Getting your images into Photoshop

Getting Images into Photoshop – Complete Guide

Learn the many ways of getting your images into Photoshop with Chapter 2 of our Photoshop training series! Includes how to open images from Lightroom, Camera Raw, Adobe Bridge and more!

Before we can do anything with our photos, we first need to get them into Photoshop. Opening images may not sound like a topic that needs an entire series of tutorials. But Photoshop is no ordinary program. And like pretty much everything we do in Photoshop, there's more than one way to open an image.

In this chapter, I take you through each of them. We start in lesson 1 by learning how to set Photoshop as our default image editor in Windows 10. And in lesson 2, we learn how to set Photoshop as your default image editor in Mac OS X. Lesson 3 shows you how to create new Photoshop documents from scratch, and in lesson 4, you'll learn how to open existing images in Photoshop!

Lesson 5 is all about Adobe Bridge, the file browser included with Photoshop, and why it's a better way to select and open your images. The only problem with Bridge is that it can sometimes open a file in the wrong program. We fix that in lesson 6 by learning how to set up file type associations in Bridge!

In lesson 7, you'll learn how to open images directly into Camera Raw, Photoshop's powerful image editing plugin. And, if you're an Adobe Lightroom user, you'll want to learn how to move your images from Lightroom into Photoshop for further editing. Lesson 8 covers how to move raw files from Lightroom to Photoshop, while lesson 9 shows you how to move JPEG files between Lightroom and Photoshop. And finally, in lesson 10, we finish off this chapter by learning how to close our images in Photoshop, including how to close all open images at once!

Need printable versions of these tutorials? All of our Photoshop tutorials are now available to download as PDFs! Let's get started!

Some of the lessons in this chapter build on previous lessons. If you haven't already, be sure to read through Chapter 1 - Getting Started with Photoshop before starting Chapter 2.

02. How to create a new document in Photoshop

There are two ways to start working in Photoshop. One is to open an existing image. The other is to create a new document. New documents start out empty but let you import images, graphics and other design elements into them, making them great for layouts and photo collages. In this tutorial, we learn how to create new documents using Photoshop's redesigned New Document dialog box.

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06. How to open images into Camera Raw

Photoshop is extremely powerful. But these days, if you're a photographer, it's not where you want to start editing your images. Instead, you'll want to begin in Photoshop's image editing plugin, Camera Raw. Learn how to easily open raw files, JPEG and TIFF images directly into Camera Raw using Adobe Bridge.

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07. How to move raw files from Lightroom to Photoshop

Many photographers these days prefer to use Adobe Lightroom for all of their initial image editing work. But as powerful as it is, Lightroom can only do so much. At some point, you'll need to move your image into Photoshop for further editing. In this tutorial, learn how to easily move a raw file from Lightroom into Photoshop. Then, how to move it back into Lightroom when you're done.

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09. How to close images in Photoshop

The tutorials in this series have all taught us how to open our images into Photoshop. But knowing how to close them is also important. In this final tutorial, learn how to close a single image, how to close multiple images at once, and more!

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Completed all 10 lessons in this chapter? Congratulations! You're ready to move on to Chapter 3 - Learning The Photoshop Interface! Or visit our Photoshop Basics section for more chapters and tutorials.