photoshop lesson 1

photoshop lesson 1

color correction
  eyedropper, 3 - one for light, medium, dark
    find whitest spot, a lightsource
    darkest spot, corner
    then click colour balance to toggle

  use histogram to bring up tones
  or levels to bring up tones
    select colour dropdown and then can target a specific tone, drop the
    red

hold option and click on/off in layers to see it with / without
command+spacebar, can zoom with trackpad

masks
  when your on the mask
  space+x
  you can right-click spacebar to switch into and out of the mask
  to mask a layer [square with circle inside it]
  when on a mask you'll see your colour selection go light & dark, these
  add & takeaway from the image your masking.
  command+i inverting

unlock, create layer, select solid colour, white. put in background
  use curve to make light lighter, dark darker

goto channels, rgb, turn off
  ctrl+m to pull up curves to stick to the image
  select colour, say blue then pull up channel (load channel as
  selection) then can adjust the curve of the channel

load channel as selection - means rather than select the outside of an
object by hand you can use the channel to select the outside of the
image (say a chair) and then cut it out of the image with no background.

no right way or wrong way, just a ton of ways to do it

to get selection again, click command then click on the mask itself to
get the selection.

--------------------------------

if making a selection on an image and the polygon goes jaggedy it
usually is because your working with a low quality image, so goto image
size increase by 50 percent then make your selection and go down to 100
percent afterwards.

--------------------------------

open image, make canvas size bigger.

use magic wand, select and cut out background
then select object, click select, modify, expand 2 pixels
then select, modify feather 1 pixel

(aka smart edges)

--------------------------------

make shadows

command + click on that mask, there's nothing around that object so it's
a perfect shape for the shadow.
create layer with selection, use a fill (shift+delete) and then move it
slightly off to one side to get a shadow. then delete what you don't
need.

command+d - select