Photoshop: Where to Start

[Josh_C]

Ok, so I finally got Photoshop. My first goal is very simple. I want to take an image which is 600 pixels wide. I want to fade that image on the right hand side from a light blue (which it is now) until it is white. But I want the white to extend beyond the 600 pixels to a total of 900 pixels. Then I want to put text in that space. The end goal is to create a header for my personal website.

This sounds like something that should be easy to do. But I literally have NO idea where to start when it comes to Photoshop. So my question is: where do I start? Is this in fact something easy, or do I know so little about Phootshop that it just seems easy, but in fact it would be quite difficult? I don't need anyone to spell it out, but if you could point me to worthwhile tutorials or resources, that would be much appreciated. Just googling around for things brought up a lot of crap. I know there are a ton of books out there, but I'm trying to keep spending low, so any free resources would be much appreciated!

[ajdelaware]

http://artist.tizag.com/photoshopTutorial/photoshopgradienttool.php

For photoshop there are thousands upon thousands of youtube tutorials covering every topic. Just youtube search gradient tool header or something like that and see what pops up.

Heres what I would do:

I would start by going to the image menu --> Canvas Size ---> check off "relative" ----> put in the additional pixels in the width box ----> on the little thing at the bottom with the arrows around the box, click the middle right box, and select the canvas color as white.

That will at least get you to where you want to be width wise.

Then use the rectangle selection tool and select the portion you want to be effected (so at the beginning of the canvas, until you get to where the blue you want to end on is) and then use the gradient tool as prescribed on the above link.

Worth a shot.

[Josh_C]

http://artist.tizag.com/photoshopTutorial/photoshopgradienttool.php

For photoshop there are thousands upon thousands of youtube tutorials covering every topic. Just youtube search gradient tool header or something like that and see what pops up.

Heres what I would do:

I would start by going to the image menu --> Canvas Size ---> check off "relative" ----> put in the additional pixels in the width box ----> on the little thing at the bottom with the arrows around the box, click the middle right box, and select the canvas color as white.

That will at least get you to where you want to be width wise.

Then use the rectangle selection tool and select the portion you want to be effected (so at the beginning of the canvas, until you get to where the blue you want to end on is) and then use the gradient tool as prescribed on the above link.

Worth a shot.

Thanks a lot. I will give this a shot tonight. Moreover, this is a great place to start.

[Waldo]

Start with good habits, get used to doing most things in new layers so that you can undo things. This can take a while to fix if you don't get in this habit at first.

For me at least, Photoshop had a very steep learning curve. It took quite a while to get comfortable with it. I started with a book that covered all the bases (by Scott Kelby, editor of the Photoshop magazine), then read/watched a lot of online tutorials and played with it for a long, long time.

[67alecto]

You want to select layers of the image and adjust the opacity of them until you like the fade.

[161803398874989]

You can do the canvas trick ajdelaware mentioned, or you can just start with an image that's 900 pixels wide, then paste your source image in it (just copy it like you normally would and press ctrl+V/cmd+V depending on your system).

You then select the Move Tool by either pressing V on your keyboard or by clicking the little arrow in that bar on the left side of your screen. You can then drag the source image around.

So now you've got the source image in the right place and blank space next to it, where you want the gradient to go.

Now we're going to get our colours. First, press D on your keyboard to reset the colours. This ensures our background colour is white. Next, we'll want the Eyedropper tool to get the right colour for the first part of your gradient, so hit I on your keyboard or find the icon for an eyedropper on the tools bar (that thing on the left side of your screen). Then just left-click on the colour you want, which will be on the right side of your source image (the blue stuff).

On the tools bar, you'll now see two squares of colour behind eachother. The top one will be blue and the other one will be white. Now select the gradient tool by pressing G or finding the little gradient on the bar. If you can't find it, it's under the fill tool, which is that little bucket. Just right-click or long-click until a little menu shows up where you can select the gradient tool.

Now, we'll create a new layer by either pressing ctrl/cmd+shift+N or by clicking the little white sheet button in bottom right of your screen. If you don't know which button it is, just try all of them, and press ctrl+Z/cmd+Z if it isn't the right one.

You then drag the mouse from the beginning of where you want the gradient to the end and it will be filled with a nice blue-to-white gradient.

Now all that is left is text. Press T on your keyboard or select the "T" in your tools bar and click somewhere you want to have your text. Don't worry if it's in the wrong place, we can move it. You can control how your text looks with the bar in the top of the screen. After you've typed your text, you can select the move tool (press V) to move it around by dragging and dropping.

After you've finished your image, go to File -> Save As... and save your file as a .png or something and you're done!

[scotticus]

What you're talking about is definitely a gradient, as per 1618....'s post. That said, I think I would approach it a little bit differently, by starting with a blue background layer, and then using a white ==> transparent gradient in another layer (just in case you want to have other image elements in between the white and blue, to add depth, or whatever).

It's also worth noting that if you hold down shift while dragging the gradient, it will keep it locked on to a 90 degree axis. So if you want a perfect left to right gradient, for example, holding down shift will let you do it.

It terms of tutorials, I've always been a really big fan of PSDTuts.com - they have a lot of really top notch tutorials (very clearly written and well illustrated) that cover a wide variety of applications. They have an older one on there that's a compass, which might be a good starting point for you - it's here. That should give you a really good start on slection tools, gradients, clipping masks, and a few other essentials like layer styles. Beyond that, look for some tuts on paths and blending modes and you should be well on your way.

Also, look for the monthly roundups they have on the site. These link to good tutorials from a variety of sites, some of which you'll definitely want to add to you favorites as resources.

Hope that helps.