Using The Lasso – Don’t Stop To Navigate

If you’re using the Lasso tool (L), you have a surprising amount of navigation control, even while you’re dragging out your selection. For example, if you’re drawing a selection and you need to scroll over a bit, just press-and-hold the Spacebar, and right where your cursor is, the Hand tool will appear. Then you can move the image while you’re still selecting (try it once and you’ll see what we mean). When you let go of the Spacebar, you’re right where you left off, and you can continue your selection. Here’s another Lasso tip: If you’re drawing a selection and reach the edge of your document window and need to scroll over, hold the Option key (PC: Alt key), let go of the mouse button, move your mouse to the edge of your image window, and you can nudge the screen over (again, this is one you have to try once to understand it). It’s like you’re using the Lasso tool to slide the image over. When you’re done sliding, press the mouse button and release Option/Alt to continue selecting. Incidentally, while selecting, you can also use the zoom in/out tricks: Command–+ (Plus Sign) (PC: Control–+) and Command–- (Minus Sign) (PC: Control–-).

February 1st, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Let Photoshop Tell You The Highlight And Shadow

We use this tip to have Photoshop help us determine which are the darkest (shadow) points and which are the lightest (highlight) points in an image when we’re color-correcting. We start by choosing a Threshold adjustment layer from the Create New Adjustment Layer pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers palette. When the Threshold dialog appears, we drag the slider all the way to the left and the image turns completely white. We then slowly drag the slider back to the right, and the first black pixels that appear onscreen are the shadow areas. We make a mental note of that area as our shadow point. Then we drag the slider all the way to the far right (the image turns black). As we drag slowly back toward the left, the first white pixels that appear are the highlight points in the image. We note them as well. We now know where the shadow and highlight points are in the image, and we can use them, along with the Eyedropper tools in the Curves dialog (Command-M [PC: Control[M]), to set the proper shadow and highlight areas to remove any color casts. Note: When you’ve determined where the shadow and highlight areas are, you can then delete the Threshold adjustment layer by dragging it into the Trash icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

January 31st, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

No More Creating Type In Channels

If you’ve ever tried to create and format type in a channel, you know what a pain it can be. Especially because, when you’re working in a channel, it doesn’t create an editable Type layer, so you’re really limited to how you can format and, of course, edit your type. So instead of creating type in a channel (which many special channel-type effects call for), just create your type on a layer as usual. In fact, don’t go to the Channels palette at all—just pretend you’re not using channels. Once you’ve got your type formatted and adjusted just the way you want it on your regular Type layer, Command-click (PC: Control-click) on your Type layer’s thumbnail in the Layers palette. This puts a selection around your type. Now you can go under the Select menu and choose Save Selection. When the dialog appears, click OK, and it saves your perfectly formatted type as (you guessed it) a channel. Now you can delete your Type layer, and you’re left with an Alpha channel with perfectly formatted type.

January 30th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Blend Mode Power Tip

Once you understand layer blend modes, you wind up using them all the time. Chances are by now you know which individual modes you want to use (such as Overlay, Multiply, Soft Light, Hard Light, Screen) and which ones you’ll probably never use (such as Dissolve). If you know which ones you want to use, you can use a keyboard shortcut to jump right to the blend mode you want. For example, to jump to the Overlay mode for a layer, press Option-Shift (PC: Alt-Shift) and the first letter of the mode you want, in this case, the letter O (making the shortcut Option-Shift-O [PC: Alt-Shift-O]). For Screen mode, you’d press Option-Shift-S (PC: Alt-Shift-S), and so on. (Note: If you have a tool selected that has a blend mode in its Options Bar, such as the Brush tool [B], the keyboard shortcut will change that tool’s blend mode instead of the layer blend mode.)

January 29th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Prepress Cleanups—In A Snap

This is a great tip if you’re zoomed in close to an image for retouching, or checking it in prepress for spots or specs, because it lets you check the entire image in a very methodical way—using your keyboard to navigate zone by zone. Here’s how:

Press the Home key to jump to the upper-left corner of your image window.
Press the End key to jump to the lower-right corner of your image window.
Press the Page Up key to scroll upward one full screen.
Press the Page Down key to scroll downward one full screen.
Press Command-Page Up (PC: Control-Page Up) to scroll one full screen to the left.
Press Command-Page Down (PC: Control-Page Down) to scroll one full screen to the right.

Once you’ve learned these shortcuts, you can start by pressing the Home key (jumping you to the upper left-hand corner of your image). Clean that area then press the Page Down key to move methodically down the left side of your image until you reach the bottom of your window. Then press Command-Page Up (PC: Control-Page Down) to move one screen to the right, clean that area, then press the Page Up key to move methodically up the image until you reach the top. Repeat these steps until you’re finished. The advantage of doing it this way, besides the sheer speed of using keyboard shortcuts, is that you’ll see every area of the image without missing a spot.

January 26th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Actions Power Tip: Add An Action To Your Action

Here’s an actions power tip: Did you know that you can build an action that will include an existing action? Here’s how it’s done: As you’re recording your action, just go to the Actions palette, click on the existing action you want to include in your current action, and click the Play button at the bottom of the Actions palette. The existing action will now be added as a step in your current action (pretty scary stuff).

January 25th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Drag-And-Drop Curves For Quick Correction

If you’re color-correcting a number of images that are basically the same (for example, catalog shots or high school yearbook shots, where the lighting and composition are pretty much the same), you may want to apply the same Curve setting to a number of images. Rather than saving the Curve setting and loading it each time, try this tip: Use the Create New Adjustment Layer pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers palette to create a Curves adjustment layer, and then just drag-and-drop that adjustment layer from your current image to your target image.

January 24th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

The Secrets Of Searching In The Browser

Don’t get caught in the trap of thinking that you have to assign keywords to your photos before you can start using Bridge’s Find function (although keywords certainly make it easier). But to find out just how much power the Find function really has, just press Command-F (PC: Control-F), then choose your options from the pop-up menus in the Criteria section. If you remember you shot the photo you’re looking for with a certain camera, you can search All Metadata for that make and model. You can also search by Rating, Date Created, and a host of other criteria.

January 23rd, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Creating Reusable Diagonal Guides

If you’ve used Photoshop’s rulers at all, you know that you have your choice of either a vertical or horizontal guide. That’s not a bad thing, but there’s one thing missing—a diagonal guide. Since Photoshop doesn’t have one, here’s a tip for making your own: Start by clicking the Create a New Layer icon in the Layers palette, then double-click on your Foreground color swatch and in the resulting Color Picker, set it to R: 161, G: 253, B: 253 (the color Photoshop uses for its built-in guides). Switch to the Line tool found in the Shapes tools (Shift-U until it comes up), and on this new layer draw a diagonal line where you want your guide to appear (make sure you have Fill Pixels icon selected in the Options Bar). It’s not a bad idea to copy that layer into a separate document and save it on your drive—so anytime you need a diagonal line, you can just open that document and drag it right in.

January 22nd, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

3D Print Effects (And Where To Get Those Goofy Glasses)

For a brief time back in the 1950s, 3D movies were all the rage, but it was short-lived, probably because you had to wear those cheesy-looking 3D glasses to experience the effect. Although 3D has come a long way since then, unfortunately you still have to wear the cheesy glasses. Be that as it may, the 3D effect is starting to appear again in print ads in trendy magazines, which generally include the paper 3D glasses in the magazine. This effect can be created in Photoshop, no problem. The hardest part is finding a supplier for 3D glasses (okay, we’ll help on that part too. Try 3D Glasses Direct at www.3dglasses.net). Here’s a tip on how to create the 3D effect in Photoshop: Open an RGB image, then go to the Channels palette and click on the Red channel. Go under the Filter menu, under Other, and choose Offset. For Horizontal enter –5 and set Vertical to zero. For Undefined Areas, choose Repeat Edge Pixels, then click OK. In the Channels palette, click on the RGB channel to reveal the effect. Then, lastly, you have to determine which part you want to appear as “coming out of the image” toward the person viewing it. Switch to the History Brush (Y), and using a soft-edged brush, paint over the area you want to “jump out” from the image. As you paint with the History Brush, you’ll see your original untouched image paint back in (don’t sweat it, that’s what it’s supposed to do). Now all you have to do is order the glasses.

January 19th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Saving Your Actions As Printable Text Files

This is a totally undocumented actions tip, and if you need it, it’s a real lifesaver. Once you’ve created an action, you can actually save a text document with all the action steps so you can have a printed hard copy of your action. Here’s how: In the Actions palette, click on the action set containing the action that you want to save as a text document. Hold Command-Option (PC: Control-Alt) and from the Actions palette’s flyout menu, choose Save Actions. When the Save dialog appears, you’ll notice that the three-letter file extension is TXT (indicating it’s a text file) rather than ATN (which is the Photoshop action format). Click OK and you’ve got a text file you can open in any word processor to print out your steps.

January 18th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

New Snapshot: The Mistake Insurance Policy

The great thing about Photoshop’s History feature is that you can (by default) undo your last 20 steps. Perhaps even more important is that you can always return to how the image looked when you opened it, so you never really do any permanent damage (as long as the file is open). However, what if you opened an image, worked on it for a while, and it was really looking great, but about 10 minutes later, it took a turn for the worse (this happens to us more often than we’d care to admit). If you undo the last 20 steps, it may not take you back far enough to the point that you want to return to, and the only other choice is to go all the way back to where you started. Here’s a tip to keep you from pulling your hair out: Any time your image is at a stage where you think it looks pretty good, go to the History palette, and at the bottom of the palette, click on the Create New Snapshot icon. Think of it as an insurance policy, so that if things go bad, you can at least return to that spot and try again. It’s not a bad idea to create a new snapshot about every five minutes when you’re working on a big project. To keep from loading up on snapshots, when you create a new one, delete one or two snapshots before it.

January 17th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Applying Multiple Filters? Not On My Layer!

Thinking of applying a number of different filters to a particular layer? Don’t do it. Instead, make a copy of your layer by pressing Command-J (PC: Control-J), then apply the first filter. Make another copy of the layer and apply the second filter; make another copy, apply the third filter, and so on. You can use Photoshop’s layer blend modes in the Layers palette to get the effect that one filter is applied on top of the others, and now you’ve got full control over each individual filter applied. If you don’t like one of the filters, just drag that layer into the Trash. Better yet, you’ve got blend and opacity control you wouldn’t have by simply applying filter over filter.

January 16th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Assigning Metadata To Multiple Files

Want to assign metadata to more than one photo at a time in Bridge? (Perhaps you want to embed your copyright info into 30 or more photos at once.) Just Command-click (PC: Control-click) on all the photos you want to affect, then enter the custom info you want (in one of the IPTC fields in the Metadata palette) and that info will be added to every selected photo at once.

January 15th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

More Control Over Filters

We love Photoshop’s Fade command (which acts like an “undo on a slider”), and when it comes to applying filters, we use it all the time to gain more control (including blending mode control) over filters we apply. The only downside to the Fade command (which is found under the Edit menu) is you can only use it one time—you get one opportunity to Fade, or choose a Blend Mode, then you’re stuck. Here’s a tip to keep the control of your filters for as long as you’d like: When you’re about to apply a filter, make a duplicate of the layer before you apply the filter by pressing Command-J (PC: Control-J) and then apply the filter. This keeps the application of your filter fully editable—you can change blend modes as often as you like, change opacity, add a layer mask to determine where the filter shows and where it doesn’t, or even toss the layer in the Trash and start all over.

January 12th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)