Photoshop Learning's

There is a million ways of doing things in Photoshop. And over time everyone develops their own little favorite bag of tricks. So here is a set of tricks I’ve used in recent weeks. Some of those you probably already know, some may be new, so just in case (these are all for CS4, some may or may not work in prior versions):

• Clipping Masks: By creating a clipping mask for any layer (through the fly-out menu), any adjustment or content in that layer will only apply to pixels in the layer it is attached to. A great solution for making localized color or exposure changes.
• Snap to Guides: Guides can be great tools to help snap elements to it as you’re moving things around. The easiest way to create a guide – drag the mouse from the ruler into your image.
• Subtract/Add on selection tools: Most times creating a selection some fine tuning is needed. Subtract an area, add an area that the selection tool just didn’t get right. Of course there is the submenu to switch the tool. But much easier is holding down the Alt key to temporarily switch the tool to the opposite mode.
• Moving layers between files: Have a background layer or texture that needs to get loaded? Or a standard copyright template? Easiest way is to open it into a new file (from Lightroom or Bridge), then go to ‘Duplicate Layer’ and select the correct document. That duplicates the layer into the original document. If the windows are tiled you can also just drag-drop the layer.
• Visualizing a layer mask: If you use layer masks a lot, sometimes it’s nice to visualize them in the image. Use the ‘\’ key to display it in quick-mask mode as a red overlay.
• Visualizing clippings: When adjusting levels, sometimes it’s nice to see where the clipping threshold is first breached. Holding down the Alt key while adjusting the slider will add a mask that illustrates this in real time.
• Tool Switching: Retouching often requires a multitude of tools is used, switching frequently. Using the pen to click the toolbar, particularly when cycling through the sub-options of a tool can be very time consuming and disruptive to the flow. Knowing the short cuts for each tool (b = brush, s = clone, j = heal, etc.) saves a lot of time. And with the preferences configured correctly, pushing the shortcut for the currently active tool cycles through the sub-options. So a single key stroke of the left hand gets you from dodge to burn to brush while keeping the right hand on the pen.
• Non-destructive dodge & burn: I’ve switched to rely on dodge & burn a lot more to even out skin, rather than healing brushes. It is less destructive on the texture and thus creates a better result. But it requires practice. And with anything in Photoshop – if there’s a non-destructive option, it’s always preferred. The trick to non-destructive dodge & burn is a separate layer filled with 50% grey and softlight blend mode. Then use a 5% opacity soft brush and the dodge & burn tool removes skin blemishes.
• Cloning in tight spaces: Ever cloned close to a transition area in an image, and struggling to get in tight without working pixel by pixel? The easy fix is to select the area that needs to stay as-is, inverse the selection, and then use the clone stamp. Because of the selection, it’s ok to work with a larger brush – it won’t overreach.

There are probably more that I can’t think of right now. So we’ll keep this list short, but I might add to it over the coming weeks….