A Deep Dive Into Photoshop's Adjustment Layers

Photoshop's core adjustment layers are diverse and powerful, but are you using them to their full potential? I'm going to bet that you're not; check out this video to find out why.

In this one-hour-plus video from Colin Smith of PhotoshopCAFE, we're treated to a library of useful tips about Photoshop's adjustment layers. There are few Photoshop educators as knowledgeable and as prolific as Smith, so this video is well worth your attention. While he explains the basics of all the different adjustment layers, those who consider themselves more advanced users should still find some useful tips in here.

My process of learning editing — much like most people's, I assume — is not so much like finding out everything I can about a particular tool or technique as it is just figuring out how to emulate a certain look by watching tutorials. Because of this, I tend to not fully understand exactly what each adjustment is really doing. All I know is that I need to get from A to D, but B and C get lost in translation. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, but putting in the extra effort to understand these tools on a deeper level will eventually open new avenues for creativity, and it will be easier to solve problems without having to resort to YouTube tutorials all the time.

Did you learn something new from this video?

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Mike is a landscape and commercial photographer from, Co. Kerry, Ireland. In his photographic work, Mike tries to avoid conveying his sense of existential dread, while at the same time writing about his sense of existential dread. The last time he was in New York he was mugged, and he insists on telling that to every person he meets.

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1 Comment

I really like Colin, he puts a huge amount of effort into his videos, but this Live stream demonstrates why video editing is a real requirement. While it would have worked as a lockdown live stream as a regular tutorial, not so much.