You have to start with something, right? With Photoshop, you have various options: You can open existing files, whether Photoshop files, JPEG images, or any other of Photoshop's laundry list of supported file formats; you can create a new file from scratch (basically a blank document); or you can import files from another source, such as a scanner or a digital camera. The Open Dialog BoxAs with just about any computer program, you can open a file by choosing File, Open or by pressing Command+O (Ctrl+O) to bring up the standard system Open dialog box. As you highlight files in the dialog box, you might or might not see a low-resolution preview, depending on the file type and what your operating system supports. When you've located the file you want to open, click on the Open button to open the file. Photoshop also lets you open several files at once by holding the Command (Ctrl) key as you click on the different files. If you want to choose a file from a Version Cue project, click on the Use Adobe Dialog button in the lower-left corner of the dialog box (see Figure 5.5). We talk more about Version Cue in Chapter 11, "Using Adobe Version Cue 2." You can also open files in Photoshop directly from Adobe Bridge. Figure 5.5. The Use Adobe Dialog button in the Photoshop CS2 Open dialog box.By the Way If you're looking for the Photoshop File Browser, it's no longer a part of Photoshop. All of the functionality from Photoshop's File Browser in previous versions has been rolled into the new Adobe Bridge. Creating a New FileTo start from scratch and create a new file, choose File, New or press Command+N (Ctrl+N) to access the New dialog box (see Figure 5.6). Here you can give your file a name (you can do this later when you actually save the file, too) and choose a size and resolution for your file. Adobe has also included many preset canvas sizes, and you can choose one of those (for example, a 5x7-inch file). Choosing the right resolution is very important when you create a Photoshop file because changing the resolution in the file later could cause degradation or distortion in your file. Figure 5.6. The New dialog box.Did you Know? You can also create your own New document presets by choosing the options you want and then clicking on the Save Preset button. There's an option to choose what the default background of your file will be (White, Background Color, or Transparent), and you can click on the arrow button to display Advanced options that enable you to choose a color profile or to specify a nonsquare pixel aspect ratio for video content (see Figure 5.7). Figure 5.7. Choosing a video setting from the Advanced section of the New dialog.Color ModesPhotoshop lets you create files using any of several color modes, and it's important to know which one to choose. Although you can change color modes later in the process, just about any such change will cause color shifts. Each color mode has a gamut, or range of colors that can be produced. Some gamuts are wider, or can contain more colors, than others. For example, certain colors can be displayed in RGB that simply can't be reproduced in CMYK (for example, bright greens or oranges or pastel colors). So converting an RGB file to CMYK might cause some colors to become dull or to change color altogether because those colors don't exist in CMYK. Let's take a look at each of the supported color models:
Importing ImagesAnother way to bring images into Photoshop is to import them from another hardware source. Plenty of scanners, traditional cameras with digital film backs, fully digital cameras, video capture devices, and the like can be used to capture images that can be directly imported into Photoshop. Each of these devices usually comes with a plug-in for Photoshop to allow this use. For example, my Epson Expression 1600 FireWire scanner has a plug-in that enables me to access my scanner from the File, Import menu. Did you Know? Check with your hardware manufacturer for the latest driver and plug-in updates. You can usually download them free from the Internet. More popular than almost anything these days are digital cameras. It seems as though just about everyone has one. Some cameras let you import pictures directly into Photoshop as JPEG images; others simply copy the files to your hard drive. Additionally, some cameras support something called camera raw format. Did you Know? For organizing and cataloging photos, you can use Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 if you're using a Windows computer. Macintosh users can use iPhoto (part of Apple's iLife '05 software package). Camera Raw Image SupportMany of the newer digital cameras have the capability to shoot in "raw" format. This means that the camera preserves the image in a native format instead of storing it as a JPEG file (as most cameras do). The benefit, of course, is that the image is unadulterated and contains every aspect of the data that the camera can capture. Like the Photoshop File Browser, the capability to open and edit camera raw files has been moved into Adobe Bridge. To open a camera raw file in Bridge, highlight the file in the browser and choose File, Open in Camera Raw. Besides the many enhancements that Camera Raw has, including the capability to rotate and crop CRW files and edit multiple files at once, by moving this functionality into Bridge, you can process files in Camera Raw in the background and simultaneously use Photoshop to perform other tasks. |