Handy Dandy App to for Shortcuts

A visual and easy to use App that helps you find all the hidden shortcuts to make Photoshop Faster and easier to use. It currently supports Photoshop, Lightroom and Blender in Windows, OS X and Linux.

Click Here To Try It

How does it work
The keyboard layout is able to be changed to your operating system and usually opens to the current one, you then select the program and version you have. These are all above the keyboard. Below is the search bar if you are looking for a specific command. It then tells you what keys will help you out. But it gets better: press another key, like Shift or Space, and the display changes to tell you what each key will now do. It's all color-coded, too, so you know which key brings about what change.

 

Selecting Exercise

Hi All,
I am posting the first exercise for this class. I also have more videos/readings on selecting and specific tools by clicking here.
If there are any questions you can always contact me by email or in the comments box below.   If you run into any trouble click here for some selecting tool overview and tips.

Selecting Tools Reading

I hope everyone had a great time and are inspired to do some practicing. 

*note this is a extra information section if you are having ay trouble with the exercises try these techniques, or if you are a reader and like to know the ins and outs of everything. 

Family Album

The applications for the Stickman selection exercise are firstly to get you used to making complex selections and can be used to add missing family members and objects to photos. 
The best types of photos for this is one with a solid background think of a green screen as a example it makes it easier to get a accurate and quick selection.


But that doesn't always happen
different selection tools are ideal for different things 

• Marque and Oval ----- These are best for basic shapes and creating effects examples are cropping and vignettes. Holding shift gives you perfect squares and circles.

• Lasso  
• The free hand tool allows for more odd shaped selections.
• The polygonal is great for selecting presents buildings and any straight edged object.
•  The magnetic lasso tool is great but not in all programs it works best with the green screen photos and will automatically attach to the color. Good for green screen photos.
For this tool you need to create a full loop if you cant find the end double click to complete the loop 

• Wands
• The magic wand selects blocks of color. Good for green screen or selecting a solid color clothing or object. 

The next tricks can be applied to all selection tools

• Multiple selections --- Holding SHIFT while selecting multiple times will keep adding selection ants where you highlight and you can switch tools as well.
• De-selecting---- If you want to de-select everything hit Ctrl+D. If you just want to make a tighter selection or fix a selection holding ALT will de-select just the sections you highlight. 

•  Selecting the opposite -----using the green screen method mentioned in the stickman exercise going to SELECT > INVERSE will do that.

• Reselecting---- If you get the perfect selection and you loose it by accident you can go to SELECT>RESELECT

Photoshop Tools

In the first two class we will be covering the tools available.

 Photoshop comes with many tools and they increase with each newer version. It depends on what version you have available but the most common tools such as the eraser will always be available. This includes non Photoshop programs like GIMP Some names and possibly some pictures may be different but they all do the same things. 

The neat thing about Photoshop is that some of the tools are hidden behind other tools to give you more space to work. Below is the picture of a toolbar where all your tools are stored. Each box is just like a drawer. If a tool has a BLACK ARROW in the bottom right corner you can "open it". I like to think of the arrow as a drawer handle, by CLICKING AND HOLDING (or RIGHT CLICKING) your mouse on the tool the drawer will open and you can see all the tools inside that are similar. 

The drawers in this picture are all open so you can see all the options and find the tool you are looking for 

You can  follow this link  to a interactive version that you can click on each little tool for a brief description.