Bells, whistles and flutes aplenty (Adobe Photoshop 7.0)

Member Name: dave27

Product:	Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Date:	05/12/03 (1323 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Flexible, Powerful

Disadvantages: Daunting at first

La creme de la bleeding creme, that's Adobe Photoshop Version 7 (or 7.01 if you want to be really pernickety, and don't get worrying about needing to upgrade again to the CS version, 7 will do you absolutely fine).

I used to swear by (and at times at) Corel PhotoPaint, but about six months ago stumbled on a trial version of Photoshop 5, and liked it so much I bought the company, or at least got a brand spanking new version of 7 (financed by my work interests, you understand, I'm not that rich and Adobe Photoshop will run you some very big money, several hundred pounds, £590 + VAT apparently - however, the current issue of Digital Photography Techniques hints at some decent ways to get a cheaper version - "The new upgrade version is available for £135. At Amazon you'll find sellers offering a full new boxed version for just £519. There are also second hand versions of the software available at a considerable reduction. Unless you really need all of the very latest features, there's no point in spending so much money when a cheaper, older version will serve your needs just as well. We found a new full boxed version of Photoshop 6 for the Mac for under £400 at Amazon. Back over on eBay, the latest version new and boxed is available at a 'Buy it now' price of just £399." Ah well, you pays your considerable price and you takes your choice).

Anyway, beg, steal or borrow, whatever, get a copy of Adobe Photoshop, the newest version you can afford and you'll certainly be well chuffed, because this is truly excellent software, as good as it gets, and as much of an advance on PhotoPaint as a car is on a tricycle.

My main use for the package is for retouching and improving digital photos, either taken by a digital camera or via scans, and Photoshop is the best in house at all the tasks I want for this, very easy and flexible, although it's packed with so many bloody features that it can get extremely
confusing and scarey at times. However, you really don't need all the bells, whistles and flutes, and even just a cursory familiarity with the package will soon get you up and running and competing with the experts.

The thing that really stands out with Photoshop is its powerful and extremely wonderful handling of layers, and if you've never come across these marvellous facilities then you haven't lived. Layers are like photostatic sheets you put over your base image, which you can paint on and enhance the colour and contrast of without affecting your base image. You can limit the effect to just certain parts of your image - for instance you can just pull out all the reds and touch them up without changing your blues (bit technical this, eh?). You need to work out a decent approach and understand which are the best tools to use for the job, whatever the particular job is but when you've mastered a few of the tricks and shortcuts and principles then you'll never look back.

I found the best way to get to grips with the software is to get hold of a monthly magazine called Digital Photography which contains a tutorial CD each month showing you all manner of tricks and tips about Photoshop. These contain decent on screen video tutorials of how to do all manner of things. You'll quickly find your way around the application and be storming away. There are a load of such mags and tutorial books and many websites which provide such help and trust me it's well worth getting hold of some sort of training resource, it'll save you loads of time in the end.

Anyway, enough of the wise old man routine, let's turn to the application itself.

Adobe Photoshop really is a quite splendid software package which is immensely powerful and flexible, with many keyboard shortcuts and labour saving devices. It's got a lovely interface, particularly now that they've revamped it with version 7, which makes th
e stacking tools palettes much easier to use and hide away, rather than letting them clog up your workspace.

The menus and tools are relatively easy to use and you can go with logic for the most part, there aren't too many eccentricities or oddities and after a couple of days getting familiar with the tools you'll be storming your way through even the most complex task.

That same Digital Photography Techniques magazine includes an easy guide to the menu commands and it's so simple that I thought I'd just reproduce it here for your delight and delectation-

Action palette - Window > Actions
Auto colour command - Image > Adjustments > Auto color
Auto levels command - Image > Adjustments > Auto Levels
Brightness and contrast - Image > Adjustments > Auto Contrast
Browse command - File > Browse or Window > File Browser
Brushes palette - Window > Brushes
Calculations command - Image > Calculations
Channel mixer - Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer
Clear layer style - layer > Layer Style > Clear Layer Style
Combine slices - Slices > Arrange
De-interlace - Filters > Video > De-interlace
Destaurate - Image > Adjustments > Desaturate
Directional light effect - Filter > Render > Lighting Effects
Dust and scratches filter - Filter > Noise > Dust & Scratches
Embed watermark - Filter > Digimarc > Embed Watermark
Extrude Filter - Filter > Stylize > Extrude
Fade command - Edit > Fade
Flatten image - Layer > Flatten Image
Gamma adjustment - Image > Adjustments > Gamma
Guide to slice command - Slices > Create Slices from Guides
Grow command - Select > Grow
Hide all layer styles - Layer > Layer Style > Hide All Layer Effects or Show All Layer Effects
Hue/saturation - Image > Adjustments
Info palette - Window > Info
Image mode conversion - Image > Mode
Layer mask - Layer > Enable Layer Mask
Liquify command - Filter > Liquify
Load slice s
election - Slices > Load Slice Selection
Matting - Layer > Matting > Defringe
Mix colour channels - Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer
Negative command - Image > Adjustments > Invert
NTSC colours - Filters > Video > NTSC
Omni-light - Filter > Render > Lighting Effects
Overprint colours - Image > Mode > Duotone
Page setup - File > Page Setup
Paths palette - Window > Paths
Promote layer-based slices to user slices - Slices > Promote to User-slice(s)
Proof colours - View > Proof Colours
Remove black matte - Layer > Matting > Remove Black Matte
Resample image - Image > Image Size
Redo command - Edit > Redo
Rotate image - Image > Rotate Canvas
Save for web - File > Save for Web
Save workspace - Window > Workspace > Save Workspace
Scale effects - Layer > Layer Style > Scale Effects
Send to back/front - Layer > Arrange
Smoothing - Select > Modify > Smooth
Tile windows - Window > Documents > Tile
Trap command - Image > Trap
Trim command - Image > Trim


I'd suggest you don't read through all that stuff, just use it as a reference tool - shame I didn't tell you that earlier...

There's also a stack of keyboard shortcuts and I can assure you that when you do learn them all they'll substantially improve your productivity. However, there's no point me trying to teach you how to use Photoshop, either work out the best way to do things by using it or get one of these wonderful mags.

This review after all is about the application and really all there is to say is that Adobe Photoshop is a truly excellent package, if a little on the expensive side - still you get what you pay for, and if you want the best you gotta pay for it...

Photoshop Version 7 was recently replaced as PC Pro magazine's image editing software of choice by the CS version, after holding the spot since its release. It had replaced Version 6 when it came out.
And that says it all really...



PS Just a word of caution - Photoshop's power is in many ways also its undoing - you see it's so easy to make major changes to your images that there's a temptation to push things to the limit and go well over the top - your watchwords should be caution and subtlety. You can always reverse changes later if you regret tham using the History function (as long as you save your files in the native PSD format), but it's better if you just subtly adjust the particular function you're playing with - suggest the difference rather than ram it down people's throats, and it's far more effective. OK, enough preaching for one night.

Summary: