Lesson 1.03 - Panels

Panels

Alright now I know you people might be wondering that this dude is not getting to the point that we all want, Editing ! He is on and on blabbering about the interface and work area and this is getting boring. Frankly speaking even I am getting bored :P but trust me people, you cannot work without knowing the interface and work area well and that is why I am focusing just a little too much on this so please bare me :P

Now we are going to learn about Panels.

Many of Photoshop's commands and tools are available in the panels that you see on the right hand side of the window.

The default panels in Photoshop CS4

These panels can get very handy at times when you need them but can get real cocky when you dont :P
So Photoshop allows you to choose the ones you want and dump the ones you dont as well as choose the ones you want to show up and hide the ones you dont temporarily :)

The above image is the default panel set up for Photoshop. As you see the panels are arranged in groups and each group has different tabs. Take for example the first group, this is the Color panel. Each panel has a certain name or label assigned to it. Now in the color panel we have three different tabs like Color, Swatches and Style like you can see in the image below.

The Color panel

Now the uses of each element will be taught later. For now lets take for example you dont want this particular Color panel or you just dont want a particular tab in the Color panel. What you do is go to the top right small icon in the panel, this is called the Panel Menu icon.

The Panel Menu icon

When you click on that, you get a drop down menu with a couple of settings and other components that is related with the current Color Panel.We wont need to know the different components for now because we will do that in the later lessons. Now way at the bottom, you will find two options, Close & Close Tab Group. The Close option will remove just the selected tab from the group, for example if the Styles tab in the Color panel was selected while you clicked on the Panel Menu, then the Styles tab would be removed from the panel & if you choose the Close Tab Group, the entire color panel will be removed from the workspace.

The Panel Menu

Now just incase you want a particular panel that you removed or is not there from the default, then you can just go to Window from the menu bar and choose the desired panel you would wish to keep.

Thats all about the panels :)

Have a nice day !

Sorry !

I convey my heartfelt apology to all my viewers for the delay in the next lesson. My desktop monitor had crashed down for 2 days and I just bought a new one and you have my word that tomorrow you will get your next lesson.

Sorry once again

Have a nice day  :)

Lesson 1.02 - Video

Tools

Lesson 1.02 - Tools

Single & Double Column Tool Box

The Photoshop tools can be found in the tool box on the left side of the window on a single column.

The single column tool box

Now just incase you want double columns, all you do is click on the double pointed arrow on the top of the toolbox.

The double column tool box

Now my personal opinion is I would go with single column so that I get more space to work with my image. :)

Alright, now you may be wondering, thats it?? these are all that Photoshop got as tools?? Then your wrong! 

Additional Hidden Tools 

First of all, each an every tool in Photoshop is way more powerful than you can ever imagine. Secondly, in the tool box you might have noticed this small arrow on the bottom right of certain tools such as Eraser Tool, Clone Stamp Tool etc. This is a drop down menu for more in tools in that particular category. For example, 

The drop down tools for Brush Tool

Of course in order to start using a tool you have to select them. Now one way is by clicking on the desired tool from the toolbox or simply by using keyboard shortcuts. You might be wondering that by the time you are gonna start memorizing all the shortcut keys, you will start having white hair ! :P Dont worry! When you drag your cursor to any of the tools and wait for a moment and you will get a notification with the name of the tool and the keyboard shortcut for that tool. Easy isn't it ? ! :) 

Tool Options Reset

Now when you choose a tool always dont forget to have a look at the tool options bar which gives you specific options for a particular tool for a more efficient result. Different tools have different tool options.

The Tool Options Bar

Now the most important thing about the tool options bar is that you should remember how to reset them back to default because at times the values or specifications get a lot messed up and you intend to forget the original. But dont worry! Its pretty simple. Whenever you select a tool, on the tool options bar the first icon on the left is the tool itself that you chose. Now right click on the arrow and you get two options, Reset Tool & Reset All Tools. If you choose Reset Tool, it will reset the active tool's default settings & if you choose the later then it will reset the default settings for all the tools :) Pretty Easy HUH ;) It will look like this,

Reset Options

For now this is enough about the tools because if I just show you each and everything in one shot then you might get really confused. So I will teach you all the tools one by one later with context to what they can be useful for and thats the best way you will understand.

Hope I was clear enough.Any doubts please feel free to contact me :) 

Have a good day ! 

Lesson 1.01 - Video

This is video that is going to clear all your doubts about this lesson. P.S. the video is using MAC OS but dont worry its just the same and whenever the person gives out a shortcut key for MAC, alongside a WINDOWS shortcut key is also given out.

Lesson 1.01 - Tabbed Windows

Alright people, time for our next lesson. Today we are going to learn something that you should know well before we start dealing with Photoshop. It is about the windows in the workspace. From CS3 and backwards, all the versions, when two or more images where opened at one time, they appeared in separate windows & the negative point is that sometimes when a couple of documents are open, they get hidden behind each other making the workspace look like you never wana know whats happening in there which ultimately leads to you losing your temper and shutting down the pc ! :P Trust me it has happened to me (a)

This is how it looks like in CS3 or previous versions though  the image is take in CS4.
I just wanted to show you the difference :)

But, Adobe found a solution to this! Now not only you have all images in one window but multi-tabbed just like you see in your Google Chrome or Firefox browsers but you can even have the separate windows view :D 

This is the multi-tab feature from CS4 onwards.

In the multi tab view you can view your image by clicking on the image tab that you desire to view.

Now inorder to rearrange the order of the images in the tab since you have more than 2 images or so, you just click and drag the desired images to its desired location or the tab. It will become clear to you when you see the next video I upload so dont worry :) 

Now just incase you dont want all the images to be in the tab and you want one of them to be in a separate window, all you do is click and drag it outside the tab and you will get that image in a separate window :) 

Multi-Tab as well as separate window :)

Now just incase you want it back on to the tab, all you need to do it click and drag the window back to the multi tab area or if you have more than one or two images that you want to get back to one tab, you can go to Window>Arrange>Consolidate All to Tabs, just like shown below.

Window>Arrange>Consolidate All to Tabs

Photoshop even allows you to change the layouts of the tabs or windows on your workspace. All you got to do is click on the Arrange Documents icon on the menu bar and choose your desired layout.

The Icon for Arrange Documents

For example you choose the 3-up view

This will be you layout for 3-up

Thats all about Tabbed Windows and dont forget to check our the video about this lesson which I am going to upload.

Hope I was clear enough.

Have a nice day ! :) 

Lesson 1 - Video

Alright people before starting the second lesson I think you should first take a look at this video down here to have a rough look at what the Photoshop's Interface and workspaces look like. Its a brilliant tutorial with simple english and very easy to understand.Here you go ...

Adobe Photoshop CS4 1 - Interface & Workspaces