Phil Waclawski's Photoshop Homework

Review Questions Week 4

1. If you needed to create a square selection, what selection tools would you use?
   • The Rectangular Marquee selection
2. What shape of selection does the Elliptical Marquee create?
   • circular or elliptical
3. What short-cut key would you use to form a perfect square or circle as you select?
   • Hold down the "Shift" key as you select.
4. If you have an image or graphic with a large area of blue pixels, what would be the easiest tool to use to select these same-colored pixels?
   • The Magic Wand tool
5. True or False? The Magic Wand selects pixels based on edge-contrast. Why or why not?
   • False. It chooses pixels of similar shade, color or transparencey.
6. Explain the term 'Fixed Aspect Ratio' when working with Selections.
   • It keeps the ratio of the width to the height, regardless of the actual size. Say you want to print on some 5x7 photo papers in your epson printer, you set the fixed aspect ratio to 5 and 7, and voila, regardless of the size of selection you pick, there will be 5 units of width and 7 units of height (10x14, 15x21 etc. etc.)
7. If you have already created a selection and you want to add or subtract from the selection, what would you do?
   • Shift and draq with most of the tools, though with the magic wand tool you can shift and click on a new area you want included.
   • Or you can click on the appropriate "selection state" box up in the Tool Bar Options menu.
8. If you wanted to create a Fixed Size Rectangular Selection, where would you input your Width and Height values?
   • You would choose "Fixed Size" from the "Style" pull down menu from the Tool Options Bar, then type in the width and height in the two text boxes that follow.
9. While using the Magnetic Lasso, how and where would you control the value of the edge contrast so Photoshop snaps to the edges you need it to?
   • You can adjust the edge contrast by using the tool bar menu, and adjusting the percentage value in the "edge contrast" option box.
10. I have an unsteady hand! What settings for the Magnetic Lasso can help me with this issue and why?
    • Adjust the width, which controls how close you have to be to the edge to grab the edge. A higher number allows for more wiggle room, or sloppiness as the book calls it.
11. Explain in detail what the 'Contiguous' setting affects when using the Magic Wand Tool.
    • The "contiguous" setting makes the magic wand tool select similarly colored pixels that are touching each other, so that similar colors elsewhere on the image (say on the inside of a building which you are trying to select the outside) are not selected.
12. What settings can help you achieve smoother and softer edges for selections?
    • Checking "Anti-aliasing" before you make the selection.
    • Adjusting the number of pixels to "feather" in the selection options of the tool bar menu (assuming you have a selection tool active ;)
13. Explain the differences between Feather and Anti-Alias.
    • Feather - Strongly smoothes edges in an image. Can be done before or after a selection is made.
    • Anti-Alias - Must be checked BEFORE a selection is made, uses an algorithm to mimic soft edges.
14. Describe two ways to activate the Feather command on a selection.
    • You can just type in the number of pixels to feather in the selection tool options (up as part of the menu bar section). This can be done before or after you've made a selection, unlike Anti-Alias, which must be checked BEFORE you make the selection.
    • Go to the menu bar, "Select" "Feather". Or Alt+Ctrl+D
15. True or False: You can check off the Anti-Alias check box before or after you've create a selection in order for it to take effect.
    • Before or After? Well, true if before, false if after. :)
16. Describe three ways to access/execute Transformation commands for Selections.
    1. Right click on the selection, choose "Transform" from the popup menu.
    2. Click on "Edit" in the menu bar, then Free Transform or Transform.
    3. Click on "Select" in the menu bar, and Transform/Free Transform
17. What are some of the benefits of working with layers?
    • You can isolate different parts of your image and work on them independently.
    • You can make changes to one layer that have no affect on other layers.
    • You can have layers of different levels of transparency, allowing things to partially or fully show through for cool effects.
    • You can rearrange what items are on top, middle, bottom of an image by just moving the layers around.
18. How would you know which layer is currently active?
    • It would have the small paintbrush icon next to the eyeball icon, and the section of the layer palette would be highlighted (darker).
19. What would you need to do to manipulate or move more than one layer at once?
    • Click the small box next to the "eyeball" box that turns on the little "chain" link icon. The active layer will have a paintbrush icon in the same box.
20. How would you combine more than one layer together to obtain only one layer and minimize file size?
    • Go to the menu bar, "Layer" and then "Flatten Image".
    • Link a few layers, then go to Layer, "Merge Linked" and that only merges a group of images. Or you can use "Merge visible".
21. How do you arrange artwork on one layer to appear behind or in front of, artwork on another layer?
    • In the Layer Palette, click and drag the layer you want to the position in the layer list you want.
    • From the Menu bar, "Layer" then "Arrange" then the options to bring up one layer, bring to front, move back one layer, move all the way to the back.
22. Describe in your own words what a Quick Mask is and how you can use it in your work.
    • From what I can tell, one of it's many features is to allow you to more readily adjust a selection shape, and the feathering at it's edges. You can more quickly fine tune and perfect a selection in Quick Mask Mode, and then switch back to the regular selection mode.
23. When working in Quick Mask Mode, what would you do to add to your present selection?
    • Use one of the paintbrush style tools and paint the areas you want to add to the mask with black.
24. Why would you want to preview your feathered selection using Quick Mask Mode?
    • It can be very difficult to see the feathered edges of a selection normally, but in quick mask mode they are much more obvious due to the red mask area, blending into the unmasked area, the contrast is much better and easier to make out.
25. Explain three ways to create Feathered selections when you are working with Quick Mask Mode.
    1. You can paint with a shade of grey
    2. You can paint with a soft edged paintbrush
    3. Use the "Filter" "Blur" "Gaussian Blur" tool. Very nice feature.