1 Auto Color

Image > Adjustments > Auto Color or [Ctrl + Shift + B]
For those of us that are professionals in the color-correcting field, this is a great feature to sometimes fix the poor colors a digital camera can capture. This isn’t a perfect fix for all photos all the time, but it can usually get you pointed in the right direction.

2 Auto Levels

Image > Adjustments > Auto Levels or [Ctrl + Shift + L]
This is another quick way to do some minor color-correcting on your images. What this does is correct the black point and white point in your image automatically. It’s looking for the nearest-to-white color and setting that as the white point, then finding the nearest-to-black.

3 Auto Contrast

Image > Adjustments > Auto Contrast or [Ctrl + Alt + Shift + L]
Auto contrast is another quick adjustment for Photoshop to automatically color correct your image. You usually don’t need to use this with Auto Levels, but sometimes it helps for images that look a bit more washed-out than you’d like.

4 Auto-Align Layers

Edit > Auto-Align Layers
This feature is pretty cool as it attempts to align the content on your layers as close as Photoshop can figure out. When you run this command you’ll get a set of options as to how you want Photoshop to try to align. You’ll need to have your layers selected in the Layers palette by Ctrl-clicking or Shift-clicking on the layers. This is pretty much your savior for stitching together panoramas.

5 Auto-Blend Layers

Edit > Auto-blend Layers
Like Auto-Align, this feature is probably most useful in photography situations. When stitching together a panorama, it will attempt to match and blend the color across all of your layers to make sure your stitch looks seamless.

6 Vertical + Horizontal Centering (and other alignment)

Layer > Align > (options)...
This one is great when mocking up a new website design. This will allow you to align things vertically and horizontally to the center, left, right and top. Make sure your text layer is higher in your layers palette than the one you want to align with. Click on both layers by control-clicking or shift-clicking.

6.5 Vertical + Horizontal Centering (to a selection)

Layer > Align to Selection > (options)...
If you don’t have another layer you want to align something to, you can make a section and align your object to the selection. Just make sure the layer you want to align is selected in the Layers palette before going to the Layer menu.

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Unlike the other actions in this article, this one takes a few more steps. You’ll want to start with the Ruler tool (located under the Eyedropper [I]) and draw a line for your horizontal axis to be straightened. After drawing your line, go to Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary. Photoshop will have automatically entered the the angle in degrees needed to straighten your image, so just click OK. After running this you will have white areas in the corners, so be prepared to crop a bit.

There’s nothing more damaging to your productivity than having to wrestle with the program you are using to get it to do what you want. Searching for tools or buttons is a task that can easily be bypassed with some quick memorization of shortcuts.

Undo, Multiple Times

[Ctrl + Alt + Z]

Most programs allow you to press [Ctrl + Z] multiple times to perform multiple Undo’s, but Photoshop requires [Alt], otherwise you’ll just keep undoing then re-doing then undoing then re-doing then undoing then re-doing.

Hand/Move Tool

[Spacebar]

Holding the spacebar will turn your cursor into the hand in almost any situation… when using different tools, with dialog boxes open, etc… allowing you to quickly navigate your document no matter what you’re doing.

Switch Document Windows

[Ctrl + Tab]

Your Photoshop workspace can become a mess when working on multiple files, especially when you hate minimizing, like I do, so being able to switch windows quickly is a must.

New Layer

[Ctrl + Shift + N] – with dialog
[Ctrl + Shift + Alt + N] – without dialog

Layers are the greatest thing(s) ever invented in any (design) program and being able to manage your layers properly is important. I’m Errorphobic, which makes me a layer junky, which also makes this a favorite shortcut of mine.

Duplicate Layer

[Ctrl + J] – without dialog
[Ctrl + Alt + J] – with dialog

You can duplicate an entire layer, or, if you have a selection, the selection will be duplicated to it’s own layer. This is great when trying different techniques or effects without having to worry about errors (Errorphobic, remember?).

Zoom In/ Zoom Out / Fit to Window

[Ctrl + =] – zoom in
[Ctrl + -] – zoom out
[Ctrl + 0] – fit to window

When you’re slightly obsessive and need to get that 1-perfect pixel zooming in and out quickly is a necessity to achieving that perfection.

Re-run Filter/ Fade Filter

[Ctrl + F] – run filter again
[Ctrl + Alt + F] – run filter again, with dialog
[Ctrl + Shift + F] – fade filter

Even though Photoshop provides preview windows in the dialog box for most filters, there’s still no true way of telling whether you’ve achieved your desired effect until you see the full image. If something goes wrong, you can quickly undo, then go back to your filter and try again without having to go through the hassle of moving your cursor. Or, if your filter effect is too intense, you can quickly fade it down without having to re-adjust the filter settings.

Making Your Own Shortcuts

These shortcuts may not be on the top of everybody’s list, but that all depends on your project and workflow. Luckily, Photoshop allows you to custom tailor your own Keyboard shortcuts to suit your needs. Just press [Ctrl + Alt + Shift + K] or go to [Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts].

Start by going to [Edit > Menus] or [Ctrl + Alt + Shift + M]. You should see a large dialog box similar to this:

You can see that Adobe already has a few presets programmed in, with the normal features to save, load and delete presets. The preset files are stored in your Photoshop CS2 > Presets > Menu Customization folder on your hard drive.

You’ll also see that you can alter your Palette menus along with the Application menus. Your Palette menus are the fly-out menus you see when you click on the little arrow on the right in your Palette. And the Application menus are along the top of, well, the application.

So let’s get to customizing… click on the arrow of whichever menu you want to start customizing.

You basically have two options: whether the menu is visible or not, and what color the menu is.

Personally, since I have never had a reason to adjust the Pixel Aspect Ratio, I’m going to turn it off. Just click on the Eye icon and it will disappear.

It also greys out all of the sub-menus underneath that item.

Now, when I go to my Image Menu, I can no longer see “Pixel Aspect Ratio.” What I do see though, is the “Show All Menu Items” at the bottom.

So, you can see your menu items are hidden, not lost forever.

One of my favorite new CS2 features is the Smart Object Layers. Since I’m finding myself using these features a lot, I’m going to highlight them.

In my Menus editor, I scroll to find Layers then find Smart Objects. Click under Color on “None” and a drop down of color options open.

I chose Red. Now, when I go to my Layers menu in the program, it looks like this:

Pretty cool, huh?

Now all I have to do is save my settings by clicking on the Diskette Icon at the top.

Name my settings and save!

In case you didn’t notice, there’s also a way to edit Keyboard Shortcuts [Ctrl + Alt + Shift + K]. It’s a very similar setup to editing the menus, so I’ll let you figure it out.

Let’s say you transform your object by scaling it down. Then press Enter to set the transformation, in case you haven’t.

Then you want to re-scale it to the original size. You end up with a blurry, pixelated object, like this:

Now, let’s convert our layer into a Smart Object [Layer > Smart Objects > Group Into New Smart Object] or use the Layers palette menu.

Now we scale our object down. Press Enter to set the transformation.

Then, we re-scale the object back to the original size.

And no blurry, pixelated image. This is called non-destructive editing… and Photoshop isn’t the first to use it, some people may remember a program called Live Picture.

Anyway, let’s look at what else we can do with Smart Objects.

Let’s duplicate our Smart Object layer with [Ctrl + J], then scale the new layer down.

Double-click on the Layer thumbnail in the Layers palette. You should get a dialog like this:

Click OK, and you’ll get your object in it’s own window.

Now you can alter your object in the new window. We’ll start by adding a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer and changing the color.

Whoah… exciting, huh? Well, hit [Ctrl + S] to save, then click back on your original image.

Holy crap. As soon as you clicked, the images changed.

Now, let’s duplicate [Ctrl + J] another layer, and transform it.

Select the Group Into New Smart Object again [Layer > Smart Objects > Group Into New Smart Object]. Then duplicate and transform again. You should now have a total of 4 objects.

Double-click on the Layer thumbnail again, and alter your object.

[Ctrl + S] to save your object, then click back on your original document.

You now end up with two different pairs of objects. Pretty cool, huh? I can see this being a very powerful tool for anybody who does large image compositions.

I started with this photo of downtown Chicago (PhotoSpin #1030043). My goal is going to be to replace “CHICAGO” with “PHOTOSHOPLAB.”

Start by duplicating the layer (for reference and a backup) by pressing [Ctrl + J]. Bring up Vanishing Point by pressing [Ctrl + Alt + V] or [Filter > Vanishing Point].

The Create Plane Tool should be selected by default. If not, select it. This will allow you to draw your Vanishing Point grid. It works like drawing a square, so start by clicking on one of the corners of what you want to outline, for me, it will be the blue on the wall. Drag and click on all 4 corners to create the grid.

To remove “CHICAGO” I’m going to select the Stamp Tool [S]. The brush size is set default to 100, which is too large for me. So I’ll shrink it a little bit. Now, use the Stamp Tool just like you would if you weren’t in Vanishing Point. [Alt - click] on the area you want to sample, then click on the area you want to edit.

Set “Heal” to “On” to allow the Stamp Tool to work like the Healing Brush tool.

Now to add my own text. I started by choosing a relatively similar font and color.

Rasterize the type layer [Layer > Rasterize > Type].

To make the text blend a little better, I added some texture by going [Filter > Texture > Texturizer] and choosing a Canvas Texture. I choose Canvas because the Brick texture was too large in comparison to the existing brick.

Hold [Ctrl] and click on the text layer thumbnail to select it. Press [Ctrl + C] to copy the layer and press [Ctrl + D] to deselect.

Create a new layer [Ctrl + Shift + N] and hide your text layer.

Bring up Vanishing Point again [Ctrl + Alt + V] and your grid should still be there. Press [Ctrl + V] to paste your text selection.

Drag your select over the grid and watch it transform to the angle of the building.

Select the Transform Tool [T] to reshape the text to fit.

Press OK when you’re done.

Set the Layer Mode to Overlay and reduce the Opacity slightly to make it blend.

And that’s about it. Pretty cool feature.

Original:

New:

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Layer Comps are another way for you to manage your layers. Instead of having to create multiple documents to see variations in a project, you can use Layer Comps to manage your project.

I start with my project of altering this photo of the Evolve Volvo S40 (www.evolvecars.com).

To see what your Layer Comps window looks like, go to [Window > Layer Comps].

So I’m going to start working on my alterations. I add some “window tint” and change the color of the car to blue.

I like how that looks, so I’m going to save it as a Layer Comp. In my Layer Comp window, I click on the New Layer Comp Button. In the dialog window, I name my Layer Comp, check the options I want, and add a comment.

The Options are kind of obvious, but I’ll explain them out a little bit.

“Visibility” will remember which Layers you had visible or not.

“Position” remember the position of each Layer.

“Appearance” will remember the settings of your Layer Styles for each Layer.

Now I want to try a different look. So I make the car red, remove the “tint”, and darken the front intercooler. I like how that looks, so I create a new Layer Comp.

Now, instead of hiding and unhiding and shifting and setting different Layers to see my different variations, I can just cycle through my Layer Comps.

It’s a pretty useful feature when you’re trying to work on a long, involved project (unlike mine) and need to see different variations of a design. Getting in the habit of using Layer Comps will make your project less stressful and your productivity increase.

You can create PDF slideshows with Photoshop in about… oh… 10 seconds. I’ll show you how easy it really is.

First, put all the files you want in your slideshow into one folder (they don’t have to be, it’s just easier that way). Open the File Browser window in Photoshop by clicking the icon in your Option bar or [Window > File Browser].

With the File Browser open, navigate to the folder where your slideshow images are stored.

Select the images you want in your slideshow. [Ctrl + A] will select all, holding [Shift] will select a range, and holding [Ctrl] will allow you to select and deselect specific images. Now, in the File Browser window, go to [Automate > PDF Pesentation].

When the PDF Presentation window opens, all of your selected files will be in the Source Files list.

In the Output Options, choose “Presentation”. In the Presentation Options, set the time delay between each fram with the “Advance Every X Seconds” option. You can also choose if you want the slideshow to loop or not.

Finally, select the transition you want (if any) and click “Save”. Save your file as whatever you want.

Now just set your PDF options, I left mine as the default, and press “OK”. Now sit back, relax, and let Photoshop build your presentation.

The great thing about these slideshows, is that they’re PDF format, which is very widely accepted and easy to share!

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I’ll start with a big and simple font, Myriad Bold, to easily illustrate the steps.

To start, we’ll go under [Layer > Type > Convert to Shape] to convert your text layer to a vector shape. The two tools we’re going to use are the Path Selection Tools and the Pen Tools. You’re also going to get real friendly with your Modifier keys [Alt, Shift, Ctrl].

Now I’m going to use the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) and select the two end-dots on the “F”. Once they are select, I can use my keyboard keys to move the dots.

Right away, you can see how adjusting the end points on each letter adjusts the shape of the letter. I’ll alter the first “U” with the same technique. If I hold the [Alt] key, my Direct Selection Tool turns into the Path Selection Tool temporarily. With that tool, I can select the entire “F” and move it.

I hold [Shift + Alt] and click on both the “F” and the “U” to move both letters closer to the “T”. I’ll use the same techniques from before to alter the other “U” and shift the other letters. I end up with something like this:

Now I want to reshape the “R” and the “E” to be a little more custom than the other letters. Select the Pen Tool. When I mouseover existing points, the Pen Tool shows a little “-” sign, and when I click on that point, it will remove it from the path. So I removed the two middle dots in the bottom of the “R”.

I can now hold the [Alt] key to shift to the Convert Point Tool and click on the dots to remove the curve angles. I now have a straight leg on the “R”. I’m going to select the bottom two dots and drag them way out, overlapping the “E”.

With the Pen Tool still selected, I can mouseover the path of the “E” and click to add points to the path. You’ll see a “+” on the Pen Tool cursors when you’re over the path. I’ll remove the corner end point of the “E” to create another angle. Adjust it slightly, and now I have my custom text.

You can also now use your text just as any other work path. Export it to Illustrator, resize it, etc. Great method for creating custom logos and such.

This is a quick summary of Photoshop’s Tools palette with a description of each tool’s functions and shortcuts. Great for those brand new to Photoshop.

I decided to start at the beginning. The very beginning. For those people who just “picked up” a copy of Photoshop and have no idea what to do with it. The keyboard shortcut is in ( ).

Rectangular Marquee Tool (M)
Use this tool to make selections on your image, in a rectangular shape. This changes the area of your image that is affected by other tools or actions to be within the defined shape. Holding the [Shift] key while dragging your selection, restricts the shape to a perfect square. Holding the [Alt] key while dragging sets the center of the rectangle to where your cursor started.

Move Tool (V)
Use this tool to, well, move things. Usually you use it to move a Layer around after it has been placed. Hold the [Shift] key to limit the movements to vertical/horizontal.

Polygon Lasso Tool (L)
Ok, this should be the Lasso Tool, but I use the Polygon Lasso a lot more often. Use this to draw selections in whatever shape you would like. To close the selection, either click on the beginning point (you’ll see the cursor change when you’re on it), or just double-click. When holding the [Ctrl] key, you’ll see the cursor change, and the next time you click, it will close your selection.

Magic Wand Tool (W)
Use this to select a color range. It will select the block of color, or transparency, based on wherever you click. In the Options Bar at the top, you can change the Tolerance to make your selections more/less precise.

Crop Tool (C)
The Crop Tool works similarly to the Rectangular Marquee tool (see above if you have no short-term memory). The difference is when you press the [Enter/Return] key, it crops your image to the size of the box. Any information that was on the outside of the box is now gone. Not permanently, you can still undo.

Slice Tool (K)
This is used mostly for building websites, or splitting up one image into smaller ones when saving out. It’s kind of an advanced tool, and since you’re in here for the basics, we’ll kind of skip over it. Kinda makes you mad I made you read all that for nothing, huh?

Healing Brush Tool (J)
This is a really useful tool. Mildly advanced. You can use this tool to repair scratches and specs and stuff like that on images. It works like the Brush tool (see below). You choose your cursor size, then holding the [Alt] key, you select a nice/clean area of your image. Let go of the [Alt] key and paint over the bad area. It basically copies the info from the first area to the second, in the form of the Brush tool. Only, at the end, it averages the information, so it blends.

Brush Tool (B)
This is one of the first tools ever. It’s what Photoshop is based off of. Well, not really, but it’s pretty basic. It paints one your image, in whatever color you have selected, and whatever size you have selected. There’s a lot of options for it, but this is basic, so you don’t get to learn them. Ha.

Clone Stamp Tool (S)
This is very similar to the Healing Brush Tool (see above). You use it the exact same way, except this tool doesn’t blend at the end. It’s a direct copy of the information from the first selected area to the second. When you learn to use both of these tools together in perfect harmony, you will be a Photoshop MASTA! Not really, it’s just less irritating.

History Brush Tool (H)
This tool works just like the Brush Tool (see above) except the information that it paints with is from the original state of your image. If you go Window>History, you can see the History Palette. The History Brush tool paints with the information from whatever History state is selected.

Eraser Tool (E)
This is the anti-Brush tool. It works like an eraser (duh) and erases whatever information wherever you click and drag it. If you’re on a Layer, it will erase the information transparent. If you are on the background layer, it erases with whatever secondary color you have selected.

Gradient Tool (G)
You can use this to make a gradiation of colors. Gradiation doesn’t appear to be a word, but it makes sense anyway. It creates a blending of your foreground color and background color when you click and drag it. Like a gradient.

Blur Tool (R)
The Blur tool is cool. It makes things blurry. Click and drag to make things blurry. The more you click and drag, the blurrier things get.

Dodge Tool (O)
This tool isn’t as crappy as the car brand. It’s actually used to lighten whatever area you use it on. As long as it is not absolute black. Absolute black won’t lighten.

Path Selection Tool (A)
You use this tool when working with paths. Since this is all about the basics, I won’t go into details. It’s related to the Pen Tool (see below) though.

Horizontal Type Tool (T)
It makes type. Or text. Or whatever you want to call it. You can click a single point, and start typing right away. Or you can click and drag to make a bounding box of where your text/type goes. There’s a lot of options for the Type Tool. Just play around, it’s fairly straight-forward.

Pen Tool (P)
I mentioned this tool above. It’s for creating paths, in which you would use the Path Selection Tool to select the path. Paths can be used in a few different ways, mostly to create clipping paths, or to create selections. You use the tool by clicking to add a point. If you click and drag, it will change the shape of your path, allowing you to bend and shape the path for accurate selections and such.

Rectangle Tool (U)
By default it draws a Shape Layer in the form of a rectangle. It fills the rectangle with whatever foreground color you have selected. It’s pretty complicated, don’t hurt yourself with this one.

Notes Tool (N)
Like post-it notes, but digital. You can use this tool to add small little note boxes to your image. These are useful if you’re very forgetful or if you’re sharing your Photoshop file with someone else. I’m pretty sure it only works with .PSD files.

Eyedropper Tool (I)
This tool works by changing your foreground color to whatever color you click on. Holding the [Alt] key will change your background color.

Hand Tool (T)
You can really make short work of your job with the Hand Tool. It’s for moving your entire image within a window. So if you’re zoomed in and your image area is larger than the window, you can use the Hand Tool to navigate around your image. Just click and drag. You can get to this tool at any time when using any other tool by pressing and holding the [Spacebar].

Zoom Tool (Z)
Pretty obvious what this tool does. It allows you to zoom into your image. Don’t be dumb, it doesn’t actually change the size of your image. Hold the [Alt] key to zoom out. Holding the [Shift] key will zoom all of the windows you have open at the same time. Double-click on the Zoom Tool in the palette to go back to 100% view.

BONUS!!
These are your color boxes. Foreground (in the front) and Background (in the back). Click on either one to bring up the color select dialog box.

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The Pen Tool can be one of the best Tools in Photoshop, if you learn how to master it. Here I will give you a quick crash-course to the Pen Tool. It’s up to you to master it. Or not. Whatever you want with it, really.

So, let’s select the Pen Tool from the Toolbox. It’s the button that looks like an old-fashioned Pen. Tool.

Your Pen Tool’s best friends are your modifier keys. What are your modifier keys? Look at your keyboard. See the [Alt], [Ctrl] and [Shift] keys? Those are your modifier keys. Each one can quickly switch how your Pen Tool works. Now, let’s start with an image. I got this one from PhotoSpin.com.

My goal is going to be to select all of the red color panels on the car, to use for the next tutorial I write. I know, I’m lazy. I zoomed in really close to the image so I could easily define the edges. Now, one click with the Pen Tool shows a tiny square.

Now I’m going to choose another point along the edge and click again. If I click once, I get a straight line from the first point to the one. But, if I click once, hold down, and drag, the line begins to curve and I get some more squares and lines.

So I drag until I get a shape that follows my color edge. You might notice you can’t click on the adjustment bar ends. That is, until you hold the [Ctrl] key. When you hold the [Ctrl] key, your cursor will change to a solid white arrow, the Direct Selection Tool. Now you can click on the adjustment bar ends and adjust the curve of your selection. Now try holding the [Alt] key. You should get a two-sided arrow when you mouse over your adjustment ends, the Convert Point Tool. Click and drag to adjust only one aspect of your curve. This is how you make sharp edges with your Pen Path.

Now to do something useful with your path. Open your Paths Palette [Window>Paths]. Click on the small arrow in the right-corner of your palette. From there you will get a list of things you can do with your path. It’s up to you to decide. Remember, this was just an intro. Play around. Have fun. Learn.

Batch processing. Doing the same thing repeatedly in the same way. People don’t seem to know that Photoshop can do this, and how easy it is. Droplets can solve your batch processing problems easily.

In order to use a Photoshop Droplet, you have to use an Action. What’s an action? It’s basically a script of automated commands that Photoshop follows. For this example, I’m going to use a very popular action: resizing a group of photos.

The first step is going to be creating the Action. Make sure your Action Palette is open. If not, go [Window > Actions] or [Alt+F9]. Click on the [New Action Set] button in the Actions palette, just so your action easier to find later. Name it whatever you want, I try to name it as detailed as possible to what it is, since I lack a “memory.”

Click on the [Create New Action] button. Name it whatever you want, I suggest keeping the similar naming scheme stated before. Click [Record]. You’ll be able to tell that the Action is recording by the little red button on the bottom of the Actions Palette. From now on, everything you do will be recorded by Photoshop. Then secretly emailed to your mom (j/k).

Since I’m going to be resizing this massive image into a smaller, more friendly format for sharing with all of my e-friends, I’m going to go under [Image > Image Size]. I’m changing my image size from 2160×1440 to 640×480. That’s right 480. Ok, it’s not 480, it’s 427, even though I named that Action otherwise. I’m not changing the resolution because I’m going to save it out as a JPEG, which is automatically converted to 72dpi. After I click OK, you can see that that [Image Resize] was recorded in the Actions Palette.

Now go to [File > Save As]. You can leave the directory as the current directory. Append something to the end of the file name. I’m using “_small.” The JPEG dialog box will pop-up, since I’m saving as JPEG. I set the quality to 8. Not too crappy, and not too large of a file size. Click OK and close the image.

Now you can stop your Action recording. Click on the square Stop Recording button next to the Record Button on the Actions Palette.

Now to create the Droplet. This part gets a little complicated, because there’s a lot of different settings. The best advice I can give is to play around. I’ll show you my method, but ultimately, you’ll end up developing your own. Anyways, onward and upward.

Go under [File > Automate > Create Droplet]. The dialog box will open. Click the [Choose] button. The Save dialog box will open. Choose the directory, or wherever you want to put your Droplet file. Name it accordingly also.

Under Set: choose the Action Set you made.
Under Action: choose the Action you made.

Then click on the two checkboxes: [Suppress File Open Options Dialog] and [Suppress Color Profile Warnings].

Where it says Destination: choose Folder. The [Choose] button will appear now. Click on that and in the dialog box that opens, select a folder you want to use. I set it up to use as a temporary folder. So I made a folder called “Resize.” I also configured my options as you can see below.

You now have a Droplet file. All you have to do is navigate to the file on your computer, not in Photoshop, then just drag-and-drop whatever image files you want to resize onto the Droplet icon. Photoshop will open, process through your images, then save the resized images to the folder you specified.

You can use this for any Action that you make in Photoshop.