Photoshop Basics: Opening a file/Creating a new file

Most of the time, when using Photoshop, we start with an image that we need to edit.To open the file, you go in the FILE menu then click ‘Open …’ (or Ctrl + O) then browse to your file. It’s always better to not save it under your original image. Always keep your original somewhere. When you add a layer and save it, it will be save as a .psd file so you can work on it later.

Other way is to copy an image (per example on the Web, right click ‘Copy image’) and paste it directly in Photoshop. To paste it in Photoshop, you have to create a new file first, so from your FILE menu click on ‘New…’ (Or Ctrl + N). You’ll see, the dimension specify is exactly the one of your copied file. If you are going to make a montage, you can make the size bigger. You can change it after as well. Remember that when you create a new file, you have to save it first, or it will just a temporary work.

Now we can use the tools on our image…