Create A Composite Layer

If you have a multilayer composition and you
want to apply an effect to all the layers at once, don’t flatten the layers–use a composite layer instead. Hide the layers you want excluded, and press Shift-Command-Option-E (PC: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-E). A new layer will be created at the top containing a merged copy of all the visible layers.

Another option is to create a new layer at the top of the stack and make it active. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) each layer you want to include to make those layers active, as well. Press Option-Command-E (PC: Alt-Ctrl-E).
by Colin Smith

January 13th, 2012 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Creating Glossy Lips

If you see a shiny highlight on your subject’s lips, and you want to make it look glossier, duplicate the Background layer then change your layer blend mode to Screen to brighten the entire image. Option-click (PC: Alt-click) the Add Layer Mask icon to hide this brighter layer behind a black mask. Press D to set your Foreground color to white; choose a small, soft-edged Brush (B); and paint over those white highlight areas on the lips and they’ll get even glossier.
by Scott Kelby

January 10th, 2012 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Types Of DashesTypes Of Dashes

Did you know there’s more than one dash? In Photoshop, add a standard dash for separating clusters of words by pressing the Hyphen key. To add an en dash to show duration of time (e.g., Monday-Saturday), press Option-Hyphen (PC: Alt-0150). An em dash is used to separate a thought within a sentence and can be added by simply pressing Option-Shift-Hyphen (PC: Alt-0151).
by Corey Barker

January 2nd, 2012 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Colorize Your Favorite Commands

Do you need every command in every menu for your retouching? You can hide all the commands that you don’t need and colorize all the commands that you use often. Go to Edit>Menus and twirl open one of the menu items. Click on the Visibility (Eye) icon to hide a command, and then on None in the Color column to choose a color for your favorite commands. To see all the hidden commands on a menu, choose Show All Menu Items from that menu.
by Calvin Hollywood

December 23rd, 2011 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Expanded View For Adjustment Layers

If you find the Adjustments panel is a little on the small side, you can make it larger with one click. Down at the bottom of the panel is an icon (second from the left) that changes it to Expanded View. Click that icon to get a larger panel.
by Dave Cross

December 22nd, 2011 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Reset All Of Your Preferences

When you need to be able to get all of the preferences in Photoshop back to where they were when you installed the program, press-and-hold Command-Option-Shift (PC: Ctrl-Alt-Shift) as you start Photoshop. This will bring up a dialog asking if you want to delete your settings.
by Raphael “RC” Concepcion

December 21st, 2011 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Hanging Punctuation

If you have a text block with quotation marks, it’s standard to have them appear outside the text block so that the copy can line up. Just double-click on the text layer’s thumbnail to select the text block, then from the Paragraph panel’s flyout menu, choose Roman Hanging Punctuation.
by Corey Barker

December 19th, 2011 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Change Canvas Color

The canvas area outside of a document’s boundaries is gray by default. You can change it by Right-clicking anywhere on the canvas and choosing Select Custom Color. Grab your color from the Color Picker that pops up. Beware that color will influence how you see other colors, so that’s why it’s gray.
by Colin Smith

December 16th, 2011 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Stroke It

Stroke It
When preparing an image for printing, as the final step add a 3-pixel black hairline around the perimeter to define the edge. Here are a couple of easy ways to do this:
- Select the entire image (Command-A [PC: Ctrl-A]). Then, go to Edit>Stroke and set the Width to 3 px, the color to black, and the Location to Inside.

- With the image layer unlocked (if it’s the Background layer, double-click it), add a Layer>Layer Style>Stroke. Set the Size
to 3 px, Position to Inside, and color to black.
by John Shaw

December 15th, 2011 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Deleting A Layer

This one is short and sweet: Instead of dragging a layer to the Delete Layer icon (trash can) to delete it, you can quickly delete a layer by pressing the Delete (PC: Backspace) key.
by Matt Kloskowski

December 14th, 2011 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)