Phil Waclawski's Photoshop Homework

Review Questions Week 2

1. How do you select (activate) tools in Photoshop?
   • You just click on the tool you want in the tool menu bar. If you want one of the other "hidden" options, look to question #2.
2. How do you access hidden tools?
   • Hold down the "ALT" key and click the tool, it cycles through the choices. Nice feature.
   • Click and hold on the tool, and the menu pops up after a second or two.
   • When you hold the mouse cursor over the tool for a second, up pops a info box with something like Brush (B), so just hit the b key and it will cycle through the brush/pencil choices. Even if you have another tool selected it will go up to that tool. As a Linux user, I really love the keyboard options. ;)
3. What would you need to do if you quickly wanted to re-size the canvas back to a 100% view if you were zoomed in or out?
   • Double Click the Zoom tool
4. Where would you adjust individual tool settings?
   • The Tool Options Bar
5. What tool would you use to communicate between clients or service bureaus regarding your file?
   • The notes tool. It's also used to communicate with your photoshop instructor and fellow classmates.
6. If you wanted to restore your palette locations to their default settings, how would you do this?
   • You can move your palettes around and then choose "save palette locations" under "Edit" "Preferences" "General", or you can uncheck this box and exit Photoshop, and when you restart it, it will reset them to the defaults.
   • Or, you can more easily go to the Menu Bar, "Window" "Workspace" and "Reset Palette Locations"
7. If you can't see a particular palette on your desktop, how would you bring it up?
   • Click on "Window" in the menu bar and choose the palette you want.
8. What is a context menu and how do you activate one?
   • It is a menu that is based on the "context" of what you are presently doing, so if you "right click" on a window inside of photoshop (or any windows application) a menu that relates to THAT window pops up.
9. Explain what a pixel is.
   • A pixel is an individual "dot" that makes up a digital image (though you technically still have dots when you use traditional film as well). The pixel has a location, and color properties. A digital image is made up of a large group of pixels, that blend into what we consider a single image at the appropriate distance.
10. How do you measure the resolution of an image?
    • Resolution is a measure of the pixel density. The number of pixels per inch (ppi) sometimes called "dots per inch" (dpi) though pixels are basically squares and not dots, close enough. Even if an image has a SIZE of 640x480 pixels, if it has a density of 80 ppi, it will print at 8 inches by 6 inches, but at 160 ppi the same "sized" image prints at 4 x 3 inches.
11. Describe the differences between Resizing and Resampling when working with resolution.
    • Resizing
      Resizing just alters the pixel density. Instead of 80 dots per inch, you can increase it to the equivalent of 160 dots per inch by making the image half it's size. You still have the original 640x480 pixels, the image just displays and prints smaller.
    • Resampling
      This literally alters the number of pixels. If you enlarge an image with resampling (not a good idea) Photoshop does it's best to fill in the extra pixels needed as best it can, which often looks bad. If you make an image smaller by resampling, as it recalculates pixels with the bicubic sharpening algorithym, it tends to smooth out images and can often look better.
12. True or False: The Sharpen filter is the best way to sharpen an image. Why or why not?
    • False. The unsharpen mask (USM) gives you a great deal more control, and you are less likely to get odd effects. Sharpen and similar filters are preset by the computer, and usually letting the computer decide is a bad idea (Remember the Hal 9000?)
13. Describe two ways to change the outside dimensions of an image in order to create a thumbnail.
    • "Edit" "Transform" "Scale" is the best way
    • Use "Image" Size" tool to do the same, though this works best if you know ahead of time what size thumbnail you want
    • (Only rarely useful) Use the crop tool to just crop part of the image, giving an hint of what it is, but keeping the resolution.
    • (Ditto)Crop the image with the "Canvas resize" option
14. True or False? It's OK to save a new version of a JPG over an older existing version. Why or why not?
    • False. Very false. You continue to throw out information each time. Just saving the same file over itself (not a regular save, but a save as kind of thing) compresses an already compressed image. As it is a lossy compression scheme, it just gets worse and worse.