Before writing about the basics of Image editing I want to discuss the short Photoshop guidelines. There is a real benefit for planning out where you want your image placement without a lot of guesswork. These steps below are based on Photoshop CS. Let’s go…

Basics Of Edit Images Using Photoshop Guidelines!

Set Ruler Preferences

First, you have to select the Edit>Preferences>Units & Rulers to open the Preferences window to the Units & Rulers page. From the Rulers drop-down list in the Units field, select the desired unit of measurement (i.e pixels, inches, centimeters, millimeters, points, picas, and percent) and then click OK. You do not really need to restart Photoshop for the preference change to take effect.

Now that you have your Ruler Units set we can start using guides. In this case, I will set my Ruler Units to inches. These Photoshop Guidelines will help you more precisely layout your figure. To turn on your Rulers in Photoshop go to the View Menu>Rulers (check marked on) or hold down the Control button and then select the letter “R” key.

Placing the Photoshop Guidelines

By default, the ruler is Orientated at the top and left of your document page. The orientations can be changed by clicking on the top left where the top and side rulers meet and dragging the cursor to where you want the rulers to orientate to.

To place Photoshop Guidelines in specific locations left click on the left-hand ruler. While still holding down on the mouse button drag the guideline to the desired location. I place my guideline at 13 inches because I want my figure one inch from the right side.

Now let’s say I want the figure 2 inches from the top of my document. Left click on the upper ruler section. While still holding down on the mouse button drag downward until it lines up with the number 2 on the left-hand side.

Yeah, there is a Black Pointer Arrow. Now we can use the Black Pointer Arrow as a move tool to move the figure where we have set up our Photoshop Guidelines.

Using Grids

• When you use grids, that doesn’t print with your image. They’re used only as subject lines in your onscreen image.
• Objects and tools can optionally snap to the lines on a grid, depending on if you have View>Snap To>Grid option turned on or off.
• You can show or hide grids by choosing View Menu>Show>Grid.
• To change the color of the grid and to select solid lines, dashed lines, or dots for the grid you can use Edit Menu>Preferences>Guides, Grid, Slices.

Grids share some form in common with guides and can be very useful.

Also, you can define the distance between grid lines and the number of subdivisions between grid lines in the Preferences dialog box. I like to set mine for Gridline every one inch and Subdivisions to 1 since this will help me line up my figure on the platen if you have printed the Grid.ar3 or Grid.arp (see below) onto your platen

Now we can go for the Image editing tips for sure.

The opening image in Photoshop

After opening the photoshop program.

Go up to the File menu –> select Open. This will show up a dialog box asking you to locate the figure you want to open.
Navigate to the location of the figure on your hard drive and then click on the Open button. This will open the figure and display it in on your screen.

Saving images

Save As Original

Before editing your photo, it is really important for you to save it first as a Photoshop document (rather than as the form that it is currently in, usually a JPEG or GIF). The reason for this is to preserve an original, high-quality original copy. If you edit it and don’t keep a copy of it in its original, high-quality form, you can never re-create this quality. To do this:

Go to the File menu>Choose Save As

Then the dialog box appears, click on the arrow next to format. A list of items will appear (a drop-down list).

After selecting photoshop you will name the Photo anything.psd, where “anything or something” is the name you choose for the image. This should be one word, no spaces, followed by .psd (the “.psd” extension tells you that it is a PhotoShop Document).

Now, choose the location where you would like to save the figure
Once you are sure you are saving the photo to the desired location, it is in the format you have chosen (in this case, a Photoshop or .psd format), and you have given it a name, click on the OK button (see below for suggestions on how to name images).

Changing the size of the image

When you have taken a photograph you probably will want to crop out extra parts and resize it to fit into a document, onto a PowerPoint slide, or onto a web page. The size you choose will depend on your intended purpose.

There are three aspects of a size given below that are important:

Dimensions in Pixel (pixels per inch — PPI– on your computer monitor): First of all you need to make sure that the picture isn’t wider than the number of pixels that can be displayed on your computer monitor. If you don’t know the specifications for your computer or the computers on which you will show the picture, then you should play it safe by going with a photo no bigger than 800 pixels horizontally and 600 vertically (this will fill a 15-inch monitor screen). If you want to change the pixel dimensions in Photoshop, just insert the intended numbers in the boxes provided under the section “Pixel Dimensions”

Print size: This will be the size of an image when you print it on paper (to change the print size, change the numbers in the spaces under “Print Size” (see the screenshot of dialog box below).

Image size: This is the size of the image file (in K). This tells you how much space the figure takes up on your computer. It is important if you are inserting a picture on a web page. The reason for this is that large figures result in the page taking a long time to load — which is very frustrating if people are accessing your pages via modems. Thus before you insert an image onto your web page it is important to reduce it to a reasonably small size (at least lower than 100k, but lower than 50k is even better).

If you want to change the size of a photograph you just follow the steps given below. That will guide you through changing the size of a photograph.

First, open the image.

From the menu at the top of your screen, select Image –> and then Image Size. This will bring up a dialog box that tells you the current image size.

The first thing to check is if your original picture is at a resolution greater than 72 pixels/inch. If it is greater than 72 pixels/inch, you have to reduce it to 72 (since most monitors cannot display more than 72 PPI). Just type “72” in the box next to resolution under the section on Print size.

This will greatly reduce the Photo size if your original was at a resolution higher than 72 PPI.

For changing your images size, you can also change the width or height size either under pixel dimensions. You need only change one of these dimensions as the other with change proportionately (because the “constrain proportions” box is checked).

When you do this, observe that the image size. Because the figure next to “Pixel Dimensions” will also change. Keep playing around with these numbers until you get the image to size as close to 50K or less — but you must make sure that the Photo is still large enough to see!

When you get the image at the expected size, you can reduce the size even further to optimize it for the web:

From the file menu –> select “Save for Web.”

In the next step, from the tabs at the top of the dialog box that appears, make sure “4 up” is selected. This shows 4 versions of your picture, each at a different resolution.

If your program is not set to default for 4 different resolutions, you can set these: Click on the first image and in the box to the right of the Photo, under “settings” select “Original.” Then click on the second picture and select for presets, “JPEG high.” For the third picture select “JPEG medium,” and for the last “JPEG low.”

Now Click the “save” button –> give it a name (see naming conventions above) and choose the location where you want to save it (if you are going to put it on a web page, make sure to save it to where you store images within your website folder).

Notice that the original image is still open with the original name.

When you close this image you will be asked if you want to save it. I usually say “no” so that I don’t lose the formatting of the original picture (since I saved it as a web image in the step above).

Cropping an image

Often you will find that you only want a part of an image and not the whole thing, especially if you are trying to reduce the size of an image for your web page. To cut out (crop) the excess:

First, choose the Crop Tool from the Photoshop toolbar. This will turn the cursor from an arrow into a box.

Place the box at the top left corner of the area you want to select and drag down to the bottom right of the area. This will draw a box around the area you have selected.

On the corners of the box and midpoint along the size are small squares. These are resizing handles. Click on these to increase or decrease the size and shape of the area that you wish to crop.

After selecting the desired area, please double-click anywhere within the section of the picture that you have selected to crop. It will help you to crop the picture.

TIP: If you don’t find the result, just go up to the Edit menu –> select Undo or use the history palette to return to the step prior to cropping.

When you have achieved the desired result, save it.

Making image darker or lighter

Open the Photo

From the menu –> select Image –> Adjust –> Variations. This will bring up a series of smaller versions of your image, showing what it looks like now (original), and what it will look darker or lighter (as well as by adjusting the colors).

To label the Photo lighter, click on the box showing the lighter version. If it still looks too dark, click again. Once you have achieved the desired effect, click the OK button. (As explained before, if you don’t like the result, you can go up to the Edit menu –> select Undo).

To label, the Photo darker, do as above but click on the box showing the darker version.

Once you have achieved the desired result, save.

Manipulating an image

• Choose the magic wand.
• Make sure the options are open like choose WINDOW > SHOW OPTIONS.
• Now, click the wand on a typical color in the background of the Photo. Hold the shift key to select additional pieces of the Photo.
• After that, choose SELECT > FEATHER (set at about 3 pixels). This should even out your selection.
• For deleting the background (hit DELETE key) or you can color it.

To manipulating an image just open the desired photo/image.

Adding Text to Images

• Use to add text (with or without special text effects) on top of an image.
• On the bottom of the layers palette, click on the icon to add a new layer (notice that there will be two layers now in the layers palette, namely the background.
• Now, click on the text tool and then click on the Photo. A text dialog box will appear.
• Select the desired font, style, size, etc.
• Change the text effects under the LAYER –> EFFECTS.
• When you are done, flatten the photo and save.

Hopefully, I can say that these photoshop guidelines will help you to get an overall basic of image editing. To get more, follow our next article. Thank You.