All these tasks are accomplished by first right-clicking the image's title bar.
Before you change anything, click the status bar's second area to see how the printed image would lie on a piece of paper.
When you click the second area on the Status bar, you will see this.
Now let's resize.
1. Right-click the image's title bar.
2. Choose Image Size.
3. Check the Resample Image option.
4. Change the resolution to 100 ppi.
5. Be sure the Constrain Proportions option is checked.
6. Change the width to 6 inches.
7. If necessary, change the zoom to 100%.
When you resized, it probably looked like the image got larger in your computer screen. It jumped toward you a little. (If you didn't notice, click back one step on the History palette, and then click the Image Size step again.)
8. Now click that second area on the Status bar again. How is the image lying on the page?
The printed dimensions of your image have been reduced from 8 inches to 6 inches, so the rectangle on the white page is smaller.
The number of pixels in the image have been increased from 72 per inch to 100 per inch. Because your monitor displays 72 ppi, at 100 % zoom, the six inch image displays a bit larger than the 8 inch image.
The original image had 8 x 72 pixels across. 576 pixels across.
The new image has 6 x 100 pixels across. 600 pixels across.
We are resampling the image data, and that means we are also degrading it to some extent. We are only doing this for practice purposes. Every change you make to an image alters the original image data, so this isn't something you would do without a reason. If you get the size wrong, Undo (ctrl-Z) the change and try again. Never put one adjustment on top of another.
9. Print the image.
I encourage you to print images as much as you possibly can. You'll be surprised how much you will learn about improving your output in this way.
Ordinarily, painting with the history brush would paint back the image
stage beside the history brush icon.
Press Y and move your mouse over the image. You will see a No Way icon.
The reason you can't paint the original (dull) image back over the
current image is that we changed the size of the image. Since we
believe we have improved the image, our snapshot (the thumbnail) isn't
of any use to us, and is only taking up memory. We will make a new snapshot
and delete the old one.
7. Beside the trashcan on the History palette is the Create New Snapshot
icon. Click it, and a new thumbnail appears. (white arrow.)
8. Click on the original snapshot thumbnail and drag it to the trashcan
at the bottom of the History Palette. (red arrow.)
9. Click in the small window beside your new snapshot to give the history brush a reference point.
The History palette at this point.
Remember when Walt Disney showed us how he made cartoons by first painting a background and then putting a picture of Snow White on a clear piece of plastic, on top of the background? Layers in PhotoShop are exactly like that.
1. Create a New Layer by clicking the New Layer Icon at the bottom of
the Layers Palette. (It looks just like the New Snapshot Icon. Don't confuse
them.) Layer 1 appears above the background.
2. Click on the Background thumbnail on the Layers Palette (not on
your picture.) This makes the Background the active layer.
3. Click on the Layer 1 thumbnail on the Layers Palette. This makes
Layer 1 active.
When a layer is active, you can think of it as SELECTED. The program knows you are interested in that layer, and anything you do to your image will be done ONLY TO THE ACTIVE LAYER.
Notice the faintly visible transparency grid on the layer thumbnail.
1. Choose the Elliptical Marquee tool (M, Shift-M).
2. Drag a circle around the rough area on the right of the mountain,
about the size of a quarter.
The area inside the marching ants is selected. The program knows you are "interested" in that area, and will allow you to do things to the area. The area outside the marching ants is "protected" or "masked."
If the Background is active, the marching ants are surrounding colored pixels.
If Layer 1 is active, the marching ants are surrounding - nothing. NO PIXELS ARE SELECTED. They are merely defining a shape.
Let's put those marching ants around the mountain's peak and make the Background (bottom) layer active. You now have a selection with colored pixels inside. What shall we do with it?
1. Press Ctrl-I and you will Invert the colors inside the selection.
2. Move the marquee slightly down and to the left. Click Filter > Distort
> Twirl, 200.
3. Move the marquee to the right. Press Ctrl-F to apply the same filter
again.
4. Without moving the marquee, press Ctrl-F two more times. What happens?
5. Move the marquee up around the peak again.
6. Feather the marquee (Select > Feather, 6)
7. Stroke the selection with black (D, Edit > Stroke, 3)
8. Deselect. Ctrl-D.
Select a rectangular area with the Marquee tool and Transform the selection with Select > Transform.
1. Press M or Shift-M to switch to the rectangular Marquee tool.
2. Drag a selection around the other mountain.
3. The mountain is slightly slanted, so we'll need to adjust the selected
rectangle with Select > Transform Selection.
4. Moving the mouse close to the corner nodes around the selection
will cause it to turn into a curved arrow. Use this to rotate the selected
area.
The rectangular marquee looks very much like the crop marquee at this point, but don't be confused. It's just a selection marquee - a slightly slanted rectangular selection marquee.
5. Right-click inside the area and choose Distort.
The Select > transform right-click menu.
6. Move the corner nodes until you have selected the shape of the mountain.
7. Press Enter to make the changes to the marquee permanent.
8. Press Ctrl-I to invert the colors. The blue turns to yellow.
Use the alt key to subtract areas from the selection, and use the shift key to add areas to the selection.
Practice this until you are crystal clear about Shift to add to, and Alt to subtract from selections. It's important.
Now we'll do one of my favorite things. We'll JUMP the selection up to a new layer with Ctrl-J.
