by R. B.

Created on: October 13, 2008

Photoshop is one of the most robust and by extension complicated programs out there. There is more than can be learned in a year. But that doesn't mean you can't get a lot better quick.

Get a Wacom Tablet
Wacom tablets are a stylus and pad that allow you to use the various brush tools in Photoshop as if you're using a pencil. A Wacom tablet is the siingle most useful accessory for running photoshop. Note that there are other brands, but most have nowhere near the sensitivity of a Wacom.

Learn How to Use the Pen Tool
The pen tool is one of the hardest things to get used to in Photoshop and is definatly worth it. The pen tool allows you to draw clean straight paths that you can use to make tough selections that look razor sharp.

Learn About Blending Modes
Layers are the most important tool in Photoshop. They allow you to composite images easily and keep your files organized. But on the top left of the layer palette is a dropdown menu that many users ignore. These are blending modes. All they do is modify how different layers interact with the layers below them. For instance "Multiply" makes white transparent while "Screen" does the same to black. There are a lot of Blending Modes, so experiment.

Non Destructive Editing
Editing an image in photoshop generally involves modifying pixels, either moving them or altering their color. A black line drawn across an image permanantly changes the pixels it covers to black. If much later you intend to go back and restore the original background it can be difficult or impossible. Non destructive editing allows you to make changes that can be modified, undone and redone without trouble. The methods of doing this are Layer Masks and Adjustment Layers. They are a little much to get into here, but it's vital to learn how to use them.

General Tips:
If you want to move the image on the background layer and are having trouble, just double click it. That will transform it to a normal layer that can be moved around.

Hit D to return to your default colors of Black in the foreground and White in the background.

Hit X to swap your foreground and background colors.

Hit [ to reduce your brush size and ] to increase it.

Hit SHIFT+[ to increase your brush's softness and SHIFT+] to increase your brush's hardness.

Hit ALT+[ to move to the next lower layer and ALT+] to move to the next higher.

Hit CTRL+A to select the entire layer.

Hit CTRL+SHIT+I to reverse a selection, useful if you select a person and want to mask out the background.

Hit CTRL+T to Free Transform a selection. This lets you scale, rotate and deform it to your liking. Hover over a corner box to rotate it. Hold down SHIFT to constrain the proportions so that it doesn't deform when resizing. Hold down CTRL to distort a corner. Hold down ALT+CTRL to pivot like a on two points and hold down ALT+CTRL+SHIFT to distort the image in a faux perspective method.

Learn more about this author, R. B..
Click here to send this author comments or questions.