Help Please: what are the settings one must have for airbrush image start and finish

[cyndward]

Hello Everyone that might be able to help me (Grandma) !  Have Mac OS 10 10 5 Yosemite Adobe Photoshop,  I create images using the airbrush tool. What I *need to know (is a whole lot but first...) what settings for this work and the finished image, that I want to send to be printer some perhaps greeting cards other,  children's book illustrations.  Have now been working: RGB 300  DPI  5 x 7  - question about: when one enlarges the image (ZOOMS IN) to make the corrections....there will be many messes found, dashes and color 'bleed' over the thin black line.  EG: drawing a few hearts, outline with black set at 1 or 3. (tho one is difficult seems to jitter) there is no #2 so 1 or 2 pen setting. (Add to this, my Wacom Pro tablet is over 25 yrs old but working fine except for that jitter....).  To send to a company/printer, the finished image....does one need to ZOOM in up until the pixels are very clear and then set about making the corrections. Is there a way to know just how far IN to ZOOM in,  ???

I have spent countless hours,  zoomed to pixels,  cleaning up the squiggles etc. Which I will keep doing if this is necessary !

And I am finally getting a grip as far as layers are concerned.  Still, don't know if one deletes all layers but the last that is the one that is all finished/corrected.  Or does one flatten the image? Or does one just psd and JPG. And send the JPG or PDF.

I can well imagine that these are things that all knowledgeable artists know and I am an exception.  I began using Photoshop when it first came out but for years, all art was done with oil based magic markers. Was published by Marcel Schulman at that time. However, have not been constantly doing this 'art' as I paint w/oils and pastels and WC.  This has been great to jump into when in 'artist block' ....and it is such fun ! Now, with arthritis it's easier for me too for my hands.  I was hoping to be able to get some of my designs/images accepted for greeting cards as a real feel good to my stage of life! Senior.  Trying to get the layers and the library working well for me tho at times could CRY....! Still, carry on as Winston said and I do.  By now perhaps some have decided to run out the door !  Sorry I am not 'tech savvy ' to say all this in fewer words.  I want so much to learn more! Thank you who ever you may turnout to be,  for sending me some advice about this.  And, I wd love it if the someone wd look at what I am doing (may I send a JPG?) and you tell me what you think as in, yes, Photoshop Airbrush looks great OR have I tried Illustrator ? No, bc I asked Adobe tech and she said 'no' that Pshp is fine.  I also wish I could get a new or slightly used Wacom Tablet from another artist....mine is 25yrs old but working 95% well. I better stop talking now. Thank you so much ! Cynthia Stardust Creations, Sonoma CA (no I have not got a Website).  NAMASTE

[kglad]

[moved from Adobe Creative Cloud to Photoshop General Discussion]

[Trevor.Dennis · Accepted solution]

It's impossible (very difficult at least) to answer such a convoluted question.  Please break it up and ask one question at a time.  Use separate paragraphs and screen shots where they might help.  As things stand I doubt you are going to get any useful help. 

Regarding settings for the airbrush, how can we possibly advise without knowing the effect you are trying to achieve.  An example image would help here.

[cyndward]

My apology for perhaps badly worded request.  It wasn't airbrush settings I need to know it is Settings for the Monitor,  Settings for the Photoshop 'new' image: DPI  300 or 600 ?  I've had  it at 300 but earlier today during the headache of my 'searching' hours, a woman working for a printing firm said,  600.

My original question was and still is:  say I just finished an illustration.  Next I need to enlarge it in order to make the necessary corrections ....I've been 'Zooming In' right up to the pixels.  The Art is not a photograph, it is my own painting if you will that I have done with the airbrush.  I don't need 'help' in that area.

Only someone like yourself, a professional....that might have the patience to give me a little advice. That would be most kind and so appreciated.

To sum up: I will gladly send you a JPG of one of my illustrations.  I am looking now for the icon to attach to this message...usually its a paper clip.  Ah,  I have it.  OK will send to you and check later.  It is going on 5pm here in Sonoma, CA and that means for me dinner and News.  I will check back later.  And again tomorrow as I am sure you have better things to do than spend your precious time with some advice for me!  I will not complain or write again either, if you just don't want to continue and thank you for even writing at all. I am sure it must be exasperating for a professional like yourself to have to bother with my Grade School level inquiry!

All the best with my thanks,

Cynthia Devereux Ward  Sonoma, CA

[davescm]

Hi

Nice image - never be afraid to ask questions.  I've picked out a few from your posts .

1. What ppi should you use. It really depends on viewing distance (i.e. you need less resolution for a poster to be viewed at 25feet as you do for a postcard). For normal postcard to book page sizes it depends on your printer. Canon work well at 300ppi - Epson at 360ppi (both of those avoid the print driver from scaling the work you did in Photoshop). If you are getting these printed commercially - ask your printer what he/she needs.

2. What zoom to correct at. You can zoom in to 100% or greater for minute corrections but in reality you rarely need to do so. Zoom and correct so the image looks good at it's intended printed size. Pixel peeping leads to hours of corrections that you never have done with pen and brushes.  There is one caveat though :

When using layers and blending modes, at zoom levels less than 100%, Photoshop blends previews rather than the actual layers. Occasionally this does look different.  So always check at 100% zoom for any changes in colour or shading that may have occurred and correct for them.

3. What to save (layers or flattened). Always save a master copy of your work as a PSD file (or you could use TIFF) with the layers intact. You never know when you may need to go back and change something.

If you want to send a copy  to someone else, make a copy as a TIFF (which is a fairly universal format) and flatten or, Export (using Export - Save for Web ) a copy to jpeg. This will compress the file and does throw away some information - although the compression is usually acceptable in return for smaller file sizes to attach to websites or emails.

I hope this helps you

Dave

[cyndward]

Good morning Dave and I want to thank you so VERY much for having taken your precious time to explain to me what I so needed to learn and you did it in such a way as to have made me feel so much better about 'getting on with it' -  ! I am so grateful  to you and want to wish you,  all the very best in your pursuits - !  Cynthia

[davescm]

You're very welcome 

Dave

[cyndward]

PS: Have just experimented with the ZOOM 100% and what a relief it is to see that I don't have to go IN any more than this to make the corrections!  So, again - thank you !  Send along another of my 'images' that I spent a week 'zooming' in on due to the abstract nature of this design.  My poor eyes !   Won't have to do that again ! 

A question: What Res setting should one's Monitor be set at ?  (Mac 22")

Thank you !

Cynthia

[davescm]

A question: What Res setting should one's Monitor be set at ?  (Mac 22")

If you mean the screen resolution setting in Preferences it should be set to match the ppi for your monitor. Sorry I don't use Macs so don't have the answer, for your screen,  but if you know the horizontal number of pixels, from the specs, and measure the width in inches then simple division will give you the ppi.

That said, the screen resolution number is only used by Photoshop when you select View - Print Size. It then uses that ppi number to calculate how many pixels to use to show print at actual size on the screen. It is not used anywhere else.

Dave

[cyndward]