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Nudging 10 Pixels At A Time
As you know, as long as you have the Move tool (V) selected, you can move (or nudge) your current layer using the Up/Down/Left/Right Arrow keys on your keyboard. For every press of an Arrow, it nudges your layer 1 pixel in that direction. However, if you hold the Shift key and use the Arrow keys, it nudges the object 10 pixels at a time.
Dangerous Intersection?
You’ve already learned that if you’re using a selection tool (Lasso, Rectangular Marquee, etc.) and you need to add an additional area to your currently selected area, you can hold the Shift key, then any selection you draw with one of those tools will be added. But what if you have a selection and instead you want to create a new selection that will intersect with your existing selection to create an entirely new selection (Whew! That sounds complicated just explaining it)? Here’s how: Draw your first selection, then up in the Options Bar you’ll find four icons for various selection options. The fourth icon is Intersect with Selection. Click on it, then draw another selection that overlaps your existing selection and all will become clear (grasshopper).
Brushes Palette: That’s Not A Header, It’s A Button
If you look in the expanded Brushes palette (docked in the Palette Well by default), there’s a list of controls on the left side of the dialog. At the top it shows Brush Presets, and you might figure that you can click on that and get some options, but the one that catches just about everyone off guard is just below that. It’s the header for Brush Tip Shape. It appears to be a header for a list of brush tip options below it, but in reality, it’s a button (I know, it doesn’t look like a button, but it is). Click right on the words “Brush Tip Shape” and the Brush Tip Shape options are revealed in the main panel on the right.
The Smaller Toolbox Trick
Is that Toolbox taking up too much space, but you don’t want to close it, because a few seconds later, sure enough, you’ll need a tool? Then just double-click on the very top of your Toolbox and it will tuck up out of the way, leaving just that little tab showing. Need it back fast, just double-click the little tab again and it comes right back.
Getting Your Warnings Back (Resetting All Dialogs)
One thing I love about Photoshop is that a number of warning dialogs have a magical checkbox that says “Don’t show this dialog again” (or something along those lines). However, if you later decide you want these warning dialogs put back into play (this is especially helpful if you’re training someone new on your computer), you can have them become active again. Just go under the Photoshop menu (PC: Edit menu), under Preferences, and choose General. In the General section of the Preferences dialog, click on the button at the bottom of the dialog named Reset All Warning Dialogs.
Escape From The Crop Tool (Or Die!)
Sometimes when you’re using the Crop tool (C), you change your mind and decide not to crop. If this happens to you, do you have to crop and then press the undo shortcut? Nah, press the Escape key to cancel your crop and remove the cropping border. You can also click on the circle with a slash icon (the international symbol for “NO”) on the far right of the Options Bar to cancel a crop. Okay, there’s one more way, just switch tools—a dialog will appear asking you if you want to complete the crop or not. Just hit Don’t Crop.
Scrubby Slider Shift-Click Trick
Adobe borrowed scrubby sliders, a very cool feature from Adobe After Effects, and put it in Photoshop. You use it by clicking on a field’s name, rather than in the field itself, and the value in the field changes as you drag (scrub) over the field’s name. However, it scrubs in very small increments. That is, unless you hold the Shift key, which is ideal when you need to make big changes in the field (like from 0 to 256).
Quick Trick To Reapply That Filter
Want a convenient shortcut that lets you run the last filter you applied, without going to the Filter menu? Too bad (just kidding). Simply press Command-F (PC: Control-F). What if you don’t want the same settings (ah, I knew you were going to ask that)? Try pressing Command-Option-F (PC: Control-Alt-F), which brings up the dialog for the last filter you applied with the last settings you used.
How To Tame The Select Similar Command
A popular trick for making selections of large areas (such as backgrounds) is to select part of the background that contains most of the colors that appear within that background. Then you can go under the Select menu and choose Similar. Photoshop will then select all the similar colors in your image. This can really speed up the task of selecting an entire background, especially if the background is limited to just a few colors. Here’s the tip: Do you know what determines how many pixels out the Similar command selects? Believe it or not, it’s controlled by the Magic Wand’s Tolerance setting. The higher the setting, the more pixels it selects. Eerie, ain’t it? Sooooooo… if you use Similar, and it doesn’t select enough colors, go to the Magic Wand tool, increase the Tolerance setting, and then try running Similar again. This all makes perfect sense (at least to an engineer at Adobe).
Can’t Remember Selection Shortcuts? Look At The Cursor
If you’ve made a selection and want to add to that selection, just hold the Shift key and you can add more area to it. Of course, we just told you it was the Shift key, but what if you couldn’t remember which key it was? Just press a modifier key (such as Shift, Option/Alt, Command/Control, etc.) then look at your cursor. When you hold the Shift key, a little plus sign appears at the bottom right-hand corner of the cursor to tell you that you can add to the selection. Hold Option (PC: Alt) and a minus sign appears to tell you that you can subtract from the selection. Hold Command (PC: Control) and a pair of scissors appears, telling you that if you click-and-drag the selection, it will cut out the image inside of the selection and move it right along with the cursor.
Using The Lasso Tool? Keep It Straight
We normally use the Lasso tool (L) for drawing freeform selections, but sometimes you’ll find that while drawing your selection you’ll need to draw a perfectly straight segment, even for just a few pixels. You can do just that by holding the Option key (PC: Alt key), releasing the mouse button, and continuing to draw your selection. You’ll notice that your cursor changes to the Polygonal Lasso tool, and that as you move the mouse, a perfectly straight selection will drag out. When you’ve dragged the straight selection where you want, click-and-hold the mouse button (to add a point), release the Option/Alt key, and you’ll be back to the regular Lasso tool again. Drag the mouse to continue drawing your selection.
Getting A Fresh Histogram In One Click
When you have the Histogram palette open to monitor your tonal adjustments to an image, you may see a tiny warning symbol in the top-right corner of your histogram. That’s its way of letting you know that you’re looking at a histogram reading from the histogram’s memory cache—not a fresh reading. If you want to refresh the histogram and get a new reading (and you should), you can click directly on the tiny warning symbol and it will refresh immediately for you.
The Hidden Measurement Pop-Up Menu
You probably already know the trick about entering values in measurement fields in the Options Bar. You can change your unit of measure by typing the appropriate abbreviation after the value (for example, if you want 100 pixels, you’d type in “100 px”). But there’s an even easier way (and you don’t have to memorize a bunch of abbreviations). Just type your number, Control-click (PC: Right-click) in the field, and a pop-up menu of measurement units will appear. Just choose the one you want and it’ll take care of the rest.
Lost Your Cursor? Find It Fast!
Photoshop’s cursors can be easy to lose onscreen, especially if you’re working on a big screen or with the crosshair cursor (meaning you have the Caps Lock key active). Well, the next time you’re working on an image, and you say to yourself, “Hey, where in the heck is my cursor?” (but you use a different word in place of “heck”), try this—just hold the Spacebar down for a moment. This temporarily changes your cursor into the Hand tool, whose icon is larger, white, and easy to see. Once it appears, you’ll see right where your cursor is, and you can release the Spacebar.
A Tip For People Who Train New Photoshop Users
If you’re responsible for training beginners, especially in a corporate environment where you’re training people to do specific tasks in a specific order (like prepress), you can use this and the previous two tips to make your (and their) life easier. First, go to the Menus command (found under the Edit menu) and hide every menu item you don’t want them to see or mess with, leaving only the items they’ll actually use visible. You can even hide palettes they don’t need to see (by double-clicking on the word “Window” in the dialog and turning off the Eye icons to hide palettes). This makes Photoshop appear less cluttered, and therefore less intimidating. As they learn more and get better, you can reveal additional features to them.
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Photoshop Tutorials
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Wild West Grunge
Corey shows you how to recreate this rugged, weathered look using a couple of filters, blending modes, and layer masks.
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Wall of Text
Use a clipping group to place an image inside of a background of text, with another layer of text placed in front to create depth.
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Natural Brushes
In this tutorial Corey shows you how to take an existing image and turn it into it’s own custom brush.
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Custom Coins
In this tutorial Corey creates a realistic-looking coin effect using the channels palette and the lighting effects filter.
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.- Custom Coins
In this tutorial Corey creates a realistic-looking coin effect using the channels palette and the lighting effects filter. - Natural Brushes
In this tutorial Corey shows you how to take an existing image and turn it into it's own custom brush.
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Creative Contrast in Photoshop CS3
In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at some interesting techniques for improving contrast using the Shadow/Highlight command, empty adjustment layers, blend modes, and the Blend If sliders in the Layer Style dialog. -
Enhanced Workflow in Lightroom 1.1
In this article, we'll focus on techniques that will strengthen your workflow skills and simultaneously reveal some of the new features in Lightroom 1.1. -
Handlin’ Photoshop and Illustrator Content in Flash
we’ll take a look at how things work across Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash-specifically, some features and techniques for getting rasterized Photoshop content and vector Illustrator content into your Flash movies. -
Understanding Channels in Photoshop CS3
Photographer Chris Alvanas wants to go over Channels, because understanding what they are and what they do is key to understanding what their potential is.
Removing Those Typographically Incorrect Spaces
If you’re trying to set type that looks typographically correct in Photoshop, there’s an old habit you’ll have to break, and that’s the curse of putting two spaces at the end of every sentence. This is a holdover from people who at one time used traditional typewriters, where adding two spaces was necessary, but in typesetting that’s a huge no-no. About 70% of the text I copy-and-paste from text files that people give me has two spaces, but I use this Photoshop tip to fix the problem in just seconds. First, go under the Edit menu and choose Find and Replace Text. In the Find field, press the Spacebar twice (entering two spaces), then in Change To, press the Spacebar just once. Click Change All, and every time Photoshop finds two spaces at the end of a sentence, it will replace it with just one, making you typographically correct.
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Photoshop CS3 for Photographers Tour May. 19 - Nashville, TN
Photoshop CS3 for Photographers Tour May. 22 - San Francisco, CA
Photoshop CS3 for Photographers Tour May. 28 - New York, NY
Maximum Photoshop Tour May. 30
