Getting Started in Photoshop
Photoshop’s interface can be a confusing place to first time users. This lesson will show you what’s what, and how to navigate through the behemoth which is Photoshop.
Before starting, please take note that I will be demonstrating how to use Adobe Photoshop with Version 9 (Adobe Photoshop CS2). If you are using another version of Photoshop, you should have very little trouble following along, as very little as changed in regards to interface and basic functionality in the past few versions. Some graphical features may look a bit different, but overall you should experience very little, if any problems!
The Welcome Screen
When you first open Photoshop, you’ll likely be presented with the “Welcome Screen”:
The Welcome Screen is a great area for new users to see what’s possible with Adobe Photoshop, but really isn’t necessary by any means. If you’d like to stop the Welcome Screen from popping up on the start, you can unmark the “Show this dialog at startup” in the lower left corner. The Welcome Screen will always be available for viewing later on if you go to Help > Welcome Screen.
To begin working with Photoshop, Close out of the Welcome Screen.
The Work Area
Upon first glance, Photoshop can be a big and scary place. Let’s break the Work Area into smaller components to make things easier to understand:
B. Options Bar – Contains options for the currently selected tool.
C. Tool Bar – Contains a wide selection of available tools in Photoshop, as well as the Foreground Color, Background Color, and other features.
D. Document Window – The Containing Window of a document being worked on inside of Photoshop.
E. Active Image Area – The Document Window contains the Active Image Area (Shown in White above). This is the area an artist works in.
F. Navigator – A small version of the current documents active image area. Used for navigating large images, or when zoomed in.
G. Color Palette – A palette used to select foreground and background colors for painting / drawing with.
H. History – Constantly updating record of previous changes made inside of a document. Can be used to reverse steps taken (Undo).
I. Layers – If Photoshop were a giant cheeseburger, layers would be the toppings & condiments. Layers in Photoshop allow you to work on a single canvas, letting some things appear above or below others.
This is just a glance of what the innards of Photoshop are like. We’ll cover everything in more detail in subsequent lessons.
Creating a New Document
To create a new document in Photoshop, select File > New from the Menu Bar.
A dialog box will appear such as the one shown below:
B. Presets – Choose a document size from a list of presets.
C. Document Dimensions – Set the width and height of the document here.
D. Document Units – Set the units of the dimensions of the document. Pixels should be your typical choice for any work you’re displaying on the web or on a monitor.
E. Resolution – Set the Resolution of the document. Resolution typically means the number of dots (or pixels) per inch. In printing, you typically want a high value here (300 or higher), which will also increase the documents size. However, for web based work, or on-screen work, 72 is the default resolution.
F. Color Mode – Set the color mode of the document. Unless you are doing special printing, you typically will be working with RGB Color (Red/Green/Blue).
G. Background Contents – Set up the background for your document.
The dialog shown above would create an 800x600px document with a white background. The document name would be “Document Name”, and the resolution would be perfect for on-screen work.
Saving and Closing a Photoshop Document
To save a Photoshop Document, select File > Save from the Menu Bar. When saving, be sure to enter a file name you will recognize, and also select “Photoshop (*.PSD)” as the format. Doing so will ensure that the document will retain it’s Photoshop Document Attributes and Layer Data so that you may work with it later. Note that PSD’s are not compatible with web browsers or other applications, and you will need to save in another format for such uses. We will cover that in another lesson.
To close a document, select File > Close from the Menu Bar. To close all open documents, select File > Close All.
89 Comments
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Flag as inappropriateHi, I have a problem with my Photoshop (CS2), and I need help. I’ve got it today and there’s something wrong with it. Everything that’s supposed to be white turned into some light cream color. I can’t even find white in the color palette. Even when I open an image, every part that’s supposed to be white turns into that cream color. But the thing is, when I make something (eg. text) it actually shows white when I open it with another software.
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Thanks for all the kind words Rebecca! I’ve always noticed a problem with schools and their site blocks. This isn’t really the place for me to discuss my feelings about them, and I certainly see them playing some roles in schools, but truth be told, kids find ways around them no matter what you do.
Anyways, I’m very happy to hear you consider Tutorial9 a valuable resource for your students, and hope that you’ll continue to send them our way in the future!
Flag as inappropriateI can’t wait to get this site unblocked by my school! I teach high school art where photoshop is a necessity in our computer graphics program. Your site has been blocked because of the blogs which are a great way for my students to feel heard. Nonetheless, your comments are totally professional and kind. I truly appreciate your voice in teaching what I try to teach: always consider the source (your imagery, words, and descriptors are excellent) and “raise the bar” regarding your chosen words in order to be most effective. THANKS! rebecca
Flag as inappropriateOk, still following.
Onward and upward!
Flag as inappropriateDavid,
these tutorials are great. There are many standalone tutorials on the internet with regard to specific projects, but none that I have come across that go through Photoshop step by step and help those of us who are PS newbies.
Whilst our designers laugh at me, I shall succeed!
Flag as inappropriateI’m very happy to know that these tutorials are helping you out! We’ve got a bunch of nice people around here, so if you ever run into trouble, feel free to ask your questions here or in our Community Forums!
Flag as inappropriateI am new to everything Photoshop. I have a website I am launching soon and I cannot afford to keep paying designers. I think they are worth the money, but I just don’t have it to spend on every little design change. I have a back end shopping cart solution that will let me plugin designs and I need minimal changes here and there.
I read through this first tutorial and look forward to others. THANK YOU SOOOOOO much for sharing your skills with the world. It takes a truly generous person to do so. You have no idea what a life changer this is for me.
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Broke for Now
Flag as inappropriateThanks for the tutorials Dave. I only know the basics of using a computer, and I was rather appprehensive about attempting to use Photoshop to create a design for a competition I am planning to enter, but, from what I’ve read so far, I’m less worried about messing up. Thanks for taking the time to create these clear and easy-to-understand tutorials.
Flag as inappropriateI thank you for doing this. I learned Photoshop in Job Corps, but I think that this is going to help me relearn the program, possibly even learn it better than before.
Thank You Again!
Flag as inappropriateYou’re very welcome Melissa! Take time to experiment while you learn. I’ve always found playing around to be a great method for learning ;)
Hope you stick around!
Flag as inappropriateHi Dave,
Im a fresh n00b around here (as recent as today)
Before I spend the entire weekend reading through your tutorials, let me say thanks so much for the clear and generous way you are sharing your skills here. (also, for helping me FINALLY find a product that really eliminates dark circles under the eyes lol)
Flag as inappropriateThanks Krishna! To answer your question, all of the Photoshop Tutorials here can likely be followed in any recent versions of Photoshop. Throughout time, small parts of Photoshop have been changed, modified, and enhanced by Adobe, but most of the interface has always stayed the same ;)
Flag as inappropriateThanks for taking the time to design this great tutorial but I wanted to know whether this tutorial could be followed in photoshop CS3 or even extended? It would help me out a lot.
Thanks for the great and easy to understand tutorial, nonetheless.
Flag as inappropriateRyan, could you elaborate? I’m not sure I understand what you mean by that.
Flag as inappropriateIs there a way to make the grey area transparant? It would help when going through some of these tutorials, being able to see behind that.
Many thanks
Flag as inappropriateThanks Becky! I’m happy to hear that you think our resources are of high enough quality to teach in a classroom environment. We plan on making our entire School of Photoshop Series easy to print out and distribute in such areas for people like you ;)
Flag as inappropriateYou’ve done a great job in this basic lesson. I teach photoshop to high school students and cobble together my own curriculum. I’m going to direct my student here for some of their lessons. It looks very good. Also, THANK YOU for having black print on a white background. I’m tired of struggling to read the tiny fonts and pale gray print on a white background. Everyone isn’t 21 w/ 20/20 vision!
Flag as inappropriateactually really enjoyed reading this, im not new to these features in any way or form but its good to get an insight of what everything means :) very well written once again leggett
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