Tools Palette
The Marquee tool (M) is most often used for selecting broad swaths of an image when hard edges and abrupt tonal transitions are not a concern. You simply click and drag until the area you want to select is within the marquee's boundaries. You have the option to choose a rectangular or elliptical shape. You can also select a single row or column of pixels. See Figure 5-6 for Marquee tool options.
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Figure 5.6 In addition to Normal, the Marquee tool can be set to a Fixed Ratio or Fixed Size.
Setting a ratio of width to height in the options bar automatically constrains the shape of the marquee to that format, no matter the size of the selection. If you know in advance the exact pixel or print dimensions of your selection, follow these steps.
1. In the Marquee tool options bar, set the Style to Fixed Size.
2. Type the pixel or print size dimensions into the Width and Height boxes.
3- Click once in the image, and a marquee of that size is automatically drawn.
The Move tool (V) can relocate layers and selections within an image or even move them to another open document. In the latter case, you'll want to hold the Shift key while dragging. This step will register the item that's being moved dead center with its destination. See Figure 5-7 for Move tool options.
Figure 5.7 Checking the Auto Select Layer option will automatically switch the tool's focus to the topmost layer containing pixel data at the tool's current location. Without this option, the tool is restricted to the layer highlighted in the Layers palette.
The Polygonal Lasso tool (L) lets you select irregularly shaped areas of the image via a series of mouse clicks. I recommend this tool over the Carpal Tunnel-inducing Lasso tool, which requires you to hold down the mouse button during the entire selection process.
The Quick Selection tool (W) is a newcomer to CS3, and Photoshop's engineers think so highly of it that it's replaced the Magic Wand as the default tool choice when you press the shortcut. Their optimism is well justified. Quick Selection is a fully adjustable brush tool. Simply painting inside an area selects its outlying edges. You can easily add noncontiguous selections, as well as
subtract unwanted selections. See Figure 5.8 for Quick Selection tool options.
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Figure 5.8 The Auto-Enhance option triggers a more precise, but processor-intensive edge detection routine that fine-tunes your selection after you release the mouse. You may find the superior results a worthwhile trade-off for the speed hit.
As soon as your selection is made, the Refine Edge button becomes available. Clicking this button calls up the Refine Edge dialog box (see Figure 5.9), where you can fine-tune the selection edges with no less than five selection parameters at your disposal. There are also five different selection preview modes available. Adios, Magic Wand!
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Smooth: Feather: M.13 Q Description Figure 5.9 In the Refine Edge dialog box, hovering the mouse over each adjustment or preview mode brings up useful descriptions of their function at the bottom of the dialog box. The function of the Crop tool (C) is self-explanatory. Perhaps less obvious is that once a crop is drawn, its marquee can still be resized or rotated to align with a straight edge in the image. Press Return to commit to the crop. See Figure 5.10 for Crop tool options. ■fej. .1 mam |7iii ] [?) iwjhujfto | mtofcni«i:[jM immwh "i^ ) fcinT"1) Figure 5.1 0 Much like the Marquee tool, you can type pixel or print dimensions directly in the Width and Height boxes for constrained proportions when cropping. In addition, you can type in a Resolution value to add a down-and-dirty resampling to the crop process. The Healing Brush (J) is my tool of choice for light to moderate spotting of dust and scratches. It clones pixels from a source point to a destination, but unlike the Clone Stamp tool, it automatically matches texture, lighting, and shading detail to the destination area. See Figure 5.11 for Healing Brush options. Using the Healing Brush is a simple two-step process. 1. Option-click to determine the source point from which to sample pixels. 2. Click to indicate a destination for the cloned sample.
Figure 5.1 1 The Aligned option enables the source point to change in direct relation to the destination point as you move the mouse. The Sample menu allows you to determine the layer(s) from which to clone pixels. Figure 5.1 1 The Aligned option enables the source point to change in direct relation to the destination point as you move the mouse. The Sample menu allows you to determine the layer(s) from which to clone pixels. The Aligned option is a crucial setting for ensuring expected Healing Brush behavior. With this option enabled, the source point and destination point remain at a fixed distance. If you disable this option, you will always be cloning from the same source pixel, regardless of the location of the destination point you select. In CS3, you have the option to either include or ignore adjustment layers when using the Healing Brush. You set your preferred behavior by toggling on or off the icon at the far right in Figure 5.11. The Brush tool (B) is absolutely essential to working with masks and combining image layers. You paint simply by clicking and dragging the mouse. See Figure 5.12 for Brush tool options.
Figure 5.1 2 The Brush tool has a staggering number of options. Brush diameter, feathering, stroke opacity, and blending mode can all be set independently. Figure 5.1 2 The Brush tool has a staggering number of options. Brush diameter, feathering, stroke opacity, and blending mode can all be set independently. The last four blending modes in the drop-down menu shown in Figure 5.12 are not active in Grayscale or Multichannel mode. The brush's source color is always the Foreground Color currently set in the Tools palette. The History Brush tool (Y) is a hidden gem for painting in edits from previous states of an image. It offers a fast and precise method of localized editing, which I'll describe later in this chapter. The History Brush options bar is identical to that of the regular Brush tool, seen in Figure 5-12. Before you can use the History Brush, however, you must first select a source state, as demonstrated in Figure 5-13- Figure 5.13 In the History palette, you define a source by clicking in the leftmost box of either the snapshot or history state from which you want to paint.
In Figure 5-13, the initial snapshot, generated when the image was opened, is set as the source. Painting with the History Brush will replace pixels altered by the Curves and Shadow/Highlight adjustments with those from the image at its initial state. The Gradient tool (G), as its name suggests, lets you create a smooth gradation of tones, simply by drawing a line in the image window. As I'll demonstrate later in this chapter, it can be used in combination with an adjustment layer to seamlessly blend localized contrast edits. See Figure 5-14 for Gradient tool options. 
Mode:r Hpimal Opaciiy:|IQDX H _ Reverie ^Di^er ÖTranspjrencv Figure 5.14 The Gradient Picker allows a choice between several preset grayscale and color gradations. You select a gradient fill from the row of highlighted icons. From left to right, they offer Linear, Radial, Angle, Reflect, and Diamond options. The Eyedropper tool (I) measures pixel values from any layer within the active document, as well as other open documents. Clicking a pixel will automatically set Photoshop's Foreground Color to the selected pixel's color value. You can use the Color Sampler tool to place markers at up to four locations in an image. The color value at each marker's location is conveniently displayed in the Info palette. CS3's renamed Ruler tool displays measurement coordinates, including the angle, along which it is drawn. See Figure 5.15 for Eyedropper tool and Color Sampler tool options. Figure 5.15 The Sample Size pulldown menu is available with either the Eyedropper or Color Sampler tool active. It allows you to specify the precision of reported pixel values. The drop-down menu in Figure 5.15 offers a number of sampling options. Point Sample measures the single pixel over which the tool hovers. Selecting 3 by 3 Average samples a grid of the three pixels immediately surrounding the pixel over which the tool hovers. It then displays the mathematical average of these pixels as its result. The 5 by 5 Average works in the same way, but it samples a grid of five surrounding pixels. CS3 has added four larger sampling grid options. The Hand tool (H) offers the most convenient way to move around the image in any direction. But this is one keyboard shortcut you really shouldn't bother to memorize. A better approach is to invoke it temporarily by pressing the spacebar on your keyboard. This allows you to keep your current tool active. The Zoom tool (Z) obviously increases and decreases image magnification. More experienced users will never actually press Z 3 by 3 Average S by S Average 11 by U Average 31 by 31 Average 51 by 51 Average 101 by 101 Average because there are more useful shortcuts. To view an image at 100 percent, press Cmd+Option 0. To fit the image to the window size, press Cmd+0. Press Cmd+plus to zoom in and Cmd+minus to zoom out. When you need to zoom in on a specific location, press Cmd+Spacebar and draw a marquee around the desired region. The Screen Mode (F) cycles through different viewing options (see Figures 5.16 to 5.20). CS3 introduces a new Maximized Screen Mode and also sets screen modes on a global, rather than per-document basis. If you have five image windows open and change the mode on any single image, the rest will automatically change as well. All of the modes have backgrounds that are preset to middle gray. But each mode can be set individually to display a separate background color by right- or Ctrl-clicking the background area. 
Figure 5.17 The new Maximized Screen Mode retains document info at the bottom of the window and surrounds the image with a solid background to eliminate desktop distractions. 
Figure 5.1 8 When you zoom in using Maximized Screen Mode, the image remains within the screen boundaries set by the palette docks on either side. Scroll bars allow for horizontal and vertical panning. Figure 5.17 The new Maximized Screen Mode retains document info at the bottom of the window and surrounds the image with a solid background to eliminate desktop distractions. Figure 5.1 8 When you zoom in using Maximized Screen Mode, the image remains within the screen boundaries set by the palette docks on either side. Scroll bars allow for horizontal and vertical panning.
Scroll with Key Commands When spotting an image, its helpful to move one screen section at a time. To do this, use the Page Up and Page Down key to move vertically. Press Cmd+Page Down to move to the right. Press Cmd+Page Up to move to the left. Get It Straight The Ruler Tool provides a fast and accurate way to straighten an image. Drag it along the edge of any item in the image that you want to be perfectly level. Now go to Image>Rotate Canvas> Arbitrary. Photoshop has automatically entered the precise angle adjustment that will bring the line you drew to horizontal or vertical. Press OK, and voilà, the image is perfectly straight. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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