PhotoShop Pages
As mentioned on the Page Creation Options page, there are several advantages to creating whole pages, or the graphic parts of pages, in PhotoShop.
You would ONLY use PhotoShop if you have several pictures on a page that you want to merge together to form a collage. If you just want separate pictures placed in boxes on a page, it’s easier & better to do it in YearTech!
Okay, you want to take advantage of your Photoshop skills to create beautiful collages. Great! Just remember two things:
- You will still have to save the final version as a jpeg (as well as a PSD), upload it to Yeartech Online, and insert it as a picture on a YearTech page
- If there’s much text to add, wait until you’ve got your final image into Yeartech, and add the text there. It’s MUCH easier, and we can edit it!!!
Steps to Making a Full Page in PhotoShop
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In PhotoShop, choose File, New. Change the settings as shown:
SAVE IMMEDIATELY, AND OFTEN!!! Make a folder under Pages & Plans for your specific page e.g. Pages & Plans/Friends Name the PSD file after the page number (“Page 123” or whatever your page is). Save the file as Page 123.psd in the new folder. * Make sure you save in PhotoShop (.psd) format at this point, not jpeg. |
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Open up the photos you want to use, 2 or 3 at a time. Select the parts you want, using any of the selection tools. It’s better to take a little too much than not enough, because then you can erase the edges with a soft brush. Spend lots of time doing a good job of selecting, copying pasting and softening edges. This makes the difference between a professional looking page and a dog’s breakfast! There are some basic techniques here , selection here, and more on merging here. Copy the selection (Ctrl-C) Use the file list at the bottom of the Window menu to go back to your page document. Paste (Ctrl-V). The copied selection will become a new layer. You can do many things to a layer: move it, resize it, rotate it, enhance its light levels, alter its transparency, erase parts of it, and much more. Two things NOT to do: 1. Don’t make the image any bigger than it was when first pasted. It will pixellate and look lousy. 2. Don’t change size without holding Shift down, to maintain proportions. Make sure the edges are soft! Hard jagged edges look terrible, and are not acceptable. If you can’t erase a bit to soften an edge, delete the pic and start again. This time set the feather higher, and/or go wider as you make your selection. Practice with various sizes of the soft eraser until you’re a pro! Also keep an eye out for little floating bits of gray outside the edges. These can happen as you soften edges if you don’t erase completely. Ask me to show you what I mean, because these can ruin a collage when printed. Keep saving! Never
go more than 5 minutes without a save! Unless you want an element to “bleed” off the page, keep about half an inch away from any edge. Consult your editors for specifics on layout styles. Be consistent with our overall style. When you’re done with a source picture, close it. Then use “My Computer” to add the words USED – YOUR NAME to the filename of the jpegs you used. This prevents someone else from using a piece of the same picture. e.g. Spilled Lunch.jpg
becomes Spilled Lunch USED BY BART S.jpg Make sure you leave the .jpg extension on the end! Open more photos, and select, copy and paste new images into your page. Use the Layers menu to rearrange the order of the images (who’s behind who) Add titles here only if you need to use Photoshop effects. Remember that it’s generally better to add text after you move your images to YearTech Online. If you find yourself adding paragraphs or lists of names, STOP!!! Do it in YearTech where we can edit it easily. When you’ve got all the pieces together, get someone
else to check it out.
Did you add the words USED – YOUR NAME to the filename of
the jpegs you used pieces of? When you’ve perfected your page, save it one more time as a Photoshop document (PSD). ALWAYS
MAKE SURE YOU CAN GET BACK TO THE ORIGINAL PHOTOSHOP DOCUMENT TO MAKE
CHANGES. (There are always
some changes!) IF YOU LOSE THE PHOTOSHOP DOCUMENT (.PSD FILE), NO CHANGES CAN BE MADE! Then SAVE AS, and this time change the file type to JPEG. Keep the same filename (Page 123.jpg). Set the quality to max : 10. Log into YearTech Online, and upload the jpeg. Keep the same name, and put it into the “whole pages” picture category folder in the Image Library. Go to your page in YearTech, and insert the jpeg page as a picture, one which occupies the whole page. Add any text and other elements you want in YearTech. CONGRATULATIONS! You’re done! Well, sort of… Once you get your page proofed by an editor or me, there’ll likely be changes. If you need to change the graphics:
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Need to Create Part of a Page in PhotoShop?You don’t have to make a full page PhotoShop. You could choose to do half a page, two quarters, one little collage, a double page spread, whatever you want. The key is to figure out the exact dimensions of what you want, and make a new PhotoShop document at 300 DPI with the correct dimensions. Remember that a full page is 8.5 x 11 inches, and calculate what portion of this you need. As above, make a new folder under Pages Plans/Your Page to save the PSD files in. Name these parts as Page 123–A.psd, Page 123-B.psd, PAGE 123-124.psd, and so on. Once they’re saved as jpegs, you can upload and insert the pieces onto the correct pages in YearTech. * I think Elaine told us we could directly submit Photoshop pages. I’ll ask. But we want to make sure we can see them in the “virtual yearbook”, so I think we’ll always be doing the steps above. |
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