25 Photoshop tricks that you should know

When you begin using Photoshop (or any other program for that matter), there's usually so much new stuff to memorize and you start by using program and context menus. If you work with a program for a long time, you start remembering convenient keyboard shortcuts to perform actions that you use the most. Photoshop is not an exception and knowing some useful tricks might make your life a little less complicated. Here's a collection of some interface tricks and keyboard shortcuts for Photoshop.

1. Transform objects without calling the transformation tool

Usually when you want to resize an image, you need to go to Edit > Transform > ... to do that or press CTRL+T. But instead of calling the transformation tool manually, you can have the transformation rectangle to show as soon as you select your move tool. To do that, select the move tool

from the tools palette and in the top of Photoshop's window select a checkbox as shown in the picture below:

As soon as you do that, the contents of an active layer will always have a transofrmation rectangle around them with the move tool selected.

2. Quickly distort an object

If you want to distort an object, you normally go to Edit > Transform > Distort. What a waste of time. There are 2 more ways to do the same thing. The first one: press CTRL+T to activate the basic transformation tool, then right-click on the document and select Distort from the popup menu. An even easier way to do that is as follows: press CTRL+T to activate the transformation rectangle, then hold CTRL and move your mouse near any of the transofmation handles. You will notice that the cursor changes and this means it's ready to distort instead of transform. So simply click and move the transformation to distort.

3. Locking aspect ratio

Doesn't matter if you want to draw a perfect square / circle or just resize an object, maintaining the current aspect ratio, your friend here is the SHIFT key. For example when drawing a selection, press and hold the SHIFT button and you will not be able to draw anything else than a perfect square / circle. If you press CTRL+T to resize an object, hold the SHIFT key and drag one of the corner handles to resize width and height together, maintaining aspect ratio.

4. Interactive labels

Photoshop's interface (at least in the new version) has a number of interactive labels. For example look at the layers panel and you'll notice Opacity and Fill controls. You've probably already used them to input transparency values, but did you know that you can actually click and drag on the caption itself to do the same?

Normally you'd have to click on a little triangle next to the transparency value to open up a scrollbar and then scoll it, but with this method you simply have to click once on the label itself and drag to change the values instantaneously. This works not only for the labels in layers panel - there are more interactive labels throughout the interface (usually in the tool settings panel in the top of Photoshop's window).

5. Quickly create a new layer

If you need to create a new layer without a mouse, press CTRL+SHIFT+N.

6. Duplicating layer / selection contents

If you want to duplicate an entire layer, make sure nothing is selected and press CTRL+J. A new layer will be created on top with exactly the same contents. If you want to quickly copy a part of a layer to another layer and put it in exactly the same position, make a selection and press CTRL+J. This will copy only the contents of the selection to a new layer.

7. Create a layer below an active one

Usually when you press a new layer button

in the layers panel, a new layer is created on top of the selected layer. If you need it below, you either need to select an even lower layer before pressing the button or drag the newly created layer down. To avoid any of this, hold CTRL before pressing the new layer button and the layer will be created below the one that's currently selected.

8. Paint over an object

Let's say you have an object on a layer like this:

It happens frequently that you need to paint over this object with your brush but you don't want to accidently paint outside of it. What should you do? Create a new layer on top of this layer and press CTRL+ALT+G in new Photoshop versions or CTRL+G in older versions (or Layer > Create Clipping Mask). You will notice that a little arrow appears next to the new layer:

It means that whatever you paint on layer 2 will only be visible if it is within the bounds of layer 1. So if you try to paint outside of the snail - you'll see nothing. But if you try to paint within it - that will work. Try it yourself - grab a brush with some color of your choice, select layer 2 and paint over the snail's head:

Remember that all of the paint goes to layer 2 (not on the snail's layer) so if you don't like having those two layers - press CTRL+E on layer 2 to merge it down with the snail. There's an alternative to this method, but i wouldn't recommend it, because it's a destructive way (means you'd be painting on the snail and wouldn't be able to undo your actions anytime). Anyway, i'll tell you how it works. Instead of creating a new layer (a clipping mask), you press the lock transparent pixels button

in the layers panel. A small lock will appear on that layer and you won't be able to paint on anything that's completely transparent. So if you try to brush over the snail, you'll succeed, but brushing outside of it wouldn't work. Also you wouldn't be able to apply some effects (like blurs) so after you're done, press the same button again to unlock the pixels. But i'd really recommend using a clipping mask method, because you can undo the changes even after closing the document (by simply deleting / modifying the clipping mask layer).

9. Quickly center an object vertically and horizontally on the document

Let's say you have a situation like this:

What if you wanted to position the snail exactly in the horizontal/vertical center of the document? The first thing you need to do is zoom out (CTRL+-) until you can see the entire document and there are no scrollbars. Then press CTRL+A to select everything on that layer (in our case it's a snail), CTRL+X to cut and CTRL+V to paste. Photoshop centers every pasted object in the viewport and since the entire document is visible, the snail will be centered exactly in the middle:

10. Quickly get rid of dark colors

Let's imagine we have a situation like this:

We have 2 layers here. Lower one contains some "stars" and the there's a planet-ish thingy on the top layer :) But as you can see no stars are visible because the top layer is black instead of transparent. This is a classical situation when you need to add a moon for example to some sky. You usually get the moon in a black background, but instead of cutting it, you can select the layer (layer 4 in this case) and change it's blending mode (the one that in the picture says Normal) to Screen. Here's what you'll get:

As you can see, all the colors that were dark, have now become transparent. Black color is completely transparent and some blue that was on the planet is transparent partially. All you need to do now is paint the area of the planet on the stars layer with black (to get rid of the stars that shine through the planet) and you're done. Normally when doing photomanipulations you won't even need to do anything after applying the screen blending mode.

11. Opcacity vs. fill

Do you know why there are even two sliders on the layers panel that do exactly the same thing - reduce the opacity of a layer? That might be an impression of a beginner, but these sliders don't do exactly the same so let me illustrate:

In the picture above there's a planet on layer 3 and a black background on layer 4. The planet has 2 effects applied to it: outer glow and inner gow (double-click on the layer to apply effects). Now what would happen if i decreased the opacity to 0%? You're absolutely right if you think that the planet will disappear. But what would happen if i decreased fill to 0%? Let's take a look:

Wow, how did that happen :) As you can see, the fill only changes the transparency for layer contents, but all the effects, applied to that layer, are left intact. So the ring you're seeing is nothing else but outer and inner glows. When you cnahge the opacity, both layer contents and effects are affected.

12. Creating guides

Guides are a very useful thing when working with interfaces and stuff like that. They help you visualize margins, bleed areas for printers and serve as a "magnet" that snaps selections and objects to them. If you want to be presice about it, go to View > New Guide... to create a vertical or horizontal guide. Another way of doing it is enabling screen rulers (View > Rulers) and then clicking and dragging on any of them. Now whether you need to visualize a bleed margin for your print work or simply have a guide to snap your selection to - you have it. To disable guides either delete them by going to View > Clear Guides or hide them by unchecking View > Extras.

13. Snap moving objects to their x/y coordinates

Sometimes we need to move an object, but we don't want to move it vertically or horizontally. You can do that with the keyboard (see tip 17), but you can also do it with the mouse. Simply while moving the object with the move tool, hold the SHIFT key. This will cause the object to snap to its original x/y coordinates (depending on the movement direction).

14. Disable snapping for moving objects completely

In the previous tip i've explained how to enable snapping to original coordinates, but even without the SHIFT key pressed your moving object still snaps to the document edges, other objects and guides. To disable snapping completely (until the next move), hold CTRL while dragging the object.

15. Quickly switch to black color

To quickly select black color, all you need to do is press the D key on your keyboard. This will change your foreground color to black and background to white (default colors).

16. Quickly switch to white color

To switch to white quickly, first switch to black by pressing the D key for default color values. And there will also be a white color as a background. All you need to do now is press the X key to switch foreground with background and you'll get white in the foreground and black in the background.

17. Move objects with your keyboard

To move an object with your keyboard, press the V key to activate the move tool and then press (and hold if you need to) any of the arrow keys on the keyboard. If you want to speed up the movement, hold SHIFT while pressing arrow keys.

18. Mirror transformations

Sometimes you need to resize an object horizontally or vertically. You grab the middle left or right handle and resize one side, then grab the middle handle on the other side and resize it too. You can do that in one move by holding the ALT key and dragging any of the handles - the opposite handle will be dragged in the opposite direction automatically.

19. Quickly change the brush size

To change the brush size quickly, all you need to do is press [ or ] keys on your keyboard. 20. Quickly fill the selection with a foreground / background color

If you need to fill an entire layer or just a selection with the foreground color, press ALT+BACKSPACE. If you want to fill with a background color, press CTRL+BACKSPACE.

21. Quickly invert a selection

Selection inverse is a very good technique that's used quite a lot. Let's say you have a circular selection and now you want to delete everything that's outside of it. Just press CTRL+SHIFT+I and you will now have everything else but the circle selected. Then you can hit the DEL key to delete (or whatever you want to do with it).

22. Quickly select entire layer contents

If you have an object (or more) on a layer and you want to select it quickly, press and hold the CTRL key and click on that layer's thumbnail:

23. Select a few layers at the same time

To select a few layers at the same time (might not work for older Photoshop versions), click on any of them, then hold the CTRL key and click on the other layer you want selected as well:

24. Never use the eraser

You should never use an eraser to erase something from a layer, because you will come to a point (for example when the document is closed) when these actions will not be able to be undone. You should always use layer masks to hide the parts of the layer instead of deleting them. That way you can always unhide what you've hidden. To learn about layer masks, visit my non destructive deletion with layer masks tutorial.

25. A better way of applying image adjustments

When you apply levels, curves, hue/saturation or a similar adjustment to a layer, you perform a destructive action (the original layer data is lost). You should add an adjustment layer instead. To do that, press the new adjustment layer button

in the layers panel and from the popup menu select an adjustment you want applied. A new layer will be created and you'll be able to change the adjustment parameters anytime by double-clicking on it.

So that's all for now. I'm sure theres way more useful tricks and i'll try to remember them and perhaps create another tutorial if i can remember enough things worth mentioning. So as always - have fun and i hope you've learned something new today!