Tip of the Week - E is for Eyedropper
E is for EYEDROPPER
Yep, the EYEDROPPER tool in Photoshop. It is one of those tools in Photoshop that is often overlooked, because, chances are that you have NO IDEA what on earth you’d use it for.
When using any of the drawing or coloring tools (Paint Bucket, Pencil, Brush, etc), you can press and hold the ALT key and your cursor will turn into the EYEDROPPER tool. Why is this helpful?
Well, this is very helpful when you are wanting to SAMPLE colors from your photos, to get as close of a color match as possible. This is extremely helpful if you are a digital scrapbooker and want your embellishments to coordinate with your photos perfectly.
Also, if you click on your COLOR PICKER (the 2 linked squares of color at the bottom of the tools pallet, the top box is foreground and the bottom box is background color) you will get a dialogue box to, yep you guessed it, pick a color. BUT, what you probably didn’t know is that when you move the cursor outside of the dialogue box, it turns into the EYEDROPPER.Once again, I am guessing that you are wondering, “Why is this so helpful?” Well let me tell you!
When you use the EYEDROPPER outside of the dialogue box, by clicking, you can see the exact numerical values of the color you have just picked and jot them down for future use or better yet you can add them to your color SWATCHES pallet or make your own custom SWATCHES pallet.
*NOTE* The different # values are represented by different groups of settings. The first is H S B. H = hue S = saturation B = brightness. The next group is R G B, where R = red G = green B = blue. Right below the RGB group is a single box marked with a # symbol. This box is where you can type in the HEX value of a color. Then in the right column there is a group (You will most likely not be using this group) L a b. L = luminance a = red-green variation b = blue-yellow variation. And finally there is the CMYK group. C = cyan M = magenta Y = yellow K = black. *ALSO NOTE* In Photoshop Elements you will only see HSB, RGB, and the HEX # box.
If you pay close attention to some of your other dialogue boxes, you will see the EYEDROPPER tool. When used in conjunction with the dialogue box it is presented in, the EYEDROPPER becomes a very powerful little tool! An example would be in Photoshop Elements. When you are removing a color cast, you use the EYEDROPPER to pick black, grey, or white. If you haven’t done that yet, go try it!!
Now go out there and PICK SOME COLOR!!
