What are the three basic skills of photoshop?

Have you just opened Photoshop for the first time and wondered 'What is all This?' Don't be alarmed, most people feel the same way when they do. What I am about to do is walk you through three basic skills that will have fast tracking your Photoshop skills in no time at all.

Getting Rid of Red Eyes.

The first skill we will try out is to get rid of a very common problem in photography, the dreaded Red Eyes (caused by a direct hit of the flash on the back of your subjects Retina). These exercises are best done as you practice so we need a photo that has the Red Eye problem. If you cant find one of your own, just go to Google Images and search for 'Red Eye Photo Sample'.

1. Open Photoshop and load your photo (for those absolute newbie's you can do this by going to the File menu then select Open)
2. Select the Red Eye Reduction tool, which can be found under the Healing tools (right click over the one that looks like a band aid and you will get a context menu containing the tool).
3. With the tool, select roughly the area around the Iris (the area including the color) and wow there you have it.

Don't worry if you made a mistake, just undo it (CTRL, Z) and try again. If you keep practising it you will see yourself doing this in no time at all.

Feeling like an expert yet? This next one will certainly help with that.

Photo Touch-up's

Next we will explore how to remove a facial feature. This skill is commonly used to remove something like a mole. Again we need a photo for you to practise on so if you don't have one, back to Google Images and search for 'Person with Mole'.

What we will do is actually remove the mole using a very simple tool.

1. Open the photo in Photoshop
2. Select the 'Spot Healing Brush Tool' (the one that looks like a band aid)
3. Change the size of the brush to the approximate size of the spot (do this in the tool settings just below the menu bar)

   Quick Tip: If the image is too small to select the area, just zoom in by holding down the Control button and pressing the + button.

4. Now we need to select a sample area. This is the what the changed area will look like (roughly) so pick a clean skin area very close to the spot but not including the blemish. Press the ALT button on your keyboard to select the area.
5. One you have selected your sample area, simply click on the area with the blemish and Voila. It has disappeared. If it doesn't look natural you can undo this step and choose a different sample area that may look more natural.

So there you go. You should be feeling more like a professional. Just in case your not, here is the last skill we will look at.

Filters

It's time to play with filters. A filter will modify an image based on certain rules. Some examples are create a Mosaic Image which will break the image down into mosaic type tiles and add grout in between. The filters can be applied to any selection you can make but for now we will use the whole picture.

1. Open the photo in Photoshop
2. Go to the Filters menu and select a filter. Have a play. Don't be frightened by the names or what they mean. Remember if you do click okay and you want to get back, you can always undo.
3. Once your happy with the settings and the preview, just click OK and that filter will then be applied to your photo.
4. If you want to try something more advanced, try selecting an area using one of the selection tools and apply a filter to that area. It can be quite fun to come up with different patterns on an image.