Colour in Adobe Photoshop Class - 7 [Adobe Photoshop for Beginners]

 Colour in Adobe Photoshop Class - 7 [Adobe Photoshop for Beginners]:

Assalam.o.Alaikum

welcome to Tech Learning 4U

Now in Photoshop, there are many ways to use color.

Photoshop offers a variety of tools, filters, and effects

which you can harness, to get the right outcome you desire.

Later in the course, we will be looking at

some of the wonderful color filters and color effects

that can be achieved in Photoshop.

But before we get into that,

I first want to introduce you to the color panels

and demonstrate how they work.

In this tutorial, I will be discussing the basics of color.

I will also be demonstrating some important color tools,

how to use transparency, change your image into grayscale,

and how to set the right color format.

Now along the way, I'm going to be referencing

particular panels here on the right.

If you have been following this course from the start,

you will be familiar with the way

I have my panels structured here.

In one of the early Blogs on this course,

I demonstrated how to customize panels

and create your own workspace.

In my current workspace, I have all my color panels

up here, on the top, for ease of access.

If you don't have this,

you can either skip back to the panel and workspace video

and learn how to create this panel setup,

or you can activate the panels as and when I mention them.

Now along the way, I will be mentioning

some useful shortcut keys, 

So I'm going to begin by talking about

some of the color panels in Photoshop,

we will be using in this tutorial.

To make this really clear,

I'm just going to click on each tab,

and drag it out here, so you can clearly see them.

I recommend you do the same.

So, here we have two panels.

We have the swatches panel, and the color panel.

If you don't see these panels, you can come to Window,

and you can select them from the dropdown menu.

Okay, so first off we have this swatches panel.

Now this is a handy panel where you can access

some predefined colors.

If you're new to Photoshop, your swatches panel will come

with a bunch of predefined swatches, just like mine here.

Now, if you move your mouse cursor over

and into the swatches panel,

no matter what tool you have active, at any time,

as you move your cursor over the colored squares,

you will notice your mouse cursor change

to what looks like an eye dropper icon.

This is Photoshop asking you,

if you wish to choose a color from the swatches panel.

Now if you hover your mouse long enough,

over a particular square,

you will see the name of the swatch appear.

If you click on the swatch, you will select the color

and in your menu, you will notice the color becomes selected

in the foreground square.

If you double click on the swatch, up will pop a small menu

which will reveal the name of the swatch.

Should you desire, you can change the name of the swatch.

But for now, I'll keep it the same, and just click OK.

In Photoshop, you can build and save color samples

here in the swatches panel, and name them.

We will be getting into that shortly.

On the top of the swatches panel, we have a color history.

Here in CC 2014, every time we select a color sample,

it will appear in this bar.

As we continue to select colors, they will move along.

Here we have 16 samples,

this gives us a chance to recall a recent color choice.

So the next panel we have is the color panel.

This panel is really useful for searching

and re-finding color samples.

Over on the left hand side, we have the two squares

that represent the foreground, and the background color.

The same as on the bottom of the menu panel.

Here we can click either, and set a new color, like so.

So currently, we can search through the color spectrum

to select a new color.

Should you find a color you're interested in,

you can come to the top right of this panel,

and click the menu button.

Here you can choose from various color sliders,

such as RGB, and CMYK.

These can help refine colors very marginally,

if you wish to tweak a chosen color, like so.

So I'll come back and click the top right menu

and select the hue square, to go back to the color spectrum.

Now when working with color in Photoshop,

the main point of focus will be

the foreground and background squares,

located at the bottom of the menu panel, on the far left.

This is an indication of what color you have selected

at any given time.

Also, we have the background color selection,

which works with the gradient tool.

So, as demonstrated earlier,

you can use the color panel to discover new colors.

But that's not the only way, for example,

if you click on the foreground color in the menu,

up will pop the color picker menu.

Now this menu will present all the color information

for that particular color you currently have selected.

Here we have the RGB, CMYK, and digital color reference.

To the left, we have the color spectrum,

which we can explore and choose another color.

Notice, next to the big color spectrum,

we have a tall slim column,

representing the entire color spectrum.

If we click and drag on the holder,

we can drag up and down, to scroll the spectrum,

to reveal the colors in the box to the left.

As we click to select a color,

we will see the color information update to the right.

Now, should we find a color we like,

it's from this menu, where we can add the sample

to our swatches panel, and create a new swatch.

For example, I'll click to select a new color,

once satisfied, I can click this button here to the right:

add to swatches.

Upon click, up will pop a small color menu

where I can choose a name for the new swatch.

I'll call this new swatch, and click OK.

Upon click, the new swatch will be added

to my swatches panel

and I am back to the color picker menu.

For now, I'll click OK.

So now I have my new swatch in my swatches panel.

Excellent!

So should I wish to edit this color,

I can come into the swatch panel,

and select a new color swatch.

Now, in the color panel,

I can click the top right menu button to drop down the menu

and select one of the sliders.

On this occasion, I'll select the RGB slider,

and here I can toggle the RGB values.

As I do so, notice the color changing

in the square to the left, and in the menu panel.

If I want to save this edited color,

I can simply click on the color in the menu

to pull up the color picker menu,

and again click the add to swatches button, name, and save.

Easy!

Now, in the menu panel,

if I wish to set the background color to a new color,

I will first need to click the swap button,

just above it to the right.

By clicking this button,

]

this will swap the foreground and background color.

Also, you can press the keyboard shortcut X.

By pressing X on the keyboard, this will quickly swap

the foreground and background color,

and enable you to select a color for each.

Easy!

Now should, for whatever reason, you wish to set

the foreground and background color to default,

black and white.

Simply press D on the keyboard.

D is the keyboard shortcut to set

the foreground and background color to black and white.

Now you don't only have the option to discover color

from the color picker menu, you can also extract colors

from images you have opened in Photoshop.

To demonstrate this, I'm going to open a document

I've prepared especially for this tutorial.

This can be found in the introduction folder

in the project folder.

Now you can download this project folder for free,

the download link is in the description.

With the project folder open, click: introduction, color,

and double click the color document.

It will open in Photoshop,

and you should have something that looks like this.

So here I have this document open,

now, lets say I am liking the color green here,

in the green origami bird, and I would like to capture it.

We can do this easily, by using the eyedropper tool.

Now, you can either come to the menu

and select the eyedropper tool,

or you can press the keyboard shortcut I.

By pressing I, this will activate the eyedropper tool,

and you will see the mouse cursor change, like so.

Now, this is quite a clever tool, with this active,

you can click on a color in the image, and select it.

For example, I'll click on the green section of the image,

and upon click, the green will appear in the menu panel.

If I wish, I can now click on the color in the menu

to pull up the the color information, like so.

And if I like this color, I can add to swatches.

But on this occasion, I'll click cancel.

Now, with eyedropper tool still active,

this time, instead of clicking once,

I'll click and drag over the green area.

Now we have this nice color sample appear,

as I move my mouse cursor around,

we can see the color represented in this widget

around the mouse cursor.

This should help up us identify the color first,

without committing, allowing us to explore

until we find a color we are happy with.

When you release mouse click, the color will be selected.

Easy!

So currently, in the swatches panel,

we have one new swatch saved.

Now, overtime this may build up,

and you will want to save them, so as not to lose them.

Or, you may even wish to share them with others.

To save your swatch is quite simple.

Simply click on the top right menu on the swatches panel

and choose save swatch from the menu.

On this occasion,

I'm going to navigate to the project folder,

and save this to the project folder,

and call it "swatch sample" and click save.

Upon save, you will now have a special file,

that contains the swatch data for future reference.

This file can also be shared with others,

all they have to do is open this file with Photoshop,

and the can access your saved swatches.

So right now, we can see our saved swatch panel.

Now, if I come to the top right of the swatches panel,

and click this little icon here, this will reveal a menu.

From this menu, we can select the various color libraries.

For example, we can come down and select a Pantone book.

I'll select the solid coated Pantone book,

u

pon click, a message will appear, asking if I want to

replace the current color's swatches with the Pantone's.

I'll just click OK and upon click, we have a library

of Pantone colors to choose from.

Now, I'll just place my mouse cursor over the bottom right

of the panel, and click and drag out here

so we can see more samples.

Just like earlier, if I hover my mouse cursor

over a particular color, up will pop the Pantone name.

Convenient!

So this is good, if you are working on Pantones

for print, and wish to browse Pantone colors.

Now, if you want to go back to the saved swatches panel

we just had a minute ago, all you have to do

is come to the top menu, on the right,

on the swatches panel, click and select replace swatches.

Here I'm simply going to navigate back to my project folder,

and click on the saved swatches file we just created.

Upon click, we are now back to

our saved swatches panel we had earlier.

Easy!

Now in Photoshop, when working with color,

we have the ability to use transparency.

In Photoshop, we are able to toggle the transparency

of layers, which can alter the color effects

in the canvas area, to create a particular effect.

For example, in the layers panel, we have a red bird layer.

If I move into the layers panel and select this layer,

I can press V to activate the move tool,

and move this layer around.

So, currently this layer is on the top.

So will the, above everything else, in the canvas area

as I move it around.

Now, if I come to the top right of the layers panel,

here I have the opacity option.

Now, I can toggle the opacity by moving my mouse

over the word opacity, next to the value.

As you do this, you will notice the mouse cursor changed

to a hand with arrows pointing left and right.

To toggle the opacity, simply scroll left and right.

As I do so, I can change the value

between 0 and 100 percent, causing the image to fade

and blend with the color of the layers below.

Next I can come to the layers panel

and choose another layer,

this time, I'll select the purple bird,

I'll come up to opacity value and toggle this like so.

And with the move tool, I can move this over the red bird.

Next, I'll select the green bird layer

and toggle the transparency and move it around

on the canvas area.

So here you can see you can create interesting imagery,

using transparency, should you wish.

So that's a brief overview of how you can work

with the swatches panel, select colors,

and save them in Photoshop and use transparency.

Now one of the most important things to be aware of

when using color in Photoshop,

is to have the correct color mode set.

One of the important things to bear in mind,

is what you're creating your work for.

If you're creating artwork for digital and web,

you will want to use RGB color,

and if you're creating artwork for print,

you will need to use CMYK colors.

The color mode option can be accessed from the top menu,

by coming to image, mode, and you will see

the mode options in the drop down menu.

So here we can currently see the tick next to RGB.

This is indicating that this image is currently RGB.

Now, this will be good for digital work,

but could pose problematic if we want to use

this image for print.

We can easily change the color mode here by

choosing an option, so for example,

I click my image mode to CMYK.

Upon click you will get a message box

asking if you wish to flatten the image.

This is because I currently have layers in the document.

On this occasion, I'm going to click Don't Flatten,

as I don't wish to lose my layers.

Upon click you may see the overall color

become a little desaturated.

If I press Command+Z to undo repeatedly,

to toggle back and forth from RGB to CMYK,

you may see the effect.

This is because CMYK is not as vibrant as RGB.

Now, should you have a photo open,

you wish to change to black and white instantly,

we can change the image to grayscale,

up in the image mode if we select grayscale,

the image will change to grayscale.

Now remember, if you change your image to grayscale,

there is no going back to RGB,

should you save it, or perform further tasks

on the grayscale image, so be careful!

I'll just press undo to go back to my RGB setting.

So that is an introduction to color in Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop is an immensely powerful program

for editing color and applying effects.

Later in the course, as we move into

the essential practice section, we will be learning

some of the more powerful tools to work with color,

and create color adjustments in Photoshop.

In the next Blog, I will be demonstrating some handy tips,

which will help you work easy and more comfortably

in Photoshop.

See you in the next Blog.