Twitter
RSS
Sponsored by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Learn More
Tip of the Day | Page 3
Change Quick Mask Options
When creating selections, change the Quick Mask options to make it easier. Double-click on the Quick Mask icon at the bottom of the Toolbox, and change the Color Indicates from Masked Areas to Selected Areas. Now, in Quick Mask mode, you can paint with black on your selection to add to it.
by Calvin Hollywood
Shortcuts To Adjustment Layers
Here’s another keyboard shortcut change that’s very useful if you use adjustment layers all the time. Go to Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts, choose Application Menus in the Shortcuts For drop-down menu, and twirl open the Layer option. Scroll down to New Adjustment Layer and click on one of the adjustments; for example, Curves. Change the shortcut to Command-M (PC: Ctrl-M) and accept that change. Now pressing that shortcut will add a Curves adjustment layer.
by Dave Cross
Dragging Between Tabs
When viewing your documents in tabs, how do you drag from one document to the next? Easy! Begin dragging your layer object with the Move tool (V). Drag into the tab of the desired document (don’t let go yet). Momentarily, the document will spring open. Now you can release your object and it will become a new layer.
by Colin Smith
Seeing The Real Thing
Most people open an image, make a selection, and then move the selected part into a new document to see how it looks. Instead, try moving the original image into the new document or background first. Then, while refining your selection in the Refine Edge dialog, under the View menu, choose On Layers (L). This will automatically show you your selected image on the new background, so you can see exactly what it’ll look like before finalizing the selection.
by Matt Kloskowski
Puppet Warp For Lens Correction
Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate the layer you want to correct, and navigate to Edit>Puppet Warp. Now, click to drop a pin in each corner to “lock” the image. Having done this, you can now lift horizon lines, straighten leaning buildings, etc.; you have exact control on small pieces of the image in a way you didn’t before. This is great for user-driven lens correction (useful for multi-image panos or images shot in perspective).
by Bryan O’Neil Hughes
Gradients For Light Effects
To get a nice light effect, press D then X to set your Foreground color to white and your Background color to black. Go to Layer>New Fill Layer>Gradient, set the Mode to Soft Light in the New Layer dialog, and click OK. Click on the Gradient thumbnail in the Gradient Fill dialog, and choose Special Effects from the Gradient Editor’s flyout menu. I love the Soft Stripes preset to create a light effect. Don’t forget to play around with the angle, opacity, color stops, color, etc.
by Calvin Hollywood
Shortcut To The Color Picker
Photoshop CS5 is the first version that allows you to assign a keyboard shortcut to the Foreground Color Picker. Go to Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts and select Tools in the Shortcuts For drop-down menu. Scroll down until you see Foreground Color Picker and click on it. Enter a letter to change the shortcut. (I chose P for Picker, using the logic that I use the Color Picker way more times a day than I do the Pen tool.) If you choose a letter that’s already in use (such as P), you’ll have to click the Accept button to make this change.
by Dave Cross
Use PNG For Transparency
In the past, the only way to get transparent graphics on the Web was to use a GIF image. Unfortunately, GIF only allowed transparency in an “it either is or isn’t” way. With the PNG file format, you can save varying degrees of opacity, called Alpha transparency.
by Raphael “RC” Concepcion
Create A Most-Used Brush Set
If you’re tired of having to dig through all the “funky” brushes in the Brush Preset Picker to get to the ones that you want, then try this: First, open the Preset Manager (under the Edit menu), and organize and remove any unwanted or unused preset brushes. Then, click the Save Set button to create your own set of presets that only contain the brushes that you use over and over again. In the Brush Preset Picker’s flyout menu, select Replace Brushes and choose your set of saved brushes.
by Pete Collins
Tracking, Kerning, And Leading On The Fly!
After you set some text, you can adjust the spacing between all the letters, specific letters, or even the spacing between lines of text. Highlight all the text, then press-and-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key while pressing the Left and Right Arrow keys to adjust the tracking or the Up and Down Arrow keys to adjust the leading. Kerning can be adjusted by placing your cursor between two letters and then holding the Option (PC: Alt) key and pressing the Left Arrow or Right Arrow key.
by Corey Barker
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120
Photoshop Tutorials
Hollywood Touch-Ups
See how you can add some subtle touches to give that green screen studio shot the Hollywood treatment.
3D Christmas Ornaments
Corey shows how to create reflective holiday ornaments using 3D in Photoshop.
Styles & Text
This week Corey has a tutorial using layer styles and text shapes to create energetic effects.
3D Light Beams
This effect was discovered by a 'happy accident' and uses the 3D features inside of Photoshop CS4 Extended.
-
Flare Effects
Corey has a cool trick for creating a flare brush and see how one effect can lead to another.
-
Hollywood Touch-Ups
See how you can add some subtle touches to give that green screen studio shot the Hollywood treatment.
-
3D Christmas Ornaments
Corey shows how to create reflective holiday ornaments using 3D in Photoshop.
-
3D Distortions
This week Corey has a cool new trick for using 3D reflections in a rather creative way!
Premium Video Tutorials From NAPP
Photo Retouch
Scott Kelby shows you how to take an overexposed photo into a great photo using Photoshop. Want Great Photoshop & Photography Skills?
Extended Definition Processing
Scott Kelby shares a technique he's been working on, which gives your final image an HDR look using just one photo.
Join NAPP & Get a Free DVD.
Smart Object Masking Trick
Dave Cross shares a trick he discovered that will help you remove white from around your subject when using smart objects.
Want More?
Light Painting
Dave Cross takes a popular trend - light painting - and shows you how you can paint text recreating this cool trend.
You Don't Need to be a Pro to Join NAPP.
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
