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Articles by Web Editor | Page 8
Un-Filling For Fun And Profit
Back in Photoshop 7.0, Adobe brought a once-buried command front and center when they added the Fill option to the Layers palette. This isn’t your average everyday fill. No sir, this is a special freaky fill that only works when you’ve applied a layer style to a layer. To see it in action (and immediately understand its power), create some text, and then apply a drop shadow. Lower the regular Opacity of this layer, and you’ll notice that both your type and the shadow fade at the same time. Now raise it back up to 100%. Then lower the Fill amount (in the Layers palette) and you’ll notice that the type fades away, but the drop shadow stays at 100%. Ahhhhhh. Makes you stop and think, doesn’t it?
Selecting Just One Object On A Layer
If you have multiple objects on the same layer (like a few words of type that have already been rasterized) and you want to select just one item on that layer (for example, you want to put a selection around one letter so you can move it independently of the rest of the letters), here’s how: Use any selection tool to create a loose selection around the object. Hold the Command key (PC: Control key), and then press the Up Arrow key once and the Down Arrow key once. The entire object will become perfectly selected without disturbing anything else on the layer. Now you can move it, edit it, or tweak it separately because it is a “floating selection.”
View Your Layer Mask As A Rubylith
If you want to view your layer mask by itself (rather than how the layer mask affects your overall image), hold the Option key (PC: Alt key) and click directly on the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette. This will display just the mask itself. You can also view the layer mask like a Rubylith (a red overlay used in traditional masking) that appears over your image by pressing the Backslash key (\) on your keyboard.
Layers Palette Navigation Speed Tips
The less you need to be in the Layers palette, the better (at least when it comes to speed), so here are some shortcuts you’ll want to know: When you want to select multiple layers, press Option-Shift-Left Bracket ([) (PC: Alt-Shift-Left Bracket) to select layers beneath your current layer. To select layers above your current layer, press Option-Shift-Right Bracket (]) (PC: Alt-Shift-Right Bracket). Continue Reading »
Easier Drop Shadow Angle Adjustments
If you’re creating a drop shadow using Photoshop’s built-in layer styles (from the Add a Layer Style pop-up menu in the Layers palette), rather than setting the Distance and Angle numerically, you can adjust it visually. Just move your cursor outside the dialog right into your image, click on the shadow itself, and drag it where you’d like it.
Color-Coding Made Easy
In Photoshop you can color-code layers and layer sets for quick visual identification. One way to do this is to bring up the Layer Properties dialog (from the Layers palette’s flyout menu) and choose your colors from a pop-up menu. But there’s a much faster way-at least if you know this shortcut: Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the Eye icon next to the layer you want to color-code and a contextual menu of colors will appear where you can choose the shade you’d like.
Shapes Without The Shape Layer
If you use Photoshop’s Shape tools, by default they create a Shape layer (which is basically a layer filled with your Foreground color with a clipping path in the shape of your shape, if that makes any sense). We’ve had loads of email from users asking us, “Do I have to have that funky Shape layer? Can’t I just have the shape without the layer and clipping path?” Absolutely! When you choose one of the Shape tools, look in the Options Bar and on the far left you’ll see three icons. Click on the third icon from the left and you’ll get just the shape-no Shape layer, no paths, no kidding.
Layer Effects Removal Speed Tip
If you want to remove all the layer effects applied to a particular layer, don’t drag them all into the Trash one by one. The fastest way is to simply drag the Layer Effects icon (it looks like a little “f”) directly into the Trash icon at the bottom of the Layers palette, and all the effects go right along with it.
Separation Anxiety: Put A Layer Style On A Separate Layer
When you apply a layer style to a layer using the Add a Layer Style pop-up menu in the Layers palette, you’ve done just that-applied a style to a layer, and that style is married to that layer. However, if you’d like to edit your effect separately from the layer, you can ask Photoshop to put to the layer style on its own separate layer (or layers if necessary). To do this, click on your layer, then go under the Layer menu, under Layer Style, and choose Create Layers. Your effect will now appear on its own layer beneath your current layer. Note: If you apply a bevel effect, it will create multiple separate layers.
Layer Navigation Shortcut
If you’re working on a large, multi-layered document and you have the Move tool (V) active, you can jump to the layer you want by Control-clicking (PC: Right-clicking) on a portion of the image. A contextual menu will appear with a list of the layers beneath the point where you clicked your cursor. To make one of those layers the active layer, just choose it from the menu. It’s important to note that if there aren’t any layers beneath where you’re clicking (or the layers are transparent where you’re clicking), the only layer that will appear in the menu is the Background layer.
Easier Drop Shadow Angle Adjustments
If you’re creating a drop shadow using Photoshop’s built-in layer styles (from the Add a Layer Style pop-up menu in the Layers palette), rather than setting the Distance and Angle numerically, you can adjust it visually. Just move your cursor outside the dialog right into your image, click on the shadow itself, and drag it where you’d like it.
Can’t We All Just Have The Same Style?
Want to apply a style that’s on one layer to a bunch of other layers? It’s easy (if you know the trick). Just link all the layers that you want to have that same style by Command-clicking (PC: Control-clicking) on them and clicking the Link icon at the bottom of the layers palette. Then Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the layer’s name with the style you want to copy and choose Select Linked Layers from the contextual menu that appears. Control-click (PC: Right-click) again and choose Paste Layer Style, and your copied style(s) will instantly paste to every linked layer.
Filter Gallery Zoom Quick Tip
If you’re in the Filter Gallery (under the filter menu) and want to zoom quickly to a particular level of magnification, just Control-click (PC: Right-click) anywhere within the preview window and a contextual menu of zoom views will appear.
Centering Dragged Layers The Easy Way
When dragging a layer from one document to another, the object will appear in the new document at the point your cursor was when you released the mouse button. If you’d prefer that the layer appear perfectly centered within the other document, just hold the Shift key as you drag, and when you release the mouse button, the object will be perfectly centered.
Moving Multiple Layers From Document To Document
Want to move more than one layer at a time from one document to another? It’s easy, as long as you know where to drag from. First, Command-click (PC: Control-click) to select your layers and then click the Link icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to link your layers together. Then, make sure that you drag your layer from within your document itself, rather than trying to drag the layer from the Layers palette. Dragging a layer from the Layers palette to another document is fine, as long as you only want to drag one layer at a time.
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Photoshop Tutorials
Design Effects
Corey shows how to use the luminosity of an image to create a cool design effect and spice up your simple photos.
Stylized Comic Book Effect
Using this effect, you can transform anyone into a comic book character with a halftone, saturated look.
Text Shape Layers
Converting text into shapes allows you to distort the text as you like while retaining straight, clean edges.
Borders Under a Minute
Create really cool borders in under a minute to use on virtually any one of your photos or even video for that matter.
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Halftone Smudge Brush
Here is an unusual way of using the Smudge tool to generate interesting halftone streaks.
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Scale Effects
Now this is something that still seems to stump people in Photoshop when it come to Layer Styles.
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Energize That Photo
Learn how to add excitement and energy to your photo in just a few simple steps.
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Design Elements from Photos
Here is a cool way to use parts of you photos as abstract design elements.
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Acrobat 9 PDF Security
In this tutorial, learn about applying and removing security options in Acrobat 9 -
Creating CSS Columns in Dreamweaver
In this video tutorial, RC talks about creating columns and headers using Dreamweaver. createObject('swf','/design/players/swfplayer.swf?video=videos/rc_create_css_columns.flv&pre=videos/pread.flv&post=videos/postad.flv','width','500','height','415','scale','exactfit','quality','high','allowScriptAccess','sameDomain','bgcolor','#ffffff'); This video requires Adobe Flash Player. -
Premiere Pro CS4 Nest Command
In this video, Franklin McMahon uses Premiere Pro CS4 to create a nested sequence and then overlay it over a backdrop. -
Roundtrip Logo From Illustrator to Photoshop
Dave Cross creates some grungy text using graphics with a texture image.
Imageready’s Supercharged Eyedropper
In previous versions of Photoshop, you could only use the Eyedropper tool to sample a color from other open images in Photoshop, but for some reason, ImageReady had a supercharged Eyedropper. If you clicked the mouse button within your image and held it down, you could leave your image window and sample colors from, well… just about anything—including your computer desktop or any other open application. Freaky! Fortunately, Adobe finally added this same power to Photoshop’s Eyedropper tool.
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