So in prep for the internship, I’ve been trying to really hone my Photoshop/Illustrator skills.

Two photoshop things I learned recently:

1a) I was really discouraged when I opened my photos in photoshop and saw that their Image Size was only 72 dpi, but they were ~30 inches tall. I discovered that in the Image > Image Size palette, in the bottom left corner is a Resample check box. I don’t want to resample. (Leave that unchecked) Just change the Resolution from 72 to 300 and you’ll see the size go from 30 inches tall to 8 inches tall. That’s it. The canvas shrinks in to accommodate the new smaller image.

1b) If you check the Resample Size box in the Image size pallette, this allows you to edit things independently. You can change the Resolution without the size of the image changing. 300 dpi 30 inch image. That’s huge, but it will do it. There’s that box that says Resample with Bicubic. Basically that means it’s using some complex calculus and fractals to guess what the dots per inch should be since you’re altering it.

This article explains Resizing/Resampling a little more thoroughly

2.)Photoshop actions: What’s that? On the History Palette, there’s another tab just to the right called Actions. Actions are saved series of things you do to your files. For example, I wanted to create a key command that would change my photos’ resolution to 300 easily.

So in the Action’s palette, I click the little arrow in the circle in the top right and clicked Create New Action. This dialog box asks you what the action will be called, what set (folder) it will be stored in, and if you want to create a key command shortcut. (hells yeah). Once you define those things, click record, and then do what you want to the file. In my case, I changed the DPI. Then go back to the Actions box, and click the square stop button.

Now your action is saved and you’ll see it listed in that Actions palette. For the laptop kids, if you defined your shortcut as Command (apple key) + F4, that will just turn the volume down. So you have to hit Command, then the Fn key (bottom left of your keyboard), and then F4.

Again, here’s a link that explains this maybe better than I did. Enjoi.