) to help carve your selection easier.

Also play with threshold levels on magic wand to grab something, and the Select Similar + Invert selection to get stuff. And if you have to paste something. Do so as a layer (you can merge it later if needs be).

As for joining (re: edges). I use either soften around the edges. Or another trick to create a lair of the edge area of your item then soften it and then lower the transparacy to get a smooth merge.

Detonated Sauce

A good way in photoshop to make objects look like part of the original is to use the gradient tool. On the new layer with your object click the add layer mask button down at the bottom of the layer panel. Then click the gradient tool, select black to white, pick whatever gradient you want and click from the centre of your object outwards to allow the edges to fade in nicely

Hobbes

If your a cheap bastard or a reforming warez monkey, then I recommend getting...

GIMP
http://www.gimp.org/

It's free, open source, has much of the options PSP/PS have and is available for Linux, Mac + Windows.

ironbrew

How do you....if your using PS...Put someones head on another body...if the the head is facing the wrong road..like how do you change it?

CuLT

I presume it's the same as PSP, there should be an option to "mirror" the image, this can mirror the entire image though, so I suggest putting the head into its own transparent canvas first, flipping it and then putting it over the image you want.

CuLT

5. Signature Pictures:

First thing you'll need to decide is the canvas size. If you don't know what this means i suggest you read the various "Photoshopping" guides above.

The best sig pics are the unobtrusive ones. They shouldn't be too wide or too tall, and have a decent filesize. To be precise:

For images in signatures: 1 image up to 300 pixels wide, 125 pixels tall and 20k in size. No animated images are allowed.

The most annoying things I find about sig pics are one that are too tall, big(filesize) or animated.
This is the space 300x125 pixels will afford you:


Once you've decided on a good canvas size, you're going to need a theme. This doesn't have to be awe-inspiring or anything, it's just to make the sig fit together nicely.

For instance, my current sig (at the time of typing ) has the general theme of an Anime film called "Death & Rebirth".

With your theme in mind, search the net for some good images.
Once you've picked a few. throw them all into PSP or Photoshop.
Resize an image and put it into the canvas, try it with the others too and see which one fits best.
You'll probably have to either recolor the background of the pictures you're pasting in or the canvas colour to make it blend together.

If you want to put text in it's completely up to you what to put in (bearing the sigrules in mind). Things people write in their sigpics vary from quotes to names to websites, just about anything.

You probably won't have to look much further than the sigs of some of the posters in this forum to see good examples.
Making sigpics is basically photoshopping with a touch of artyness .

If you get stuck somewhere, make sure you've read the above sections of the guide and if that doesn't work then ask for help, I or another user will try to give as good an answer as we can.

PiE

Originally posted by CuLT
I presume it's the same as PSP, there should be an option to "mirror" the image

In PS it's Edit -> Transform -> Flip Horizontal/Vertical.

ironbrew

Originally posted by PiE
In PS it's Edit -> Transform -> Flip Horizontal/Vertical.

Aha,how cool!

Thank you!

Oh and thanks CuLt for the tip on the sig, will try them tamarra when im wide awake.:)

ironbrew

Umm, yes its me again...the newbie!!!

Two problems...i cant or don't know how to get the magnetic lasso tool working, i cant see to find it in the options or anywhere???


Also it seems that i only know of how to have 1 basic color as my background, inless i start putting dotts or something in with the paint brush, which just looks pathetic.

PiE

The Magnetic Lasso is under the regular Lasso, click and hold down this icon and a menu will slide out with the other tools.

The background colour can be changed by picking any (foreground) colour, choosing the paintbucket (fill) icon and clicking on the background layer. The shortcut is Alt+Backspace.

angelofdeath

good stuff, figured out a lot of this on my own but good reference nonetheless:)

DMT

http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=161018

Effective, yet amazingly easy....

tba

Originally posted by DMT
http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=161018

Effective, yet amazingly easy....

yea these tutorials are very good, and if your looking for practice, enter the competitions on the site

http://www.worth1000.com

Shrimp

For great free fonts, check out:

www.dafont.com

CuLT

Nice one; I have never found a decent font site, been carrying round a pack of 900 fonts that got installed with some art software I bought years ago

Thanks.

dangerman

http://good-tutorials.com/


5887 adobe photoshop tutorials.

call_me_fish

Here are 2 Tutoials i made for newbies they are on my forums, The forum is about Photoshop, if you are intrested in Photoshop please register the forum is new

http://fusiongfx.x05host.com//index.php?showtopic=16 This tut will teach you some technics i use to make sigs

http://fusiongfx.x05host.com//index.php?showtopic=17 This tut will bring you in to the basics of Animation with ImageReady which comes with Photoshop CS .

CuLT

Forum pimping is prohibited under the boards.ie general rules.

I have merged and edited this thread with the How To sticky.

call_me_fish

i see <_<

tba

Layers Advanced

Indeed Layers are your friend and considering them as sheets of clear plastic which you can move draw and cut is a good analogy to begin with however they can do much more.

Layer Masks

Layer masks are a thing of beauty allowing you to erase sections of a layer from view, but not from the drawing. For example if their is a section of the layer that you wish to keep draw very roughly around it with the polygon select tool. Now go to the layers menu and select new layer mask->reveal selection and hey presto the selected area is all that is left.

But looking at your layer toolbox you will see the image for that layer has been altered, to the left of the thumbnail is another image of just black and white, this is the layer mask, this is where it gets good. This black and white image is now the layer you paint should paint on, it can act as a buffer between you and the valuable source image behind it. By painting white or black onto this layer you can alter the mask and consequently show more or less of the image it is grouped with. Blurring the edges will allow the image to become slightly transparent.

By using this method you can insure that you do not alter the source image and as such don't screw it up.

Layer Adjusment

The more astute of you may have noticed the Layer adjusment option in the layer menu. This allows you to once again create a mask, but this time it does not hide the image but filters it in certain ways. The most common of which are curves and brightness/contrast. This is a much better option that directly adjusting the image as the effect can once again be removed or turned off.


Selecting Areas

You know how to select with the lasso right. Well when you have a selection you can subtract from it by holding down alt and drawing with the lasso, and add to it with ctrl. Also while holding down ctrl selecting a layer will draw a selection around that layer or mask allowing you to use other layers as reference masks.

In general i like to use the polygon lasso tool, as it provides better control, however I always use a feather as it removes harsh edges and blends better.