Photoshop Tip/Tricks #1

I unfortunetly didn’t realize how much work I needed to get done for the tutorial I was posting today, so instead here are 10 quick Photoshop tips.

1. If you wanted to make a guide that was exactly in the middle of your document you can go to View> New Guide and put in 50% and either have it go vertical or horizontal.

2. You can right click on the rulers for the list of units of measurement that you can change the rulers to.

3. You can add to the canvas size of a document by using the crop tool to select the entire document and then scaling it up.

4. In CS4, if you hold down the shortcut key for a tool you can use it while held down and then when you are done with it you can release the key and it will go back to the tool you previously were using. These are called “sticky keys”

5. You can add to selections by holding down the Shift key and making another selection. You can also subtract by holding down the Alt key.

6. If you want your foreground and background colors to go back to the default black and white just hit the “D” key.

7. If you wanted to change between your foreground and background color you can do that using the “X” key. I use this the most when editing masks.

8. Hiting the “Refine Edge” button after making a selection gives you the ability to change things like feather, contrast, and contract and expand.

9. Since CS3 you can open up a .mov files to work with. Use the “Animation” panel to scrub through the video and use the normal Photoshop tools and layers to create. Just go to File> Export> Render Video when you are done.

10. Hold down the Ctrl (Command on Mac) while going to Help> About Photoshop to reveal the beta splash screen of your version. This one is only for fun.

I hope you enjoy this quick tip list. Next week I will have a full blown photoshop tutorial.