Photoshop Undressed! A quick look at Photoshop CS4 - Part 1 of 4
The cat’s out of the bag — officially. Photoshop CS4 has landed and will be available pretty soon. You can place a pre-order now on the Adobe Store.
As with Photoshop CS3, it comes in two flavours: Standard and Extended.
For the average user and, particularly, photographers, here’s an overview of the new and enhanced features. This is part one. It focuses mainly on the interface enhancements and new features. Part two will focus on tools and adjustments. Part three will focus on Camera Raw enhancements, and Part four will focus on Bridge.
Application Frame
Mac users will be able to stay inside an application window, much like Windows users. If you hop between platforms and find the Mac way of doing things disconcerting, you will be made to feel right at home. You can turn on the Application Frame from the Windows menu (it’s off by default; probably so as not to freak out any die-hard MacHeads).
Application Bar
There is a new Application Bar that sits above the Options bar. It contains quick access to a number of commands, such as launch Bridge, view extras, zoom level, Hand tool, Zoom tool, Rotate View tool, arrange document, view screen modes and, at the extreme right, a pop-up menu for changing workpaces.
Fig 1. Application Bar
Both the Application Frame and the Application Bar can be hidden easily if you have no need for them.
OpenGL
There are some very useful viewing enhancements. However, they require a video card that supports OpenGL 2.0, Shader Model 3.0 and the more onboard RAM, the better (512 MB is recommended but you can get away with less, though some operations may be disabled). Note: Most cards that are supported require a PCI-E slot. Check you have it before rushing out to buy the latest and greatest.
Rotate canvas and spring-loaded keyboard shortcuts
The Rotate View tool does what the name implies. It lets you rotate the canvas 360 degrees. Being able to rotate the canvas while keeping your head vertical is incredibly useful for all painting tasks. It’s especially useful when used in conjunction with the new spring-loaded keyboard shortcuts for accessing tools temporarily. For example, you can be using the Brush tool to paint or to create a mask in, say, Quick Mask mode, press and hold down R (Rotate View tool), click in the canvas and rotate it, let go of the key and revert back to the Brush tool and continue painting. All very seamlessly. This feature alone is worth upgrading your card if yours isn’t supported.
You can choose to rotate the current window or all windows by checking a box on the Options bar.
Fig 2. Rotate view 360 degrees. Images from MPX Stock Images
Smooth zooming and bird’s eye view
With OpenGL enabled, zooming flows smoothly while you click and hold down the Zoom tool on the canvas. Those odd maginifications, such as 16.67, 33.33% now appear smooth and without jagged edges.
You can also see a bird’s eye view of the canvas by pressing H (Hand tool) and then clicking on the canvas. This again is very useful when painting or you are zoomed into an image and want to quickly see an overview.
To jump to bird’s eye view while zoomed into an image, just hold down the H key and then click anywhere in the image. The view zooms out to fit the current window size and a square, hair outline appears around the clicked area. You can drag the outline to another part of the document to zoom into that section when you release the mouse button or release without dragging to go back to previous view and continue doing what you were doing before, perhaps cloning or painting from histories.
The reverse of bird’s eye view is also supported. If the image doesn’t fit the window, you can press H and click to momentarily fill the whole window.
At 600% magnification, a pixel grid kicks in. This can be a useful aid when the canvas has been rotated.
Flicking
There is one other nice little viewing enhancement. If you are used to “flicking” on a mobile device, you can now do it in Photoshop once the Hand tool is selected. When you drag the document and let go, it continues gliding until you stop it or it comes to a gentle rest by itself. You can flick in any direction.
If you access the Hand tool temporarily by holding down the H key, then you cannot flick because bird’s eye view kicks in when you click on the canvas.
Gestures
If your machine supports it, you can also use gestures to change view. For example, pinch with forefinger and thumb to zoom in or scroll and rotate using two fingers.
Window tabbing
You can choose to open all documents, new or saved to disk, as tabs in one window by default by setting Interface preferences. If you are used to surfing while opening new windows in tabs, you will love this feature.
Fig 3. Tabbed documents. Images from MPX Stock Images
If for some reason you want to work with floating windows, you can drag documents out by their tabs and float them manually, or choose a command from the Window > Arrange menu. You can also do the reverse: collapse all floating documents into one tabbed window.
If the option to Enable Floating Window Docking is turned on in Interface preferences (it’s on by default), you can drag documents and tab them manually. There is a little gotcha: the pointer needs to be inside the receiving document before the docking/tabbing can take place. If you happen to grab a document, say, by the right of the title bar and the pointer is outside the receiving document window, then you won’t be able to dock/tab.
If you want to transfer content between tabbed documents by dragging, you can do so by dragging from the current document canvas, hovering over the target document’s tab and, once the target window opens, dropping the content. However, what you cannot do is drag content from a panel to a target document tab. If you want to do that, perhaps to drag an adjustment layer from one document to another, you will need to float the source document.
Clone source feedback
When cloning, you can elect to “clip” the sampled source within the brush tip. This is extremely useful for placing the source precisely. The setting is located on the Clone Source panel.
Fig 4. The clone source can be shown within the brush tip for easier placement. Images from MPX Stock Images
Resizing brush tips
You can now resize a brush tip by holding down Opt+Ctrl (Alt+right-click) and then dragging left to decrease or right to increase. There is an on-canvas brush preview in the way of a coloured overlay, or inlay, that shows the hardness of the brush tip. You can change the colour in Cursor preferences if, for example, it clashes with colours in your image. You can also change the hardness by holding down Opt+Ctrl+Cmd (Alt+Shift+right-click) and dragging left to soften or right to harden.
Fig 4. Brush previews as a red fill when you change size by dragging on the canvas. Images from MPX Stock Images
The on-canvas brush preview requires OpenGL to be enabled. If you have a card that doesn’t meet Photoshop minimum specs, then this option is turned off automatically. However, you can still see the old brush preview in the Options bar when you drag left or right.
Change canvas color
You can change the color of the canvas, the empty frame around your image, by Ctrl-clicking (right-clicking) and then choosing between Gray, Black or Custom from the context menu. You can preset the custom color.
Screen modes
There are only three screen modes now: Standard, Full Screen with Menus, and Full Screen. You can set options for each one in Interface preferences. For example, you can set a different canvas colour for each mode and also elect to show a drop shadow, line or border.
Share my screen
This feature is aimed at workgroups and remote trainers. You can access it from the File menu. All you need is an Adobe ID. Up to three people can participate for free. If more people need to share your screen, you will need to take out an Acrobat Connect subscription. You can learn all about it from the login screen (Internet connection required, of course!).
That’s about all as far the interface is concerned. More features revealed in the next installment.
Copyright © 2008, Shangara Singh.
Photoshop Undressed! Finding the exact centre of a photo
One question that often gets asked is how do I find the exact centre (or center) of a photo in Photoshop. As always, the answer is there are several ways to accomplish almost any task in Photoshop.
METHOD #1
You can use the Free Transform command but this requires the Background layer to be changed to a “normal” layer if that is the only layer in your photo. To do this, take the following steps:
1. With your document open (Duh!), Alt/Option+double-click on the Background layer (holding down Alt/Opt hides the New Layer dialog, which you don’t need to see).
2. Press Ctrl/Command+I to view Rulers if they aren’t already in view.
3. Press Ctrl/Command+T or choose Edit > Free Transform to invoke transform mode.
3. Drag in a new guide from the horizontal Ruler and let it snap to the centre and then let go.
4. Drag in a new guide from the vertical Ruler and let it snap to the centre and let go (see Fig 1).
Fig 1. Business Design Centre
:: Copyright © 2008, Shangara Singh :: MPX Stock Images
5. Press Esc and then choose Layer > New > Background from Layer or you can choose Flatten Image from the Layers palette menu to return the image to previous state.
That’s it! Oh, OK…I did say several ways. Here’s another method, or two, or three:
METHOD #2
Because the guides snap to the centre by default, you can take advantage by dragging in a horizontal guide from the Ruler and letting go when you feel it snap and then dragging in a vertical guide and letting go when you feel it snap. Where the two guides overlap, that is the centre of your photo.
METHOD #3
Set Rulers to show percentage marks (right-click on Ruler and select option) and then drag horizontal and vertical guides to the 50% mark and let go when you feel them snap.
METHOD #4
You can use the same technique to find the centre of a segment of your photo:
1. Make sure Rulers (I) are showing and then create a selection with the Rectangular Marquee tool (M).
2. Either choose Transform Selection from the context menu (right-click) or press Ctrl/Command+T.
3. Drag in a horizontal then a vertical guide till it snaps to the centre.
4. Press Esc to exit transform mode once you have pegged the centre.
5. Press Ctrl/Command+D to deactivate the selection or click anywhere in the photo while tool is selected.
METHOD #5
Last but not least:
1. Choose View > New Guide.
2. Type 50% and click OK.
3. Choose the menu item again and select Horizontal if Vertical was selected previously, type 50% and click OK.
Where the two guides cross is the centre of your photo (Duh!).
If you need to find the centre frequently, create an action, assign a shortcut key and next time just press the shortcut key.
If you have several layers with objects of varying size, create a new layer, Select > All (Ctrl/Command+A) and then drag in new guides as above but you are probably better off using method #5.
That really is it!
Copyright © 2008, Shangara Singh.
Photoshop CS3 Undressed! Auto-slice image using custom parameters
Here’s a quick way of auto-slicing an image into 5×5 pixel blocks, or 10×10 pixel blocks, etc, and then exporting the sliced images plus HTML.
1. Slice the image into one main slice (Fig 1) using the Slice tool (K).
Fig 1. Electric pylon :: MPX Stock Images
2. Select the slice with the Slice Select tool (K).
3. Click on the Divide button in the Options bar.
4. When the Divide Slice dialog opens (see Fig 2), enter parameters in the Divide Horizontally Into and Divide Vertically Into text boxes (in this example, I wanted to slice the image into 25 slices, so I entered 5 in each text box).
Fig 2. Divide Slice dialog
5. Click OK.
6. Choose File > Save for Web and Devices command.
7. In the Save for Web and Devices dialog, select Save and then, in the Save Optimized dialog, choose following items from the pop-up menus:
Format: HTML and Images
Settings: Output Settings
Slices: All Slices
Note, you can customize the output settings by choosing Other from the Settings pop-up menu in the Save Optimized dialog, or by choosing Edit Output Settings from the main dialog menu (click on the triangle to the right of the Preset pop-up menu to access the menu).
8. Choose or create a folder into which you wish to save the files.
9. Click Save.
That’s it!
Copyright © 2008, Shangara Singh.