Photoshop Tips
Turning Off Auto Correction For Good
If you don't like the Auto corrections that are applied to your RAW images by default, you can change things so that when you open photos from your camera, it will no longer perform any Auto corrections. Here's how: Open a RAW image and press Command-U (PC: Control-U) to turn off all the Auto corrections in Camera Raw. Then go under the flyout menu (to the right of the Settings pop-up menu) and choose Save New Camera Raw Defaults. Now, when you open a photo taken with the same camera make and model, it will no longer apply any of the Auto settings.
Don't Click The White Balance Tool On Something White
The White Balance tool (I) actually works best by clicking on something in your photo that is light gray, rather than clicking on something that is supposed to be white. Once you've clicked on a light gray area, use the Tint and Temperature sliders if you want to tweak the white balance a little bit, but use the White Balance tool to do most of the work.
Black-and-white Conversions In Camera Raw
Believe it or not, Camera Raw is great for creating black-and-white conversions. Start by opening a RAW image, then lowering the Saturation to -100. Adjust the Exposure and Shadows sliders to create a nice contrasty image, then drag the Contrast slider to the right to give the image even more contrast. Now try all the different White Balance presets until you find the one that looks best for your particular conversion. You can even add sharpening if you like by clicking on the Detail tab and adjusting the Sharpness slider. And best of all, you can create a surprisingly good black-and-white image before it actually enters Photoshop CS2.
Undo A Save? That's Impossible, Isn't It?
This is a great trick we learned from our buddy Mike Ninness, and the first time we saw it, we said, "Hey, wait a minute, that can't be." Oh, but it be. It's how to undo a Save. This is especially helpful after you've flattened an image, saved the file, then realized that you needed to change something on a layer. This only happens to us about every other day, and here's the keyboard shortcut to fix it: Command-Option-Z (PC: Control-Alt-Z). Press it a few times after you've flattened and saved, and look in your Layers palette to see all the layers come a-rumbling right back. Pretty slick stuff
.
Fall In Love With A Temporary Brush, Or Not
You can create a temporary brush anytime in Photoshop by playing with the options in the Brushes palette (which is nested in the Palette Well by default). After you make your choices, start painting. When you switch to another brush, the temporary brush you just created is gone. If you fall in love with your temporary brush (which is considered illegal in 48 states) and want to save it, before you change brush sizes, click on the Brush thumbnail in the Options Bar, and when the Brush Picker appears, click on the New Preset Brush icon in the upper right-hand corner, you sick pup.
Change Brush Softness On The Fly
You can increase or decrease the softness of a round brush in Photoshop without changing the size of the brush by pressing Shift-Left Bracket or Shift-Right Bracket. That's almost too easy.
How To Correct One Problem Color
Let's say you have an image, but the sky doesn't look as vibrant as you'd like, and you want to increase the amount of blue without affecting the rest of the image. Try this on for size: Open an image that contains a daylight sky. Click on the Create New Adjustment Layer pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose Color Balance. In the Color Balance dialog, drag the Blue slider all the way to the right (it looks bad now, but trust me) and click OK. Now, press B to switch to the Brush tool. Press the letter X until your Foreground color is black, and with a large, soft brush, start painting over the areas you don't want blue. As you paint, the blue Color Balance you added is painted away. The sky is much bluer, but you can paint away the added blue from the other areas. To really see the before/after difference, click the Eye icon next to the adjustment layer.
Building a better background eraser tool
Here's a tip for making Photoshop's Background Eraser tool much more effective. Choose the Background Eraser tool (it's in the Eraser tool's flyout menu in the Toolbox), and in the Options Bar, lower the Tolerance setting to 20%. Click on the Brush thumbnail to open the Brush Picker and choose a large, hard-edged brush. Then, press P to switch to the Pen tool, making sure that the Paths icon (middle one at left in the Options Bar) is selected. Draw a path just outside the edge of the object you want to isolate (you don't have to be precise; in fact, stay just outside the edges of the object and draw straight lines all the way around the image). Go to the Paths palette (under the Window menu), and in the palette's flyout menu, choose Stroke Path. When the dialog appears, under Tool, choose Background Eraser, and click OK. The Background Eraser will instantly trace around your image, following the path you created. Now that the edges have been erased, you can use the regular Eraser tool to erase the rest of the background area.
Custom Brushes: Start With A Clean Slate
If you're going to build your own custom brush in Photoshop, sometimes it's easier to start with an existing brush and edit it. The problem is that you may have all sorts of settings already in place (Texture, Scattering, Shape Dynamics, etc., along with all their individual options). To set everything back to their defaults could take a while. At least it would if you didn't know this cool little trick: Click on the brush you want to use as your starting point for your custom brush, and in the Brushes palette, click on the options you want to edit (like Texture, Scattering, etc.). Then, from the palette's flyout menu, choose Clear Brush Controls, and all the selected options will be instantly reset to their default settings.
Feather A Selection Without The Guessing Game
Most of us try to guess how many pixels will give us the nice, soft selection we're looking for when we use the Feather Selection dialog (under the Select menu). Sometimes we guess right, and other times we press Command-Z (PC: Control-Z) to undo the damage before trying again. Try this instead: Make your selection first, and then press Q to turn on the Quick Mask mode. Now make the edge fade out by going under Filter, under Blur, and choosing Gaussian Blur. You can see how much of a blur you'll need to soften the edges as you adjust the Radius amount. When you're done, press Q to get back to Standard mode with the selection already made with the exact amount of feathering that you want.
Dragging-and-dropping Where You Want
If you drag an image from one document to another, the dragged image appears right at the spot where you let go of the mouse button. You may know that if you hold the Shift key when you drag-and-drop the image, the dragged image will automatically be centered within the receiving image. But you can go one better-make a selection in the receiving document, then hold the Shift key before you drag. Your image will be centered within the selection, instead of within the entire document. Scary, isn't it? You can also copy-and-paste the selection and Photoshop will center the pasted image in the selection.
Want Arrowheads? Photoshop Can Add Them For You!
This one is pretty slick because it's been a feature in Photoshop for a while, but eight out of 10 Photoshop users will tell you Photoshop can't create arrowheads on the ends of lines (if it makes you feel any better, nine out of 10 dentists didn't think Photoshop could do it either). Here's how: First, go under the Shape tools (in the Toolbox) and choose the Line tool. Then, up in the Options Bar, you'll see icons for the Shape tools. Directly to the right of these eight icons is a down-facing triangle. Click on that triangle and out pops a dialog where you can click a checkbox to add arrowheads to either the beginning or end of your line, and you can choose the Width, Length, and even the Concavity (there's that dentist thing again).
Swapping Crop Fields
Adobe snuck a little button into the Options Bar that's hardly noticeable. It works with tools such as the Crop tool (C), and it's a big time saver. For example, for the Crop tool it swaps the measurements in the Width and Height fields, so if you have the Crop tool set to crop to exactly a 5x7", if you click this Swaps button, it will now crop to 7x5". See? I told you it was handy.
The Undocumented Airbrush Toggle Trick
This cool, undocumented shortcut comes from our good friend, Web wizard, and all-powerful overlord of every Photoshop keyboard shortcut known to man, Michael Ninness (author of the book Photoshop 7 Power Shortcuts, from New Riders, ISBN 0735713316). Here's the tip: As you probably know by now, the Airbrush tool has been gone from the Toolbox since 7.0, but you can add Airbrush control to some painting tools by clicking on the Airbrush icon found in the Options Bar of most Brush tools. However, that takes a lot of trips up to the Options Bar. Ah, if only there were a keyboard shortcut that would let you toggle this Airbrush feature on and off at will. Well, there is, and thanks to Michael, we can share it here-it's Option-Shift-P (PC: Alt-Shift-P). Makes you want to buy Michael's book, doesn't it?
The Multiple Undo Shortcut
Need to back up a few steps to readjust a setting? Piece of cake. Here’s a shortcut to do just that. You can step back through your History palette (found under the Window menu) by pressing Command-Option-Z (PC: Control-Alt-Z) a few times. This doesn’t delete the items, but takes you back a step in the History palette each time you apply the shortcut.
Photoshop's Hidden Step And Repeat
Although Photoshop doesn't have a visible Step and Repeat function (like many vector or page-layout programs do), it still has the feature-it's just a bit hidden. For example, let's say you have an object on a layer, and you want to duplicate and move or rotate that object a number of times in succession (a typical step-and-repeat), here's how you can do it in Photoshop CS2: Start by going to the original layer with the object, then press Command-Option-T (PC: Control-Alt-T) to bring up a special version of Free Transform. Now you can transform your object (move it, rotate it, skew it, etc.), then press Return (PC: Enter) to lock in your transformation. You'll notice that your original object remains untouched on its layer and you now have a new layer with the transformed object. Now press Command-Option-Shift-T (PC: Control-Alt-Shift-T) and this will create a duplicate of your last move, and at the same time it creates a new layer, thereby giving you a step-and-repeat (you have to try this once, and you'll immediately "get it").
Removing Edge Fringe When Collaging
Any time you're creating a collage, you'll eventually add an image that has little white pixels around the edges of your object. Here's a tip for getting rid of that "fringe." Go under the Layer menu, under Matting, and choose Defringe. Try the default setting of 1 pixel and click OK. What this does (here's the techno speak) is replace the edge pixels with a combination of the pixel colors in your object and the colors in the background (whew, that hurt). That usually does the trick. If it doesn't, undo it, then try a 2- or 3-pixel Defringe.
The Trick To Tricky Extractions
Adobe's own Julieanne Kost (Photoshop guru and instructor supreme) showed this at the Photoshop World Conference & Expo, and it had everybody's jaw dropping, but little has been said of it since, even though it's built into Photoshop CS2's Extract function (found under the Filter menu). It's called Textured Image and you use it when you're dealing with a tough extraction-a person with a dark shirt posing on a dark background, for example-and Extract can't really tell where the shirt ends and the background begins. Turning this on helps detect the edges by examining the texture, and if it detects a texture (like you might find in a shirt), it can often help pull you out of a tight situation.
Having History Track Your Layer Visibility
By default, the History palette tracks the last 20 things you did in Photoshop, but (weird as this may sound) it doesn't track when you hide or show a layer. For some reason, it just doesn't record that. Well, that is unless you know this tip: Go to the History palette's flyout menu and choose History Options. When the History Options dialog appears, turn on the checkbox for Make Layer Visibility Change Undoable. Now, you can undo your showing and hiding of layers from the History palette.
Find Things Fast By Color-coding Themfind Things Fast By Color-coding Them
If there are particular areas of Photoshop you use a lot, you can make finding them in the menus even faster by color-coding your favorite menu items. Here's how: Go under the Edit menu and choose Menus. When the dialog appears, scroll down to the menu you want and double-click on it. Now scroll down until you find the command you want to color-code, and then click on the word "None" to the far right of that item (under the Color column) and a menu of colors will appear. Choose the color you want for that item, and from now on it will appear highlighted in that color. This is ideal if you're training new Photoshop users. For example, you could color-code certain items for when they're doing prepress (maybe make those items appear in red)and choose another color for when they're designing Web graphics.
Use The Move Tool Anytime
When you’re using just about any of Photoshop’s tools, you can temporarily switch to the Move tool at any time by simply holding the Command key (PC: Control key). It’s temporary, and as soon as you release it, you’re back to the tool you started with.
Showing One Effect In The Filter Gallery
The idea behind the Filter Gallery (under the Filter menu) is the stacking up of one filter on top of the next, but if you want to see any one of the filters by itself, just Option-click (PC: Alt-click) on the Eye icon beside that filter in the filter stack, and all the other filters will be hidden from view. Option-click (PC: Alt-click) on the same Eye icon to bring them all back into view.
How To "unerase"
How To "unerase" You probably already know that you can use the History Brush (Y) as an "undo" on a brush, and that by default, the History Brush paints back to how your image looked when you first opened it. But did you know that the Eraser tool has a similar function? That's right; the next time you've got the Eraser tool (E) active, look up in the Options Bar and you'll see a checkbox for Erase to History. Normally, the Eraser tool erases to your Background color, but when you turn on this checkbox, it erases back to what the image looked like when you opened it.
Using The Pen? Stay Away From The Toolbox
Want to save trips to the Toolbox when using the Pen tool (P)? You're in luck. Better yet, you don't even have to hold down any modifier keys (such as Option/Alt, etc.), because Photoshop will do the work for you. Here's why: When you draw a path, move your cursor over a line segment and your Pen cursor automatically changes to the Add Anchor Point tool, so you can click anywhere along that path to add a point. Move your cursor over an existing point, and it changes into the Delete Anchor Point tool (click on the point, and it's deleted). This is called Auto Add/Delete, and it's on by default (you can turn it off, should you want to, using the checkbox in the Options Bar).
Navigating The Brush Picker Like A Pro
When you’re in the Curves dialog (Command-M [PC: Control-M]), if you’re charging by the hour, you can certainly travel up to the Channel pop-up menu and choose each individual channel you want to work on, but if you want to do it the fast way, just press Command-1 for Red, Command-2 for Green, and Command-3 for Blue (PC: Control-1, Control-2, etc.). If you need to return to the composite RGB channel, press Command-Tilde (PC: Control-Tilde). By the way, the Tilde key looks like ~, and it lives right above the Tab key on your keyboard. Don’t feel bad. Nobody knows what the Tilde key is. We’re not sure it’s a real symbol at all. We think it was made up so there wouldn’t be an empty space there on your keyboard. Hey, it’s somewhat plausible.
Reusing Your Last Curve Setting
Once you’ve applied a curve setting to an image, it’s very possible that you’d like to use that exact same setting again, or maybe you’d just like to tweak that setting a bit. Well, you can. To bring up the Curves dialog with the last curve you used still in place, press Command-Option-M (PC: Control-Alt-M).
Creating Temporary Brushes
It’s easy to create a temporary brush based on your preset brushes in Photoshop. Just click on the Brush thumbnail in the Options Bar to bring up the Brush Picker. Using the Master Diameter slider, you can change your brush size from 1 to 2500 pixels. If you like the size of your new brush and you want to save it, just click the Create a New Brush Preset icon at the top right of the dialog. The Brush Name dialog will appear so you can name your new brush. When you click OK, the new brush will immediately be added to your Brush Picker (and Brushes palette).
Open Up Some Screen Real Estate
A lot of times when you’re working on a project, your screen can get really cluttered with palettes (Photoshop is an especially palette-heavy application). If you want all the palettes out of the way for your convenience while you’re working, just press Shift-Tab to hide them, or Shift-Tabto bring them back. The menu bar, the Options Bar, and the Toolbox will still be visible.
Rotate To Any Angle The Fast Way
If you have a specific angle that you’d like to rotate a layer to, it’s easy. Get the Measure tool (it looks like a ruler and is in the Eyedropper tool’s flyout menu in the Toolbox), and click-and-drag out a line at the desired angle. Then go under the Edit menu, under Transform, and choose Rotate. Your layer will instantly rotate to match the angle that you drew with the Measure tool. Note: To rotate the Background layer, you must first select it (Command-A [PC: Control-A]).
Get Rid Of Unwanted Brushes
You probably already know that you can add a brush to the Brushes palette, but did you know that it’s even easier to delete them? Just hold the Option key (PC: Alt key) and you’ll notice that your cursor changes into a pair of scissors. Click once on the brush you want to delete and that baby’s gone—no warning dialog, no chance to change your mind—it’s gone.
Brushes Right Where You Want 'em
Here's a tip that gives you a faster and more convenient way to switch to another preset brush without using the Brushes palette-and you might find that you like it even better. Just press the Control key, then click within your image (PC: Right-click) and the Brush Picker will appear directly under your cursor. Plus, you can even change the Master Diameter of the brush that you choose in the Picker. This is one you'll have to try to appreciate the sheer speed and convenience of putting your brushes at your fingertips anytime.
Making Your Guide Flip
Just like most page-layout applications, Photoshop has non-printing guides you can pull out anytime you need to align objects or type, but there’s also a trick for flipping the guides. To access the guides, make your rulers visible by pressing Command-R (PC: Control-R), then click-and-hold within one of the rulers and drag out a guide. If you pull out a horizontal guide from the top ruler, but really wanted a vertical guide, just press the Option key (PC: Alt key) as you drag and your guide will flip from horizontal to vertical (pretty slick). You can pull out as many guides as you need (there’s probably a limit to how many you can use, but we’ve never reached it). When you’re done using a guide, just use the Move tool (V) to drag it back to the ruler where it came from. To remove all of your guides at once, choose Clear Guides from the View menu.
You Don't Need The Brushes Palette To Change Brush Size
In Photoshop CS2 you can increase or decrease the size of your brush by 10 pixels by pressing the Left or Right Bracket keys when the Brush tool (B) is selected. Once your brush is more than 100 pixels in size, it then moves in 25-pixel increments; if you go higher than 200 pixels, it moves in 50-pixel increments until you reach 300 pixels, at which point it moves in 100-pixel increments.
Find The
Need to find the exact center of your image? All you need is a layer filled with your Foreground color, and Photoshop will do the rest (okay, you have to do a little, but Photoshop will certainly help). First, click on the Create a New Layer icon in the Layers palette and press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill it with your Foreground color. Make your rulers visible (press Command-R [PC: Control-R]) and drag a guide down from the top ruler. When you get close to the center of the image, the guide will automatically snap to the exact horizontal center. Do the same with the side ruler, and it automatically snaps to the vertical center of your image. (Note: If there’s not any snapping going on, be sure Snap is turned on under the View menu.)
Rearranging Your Brushes
One of the things in Photoshop that just didn’t make sense to us was that you couldn’t easily rearrange the order of your brushes in the Brushes palette or Brush Picker. Oh sure, you couldcreate a whole new custom set with the brushes you wanted, in the order you wanted them, but it would take a while, and frankly, was such a pain that we only know a handful of people who actually went through the trouble. Well, our wish for easily rearranging brushes is finally here, but the process is a bit hidden beneath the surface. To move a brush from one spot in the palette to another, go under the Edit menu, and choose Preset Manager. In the Preset Manager dialog, under Preset Type, choose Brushes. Then, click-and-drag the brush of your choice to the location of your choice. At last, we are free to move brushes among the herd.
Miss The Old Default Actions?
If you miss the old default set of actions that has been shipping with Photoshop for years, you can get it back fairly easily. Just go to the Actions palette’s flyout menu and choose Sample Actions to reload that old default set.
Bring Order Back To Your World
In Photoshop, you’re constantly moving your palettes around, and before long, you’ve got one messy set of palettes littering your screen. If your palettes get messy, you’re only one simple menu command from having them back at their factory-fresh default locations. Just go under the Window menu, under Workspace, and choose Reset Palette Locations, and all will be right with your world once more (that is, until you mess ’em up again).
Fix Those Tool Settings Fast
There’s no doubt you’ll be “messing” with many, if not all, of the options for the tools you use every day in Photoshop. One day you’ll go to use a tool, and you’ll have messed with it to the extent that something’s just not right. To quickly get back to any tool’s default settings, choose the tool from the Toolbox, then Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the tool’s icon that appears in the Options Bar on the far left. A contextual menu will appear where you can choose Reset Tool to set it back to its factory-fresh defaults. By the way, while you’re there, you can also choose Reset All Tools and they will all revert to their defaults.
Ask Photoshop To Remember More
Photoshop CS2 remembers the last 30 documents that you had open, but by default it only displays the last 10 under the File menu, under Open Recent. However, you’re not limited to just 10. Would you rather Photoshop displayed the last 15 instead? Then in Mac OS X, go under the Photoshop menu, under Preferences, and choose File Handling (in Windows, Preferences can be found under the Edit menu). When the dialog appears, under Recent File List Contains, enter the desired number of files (up to 30) that you want to have quick access to under the Open Recent menu.
Where's The 3d Transformation Filter?
You can kill a lot of otherwise productive time searching for the 3D Transformation filter that's been in Photoshop for years. That's because it ain't there. It no longer installs when you install Photoshop, but Adobe thought that somebody, somewhere, might want to use it for something, so even though it doesn't install, you can find it in the Goodies folder on the Photoshop CS2 Resources and Extras disc. Just drag it into Photoshop's Filters folder (inside the Plug-ins folder) to get it back in your filter menu.
Make That Options Bar Float --float?
You may not realize it, but the Options Bar, which seems permanently docked at the top of your work area, can actually be redocked to the bottom of your screen, or you can make it into a floating palette. To make it float, just click on the little tab on the far-left side of the bar, drag it away, and viola, it floats. To dock it at the bottom of the screen, drag the tab down to the bottom left-hand side of your screen and it snaps into place. You can even hide the Options Bar altogether by choosing Options from the Windows menu. You can always get it back by double-clicking on any tool.
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 use 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 creat a new selection that will Intersect with your existing selection to create an entirely new 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).
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 where 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 how many pixles 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? Sooooo...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).
Side-by-side Photo Review
Want to compare two photos side-by-side? Just open both in Photoshop CS2, then go under the Window menu, under Arrange, and choose Tile Vertically, which places both photos onscreen, side-by-side, at their maximum "fit-in-window" size.
Cursor Too Small? Make It Bigger
At long last, bigger brush cursors are here. Just go to Preferences under the Photoshop menu (or under the Edit menu in Windows), under Display & Cursors, and choose Full Size Brush Tip. You also have the option of adding a crosshair to the center of your brush cursor by turning on that option (which appears just below Full Size Brush Tip.
Don’t Load That Bogus Slice!
If you’re slicing images for the Web in Photoshop (using the Slice tool), here’s a tip to save even more space. If you have a slice in your image that’s going to be the same color as your background (for example, you’ve got a solid white slice going on a solid white background), you can save file size by having that slice load no image at all. Sound like a plan? (I thought you’d like that.) Here’s how to do it: Once your slice is in place, make it active (using the Slice Select tool), and then double-click within the selection to get the Slice Options dialog. In the Slice Type pop-up menu, choose No Image and click OK. That way, when Photoshop generates its HTML for the page, there will be no image in that spot, just the white background showing through, giving you a faster loading Web page. Pretty sweet!
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.
Getting Smaller Photoshop Files
Do your Photoshop PSD file sizes seem a little large? It may be because of a Preferences setting that makes Photoshop save a flattened version of your Photoshop image, along with your layered Photoshop file. Why does Photoshop do this? Because there's a slight possibility you might share this file with someone using Photoshop 2.5 (just like there's a slight possibility that Congress will vote to cut their own salaries), and Photoshop 2.5 didn't support layers, so it can't read your layered document. But because, by default, that flattened version is included in your layered file, guess what-2.5 can open the flattened image. What luck! Who cares? I'd rather have smaller file sizes all year long, and if you would too, go under the Photoshop menu (the Edit menu in Windows), under Preferences, under File Handling, then in the File Compatibility section, for Maximize PSD and PSB File Compatibility, change Ask to Never. Think about this one for a minute and you'll wonder why this is turned on by default. Think about it for two minutes and you'll wonder why it's in Photoshop at all. Don't spend too much time on it, or you'll start to wonder who's the poor soul that's stuck on version 2.5.
Don’t Use Crop To Fix Barrel Distortion
Problem: You're trying to fix barrel distortion that appears on a photo you're editing, but using the Crop tool's Perspective feature is a guessing game. You try the crop and it doesn't look right; you have to undo it, and guess again. Solution: Don't use the Crop tool's Perspective feature (found in the Options Bar), even though it was specifically designed to address barrel distortion. Use the standard Free Transform command instead by pressing Command-T (PC: Control-T) and then pressing-and-holding the Command (PC: Control) key while you drag the corner handles to create your perspective. Doing this gives you a live onscreen preview as you work, so fixing the distortion takes just a few seconds-unlike Crop's Perspective.
Will More RAM Make Photoshop Run Faster?
Problem: You added more RAM to your system and assigned more RAM to Photoshop, but it doesn't seem to run any faster. Reason: Adding RAM doesn't always make Photoshop run faster. It only works if you didn't have enough RAM to begin with. Adding RAM will only help to make your computer run as fast as it can, but it won't make your 800-MHz computer run at 801 MHz. For example, if you work on Web images and the average image you work on is 3 MB, you only need about 15 or 20 MB assigned to Photoshop to have it run at full speed. If you've got that, and add another 256 MB of RAM, Photoshop won't run any faster, because Photoshop only needs that 15 or 20 MB that you already had. Freaky. To check your RAM usage, go under the Photoshop menu, under Preferences, and choose Memory & Image Cache (on a Windows PC, Preferences are under the Edit menu).
Stop The “click-and-jump-to-that-layer” Blues
Problem: All of a sudden, every time you click on a layer with the Move tool, it jumps to that layer. Solution: Somehow you turned on a feature called Auto Select Layer, which lets you make a layer active by just clicking on it with the Move tool. To turn this feature off, press V to get the Move tool, and up in the Options Bar, turn off the checkbox for Auto Select Layer. Besides, you never really need to turn this feature on, because you can just hold the Command key (PC: Control key) and click on any layer in your image window.
Making Global Light Work For You
Problem: You applied a drop shadow to an object on one layer, then later you applied a bevel on another layer, but in the Bevel and Emboss options in the Layer Style dialog, you notice that the position of your drop shadow just moved when you changed the angle of your bevel. Reason: Adobe uses a feature (that acts like a bug) called Global Light. The idea behind it makes sense, yet we’ve never run into the scenario it was created for. The idea is this: You’ve created an image with lots of drop shadows, all casting in a particular direction. If the client saw your work and said, “Hey, instead of having the shadows go down and to the right, can we make all the shadows go up and to the left?” If that unlikely event ever occurred, you’d be set, because all you’d have to do is move one shadow and all the other shadows on other layers would move to the exact same angle. It’s a great idea; it just never happens (okay, it’s probably happened somewhere, once). Solution: In the Layer Style dialog, deselect the Use Global Light checkbox. Now you can move the angle of your current layer style separately from the rest of your image. Life is good once more.
Fixing the "Rounded Corners" Selection Problem
Ever have this happen? You draw a selection with the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) and the corners of your selection are rounded, rather than nice and straight? This happens to a lot of people, especially if they’ve been drinking. If you haven’t been drinking but you’re suffering from rounded-corner selections, look up in the Options Bar, and you’ll see a field for Feather. Chances are there’s some number other than zero in this field, and what’s happening is every time you draw a selection with that tool, it’s automatically feathering (softening) the edge. What probably happened is you intentionally (or accidentally) added a feather amount at some time, then later forgot to set it back to its default of zero. So to fix it, just highlight the field and type 0 (zero). Incidentally, this is a great Photoshop prank to play on co-workers, friends, soon-to-be-enemies, etc., because the Feather field is usually the last place they’ll look.
Expanding Rectangular Selections
If you’ve ever tried to expand a rectangular selection by more than five or six pixels, you know what happens. The crisp, sharp-edged corners that you start off with become rounded. Here’s the fix: Don’t use the Expand command (found under the Select menu, under Modify). First, make your selection and press Command-T (PC: Control-T) to bring up the Free Transform bounding box. Go to the Options Bar and Control-click (PC: Right-click) in the Width and Height fields to change the measurements from Percent to Pixels. Now, simply add the amount of pixels you want to expand to the existing number. For example: If the field reads 110 pixels, and you want to expand it by 10 pixels, enter 120 pixels in the field and press Enter to apply the transformation. Don’t forget to change both the Width and Height fields. That’s it—perfectly expanded corners.
Get Back Your Background Layer
Lost your Background layer? It happens. It’s heartbreaking, but it happens. If you suddenly find yourself staring at a Layers palette and there’s no Background layer (chances are you accidentally converted your Background layer into a regular layer), here’s how to get a Background layer again: Click on the Create a New Layer icon, then go under the Layer menu, under New, and choose Background From Layer, and Photoshop will take your new blank layer and create a solid white Background layer at the bottom of your layer stack.
Stop the Crop Snapping
Problem: When you’re trying to crop an image using the Crop tool (C), your cropping border tries to snap to the edges of your document window. This might also be happening when drawing large Marquee selections as well. Solution: Press Command-Shift-; (PC: Control-Shift-;), which is the shortcut for turning off this snapping. The only downside is it turns off all snapping (like Snap To Guides, Snap To Grid, etc.). If you just want the Crop snapping (or Marquee snapping) off, go under the View menu, under Snap To, and choose Document Bounds, and your tools will no longer try to snap to your, well, document bounds.
How to Use RGB Filters on Grayscale Images
If you’re working on grayscale images, you’ll find there are some Photoshop filters that won’t work (they’re grayed out, so you can’t access them). Of course, it’s always the really cool filters, such as Lens Flare and Lighting Effects, that are grayed out. But don’t be dismayed (in fact, be “mayed”) because you can still use those filters—just switch to RGB mode (it’s found under the Image menu, under Mode), apply the filters, then switch back to Grayscale mode. It won’t affect the color of your image because, well, there is no color—you’re working on a grayscale image. Switching to RGB doesn’t suddenly pour color onto your image; your grayscale image will still look grayscale in RGB. When you switch back to Grayscale mode (after applying the filters), you’ll get a warning asking, “Discard color information?” You can safely click OK, because after all, there was no color to begin with.
The Reappearing/Disappearing Brush Tip
This one gets more people because it’s a feature that acts like a bug. Has this ever happened to you? You’re working in Photoshop, you’re using the Brush tool (B), and everything seems fine. But a little later in your session, you get the Brush tool again, and it no longer displays the size of the currently selected brush tip. Instead, it displays a little crosshair cursor. So you go to the Preferences menu and choose Display & Cursors, and sure enough, you’ve got Normal Brush Tip chosen as your preference, but for some strange reason, it’s not showing your brush size; it’s showing that stupid crosshair. Here’s the problem: Check your Caps Lock key. It’s turned on, and turning it on changes your Brush cursor from displaying brush size to displaying the crosshair. This is actually a feature to be used when you need to see the precise center of your brush. The problem is it’s assigned to the Caps Lock key, so every time you turn on Caps Lock when you’re working with type, you just temporarily switched your Brush cursor (or any cursor for that matter). Does Adobe need to find a better key for this feature/bug? You betcha! Will it happen? Not as far as I know.
Speeding Up Batch Actions
If you're running a Batch action on a folder full of images, one of the things that can really slow the process down is the fact that the History palette keeps creating History States (undos) for each image. To keep your Batch actions running at full speed, there are two things you can do: In the History palette's flyout menu, under History Options, turn off the checkbox for Automatically Create First Snapshot. Secondly, go under the Photoshop menu, under Preferences, and choose General (in Windows, Preferences can be found under the Edit menu). In the History States field, lower the number from 20 (the default) to 2 and click OK, then your Batch will run like a greased pig. Don't forget to increase your History States or change your History Options back after you're done batching or you'll be down to two undos.
Stroking Half a Path – Half a Path????
This is a mind-blowing advanced tip (not because it's hard - it's simple - but if you use the Pen tool [P], warning - your mind is about to spontaneously combust). Here's the scoop: If you're an advanced user, you already know that you can draw a path and then apply a stroke along that path (using the paint tool of your choice) by choosing Stroke Path from the Paths palette's flyout menu. But dig this: If you draw your path, but only want to stroke a portion of that path, all you have to do is make a selection (using the any selection tool) of the part of the path you want stroked. Then when you choose Stroke Path, it will only stroke the area of your path that is contained within your selection. Boom! That was the sound of our heads exploding.
Embedding Paths into Actions
If you're creating actions and you want your action to include a path that you've created, you can do that, but you have to draw your path first, before you record your action. Once you've drawn your path, and it comes to the part of your action that requires the path, go to the Action palette's flyout menu, choose Insert Path, and that path will be stored along with the action.
Add to Your Selections Through the Channels Palette
If you've got the Channels palette open and you have multiple saved Alpha channels, you can load any Alpha channel as a selection by holding the Command key (PC: Control key) and clicking directly on the channel's name. This instantly loads the selection. An even better tip: If you hold the Command key (PC: Control key) then add the Shift key (making it Command-Shift/Control-Shift) and click on another Alpha channel, it adds that to your current selection. You can keep adding more selections to your original selection until, well... until you run out of Alpha channels.
Moving Multiple Curve Points at Once
If you're working in the Curves dialog (Command-M [PC: Control-M]) and you want to make more than one point active at the same time, click on one point (to make it active) then hold the Shift key and click on another. As long as the Shift key is held down, you can click on as many points as you'd like to make them active at the same time.
Tough Selection Tip
If you're struggling to make a selection of an image that's against either a background of a similar color or a very busy background, here's a masking tip to make the process easier: Add a Levels or Curves adjustment layer above your image layer using the Create New Adjustment Layer pop-up menu, and use it to dramatically increase the contrast in the image to help make the edges stand out. This will often help make the difference between the object's edge and the background more obvious. The great part is, you can totally damage the look of the image because you're using an adjustment layer. When your selection is in place, just drag the adjustment layer onto the Trash to delete it, and your image is back to normal, but you've got that “impossible” selection still in place.
Let Photoshop Tell You the Highlight and Shadow
We use this tip to have Photoshop help us determine which are the darkest (shadow) points and which are the lightest (highlight) points in an image when we're color-correcting. We start by choosing a Threshold adjustment layer from the Create New Adjustment Layer pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers palette. When the Threshold dialog appears, we drag the slider all the way to the left and the image turns completely white. We then slowly drag the slider back to the right, and the first black pixels that appear onscreen are the shadow areas. We make a mental note of that area as our shadow point. Then we drag the slider all the way to the far right (the image turns black). As we drag slowly back toward the left, the first white pixels that appear are the highlight points in the image. We note them as well. We now know where the shadow and highlight points are in the image, and we can use them, along with the Eyedropper tools in the Curves dialog (Command-M [PC: Control[M]), to set the proper shadow and highlight areas to remove any color casts. Note: When you've determined where the shadow and highlight areas are, you can then delete the Threshold adjustment layer by dragging it into the Trash icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.
No More Creating Type in Channels
If you've ever tried to create and format type in a channel, you know what a pain it can be. Especially because, when you're working in a channel, it doesn't create an editable Type layer, so you're really limited to how you can format and, of course, edit your type. So instead of creating type in a channel (which many special channel-type effects call for), just create your type on a layer as usual. In fact, don't go to the Channels palette at all - just pretend you're not using channels. Once you've got your type formatted and adjusted just the way you want it on your regular Type layer, Command-click (PC: Control-click) on your Type layer's thumbnail in the Layers palette. This puts a selection around your type. Now you can go under the Select menu and choose Save Selection. When the dialog appears, click OK, and it saves your perfectly formatted type as (you guessed it) a channel. Now you can delete your Type layer, and you're left with an Alpha channel with perfectly formatted type.
Blend Mode Power Tip
Once you understand layer blend modes, you wind up using them all the time. Chances are by now you know which individual modes you want to use (such as Overlay, Multiply, Soft Light, Hard Light, Screen) and which ones you'll probably never use (such as Dissolve). If you know which ones you want to use, you can use a keyboard shortcut to jump right to the blend mode you want. For example, to jump to the Overlay mode for a layer, press Option-Shift (PC: Alt-Shift) and the first letter of the mode you want, in this case, the letter O (making the shortcut Option-Shift-O [PC: Alt-Shift-O]). For Screen mode, you'd press Option-Shift-S (PC: Alt-Shift-S), and so on. (Note: If you have a tool selected that has a blend mode in its Options Bar, such as the Brush tool [B], the keyboard shortcut will change that tool's blend mode instead of the layer blend mode.)
Actions Power Tip: Add An Action to Your Action
Here's an actions power tip: Did you know that you can build an action that will include an existing action? Here's how it's done: As you're recording your action, just go to the Actions palette, click on the existing action you want to include in your current action, and click the Play button at the bottom of the Actions palette. The existing action will now be added as a step in your current action (pretty scary stuff).
Drag and Drop Curves for Quick Correction
If you're color-correcting a number of images that are basically the same (for example, catalog shots or high school yearbook shots, where the lighting and composition are pretty much the same), you may want to apply the same Curve setting to a number of images. Rather than saving the Curve setting and loading it each time, try this tip: Use the Create New Adjustment Layer pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers palette to create a Curves adjustment layer, and then just drag-and-drop that adjustment layer from your current image to your target image.
The Secrets of Searching in the Browser
Don't get caught in the trap of thinking that you have to assign keywords to your photos before you can start using Bridge's Find function (although keywords certainly make it easier). But to find out just how much power the Find function really has, just press Command-F (PC: Control-F), then choose your options from the pop-up menus in the Criteria section. If you remember you shot the photo you're looking for with a certain camera, you can search All Metadata for that make and model. You can also search by Rating, Date Created, and a host of other criteria.
3D Print Effects (and Where To Get Those Goofy Glasses)
For a brief time back in the 1950s, 3D movies were all the rage, but it was short-lived, probably because you had to wear those cheesy-looking 3D glasses to experience the effect. Although 3D has come a long way since then, unfortunately you still have to wear the cheesy glasses. Be that as it may, the 3D effect is starting to appear again in print ads in trendy magazines, which generally include the paper 3D glasses in the magazine. This effect can be created in Photoshop, no problem. The hardest part is finding a supplier for 3D glasses (okay, we'll help on that part too. Try 3D Glasses Direct at www.3dglasses.net). Here's a tip on how to create the 3D effect in Photoshop: Open an RGB image, then go to the Channels palette and click on the Red channel. Go under the Filter menu, under Other, and choose Offset. For Horizontal enter -5 and set Vertical to zero. For Undefined Areas, choose Repeat Edge Pixels, then click OK. In the Channels palette, click on the RGB channel to reveal the effect. Then, lastly, you have to determine which part you want to appear as "coming out of the image" toward the person viewing it. Switch to the History Brush (Y), and using a soft-edged brush, paint over the area you want to "jump out" from the image. As you paint with the History Brush, you'll see your original untouched image paint back in (don't sweat it, that's what it's supposed to do). Now all you have to do is order the glasses.
Saving Your Actions As Printable Text Files
This is a totally undocumented actions tip, and if you need it, it's a real lifesaver. Once you've created an action, you can actually save a text document with all the action steps so you can have a printed hard copy of your action. Here's how: In the Actions palette, click on the action set containing the action that you want to save as a text document. Hold Command-Option (PC: Control-Alt) and from the Actions palette's flyout menu, choose Save Actions. When the Save dialog appears, you'll notice that the three-letter file extension is TXT (indicating it's a text file) rather than ATN (which is the Photoshop action format). Click OK and you've got a text file you can open in any word processor to print out your steps.
Applying Multiple Filters? Not On My Layer!
Thinking of applying a number of different filters to a particular layer? Don't do it. Instead, make a copy of your layer by pressing Command-J (PC: Control-J), then apply the first filter. Make another copy of the layer and apply the second filter; make another copy, apply the third filter, and so on. You can use Photoshop's layer blend modes in the Layers palette to get the effect that one filter is applied on top of the others, and now you've got full control over each individual filter applied. If you don't like one of the filters, just drag that layer into the Trash. Better yet, you've got blend and opacity control you wouldn't have by simply applying filter over filter.
Assigning Metadata To Multiple Files
Want to assign metadata to more than one photo at a time in Bridge? (Perhaps you want to embed your copyright info into 30 or more photos at once.) Just Command-click (PC: Control-click) on all the photos you want to affect, then enter the custom info you want (in one of the IPTC fields in the Metadata palette) and that info will be added to every selected photo at once.
More Control Over Filters
We love Photoshop's Fade command (which acts like an "undo on a slider"), and when it comes to applying filters, we use it all the time to gain more control (including blending mode control) over filters we apply. The only downside to the Fade command (which is found under the Edit menu) is you can only use it one time - you get one opportunity to Fade, or choose a Blend Mode, then you're stuck. Here's a tip to keep the control of your filters for as long as you'd like: When you're about to apply a filter, make a duplicate of the layer before you apply the filter by pressing Command-J (PC: Control-J) and then apply the filter. This keeps the application of your filter fully editable - you can change blend modes as often as you like, change opacity, add a layer mask to determine where the filter shows and where it doesn't, or even toss the layer in the Trash and start all over.
Accessing Grayed-out Filters In CMYK
One of the bad things about converting from RGB mode to CMYK mode (under the Image menu) is that many of Photoshop's coolest filters can only be applied in RGB mode, and once you're in CMYK mode, many of them are grayed out in the Filter menu, so they can't be accessed. So what do you do if you really want to use one of those filters? (Whatever you do, don't convert back to RGB mode, then back to CMYK. That's image suicide.) Instead, try this tip: In the Channels palette, click on the Cyan channel. Go to the Filters menu and you'll notice that all those grayed-out filters are now suddenly available. All you have to do now is apply the filter you want to each channel individually (once each on Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and finally the Black channel), and the filter will appear as though you applied it to the entire image (in reality, you did - you just did it the more laborious way). One way to speed up this process is to create an action that will do it all for you with one click of the mouse.
Troubleshooting Actions? Slow Down!
If you're an advanced user, chances are you're no stranger to using actions, and in fact, you probably create your own (rather than using the default actions that ship with Photoshop, many of which redefine the term "useless"). If you do create your own actions, you've already found that you spend more time troubleshooting your actions than you do creating them in the first place. Well, this little tip makes the troubleshooting process a lot easier, and saves you both time and frustration. The problem is (and this won't sound like a problem) Photoshop runs actions so quickly that you don't see each step, or each dialog, so tracking down a missing or wrong step is just about impossible. Luckily, you can actually slow down your action, or even put a pause between each step, by using Photoshop's Playback Options dialog found in the Actions palette's flyout menu. When it appears, you can choose to play your action Step by Step, seeing everything as it happens, or you can choose to enter the number of seconds you'd like it to pause. Then, when you replay the action, you can see everything step by step and track down the culprit.
Have Photoshop Select The Shadows And Highlights
This is a trick we use for prepress and for photo retouching because it instantly lets you select all the shadow areas (or highlight areas if you wish) for a particular image, and it's so easy because Photoshop does all the work. To have Photoshop select just the shadow areas in your image, go under the Select menu and choose
Visual Control Over Your Selections Using Quick Mask
Did you know that you can use Quick Mask mode to expand or contract your selections visually? Here's how: Create a selection (using any of Photoshop's selection tools), and then switch to Quick Mask mode (press the letter Q). Now you can go to the Levels dialog (under the Image menu, under Adjustments) and tweak the size of your selection. Moving the midtones Input Levels slider to the far left makes the selected area smaller (contracting the selection). Moving the midtones Input Levels slider to the far right makes the selected area larger (expanding the selection). The changes here usually aren't drastic, so you'd use this technique when a small adjustment to your selection is necessary, but seeing it like this beats the heck out of guessing.
Freeform/Pen Tool Quick Switch
If you're using the Freeform Pen tool (Shift-P until it comes up), there are times when you may want to temporarily switch to the regular Pen tool so you can draw a straight-line segment. You can actually do this by holding the Option key (PC: Alt key) and then releasing the mouse button. This temporarily switches you to the regular Pen tool so you can draw your straight-line segment by moving the mouse. When you're done, click-and-hold, release Option/Alt, and you're back to the Freeform Pen tool.
Power Up Your Layer Styles
Here's a little-known tip for controlling the intensity of your layer styles. This is particularly helpful if you've applied a number of different layer styles to a layer, and want to affect them all at the same time, rather than tweaking each one individually. It's called Scale Effects, and it's buried in the Layer menu, at the bottom of the Layer Style submenu. Choose it, and a dialog appears with a slider set to 100% by default. As you increase the amount (up to 1000% maximum), it increases the "scale" of all your effects. For example, if you increased the scale of a Drop Shadow layer style, the shadow would become blurrier and its distance from the object would become greater. If you adjusted a Stroke Layer Style, the stroke would become thicker, etc. Pretty powerful stuff.
Seeing Your Full-color Image While Editing A Channel
When you're working on an individual channel in the Channels palette (under the Window menu), by default Photoshop displays your current channel onscreen in grayscale. If you make changes to that channel, you only see how the change affects that channel. However, there is a little-known trick that lets you see the full-color image, while editing the currently selected channel. While you're editing the channel, just press the Tilde key (~), which is right above the Tab key on your keyboard, and you'll see the full RGB preview as you edit.
The Histogram Palette's Visual Cues
When you're using Photoshop's Histogram palette (under the Window menu), not only can you see a histogram of each individual channel (select the All Channels View option from the Histogram palette's flyout menu), but you can use color as your visual cue to quickly see which channel is which. Just choose Show Channels in Color from the palette's flyout menu, and then the Red channel histogram will appear in red, the Green in green, etc.
Keeping Track Of Your Every Move
If you'd like to keep a running record of every step, every tweak, every movement-virtually every little thing you've done to your image in Photoshop CS2-you can do just that. It's called History Logging. Basically, it keeps a running log (in the background) of all your
Action Insurance Policy
Have you ever written an action, and after it's done, you wish you hadn't run it in the first place? Maybe the effect just doesn't look right on the image, or there's a mistake or missing step in your action? Well, here's a tip that will help you, not just when you're testing your action, but even after you've perfected it. Bring up the Actions palette (found under the Window menu), click on the Create New Action icon, and once you're recording, make the first step of your action creating a snapshot. To do this, just open the History palette (under the Window menu) and click on the Create New Snapshot icon at the bottom of the palette. That way, if after the action runs, you don't like the results, you can just click on the saved snapshot in the History palette, and the image will instantly return to how it looked when you opened it.
More Curve Point Quick Tips
When you're working in Curves (Command-M [PC: Control-M]), once you've plotted a curve point, you can rotate over to the next point in your curve by pressing Control-Tab (PC: Right-click-Tab). To rotate back to the previous point, add the Shift key to make it Shift-Control-Tab (PC: Shift-Right-click-Tab). If you've got one or more points selected and want to deselect all your points, just press Command-D (PC: Control-D) to release all your points.
How To Read Four Areas At Once
Photoshop's Color Sampler tool lets you sample up to four different color readings from within your image at the same time. The cool thing is, anytime you have one of Photoshop's paint tools (Brush, Pencil, etc.), you can instantly access the Color Sampler by holding Shift-Option (PC: Shift-Alt). Click to add a color sampler and the Info palette immediately pops up to show you the reading. Each time you add a sampler, the Info palette expands to show that reading (leaving your earlier readings still visible). To delete any sampler, press Shift-Option (PC: Shift-Alt) again and just move the cursor back over the sampler and it will change into a pair of scissors. Click right on the sampler in your image to delete it. (Hint: You have to click directly on the sampler or it won't work, and this doesn't work for all painting tools.)
How To Sharpen Flesh Tones In Cmyk
When you're sharpening CMYK images, one of the toughest areas to sharpen are the flesh tones. Oftentimes, because of the soft nature of skin, you'll need a lot of sharpening, which can introduce noise and color shifts, particularly in flesh tone areas. One tip that's often used to combat this is to apply your sharpening to just the Cyan channel in the Channels palette in images where flesh tone is the focal point (such as in portraits).
The Simple Tip To Better Color Separations
Converting from RGB mode to CMYK mode for printing is easy, just choose CMYK from the Mode menu under the Image menu. However, getting great-looking separations on press takes more than just choosing the CMYK menu command. Before you convert to CMYK mode, call the print shop that's printing your job and ask them for their Photoshop CMYK separation setup. They'll provide you with custom settings to input in the CMYK Setup dialog that will give you a separation that's tuned to their particular printing press. Once they provide you with those settings, you input them by going under the Edit menu and choosing Color Settings. When the Color Settings dialog appears, click on the CMYK pop-up menu, and at the top of the menu choose Custom CMYK. The Custom CMYK setup dialog will appear, where you can enter the settings given to you by the print shop. Once entered, then you can make your CMYK conversion, and you'll get a better separation that's specially tuned to the press your job will be printed on.
Rgb Flesh Tones: Getting The "red" Out
If you're working on an RGB image and you've done your basic color correction but the flesh tone in your image still seems too red (a common problem), here's a tip to fix it fast. First, select the flesh tone areas in your image (using the Lasso tool, etc.). Add a slight feather by going under the Select menu and choosing Feather. Enter a 1-pixel feather for low-res images; 3-5 pixels for high-res images. Go under the Image menu, under Adjustments, and choose Hue/Saturation. From the Edit pop-up menu, choose Reds. Now lower the Saturation slider until your skin tones look more natural and click OK.
Apply Unsharp Mask To Cmyk Images
If you've already converted your image to CMYK mode and you want to quickly sharpen your image without introducing color shifts or halos, go to the Channels palette (under the Window menu), click on the Black channel, and apply your Unsharp Mask there. Applying the filter just to the Black channel will enable you to apply a higher level of sharpening without damaging the image.
Adjusting Curve Points with Precision
Once you've plotted a point on a curve in the Curves dialog (Command-M [PC: Control-M]), you can adjust these points by clicking-and-dragging them, but many people find it easier to plot the point by using the Up/Down Arrow keys on their keyboard. This adjusts the Output of the point in increments of 2. To adjust the Input, use the Left/Right Arrow keys. To make larger moves, hold the Shift key while using the Arrow keys and your points will move in increments of 15.
Talkin' 'Bout My Resolution
Here's a lingo tip about resolution. Although images can have a resolution from 1 to more than 2,000 ppi, when it comes to talking resolution, there are three basic resolutions that are pretty common. Low-res (short for resolution) is normally 72 ppi, and low-res images are primarily used for onscreen viewing (such as the Web, slide presentations, digital video, etc.). Medium-res is generally 150 ppi and is commonly used for printing to inkjet and laser printers. When people use the term high-res, it's almost always referring to 300 ppi, which is more than sufficient resolution for printing to a printing press. Anything above 300 ppi is still considered high-res, but you'd say it like this: "I made a 600-ppi high-res scan." Which resolution is right for you? Nice try. That's a whole book unto itself.
Making Sure Your Whites Are Really White
If you have an image that appears to have solid white areas (maybe the background surrounding a logo), but when you put the Eyedropper on that area, it gives you a 1% or 2% reading in one of the CMYK values in your Info palette, you can use Levels to gets those areas back down to 0% so they don't print with a dot. Here's how: Go under the Image menu, under Adjustments, and choose Levels. The third field from the left (at the top of the dialog) shows your current highlight value (your white point setting). The default value will be 255. Enter 252 or 250, then move your cursor over the white area in question and look in the Info palette to see if the readings are now all 0% (that change should be enough to remove the stray colors). When it's right, click OK, and you'll have solid white in your white areas.
Cloning From Image To Image
If you're retouching an image using the Clone Stamp tool (S), not only can you clone from the image you're in but you can also clone from any other image that you have open. All you have to do is make sure both images are open at the same time. Go to the other image, Option-click (PC: Alt-click) on the area you want to clone from, switch back to the image you're working on, and then start painting. When you do, you'll be cloning image data from the other image.
Getting Before And After Previews
If you're applying a correction filter, such as the Unsharp Mask filter, you can get a before and after view of your image even before you click the OK button (and then press Command-Z [PC: Control-Z] to undo/redo the filter). Instead, click-and-hold on the preview box inside the Unsharp Mask filter. When you click-and-hold, you get the before preview in the window; when you release the mouse button, it shows you how the image will look with the filter applied. Pretty handy. If you need to see the full preview onscreen, you can toggle the Preview checkbox on or off. Another tip is to hold the Command or Option (PC: Control or Alt) button while in a filter dialog, and then your cursor changes into the Zoom tool. You can then zoom in or out in your preview window by clicking within it.
Want Better Gradients On Press? Here's The Tip
If you're designing a job that will ultimately go to a printing press in CMYK mode and it's going to contain one or more gradients, you'll get better printed results (less color shifts) if you create those gradients after you convert to CMYK mode.
Going To Press? Make Sure Your Monitor Is In The "right Space"
By default, the RGB space for your monitor is set to sRGB, which is an okay mode for designing Web graphics. However, if you're producing graphics for print, the sRGB mode is just about the worst RGB space your monitor could possibly be set at. It clips off lots of colors that are actually printable in CMYK mode, and therefore is pretty unsuitable for prepress work. We recommend changing your RGB workspace to an RGB space that's more appropriate for doing print work. We like Adobe RGB (1998), which is a very popular RGB space for prepress work. You choose this RGB space under the Photoshop menu, under Color Settings (in Windows, Color Settings can be found under the Edit menu). When the Color Settings dialog appears, under the Working Spaces area, choose Adobe RGB (1998) from the RGB pop-up menu.
Straightening Scans In 10 Seconds (or Less)
If you've scanned an image and it's crooked when you bring it into Photoshop, you can fix it in about 10 seconds flat. Just switch to the Measure tool (it lives behind the Eyedropper tool in the Toolbox) and drag it along the top edge of the image you want to straighten. That's the hard part (and that should give you an idea of how easy this technique is). Next, go under the Image menu, under Rotate Canvas, and choose Arbitrary. Photoshop automatically enters the amount of rotation (courtesy of your earlier measurement), so all you have to do is click OK and bam!-the image is perfectly straightened.
Correct In Cmyk Or Rgb?
We've been asked the question of whether to correct in CMYK or RGB a hundred times. As a general rule, we try to do as much color correction as possible in RGB mode, and if we're going to use the image on press, we only convert to CMYK at the end of the correction process. The main reason is that CMYK mode throws away data-a lot of data-and why would you want to correct an image with significantly less data than your scanner can capture? We want as much data as possible while correcting images, and when we're done, then we'll convert to CMYK (under Image, choose Mode) and toss the data that won't be used on press.
Spot Color Gradient Film Saver
If you're creating a gradient using a spot color that fades to white, to make sure your gradient appears just on the spot separation plate, create the gradient to go from the spot color to a 0% tint of the same spot color (for example, go from 100% red to 0% red). Just click on the color's opacity stop (that appears above the stop in the color ramp) and then lower the Opacity in the bottom-left corner of the Gradient Editor. That way, when you do your seps, the entire gradient will appear on the red separation.
Using The High Pass Filter For Sharpening
There's a sharpening technique that's really gaining popularity that works especially well on images with lots of well-defined edges (such as buildings, cars, furniture, etc.). It's actually a layer technique combined with a filter, but it's very easy (and often very effective) to apply. Start by duplicating the Background layer of the image you want to sharpen by pressing Command-J (PC: Control-J). Then, go under the Filter menu, under Other, and choose
Scan Line Art At The Resolution You Need
If you're scanning black-and-white line art for reproduction in print, here are two quick tips that'll help you get better results:
1. Scan the line art image at the dpi you'll be printing it. This is the one time we break our long-standing "don't-scan-at-too-high-a-resolution" rule-but only when it comes to line art. If you're going to output your line art on a 600-dpi laser printer, scan it at 600 dpi. If you're going to output it to high-resolution film negs, scan it at 1,200 dpi (that's about as high as you'll need to go).
2. Scan your line art images in Grayscale mode. If you do, then you can apply filters such as the Unsharp Mask to help clean and define the lines, and you can use Levels to brighten the white areas.
Note: If you scan in Bitmap mode, you won't be able to use these two important line art cleanup tips, because they're not supported in Bitmap mode.
Batch Renaming Earns A Shortcut
Finally, the Batch Rename command (where you rename multiple photos at once) has a keyboard shortcut. It's Command-Shift-R (PC: Control-Shift-R), which brings up the Batch Rename dialog.
How To Tell Camera Raw Which Photo To Use For Edits
When you open multiple RAW images in Camera Raw, if you press Command-A (PC: Control-A) to select them all, any change you make to the top image in the list will be made to all the other selected images. But what if you'd prefer to edit the fourth or fifth image down, and have all the rest adjusted the same way (rather than having to adjust the first photo in the list)? It's easy-once all the photos are selected, Option-click (PC: Alt-click) on the photo along the left side that you want to base all your edits on. That photo will now appear in the preview window, and changes you make to it will also be applied to all other selected RAW photos.
Like The Edits You Made To One Photo? Apply Them To Others
If you've got a number of photos open in Camera Raw, and you make some edits to one of those photos, and you think to yourself, "Hey, that doesn't look bad," you can quickly apply those same edits to other images. Here's how: Once you've made your edits to an image, Command-click (PC: Control-click) on the photos along the left side of the dialog to which you want to apply the same edits. Then click on the Synchronize button in the top-left side of Camera Raw. This brings up a dialog with a checkbox list of all the edits you can do in Camera Raw. If you want all the changes you applied to the first image to be applied to your selected images, choose Everything from the Synchronize pop-up menu at the top of the dialog. If you only want a few edits applied, uncheck the checkboxes beside the edits you don't want applied.
Cropping Multiple Images At Once
If you've opened multiple images in Camera Raw, you can apply cropping to one of those images and then have that exact same cropping applied to as many other open images as you'd like, in just two clicks. First crop your selected image in the preview window using the Crop tool (C). Now select the other photos you want to crop by Command-clicking (PC: Control-click) on them in the list of open photos on the left side of the Camera Raw dialog. Then click on the Synchronize button. When the dialog appears, from the Synchronize pop-up menu at the top, choose Crop and click OK. All your selected photos will be cropped the same way you cropped the first photo.
Instant Page Curl
In the past, there were a number of things we've faked using the Shear filter (Filter>Distort>Shear). However, this filter was so difficult to work with and you never really had that much control over the results you were going to get. Well, in Photoshop CS2, Warp has come to our rescue. One effect that was popular using the Shear filter was the page curl effect. Now, you can make a much nicer page curl using Warp. Try it out by selecting Edit>Transform>Warp. Choose the Custom option from the options bar then simply drag a top corner point downward. Drag any of the bottom points outward a bit just to add some shape to the paper. Finally, duplicate the layer and fill the bottom copy with black to make a drop shadow. Hit it with the Gaussian Blur filter to soften it and use the warp to adjust the drop shadow.
Make Your Own Swatch
To add a color to the Swatches palette, just move your mouse to the gray area after the last swatch and click. To add a new swatch without naming it, hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key as you click in the Swatches palette.
Change Brush Softness On The Fly
You can increase or decrease the softness of a round brush without changing the size of the brush by pressing Shift-[ (left bracket) to increase or Shift-] (right bracket) to decrease softness.
Step-and-repeat
Photoshop's Edit>Free Transform command (Command-T [PC: Control-T]) offers some additional keyboard shortcuts for "step-and-repeat" functions that can be very useful: 1) To make the same transformation again, for an increased effect or with a different layer targeted, press Command-Shift-T (PC: Control-Shift-T). 2)To make a new copy and transform the copy, press Command-Option-Shift-T (PC: Control-Alt-Shift-T).
Get Rid Of Hot Spots
To remove "hot spots" on someone's face (skin glare or bright spots of sweat on skin), use the Spot Healing Brush tool. Just select a brush size that is slightly larger than the spot and click on the hot spot areas.
Edit The Shape Of Letters
If you need to alter the shape of some text, try this: from the Layer menu, go to Layer>Type>Create Work Path. This will put a path around your type as if you drew it with the Pen tool. Now, you can either hide or delete the type layer and make a new layer. Use the Path editing tools (add anchor, delete anchor and Direct Select) to edit the shape of the text, while keeping smooth vector edges. When you're done editing the path, give it some color by clicking the Fill Path with Foreground Color icon at the bottom of the Paths palette.
Cropping In Camera Raw
You may already know that Camera Raw now has a Crop Tool. But did you know that the histogram will reflect the cropped area as soon as you create it with the Crop Tool. Try it out by selecting the Crop Tool and drawing a crop box around an area in the image. Watch the histogram update to reflect only the area within the crop bounding box.
Adding New Text Close To Existing Type
Did you ever try to add some new text a little too close to some existing text, only to have the Type tool assume you want to edit the existing text? To avoid this, hold down the Shift key as you click with the Type tool - this will ignore the existing text and create a new type layer, no matter how close you click to the original text.
Want To Remove Part Of A Photograph In 5 Seconds?
If you think the Spot Healing Brush Tool is just for small blemishes, dust, and scratches think again. Try using it to remove something larger. The key is to make sure whatever you're trying to remove is surrounded by a relatively consistent texture. Go ahead and try it. Open a photograph and choose the Spot Healing Brush. Adjust the brush size so it's fairly large and you can paint over the object you'd like to remove quickly. Watch as it makes the image look as if that object never existed. Warning: This only works with certain photographs. You'll need a consistent texture around the area you're trying to remove.
Resetting Pallette Locations
If you're like many, when you really get into crunch time, you may be moving palettes all over the place. Its ok - we all do it. But there comes a time when you want things back to normal. A quick way to reset palette locations to the factory default settings is by choosing Window>Workspace>Reset Palette Locations. You can also reset keyboard shortcuts and any menu customization you've done from this submenu as well.
Heal To A Blank Layer
Take advantage of the ability of the Healing Brush to "use all layers." Add a blank layer above your image and in the Options Bar, check the Use All Layers box. Then use the Healing Brush as usual, but now the pixels appears on the new layer. Then you can use the layer's opacity and/or blending modes to alter the affects of the Healing Brush.
Tile Vertically And Horizontally
OK, I actually stole this one from Scott. Back in Photoshop CS, if you had two photos open, they overlapped each other on screen. If you choose Tile (from the Window menu), it stacked them above the other (which was better, because you could see at least part of each photo), but it wasn't the side-by-side review that we always wanted. Well, now you can get side-by-side reviews (perfect for vertical shots) by going to Window>Arrange>Tile Vertically. Note: there is also a Tile Horizontally option as well.
Limit The Effects Of An Adjustment Layer
If you want an Adjustment layer to only affect certain layers, put those layers into a set and place the Adjustment layer at the top of that set. Change the Blending mode from Pass Through to
Start Small With Vanishing Point
If you're having a hard time finding an area to create a perspective plane from in Vanishing Point, try this. Always try to draw your perspective plane around a small, easily defined area such as a window or door. This will help you make a more accurate plane because the perspective of the window will be the same as the perspective of the wall it's on. Then, if you need to work on the wall, you can expand the plane by clicking any of the center bounding box points. But be careful; don't click any of the corner points on the bounding box. Manipulating those will actually change the shape of the perspective plane itself.
Shadow/highlight Adjustment In Cmyk
Here's a little tip that may get lost if you're only paying attention to some of the larger upgrades in CS2. In Photoshop CS, the Shadow/Highlight adjustment was first introduced but it only worked on RGB images. In CS2, the Shadow/Highlight adjustment now works in CMYK as well.
Bring the Background In
When you use the Extract command to separate a person from their background, don't drag the extracted person onto a different document. Instead, drag the "new" background into the document with the person. That way you can still use the History Brush to fix any minor problems with the edges of the extracted person. (Think about it - if you drag the person over to a new document, the person is not in the History palette and cannot be adjusted.)
All Brushes Are Created Equal
Increase Stamp Tool or Brush Tool brush size in Vanishing Point the same way you'd increase brush tools outside of the filter - using the bracket keys ( [ or ] ). Also, hold down the Shift key to increase/decrease the size in larger increments.
Save the History!
If you use the History palette often you'll notice that it doesn't save a history state when you show or hide a layer (when you click on the little eyeball icon column in the layer. In Photoshop CS2 this can be changed in the History palette options. Pick History Options and then be sure that "Make Layer Visibility Changes Undoable" is checked.
Vanishing Point Quick Zoom
When drawing a plane or editing your images in Vanishing Point you may need to quickly zoom in on a particular spot. You could always use the shortcut Command-+ (PC: Control-+) or Command-- (PC: Control--) to zoom in and out, but what if you just need a quick zoom and don't want to keep using two hands back at the keyboard. In Vanishing Point, press-and-hold the X key to zoom where your cursor sits. Release the X key to return to the normal viewing space.
Mask the Masks
Can you mask a Layer Mask? You can if it's in a group. If you have several layers with Layer Masks and you want to hide portions of all those layers with another layer mask, put the layers into a group by selecting Group Layers from the Layers drop-down menu. Then click the Add a Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to mask the group.
Don't Let The Browser Preview Fool You
When you rotate an image in the File Browser, Photoshop doesn't actually rotate the file until you open image, so all you're really rotating is the preview. If you want the image permanently rotated, you have to open the image, let Photoshop rotate it, and then resave it. Only then will the image become permanently rotated. Otherwise, you're just telling Photoshop, "Hey, when you open this image, rotate it for me, okay?" It just saves you a step.
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 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).
Understanding The Giant Mondo-Big Brushes Palette
If you're freaked out by all the sliders, menus, buttons, and clutter in the new expanded (read incredibly huge behemoth) Brushes palette, I have a tip that will help you to understand how it works so that it will immediately feel more friendly and familiar. Here it is: It works much the same way as the Layer Styles dialog. That's right. If you look at the Layer Styles dialog, the menu on the left side of it looks, and works, pretty much like the left-side menu in the expanded Brushes palette. For example, in the Layer Styles dialog, to add an effect, you click on the checkbox, but to edit that effect's option, you click on its name. This is the same in the Brushes palette. To add an effect to your current brush, click on the checkbox beside the effect. To edit that effect, click directly on the effect's name and its options appear.
One-Button Refresh For The File Browser
When you're ranking images in Photoshop CS's File Browser, you've probably noticed that the sorting (by rank) doesn't happen automatically as you rank each image-you have to either change your "Sort By" pop-up menu at the bottom of the File Browser to a different choice (like Filename) and then switch back to Rank, or you have to choose Refresh Desktop View from the File Browser's pop-down menu. Either way, unless you're charging by the hour, it just takes too long. Instead, just press F5 for an instant refresh anytime.
Your Selections Aren't Stuck-Move 'Em
If you've drawn a selection and it didn't quite wind up in the exact spot you wanted, you can move it. The key is making sure you move it with a Selection tool (Lasso, Rectangle Marquee, Magic Wand, etc.), rather than the Move tool. Just move your cursor inside your selected area and you'll notice that it changes to a hollow arrow with a square selection. That's letting you know you're just moving the selection, so now you can drag the selection wherever you want. You can also use the Arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge your selection around if you prefer. If you switch to the Move tool and move the selection, it will move the pixels under your selection, rather than moving the selection itself.
Brushes Right Where You Want 'Em
Here's a tip that gives you a faster and more convenient way to switch to another preset brush without using the Brushes palette-and you might find that you like it even better. Just press the Control key, then click within your image (PC: Right-click) and the Brush Picker will appear directly under your cursor. Plus, you can even change the Master diameter of the brush that you choose in the Picker. This is one you'll have to try to appreciate the sheer speed and convenience of putting your brushes at your fingertips anytime.
Fix Those Stray Pixels Fast!
Sometimes when making a selection with the Magic Wand tool or
How to get an undo after you've closed the document
As you probably already know, the History palette keeps track of the last 20 changes to your document that you can use for multiple undos when working on a project. The only bad part is that when you close your document, your undos (in History) are automatically deleted. However, there is a way to save an undo, as long as it's a tonal adjustment (such as Curves, Levels, Color Balance, etc.), by creating Adjustment layers. Just click on the half-white, half-black circle at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose your tonal adjustment from the pop-up menu to create an Adjustment layer. These Adjustment layers are saved as layers, along with your file. That way, the next time you open the file, you can go back and edit your Curves, Levels, etc. adjustment by double-click on the Adjustment layer. The last applied adjustment will appear, and you can edit it live. If you decide you don't want the original adjustment applied at all, you can drag the Adjustment layer into the Trash icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. You can also add a Gradient fill, a Pattern fill, and even a Solid Color fill as an Adjustment layer, giving you an undo at a later date, because again, they're saved as layers with the file.
Photoshop Remembers the Last Size you Input
Although there's no way to set a default size for your New document dialog (outside of creating an action to do it for you), there's a pretty cool little-known tip that lets you open a new document using the last settings you manually input. Just press Option-Command-N (PC: Alt-Control-N) and the New document dialog will appear using the last settings you input (rather than using the clipboard data to determine the new document size).
Bringing Back Those Cropped-Away Areas
When you're using the Crop tool to crop images, you'll find that you actually have some options on how the area you're cropping away is handled after the crop. For example, in the Options Bar (as long as you're not on the Background layer) you'll see an option that lets you either Delete the cropped areas or simply hide them from view (in other words, the areas are still there, they just expand out into the Canvas area). If you choose the Hide option, it crops the image window down to the size of the crop, but since the cropped-away areas are still really there, you can use the Move tool to drag these cropped areas back into view.
Speed Tip To Rotate Through Open Images
This tip has been in the Windows version of Photoshop for quite some time, but since Photoshop 6.0, Macintosh user can do it too-press Control-Tab to move from one open image to the n ext, rotating through to any of your open documents.
Get More Control Over Your Paint Strokes
Photoshop lets you affect a brush stroke even after you've painted it by using Photoshop's Fade command (found under the Edit menu). Fade works like "undo on a slider," and dragging the Opacity slider all the way to the left will completely undo your freshly painted brush stroke, but if you stop anywhere before the far left side, it will instead give you a percentage of undo, lightening your stroke. You can also use the pop-up Mode menu to alter how your stroke blends with the object below it.
Get Rid of Unwanted Brushes
You probably already know that you can add a brush to the Brushes palette, but did you know that it's even easier to delete them? Just hold the Option key (PC: Alt key) and you'll notice that your cursor changes into a pair of scissors. Click once on the brush you want to delete and that baby's gone-no warning dialog, no chance to change your mind-it's gone.
Navigating the Brush Picker Like a Pro
Now that you've learned how to bring up the Brush picker right where you want it, it wouldn't hurt to learn this quick navigation tip to keep you from spending more time there than is necessary. Once you've selected a brush in the Picker, just use the Arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate up, down, left, or right to other brushes. Once you choose a brush and you are no longer in the Brush Picker, you can use the Period and Comma keys to move forward and backward through the different brushes. Shift-Comma and Shift-Period will jump you to the first and last brushes in the Brushes palette, respectively.
Opening Multiple Images and Closing the Browser
Want to open multiple photos at once and have Photoshop close the File Browser for you? Just Command-click (PC: Control-click) on all the photos you want to open, then press Option-Return (PC: Alt-Enter). All the selected photos will open, and the File Browser will close.
Opening An Image And Closing The File Browser
One thing that really adds to your desktop clutter is the fact that when you open a photo from the File Browser, the File Browser remains open behind your photo. In most cases, you can still see the top, right-hand side, bottom, or all three (depending on the size of your photo) peeking out from behind your photo. But it doesn't have to be that way. To open a photo, and have Photoshop automatically close the File Browser, don't just double-click on the thumbnail to open it; instead, Option-double-click (PC: Alt-double-click) on the thumbnail.
Getting To The Right Palette Just Got Easier
This sounds like such a little thing that you'll wonder why Adobe didn't do it years ago, but now the list of palettes under the Window menu is in alphabetical order. I know what you're thinking. They weren't alphabetical order all along? Nope. But they are now-no more digging around to find the right palette. Sound simple, and it is.
Removing Points From The Polygonal Lasso
When you're using the Polygonal Lasso tool, every time you click to change directions, it automatically lays down a point where you pivoted. If you added a point and didn't mean to, you can delete it by pressing the Delete (PC: Backspace) key. Every time you press Delete (PC: Backspace), it deletes another previous point (in the order they were created). In fact, if you really mess up, you can keep pressing Delete until you're right back where you started.
You Don't Need The Brushes Palette To Change Brush Size
In Photoshop CS you can increase/decrease the size of your brush by 10 pixels by pressing the Left or Right Bracket keys. Once your brush goes over 100 pixels in size, it then moves in 25-pixel increments, and if you go over 200 pixels it moves in 50-pixel increments until you reach 300, at which point it moves in 100-pixel increments.
Rotate To Any Angle The Fast Way
If you have a specific angle that you'd like to rotate a layer to, it's easy. Get the Measure tool (it looks like a ruler and is in the Eyedropper tool's flyout menu in the Toolbox), and click-and-drag out a line at the desired angle. Then go under the Edit menu, under Transform, and choose Rotate. Your layer will instantly rotate to match the angle that you drew with the Measure tool. (Note: To rotate the Background layer, you must select it first [Command-A for Mac, Control-A for PC].)
Want A Finger Grid? You Got It!
While we're talking Curves, by default the Curves dialog displays a 25% grid. If you'd like a finger grid, you can Option-click (PC: Alt-click) once within the grid, and it will then display a 10% grid.
Let Photoshop Do The Work In Curves
Let's say you're using the Curves dialog for correction images and you have an image where you're trying to adjust the color of some green plants. How do you know where the particular green "lives" on the curve so you can dial in and adjust it? Photoshop can tell you-in face, you can have Photoshop automatically plot that color on the curve for you. With the Curves dialog open, just Command-click (PC: Control-click) on that color within your image. Photoshop will then add a point to the curve that represents the spot you sample, and now you're read to tweak it.
Open Up Some Screen Real Estate
A lot of times when you're working on a project, your screen can get really cluttered with palettes (Photoshop is an especially palette-heavy application). If you want all the palettes out of the way for your convenience while you're working, just press Shift-Tab to hide them, or Shift-Tab to bring them back. Then menu bar, the Options Bar, and the Toolbox will all still be visible.
No More Jaggy Lasso Tool Selections
Have you ever tried to create a smooth selection using the Lasso tool? It's just about impossible, right? (If it sounds like it isn't, give it a try-open a new document, take the Lasso tool, and draw any random selection, and then look at the selection. It's jaggy-not crazy jaggy, but it's certainly not smooth.) If you were trying to create a selection for an interface design, or a realistic element of some sort, it would just be too jaggy to use. Here's a tip:
(1) Draw around the area you want to use as your selection with the Lasso tool.
(2) Press the letter "q" to enter Quick Mask mode (your selection will now be surrounded by solid pink).
(3) Go under the Filter menu, under Noise, and choose Median. As you raise the Radius of the Median filter, you'll see your edges smooth out.
(4) When it looks nice and smooth, click OK, then press the letter "q" again to return to Standard mode, and you'll have nothing but a nice smooth selection.
See how those jaggies have been replaced by the smooth edges-courtesy of the Median filter?
Creating Your Own Custom New Document Presets
If you're creating new documents and find yourself using the same new document sizes fairly often (for example, let's say that you wind up creating a new document that's 7" wide by 5" tall, at a resolution of 225, in CMYK mode), you can make a preset in the New dialog of Photoshop CS (technically, you could do this in Photoshop 7 by hacking a text document, but it was a bit of a pain, and most people didn't do it). To create your own presets, just go under the File menu, chose New, then in the New dialog, enter your favorite settings, then press the Save Preset button. A dialog will appear where you can name your preset, and when you click OK, that preset will be saved to the New dialog Preset menu near the top of the list.
Rearranging Your Brushes
One of the things in Photoshop that just didn't' make sense to us was that you couldn't easily rearrange the order of your brushes in the Brushes palette. Oh sure, you could create a whole new custom set with the brushes you wanted, in the order you wanted them, but it would take awhile, and frankly, was such a pain that we only know a handful of people who actually went through the trouble. Well, our wish for easily rearranging brushes is finally here, but the process is a bit hidden beneath the surface. To move a brush from one spot in the palette to another, go under the Edit menu, and choose Preset Manager. In the Preset Manager dialog, under Preset Type, choose Brushes. Then, click-and-drag the brush of your choice to the location of your choice. At last, we are free to move brushes among the herd.
Setting Defaults In The Filter Gallery
Believe it or not, there's a hidden "Default" button within the Filter Gallery that lets you set up and save your own custom default settings so each time you open the Filter Gallery, it has your favorite settings already in place. Here's how to set your defaults: Open the Filter Gallery (found under the Filter menu), set it up just the way you want, then hold the Command key (PC: Control key) and you'll notice that the Cancel button changes into the Default button. Click on that and your current settings now become the default settings.
Want a taller preview in the File Browser for photos taken in a portrait orientation (taller rather than wide)? Just double-click on the Folders tab, and it will "roll up," and the Preview palette will expand upward into the Folders space, giving you a preview that's twice as tall.
posted by yellowART @ 12:07 AM
0 Comments
