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​Lesson 3 - Objectives 4-6 (Tuesday)

B03-04 Skill: Panning, zooming, and rotating the image view in Photoshop

When using Photoshop to work on images, it is critical that you can zoom in (or out) on an image to make adjustments. The Zoom tool (Z) is used for that. With the zoom tool selected...

  • Click on any area of your image to zoom in. Each click zooms further in.
  • Hold the option key down (ALT on PC) and click to zoom out. Each click will zoom you further out.
  • Click and hold the mouse down to zoom in.
  • Hold the option key down and click and hold the mouse to zoom out.

Pressing and holding the spacebar at any time will switch you to the hand tool, where you can pan the image by dragging with the hand tool. Watch the video "Panning, Zooming, and Rotating Views in Photoshop" to learn how to do this.
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Video: Panning, Zooming, Rotating Views in Photoshop (5:00)
Optional Videos from the Resources Page:
Introducing the Zoom Tool (Z)
Introducing the Hand Tool (H)
Introducing the Rotate View Tool (R)

B03-05 Skill: Understanding file formats and screen resolution

Photoshop supports many file formats, both for opening (or importing) files and for exporting (or saving files).  For a complete listing, visit the Adobe Help page - Supported File Formats.  For our class, we'll be mostly JPG, PSD, Camera Raw, or PNG files.
  • Camera Raw file format saves images directly from the camera sensor data, so you get "raw" unprocessed picture data.  These are large files that contain 4096 levels of brightness for each color.
  • PNG, or Portable Network Graphics, is a raster graphics file format that supports lossless data compression.  PNG was created as an improved, non-patented replacement for the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), and is the most used lossless image compression format on the internet.
  • JPG (or JPEG), from the Joint Photographic Experts Group, is a highly compressed image file format, used when files need to be very small - such as for websites or email attachments.  JPG images only have 256 levels of brightness for each color.
  • PSD (or Photoshop Document) files are Photoshop's native file format that saves all the information and adjustments you've created.  It saves the layers, the layer adjustments, the masks, and everything else Photoshop needs to let you re-edit the image.

​Now, please read through the Image Resolution page.
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Photoshop's file saving options

B03-06 Skill: Resize or Resample - how to know which to choose

As you read through the Image Resolution page, you learned there were two characteristics for an image file.  The first was its dimensions, or size (think 8.5x11 inches, or 16x20 inches).  The other was its resolution, in dots per inch (DPI).  For example, an 8.5 x 11 inch sized image at 300 pixels per inch would end up being 35.5 x 46 inches at 72 DPI.

If you are producing images for the internet or for a computer screen, 72 DPI is the most commonly used resolution.  If you are producing files to print, the resolution would depend upon your printer's resolution.  For most printers, 300 DPI is the most commonly used resolution.  However, there are printers that can print at 600 DPI, 1200 DPI, and even 2400 DPI or higher resolutions.
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Video: Resizing or resampling images in Photoshop. (4:35)
If you need to change the dimensions of an image, but not its resolution, you are resizing an image.  You are resizing an image if you change the size the image will print without changing the number of pixels in the image. If you need to change the resolution of an image (or another way to put it is you are going to change the number of pixels in the image), but not its dimensions, you are resampling the image.  If you change both the resolution and the dimensions, then of course, you are doing both resizing and resampling.

Read the article, Difference Between Image Resizing and Resampling in Photoshop, from PhotoshopEssentials.com (Alternate Link)

Now let's try it with this file - B03 06 Exercise.jpg.  Download and open the file in Photoshop.  Then follow along with the video, Resizing or resampling images in Photoshop. This file will not need to be turned in, but it's important for you to know how to do!

Optional resources to share with you! (Not required)