Photoshop Tips & Tricks

Someone here must have some good Photoshop tips or tricks...

I been using Photoshop regularly since 5.0 and still discover new functions and combinations... Gotta love the good people of Adobe! I'm running 7.0 now, which is nice, but of course full of goodies that takes time to learn and use. Does anyone care to share a few tips? *s*

Let me start with something basic, but useful; hotkeys.

Esc : Stops whatever task PS is performing.
Return : OK/Confirm.
Ctrl-T : (Free) Transform (resize or mirror).
Ctrl-0 : Fits picture on screen.
Ctrl-+ : Zoom in.
Ctrl-- : Zoom out.
and offcourse the windows-style ones; Ctrl-C/V/Z...

Far from conclusive, but the most common I guess...

Torch hereby passed on...

I get alot of my stuff for Photoshop at dvgarage.com
Good Stuff

Nice one, Dreamlandmafia, checked their forum, not that busy in the Photoshop section, but found some interesting links, thanks!

Op11. Sorry I still haven't got that tutorial up for the bubble effect. Maybe I'll try it here...

Open a new project.
Make it 300x300 pixels.
Immediately make a new layer.
Using the elliptical marquee tool (fixed aspect ratio), make a circle that fits within the window..kind of centered.
Keep it highlighted, select your color and fill.
Deselect all. Make a new layer (layers are your friend!). Using the elliptical marquee tool again (still fixed aspect ratio) make a smaller circle within the larger one.
Make it about a third of the size of the larger, and 3 or 4 pixels from the top of the larger circle.
While still selected pick the gradient tool and select white to transparent as your fill.
Drag the gradient fill tool about 1/3 of the way down the small circle.
This will create a cool reflection effect, simulating a 3d surface.
Deslect all.
New layer.
Go back to the colored circle layer and select layer transparency (just select the circle and nothing else. While still selected, go to your newest layer and use the gradient tool and drag it about 1/4 of the way up the circle from the bottom.
Deslect.
Nudge it up about 3 pixels, then gaussian blur to about 2.8 radius.
Go back to your colored circle and use the built-in layer styles (Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Outer Glow..etc) and select Inner Glow, blend mode "Multiply", color black, adjust the opacity, choke and size according to how you want it.
It should start looking a bit more 3d.
Within the colored circle, you can add text..paste any cropped photo, or basically do what you want.
When your finished customizing the circle, link and merge all layers except the background.
Use a drop shadow for the whole circle to make it stand out, and color your background how you want.
I hope this wasn't too technical for those who aren't familiar with Photoshop.
It really is not that difficult, just give yourself some time to practice and you'll be doing it like a pro in no time!

Thanks DL, suspected this effect utilized gradient in a seperate layer somehow...I will commence the creation of a great avatar shortly! *s*

photoshop is bot a friend and enemy many great things can be accomplished with photoshop is a great tool Dynomite

Originally posted by tealc

photoshop is bot a friend and enemy many great things can be accomplished with photoshop is a great tool

Tealc; Amen!

I applied some of DL's techniques on this thing here, what do you think? (The logo is of my favourite football team)
*FC Copenhagen*

[edit] Should have uploaded it in JPEG, seems this GIF isn't to keen on the white gradient...Well...



[Edited on 11-11-2003 by operatoreleven]

Originally posted by operatoreleven
I applied some of DL's techniques on this thing here, what do you think? (The logo is of my favourite football team)
*FC Copenhagen*

[edit] Should have uploaded it in JPEG, seems this GIF isn't to keen on the white gradient...Well...



[Edited on 11-11-2003 by operatoreleven]

OMG !! That's Awesome Op11 !!!!
See how easy it is to get cool results with PS. If I can do it...anyone can do it. You don't really need expensive graphics programs either...PaintSopPro will do the same kind of stuff, and it's available for much less than Photoshop. Great work man!! I like the transparency effect in there.

Originally posted by darklanser

OMG !! That's Awesome Op11 !!!!

hehe, thanks DL! *blushing*
I just made a new avatar along these lines, I'll put it up tommorow...

darklanser,

I've been using photoshop regularly for the last 9 years. I thought there was nothing you could tell me about photoshop.

Your avatar is one of the best on this forum, I love the look of it.



Here's my very poor attempt at copying your work. I'm sure this technique will save me one day.

A million and one thanks for teaching this old dog a new trick! (and for animating my avatar for me!)


[Edited on 24-11-2003 by Zzub]

Originally posted by Zzub
Your avatar is one of the best on this forum, I love the look of it.

Here's my very poor attempt at copying your work. I'm sure this technique will save me one day.

A million and one thanks for teaching this old dog a new trick! (and for animating my avatar for me!)

Thanks Z. That smiley is great !! Don't try to tell me it's poor. You picked up the technique quick ! I'm working on my xmas alien now. Should have it up sometime tomorrow. I can't wait til my new cpu gets here. My computer will rock. I've been using an old laptop forever.
Thanks for the complements gentlemen. I shall look forward to seeing more of your work. Later.
dl

I've tried out Phototshop CS for a while, and I love it! Unfortunately my computer doesn't agree, it crashes quite often when I run CS...

(3 year old Dell notebook)

I especially like the new features, like RAW support (good thing if you photograph in this format), the new and improved color replace function, the customizable open/save as pop-up window, the improved script support ( haven't done much with this, although it has great time saving potential, when dealing with photographs) and the improved browser.

Have any of you guys had any experiences with CS?

*sigh* gotta get myself a G4 powerbook...
Does anyone here use mac? If so, what are your views on PC versus MAC when using Photoshop?.

There is no dispute, MAC! I think I would shoot myself if I had to do design work on a PC, It's just so much better.

I wish I had photoshop

[Edited on 1-3-2004 by jetsetter]

There is no dispute, MAC! I think I would shoot myself if I had to do design work on a PC, It's just so much better.

I hear ya' Nicodemus, and I guess Mac's superiority in graphic design is well established. My concern however, is that after having used a PC forever, it'll be weird, to say the least, to switch to a completely different OS.

Perhaps it wouldn't be as difficult as I dread, I would love to hear from someone who went from Windows to Mac.

From what I've read, the switch on the latest OS (PC and Mac) aren't too much different. I find Macs are much more intuitive and fluid in their interfaces.


Here's a tip for changing a color pic to B/W. Don't just change the color mode to grayscale. For some reason Adobe programmed it in a way that I feel converts it with too much yellow tones. Try going to your channels pallette and close all but 1 channel. Go thru them all and pick the one that gives you the best image. Then change the mode to grayscale. Much different results. Try it with each different channel and see the difference.

Also, when resizing in free transform shift+drag a corner maintains the aspect ratio. Option+shift+drag on a corner keeps the aspect ratio and keeps the image centered.

[Edited on 3-7-2004 by Nicodemus]

Here's a tip for changing a color pic to B/W. Don't just change the color mode to grayscale. For some reason Adobe programmed it in a way that I feel converts it with too much yellow tones

How about just using Desaturate? (Ctrl, Shift, U)

Option+shift+drag on a corner keeps the aspect ratio and keeps the image centered

Option? Is that Ctrl on PC?

From what I've read, the switch on the latest OS (PC and Mac) aren't too much different. I find Macs are much more intuitive and fluid in their interfaces.

Yeah... I guess, there's only one way to find out *s* I think I'll take the plunge, but those G4 notebooks are pretty steep, especially the extra RAM! Well...

Sorry, Option is ALT on a PC.

Desaturate is easy, but if you try the channels technique, you'll see much different results. It becomes like you shot it on B/W film with a color filter on the lens. If you have any photography background you'll probably know how this affects the contrast and tones of the image. If not, try it. Eaither way, try it. It can be pretty cool. Maybe I can post some samples.