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aussie novice


Welcome to our forum Malcolm!
Never too old to learn this great thing called Photoshop, there's a good many of us "old dogs" here. So sit back and relax and enjoy the ride.
 
ALB68 said:
Welcome to our forum Malcolm!
Never too old to learn this great thing called Photoshop, there's a good many of us "old dogs" here. So sit back and relax and enjoy the ride.
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Thank you so much for the welcome
at the moment I don't know enough about using the program to ask the right questions,I'm watching as many tutorials as I can find to get the basics, most of them are not basic enough, they tell you what to do but not how to do it
 
malcolm said:
Thank you so much for the welcome
at the moment I don't know enough about using the program to ask the right questions,I'm watching as many tutorials as I can find to get the basics, most of them are not basic enough, they tell you what to do but not how to do it
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You might want to spend a bit of money and invest in a structured course that goes from soup to nuts. There are some out there such as lynda.com and infiniteskills.com .
May I inquire as to how you intend to use the program? Photo correction, art work etc.?
 
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ALB68 said:
You might want to spend a bit of money and invest in a structured course that goes from soup to nuts. There are some out there such as lynda.com and infiniteskills.com .
May I inquire as to how you intend to use the program? Photo correction, art work etc.?
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Thanks for that
I could as you say take on a formal course, but it was my idea to teach myself as I retain information much better doing the research my self and there is a vast amount of information out there.
The project I'm most interested in at the moment, is to be able to put several photos of human figures sourced from the internet, into photoshop in such a way to be able to change body parts from any of them on to the base figure, this maybe a bit much for a beginner to take on and I would need step by step instructions,
at the moment I am stuck on how to load the photos, when I try to load a second image the first one disappears, I think its to do with layers, that is what I'm working on at the moment, but it seems to be so basic that the tutorials assume that you know and don't cover it, any help on this would be greatly appreciated
Malcolm
 
malcolm said:
Thanks for that
I could as you say take on a formal course, but it was my idea to teach myself as I retain information much better doing the research my self and there is a vast amount of information out there.
The project I'm most interested in at the moment, is to be able to put several photos of human figures sourced from the internet, into photoshop in such a way to be able to change body parts from any of them on to the base figure, this maybe a bit much for a beginner to take on and I would need step by step instructions,
at the moment I am stuck on how to load the photos, when I try to load a second image the first one disappears, I think its to do with layers, that is what I'm working on at the moment, but it seems to be so basic that the tutorials assume that you know and don't cover it, any help on this would be greatly appreciated
Malcolm
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Loading the photos: When you open an image in PS it will be the Background Layer. Photoshop's essence is it's use of layers. In order to accomplish what your speaking of you will have to learn how to do several things. These include making selections, copying, pasting and using layer masks. To get your second layer above the background layer, you have to open the second image, it needs to be the same resolution as the other one, then you Select/All. Enter Ctrl (windows)/or Command/ (Mac) +C. This will copy that complete image to the clipboard. Then switch to the other image. With it on your screen, enter Ctrl/Cmd +V. This will paste it into your file as the 2nd layer. Do that and then we will try a few more things. In the mean time, study how to make selections and layer masking. Good luck.

Edit: By the way -- + means to hold Ctrl and C down together..not the + plus sign on the keyboard. There are other ways of doing this, but this is what we will do for now.
 
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I have tried to follow your instruction, but I still can't get the two images,i get one opened and hit control +c and it does not seem to do anything at all, I think what the problem is where you say select/all,that step eludes me,i have the option to buy a copy of the book photoshop cs6 for dummies ,do you think that would be of help to me, I think I understand selecting now ,I'm still working on layer masks
 
malcolm said:
I have tried to follow your instruction, but I still can't get the two images,i get one opened and hit control +c and it does not seem to do anything at all, I think what the problem is where you say select/all,that step eludes me,i have the option to buy a copy of the book photoshop cs6 for dummies ,do you think that would be of help to me, I think I understand selecting now ,I'm still working on layer masks
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Hi malcolm,
Malcolm, some way, some how you have to be able to grasp how Photoshop is structured. You would be well served to study the basics at this point. When I said to "select all" what is was referring to was using Select from the main tool bar and then selecting the All option. At that point, the "marching ants" as they are referred to appear around the whole thing. When you enter Ctrl C, that is the command to copy to the clipboard. You will not see any visual results of that, but in the next step..Ctrl V (the command to paste (from the clipboard) the contents will be pasted as a new layer in the file you switched to. Yes, a book might be helpful as it is structured in an organized manner.
selectall.PNG
 
thanks once again, I can see this is going to be harder than I thought , I'm obviously, un prepared for your kind help, i'll get the book and read it ,which I should have done in the first place I guess, so i'll not bother you again until I can at least ask sensible questions, I thank you for your time and effort
 
malcolm said:
thanks once again, I can see this is going to be harder than I thought , I'm obviously, un prepared for your kind help, i'll get the book and read it ,which I should have done in the first place I guess, so i'll not bother you again until I can at least ask sensible questions, I thank you for your time and effort
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Oh, no bother at all. Please feel free to ask any questions you need to but it would be helpful to have a reasonable understanding to be able to apply the answers. Learning Photoshop can be a "work in progress" because I don't think there are a huge number, if any, that know everything there is to know about it. As you progress, you will be amazed at it's capabilities. I think the three words that best describe it are the three P's, patience, practice and perseverance. Practice, practice and then practice some more.
 
G'day Malc, what side you living at mate, stick with ALB he will sort you out, and welcome aboard.
 
hi there again Larry I have received the book we spoke about, there is a lot more to this program than first meets the eye, the problem I have to address with it is each part relies on other parts to be used, I will get it sorted eventually, but my progress so far is I can now get the two images up at the same time ,and I have a basic knowledge of layers and I can confidently use the selection tools, but layer masking is still eluding me ' I understand the use of them its the mechanics of using them that runs me into trouble so I'm still working on that aspect, I did not realise the depth of this program , I am not deterred I will get there by applying the three p principle .,on another subject ,an easier one I hope, my wife took a photo of herself just be fore she got killed in a car accident, it was to be a surprise for me ,but I don't want to go into that too much ' the point being that the photo turned out pretty bad , dark mainly, but poor quality iphone camera shot ' what I need to do is lighten the whole thing up , I could send a copy of the pic to you if you think you could help , iwould be prepared to pay you to apply your magic to it for me if you have time
 
thanks for the welcome ' I'm looking forward to the challenge of mastering this complex program,i really appreciate what you blokes are doing there should be more of it, im located in the central west of nsw, at a place called Dubbo .
 
malcolm said:
hi there again Larry ?
I have received the book we spoke about, there is a lot more to this program than first meets the eye, the problem I have to address with it is each part relies on other parts to be used, I will get it sorted eventually, but my progress so far is I can now get the two images up at the same time ,and I have a basic knowledge of layers and I can confidently use the selection tools, but layer masking is still eluding me ' I understand the use of them its the mechanics of using them that runs me into trouble so I'm still working on that aspect, I did not realise the depth of this program , I am not deterred I will get there by applying the three p principle .,on another subject ,an easier one I hope, my wife took a photo of herself just be fore she got killed in a car accident, it was to be a surprise for me ,but I don't want to go into that too much ' the point being that the photo turned out pretty bad , dark mainly, but poor quality iphone camera shot ' what I need to do is lighten the whole thing up , I could send a copy of the pic to you if you think you could help , iwould be prepared to pay you to apply your magic to it for me if you have time
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Sounds like your moving along with it now. You just have to stay with it and practice.
As to layer masks..think of them as being a transparent sheet sitting on top of a piece of paper that has your image on it. If the mask is white, paint with black, if it's black, paint with white. If you make a mistake, switch colors (hit the X key as a shortcut) and paint accordingly. The idea is to selectively reveal or hide parts of an image that is on that layer. Once you get this down, you will find you will be using it for all kinds of purposes.

As to your photograph. If you can post it on here, we can instruct YOU on how to repair it. Given the subject matter, you will feel good about doing it yourself in lieu of having someone do it for you. Usually though, our members will jump in and fix photos in a flash. So give that a go and we will get it repaired.
Merry Xmas!
 
Hey Malcolm, this is a very small image.........not much we can do with that.

Since you mention 'hope it's suitable'..............does that refer to content or image size and resolution?
 
thanks for getting back to me, you blokes sure are quick with your replies, I wish more people were like that, the resolution and size was my major concern, sadly this is the only pic I have of my wife, if nothing can be done with it i'll just have to go with what i got ,thanks for looking at it for me,
 
malcolm said:
thanks for getting back to me, you blokes sure are quick with your replies, I wish more people were like that, the resolution and size was my major concern, sadly this is the only pic I have of my wife, if nothing can be done with it i'll just have to go with what i got ,thanks for looking at it for me,
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Gosh malcolm, We are pretty good here, but that photo is about 37mm wide at a resolution of 72ppi. Not much hope for it. Let me try a couple of things, but no promises. This is not to mention that it is a photo of a reflection in a mirror.
 
sorry I forgot to mention about it being a mirror shot , and I would appreciate anything you can do, this pic is priceless to me, thanks again
 
malcolm said:
sorry I forgot to mention about it being a mirror shot , and I would appreciate anything you can do, this pic is priceless to me, thanks again
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Not a lot of detail here, but you can now make out that it is a lady, holding a camera (I surmise) reflected in the mirror. But at least it's not a black blob. It is now 4" wide at 300ppi that you could make a small print from. Sorry, but there just wasn't any facial data that could be used. Here is what I did.
woman in mirror.png
 
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