Most Adobe Photoshop tutorials (including my own) are for people who are already familiar with Adobe Photoshop. This tutorial goes right back to the DAWN OF TIME! :) ...and is designed for the Adobe Photoshop beginner.

This basic, thirty-minute tutorial is not a comprehensive instruction manual. It only gives you the very basic features you need to know to start using Adobe Photoshop. From there, you'll quickly discover most of the other features of the program.

The images in this tutorial are from Adobe Photoshop 7.0, but they're very similar to those from earlier versions of Photoshop.

Let's get the tutorial started...

Click File > New, and create a new image of any size you desire.

1 - Setting Adobe Photoshop's Undo option



Press Ctrl+K to bring up the Preferences window. (In Adobe Photoshop 5.0, you'll need to click on the Settings tab, on the File menu.)

Change your "Redo Key" to Ctrl+Shift+Z. This enables you to press Ctrl+Z while working to undo your last actions. Remember this.

2 - Using Adobe Photoshop's Layers window



The Layers window shows the various layers that your image is made up of.

To make a new layer, click the New Layer button, as shown by the red arrow.

To work on a different layer, click on that layer. The eyeball will apear next to that layer.

You can drag layers up and down the list.

Remember - create a new layer for each part of your image. This allows you to go back and edit the layers individually. Every Adobe Photoshop novice at some time makes a masterpiece, only to find out that they did it all on one layer, and now they can't remove those pink clouds they put on it. :)

3 - Learning about Selection



One of the most important concepts in Adobe Photoshop is Selection.

This is the Rectangular Selection Tool. Use this tool on your image to select an area of the image. This lets Photoshop know that that's the area you want to work on.

4 - Adding to a Selection and making a square

To add to a selection, hold Shift before dragging.

To make the selection exactly square, start dragging, then hold Shift.

You can press Ctrl+D to "deselect" and remove the selection at any time.

5 - Elliptical Selections and subtracting Selections



Hold down on the Selection Tool on the Toolbar, and choose the Ellipse.

To move the selection, just click inside it and drag.

Holding Alt while selecting subtracts that area from the selection. I've done that with the Ellipse Selection Tool.

6 - A Selection exercise



If you're following this tutorial in Adobe Photoshop, see if you can make these shapes.

Other relevant Adobe Photoshop tools

Lasso Tool - Allows you to draw a selection area with the cursor.

Magic Wand - Summons elves. (Also believed to select an area of one colour.) :P