Photoshop Question Clinic #2

For years now, I've had a free tip e-mail list where I distribute my Photoshop tips. Now I'm going to start answering Photoshop questions as part of this blog. The second installment is below:

David C. Asks: I am using Photoshop 7.0 and want to :
1). Use the 'Rectangular Marquee Tool' with a 'Fixed Size'
2). Move the selection to a part of the picture, right click the selection and then click 'Layer via Copy'
3). This gives me the selection on a new layer but I have now lost the selection.
How can I hold this selection so that I have not lost it's exact position when I made the copy?
Answer: You should be able to get your selection back by choosing Select>Reselect

My Neighbor Jim S. Asks: Is there a way to calculate the area of a layer? I'm interested in figuring out the area of the Triangle layer.
Answer: Try holding Command (Mac), or Ctrl (Win) and click on the name of the layer. That should produce a selection of the contents of the layer. Next, choose Window>Histogram and then choose Expanded view from the side menu of the Histogram palette. The Pixels readout will tell you the total number of pixels in the selection, which should reflect the number of pixels in the layer. Then if you choose Image>Image Size, then you can find out how many of those pixels fit in every inch by looking at the Resolution field.

Daryl W. Asks: I have a job that was sent to me from a client. It has two channels. Black and Pantone 161. How can I flatten the channels so they print as CMYK. When I go to the channels button it will not let me merge channels. It has to print as CMYK because that is how our books print.
Answer: Create three new channels and fill them with white. Next, arrange the channels so that the three empty ones are at the top and the Black channel is below that with the Pantone channel at the bottom. Now, choose Image>Mode>CMYK Color, which will take the top four channels and make them a CMYK image. Finally, click on the Pantone channel and then choose Merge Spot Channel from the side menu of the Channels palette. Done!

Gracita asks: I just got a 5.0 megapixel digital camera and it sure is great. The one thing I cannot do in Photoshop is resize from a 35" down to be able to print for an 8x10 print. I have gone to resize and to delete the resample. I have gone to preview with print and I don't seem to come up with a suitable size. What am I doing wrong?
Answer: The default resolution setting that comes from a digital camera is usually 72PPI. That means that there are only 72 pixels in each inch of the image. A resolution that would be more appropriate for printing would be between 240 and 320 depending on the output device. The first thing you can do is choose Image>Image Size, turn off the resample checkbox and then enter a different resolution setting (let's say 300). That will make it so you image is no longer 35" and should bring it down to about 8.5" instead. That will get you to the true size of that image. Now, if you want an exact 8x10 print, then I would instead enter those dimensions into the Crop tool and then drag across the image to define which area you'd like to use. After pressing Enter, your image will be scaled to exactly 8x10 inches.

If you want to submit your own questions to the Photoshop Question Clinic, visit my web page.

Comments

[Chris English]

Ben:

I just wanted to thank you. I attended Photoshop world and by far learned the most from your classes. I was really impressed with your approach to teaching. Your attention to detail was refreshing.

You made sure everyone knew what you were doing, step by step, while at the same time not boring those of us who were a bit more advanced than others. We have already put in practice what we learned.

I hate to say this but I must... Over all, I was not really happy with Photoshop world. Seemed like there was not much planing, there was a lot of teaching over lap in the classes. They needed a lot more space I sat on the floor most of the classes. I would rate my over all Photoshop world experience as a C-. Your classes were the exception to the rule... A+ for you :)

Anyway thanks for your attention to detail.

Chris

P.S. Do you ever get to teach on the east coast? North Carolina...

[Ben Willmore]

Hi Chris,

The attendance at PhotoshopWorld went way up at the last minute which caused some of the rooms to be overflowing. I wish they would have picked a number and said they were sold out ofter that point, but that doesn't look to be what happened.

I don't know about the overlap in content... I didn't see anyone else's sessions. This is always a problem though since they don't get the handbooks from the instructors until the last minute and there's never enough time to compare them to look for overlap... and I would never have time to change things after writing the handbook. If the overlap was due to the class titles, then that could have been completely avoided.

Well, I'm glad you at least liked a few of your classes... I hope NAPP gets things figured out for the next one because I hate hearing about experiences like yours for an event that should have kicked some butt.

-Ben

[Ben Willmore]

Oh, I forgot your question about teaching in North Carolina. I've taught in Charlotte and RTP many times, but my visits have become further and further apart. I'm sure I'll be back, but I don't currently have it on my schedule.

If you keep checking back at www.whereisben.com, then you'll know once something gets planned.

-Ben

[Gabriel Naylor]

I also went to Photoshop World and attended your classes exclusively. I was very impressed by your teaching style during the pre-conference. You answered my question about layer styles and how they only go to a certain size before one has to just up-res the smaller picture. I hope that gets changed soon. (As well as the default red for the stroke effect.)

Do you think there will ever be a way to pre-compose images like it is done in After Effects? It sure would be nice to be able to replace images at various steps along the image process without resorting to procedural actions?

P.S. Are you going to Photoshop World Boston?

[Ben Willmore]

Hi Gabriel,

I've never used After Effects, so I'm not quite sure how the pre-composing works. I've been trying to talk Adobe info something that might work for what you're looking for... they seemed to be interested, but who knows if it will actually make it into the product. I called them Alias layers.

Yes, I'll be at PhotoshopWorld Boston!

-Ben

[Thomas Graves]

I've got a Pantone profiling system - the SpectroPro Suite - where I print color patches off the Fuji Frontier at my lab and then "read" them with a colormouse to build device-specific and paper-specific profiles. I have a question on workflow after I have built the profiles, though.

My normal working space is Adobe RGB, and I usually convert all files (from Nikon 8000 scanner if film or from digital cameras) to the working RGB and then tone them so they look right on my calibrated screen. When I'm ready to ship them to the lab for printing, I convert them to the profiles that i've created based on the paper being used in the Frontier. But sometimes when I convert there's a color shift on the screen, which makes sense because the Frontier is printing in a smaller color space.

After conversion to that profile, should I THEN be doing any further color correction based on what I'm seeing on my screen? Or should I rely on the profile to "do the best it can" at making the colors as close as possible to the original toning in my working RGB? There is also a HUGE difference between what I see when I convert to profile and when I simply do a "proof colors" preview (CMD-Y with custom profiles saved as options) and I'm wondering if I should be doing any toning based on the soft proof I'm seeing? This occurs both when I soft-proof from the working space and if I've converted the file to the intended profile. I am simulating the paper white, and using "relative colormetric" for my proof preview though I'm not always using black point

Thanks. This is all rather new to me, as you can see. By the way, your ColorManagement.PDF is a great explanation of things, and your tips are very insightful.

-Thomas-

[Sean Chandler]

How can I add file info to multiple images at the same time using Photoshop CS' file browser?

[Jim Dowdall]

Ben,

I totally agree with the comments above - your class at Photoshop World was exceptional. I enjoyed the conference but would definitely prefer better planning for class sizes (I found that a pair of binoculars was the best gadget to have for viewing the screens in those enormous rooms). I would also vote for a slightly more compact area (I think my feet are still sore from all the walking) and, since I'm on a roll, perhaps more coffee shops with better prices - hey you can ask.

I have a question about how Photoshop deals with files from their stored location. I tend to download files from the camera onto my hard drive and work on them from there - it seems faster. My colleages download to the server and work from their server folders. When I do that it seems as though Photoshop works more slowly. The general consensus is that, when PS opens a file, it becomes resident in the computer's RAM and it shouldn't matter where the original file is located, but I suspect there's more going on under the surface than is apparent. Am I seeing something else (ethernet speed or computer operating system - Mac OS10.2.8)? Any thoughts? Would this be different on a PC than a Mac?

Thanks for the forum to post - keep up the good work.

[Ben Willmore]

Please submit Photoshop Questions to the Photoshop Question Clinic at www.digitalmastery.com/questions.

These comment sections are designed for you to comment on a particular post and are not to be used for asking photoshop questions.

-Ben

[Eric]

Your site is very convenient in navigation and has good design. Thanks!.
I am from Jordan and learning to write in English, please tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "Around the penis, shapes vary a hair within certain conservatives."

THX :), Eric.