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This help DA was set up for the photographers at the Morning News Tribune (Tacoma, WA), as a "BASIC" guide to inputting, cropping, burning, dodging and outputting their photographs for editorial use. It is not a comprehensive help file for ALL of the features of Adobe's Photoshop. It is based on Bill Steinberg's "Display DA", and is meant for you to customize to your needs with ResEdit. For information about how to change the info in this help file click on Steinberg's copyright notice at the bottom of this window.
Portions of this help file
copyright 1990 Adobe Systems Inc.
(bill hunter,
the morning news tribune, 1-800-272-8742 ext. 8365;
Load image (emulsion toward lens and upside down).
Select "Acquire » Nikon LS-3500...", from the "File" menu.
Set the attributes (Tall/Wide, Negative/Positive and Color/Grayscale), then Prescan and Preview (uncheck the "In Color" box if checked).
Crop the image with the mouse by click-hold and dragging a crop box across image.
If the image is too light or dark, adjust the exposure (range= 25 to 255, the higher the number the more light that passes through the image (negatives get darker, positives get lighter)). If the image has too much or little contrast adjust the black level (range= 7 to -7, positive numbers make the blacks blacker increasing contrast, negative numbers decrease the black level for less contrast (black level also affects the exposure)).
Set the size depending on the size the photo will run (if you're unsure 1:3 will generally work unless you're cropping a very small portion of the original to be run quite large).
Scan the image
When the image appears, verify that the image is cropped the way you want it to appear (if not recrop with the crop tool from the toolbox), and save as a TIFF File.
You can change the levels (exposure/contrast) of an image or parts (selections) of the image.
(To change the levels of an area, select the area with one of the selection tools. To deselect areas you've selected, click with one of the selection tools in the selected area. See "USING THE TOOLBOX")
After an image has been burned, dodged and cropped, choose Resample from under the Image menu. Set the parameters in the Resample dialog box to the size desired. Set the resolution to twice the screen size to be used on the halftone (i.e. if you are using an 85 line screen (85 lines/inch) set the resolution to 170 pixels/inch). Be sure that the figure for the Resampled Size (just above where you set the width) is not larger than the Current Size (at the top of the dialog box), else you will have to decrease the resolution until these two figures are equal (at the news tribune we have output photos with a resolution as low as 130 pixels/inch (1.5 times the screen size), but the quality suffers). Click OK.
Choose Page Setup from the File menu. Click on the paper format desired (Tabloid). Check the boxes for Crop Marks and Calibration Bars. Click on Caption and include a slug word and any other info needed for production (not a detailed caption for the copywriters). Click on Border to enter a border if desired (1pt.). Click on OK.
Print by selecting Print from under the File menu, or typing Command-P. Make sure the name of the LaserWriter at the top of the dialog box is the device you want to output to. Click OK or press enter.
The top four tools in the tool palette plus the eyedropper are the selection tools; rectangular and elliptical marquees, the lasso and the magic wand.
Generally, a selection can be added to by depressing the Shift key while selecting additional areas and selections can be subtracted by depressing the Command key. Different selection tools can be combined in this manner, to aid in selecting the exact area you want. Moving a selection area can be accomplished by the Command and Option keys, clicking in the selection and dragging it to the new area. After making a selection the edge should be feathered (range= 1 to 64 pixels(the higher the number the greater the feathering)) so that changes in the selected area will not be as noticeable. {Ch. 9}
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Lasso tool:
Click and drag to trace an outline of the selection area. When you release the mouse button a straight line will be drawn to the starting point if you fail to enclose the selection by hand. If the Option key is depressed and the mouse button released it will lay down a corner point that will draw a straight line to the next point you click on, allowing for both freehand and straight lines to be incorporated in a selection. {Ch. 9, pg 93}
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Marquee tools:
Click and drag on a diagonal to define a rectangular or elliptical selection. With the Option key depressed the selection will be drawn from the center rather than from the corner. {Ch. 9, pg 96}
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Magic Wand:
The Magic Wand allows you to select adjacent areas (pixels) of similar color or brightness values. If you double click on the magic wand tool you will be presented with a dialog box asking you to specify Tolerance and Fuzziness.
Tolerance;
Range= 0 to 255, 32 is default, the lower the number the more the selection will be constrained to the color value (or shade of grey) you select, a large number selects a wider range of values (specifying a tolerance of 25 and then clicking on a pixel with a value of 100, will select adjacent pixels with values in the range of 75 to 125).
Fuzziness;
Range= 0 to 255, 64 is default, as you increase the fuzziness value, the edges become progressively less jagged, to a point, then the edges become jagged again because the edge pixels become selected to the point where all their color becomes visible and forms a new jagged edge. {Ch. 9, pg 103}
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Eyedropper:
Selects the current foreground and background colors from the image. The foreground color is used by the painting tools. {Ch. 11, pg 139}
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The Hand and Magnifying glass are the viewing tools.
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Grabber tool:
Lets you scroll an image that is larger than the active window by clicking on part of the image and moving it in the desired direction. {Ch. 4, pg 37}
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Zoom tool:
Zooms in to perform close, detailed work, or (by pressing the Option key) zooms out for an overall view. {Ch. 4, pg 35}
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The Painting tools consist of the Pencil, Line, Paint brush, Airbrush and Rubber stamp tools. {Ch. 5}
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Pencil tool:
Creates either freehand or straight, hard edged lines. Click and draw for freehand, press the Shift key, and click the mouse at the beginning and end points for straight lines. To choose line widths and other options double-click on the pencil icon in the toolbox. {Ch. 5, pg 44}
Misc. tools:
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Cross hair pointer:
Works in conjunction with the tools of the toolbox to give greater precision. The "hot spot" of the pointer is the dot in the middle of the crosshairs. To activate the cross hair pointer depress the Caps Lock key. {Ch. 2, pg 30}
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Text tool:
The Type tool enters pixel-based type on an image. You can select the font, point size and style. {Ch. 8, pg 81}
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Cropping tool:
This tool is used to select part of an image and discard the unselected portion.
To use, click and drag a box across the image. The box can be adjusted by clicking on the corner points and repositioning them. when the cursor is inside the selected region it will change to a scissors icon, clicking with this icon will crop the image.
If you double-click (or option-click) on the tool you go to the cropping options dialog box where you can set the width-to-height ratio, and the box will maintain the proportions entered (if when drawing a box, the tool will not let you place the crop marks where you want, you need to delete the settings in this cropping options dialog box).
To move the crop area, hold down the Command key then click on one of the corners and drag to the new location for that corner.
To rotate the selection, click on a corner while holding down the Option key, rotate the crop box in the desired direction. When the crop is made the selection will be rotated back to the original box shape.
The following is a brief description of the filters in Photoshop, in some instances suggested uses and values are included. bh
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Add Noise:
Noise in an image is represented by pixels with randomly distributed color levels. The Add Noise filter can be used along with the painting tools on a gray-scale image. The painting tools apply paint that is free of noise. Therefore, if you apply paint to an area in an image that contains some noise, you might select the area you painted, and use the Add Noise filter to make the area blend in better with its surroundings. {Ch. 17, pg 318}
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Blur and Blur More:
Used to soften an image.
Blur More produces a stronger blur effect (about three or four times stronger) than the Blur filter. {Ch. 17, pg 299}
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Custom:
This filter allows you to create a special filter to suit your needs that can be saved and loaded into another document for future use. {Ch. 17, pg 320}
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Despeckle:
Use the Despeckle filter to help reduce the graininess of a photo. Works both on the grain from the negative and the grain sometimes created by other filters or operations. {Ch. 17, pg 299}
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Diffuse:
The Diffuse filter shuffles pixels around in a selection to make the selection look less focused. There are three options associated with this filter: Normal, Darken Only, and Lighten Only. The Darken Only and Lighten Only options allow you to darken or lighten a selection, respectively, in addition to making it appear more diffused. {Ch. 17, pg 303}
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Facet:
This filter tends to clump pixels into blocks of pixels. You can use the Facet filter to create sharp definition in a selection. {Ch. 17, pg 313}
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Find Edges:
This filter automatically outlines the edges on an image. This filter is useful for creating a border around an image. The filter marks the edges on a color image by colored lines; it marks the edges on a gray-scale image by white lines. {Ch. 17, pg 308}
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Fragment:
This filter creates four copies of the pixels in the selection and offsets them from each other. {Ch. 17, pg 313}
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Gaussian Blur:
The Gaussian Blur filter quickly blurs a selection by a large amount; the effect is similar to choosing the Blur or Blur More filters several times.
You can use this filter to remove the screen from a scanned halftone (such as a yearbook photo, the default radius of 1.0 pixels works well for us). {Ch. 17, pg 300}
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High Pass:
This filter retains the high frequency part of the image and suppresses the low frequency parts of the image. High frequency areas coincide with sharp transitions that generally occur around the edges of distinct parts of an image, low frequency areas occur where there are smooth, gradual transitions between the brightness levels of pixels. {Ch. 17, pg 319}
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Maximum:
Median:
Minimum:
These filters allow you to examine pixels in a given area of a selection, and adjust their brightness. Operating on one pixel at a time (the current pixel), these filters examine the brightness values of the surrounding pixels and replace the brightness value of the current pixel with either the maximum, minimum, or median brightness value encountered, depending on which filter you choose.
For all of these filters, you specify a radius that determines how far around the current pixel the filter looks at brightness values of surrounding pixels. The Maximum and Minimum filters use a value from I to 10 for the radius; the Median filter uses a value from 1 to 16 for the radius. {Ch. 17, pg 310}
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Motion Blur:
Produces a blur effect in a particular direction and of a specific intensity. You can use this filter to simulate the blurred image of a moving object. The direction is specified from -90 to 90 degrees (0 degrees is 3 o'clock. The distance value is specified from 1 to 32 pixels (you may have to use this blur repeatedly to achieve the effect you desire. {Ch. 17, pg 301}
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Mosaic:
This filter clumps pixels in a selection into blocks of pixels of a specified size. You specify the size of the blocks using the Mosaic Filter dialog box. The pixels in a given block are all the same color, and the colors of the blocks represent the colors in the selection. {Ch. 17, pg 314}
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Offset:
This filter moves the pixels in a selection a specified distance in a specified direction. The area left empty by the move is replaced with an adjacent part of the image. If the selection is not located near the edge of the image, the effect of the filter is to create a duplicate of the image and place it directly beneath the original. {Ch. 17, pg 315}
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Sharpen:
Sharpen More:
Sharpen Edges:
Unsharp Mask:
These filters bring a selection into focus and improve the clarity of an image by increasing the contrast in adjacent pixels in the selection. The Sharpen More filter applies a stronger sharpening effect than the Sharpen filter.
The Sharpen Edges filter only sharpens the parts of the image where significant color transitions appear. The Unsharp Mask filter sharpens the high-frequency areas (the areas where abrupt color transitions occur) in a selection. (the use of these filters may cause a clumping of pixels, causing the image to look grainy, Despeckle will correct some or all of this grain) {Ch. 17, pg 305}
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Trace Contour:
This filter outlines the areas of a selection where a given transition between color values occurs. {Ch. 17, pg 308}
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Unsharp Mask:
(see Sharpen)
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Plug-in filters
A plug-in filter is a filter that is developed by a third party for use in the Adobe Photoshop program. The effects vary according to the filter. Documentation for the plug-in filter is included with the third-party software disk in your Adobe Photoshop package.
Plug-in filters are easy to install; once installed, they appear in the Filter submenu, which is accessed via the Image menu, in the same way as the standard Adobe Photoshop program filters.
To install and use a plug-in filter:
1. Drag a copy of the filter from the third-party software disk to the folder that contains your preferences file (named "PS Prefs" by default).
2. Restart the Adobe Photoshop program. You do not have to reboot the Macintosh. The plug-in filter will appear in the Filter submenu of the Image menu.
3. Select the plug-in filter by choosing Filter from the Image menu and dragging to highlight the desired filter. {Ch. 17, pg 323}
