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This quick guide is designed to provide a reference to the use of Adobe Photoshop CS4 program, used for image capture and editing. Photoshop is a powerful editing tool capable of numerous effects, most of which cannot be discussed in this document. Please refer to the Help menu in Adobe Photoshop for numerous documents regarding Photoshop and its many accessories.
Getting Content into Adobe Photoshop
There are two primary ways to get your photo into Adobe Photoshop for editing, opening an existing image saved on your computer/removable memory and importing a photo from a device such as a scanner.
Opening an image file
- Open Photoshop CS4
- Click File in the upper left hand corner
- Mouse down to Open, click.
- Locate your file in the dialog box that opens.
Some examples of removable storage are a USB Flash Drive, a CD/DVD with picture files burned onto it, or a digital camera connected through a USB cable.
Scanning a photograph:
- Open Photoshop CS4
- Click File in the upper left hand corner
- Mouse down to Import, another menu will open next to the current one.
- Mouse over to the new window and select an appropriate scanning program (Epson 10000XL)
- A new program should launch to begin your scanning.
Select the scanning color and resolution for your desired project. The graph below shows some common settings, provided by North Carolina ECHO (Exploring Cultural Heritage Online). See their website, http://www.ncecho.org/dig/guide_4production.shtml
Click the Preview Button. This will generate a preview scan of your object. You may use the mouse to highlight the object itself, scaling the scanning area only to that area.
Click the Scan button to scan the image into Photoshop.
Once scanning is complete, the image should automatically be imported into Adobe Photoshop. If it does not, close all windows and try again from the beginning. Note: To do any saving/editing with the scanned picture, you must close out of the scanning window first. You will be locked out as long as the scanning window is still open.
Basic Image Editing
Photoshop has numerous tools available to you for photo editing. Below are a few of the most used features.
Cropping an Image
- “Cropping” an image refers to removing excess borders from the existing image. It is useful for removing undesirable borders around a picture, such as blank space left over from scanning.
- To crop:Click the Cropping Icon in your Tool Tray. It is the symbol that looks like:
- Using your mouse, click and highlight the area of the picture that you want to keep.
- Release the mouse button. You can use the transform anchors (the small white circles at the corners of the highlighted box) to resize the kept image.
- Once you have the area you want to keep, click the checkmark icon along the top of the screen, or press the Enter key on your keyboard. The image will be cut down to only the area you highlighted.
- If you wish to cancel the crop, either click the circle with a slash along the top of the screen, or click another toolbar icon. You will be prompted to either crop, don’t crop, or cancel.
Rotating an Image
When scanning, there are times where you image will be pulled into Photoshop sideways, upside down, or crooked. Photoshop has tools to fix these problems. To rotate the whole picture:
- Click Image.
- Scroll down to Image Rotation
- You will be presented with the option to rotate 180°, 90° CW (Clockwise), 90° CCW (Counter Clockwise), or Arbitrary…(Set your own rotation degree)
Saving Your Image
It is very important to save your image properly, to insure your hard work does not go to waste. To save an image in Photoshop:
- Click File
- Scroll down and click Save As. A dialog box will open.
- Select a location to save to. If you have an external memory, like a USB Flash Drive, you will want to select it. If you are burning to CD/DVD, you will want to save it to a location on the computer, such as the Desktop or the My Pictures folder.
- In the File Name box, enter an appropriate name for the picture file. Make sure you do not add in any reserved characters, such as periods (.) or slashes (/).
- In the Format box, you will need to select a file format to save in. VERY IMPORTANT! Make sure that the file format is something you will be able to open later. Photoshop will often try to save in a .PSD file type, which is only usable by Photoshop. You will want to save your image in a recognized image format, such as .JPG or .TIF.
- Use the drop down menu to select the appropriate file format for you image. For example, if you have scanned a high quality image for archival purposes, .TIF is appropriate. If you are scanning for personal use or use on a website, .JPG would be sufficient. Other file types are not recommended unless you specifically need them.
- Click the Save button. You may be asked to adjust additional settings, the defaults are usually fine.