Adobe Photoshop CS4 – Illustrated Unit F: Working with Brushes and Color Effect

Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated Objectives Create custom brushes Paint with automatic brush strokes Paint a complex mask Understand the color picker Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated Objectives Modify color with the Hue/Saturation adjustment Use the Replace Color dialog box User the Black & White adjustment “Colorize” a Black & White adjustment Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Working with Brushes and Color Effects Manipulating color in Photoshop tends to take on two different roles: improving realistic color to make a better image Creating special effects with color There are a variety of techniques used to create color effects these include: adjustment layers, layer masks and color adjustment utilities Working effectively with the brush tool and the Brushes panel is important when working with layer masks and adjustments Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Creating Custom Brushes Photoshop comes with hundreds of brushes on the Brushes panel Custom brushes can be created that have special characteristics The two most basic characteristics of a brush are: Diameter-the size of the brush Hardness-how hard or soft the edge of the brush is Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Creating Custom Brushes The paintbrush icon for the Brush tool does not change when the size of the brush being used is changed Preference setting can be changed for painting cursors in the Cursors section of the Preferences dialog box Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Creating Custom Brushes The Shape Dynamics option, when activated offers greater control for painting, such as using a brush that fades or a brush that respond to pressure Shape Dynamics are essentially programmed for users using a pressure-sensitive stylus pen instead of a mouse Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Creating Custom Brushes Brushes panel Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Painting with Automatic Brush Strokes One of the fastest and most effective ways of working with the Brush tool is to use the automatic brush technique Click the Brush tool, press and hold [Shift], then click in a different location the Brush tool automatically paints a connecting brush stroke between the two points Brush settings allow the user to specify the edge of a brush in terms of hardness-100% is the hardest-edged brush and 0% is the softest edged brush Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Painting with Automatic Brush Strokes Connecting point #1 with point #2 Painting a soft-edge stroke Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Painting a Complex Mask Painting masks are done over and over in Photoshop when making color adjustments the user may want to mask some of the adjustment to manipulate how it affects the artwork Masking is essential and it is important to develop skills for using the Brush tool effectively The decisions made, especially for the brush edge hardness have a direct effect on the success of the mask Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Painting a Complex Mask When painting a mask, the hardness of the brush has a big impact and becomes subjective When choosing a Hardness setting for the brush to mask an item, the choice is based on the item itself Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Painting a Complex Mask Masking the edges of the sandals Making a selection in the mask Finished artwork Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Understanding the Color Picker The Color Picker is one of the essential dialog boxes in Photoshop as it allows the user to choose any color available as a foreground or background color An understanding of HSB is helpful when using Photoshop as the Color Picker is designed in terms of HSB; hue, saturation, and brightness like RGB, HSB is a color model and every pixel in Photoshop artwork can be identified by its HSB values Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Understanding the Color Picker Hue represents the name of the color: red, orange, and blue are hues In the Color Picker, Photoshop offers 360 hues to work with Saturation refers to the intensity of the color: how close it is to a pure hue Brightness affects a hue in terms of how light or dark the color is if the Brightness setting is set to 0%, it’s as though the color is being looked at in a completely dark room—all that is seen is black Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Understanding the Color Picker In the Color Picker a color can be specified as RGB and HSB RGB and HSB are both color models that Photoshop uses to describe the color of a pixel; but they are independent of each other if looking at an image in terms of color balance, the image is being looked at in terms of RGB other image evaluations may be in terms of brightness and contrast in the image and that is HSB Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Understanding the Color Picker Changing the hue in the Color Picker Changing the saturation and brightness in the Color Picker Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Modifying Color with the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Hue/Saturation is one of the most powerful adjustments in Photoshop; and one that is used often for both practical color improvements and in creating special effects The adjustment is composed of three values: Hue slider changes only the Hue value of all selected pixels Saturation slider changes only the saturation, intensifying or muting the color of selected pixels Lightness slider increases or decreases the brightness of selected pixels Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Modifying Color with the Hue/Saturation Adjustment In the Color Picker and on the Info panel, Hue/Saturation is specified in HSB In the Hue/Saturation adjustment, the sliders are HSL Lightness in the Hue/Saturation adjustment Brightness in the Brightness/Contrast adjustment is used to brighten or darken an image Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Modifying Color with the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Changing the hue After the Hue/Saturation adjustment Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Using the Replace Color Dialog Box The Replace Color dialog box is very useful when modifying colors in areas that are difficult to select with the selection tools or layer mask The tools in the Replace dialog box allow various areas of an image to be targeted based strictly on similarity in color when an area is targeted the dialog box shows a black-and-white mask, with the white areas representing the pixels that will be affected by any changes that are made Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Using the Replace Color Dialog Box Drag the Fuzziness slider to increase the targeted area or use the Add to sample tool to click a specific area to add Once the area is targeted, changing the Hue and Saturation values modify the color only in those areas If wanting to modify Hue/Saturation in non-specific areas of an image, think about using the Replace Color feature the Replace Color feature is not an adjustment layer; alterations are applied directly to the layer Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Using the Replace Color Dialog Box Sampling a light area of the door Adding a dark green to the sample Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Using the Black & White Adjustment The most common way to make a color image appear as black-and-white is to desaturate it completely using a Hue/Saturation adjustment the adjustment reduces the saturation value of every pixel to zero The Black & White Adjustment can be used and offers brightness controls for converting the color original to black-and-white using these controls, an eye-catching, black-and-white version of the color original can be created Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Using the Black & White Adjustment Another way to create black and white from color is to convert the file from RGB Color mode to Grayscale mode Photoshop will discard all color data from the file, reducing the file from three color channels to a single grayscale channel Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Using the Black & White Adjustment Comparing desaturation (top) to a Black and White adjustment (bottom) Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

“Colorizing” a Black & White Adjustment There are many techniques for adding color to a black-and-white image, creating a “colorized” effect use a layer mask on a Black & White adjustment layer to gradually introduce color to a specific area of an image create a radial gradient with a color center that gradates out to a very light shade of the color; or create one by hand which is not nearly as smooth and perfect Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

“Colorizing” a Black & White Adjustment Colorize effect Fill dialog box Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated Summary In Photoshop there are a variety of techniques used to create color effects Photoshop comes with hundreds of brushes on the Brushes panel Masking is essential and it is why it is important to develop skills for using the Brush tool effectively The Color Picker is one of the essential dialog boxes in Photoshop as it allows the user to choose any color available as a foreground or background color Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated

Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated Summary An understanding of HSB is helpful when using Photoshop as the Color Picker is designed in terms of HSB; hue, saturation, and brightness (lightness) The most common way to make a color image appear as black-and-white is to desaturate it completely using a Hue/Saturation adjustment (there are other methods) There are many techniques for adding color to a black-and-white image, creating a “colorized” effect Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Illustrated