Photoshop has been moving towards letting users do everything non-destructively. The biggest advantage digital artists have over artists that use other mediums is the ability to go back and fix things with out having to start over. Smart Objects is the latest tool in our powerful arsenal that allows us to do a whole lot very quickly without any fear of doing any irreversible damage. As all other tutorials on this site, we’ll go ahead and learn about Smart Objects by jumping right into Photoshop to explore this topic.

Smart Objects are Links

Those who have some experience with creating web pages will be familiar with the <img>/image tag. When one wants to add an image into a website, they will use the <img> tag and link to an image. Then they are free to change certain image properties such as the size or borders using CSS. They are also able to create multiple images by adding multiple <img> tags on to a web page. This creates multiple instances of the same image on to one web page. If someone edits the actual image file that is being linked to using the <img> tag, then that edit will be reflected on all the instances of that one file.

Step 1:Choose an image to work with.

Next, I opened a new blank image by going to File > New. Next, using the move tool, I clicked on the originalball.jpg layer and dragged it into the new image. This created the following:

Step 2: Here is a regular layer

After increasing the canvas size a bit, I added a Smart Object next to the regular layer. To do so, go to File > Place and choose the originalball.jpg image. This created the following:

Step 3: Add a smart object

They look identical at the moment. I can see the layers palette. The icon for the Smart Oject is different than a regular layer.

Next, let’s try resizing both the regular layer and Smart Object multiple times. Transform both objects to half their size, then resize both of them to three times their size, then resize them back to their original size. Now if we inspect the edges of the regular layer and the smart object, this is what we find:

The Smart Object retains its original sharpness and quality

You can clearly see, that the Smart Object edges are just as good as the original while the regular layer has degraded and blurred after just a few transformations. This is because a smart object resamples the original image during each transformation while a regular layer only transforms the current state of the layer and causes degradation.

You can also add multiple copies of a Smart Object on to the canvas by right clicking on a Smart Object Layer in the layers palette and then clicking on “Duplicate Layer”. Next if you double click on one of the copied Smart Object Layers in the layers palette, it will open that layer in a new window and give you the following warning:

Double click on Smart Object layer to edit

Click on “OK” and the original image will open up in a new window. Edit that image and then click on File > Save. Next, return to your image with the smart object, and your change will be reflected in all the instances of the Smart Object. This is useful for example when you may be editing buttons for a navigation menu.

You can also convert any existing layer into a Smart Object by right clicking on the Layer in the Layers palette and clicking on “Convert to Smart Object”. The layer can then be used as a Smart Object.

Also, you can not use the paint brush directly on a Smart Object. You must either rasterize it or double click on Smart Object Layer in the Layers palette in order to directly edit it.

Smart Objects have further features as well and I’ll cover them in my next post about Smart Objects. I hope you found this introduction to Smart Objects helpful. Leave a comment if you wish!

1) Create a new Image in Photoshop with the following settings:

The most important setting here is the Color Mode setting (CMYK).

CYMK stands for:

C = Cyan
M = Magenta
Y = Yellow
K = BlacK

When the CMYK color mode is selected it can be assumed that you are creating an image that is to be used for printing at a printing press. If you take a look at your news paper you should notice that all the images are made up of tiny colored dots. These dots are originally cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. When these are combined they can create almost any hue.

2) After clicking on OK you should find your self on a blank new canvas. Open up the colors Palette ( Window > Color or just press F6 key on most windows machines). You should see the following:

If you dont’ see C M Y K sliders then click on the arrow in the circle on the upper right corner of the Color window and choose CMYK Sliders from the menu. Also make sure that CMYK Spectrum is selected as shown in the following image:

3) In the color window choose the following settings:

C (Cyan Slider) = 100%
M ( Magenta ) = 0%
Y ( Yellow ) = 0%
K ( Black ) = 0%

Make a square selection and fill it with the color that we just made (solid CMYK Cyan). It should look something like this:

Now repeat the process but this time with magenta. Use the following settings:

C (Cyan Slider) = 0%
M ( Magenta ) = 100%
Y ( Yellow ) = 0%
K ( Black ) = 0%

Keep repeating this. Make one color 100% and all the rest should be zero. Make a square with each. In the end you’ll have the following:

4) Finally, open up the Channels Window / Palette. You should see 5 channels. CMYK, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black. Currently, they are all selected, therefore, you see all the colors. Click on the Cyan Channel and the areas with cyan color will turn black. The rest will disappear. Click on Magenta, Yellow and Black and you will notice the same.

If you don’t want it to turn black then go to Edit > Preferences > Display and Cursors and choose Color Channels in Color. Now when you click on a Channel only that color will be visible.

If you press the SHIFT key and then click on two channels then only those selected colors will be visible:

Think of this as ink on a white newspaper. If you put the ink on the paper then the paper will be colored. If there is no ink on the paper then it will appear white.

It is completely opposite for RGB channels. RGB stands for:

R = Red
G = Green
B = Blue

Your highschool art or physics teacher probably taught you that when you add all the primary colors of light then you get white light. And If you shine white light through a prism you get a rainbow effect.

Also if you color the fins of a paper windmill red, green and blue and spin it very fast then the colors disappear and you get white light.

Basically, you can think of RGB channels as being HUGE red, green and blue flood-lights. When you turn on all flood lights you’ll get white light because all the three primary colors combine.

If you only turn on Red light you will only see stuff as red because green and blue will be missing and so on.

Lets try the above steps in RGB mode. Since we went through all that CMYK stuff above I won’t go into as much detail with RGB.

1) Make a new image. Make sure that the color mode is RGB.

2) Open the Colors Window / Palette. Click on the options arrow on the upper right corner and make sure you select RGB Sliders and RGB Spectrum.

3) Make the red value 255, make sure green and blue are 0. Then create a square and fill it with that color. Repeat the process with Green (make green 255 and the rest 0). Then create a square and fill it with that color. Finally, repeat the process with Blue (make Blue 255 and the rest 0). Then create a square and fill it with that color.

You should end up with something like:

4) Choose the Red channel and you’ll notice that it acts completely different than CMYK. Everything turns red instead of the areas with Green and Blue. Green and Blue turn Black.

Don’t forget that we are dealing with LIGHT and not INK. When there is absense of light then that area becomes dark/black. Obvious, isn’t it? When you turn off the lights the room goes dark.

But why is everything else red? The white areas are red?

If you remember from a few paragraphs back when you add red, green and blue together then that forms WHITE. When you only turn on the RED light and turn off blue and green then what will you have left? Red. Turn on green and blue lights back on and you’ll get white again (because they have combined together again).

Now you are the master of understanding basic RGB and CMYK channels.

CMYK = Coloring with INK

RGB = Coloring with LIGHT

Next in the Channel Series:

• Channels! What are they good for?
• Alpha Channels
• Spot Colors
• Line Art using Channels
• And more…

With Christmas right around the corner I’m sure everyone is looking forward to decorating their greeting cards or web sites with graphics of Christmas decorations.

Here is one particularly useful and well written tutorial on how to make Christmas Decorations.

Selection masks are different than Layer Masks. Layer Masking basically allows you to fine tune the visible and invisible parts of your layer.

Selection Masks, on the other hand, allow you to have more control over your selections. And selecting stuff is a major part of Photoshop.

Before continuing please make sure that you understand Photoshops Marquee Tools and Lasso Tools. If not then check out our Photoshop Tips Tutorial Page.

Quick Masks

A quick mask allows you to select a portion of your image using your Paint Brush or Pencil Tool. Sometimes it is more convenient and more precise to do that instead of trying to aim exactly using the lasso tool for selecting portions of your images.

The best way to understand the quick mask feature is to actually use it in some examples.

So lets start:

• 1. Here is a picture of a small wrench. This Tutorial will focus on selecting the wrench using Quick masks. First I’ve made a marquee selection around it to select everything that we can easily select



• Next click on the QuickMask button on the Photoshop Toolbar. It is shown on the image below circled in red towards the bottom. You’ll see that a red shade has shown up on everything that was NOT selected. Everything that looks normal is what IS selected



• Next you can grab the Pencil tool (or Brush) and change the FOREground picture to BLACK. Next, roughly paint around the wrench. We chose BLACK because black UNSELECTS and grows the mask. On the other hand, WHITE SELECTS and makes the mask smaller. I have the following so far:



• Next I zoomed in to the image around the edges of the wrench. Then, I chose the PENCIL tool and changed the FOREground color to WHITE. Then carefully selected all the rough edges of the mask. Once I did that I only had the wrench selected.



• Then press the Standard Mode button. It’s right next to the quick mask button on the toolbar. And your wrench is perfectly selected

You can change the way the quick mask works a little by double clicking on the Quick mask button. If you double click on the quick mask button you will get the following window:

There is no real reason to change these options. It maybe a persons personal preference to want to change these. It only controls the color and opacity of the quick mask. You can also change it so that it turns the selection red instead of the unselected area. I don’t recommend changing these unless there is a good reason to.

Now that we have a selection the next thing to learn about is ALPHA CHANNELS.. oooo.. it’s really simple. don’t worry

Alpha Channels

Sometimes you take a long time to get a perfect selection. Then you might want to deselect and work on the whole image and later come back to the selection. Then you have to carefully reselect the object again taking a long time.

It would be nice if we could save the shape of the selection so we could reuse it and not worry about deselecting and reselecting, wouldn’t it?

That is where alpha channels come in. They allow you to Save Selections.

The steps are very simple:

• Here I have created a selection that I want to easily recreate. If I want to add an effect to the entire image I would have to deselect. If I do that I would lose the selection. So we want to save the selection



• With the picture still selected go to the Channels Palette (usually next to the layers palette or go to Windows>Channels) and on the bottom you will see the SAVE SELECTION button (circled in the screen shot below). Click it and you will see an Alpha Channel appear in the shape of your selection



• Now you are free to deselect your image and work on the whole thing. When you want to reselect the portion that you saved just go to the Channels Palette and CTRL+CLICK on the Alpha Channel and your image will be RESELECTED

You can also change your alpha selection in the same way you changed the Quick mask. That is, choose the paint brush or Pen Tool and draw in BLACK to remove from the selection or draw in white to add to the selection.

Using the stuff you learnt here you can speed up your selection process.

I hope this was useful! Comments and Questions are welcome.

For people who are not familiar with what a Graphics Tablet is then you can click here. Here is a quote from the article:

A graphics tablet (or digitizing tablet) is a computer peripheral device that allows for a relatively simple method of inputting hand-drawn graphics or art into a computer in real time. They typically consist of a large flat surface for drawing on, and an attached “stylus” for drawing on the surface, originally as a part of the electronics, but later simply to provide an accurate but smooth “point”.

Basically you can grab a pen and draw instead of using a bulky mouse. That allows you to draw more accurately and more quickly. Plus, more people are used to drawing with pens and pencils so it helps with that too.

From what I can see from the description on the site this really does not offer many new features. Basically its a Graphire 2 or Graphire 3 with 2 ExpressKeys (buttons that can be linked with a keystroke) and a handy place to place your pen. If you own a Graphire 2 or a Graphire 3 then don’t bother upgrading. If you are interested in getting an upgrade then save up and get an Intous 3. Now that is a good tablet!

For people who do not have a tablet right now then this is a good product to buy. It costs $99 and trust me… it is well worth that price. If you can’t afford that then just go on ebay.com and search for a used Graphire 2 or a Graphire 3. Make sure the seller tells you that its in good condition and then buy one of those. It will be drastically cheaper and just as good as any other Graphire. I recommend going with Wacom tablets to everyone. I had a bad experience with some other companies like Aiptek (don’t sue me aiptek aaaa)

Wacom: http://www.wacom.com

Graphire 4: http://www.wacom.com/graphire/index.cfm

Thanks for visiting

I have created another short Flash Demo for the Clone Tool. Click on more to view the flash demo and to view more technical details about the clone tool.

[FLASH]http://www.photoshoptips.net/flash/clone/clonedemo.swf,433,403[/FLASH]

Today I’m going to try something new. I’m making a flash tutorial using Wink. Click More to view:

Please wait a few seconds. The flash tutorial takes a few minutes to load. Once loaded click on NEXT to play the movie

[FLASH]http://www.photoshoptips.net/flash/colorreplace/colorreplace.swf,441,432[/FLASH]

First I will choose an original image. This has a picture of a yellow car. To demonstrate the tool I’ll go ahead and change its color.

Next I’m going to click on the Color Replacement Tool. It is usually hidden beneath the Healing Brush Tool. If it is then just click and hold down the healing brush tool (or patch tool) and choose Color Replacement Tool from the list that pops up.

Next Choose a color. This will be the color that you want the car to be after you are done. Next I choose Mode: Color, Sampling: Continuous, Limits, Contiguous, Tolerance: 30% and Anti-Aliasing On. Next just paint over the surface that you want to replace colors of. Make sure that the plus sign or the cross hairs of the tool remain inside the area you want to change. If they go out of the surface then you will end up coloring the wrong thing. This is what I have now:

I got carried away and colored each part of the car a different color. Try it out and if you have questions or comments post them here

Mode: This determines the Painting Mode. Your choices are Hue, Color, Luminosity, and Saturation.

Sampling: This determines where you get your sample to replace from. If you choose continuous it will replace what ever you are dragging on. If you choose once it will only replacee the color you first clicked on. If you choose background swatch it will only change where ever the color is the same as your selected background color.

Limits: This determines where your color stops replacing. We choose contiguous meaning that it will not go beyond where the color is different.

Tolerance: This is how much shade difference of the color you are changing it will tolerate.

Anti-Aliasing: This allows you to get smooth edges.

The Healing Brush Tool acted like a brush where as the Patch tool acts like one of the Lasso Tools. Once again the best way to learn how to use this tool is by using it! So go ahead and launch photoshop. You will find the patch tool hiding under the Healing Brush tool. Just click on the healing brush tool icon and hold your mouse button down until you see a new menu pop up. It will look like this:

Click on the Patch tool. Now we are ready to patch some stuff

Here we see Little Timmy. It seems like Little timmy got into a little accident. All his clothes are torn and his grandmother is coming over to see his latest pictures! We must do something noooww!! Ok stupid scenario but you get the idea.

Choose the Patch Tool and then choose the Source button in the Patch Tool Option bar on top. Next click and drag around the place where the clothes are torn. Now we have told photoshop what area needs to be repaired.

Next just click inside your Patch Selection and drag it over to where ever the shirt is not ripped. This is where we get the sample from. It seems like little timmys waist area was unharmed. Therefore, drag it there. You will notice that your original selection area changes to show whatever you are dragging on. Then once you get to the undamaged area release your mouse button.

As you can now see the torn area that we selected has now gone away.

With a little more work you can fix the whole shirt.

I only used the patch tool to fix the whole thing. In an actual photograph that I would need to fix I would have used all the tools available to me including the paint brush and clone tools. Since this was a patch tool guide I only used one tool. Much better results can be attained if you use all the appropriate tools. Thats the cool thing about photoshop… you have tons of useful tools at your disposal and you must mix and match them to optimum results.

If you choose destination instead of source in the Patch Tool Option bar you will be able to first choose the area you want to sample from and then drag to the area that you want to repair. It is personal preference and I think choosing Source makes more sense.

Here is another example. This time to remove wrinkles around this persons eye:

Step 1: Using the patch tool make a selection around some of his wrinkles

Step2: Click and drag the selection you made in step 1 to a place where there are no wrinkles

Step3: Let go of the mouse and you’ll see the wrinkles that you selected in step one have disappeared.

Step4: Repeat till all the wrinkles you wanted removed go away

The way this works is that you choose an area where everything is the way you want it to be. Photoshop notes down the textures, colors and lighting of the source area. Next you click on the area that needs to be repaired. Photoshop carefully adjusts all the pixels so that the textures and lighting still match and all the surrounding pixels look normal as well.

The best way to learn about this is by getting some examples.

Here is Scarface. We’ll try and remove his scar.

First choose the Healing Brush Tool. It tools like a bandaid. Make sure that in the healing brush option bar you have selected Blending Mode: Normal and Source: Sample. Then hold down the ALT key(or Option key if you are on a Mac) (your mouse pointer will look like a little target “((+))” ) and click on a place where there is no scar. This just got a sample of what his good skin looks like. Photoshop noted down the texture, color and brightness of the good area.

Next let go of the alt key and then click and drag on the scar. From the top and to the bottom of a medium sized section. See.. things are already a lot better.

Now press ALT again and click on areas close to where the scar was but not right on it. We’re just getting more texture to put on the healed part to make it look real. Press ALT click. Let go of Alt and then apply it in short controlled strokes. Here you will have to practice and try a couple of times to see what makes it look the best. Do this till it looks good. If it messes up then go back and try again. Be sure to work on a copy of your image incase you accidently save over the original.

Here is what I ended up with.

Ofcourse a much better job could have been done by carefully zooming in and healing each section of his scar seperately. I kind of accidently made him look like he has swelling on his left cheek. Trust me.. you can get much better results if you take your time and do it carefully. You all should try it out your selves. Only with practice will you master this tool!

In the healing brush tool option bar you will see Sample option and the Texture option. We used the Sample option in the above mini-tutorial. That got the texture sample from where you ALT-Clicked.

If you choose the Texture option you can pre-select which texture to apply. You can create your own textures or use some of photoshops predefined textures. It will still get the color and brightness levels from your image but it will apply the texture you choose here. Since its getting a preselected texture you won’t have to Alt-Click.

Thats it for now. Please post any questions or comments. If you spot a mistake please let me know .

It is fairly simple to use but I seem to be having problems explaining what exactly it does so I’m going to demonstrate it using screen shots.

Here is a picture of the front bumper of the car. I can see that it has a continuous area of white. I want to select it quickly and I don’t want to mess around with Lasso tools. A situation like this is perfect for the magic wand tool. In this screen shot I have selected the Magic Wand Tool and I am about to click on the front bumper of the car.

Now I have clicked on the white area and photoshop has automatically selected the entire white area. However, you can notice that a small sliver of the bumper has not been selected because of a slight color difference. We should be able to select that using the Tolerance value in the Magic wand Option Toolbar

Here is the effect of increasing the Tolerance to 50. What is the tolerance? This is basically the range of colors or shades of the color that the magic wand tolerated. If Tolerance is set to 0 then the tool will ONLY select the EXACT colors that match the pixel that you clicked on. We set the tolerance to 50 so that meant that it selected 25 shades above and 25 shades below the color that we clicked on.

Anti-Aliased means that you will get a smoother curved edge. Continguos means that it will select only areas that are connected to the color that you clicked on. Uncheck that and it will select the color that you clicked on on the whole Layer.
If you want it to select colors on the whole image then check the option that says “Use All Layers”

The other 4 options are the same as other selection tools

The right most button is the “New Selection” button. When this is pressed then our tool will select what ever you click.

The second button is the “Add to Selection” tool. This does what the name suggests. If you have selected an area of your picture and you want to extend that selection or select another part of the picture while keeping the first selection still active then you choose this button before making another selection. Instead of creating a new selection it will ADD to what ever is already selected.

The third one is just as useful and important as the second button. This is the “Subtract from Selection” tool. You guessed it, if you want to REMOVE a part of the selection then choose this button and then click. What ever your selection now touches will be removed from what was initially selected.

The fourth button is “Intersect from Selection”. If you have a new selection and you chose the Intersect from selection tool then make a selection that over laps your first selection then only the areas that are overlapping will remain selected.