The Art of Retouching

Rulers and Guides | Photoshop Beginner’s Tutorial

This video is available Free for Everyone.
Running Time: 2 minutes

When working in Photoshop, while most of it is creative, sometimes you will want to be as accurate as you possibly can. Rulers and guides come in handy because they help you create specific points in your image that you may want to refer to at a later point in time.

 
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Magic Wand and Quick Selection Tools

This video is available Free for Everyone.
Running Time: 6 minutes

Aside from the Lasso-based tools, we can also use the Magic Wand when it comes to making selections in Photoshop. You can press and hold the Quick Selection Tool to choose the Magic Wand Tool. When you click on a section in your image, it selects an area based on the range of colors that your provide, limited by the value of your Tolerance in the Options bar. Photoshop’s default Tolerance is 32, but you can increase or decrease that value to grab more areas at once or less areas at once respectively.

 
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Lasso, Polygonal Lasso, Magnetic Lasso Tools

This video is available Free for Everyone.
Running Time: 10 minutes

The purpose of making a selection, is so that you can make changes within a limited, and controlled area.There are a variety of tools you should consider when making selections in your image. There are several that will allow you make direct selections by drawing them, and a few that let you make your selections based on color.

I will preface this by saying that make generic selections like this might create what is called a Layer Mask, none of the techniques I am going to talk about are ones that I would teach to my students. they are simplistic, and will not yield optimal results. The reason I am talking about them with you now, is because they are an easy way to get you to your end goals. While they are not the best, they are simply the easiest for you to get started with.

 
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Photoshop Tutorial - Selective Color Adjustment Layer

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Running Time: 6 minutes

Selective Color is the go-to tool for simple color correction. Little need for masking, and no confusing RGB sliders. You just need someone to give you a little direction, and you will find how easy this tool can be.

As with the other Adjustment Tools, you can find it with the Adjustments Palettee, which is found within Window – Adjustments. The second way is at the bottom of the Layers Palette, with the Black and White Circle icon for New Adjustment Layers. Lastly, it’s also in Layer – New Adjustment Layer – Selective Color.

 
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Photoshop Tutorial - Vibrance Adjustment Layer

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Running Time: 4 minutes

Let’s say you have an image that’s looking pretty pale. When you want to adjust the saturation of an image, I normally don’t recommend using the Saturation Adjustment. Instead, what we’ll be using is the Vibrance Adjustment, because it has Saturation included, and gives you more control over your adjustments. Over at the Adjustments Palette, you can select the Vibrance icon. You can also find it at the bottom of your Layers Palette, as well as in Layer – New Adjustment Layer – Vibrance.

 
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Photoshop Tutorial - Levels Adjustment Layer

This video is available Free for Everyone.
Running Time: 6 minutes

When you want to create tonal changes the easiest and simplest way possible, your best bet is to use Levels. Simply go over to the Adjustments palette (or if it isn’t open yet, go to Window – Adjustments). There, click on the icon that says “Levels”. Another way would be to go to the Layers palette and click on the Black/White Circle icon that says “Create new fill or adjustment layer”. Finally, a third way of doing it is to go over to Layer – New Adjustment Layer – Levels.

 
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Photoshop Tutorial - Adjustment layers

This video is available Free for Everyone.
Running Time: 5 minutes

Adjustment Layers work like tinted sheets of glass that you overlay on top of your image one at a time. It’s kind of like a tinted or colored light bulb. You can turn on/off the effect, or adjust the values as a separate layer on top of your original image background layer. For instance, on top of your base layer (original image), we can make tone adjustments as well as color adjustments. Each of these adjustments will be placed on separate layers, on top of your original background image.

Because you’re working on a separate layer for all these adjustments, you are not causing any permanent damage to your original background base image. You are effectively preserving it pixel by pixel in case you need to undo your changes later. As an example, when you click on one of the icons in the  
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