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Photoshop > 120 Photoshop tips, tricks and xes

120 Photoshop tips, tricks and xes

By Creative Bloq Sta

23 days ago Photoshop

Improve your skills and speed up your workow with these great Photoshop tips.

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Photoshop is an easy tool to use and a di cult one to master, but help is at hand with our comprehensive list of tips,
tricks and xes for Adobe's showpiece software. Whether you're looking for tips on using layers, advice on mastering
the pen tool, a guide to using RAW, or ways to improve your brush work, it's all here!
Most of these tips were originally published in Practical Photoshop magazine now part of Digital Camera World. If
you're a photographer, we recommend making DCW a rest stop on your travels around the web!
Here are the best Photoshop tips, whether you are using an older CS version or the very latest Creative Cloud
software. We've grouped them by category to make it easier for you to nd the stu that's the most relevant to your
work right now, but be sure to check them all!
Quick Photoshop tips (this page)
Essential shortcuts
Layer tips
General tool tips
Pen tool tips
Brush and painting tips
Precise colour and lines
Adobe Camera Raw and Bridge
Let's get started

Quick Photoshop tips

01. Easier marquee selections

Hold down Alt to start a selection at the centre point with any Marquee tool, and then hold Space to temporarily
move the selection around.

02. Undo, undo, undo

You probably know that Cmd/Ctrl+Z is Undo, but you may not know Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+Z lets you undo more than one
history state.

03. 1000 history states

Go to Edit>Preferences>Performance to change the number of History states up to a maximum of 1000. Beware
though of the e ect that this has on performance.

04. Cycle blend modes

04. Cycle blend modes

Shift + or will cycle through di erent layer Blend Modes, so long as you don't have a tool that uses Blend Mode
options settings.

05. Rotating patterns

Photoshop tips: Rotating Patterns

You can make amazing kaleidoscopic patterns with the help of a keyboard shortcut. Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T lets you
duplicate a layer and repeat a transformation in one go. To demonstrate, we've made a narrow glowing shape by
squeezing a lens are e ect, but you can use any shape, image or e ect you like. First, make an initial rotation by
pressing Cmd/Ctrl+T and turning slightly, then hit Enter to apply. Next, press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T repeatedly to
create a pattern.

06. Combine images with text

Photoshop tips: Combining images with text

There's a really easy way to overlay an image on top of text. Drop an image layer over a type layer then hold down Alt
and click the line between the two layers in the Layers Panel to clip the image to the text.

07. Bird's eye view

When zoomed in close, hold down H and drag in the image toinstantly dart out to full screen then jump back to
another area. One of the best Photoshop tips for viewing work!

08. Funky backgrounds

Photoshop tips: Funky backgrounds

Want to change the default grey background to something more funky?Shiftclick over the background area with the
Paint Bucket tool to ll it with your foreground colour. Right-click it to go back to grey.

09. Close all images

To close all of your documents at the same time, Shift-click any imagewindow's close icon.

10. Spring-loaded move

While using any tool, hold Cmd/Ctrl to temporarily switch to the Move tool. Release to go back to your original tool.
Note that spring-loaded keyboard shortcuts work for other tool shortcuts, too.

11. Interactive zoom

For interactive zooming, hold Cmd/Ctrl+Space then drag right to zoom in, or left to zoom out. The zoom targets
where your mouse icon is, so it's one of the quickest ways to navigate around an image.

12. Diuse eects

Photoshop tips: Di use e ects

The Di use Glow lter can give highlights a soft ethereal feel, especially when you combine the e ect with
desaturation. Hit D to reset colours then go to Filter>Distort> Diuse Glow. Keep the e ect fairly subtle, then go to
Image>Adjustments>Hue/ Saturation and drop the saturation down to complete the dreamlike e ect.

13. Step by step: select sky with channels

A: Copy Blue Channel

Photoshop tips: Copy Blue channel

Go to Window Channel then drag the Blue Channel to the New Channel icon to duplicate it. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+L to access
Levels, then drag the white and black point sliders in dramatically to make the sky totally white and the land black.
Now use the Brush tool and paint with black to tidy any bits in the land.
B: Load a selection

Photoshop tips: Load a selection

Hold Cmd/Ctrl and click the Blue Copy Channel to load a selection of the white areas. Click back on the RGB Channel
then go to the Layers Panel and add a Curves Adjustment Layer. The selection is automatically turned into a mask.
Drag down on the curve to darken the sky.
Next page: Essential Photoshop shortcuts

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