Photoshop tutorial – Tips & Tricks
Adobe Photoshop, or simply Photoshop, is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems. It is the current market leader for commercial bitmap and image manipulation software, and is the flagship product of Adobe Systems. It has been described as "an industry standard for graphics professionals" and was one of the early "killer applications" on the Macintosh, later also for MS Windows
Tips & Tricks:
Easier selecting
Layer masks
Layer clipping
Useful hotkeys
Being more organised and accurate
Easier Selecting
Tip 1.
Holding Shift will let you ADD to selection, and holding alt will subtract... This is extra usefull
when you don't want to select from the beginning, or you missed a few spots.
An extremely common situation is misbehaviour of magnet lasso tool... You can easily fix this mess
by holding alt and subtractin from selection by using lasso tool.
Tip 2.
You can select whole layer by holding CTRL and clicking on layer's image from the layer bar. This
is useful when you want to select the layer without messy lassoes/wands.
Keep in mind that feather-edges and all other edge modification are applied the way they are in
other selection tools. Also remember that Tip1 applies to this too!
Tip 3.
Don't forget the power of "Refine Edge". It can help you out tremendously, saving you HOURS of
selecting.
Layer Masks
Tip 1.
With layer masks you can do wonders. From smoothing images to creating cool spherical png
transparent images. Transparency, in these days of web-dev plays an important role. Making images
look alot smoother, and different on every surface make your website look unique and powerful.
Tip 2.
To apply layer mask, you go to Layer/Layer mask... Now you might ask yourself, reveal all or hide
all... Well, this is simple... First I'll explain how the masks are handled. The solid black color on the
layer mask is fully transparent, while white is opaque. By changing the lightness of the picture on
some parts, you make the picture look opaque or transparent, depending on your color you're using.
Revealing all would paint the whole layer mask in white, while hiding all would paint it in black.
Once you're done with all the editing, right click the layer mask on layer bar and click "Apply layer
mask". You're all done.
Layer Clipping
"Layer Clipping". In all of my experience in photoshop, I've barely used it, but lately I find it time
saving. Usually when I wanted to clip layers, I selected a layer I want to clip onto, press ctrl+shift+i
to inverse the selection, move to the server I wanna clip, and press delete. It served me well, but
there were some frustrating things, like when I forgot to change feather edge effect, etc... With layer
clipping, things start to be alot easier.
To clip layers, move the layers on the layer bar this way:
They must be placed one below another, upper one being layer you want to clip, and the lower one
being the layer you clip onto.
When you're ready, right click the upper layer and click on "Create clipping mask".
With such a little effort, you can make cool effects like fire:
When you click on "Create clipping mask", you'll see an arrow pointing the layer you clipped
onto... You can release clipping mask by choosing it from right click menu. OR, you can apply the
mask by right clicking the upper layer (the one that clips), choosing "Merge down" on the
dropdown menu.
Useful Hotkeys
what they do, and explaining how to go the longer way.
Ctrl+Z The almighty undo! You do this once, then use "step backward"...
Edit/Undo
Ctrl+AltGr+Z Step Backward, you must use this to follow undoing.
Edit/Step Backward
Ctrl+T Transform Layer! Pretty awesome hotkey, been using it maybe even more than undo! =)
Edit/Tranform/?
Ctrl+1 Shifts zooming back to 100%. I've used ti countless times to find out how my picture looks unzoomed.
View/Actual Pixels
Ctrl+I Switchs to Eyedropper (color picker) tool. Keep in mind if you hold I, then click somewhere to obtain the color, then release I will switch you back to the last tool you've been using! Quite neat.
Toolbar Eyedropper tool
Shift+Ctrl+E Merge visible layers. I use it to form one layer out of all the visible layers, while keeping the transparency and ditching the background layer that "Flatten image" creates.
Layer/Merge visible
Ctrl+F Repeat the last used filter. It works on any layer you select, you're not limited to applying it on one layer. Useful to intensify the filter.
Filter/Last filter (?)
Can't remember any others now, but as soon as I collect some other neat hotkeys, I'll share them in
next issue of tips&tricks.
Being more organised and accurate
Accuracy and tidy workspace can save time and make your work less frustrating.
Tip 1:
Use bigger screen resolution. The resolution I use to work is 1680x1050, on a widescreen monitor.
It looks awesome if you ask me!
Tip 2:
Close all unnecessary windows. Only keep most important windows on so you can quickly move
between windows with alt+tab.
Tip 3:
Zoom when you feel the need. It can really hurt your eyes to look at those tiny little spots you left
while selecting, etc...
Tip 4:
Use rulers, guides and grids! YOU NEED THEM! Those features are real gems. Guides
speciffically, but still 80% of PS users (PowerUsers, I might add) don't know how to use them...
Click on the ruler, and drag a friggin guideline, is it so hard?
This is especially useful in web design, for obvious reasons... To remove guideline just drag it back
up to the ruler with "Move tool".
Tip 5:
Name your layers with authentic names. Create layer groups, aswell.
Tip 6:
Make backups of your work, also keep your .psd source files. Who knows, in few years you might
end up selling it at an auction house! Just kidding... Creating backups is really important in case
your computer ends up shutting down, etc... Keeping .psd files... well... to share the knowledge of
course! Put it on the Internet =)
Tip 7:
Don't overuse third party brushes... They're evil, and bad habit. You won't have brushes everywhere
you go, making your own stuff, not relying on brushes is a medal of true skill.
Tip 8:
Check tutorials on the web, but also share your knowledge too. Post your OWN tutorial on our
website!
Tip 9:
Have fun when using photoshop. Art is meant to express yourself. Expressing yourself though
artistic manners has to be fun, otherwise it's not a note-worthy experience.
Made by Krele ,