8 Tips Every Photoshop User Needs to Know

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🇻🇳 Đọc bằng tiếng Việt

1. Select Layers the Fastest Way

When you work in Illustrator to design vect2

or drawings and want to select an object, you just click it and it is selected directly; then you can move and edit it however you like. In Photoshop, however, we have always depended on layers. Whenever we want to work on a layer, we have to use one of the following methods:

• Click the layer name directly in the Layers panel.
• Hold Ctrl + right-click the layer, and it will show a list of layers for you to choose from
• Press the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + right-click the spot on the image you want to edit, and it will automatically select the layer containing that image in the Layers panel.

These methods may be difficult if you did not arrange your layers in order beforehand. There is a very simple tip that lets you select Photoshop layers just like selecting objects in Illustrator. Select the Move tool (shortcut V), then look up at the Options bar and click the Auto-Select option. In the drop-down box next to it, there are 2 options, Group and Layer; choose Group or Layer depending on your purpose. In this example, I chose Layer. Now, when you click any image in the working window, the layer containing that image will be selected automatically and you can move it easily. However, it only selects layers that are not locked, so if you want to keep other layers fixed so you don’t click them by mistake, you can lock those layers.

Next, right beside that Layer drop-down box, if you check the “Show Transform Controls” option, it will also show the Transform box so you can adjust the layer however you like directly, without having to press Ctrl + T.

To select several layers close to each other, you can still keep the Move tool (V) and drag a rectangle across the areas you want to select, and all layers containing those areas will be selected automatically in the Layers panel. For this action, as I said above, if you don’t want other layers selected by mistake, you should lock them so they are not affected.

2. Change the Brush Tip

The brush tip is not only used for the Brush tool (B); it is also used in other tools such as Clone Stamp, Healing Brush, Eraser, etc. Here are ways to quickly change the brush size:

• Press [ or ] to make the brush bigger or smaller. This shortcut only changes the brush size; it cannot change the hardness value to make the brush hard or soft.
• Hold Alt + right-click (on Windows) or Control + Alt (option) + left-click (on Mac), keep holding the mouse button and drag left – right to change the brush size, or drag up – down to change the hardness value. This way, we can change both the brush size and hardness at the same time.

3. Work With Several Windows Side by Side

You can see in the Windows > Arrange menu there is a function called New Window for file-name. I’m sure most of you never use this function, because it duplicates the working window, and when you make any change in one window, the other window is affected too.

By now you are probably wondering: why would I need to duplicate the working window when both show the same result?

I’ll explain with two examples.

Example 1. If you work on an image to display on the web, of course you have to use the RGB color mode, but you also want this file to be printable, and printing uses the CMYK color mode. In that case, you may want to preview what the colors of this design will look like in CMYK mode. Now go to the Windows > Arrange menu, choose New Window for file-name to duplicate the working window. Then press Ctrl + Y to switch this new window to proof color.

Now you can keep working in the RGB window, while still checking how it would look in print in the window you just created above. You can easily compare the color difference between the two windows in the illustration below.

Example 2. When you use a layer mask, sometimes you want to check and work on just the mask itself, so you have to hold Alt + click the layer mask thumbnail to show what you are doing on the mask full screen. Your display window is then only black and white, and it is very hard to tell what the result looks like before and after editing the layer mask.

Right then, you need to duplicate the working window again, with one window showing the layer mask (hold Alt + click the layer mask thumbnail) and the other left as is. Then you can work in the black-and-white mask window while still watching the result in the other window. Very handy, isn’t it?

4. Don’t Overlook the Power of Clipping Mask

Clipping Mask is a very useful and very popular Photoshop function. It lets you use one layer as a frame for another layer (which can be an image, brush, pattern, texture or adjustment layer, etc.); everything on that layer is only shown inside the content area of the layer below it.

You can see the following example

Here I have a text layer, then I insert a new layer and paint on it with a brush. Without a clipping mask, the brush strokes spill outside the text, but if you add a clipping mask, they only show inside the text. You can also replace this brush layer with an adjustment layer or any other layer.

There are 3 ways to create a layer mask:

• Hold Alt + click the new layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, or press the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + N, and the new layer window will appear as above; then click Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask.
• Right-click the layer and choose Create Clipping Mask, and a clipping mask will automatically be applied with the layer below it.
• Hold Alt and click the line between 2 layers in the Layers panel (when you see a bent-down arrow appear at the mouse pointer), and it will also create a clipping mask for the 2 layers above and below the line you clicked.

5. Easily Make a Selection From a Layer or Mask

When you hold Ctrl + click the layer thumbnail of any layer, Photoshop will automatically create a selection that exactly matches the content of the layer you clicked.

Also, when you hold Ctrl + click a layer mask thumbnail, Photoshop also creates a selection that exactly matches the area painted white on the layer mask.

You can see the example below

6. Use Puppet Warp

Puppet Warp transform is a pretty interesting Photoshop function, available since CS5. To use this function, go to the Edit > Puppet Warp menu. After you choose it, your image will be covered with a triangle mesh, and you need to create some anchor points by clicking on several spots on the image. We call each anchor point a pin, and you need at least 2 pins for each image.

Each pin is shown as a yellow circle; later, newer versions changed it to a gray circle. The selected (active) pin has a black dot inside. If you move this selected pin to another spot, your image will be distorted in the direction you move the pin. Only the areas near the active pin change; the areas belonging to other pins are not affected, as the other pins hold those spots in place.

Here is an example of this Puppet Warp function

To delete a pin, hold Alt and move the mouse right onto that pin, and a scissors icon will appear at the pointer; click to delete that pin. Also, when you hold Alt and move the mouse close to the pin, a circle will appear around the pin, and you can rotate the pin if you want.

7. Use Styles to Save Useful Effects

With Blending Options, you can create countless effects (styles) for your layer, whether the layer is an image, a shape or text. If you want to save those effects to use later, without the hassle of opening the file to copy the layer styles or redoing the style, you can save it to the Photoshop library and use it later quickly and easily.

8. Don’t Cancel the Adjustment, Reset It

When you work with Adjustment layers such as Levels, Curves, or any Adjustment layer, it may be hard to get it right when you are new to Photoshop. This inevitably leads to dragging back and forth without being satisfied, then clicking Cancel and reopening the Adjustment layer to start over.

Here is a small tip to help you work faster in this case: instead of clicking the Cancel button, hold the Alt key, and the Cancel button will turn into a Reset button. Click Reset, and your changes will be cleared and the command returned to its initial state; you don’t need to close and reopen the adjustment layer just to redo the adjustment.