Photoshop CS3 help (1 Viewer)

It's late and I'm tired so maybe that's why this is getting more frustrating than it should be.

I just installed Photoshop CS3 and I can't believe I'm having a hard time with something as simple as drawing a circle with no fill.

I'm pretty good with Fireworks and Flash but never used Photoshop in the past. Although it doesn't look that different, I can't for the life of me find how to draw a circle with no fill.

Also, where is that darn paint bucket tool? I don't see it in my tools menu. I see the pen, brush,eyedropper, etc but not the paint bucket.

Can you guys point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

It's not straightforward to draw a circle. Using the elliptical selection tool, hold shift (to force the tool into a circular shape) and drag a circle selection. Go to edit -> stroke. Enter circle width, color, and click 'outside'.

The paint bucket tool is underneath the gradient tool. The toolbar is multi-layered, hold the left mouse button down over the gradient tool to make the paint bucket appear.

CJ

sounds like you need a vector based drawing program (like Illustrator) rather than a raster based image editing program like Photoshop.

Thanks CJ. I'll give that a try tonight when I get home. From working with Fireworks and Flash, I know that by holding shift while drawing you get a perfect circle or square.

My problem is with drawing it with no fill. I'm pretty sure I clicked on edit after drawing it but I didn't see an option "stroke". Any idea why that might be?

Charles. That's an interesting comment. May I ask what you mean by that? Thanks.

So a 1-pixel thick circle is what you need?

You didn't see 'stroke' because you need to click the bottom menu item "show all menu items" to show them. Photoshop CS3 hides some menu items by default, which annoys me.

CJ

I figured out what I was doing wrong. I was using the "Ellipse Tool" when I should've been using the "Elliptical Marquee Tool". Thanks CJ.

Photoshop is for photo manipulation. For drawing, get Illustrator.

Is that true? I see myself creating images for use on websites. Not really manipulating photos. I thought Photoshop was the main graphic app. out there.

It's not true, photoshop is by far the most commonly used program for illustration, as well as photo editing. Illustrator is vector based, and while some can make some really amazing pieces with it, its very retrictive to the style of content you want to produce.

That's what I heard.

I draw cars with Illustrator, and find it somewhat closer related to MSPaint than Photoshop which comes off as more of a photo editing program than anything. I have a question though as well, is Illustrator in CS3 different than Illustrator in CS2? I'm about to get CS3 soon (gift) and was wondering what the differences between CS2 and CS3 was. I've only used CS2 and haven't yet experienced CS3 as of yet.

The idea is that you're supposed to use the two together -- for creating shapes, Photoshop really isn't the best tool.

Depends on how you draw, I suppose.

I'll try to get my hands on Illustrator and give it a try.
Thanks guys.

not sure if I should start a new thread....will continue on this one. I seem to have almost the opposite problem to Andres .....please can anyone help?

When cutting out in photoshop CS3, I can't see what I'm doing, becuase it seems to be set on 'fill'. I can't find 'no fill' anywhere. I'm sure it used to be a white box with a red line through it, either on the colours pallet or at the bottom of the tools pallet. I've been using the rubber tool and cutting out in freehand. Not really satisfactory. Can't find anything in 'help' - so I had given up looking when I was directed to this thread from another forum....