Introduction to photoshop

Despite using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator countless times before, yesterdays introductory lesson gave me a much deeper technical understanding about both programs.

Photoshop:

 - Used more for photo manipulation

 - Raster image is a collection of pixels

 - The image therefore can pixelate when enlarged

 - Pixels are measured by DPI (dots per inch)

Illustrator:

- Used more for creating illustrations

- Uses mathematical equations to form vectors. 

- Vectors do not use pixels.

- This means that a vector can be reduced or enlarged without compromising the resolution. 

Before beginning any project on photoshop, you must think about the end result. Will you print it commercially? Upload it to the internet? Print it out on A3 paper? This is to ensure you adjust the size of your canvas and resolution accordingly. Below are the best resolutions for:

1. The web- 70-90 dpi

2. Print- 150 dpi

3. Commercial printing (e.g. magazines)- 300dpi

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Once you decide which resolution you will use, it's time to choose the color mode. This is extremely important! There are several colour modes that serve different purposes, these are as follows:

1. RGB - (red, green, blue) Always work in RGB format as it has the most available colours. RGB is the mode you see on your computer and movies. 

2. CMYK- (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) This mode is used for printing as the ink is unable to produce the range of colours used in RGB. Regardless of whether you will print your work, always work with RGB then convert your file in the end.

3. Grayscale- This mode uses up to 256 shades of gray to produce an image. This differs from decreasing saturation as there is more detail.

4. Bitmap- This mode only captures two colours, black and white. There are no shades of gray. Often used for technical drawings. 

Time to save your work!

Always save your file as PSD (photoshop file) in case you want to come back and alter the image. You may also save for web and devices as .jpeg if you choose to upload to the internet. Never upload a photoshop file onto the internet. 

Photograph was taken by Theresa Nguyen February 2011, Designed by Theresa Nguyen, Model: Mina Kitsos