5 Photoshop Tricks You Don't Know (And Why Photoshop is So Damn Amazing)

You know you've "made it" when your brand/product becomes a verb. With 25 years of history Photoshop has done exactly that and has become the undisputed champion of the photo manipulation/editing/post production game. I've been using Photoshop since version 1.0 back in 1990 (first as a tinkerer, then as a design QCM and finally as a photographer/retoucher) but despite my long relationship with Photoshop I still don't consider myself as having mastered it. How can you master something that has almost limitless permutations? That is what makes Photoshop so amazing. Find a way to do something and the person sitting next to you will likely be doing it in a uniquely different, if not, better way. Handling Photoshop is like handling a musical instrument. It's an art form in itself. So to help us all grow our: art, understanding, efficiency, creativity, and love for Photoshop, here are 5 Photoshop trick, from The Photoshop Training Channel, that you probably don't know. Big thanks to San Francisco Bay Area, graphic designer/web developer Jesús Ramires. If you don't already have Photoshop *gasp* you can find it here (it's never too late to learn a new instrument).

#1: Advanced Blending Options

Uncheck “Transparency Shapes Layer” in the Layer Styles panel to make pixels blend differently when using blend modes.

#2: Precise Flare Window

You can bring up a special “Precise Flare Center” window to add a lens flare to exact locations in your photo.

#3: High Contrast Clouds

Instead of the usual clouds layer you get when you render clouds, you can render high contrast clouds.

#4: Black and White Adjustment Layer For Color Control

You can use a Black and White Adjustment Layer to control the luminance values of specific colors in your photo.

#5: Open One Image In Two Windows

You can have the same photo open in two windows that are side-by-side, with one view zoomed in and one view zoomed out.


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via [Photoshop Training Channel] via [SLR Lounge] via [PetalPixel]

Kenn Tam's picture

Been holding this damn camera in my hand since 1991.
Toronto / New York City

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8 Comments

double window for the win!

Excellent tips! Especially double window which is up there with double rainbow awesomeness. I also didn't know about using BW as a luminosity adjustment as I do a lot of my work in LR and luminosity is built in. But it's great to have masks to have precise control of the adjustments.

Nice ..some of them are very useful ... thanks

These are awesome and likely underrated. How these guys learn these simple (yet specific) things in Photoshop is a mystery to me. Great post/video!

So much useful... :)

Black and white adjustment and double window, very useful!!

Actually, I have a better and faster sollution for the 2nd tip with the lens flare without to remeber the coordinates, and so on...:
1.) stamp everything into a new layer (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E)
2.) create and place the lens flare as usual, sert the type, strenght and blah blah blah and hit OK
3.) delete the layer
4.) create a new, black layer
5.) hit CTRL+F which repeats the last used filter
6.) set blending mode of the layer to screen or lighten

:)

Well done! I consider myself a Photoshop Ninja and usually scoff at "things you don't know", because they are never things I don't know, but you taught me 3 new things! (I use black and white and dual windows all the time, but the other 3 are new, and the precise lens flare is immediately going into my workflow. I add in very specific lens flares ALL THE TIME and it's always a pain moving the pin little by little until it's actually right.) Thanks!