to quickly return the zoom percentage to 100%, simply double-click the zoom tool’s icon on the tools panel, choose 100% from the magnification icon in the application bar, press Ctrl+1/F
Trang 1versions of Photoshop used, click the gray area by the two triangles at the top of the
tools panel, just above the Ps icon Like any of the panels, you can float the tools
panel by clicking in the dark bar at the top and dragging it wherever you’d like to
redock the tools panel, drag the floating panel to the left or right side of the screen
until a blue bar appears
For Photoshop Elements Users: Configuring Panels
Although the default configuration in Elements 8 has only the Effects and Layers panels visible, with a bit of tweaking, it is possible to create a layout very similar to Photoshop CS5’s, as shown earlier in the sidebar “For Photoshop Elements Users: Screen Modes.” Begin by choosing Edit Full
in the upper-right part of the interface We recommend you follow these steps:
1. Choose Window > Histogram
2. Wherever the panel appears, be it within another tab group or as a floating panel, click
the title bar where you see the text Histogram and drag the panel to wherever you want it
Like in Photoshop, you can drag the panels next to each other in the same group or above/
below other panels, making new groups
3. Repeat these steps for whatever panels you wish to add to the Panel Bin We recommend adding the Histogram, Navigator, Undo History, Adjustments, and Layers panels
To remove a panel, such as Effects, follow these steps:
1. Make the panel you wish to remove active
2. Click the fly-out menu button
3. Choose Close
To collapse or expand a panel, click the disclosure triangle next to the panel’s name
Although there is no way to explicitly save your Elements setup as a named workspace, Ele-ments will remember your settings each time you quit and will reopen the program configured the same way
Zoom Tool
the zoom tool is the most basic of navigation tools, but it does include some hidden
features that can be helpful to select the zoom tool, click its icon on the tools panel
or in the application bar, or press z on your keyboard
Note: If you’re using any other tool, you can switch to the Zoom tool by pressing Ctrl+spacebar/
F+spacebar When you release the spacebar, your tool switches back
For Photoshop Elements Users: Configuring Panels
Although the default configuration in Elements 8 has only the Effects and Layers panels visible, with a bit of tweaking, it is possible to create a layout very similar to Photoshop CS5’s, as shown earlier in the sidebar “For Photoshop Elements Users: Screen Modes.” Begin by choosing Edit Full
in the upper-right part of the interface We recommend you follow these steps:
the title bar where you see the text Histogram and drag the panel to wherever you want it
Like in Photoshop, you can drag the panels next to each other in the same group or above/
below other panels, making new groups
adding the Histogram, Navigator, Undo History, Adjustments, and Layers panels
To remove a panel, such as Effects, follow these steps:
To collapse or expand a panel, click the disclosure triangle next to the panel’s name
Although there is no way to explicitly save your Elements setup as a named workspace, Ele-ments will remember your settings each time you quit and will reopen the program configured the same way
Trang 2in the most basic use, after selecting the zoom tool, click anywhere in your image to zoom in by one preset percentage level When you do so, not only is the image enlarged on the screen, but also the point you clicked becomes the center of the new display (if you have checked that option in Preferences) to zoom out, select the minus (–) option on the tool options bar, or simply hold down the alt/option key while you click When zooming out, the same basic behavior occurs in reverse the image zooms out by one level, and the point you clicked becomes the center of the new display
You can also zoom in or out (without changing the center of the view) by press-ing Ctrl/F [and the plus (+) or minus (–) key also, if your mouse has a scroll wheel, you can use that for zooming in and out additionally, in Cs5 (but not in Elements) with the zoom tool selected, and scrubby zoom checked in the tool options bar, you can left-click and drag the cursor to the right to increase the magnification to any level you need, and to the left to decrease it
For Photoshop Elements Users: An Additional Way to Increase Magnification
Elements users can rely on a powerful method (which was used in old versions of Photoshop) for increasing magnification in a specific area Select the Zoom tool, then click and drag to
cre-ate a marquee (dashed box) on your image When you release the mouse, the area you dragged
the box around is zoomed to fill the document window This is an excellent way to zoom in on a particular area of your image to give it a closer look
another handy hidden feature of the zoom tool is the ability to quickly go to
a 100% view of your image, which is an excellent way to evaluate sharpness and look for small problems such as dust spots within the image to quickly return the zoom percentage to 100%, simply double-click the zoom tool’s icon on the tools panel, choose 100% from the magnification icon in the application bar, press Ctrl+1/F+1, or press the actual Pixels button You can also access some of these commands when the zoom tool is active by right-clicking the image and choosing the desired option from the context menu
Note: In earlier versions of Photoshop, artifacts often appeared at irregular magnifications, caus-ing distortions or makcaus-ing the selection “marchcaus-ing ants” disappear One place this commonly occurred was with photos showing the texture in cloth At some magnifications it may have looked as though the cloth was a fancy silk moiré rather than ordinary fabric CS5 uses OpenGL technology to avoid many
of these issues Nonetheless, the most accurate magnification is still 100% If something looks odd in your image, check the magnification to see whether it’s a problem with the image itself or whether it’s
an artifact
For Photoshop Elements Users: An Additional Way to Increase Magnification
Elements users can rely on a powerful method (which was used in old versions of Photoshop) for increasing magnification in a specific area Select the Zoom tool, then click and drag to
cre-ate a marquee (dashed box) on your image When you release the mouse, the area you dragged
the box around is zoomed to fill the document window This is an excellent way to zoom in on a particular area of your image to give it a closer look
Trang 3Evaluating Sharpness: The Proper Magnification and Practice
Determining whether an image is critically sharp is a major aspect of the image-review process that leads up to the actual optimization workflow Many photographers, especially those who have spent years evaluating the sharpness of images on film by utilizing a high-powered loupe, have a difficult time evaluating the sharpness of a digital image displayed on their monitor
The first step to evaluating sharpness for a given image is to view it at 100% magnification (or Actual Pixels) At this magnification, one image pixel is represented by one monitor pixel As a result, you’re seeing all the actual pixels within the image for the area that can be seen on the monitor If you don’t have the display set to 100% magnification, the monitor is either using more than one pixel to represent each pixel in the image (if the zoom percentage is greater than 100%) or is not showing all pixels for a given area within the image (if the zoom percentage is less than 100%)
After you’re viewing the image at 100% magnification, look to see whether the edges within the subject matter of the image have good contrast This is the key attribute of an image with crisp focus Learning to see what a sharp image looks like on a monitor display takes some prac-tice, and the only way to accumulate that practice is to evaluate a large number of images
Besides simply reviewing the images on your monitor, it can be helpful to first make prints of some of your images and then compare the printed image (where you’ll have an easier time eval-uating sharpness) to the image on the monitor at 100% magnification Comparing these images gives you a better idea of how the monitor display translates into actual image sharpness
Hand Tool
the Hand tool provides a way to navigate around your image when the magnification
is high enough that the entire image cannot be displayed at once You can think of this
tool as behaving the way your own hand would if you were evaluating a large print on
a table instead of moving your head around to look at different areas of the image,
you can simply move the “print” with your hand You can activate the Hand tool by
clicking its icon in the tools panel by pressing H on your keyboard or by holding
down the spacebar
With the Hand tool active, drag around on the image the image moves in the direction you drag, and the display updates in real time so you can watch the image
slide around as you move the mouse in Cs5, if you “flick” the Hand tool (click,
drag, and abruptly let go), the image will continue moving and slide to a halt to
stop it more suddenly, left-click this animated moving can make it easier to navigate
through the image rather than having to drag all the way through it it helps with
the problem of running out of space when dragging the mouse and with hand fatigue
when using a trackball Make sure you’ve checked this option in Preferences if it’s not
working, your graphics card may not support openGL, which is required for flicking
Evaluating Sharpness: The Proper Magnification and Practice
Determining whether an image is critically sharp is a major aspect of the image-review process that leads up to the actual optimization workflow Many photographers, especially those who have spent years evaluating the sharpness of images on film by utilizing a high-powered loupe, have a difficult time evaluating the sharpness of a digital image displayed on their monitor
The first step to evaluating sharpness for a given image is to view it at 100% magnification (or Actual Pixels) At this magnification, one image pixel is represented by one monitor pixel As a result, you’re seeing all the actual pixels within the image for the area that can be seen on the monitor If you don’t have the display set to 100% magnification, the monitor is either using more than one pixel to represent each pixel in the image (if the zoom percentage is greater than 100%) or is not showing all pixels for a given area within the image (if the zoom percentage is less than 100%)
After you’re viewing the image at 100% magnification, look to see whether the edges within the subject matter of the image have good contrast This is the key attribute of an image with crisp focus Learning to see what a sharp image looks like on a monitor display takes some prac-tice, and the only way to accumulate that practice is to evaluate a large number of images
Besides simply reviewing the images on your monitor, it can be helpful to first make prints of some of your images and then compare the printed image (where you’ll have an easier time eval-uating sharpness) to the image on the monitor at 100% magnification Comparing these images gives you a better idea of how the monitor display translates into actual image sharpness
Trang 4Note: The Hand tool can’t move your image around if the image is zoomed out to the extent that you can see the entire image at once
Navigator Panel
the navigator panel consolidates many of the features of the zoom and Hand tools into a single package and provides another method for moving around your image to evaluate various portions of it (see Figure 4.13) if the navigator panel isn’t visible, choose Window > navigator from the menu to make it active
Figure 4.13 The Navigator panel
provides a convenient way to navigate around your image
the navigator panel provides a thumbnail preview of the currently active image
a red box indicates which portion of the image is being viewed in the document win-dow, so you always have a sense of what portion of the image you are seeing the bottom-left corner of the panel includes a zoom-percentage indicator for reference
the zooming features of the navigator panel are utilized primarily with the slider in the bottom-right corner of the panel window the “little mountains” button
to the left of the slider allows you to zoom out by one preset percentage level each time you click it, similar to alt+clicking/option+clicking your image with the zoom tool
the “big mountains” button to the right of the slider allows you to zoom in by one preset percentage level You can exercise greater control over the zooming process by adjusting the slider left (to zoom out) or right (to zoom in)
For Photoshop Elements Users: The Navigator Panel
Rather than mountains, Elements has buttons labeled + and – for zooming in or out
Within the thumbnail display for your image, the red box (seen in Figure 4.13) serves not only as an indicator of which area of the image is currently being viewed, but also as a way to change the view of the image to look at a different area if you drag the boxed area around within the thumbnail display, the document display changes in real time to reflect the area defined by the box this is similar to the use of the Hand tool for navigating around your image
For Photoshop Elements Users: The Navigator Panel
Rather than mountains, Elements has buttons labeled + and – for zooming in or out
Trang 5Note: You can’t move the outline in the Navigator panel if the entire image is currently visible
You can click a particular point in the navigator thumbnail to center the out-line on that spot this is a great method to use when you want to spot-check various
portions of the image For example, if you’re trying to evaluate critical sharpness,
check various areas of the subject and even areas at various distances from the camera
to see the effect of depth of field By simply clicking those points in the thumbnail of
the navigator panel, you can check multiple areas of the image quickly and easily
one last trick in the navigator panel allows you to reproduce the effect of draw-ing a marquee on your image with the zoom tool so you can quickly fill the screen with
a particular portion of your image to do so, hold the Ctrl/F key, and click and drag
within the thumbnail display of the navigator panel to draw a box over the area you
want to view When you release the mouse button, the image is automatically zoomed
and repositioned so that the area you drew the box around fills the available space
Navigating by Keyboard Shortcuts
if you love using keyboard shortcuts to speed up your workflow, there is a variety of
options for navigating around your images during the evaluation process (as well as
during your optimization workflow) if you tend to keep one hand on the keyboard
as you work, this may be your preferred way to navigate Even if you prefer to use the
mouse as much as possible, remembering a few of these keyboard shortcuts can help
improve your workflow by adding to your arsenal of tricks for working with your
images table 4.1 includes the most common navigational shortcuts
Table 4.1
Z+drag right or left Z+drag right or left Increases or decreases magnification (in
Photo-shop only)
Ctrl+1 or clicking the Zoom tool F+1 or double-clicking
the Zoom tool
Zooms to 100% magnification (actual pixels)
Ctrl+0 or clicking the Hand tool
F+0 or double-clicking the Hand tool
Zooms document window to fit on the screen
currently active tool Ctrl+spacebar F+spacebar Temporarily activates the Zoom tool regardless of
currently active tool Ctrl+Alt+spacebar F+Option+spacebar Temporarily activates the Zoom tool in zoom-out
mode regardless of the currently active tool
Trang 6Note: In Windows, if you have a check box or other control active in a dialog box while trying
to hold the spacebar to access the Hand tool, you may not get the behavior you are expecting This is because you can use the spacebar to toggle such controls To avoid this, click an empty area of the dia-log box so that no control has the focus before using the spacebar as a shortcut key
On a Mac, F+spacebar is usually set to launch Spotlight searches, even though it also activates the Zoom tool temporarily To change the Spotlight shortcut, look in System Preferences > Spotlight
as you’ve seen in this section, Photoshop offers many options for navigating around your images during the evaluation and optimization processes instead of try-ing to decide which particular methods work best for your needs, make an effort to become familiar with all of them doing so will ensure that you have the maximum number of techniques available for any given situation You’ll likely find that although you have your favorite methods for navigating around your images, in certain situa-tions other methods are more convenient By being comfortable with all the available methods, you’ll have maximum flexibility and control when working on your images
Tr y It! To gain familiarity with the different methods of navigating through an image, open the image NavPanel from this book’s companion website, www.sybex.com/go/photoshopnature, and zoom in to various areas of the image, deciding on a specific area to view and then navigating to that area so it fills the monitor display Then, save a workspace with the panel arrangement you prefer
to use when working on your images
Selection Tools
We’re including the selection tools in this chapter on foundations because making
a selection is required for many of the more-advanced topics we’ll cover in later chapters You can make a selection in a variety of ways, and which approach is best depends on the characteristics of the specific image as well as your own preferences
Focusing on the selection tools now introduces and reinforces the general techniques you employ when working with most of the tools in Photoshop We recommend you experiment with and learn the different tools that perform similar basic tasks to help you get more comfortable using Photoshop and the various tools it offers that way, you’ll be able to use the best one in any given situation
You can use selections for making targeted adjustments and for other tasks,
as we’ll discuss in later chapters For example, you can select the sky to apply adjust-ments that affect only the sky, or you can select a foreground subject to enhance it so
it better stands out from the landscape in the following sections, we’ll look at some of the selection tools most commonly employed by nature photographers, as well as some behaviors common to all the selection tools