RSS FeedTip of the Day | Page 16
Switching Between Open Bridge Windows
As you learned earlier, you can have more than one Bridge window open at a time (which is great for looking at different collections of images at the same time). Well, if you’re going to be working with multiple windows, you’re going to want to know this shortcut, which toggles you back and forth between open Bridge windows. It’s Command-Shift-˜ (that’s the Tilde key, found right above the Tab key on your keyboard). Note: Unfortunately for PC users, this shortcut doesn’t work.
Rename any Photo Fast
Want to rename a photo? Just click on its thumbnail then press the Spacebar. Its name will highlight and you can just type in a new one. When you’re done, just press the Enter key.
Ejecting Discs from within the Bridge
If you’ve got a CD, jump drive, a camera memory card, etc., hooked up to your computer, you can eject it without leaving Bridge. Just go to the Folders pane, click on the disc you want to eject, then go under Bridge’s File menu and choose Eject.
Emailing From Bridge
Okay, you can’t exactly email from Bridge, but this is the closest thing—you can drag images directly from Bridge right into your email message window. Just open your email program, create a new message, then go to Bridge, find the photo you want, drag-and-drop the thumbnail in your email message window, and it attaches to your message. Note: This can vary depending on the email program you use.
Deleting Unwanted Photos Fast
Let’s say you’ve opened the photos from your latest shoot (after you’ve backed them up to CD, of course), and you realize there’s only five or six photos that you really want to keep, and you want to delete the rest. Use this tip to make quick work of getting rid the hundreds you don’t want—just Command-click (PC: Control-click) on the five or six you want to keep, then go under the Edit menu and choose Invert Selection. This command selects every photo but those five or six you selected. Now you can just press Command-Delete (PC: Control-Delete) to delete all the ones you don’t want. Big time saver.
Duplicate Any Photo Fast!
Want to duplicate an image in Bridge? Just click on it and press Command-D (PC: Control-D) and it will appear at the bottom of your Bridge window. This used to be the shortcut for Deselect All back in the File Browser of CS, but now it duplicates the image. That’s probably got you thinking, “Hey, so if Command-D doesn’t deselect all, what shortcut does?” It’s Command-Shift A (PC: Control-Shift-A).
Collections Are Live, Baby!
If you create a collection (let’s say it’s a collection of all photos on your hard disk that have your son’s or daughter’s name as the keyword), this collection is “live” and by that I mean that anytime you import a new photo and assign that same keyword (your son’s or daughter’s name), that photo will automatically also appear in that collection (well, technically it updates the next time you click on that collection, but that’s technical, right?). To create a collection, just do a search for the keyword you want by pressing Command-F (Control-F), enter your criteria in the Find dialog, and then once the results window appears, click on the Save As Collection button in the top-right corner. To see if your imported image appeared in your collection, click on Collections in the Favorites pane, and double-click on the collection to open it in its own window.
Getting Back To Your Bridge Window After Searching
When you perform a search (by pressing Command-F [PC: Control-F]), although it at first seems that your results appear within your same Bridge window—they don’t. They appear in their own separate window, so if you want to get back to working in Bridge, you have to close the results window.
Faster Color Labeling Shortcut
By default, the shortcuts for applying a color label require you to hold down the Command key (PC: Control key), so you’d press Command-6 for Red, Command-7 for Yellow, etc. (PC: Control-6, -7, etc.). But if you find yourself using color labels a lot, you can change it so it only takes one key—the number, rather than Command/Control. Just press Command-K (PC: Control-K) to go to the Bridge Preferences, click on Labels (from the list on the left side of the dialog), and then turn off the checkbox for Require the Command Key (PC: Control Key) to Apply Labels and Ratings.
I Wanna Go Back
If you’re on a webpage and you want to go back to the previous page, you just hit the Back button, right? Well, luckily Adobe added a Back button to Bridge as well, so to get back to your previous folder of images, just click the Go Back button (it’s the left-facing arrow) at the top-left corner of your Bridge window. You can also go to your next folder by clicking the Go Forward button (it’s the right-facing arrow), but did I really have to tell you that?
Opening An Image And Hide Your Bridge Window
One thing that really adds to your desktop clutter is the fact that when you open a photo from Bridge, your Bridge window remains open behind your photo. In most cases, you can still see the top, right-hand side, bottom, or all sides (depending on the size of your image) peeking out from behind your photo. But it doesn’t have to be that way. To open a photo and have Bridge automatically close its window, don’t just double-click on the thumbnail to open it; instead, Option-double-click (PC: Alt-double-click) on the thumbnail.
How To Know If A Photo Is Open In Photoshop
If you’re in Bridge and notice a little round icon with a bent page has appeared in the bottom-right corner of your thumbnail, that’s Bridge’s way of telling you that the image is currently open in Photoshop.
How To Get More Than Three Panes
That headline is a setup I can hardly resist, but I’m going to totally ignore it and jump right to the tip, although it panes me. (Sorry, I couldn’t help it.) By default, Bridge (and the File Browsers that came before it) has three panes visible on the left side of the window (with the Folders and Favorites panels on top, Preview in the middle, and the Metadata and Keywords panels below that). But in CS2 it doesn’t have to be just three—you can add more panes (ideal if you’re working on a really large monitor). Here’s how: Just click-and-drag the tab of the pane you want to have in its own section until it appears right beneath one of the existing panes. When you see a thick, blue horizontal line appear between the two panes, that’s your cue—release the mouse button, and your pane has a new home.
Seeing Your PDF Pages Bigger
If you’re using the previous tip to view PDF documents within Bridge, here’s a tip you’ll probably want to know to make your PDF’s pages appear larger onscreen. If your PDF contains regular letter-sized pages, click the Switch Filmstrip Orientation icon found to the right of the arrow buttons below the PDF. This switches your view so your thumbnails appear along the side, which makes your letter-sized pages larger. Now you can grab the bottom-right corner of the Bridge window and expand it to make your view even bigger, so it’s “biggity big” (that’s a technical term, not to be used lightly).
Viewing The Pages Of PDFs From Within Bridge
Got a multipage PDF and want to see inside it? No sweat—just switch to Filmstrip view (click the Filmstrip icon near the bottom-right corner of the Bridge window), click on the PDF’s thumbnail in Bridge, and little arrow buttons will appear beneath the PDF, which let you move from page to page inside the PDF.
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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.
- Chicago, IL
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
