This is a basic Photoshop for beginners tutorial for bloggers. Adobe Photoshop is one of the most valuable tools for a blogger. You might hear it already great content + great design is fundamental for your blog to succeed. As a blogger or an entrepreneur, you’ll have to create a lot of visual content and Photoshop is an ideal tool with lots of features. This is a basic Photoshop tutorial for bloggers who need Photoshop for their everyday edits.
If you are a beginner and looking for a place to start Photoshop, you are in the right place. You may think Photoshop is way too complicated. I can never figure this out.”. That’s a myth! I’m going to show you how to use the Photoshop as a blogger to have a great blog. I’m here to guide you step by step to learn Photoshop.
If you don’t have Photoshop you can download it as a free 30 day trial from Adobe’s website.
If you prefer watching a video rather than reading a blog post, here is the video tutorial for you.
Let’s get back to the tutorial.
You can create a new document by clicking the File ->> New button or open up an existing document using the File->>Open button.
Create a new document in Photoshop
Once you click the new button it will pop up the below window. On the left, you can see all the recent file sizes. Also, you can see some predefined templates for print, web and other purposes on the left. they all are in separate tabs, Once you click the relevant tab series of templates will show up.
1 – you can give the width you want.
2 – you can give the height you want.
You can select the units you want from the drop-down menu. Pixels and Inches are pretty famous, but you can select whatever you want.
3 – Set the resolution at least to 72.
4 – If you create something for web select the color mode to RGB, If you create something for print select the color mode to CMYK.
5 – I normally left Background Content to be the default – white.
After you have done everything clicks create button.
Photoshop Workspace
When you create a new document or open up an existing document, you will get the following interface. there are several things you should get familiar with
To get a better understanding lets reset the workspace so that the interface will look the same. To reset the workspace go to Windows->> Workspace->> Essentials
1 – Menu bar
2 – Tool Options Bar. this tool option changes every time you change a tool on the toolbar
3 – Toolbar
4 – Panels
5 – Rulers – If you can’t see the rulers, go to View->> Rulers
6 – Canvas
Save a document
To save a document go to File ->> Save as.
In the following window give it a name and select the place you want to save the document. For the format leave it as Photoshop. You can save it as any other formats later. In this way, you will always have your original Photoshop file.
Photoshop Toolbar
The next important thing is the Toolbar
In the toolbar, you can see there is a small arrow on the right bottom corner of some tools. That means it has other hidden tool choices. Right-click on the arrow and it will show other tools.
Shape tool is the best example for this one. Once you right-click you can see other hidden tools, which is rectangle tool, Rounded Rectangle tool, Ellipse tool, etc.
Let’s see some basic important tools
Shape tool
There are 3 methods to draw a shape.
method 1
To draw a rectangle, select the Rectangle tool. Click and draw a rectangle on canvas. Once you draw a rectangle the property window pop up, if it not you can always open it up using Window->> Properties. You can change the properties of the shape there. The width, height, color, Stroke color, X and Y position, etc.
Once you are done using a tool click v on the keyboard to go back to move tool.
method 2
Click and hold the shift key while drawing a rectangle to make it a perfect square.
method 3
Select the rectangle tool and click on the canvas to give exact dimensions of the rectangle.
To draw another shape the process is the same. Select the shape you want and draw the shape.
Text tool
To write down something select the text tool. You can change the font, size, and color in the tool options bar.
To change the font, size and color after typing, open up the Character window. Go to Window->> Character.
To write vertically select the vertical type tool.
Crop tool
Select the crop tool. Drag from the handlers to select the area to crop. Once you define the area to crop, hit enter.
Zoom tool
To zoom in and zoom out.
Layers in Photoshop
Layers are the most important and most used panel in Photoshop. If it doesn’t appear, go to Window->> Layers
When you first created a Photoshop document it only has one layer – the background layer. It is always by default locked. You can see the padlock sign. It means if you try to move canvas it won’t move. Click on the padlock sign and it will unlock. If you want to lock a certain layer, select the layer first in the layers panel and click the padlock sign which you can see in the below image.
1- If you want to lock a certain layer, select the layer first in the layers panel and click the padlock sign
2 – To unlock a certain layer, click this padlock sign.
3 – create a folder, so that you can group related layers. This is only for the organizing purposes. When you work in a document that has a lot of layers you can organize them by grouping related layers. Create a folder and drag the related layers to the folder.
4 – click this icon to create a new layer.
5 – to delete a layer, select the layer and drag it to the trash can icon. You can right-click on the layer and select the delete layer option. Or you can simply select the layer you want to delete and hit the delete button on your computer.
Organize your layers in Photoshop
In the below image you can see several layers in the layers panel. Some are rectangle layers and some are circle layers. I can group them into two folders to arrange it nicely.
Click on the eyeball symbol to hide a layer without deleting it.
You can color coordinate the layers in order to organize them. Right-click on the eyeball symbol and pick a color.
In the below image notice that circle is on top of the rectangle. In layers panel ellipse layer is in top and rectangle layer is at the bottom. Layer on top of the layers panel appears in front of other layers on the canvas.
If we switch the layers in the layers panel (drag the rectangle layer on top) then you can see on the canvas, the rectangle is on top of the ellipse.
Create a duplicate layer
Method 1
in the layers panel, click the layer and while holding it click the options button and drag down the layer. it will create a duplicate layer. In the canvas, you can’t see it because the new layer is on top of the older one. but in the canvas, you can select the layer and drag it around.
Method 2
Click and hold the alt key and once you hover the mouse on the layer, the mouse pointer converts into double pointers. Then click the layer and drag it.
Layer visibility
In the below image notice there are two layers. One is a text layer and it is in the top of the layers panel and the other one is a rectangle layer and it is at the bottom of the text layer.
Since the text layer is on top of the layers panel you can see the text.
What if we change the layers in the layers panel? Drag the rectangle layer to the top of the layers panel. In the below image you can’t see the text layer.
If you want to see the text layer, you can do it.
Select the rectangle layer in the layers panel. Click the drop-down arrow next to the Opacity. and reduce the opacity. You can change the opacity to make the underneath layer visible.
To go step backward
To go step backward cmd+z is the famous shortcut for any application. But if you want to go back another step and click cmd+Z it will bring back the previous change, it will not go back one more step.
So if you want to go back more than one time go to,
Edit->> Step Backward.
So there you go. It’s a quick introduction to Adobe Photoshop. Was this tutorial useful? Are you ready to get started with Photoshop?
More Photoshop tutorials for you
Working with Photoshop layers as a blogger
Simple Photoshop edits to make your blog images pop
Photoshop clipping mask tutorial