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Filling Empty Space with Content-Aware Crop in Adobe Photoshop

September 20, 2017

One of the most annoying parts of straightening images in Adobe Photoshop has to do with the loss of photo content after the crop. As you twist a photo, the crop area shrinks to compensate for the reduction of area around the edges of the photo. If you’ve ever worked in Photoshop before and if you have done a lot of cropping, you certainly know what I’m referring to. This is especially bad if you’re trying to keep as much of the photo as you possibly can.

Luckily, Photoshop has a really awesome feature that can help you keep as much as the photo as possible, while still straightening it out. This feature is called Content-Aware Crop and it works rather marvelously.

In today’s post, I’m going to introduce Photoshop’s very cool Content-Aware Crop feature to you. The entire thing takes only one quick click of the mouse to activate, so this should be a very straightforward post.

The Demo Photo

For this post, I’ll be using a photo of a dog in front of a lake. The reason I chose this particular photo is because it’s obviously crooked. It needs straightening either by hand or by using the Straighten Tool in Photoshop. I think I’ll probably go with the Straighten Tool because it’s so easy to use and it’ll likely give me a more accurate result. This tool only assists with the crop and it twists the picture in the same exact way as turning it by hand would, so which method I use really makes no difference in the long run.

Crooked Photo of Dog in Front of Water

Straightening the Photo

This image is already opened in Photoshop in its own tab. To straighten this photo out, I’ll click on the Crop Tool icon in the left vertical toolbar to create the crop grid overlay on the photo.

Crop Tool in Photoshop

From here, I’ll click on the Straighten Tool up in the options bar.

Straighten Tool in Adobe Photoshop

I’ll draw the straighten line from one edge of the photo to the other. Since I have a water horizon line, I’ll just use that as a guide. By the way, if you would like to learn how to use this Straighten Tool in more depth, please take a look at this post:

How To Straighten a Photo Using Adobe Photoshop

Straighten Line

If you look closely at the above screenshot, you’ll see the line I just spoke of running from one side to the other.

Once I draw that line, I can see the photo twist one way or the other. And as I stated above, when it does this, the crop grid shrinks down to compensate for the loss of area. Take a look at this next screenshot. The checkerboard area and anything outside the crop grid will be deleted during a normal crop.

Crop Area of Photo

If I were to click Enter on my keyboard right now, all that area would be lost. My photo would also be smaller. Since I don’t want that to happen, I’ll take advantage of the tool this entire post is about.

If I look up at the options bar while the Crop Tool is in action, I’ll see a small check box that’s labeled Content-Aware. Basically, by checking this box, I’ll be telling Photoshop to use its magic to fill in any area that has that checkerboard pattern in it.

Content-Aware Crop Check Box

The tip in yellow in the above screenshot says Content-Aware Fill Areas Outside the Original Image.

Using Content-Aware Fill During a Crop

So, what happens when I click Enter to apply the crop? Well, the crop grid won’t crop where it currently is. It will actually move back to the outer edge of the entire photo and crop from there, making it so I won’t lose any material from the photo. While that’s happening, Photoshop will fill in any empty areas inside of that outer edge. I’ll go ahead now and press Enter.

Straight Photo Using Content-Aware Crop in Adobe Photoshop

You probably can’t see the edges that were filled in because Photoshop did such a good job at it, but they were. Photoshop used an algorithm to fill the areas with colors and shapes that were similar to what was near the area to be filled. That’s why they match up so well.

Oftentimes, when attempting something like this, Photoshop won’t get the results exactly perfect. You may notice some odd artifacts or something like that inside the areas that used to be empty checkerboard pattern. When this happens, feel free to use the Spot Healing Brush Tool or the Lasso Tool combined with a fill option to clean any errors up.

——

As I said at the beginning of this post, this small feature in Photoshop is quite simple to take advantage of. I hope I did a good job explaining how to use it. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please leave them in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop


How to Use the Perspective Crop Tool in Adobe Photoshop

September 18, 2017

Between Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom and Photoshop, there are many tools dedicated to straightening things in images out. While taking photos, tons of variables can throw off the perfect shot. A crooked camera, the wrong position, lens distortion – whatever. What I’m trying to say here is that the field and the lab are two very different things. Out in the field, the goal is to capture the essence of something. Back in the lab, the goal is to fix whatever it is you captured and to make it look its best. Luckily, there are more tools than ever to help out with these goals.

In today’s post, I’m going to share a tool with you that might just save you tons of time. It’s called the Perspective Crop Tool and it’s just about flexible enough to make a very badly composed photo good again. And the best part is, working with this tool is a snap. It’s so easy that I’m not even sure I need to write a post about it. Of course, I will, but I don’t think I need to.

For my demonstration, I’ll take a photo that’s crooked and straighten it out again. Now, I mentioned that there were other tools to handle this and there are. I’ve actually written about a few of them. Think about the Straighten Tool and the Upright Tool in Camera Raw. Photoshop has the Straighten Tool built right into its Crop Tool and also has quite a few Distort Tools and Transform Tools that would help out in situations like these. Today though, I’ll be focusing only on the Perspective Crop Tool because it’s definitely one you want to learn about. It’s probably the most simple to learn of all of them.

By the way, if you would like to learn about the other tools I just mentioned, take a quick look through these posts:

Using the Transform & Free Transform Tools in Adobe Photoshop

How To Straighten a Photo Using Adobe Photoshop

How To Use Guided Upright to Correct Lens Distortion in Adobe Camera Raw

Fixing a Crooked Image in Adobe Camera Raw

The Demo Photo

I have a perfectly good photo to use for this post. It’s actually straight. Take a look:

Roses on the Windowsill

To make things interesting and to use the tool I’d like to show you in this post, I’ll need to make this image crooked. I’ll do that now.

Crooked Window

This crooked shot is perfect because it’ll work as an excellent demo photo for this post. Now, I want you to be aware of something. This tool isn’t only valuable for fixing crooked photos. It’s primary purpose is to alter the perspective in photos (much like the Upright Tool in Camera Raw). So, if you have a picture of a tall church and it looks like the top of the building is more narrow than the bottom, and it really isn’t, you can follow the instructions I give you down below to make the church appear all the same width. All you need to do is outline the building, stretch the bounding box and hit Enter on your keyboard. You’ll see what I’m referring to below.

Where is the Perspective Crop Tool?

I already have the crooked window photo open in Photoshop. To access the Perspective Crop Tool, I’ll need to click on the regular Crop Tool in the left vertical toolbar and drag out to the right. From there, I’ll see the tool I’m interested in directly below that.

Perspective Crop Tool in Left Vertical Toolbar in Adobe Photoshop

I’ll click on that tool and I’ll be ready to go.

Using the Perspective Crop Tool

This tool’s usage is very straightforward. Basically, all you need to do is to click on the corners of the crooked or misshapen item to create a bounding box. I’ll do that as an example now. I’ll begin by clicking on the upper left corner of the window, then down to the lower left, then to the lower right and finally, to the upper right. As I do this, I’ll notice sort of a web being created. It’s extremely easy to understand and conceptualize.

Perspective Crop Bounding Box

Next, I’ll click on all four center handles and pull outward. Doing this will keep the perspective I initially drew, but will create a larger area to crop.

Stretching the Larger Bounding Box Outward

Finally, I’ll click the Enter key on my keyboard and the crop will take place.

Cropped Image

As you can see, the window is now straight. Your mileage will vary with this tool and it’s best used with photos where an object has a perspective that is off. The window I used was just as an example of how the tool functions. You should definitely experiment with other types of photos to get the hang of things. But really, that’s all there is to it. Like I said, this is a fast one.

——

I hope I clearly explained how to use the Perspective Crop Tool in Adobe Photoshop. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section down below. Thanks for reading.

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop


How to Customize the Vertical Toolbar in Adobe Photoshop

September 14, 2017

If you’re a casual user of Adobe Photoshop, you probably don’t do a lot of workspace customizing. If you use Photoshop more extensively, however, you would most likely benefit from making your workspace as efficient as you possibly could. Luckily, this application is extraordinarily customizable and you can make it look and act pretty much any way you want. All it takes is some know how to make the changes you desire.

In today’s post, I’m going to show you how you can add to and remove tools from the left vertical toolbar in Adobe Photoshop. This type of thing is much easier than you would ever expect, so if you would like to minimize the toolbar options, please read on. If you’d like to reorder your tools in the toolbar or even regroup various tools into different sets, this post is definitely for you as well. I’ll be covering all of this down below.

Accessing the Customize Toolbar Dialog Box

A good percentage of toolbar controls reside in one dialog box. This box has the title of Customize Toolbar and can be accessed a few different ways. If I head up to the Edit > Toolbar menu item and click, I’ll find that I can get to it that way.

Edit - Toolbar Menu Item in Adobe Photoshop

Alternately, if I head to the bottom of the toolbar itself and click on the selection with three dots lying horizontally and hold the mouse button down for a second or two, I’ll see a fly out that can get me to the same exact dialog box. Check it out.

Edit Toolbar Icon

Either method I choose does the same thing. It’ll open the dialog box I referred to above.

Customize Toolbar Dialog Box in Adobe Photoshop

How to Delete a Tool From the Toolbar

This dialog box has a lot going on inside of it. It can do a lot of things. The first task I’d like to show you how to complete is the task of removing a tool from the left toolbar. In all honesty, when I go about doing this, I’m not actually removing a tool at all. What I’m doing is hiding it down at the bottom of the toolbar in a place called Extra Tools. It’s almost as good as removing a tool because it’s essentially gone from the lineup. If your goal is to clean up the toolbar and reduce the number of visible tools showing in it, this is a good option for accomplishing that.

While in the Customize Toolbar dialog box, all I need to do to add a tool to the Extra Tools area is to click and drag that tool over from the left panel to the right one. It’s a drag and drop motion. For instance, if I wanted to remove the Move Tool from the top position in the toolbar, I can drag and drop that one specifically.

Delete Tool From Toolbar

After I do that, I’ll see the tool in question over on the right side instead of the left.

Extra Tools Area in the Customize Tools Dialog Box

If I head up to the upper right corner and click on the Done button, the window will close. I can then see what I’ve done to the toolbar. If you take a look at the next screenshot, you’ll see that the Move Tool is no longer in the top position of the toolbar, but instead is positioned down at the bottom, nested inside the area those three dots control.

Move Tool Moved

If I continued to do this, I’d shrink the size of the left toolbar and increase the size of the nested Extra Tools area.

To replace a tool to its original position, it’s just as simple as removing it. All I would need to do is to drag it from the right side of the panel back to the left, where it originally sat.

How to Reorder Tools in the Toolbar

This is fun. Many folks aren’t into getting rid of too many things in the toolbar. That’s understandable. Reordering though, that’s a different story all together. If you use a specific tool all day long, you may want that one to be located at the top of the toolbar. Or, if you always use the Elliptical Marquee Tool, for instance, instead of the Rectangular Marquee Tool, you may want that one to show on your active bar as opposed to being nested under the primary Rectangular option. Reordering tools in the toolbar is just as simple of an operation as was the first one I showed you above.

To reorder tools in the toolbar, you’ll need to open up the Customize Toolbar dialog box again. Once that’s opened up, all you need to do is to click and drag a particular tool from its original position to a new one. So, if I wanted to move the Lasso Tool to the very top position of the toolbar, all I would do is to click and drag that one up above the Move Tool and drop it. I would need to be sure that it creates its own tool position by dragging it all the way up to the top, but that’s easy. Once that’s done, I can check out my work. It happens in real time.

Moving Lasso Tool in Toolbar

As you can see from the screenshot above, the Lasso Tool is now in it’s own position, which is away from the other selection tools of its kind.

Next, if I wanted to keep a tool in its own group, but alter the order of that group, I’d simply click and drag up or down only slightly. I would be sure that the tool didn’t stray too far as indicated by the blue lines that show during the clicking and dragging operation. In this next screenshot, you can see that I’m dragging the Elliptical Marquee Tool upward, but that I haven’t dropped it yet.

Marquee Tools in Photoshop

Once I’m happy with the tool’s position, I can let go of my mouse button and drop it. It will then show where I wanted it to show inside the fly out. Notice how the Elliptical option is first in the screenshot below.

Elliptical Option

To remove a tool from one set and add it to another, I would follow the same instructions as the others in this section. I would click and drag that tool from the group it’s in and let it go in the group I’d like it to live from then on. It’s very straightforward.

How to Restore the Default Toolbar

Sometimes, we make a lot of changes and for whatever reason, we want to bring things back to their original states. You know, how things were when we first installed Photoshop. Getting this done in Photoshop is no problem at all. To accomplish this, while the Customize Toolbar dialog box is open, all I would need to do is to click on the Restore Defaults button. That would erase everything I changed and bring order back to the universe. Once I click on Done, that’s it. This task will be finished.

How to Save a Custom Toolbar

In my opinion, this is the best part of this entire post because it’s the most practical. After doing all the work of actually creating the perfect toolbar, we also have the opportunity to save that toolbar, just in case we want to create multiple versions of the toolbar to jump back and forth between. Or, perhaps there can be multiple users on a computer and each user has their own preferred toolbar. This would work perfectly for that type of a situation as well.

After making any customization I see fit, I could save that toolbar scenario as what’s called a Preset. Basically, a preset is just any saved instance of a customization that was done inside of Photoshop. To save my toolbar out, I’d click on the Save Preset button on the right side of the Customize Toolbar dialog box. Once I do that, I’ll see a folder window appear that’s already navigated to the Photoshop > Presets > Custom Toolbars folder, where these things on my computer are stored.

Custom Toolbars Folder in Photoshop

I would name the preset something descriptive and then click on the Save button down in the lower right corner of the folder window. That’s it. If I were to create many of these presets and I wanted to jump between them, I could click the Load Preset button in the same dialog box, wait for the window to open, select whichever custom toolbar I’m interested and then click on the Load button down at the bottom right of the folder window. To exit out of all the custom toolbars to use the default one again, I would simply click on the Restore Defaults button in the Customize Toolbar dialog box, as I instructed above in a previous section.

——

I hope I gave you some nice background on how to create and save your very own custom toolbar inside of Adobe Photoshop. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop


How to Adjust Your Privacy Settings in Windows 10

September 13, 2017

Have you ever wondered how to control who knows what when you’re browsing around the internet on your computer? Have you ever wondered how to control the data you send Microsoft while simply going about menial, every day tasks on your PC? Have you ever wondered how to control the settings of your computer camera or microphone? Well, I’m here to tell you that making changes and adjusting the settings of all of the areas is really easy. All you need to know is how to get to the main “settings” area. Once you’re there, things are a snap.

In today’s post, I’m going to show you how to access the Privacy area of your Settings panel. Inside the Privacy window, you’ll have the ability to make changes to all sorts of functions on your computer, from general settings, such as who is tracking your computer usage to which apps can access your personal information to which programs can access the data of your call history and email.

In Windows 10, the settings are descriptive and clear and the switches to turn the functions on and off are big and bright. There’s no reason not to become familiar and comfortable with the privacy settings on your computer anymore. The days of hidden settings and dark tunnels inside of your PC are over.

The Privacy Window

There really isn’t going to be much to this post. All I’m going to do is to get you to the Privacy window and then do a bit of exploring. To access this area, I’ll head down to the Start menu and click. Once I do that, I’ll click on the Settings button. Currently, this button is in the left column and is the second one from the bottom. I say “currently” because the positions of these buttons change throughout time.

Settings Button in Start Menu of Windows 10

Alternately, I could have used a keyboard shortcut to access the Settings window. That shortcut is Windows+I. That’s the Windows button, plus the “I” button. Press those two and bam, the same window will appear.

Inside the Windows Settings windows are a whole bunch of buttons.

Windows Settings Window

The one I’ll click on is down at the bottom, so I’ll scroll down and then click Privacy. If you look at the next screenshot, you’ll see that this particular button is highlighted in gray and can be identified by an icon that looks like a lock.

Privacy Button

Once you’re in the Privacy window, you’ll easily be able to see the areas you have the ability to control. The default landing window is titled General, but by clicking through the menu items on the left, you’ll be able to easily access other areas, such as Location, Camera, Microphone, Notifications, Speech, Inking & Typing, Account Info, Contacts, Calendar, Call History, Email, Tasks, Messaging, Radios, Other Devices, Feedback & Diagnostics, Background Apps and App Diagnostics. While this is a fairly long list, rest assured you won’t need to go near many of these areas. Primarily, you’ll stay near the top of the list and adjust the general settings along with some that have to do with your location, camera, microphone and other every day things.

The General Settings

If you take a look at the top of the General page, you’ll see a few commonly accessed settings that have to do with who you are, your language and how Windows tracks your app usage, to make things easier for you to use while working on your computer. Personally, I keep all of these things set to the On position because I don’t find any of them too intrusive.

General Privacy Settings

The hot topic for internet privacy these days is location. If you’re concerned with websites, apps and others knowing where you reside or where you are with your phone, you should take a close look at some of the settings in this area. I’m going to take a few screenshots and show them below, so you can get a clear picture of some of the settings I’m referring to.

Location Top

Location Middle

Location Bottom

As you can see, some of the settings refer to very broad areas, such as turning your device location on or off all together. You can turn your location history on or off and if you scroll down on the page further, you can see how to turn on or off the location for many different apps you may be running on your device. This is especially helpful if you want to keep your general location on for a number of reasons, but would like to keep it off for just one or two apps.

Many privacy categories run similarly to the Location one. For example, if you click into the next window, which is titled Camera or even the one after that, which is titled Microphone, you’ll find that you have a few more general settings, followed by some granular ones that control which apps can do what. It’s well laid out and easy to decide what to do inside of these panels because each heading and each setting is labeled clearly.

Instead of covering each and every privacy setting in Windows 10, I’ll let you follow the directions I just gave to access the Privacy area so you can explore on your own. Again, everything is rather intuitive, so I don’t think you’ll have any issue.

——

I hope I clearly explained how to make your way to the Privacy window inside of Windows 10 to update and change your privacy settings. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please leave them in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Technology


How to Use Puppet Warp in Adobe Photoshop

September 10, 2017

I think the best way I can describe Puppet Warp in Photoshop is to compare it to laying a large bed sheet on a hardwood floor. The sheet would have an image printed on it and if you wanted to reshape the image, you’d simply place your finger on the sheet somewhere and drag. The specific area of the image would move and it would bring some of the rest of the sheet with it. If you can picture this in your mind, you’ll have absolutely no problem using Puppet Warp.

In today’s post, I’d like to cover a few of the aspects that have to do with the Puppet Warp feature of Adobe Photoshop. In all honesty, this really isn’t a very difficult tool to use at all. While it does take some practice to make it effective with any project you might decide to use in in, you can get the swing of things fairly quickly. All it takes is to learn a few different control levers of the tool.

I’m going to keep things as straightforward as possible. I’ll open a picture into Photoshop and activate the Puppet Warp feature. From there, I’ll describe the different aspects of the tool and let you know what they do. Then, I’ll push and pull different areas of the photo so you can get a good understanding of what you can do with it as well.

The Demo Photo

Since the tool I’ll be discussing today is called “Puppet” Warp, I thought it would be fun to use a picture of an actual puppet. I think this is a Robin Hood puppet, but I’m not sure. Either way, it’s appropriate for the context.

Robin Hood String Puppet

Activating Puppet Warp in Photoshop

To take advantage of Puppet Warp in Photoshop, you’ll need to make sure the layer you’re working in isn’t locked. Since I just opened this image, it’s currently considered the Background layer, which has a small lock icon next to the layer name in the Layers panel. To unlock the layer, I’ll simply click on the lock icon. That will unlock the layer as well as change the layer name to Layer 0. Since that’s not a very fun name, I’ll double click right on it and type in Puppet. Then, I’ll hit Enter on my keyboard to apply that change.

Puppet Layer

Next, I’ll head up to the Edit > Puppet Warp menu item and click.

Puppet Warp Menu Item

From there, I’ll see a web of sorts cover the entire image.

Puppet Warp Web Overlay

just be warned, if the layer is locked, you won’t be able to click the menu item. It’ll be grayed out and inactive.

The Puppet Warp Options Bar

The second you activate this tool, you’ll notice the options bar up top change. You’ll have a few different items to choose from and to customize. Let’s first take a look at the options bar.

Puppet Warp Options Bar in Adobe Photoshop

Next, I’ll go over some of the different options to give you an understanding of what they do.

Mode: This setting controls how elastic the mesh over the image will be when one of the pins is pulled. The default setting is Normal. Rigid keeps the mesh somewhat tight and Distort amplifies any movement you make when you click and drag on a pin. Below are three examples. The first is Normal, the second is Rigid and the third is Distort.

Normal Puppet Warp

Rigid Puppet Warp

Distort Puppet Warp

While there isn’t much difference between the Normal and Rigid settings, just know that while working in Normal, you’ll notice more of the image being dragged with the area you’re pulling. With Rigid, most of the image will remain behind. The dragging feel tighter. With Distort, all bets are off and the entire image moves, even if you pull the pin just a slight amount. If you want a dramatic effect when using this tool and would like to warp the entire area, go ahead and choose the Distort option.

Density: Inside the Density drop-down box, there are three options. The first is Fewer Points, the second is Normal and the third is More Points. With the screenshots below, I’ll show you how the mesh looks with each of these settings. The first will be Normal, the second will be Fewer Points and the Third will be More Points.

Normal Points in Puppet Warp

Fewer Points in Puppet Warp

More Points in Puppet Warp

When working with points inside of the mesh, the results of your pulling is affected by how dense the mesh actually is. The fewer the points, the more area that will be dragged around. If you want to have an effect on only a small area for precise control, you’d want a higher density of points. Remember, when you use the More Points option, there’s is a lot more information your computer will have to process, so anything you do will take longer to complete.

Expansion: This setting controls the outer edge of the mesh. The default setting is 2 pixels, which keeps the original image aligned with the original edges of the canvas. If I were to click the slider for this control and pull it all the way to the left so it read -20, this is what I would see around the edges of the image.

Negative Expansion For Puppet Warp

If I were to do the same thing, but pull the slider all the way to the right, so the Expansion setting was +100, this is what I would see.

Positive Expansion

Notice the edge now. While this doesn’t seem to make a huge difference when you aren’t warping anything, it does exaggerate your results when you start clicking and dragging pins.

Show Mesh: While working with the tool, you can choose to either show or to hide the mesh overlay. If I keep this box checked, the mesh will show. If I remove the check from this box, the mesh will disappear. This is especially handy if you’re working with a tight area and really need to clearly see whatever it is you’re warping. In the screenshot below, I added a bunch of pins in one area. They show more obviously because there is no mesh in the way of their visibility. If you’d like to hide the pins themselves, you can hold down the H key on your keyboard. Just realize that this is temporary and when you let go of this key, the pins will appear once again.

Pins with No Mesh Overlay

Pin Depth: Let’s go back to the sheet on the floor example again. Say you place some pins near the upper right corner of the sheet and one final pin in the corner itself. If you grabbed the pin in the corner and pulled the sheet back towards the center, the corner would fold over the sheet so the corner is visible. Conversely, if you grabbed the corner and tucked it under the sheet, you would be hiding the corner. Photoshop gives you a similar ability with the Puppet Warp tool. By clicking the Set Pin Forward button, you would be, in effect, keeping that area of the image higher up than the rest. If you selected the pin and then clicked on the Set Pin Backward button, you’d be hiding that area of the image behind the areas where other pins reside. The best way to demonstrate how this works is to show the corner example. In this first screenshot, I set the corner pin so it’s lower than the two accompanying pins. Then, I pulled the corner pin towards the center of the image.

Set Pin Backward

Do you see how the corner is being tucked under the area of the other two pins? Now, if I select the corner pin by clicking on it and click on the Set Pin Forward button up in the options bar and then pull the corner pin in the same direction, I’ll find that the corner of the image is folded over on top of the rest of the image.

Set Pin Forward

This will definitely take some practice to get used to it, but it’s a worthy feature to have available, especially when working with objects that have been clipped out of an image or when working with vector graphics.

Rotate: You have two options to rotate an image around a pin. You can either set the Rotate option to Auto and click and drag an image to any rotation degree you wish with your mouse, or you can set this option to Fixed and type in the degree of the rotation you’d like it set to. If this option is set to Auto, you’ll notice that the image sort of goes nuts when you begin applying and dragging pins. I prefer to set this option to Fixed for the ultimate control. If I need to rotate the image at all, I’ll type in what I want it set to. In the screenshot below, I chose 10 degrees.

Rotate Setting with Puppet Warp Tool

Now, no matter how many pins I apply to this image and no matter how I tug them around, the image won’t rotate any more.

How to Actually Warp an Image

In this final section, I’m going to show you the very basics of how to warp an image using the Puppet Warp tool in Photoshop. Basically, all you need to do is click on an image where you would like to hold it still. In these areas, by clicking, you’ll be adding pins. Consider these pins to be something like thumbtacks. If you apply a thumbtack to the sheet example, those areas will be stuck to the ground. If I add two pins to the working image in this post, I’ll secure those areas. If I go ahead and click to add a third pin and keep it active by not clicking on anything else (indicated by a white dot at the center of the pin), I can consider that a piece of tape on the sheet. If I stick some tape to the sheet and pull, that part of the sheet will move, while the other two pins stay put. Let me show you visually.

Pulling Pin to Warp Image

I circled the pins in red. The center bottom pin is the active one and the one I pulled straight down. By doing this, I pulled the entire center down, as seen by the checkerboard background up top.

It’s really not any more difficult than that. Of course, other things will come into play when using this tool, such as what the image is that you’re working with and whether or not it’s a Smart Object. Anything like this is beyond the scope of this post, but I may revisit this topic in the future to cover them. For now, I encourage you to experiment with this feature inside of Photoshop. You may have a use for it in the future and when that time comes, it’ll be extremely helpful if you have a bit of experience with it.

——

I hope I clearly explained the basics behind the Puppet Warp feature inside Photoshop. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop


Compositing Images to Create a Gradient Background in Adobe Photoshop

September 8, 2017

I’ve done a lot of graphics in my day. My favorites, by far, were some car and motorcycle show flyers I used to create a few times a year for some radio station events back between 2002 and 2007. The radio stations I worked for hosted many events like this and being responsible for all the media kept me very busy. It was rewarding though and I actually have a few of the fliers in frames in my office. I’m looking at them right now.

I decided that it might be fun to walk through the process of making one of these fliers, step by step, on this blog. I’ll start with the background graphics and move onto the logos, text and anything else that might make the flier look really good. It’s these step by step projects that are the most helpful to those who are looking to learn how to operate Photoshop, in my opinion.

In today’s post, I’ll be creating a background for a flier I’m going to develop inside of Adobe Photoshop. Doing this sort of thing isn’t really difficult at all. All it takes is a few skills, some imagination and some direction. The colors and shapes need to match up with the vision of the rest of the final product, so when making something like this, it’s important to stay focused and to not go overboard. With that said though, this part of the process should be fun.

Making a Gradient and Photograph Composite in Adobe Photoshop

To create this background, I’ll be taking advantage of a gradient layer as well as three other image layers. I’ll be using different blend modes to make everything come together seamlessly. Don’t worry, I’ll walk you through every step of this process.

Creating a New File & a Gradient

Since this project is only going to be posted on this blog, I’ll stick with the pixel dimension of 1000×667, like I always use. If I were to go to print with something like this, I’d use 300dpi resolution, instead of 72dpi, CMYK colors, instead of RGB and I’d have the physical size set to whatever the final print dimensions call for. Since this is only for web, things will be much more straightforward.

To create a new document, I’ll head up to the File > New menu item and click. Once I do that, a dialog box will appear that calls for some specs. I’ll fill the fields in with the information I just shared with you and when I’m finished, I’ll click on the Create button.

Create New Document in Adobe Photoshop

Now that the file is created, I’m going to head over to the Layers panel on the right and click on the small lock icon in the layer that’s currently called Background. Doing this will unlock the layer (removing the lock icon) and will allow me to work with it. Once I do that, I’ll double click on the word “Background” and I’ll type Gradient in it’s place and press the Enter key on my keyboard. Renaming this layer is just to keep things organized. Now it’s time to actually create the gradient.

There are a few different methods for creating a gradient in Adobe Photoshop, but for now, I think the easiest one to use would be via the Layer Style dialog box. To access this box, I’ll double click on the white thumbnail of the Gradient layer in the Layers panel. When I do that, the dialog box appears. Once that opens, I’ll click on the Gradient Overlay check box and then click right on the words “Gradient Overlay.” Clicking on the check box activates the style and clicking on the words actually gets you into the area to change the related settings.

Gradient Overlay Layer Style

There’s sort of a lot to creating gradients in Photoshop. It’s not too terribly challenging, but a thorough look is beyond the scope of this post. You can count on the fact that I’ll write something in the future that will cover every last detail, but for now, I’ll simply show you the settings I used for the gradient I created for this project.

If you look at the screenshot above, you’ll see the settings I’m referring to here. I kept the Blend Mode set to Normal and the Opacity set to 100%. Below the Gradient box, I set the Style to Radial and kept the Angle set to 90 degrees. Finally, I set the Scale to 150%. As far as the colors of the gradient itself, I clicked right onto the gradient color bar and waited for the Gradient Editor panel to appear.

Gradient Editor Panel in Photoshop

Once I was in the editor, I clicked on one of the gradients I previously imported and adjusted the colors from there. Again, I’ll cover how to adjust the colors in a later post.

How to Load Additional Gradients into Adobe Photoshop

When I was finished, I clicked both OK buttons and returned to the image I created so far.

Black to Blue Gradient

If I need to alter the look of the gradient later on, I can easily do that. It’s super simple because of the method I chose to create it.

Adding Additional Images

For this part of the project, I’m going to open three additional photos into Photoshop and drag them over into the project file. Here’s a look at the original photos I’ll be using.

Cars Traveling on Highway at Night

Block Brick Wall

White and Purple Blur

I’ll stack these images on top of the gradient and then use blending modes to seamlessly integrate them with each other.

Adding the First Image

I’ll drag the first image over into the project file. This will be the one with the cars traveling on the highway at night. Once I have this image included in the project file and I have it sized and centered to match the file dimensions, I’ll go ahead and apply the Overlay blending mode to it that inside the drop-down box at the top of the Layers panel.

First Overlay Blending Mode

Doing this will sort of mix these two layers together and will give me this result.

Gradient and First Image

Adding the Second Image

Next, I’ll do the same exact thing for the second image. This will be the block wall photo. I’ll drag it over into the project file and after I’m finished sizing and positioning it, I’ll apply the same Overlay blend mode to it. I’ll get this result.

Gradient and Second Image

If you look at the above image, you can see parts of the gradient, the highway and the block wall. They’re all sort of mixed together.

Adding the Third Image

This one is going to be a bit different. I’ll drag the white and purple blur over into the project file, but this time, I’m going to apply the Hard Light blend mode to it. This is going to offer a slightly different look to the image than it would have if I applied the Overlay blend mode. Actually, the Hard Light blend mode is the opposite of the Overlay blend mode. Here’s the result.

Gradient and Third Image

I think you can see where I’m going with this. My goal is to create a background that you can’t quite put your finger on. As it stands, it’s pretty cool. I do want to make a few changes though.

Adjusting the Layer Opacity

I did some experimenting and I found that if I reduce the opacity of the bottom, gradient layer and the top layer that I just added to 75%, things look a little less over the top. To do this, I clicked on the Opacity slider in the Layer panel and dragged it to the left.

Opacity Slider in Layers Panel in Photoshop

Doing this lessens the intensity of the gradient layer and lightens up the highway a bit so it’s more visible. Here’s the result.

Final Composite Image

I’d say this is a good start. As you can see, creating a background layer of almost any look isn’t that difficult. If you have good source photography along with some interesting ideas, you can make a graphic that will knock people’s socks off. And the best part is, a background like the one I just made it completely adjustable. I know I haven’t gone any further in the project yet, but if I find that I need a different look, I can easily apply it. In the next few posts on this topic, I’ll be adding graphics and text, so be sure to check those out.

——

I hope I clearly demonstrated how to combine multiple images, along with a gradient layer to create a composite in Adobe Photoshop. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop


How to Make a Good Sunset Photo even Better with Adobe Photoshop

September 6, 2017

We’ve all seen a stunning sunset. Most of us have probably tried to take a picture of one. If you’re anything like me, you saw the sunset, fell in love with it, took a photo of it and after you looked at the photo, wondered what in the heck happened to it. While sunsets often look wonderful in person, they rarely look that way as a photo.

But wait! What about all those photos of sunsets we see online that look absolutely stellar? Well, I’ll tell you. The owners of those photos edit them in Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom or Photoshop. Perhaps even a combination of all three. You’d probably faint if you saw the “before” shots of these pictures. You’d definitely tell yourself that you can do what they did, if you only knew how.

In today’s post, I’m going to give you a starting point for creating really killer sunset pictures. Of course you’ll need to start off with a picture of a sunset. After that, you’ll do all your editing right inside Adobe Photoshop. It’s really easy too. To alter the entire look of the picture, all you’ll need to do is create a few adjustment layers, make some edits to them and then take advantage of a blending mode. That’s it.

The Demo Sunset Shot

This is the original photo that I’ll be using for this post. It’s of a skate park at dusk. We have a rider at the center of it and the ocean behind everything. The sun is going down and the photo was taken during the “golden hour,” but for some odd reason, there seems to be a blue hue enveloping everything in the scene. I’ll fix that and make the atmosphere pop.

Original Sunset Shop Over Skate Park in California

It’s interesting, the more I look at this photo, the more I don’t notice how blue it is. If you aren’t aware, blue isn’t a good color for sunrises and sunsets.

Adding an Adjustment Layer

I already have this photo opened up in Adobe Photoshop. As you can see from the next screenshot, there’s only one layer and that’s the photo itself.

Background Layer in Layers Panel of Adobe Photoshop

The first thing I’m going to do is to click on the Color Balance icon in the Adjustments panel. This will add the first adjustment layer I’m looking for as well as open the Properties panel for this adjustment.

Color Balance Icon in the Adjustment Panel

Making the Adjustments

My goal here is to get rid of the blue that’s in the photo. With that in mind, I’m going to push the top slider in the Properties panel all the way to the right towards the Red position. Then, I’ll push the bottom slider all the way to the left, towards the Yellow position. This will effectively remove all of the Cyan and Blue from the photo and boost the Red and Yellow colors.

Here’s a screenshot of the Properties panel.

Properties Panel for Color Balance

And this is the resulting image.

Yellow and Red Washed Out Sunset

I know, it doesn’t look very good. Don’t worry, I’m not finished.

Applying a Blend Mode

What I forgot to mention above was that I don’t really want to remove “all” of the blue from the photo. I just want to remove most of it. I’d like to neutralize it and add some yellow and red.

Do you remember that time I wrote those awesome posts that talked about blending modes? If you don’t, you can click through to them here:

What are Blending Modes in Adobe Photoshop?

Learning the Difference Between Blending Modes in Adobe Photoshop

In those posts, I explained what blending modes are and what they can do. You should really read them over. If you click the second link and scroll down the accompanying page, you’ll find a section called Soft Light Blending Mode. In that section, I define what that particular blending mode does.

Soft Light – Darkens or lightens the colors, depending on the blend color. The effect is similar to shining a diffused spotlight on the image. If the blend color (light source) is lighter than 50% gray, the image is lightened as if it were dodged. If the blend color is darker than 50% gray, the image is darkened as if it were burned in. Painting with pure black or white produces a distinctly darker or lighter area, but does not result in pure black or white.

Basically, I’m looking for some color contrast in the photo I’m working on and the Soft Light blend mode will give it to me. To apply this blend mode, I’ll first make sure the adjustment layer in the Layers panel is selected and then I’ll click the drop-down at the top of the same panel and then select Soft Light.

Soft Light Blend Mode

Making this change will give me a photo that looks like this:

Sunset With Soft Light Blending Mode Applied

It’s already looking better.

Applying Another Adjustment Layer

I created a nice base look, but now I want to add another Color Balance adjustment layer to tweak the reds and yellows even more. This time though, I’ll be doing it without any blending mode, so these changes will be more pronounced. As you may have already guessed, I certainly can’t push the top and bottom sliders all the way to the right and left, respectively, this go round. I’ll need to push them just a tad until the photo looks warm enough for my liking.

I think +25 for the top slider and -25 for the bottom slider is fine.

Small Color Balance Changes in Adobe Photoshop

Now, I get a final photo that looks like this:

Final Sunset Edited Photo

Let’s take a look at a before and after shot.

Before and After Shot of Edited Sunset Photo

——

Like I said at the top of this post, this is just the beginning of the possible edits someone can make to a photo like this. If I were to continue on, I’d probably add some blue back to the sky as well as make a few more tweaks. For now, this is good and I think things look pretty great.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop


How To Use Guided Upright to Correct Lens Distortion in Adobe Camera Raw

September 3, 2017

If you’re into architecture photography (or any photography that needs to be straight, for that matter), you need to read this post. Adobe Camera Raw has the absolute best tool to help out when it comes to correcting lens distortion. I know I’ve discussed this topic in the past, but this tool tops everything I’ve already written. Of course, if you would like to read those previous posts, please click through the links below.

Lens Correction & Perspective in Adobe Camera Raw

Fixing a Crooked Image in Adobe Camera Raw

In today’s post, I’m going to show you exactly how the Guided Upright tool works in Camera Raw. This is a fairly new tool, so I think you’ll enjoy what it’s all about. It has the ability to take back control from many of Camera Raw’s “auto” features. With the Guided Upright tool, you can create complete accuracy with just about any type of photo or graphic.

What is the Guided Upright Tool?

When you take a photograph, the lens you use has a tendency to bend whatever it is you’re photographing to its will. You may not notice the slightly warped edges or the leaning pillars or wall, but chances are, they’re there. Today’s lenses do a really good job at keeping things looking very good, but if you did ever want to correct any type of distortion your lenses create, you can, right inside Camera Raw.

Camera Raw has had an Upright (lens correction) tool for a long time. Until recently, you had to choose from one of the presets and then make additional manipulations from there. The problem with this workflow was that the presets oftentimes didn’t address the specific issue you wanted to correct. In the photo I’ll use as an example today, there’s a doorway as well as some pillars and walls. While one preset might correct the leaning pillars, it won’t completely straighten out the doorway. If the doorway was the only thing I wanted straightened, I’d have to figure out something else. While I would eventually fix the error, with the Guided Upright tool, I could fix it a lot faster and more accurately.

Demo Image

The reason I chose this image to work with today was that it included a doorway as well as walls that leaned in toward the center of the photo. You can see this fairly obviously by looking at the left and right sides of the photo. The doorway is only slightly warped, while the walls are warped to a greater degree. The beauty of this tool is that I get to choose which area I’d like to correct. Take a look at the photo below.

Roman Arched Doorway

The Guided Upright Tool

I already have the photo opened in Camera Raw. From there, I’ll click on the Transform Tool up in the top toolbar.

Transform Tool in Adobe Camera Raw

From there, I’ll notice that the panel in the right side of the application changed. It’s now the Transform panel with the Upright section right inside of it. Take a look.

Transform Panel in Camera Raw

For today’s post, I’m going to completely focus on the Guided Upright tool, as opposed to all those sliders beneath it. I already touched on those sliders in one of my previous posts.

To access the tool in question, I’ll click the button that’s all the way over to the right in the Upright section. When I roll over it, a popup appears that says Guided.

Guided Upright Tool

How Does the Tool Work?

Okay, I’ll give you the quick version of how things work with this tool. If you’ve ever used the Straighten Tool in either Camera Raw or Photoshop, you can pick this up quickly. I’m guessing this tool uses the same technology. With this tool, you’ll need to draw at least two lines, either horizontally or vertically, that you would like to be horizontal or vertical. So, in the case of the photo I’m going to use, if I wanted to straighten the walls on the left and right sides of the photo, I would draw two vertical lines. One would trace the left leaning wall and the other would trace the right leaning wall. Then, if I wanted to straighten the floor, I’d draw a horizontal line between two points I know should be level, such as across the bottom of the doorway. I could also do the same for the doorway itself. Instead of tracing the two leaning walls, I could trace the two vertical sides of the doorway and then the horizontal bottom. It’s that easy. Camera Raw will do the rest.

I do want to say something here. While this tool is rather simple and very intuitive to use, it is going to require a bit of practice to get used to. The good thing is, it’s really fun to use, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

Applying the Guided Upright Tool to the Photo

Let me demonstrate what I meant when I tried to explain how to use this tool. I’ll go ahead and click at the top of the left wall in the photo and then hold my mouse button down and drag down towards the bottom of the wall. When I do this, a guide will form. If you look closely at the left side of this image, you’ll see it. The vertical guides are dashed red and white lines.

Left Guide

What I’m telling Camera Raw here is that this left wall should be perfectly vertical and not leaning in any way. Camera Raw has now taken that into account.

If I wanted to drag this guide, with its current angle, to another location, all I would need to do is to click and drag inside the red and white dashed area. If I wanted to change the angle of the line, I could click inside either the upper or lower round circle (bubble) that sits somewhere along the guide. From there, I would drag it wherever I wish. Again, it’s that easy.

Now that the first guide is drawn, I’ll go over to the right side of the image and draw another one along that leaning wall.

Left and Right Guides

The moment I draw that guide and let go of my mouse button, both sides transformed so they were both perfectly vertical. If you look all the way to the left and then to the right in the screenshot directly above, you can see the guides and the walls that aren’t leaning anymore. Right there – that’s how this tool works. It’s very simple. It’s almost as if I used the transform tool in Photoshop.

Since I’m allowed to draw up to four guides, I’m going to create one that goes from one side of the doorway to the other, along the floor. This will correct any tilt or distortion in that area, which will, in turn, square up the entire doorway.

Horizontal Guide

If you look at the screenshot above now, you’ll see a new guide that’s made of green and black dashes as opposed to the red and white ones used earlier. Because the doorway was already fairly level, there wasn’t much of a change.

Now if we take a look at the final image, we’ll see that it’s been corrected and that there are no more leaning walls or crooked doorways.

Corrected Image

And that’s it. Of course, there are more minor corrections I could make in this panel, but I’ll save them for another post. Today, I merely wanted to introduce you to this tool.

——

I hope I clearly explained how to use the Guided Upright tool in Adobe Camera Raw. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please leave them in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Camera Raw


Adobe Camera Raw Clarity vs. Dehaze: A Closer Look

September 1, 2017

One of the tools I use almost every single time I edit a photograph in Adobe Camera Raw is the Clarity tool. It’s rather awesome and I’m not sure where I’d be without it. For those of you who don’t know what this tool is or what it does, Clarity adds midtone contrast to an image. It adds, well, clarity and makes almost any image look better by giving it the appearance of regular contrast, combined with sharpening. While it technically does neither of these things, it is an incredible all around tool that helps much more than it hurts. Dragging the Clarity slider to the left reduces its effect and dragging the slider to the right increases it.

When adjusting photos with the Clarity slider, you need to be mindful of its overall effect, which may need to be countered by other sliders. For instance, I know that when I’m increasing the clarity of an image, I need to adjust both the Whites and Blacks sliders a bit, just to keep things looking realistic.

Most of the time, I move the Clarity slider to the right, to make an image more vibrant and clear. There have been times, though, when I’ve pushed this slider to the left to soften certain elements of a photo. This is especially helpful when retouching skin tone in portraits, which almost never needs to be “hard.”

Since the Clarity tool oftentimes “lifts the fog,” I’ve often thought of it as a sister to another tool – a stronger one. This next tool is located in a panel to the right of the Basic panel, called Effects. The tool I’m referring to in the Effects panel is known as the Dehaze tool and this one does a magnificent job of really lifting the fog.

The Dehaze tool, simply put, is really cool. It’s not taken advantage of nearly as much as some other tools that are more easily accessible, but I think it should be in every editor’s toolbox. It’s a shame it’s hidden in such a deep panel, away from most of the action. In short, the Dehaze tool improves the look of an image by estimating how much light is lost by its own scattering through an atmosphere. Since our atmosphere has vapor in it, clarity all around us is lost. We mostly don’t notice this in everyday life, unless there is fog close to the ground or the weather outside is extremely humid. Camera Raw uses an algorithm to compensate for this naturally occurring water vapor and removes its effects in photography. The results are stunning and are quite accurate.

In today’s post, I’m going to briefly demonstrate the effects of these two sliders inside of Adobe Camera Raw. I’ll use two photographs to show you how pushing each of these sliders to the right can have a positive effect on the images they contain. While I won’t be “teaching” you anything, per se, I think you’ll definitely get something out of this post and may even begin incorporating the Dehaze slider in your everyday workflow.

Original Photos

Both of the photos I chose for this post contain haze. The first shot is from space and the second is in a desert. Since both of the photographs display part of the earth’s atmosphere, I think they are excellent candidates to manipulate.

Here is the first photo. It’s obviously from space and was taken by either a craft of some kind of a satellite.

Photo of Earth From Outer Space

And this is the second photo. It’s of a desert. If you look closely, you can see a bit of haze that needs to be removed.

Desert Canyons

The Effects of Clarity

In this post, I’m going to be pushing both the Clarity and Dehaze sliders all the way to the right. I’m not going to mess around by dabbling in between. Throughout their histories, they have been refined to such a degree that even if they are pushed to the max, they still don’t look all that much overdone. You’ll see what I’m talking about below.

The first thing I’d like to do is to show you were the Clarity slider is located in Camera Raw. It’s at the bottom of the Basic panel. Take a look at the screenshot below. I outlined it in red.

Clarity Slider in Basic Panel of Adobe Camera Raw

Next, I’m going to merely show you two photos. They will be before and after views of the images I displayed above, with the left half in its original state and the right half at 100% clarity. Here is the first one.

Earth Photo Clarity

And here is the second photo.

Original Desert Photo Clarity Effect

As you can see, the right side looks better in both of the photos. While they look more clear and a bit sharper, I’m not sure much of the haze has been reduced. Let’s move on to the next section.

The Effects of Dehaze

For this section, I’d like to show you where the Dehaze slider is, just as I did for the Clarity slider in the previous section. In the screenshot below, notice the new tab that this slider is contained in.

Dehaze Slider in Adobe Camera Raw

Again, I’ll display before and after shots. In the images below, the left side is the original and the right side is with Dehaze at 100%.

Original Earth Photo Dehaze Effect

Here is the desert shot with Dehaze at 100%

Original Desert Photo Dehaze Effect

In these images, while there does appear to be some additional color, they don’t look as clear or as sharp. Let’s move onto the final section.

The Effects of Both Clarity & Dehaze

If I were to edit a real photo to use in a project, I’d likely use both of the effects I’m referring to in this post, but with moderation. But, since I’m trying to make a point here, I’ll push both the Clarity and Dehaze sliders to the right all the way. Let’s see what the earth photo looks like.

Original Earth Photo with Both Clarity and Dehaze Effects

Now, let’s look at the desert shot with both Clarity and Dehaze at 100%.

Original Desert Photo with Both Clarity and Dehaze Effects

Wow, that’s quite the difference. Even though the effects are quite strong, these examples give you a sense of what you can accomplish with just these two sliders. Again, use them in moderation, but if you want additional drama in your photos, look no further than to start off with the Clarity and Dehaze sliders in Adobe Camera Raw.

——

I hope I clearly explained what the results of using the Clarity and Dehaze sliders in Camera Raw can look like. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please leave them in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Camera Raw


The 4 Best Methods For Taking Screenshots in Windows

August 30, 2017

If you’ve ever read any of my posts on this blog, you probably know that I use a lot of screenshots to help explain things. I used them when I’m working in Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Camera Raw as well as when I’m working in Windows. Currently, I have Windows 10 installed, so that’s the operating system I take the screenshots with.

Screenshots are helpful in many different situations. For me, it’s blogging. For others, it may be to record an event or to save something to send to friends. Whatever the reason, it’s super helpful to know how to take screenshots and to have awareness of the various options for doing so.

In today’s post, I’d like to cover four of the best methods I know for taking screenshots with Windows 10. I’ll go from the most basic “everything” shot to the more refined “just the active window” shot. I’ll even show you how to crop an area of your screen and save that area. Each of these methods has their advantages, so I’m excited to share them with you.

How To Take a “Whole Screen” Screenshot

This is the method I’ve been using for years. It works well. And since I use Photoshop for all my graphical and photographic editing, I can paste whatever it is I capture right into that and manipulate from there. To take a capture of an entire screen, simply press the PrtScrn button on your keyboard. You may need to press the Ctrl+PrtScrn keys together for this to work.

When you do this, Windows stores the screen capture in its clipboard. From there, you can paste it wherever you’d like to. Again, I create a new file in Photoshop and use Ctrl+V to paste it there.

Here’s a sample of a partial photo opened in Windows’ built in photo viewer app. Notice the blue background of my desktop in the capture.

Full Screen Screenshot

Remember, since this capture is only copied to your internal clipboard, it will eventually disappear as you use the Copy function more during the day.

How To Save a Screenshot as a File

Would you like to skip the editing part of saving screenshots? Well, there’s an easy method for doing that. If you press the Windows+PrtScrn buttons together, Windows will save the entire screen area to your Pictures > Screenshots folder as a PNG file. Take a look.

Pictures - Screenshots Folder in Windows 10

Windows will save the file as “Screenshot…png.” This is perfect if you just want to quickly save a screen capture and email it to someone or use it for some other purpose. You can’t get easier than this.

How To Take a Capture of Only the Active Window

Let’s say you have multiple windows open and you want to grab a screenshot of only the active one. Well, accomplishing this is just as easy as the previous two methods. All you need to do is to press the Alt+PrtScrn buttons on your keyboard together and that’s it. This method is somewhat similar to the first method in that Windows copies this screen capture to its clipboard. You’ll need to paste it into an application to edit it or to save it out.

Active Window Screenshot in Windows 10

Pretty cool, huh?

A Special Message For Laptop Users

If you’re working on a laptop with an Fn key, you may need to press that key as well as the previous keys I outlines in the sections above. So, it would be something like Fn+PrtScrn for the first one, Fn+Windows+PrtScrn for the second one and Fn+Alt+PrtScrn for the third one.

How To Take a Cropped Screen Capture

If you have an interest in skipping all the other fluff that’s opened in your computer and would like to take a capture of just a specific area of your screen, a new feature in Windows 10 can help you out. If you press the Windows+Shift+S keys on your keyboard, you’ll see a semi-transparent white overlay appear on your screen. From there, if you click and drag your mouse pointer, you’ll be able to “crop out” any area of your screen you wish.

When you click and drag your mouse pointer and then let go, Windows 10 will copy your cropped area to the clipboard. From there, you’ll need to paste it (Ctrl+V) to an image editing application. I did this and here is the result. I just wanted a sliver of the photo I had open.

Cropped Screenshot in Windows 10

By far, this is my favorite. It’s pretty versatile.

——

I hope I clearly explained how to go about taking different types of screen captures on your Windows computer. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Technology

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Recent Comments

  • Jay Gaulard on 7 Search Engine Optimization Tips For Small Business: “You are very correct, Mike. I wrote this post a while ago, but it's interesting to follow the trajectory of…” Feb 18, 17:24
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