PSW EST: 1972

* PhotoSnowdonia Workshops *

and the

Zone 8 Photographic Society EST: 1977

PRESIDENT: Bruce Alexander Carter, FZPS . . . . FIRST & PAST PRESIDENT: Kenneth A Nelson, Hon.FZPS

 

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Updated: Monday 22 May, 2006 21:39 (Webpage updated but not content)

SOME HINTS FOR PHOTOSHOP USERS

(NOTE: This has been extensively updated and available only to members, with a wide range of other technical information leaflets, on the Members Only Forum. Articles will not be updated any more on this website)

 

THE MOST IMPORTANT ACCESSORY, BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING IN PHOTOSHOP, IS A NOTEBOOK! PHOTOSHOP REMEMBERS WHAT YOU DID OR SET LAST TIME, SO IF YOU DO NOT RECORD WHAT IT WAS BEFORE YOU ALTERED ANYTHING, YOU MAY HAVE TO RE-INSTALL TO GET BACK BASIC RECOMMENDED (DEFAULT) SETTINGS!

RECOMMENDATION: As at November 2001, prices for memory on current and recent computers, using SDRAM modules, is very inexpensive. Buy NOW to seriously upgrade your computing! Addendum: Although memory has risen (March 2002) it is still a bargain buy and definitely the best and least expensive way to upgrade your computer. However ..... if using Win 98, remember that it cannot normally function if more than 512MB is installed.

The Main Set-Up is important and most of this comes in the *FILE/PREFERENCES/GENERAL item (in later PhotoShop versions, it is under the EDIT menu item) (in case you are very new to computing, by this we mean clicking on the MENU item FILE (on the top left of the Photoshop screen) then when the drop-down menu appears, scroll down to the item PREFERENCES, then click on MAIN on the secondary menu that appears to the side). When you click on GENERAL, you will get a dialogue box covering the GENERAL settings. To get to the next settings box, just click on the NEXT button. This way you can scroll through all the settings option boxes, which are shown with comments below. * Preferences in PhotoShop 6 and 6.01 are under the EDIT menu. There are a few changes, like the Brushes are now under the top menu but otherwise, it is mostly the same and hardly affects those using PhotoShop for equivalent darkroom work! JPEG compression values now go from 0 to 12, compared to previous 0 to 10. For saving files, just use the lowest level that still claims to be in the HIGH quality bracket!

The main points to set are as follows (the box title is shown underlined):-

GENERAL - Leave this as set by Photoshop

SAVING FILES - Leave this as set (unless you know what you are doing!)

DISPLAY & CURSORS - Check (click to put dot in circle alongside the item) BRUSH SIZE and PRECISE. When you do this, you will find when you use the Dodge Tool (It lightens when you hold down the left mouse button and darkens if you hold down the ALT key whilst then holding down the left mouse button) you will get a nice circle showing where you are working -much easier than guessing. (Note this circle will disappear if the CAPS LOCK light is alight on your keyboard). You can make larger circles by clicking on the right pointing solid arrow to the right of the Brush Tool Box to reveal a drop-down menu, then selecting NEW BRUSH to show a dialogue box in which you can type-in a new brush size. Try one at 250. You can create several different brush sizes and note that in the lower part of that box, you will see a diagram, in which you can click on the handles to change the shape of the brush and also click on an arrow, to drag the shape to any angle you wish. Try making several - some vertical, some horizontal and others at angles. This also makes for easier working when using the Rubber Stamp tool as you can also select different brush sizes and shapes you have created. Don't be tempted to whizz about or your memory could disappear - rapidly. This is where the RAMDef-XT memory manager utility (see Links page) is essential to avoid crashes,

TRANSPARENCY & GAMUT - Leave this as set

UNITS & RULERS - Just select inch or cm units to choice

GUIDES & GRID - Leave this as set

PLUG-INS & SCRATCH DISK - This is more complicated! If (a BIG "IF") your computer has been set-up properly for Photoshop, you would have a separate drive (or more likely a separate "Logical Drive") devoted solely for use by Photoshop as an area where it can store images as you work on them. For example, I have a (logical) drive of 1.8 Gb purely for use as a scratch disk by Photoshop. This is an area on a large hard drive sectioned off so the computer thinks it is a separate hard disk drive; it is formed by partitioning the large disk into separate areas, then making those areas Logical Drives - the computer will then see them as separate disks in their own right. By having a large scratch disk only for use by Photoshop, you make life much simpler and PS works more efficiently and certainly more quickly! If you have not got this facility, you will need to ensure your Drive C (if that's all you have got) is kept tidy by running a Disk Defragmenter utility - you should find one via START/PROGRAMMES/ACCESSORIES/ SYSTEM-TOOLS/ DISK DEFRAGMENTER. This will free up areas on your hard disk by collecting bits of files scattered about all over the place, thus leaving nice larger free areas for use by Photoshop!

However - BEWARE! We have found that whilst this worked fine under Windows 95, using under Windows 98 has resulted in having to re-install Win-98 and all programmes several times (until the reason was discovered) due many errors in all sorts of different programmes that were not present before the defragmenter was run! Our advice (if you only have one large drive C) is get a smaller second hard disk fitted (Small today means about 3.2 Gb or 4.3 Gb - now when I consider I used only 40 Mb for about seven years . . . . .!) and get that split into three partitions and thus three drives. Designate one for Photoshop to use as its Primary Scratch Disk (about 1.8 Gb), one for Windows to use as its Swap Disk (= Virtual Memory - about 400 Mb) and the third keep for trying out programmes. If you cannot do this, get someone who can to install and configure it for you. You would then simply alter the settings in this box to point to the drive.

The Windows swap disk settings should be set via the Device Manager facility - we cannot go into this here but anyone familiar with Windows settings should be able to do this for you if you do not know how to set about this task. A well set-up computer for digital imaging - and computing generally - would have its HDD partitioned with logical drives to suit specific requirements. Sadly, they usually come as one large, totally inefficient Drive C only, that ends up a nightmare of inefficiency, wasted space and usually "Scratch Disk Full" error messages! (One possible other solution is latest "Partition Magic" programme)

MEMORY & IMAGE CACHE - If you have 64 Mb of RAM in your computer, change the default (Default = what Photoshop is set to when installed) setting for Memory Use by Photoshop to 70% instead of the 50% Default value. If you have 128 Mb or more, set this to 75-85%. Note that whilst there is a dramatic speed increase upgrading from 64 Mb to 128 Mb, going from 128 Mb to 256 Mb or more is hardly worth the cost. Photoshop uses the Scratch Disk extensively, so most waiting time is not down to too little Memory or a slow processor but more to how fast it can write to and retrieve from the Scratch Disk on the HDD. Read our article covering settings for the Epson 1200/750 about how to close Photoshop, after saving the image file you have worked on, to free the Scratch Disk before printing. THIS IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT if you only have one drive (e.g.: "C") as the Scratch Disk - if not cleared by saving your image file then closing Photoshop (it only clears its scratch disk when closed) then re-opening before printing - could be hogging valuable hard disk space that might be needed by the Print Spooler to store its information before and during printing!

Files stored on your hard disk could be badly fragmented. Whilst you may appear to have lots of free space, you could have lots of small bits of space instead of the large single area spaces needed by Photoshop and the Print Spooler. Result is the print job stops part way through, with an error message saying not enough disk space available to complete the job! Time wasting, frustrating and expensive! Perhaps even puzzling, before you read this! Think of it thus:- You have a large block of concrete that can only fit into a box large enough to accommodate it. You could have a thousand smaller boxes that could take a hundred blocks in small pieces but it must go into a box intact. Is that clearer? If you are using Win-98 and really need to defragment your hard disk drive - I can only wish you the best of luck! I got Blue Screens of Death in several programmes which had run well before defragmenting! (I'm back to Windows 95 & trying NT, Linux and OS/2 Warp - excellent but only runs PS 2.5 LE)

ADDITIONAL MEMORY CONSIDERATIONS

Several people have reverted back to using Photoshop 4, after experiencing complete freeze-ups with Photoshop-5.* under Windows 98 - and in (fewer) cases, Windows 95 too. In brief, this is mainly because of the multiple undo modes in the later editions of PS (ie: 5, 5.2 and 5.5).

There is a most useful utility (RAM_Def_XT) for FREE automatic management of your computer memory. Brilliant in action - prevents crashes. See LINKS page which has download link from this website - use left column link or visit http://www.zdnet.com or http://www.tucows.com and do a search for this so you can then download. Brilliant utility.

"OPTIONS"

You should have noticed that for each tool you select, the OPTIONS tab on the top right toolbox (which has Navigator too) changes to suit the selected tool. For example, if the Magnifier is selected, it becomes Zoom Options. The most useful aspects concern the percentage of action. For example, with both the Dodge and Rubber Stamp tools, you can set the density. For the Dodge tool, set to around 3%-5% - gives greater control for darkening and lightening (repeated use gives additive effect) and you can also select Highlights, Midtones and Shadows. As one example, you can darken branches against the sky without darkening the adjacent sky - extremely difficult in a conventional darkroom!

For the Rubber Stamp (cloning) tool, selecting 100% replaces, selecting, say, 25% ghosts. As an example, if you have a gap in trees with plain sky, you could clone 25% of another part into that area - or 50% - or 100% to choice. A bit like in the darkroom when part of the image is printed over a similar gap in the branches. As I have said all along, the skilled darkroom worker will find ways to use the tools to achieve what he/she would have done in the darkroom - sometimes with greater difficulty. One's Personal Vision (Artistry & Creativity, if you prefer!) is still the dominant tool for high quality work in any media!

IMPORTANT: GOOD PRACTICES

The best advice, to ensure freedom from memory loss (Altzheimers a la Photoshop?) as you complete any action and are satisfied with same, save the file, close Photoshop, re-open Photoshop and the file - this clears memory and the scratch disk area (not always completely but at least clears 90% most times). Always save, close, re-open per aforegoing before printing to avoid halting during printing. (This should not be necessary if using RAMDef XT Memory Manager) Use the JPEG file format, setting "7" (up to & including PS 5.02) or "8" for (PS 6) in the dialogue box for compression ratio (Yes - it does work!) and when you size the image (even if you do not actually change the size!) set the printing resolution to 360dpi. See our other article giving a working schedule, published on this web site and as a Technical Information Leaflet, which accompanied the ZPS Newsletter 2/1999. By the way, we have found, contrary to published advice, that saving a file in the JPEG format several times appears to have no effect on quality!

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