Photoshop Tools and Features User Log

The purpose of this log is for you to record what tools and features you used in the creation of your digital graphics. You should try to use as many as possible and you
must record how, why and when you used them. You do not need to record repeated actions, but each single new action should be recorded. An example of this would
be setting up a new Photoshop file/image which would cover the ranges; “Image Settings” (all) and part of “Menus” (some of). You only need to do this once. Remember
that where the “e.g.” appears in a range, as many of the items should be covered as possible but not all of them; your tutor will guide you here. Where possible you
should also provide a screen dump to illustrate the action (see sample image below).
Tools and features  How, why and when used. Screen dump
Menus: 
Open; I opened the backgrounds for my web banner
by, in photoshop, navigating through file-
open-personal workspace-unit 19-assignment
3-backgrounds for ice fire gaming. And then
double clicking on the chosen background.

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 save; I saved my work at the end of every lesson by
clicking file then save as, choosing the location
I would like it to be saved in, giving the file a
name and then clicking save. After I had done
this once, next time I would be able to simply
click file then save or control S.

import;
export; When I had finished editing my images I
exported them as PNG files. This was done by
selecting file-export-quick export as PNG. And
then naming and choosing the location of the
PNG file before clicking save.

I also saved the images as JPEG files by saving

the image as normal, apart from clicking
“JPEG” at the dropdown before clicking save.

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 edit; Edit was mainly used by me to undo any
mistakes I had made. To use the “step
backward” tool I would press control+alt+Z
this would undo the previous edit. I also used
edit to select the free transform tool to resize
and rotate selections. This was done by
making a selection and then pressing
control+T on the keyboard.
view;
help
Image settings: 
size; The size of an image can be edited by adjusting the
height and width of the image in the image size
menu. You type in the new dimensions you would
like the image to be and then click OK.

Resolution;
width;
height;
colour mode;

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 Editing the colour mode of an image means you
can choose between having the image be a lab
colour image, a multichannel image, a bitmap
image or any others shown in the screenshot
below.

background; The background of a photoshop project can be

selected to be either “white”, “black”,
Transparent”, “background colour” or
“custom”. This option is available when a new
project is started to the left of the pop up
window

.
transparency;

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 Choosing the transparent option will mean
that the image created will have no
background, the background of the image will
be whatever it is placed on top of.

aspect ratio,
file name The file name of your image can be chosen
when the image is saved or exported by simply
typing out the chosen name in the name box.

Drawing tools: 
tool options;

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 brush; The brush tool is used to draw in photoshop.
The qualities of the brush tool can be altered.
Things like the size of the brush stroke can be
altered, in addition to this the opacity of the
brush stroke can be altered to the users
preferred percentage.
The screenshot to the left shows 3 smiley
faces, all with different opacity settings and
the third face with a different brush size. The
second screenshot below shows the bar
where the opacity and brush size can be
altered.

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 pencil; The pencil tool Is utilised to produce lines of
pixels. The number of pixels the pencil colours
in can be chosen in the settings bar. The
screenshot shows three different lines all
drawn with increasing pencil size.

duplicate;
clone; The clone tool will be used when a user wants
to make an image appear to be symmetrical or
to repair an image. To use the clone tool the
user must select the clone tool from the tool
bar and then, to define the area they want to
clone press alt on the keyboard and click the
area they want to be cloned, then will alt
deselected, use the clone tool to replicate the
original image. The screenshot shows the
clone tool being used to clone a straight line.

fill;

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 The fill tool is selected by clicking on the paint
bucket icon. The fill tool allows the user to fill
a whole area with colour instead of having to
colour in each section. This quick fill is
achieved by the two screenshots show a
before and after of a triangle being filled with
the fill tool.

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 text; Selecting the text tool will allow the user to
add text and numbers to their product. It is
the photoshop equivalent of a text box in
word. With the text tool selected typing on
the keyboard will cause text to appear, the
size, font and colour of this shape can be
altered in the settings. The screenshot shows
the word, “word” where the different letters
have been given different fonts, sizes and
colours.

line; Using the line tool allows the user to draw

perfectly straight lines by clicking and dragging
across the screen with the line tool selected.

stroke;

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 shape; Selecting the shape tool lets the user choose
from a list of shapes as the screenshot shows.

zoom; Selecting the zoom tool quite simply lets the

user zoom in and out of the screen by clicking
and dragging left or right. The screenshots
show a circle before and after being zoomed
in on.

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 guides and rulers; The guides and ruler tools are used in
photoshop to give the user more information
about the position of an image on the page,
when the user clicks the ruler tool, they can
draw a line from one place to the other and
the bar at the top will tell them, the length
and width of the line, the coordinates of the
line and the angle of the line.

Clicking view then rulers will cause a set of

measurements to appear on the x and y
coordinates of the page.

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 Grid; To add a grid to the page the user can click
view then show, then click grid, this will cause
an overlay of a grid to appear.

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 Snap;
Paletts, e.g. colour, Selecting the colour palette lets the user select
gradients, layers, any colour they want. They can choose from a
object, brushes, set of default colours or select a colour and
history, actions, then choose the specific shading of that
size, resolution; colour.

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 The user uses the layer tab to select the
different layers of the image to work on.
Having the image be separated into layers
means that the user can work on complicated
images by working on different parts of the
image individually. The user can make it easier
to focus on one piece of the image by hiding
all layers apart from the layer you are working
on.

In the brush setting option the user can

choose between different types of brushes
that produce different outcomes. In the
settings of the brushes the shape, size, colour
and opacity of each brush stroke can be
altered.

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 Layers, e.g. As mentioned before the layer tab is used to
copying, saving, organise and choose between all the different
arranging; elements of a complicated image. The layer
flattening; colour tab can also be used to decide which layer
selection, goes on top or underneath each other. The
layers of an image can be merged or flatten,
doing this will cause all the layers to combine
into one and photoshop will treat all the layers
together as one image or layer. Layers can be
dragged onto separate image files by simply
being clicked and dragged.

Colour selection,
e.g. foreground,
background,
colour swatch,
eyedropper

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 Editing tools: 
Selection, e.g. To deselect an already selected image the user
marquee, lasso, can right click on the image and then find and
magic wand, click on the “deselect” option.
magnetic lasso,
deselect; Using the marquee tool the user can select an
image by drawing a shape the size they need.
A benefit of using the marquee tool is that it
will only select the exact area you have
outlined, unlike the magic wand tool that will
select other areas of a similar colour. The
marquee tool is found second from the top
with the rest of the tools.

The user will utilise the lasso tool to make a

free selection of an image. The lasso tool is
mainly used in cooperation with the magic
wand tool. The magic wand tool selects the
whole image when used, and then the lasso
tool is used to deselect specific parts of the
image that the user does not want to select.

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 Transform, e.g. The transform tool allows the user to select
scale, rotate, skew, several alterations such as scale, rotate, skew,
flip; cut; copy; distort, perspective and warp. The transform
paste; crop; trim; tool is selected by clicking on edit, rolling over
erase; undo; fill transform and then selecting the editing type
you would like. Alternatively, pressing control
and T on the keyboard will select the “free
transform” option, with this selected all of the
transform options are available at once.

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 Advanced tools: 
Effects, e.g. layer
effects, filters,
channels; image
adjustments,
Image The brightness of the image, as well as the
adjustments, e.g. contrast of the image can be altered to the
brightness and user’s preference by clicking the adjustments
contrast, hue and menu, then selecting the brightness and
saturation, colour contrast icon, then using the sliders to change
balance, gradients, the brightness and contrast. The user will edit
transparency,
the brightness of their image for one of two
invert; masks;
reasons, one is to make colours appear more
bold and clear, or the other is to reduce the
brightness of the image to make the colours
look darker and richer.

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 Paths, e.g. vector A vector path is created by using the pen tool
paths, converting to click on an empty part of the image, and
text to paths; place an anchor point. Then the user can use
image slicing. the brush tool to produce a smooth line over
the top of the polygon. Producing the curved
line in this way is a much easier alternative to
drawing the free hand.

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 Unique text paths can be created with the pen
tool. The user can draw a line with the pen
tool that curves or even loops. The user can
then add text to these lines, the text will warp
and resize itself to fit along the line that he or
she has drawn. This will be done to give the
text a more interesting shape and make it
more aesthetically pleasing to any viewer.

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