12 Adobe Photoshop Tips & Tricks For Beginners With Images

March 07,2023

Photoshop tutorials: 100 editing tips

Photoshop tutorials are all over the internet, ready to help you edit your images in all sorts of ways – from simple crops to incredibly complex techniques involving layers, masks and more.

Here, we've picked out some top tips covering every area of Adobe Photoshop CC (opens in new tab)'s enormous photo editing capabilities, from raw processing to retouching, from layers to luminance. They are a mixture of video walkthroughs, image editing examples and quick-fire tips, shortcuts and modifier keys to make your Photoshop editing as fast, efficient and productive as possible.

We've split our tips up to sections so that you can jump to the tips you're most interested in straight away, or you can simply scroll or swipe down this article to see all our Photoshop tips.

Sometimes menus, buttons and dialog options can be quite small and hard to make out, especially on a small display – but you can click on the gadget in the top right hand corner of these images to zoom in on a larger version.

We hope you find these Photoshop tips useful. We've kept them short, sharp and to the point – so let's get going!

How to get Photoshop

If you don't yet have Photoshop but you'd like to try it out to see what all the fuss is about, you can get a 7-day trial version of the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan. Find out how the Adobe Photography Plans work (opens in new tab) to make sure that you choose the best option.

If you want to subscribe to a plan or just download the trial version, you can choose any of the options in the panel below. We've put a simple guide together on how to download Photoshop (opens in new tab).

Videos

1. Speedy skin softening with Texture

The new Texture adjustment in Camera Raw or Lightroom works wonders over skin. Grab the adjustment Brush and dial in a negative value, then paint over skin for a nice softening effect that retains the texture of the skin, while smoothing out any imperfections and rough patches.

2. Lift skin tones quickly

Often skin tones will benefit from a gentle lift to the luminance of the red, yellow or orange color range. a simple way to do this is with the Targeted Adjustment tool in Camera Raw. simply grab the tool, right-click and choose luminance, then drag upwards slightly over the subject’s skin to lift it.

A contact sheet can be a quick and easy way to display a set of photos on a single print or image file. open Bridge and cmd/ctrl-click to select your photos, then go to Tools > Photoshop > Contact Sheet iII. Use Thumbnail to control how many images go on each sheet.

4. Enhance macro textures with ease

The Texture command in Camera Raw and Lightroom is perfectly suited to boosting the sharp details in macro photos. This is down to the way it targets a narrow band of mid-frequency detail without affecting high or low frequencies. This means it doesn’t affect the soft areas of the image or amplify noise: only the in-focus crisp details are enhanced.

5. Make impossible-to-save-over templates

Sometimes you might want to make templates to use over and over, such as this simple three-image page template. The problem is, you might accidentally save over the template after editing it, rendering it useless. However, if after saving the template as a PSD you add 't' to the end of the file name (so it reads PSDt), Photoshop will always open a new ‘untitled’ file rather than the original file, meaning there’s no chance of accidentally saving over it.

6. Add punch with B&W and a blend mode

A Black and white adjustment layer can be useful for adding punch to your color photos. Simply set the Blending mode to soft light and opacity to around 20-50%. For portrait images, try tweaking the red and yellow sliders to fine- tune the look of the skin.

7. Extrude any object to 3D

You can turn any simple flat shape or path into a 3D object by going to 3D > new3D extrusion from. Once done, you can use the 3D panel to add materials to the object, rotate the view, add lighting and much more.

8. Have fun wIth symmetry painting

This fun feature is great for drawing patterns and interesting shapes. Grab the Brush tool, then click the butterfly icon in the tool options at the top to choose from different symmetrical painting options. then simply start painting — try adjusting the brush tip settings in the Brush panel for interesting scatter effects.

9. Save time with Select Subject

This time-saving tool analyzes your image and attempts to select the subject for you. Rarely does it do a perfect job, but that’s not the point. Complex selections are usually a several-step process, and this gets you started quickly. You can then go on to improve the results with the powerful Select and Mask command.

10. Have Lightroom select your best photos

Lightroom for web has an intriguing Best photos button that uses AI to analyze a set of photos and pick the best one for you. A slider to the top right of the interface makes the command more or less choosy in picking the favorites. As a machine-learning tool, it’s surprisingly (or scarily) on the ball with its choices.

10 shortcuts

11 When using any brush-based tool, press the ] and [ keys to resize the brush tip. Shift + ] or [ changes hardness.

12 Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to duplicate your current layer or – if you have an active selection – to copy the selected area to a new layer.

13 To make a merged copy of all your visible layers, highlight the top layer in the stack, then press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E.

14 The 0-9 number keys quickly set a brush opacity – 1 for 10%, 2 for 20% and 0 for 100%. press two keys quickly for a specific value, like 5-6 for 56%.

15 When no opacity-based tool is selected, the 0-9 number keys change the opacity of the current layer.

16 Cmd/Ctrl+F brings up the useful Photoshop finder – begin typing for quick access to any tool or command you want.

17 D resets your foreground and background colors to black and white, and X flips the two around.

18 Press Alt+Backspace to fill a layer with your foreground color, and Cmd/ Ctrl+Backspace for the background color.

19 Hold Cmd/Ctrl+Space and drag right or left to zoom in or out over the image. Cmd/ Ctrl+0 fits the entire image on-screen.

20 To make a layer group, Cmd/Ctrl-click to highlight several layers in the layers panel (or Shift-click between top and bottom), then press Cmd/Ctrl+G.

10 Modifiers

21. Brush tool modifier

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While you’re using the Brush tool, hold Ctrl+Alt and drag up, down, left, right to alter the size and hardness of the brush quickly.

22. Quick copy modifier

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Holding Alt while dragging any layer, selection, text, shape or layer style allows you to make a quick copy of it.

23. Mask view modifier

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Alt-click any layer mask thumbnail to toggle on or off a handy black-and- white mask view.

24. Mask disabling modifier

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Shift-click a layer mask thumbnail to disable it, and shift-click again to enable.

25. Hide other layers modifier

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Alt-click the eye icon on any layer to hide all other layers, and Alt-click it again to reveal the rest.

26 Cmd/Ctrl-click any layer, mask, channel, shape or text to load its shape as a selection.

27 Alt-click the layer mask thumbnail for a black mask that hides everything, rather than a ‘reveal all’ white one.

28 Add Shift into any tool letter shortcut – like j for the healing tools – to cycle between the set of tools.

29 When you use the Dodge and Burn tools, hold Alt to temporarily switch them.

30 When split toning in Camera Raw or Lightroom, hold Alt while dragging either the Hues or the Balance slider to temporarily view Saturation at 100%.

Blending modes

31. Hand-color old photos

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To hand-color old monochrome photos, simply make a new layer and set it to the Color Blending mode, then grab the Brush tool, choose a color and start painting over the image. Voilà!

32. Get the double exposure look

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For a simple double exposure effect reminiscent of the classic film effect, drag one image onto another with the move tool, then set the Blending mode to Screen.

33. Make a starry sky

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To add stars to a night-time sky, make a rough selection of the night sky with the Lasso Tool, and copy and paste it into another image. change the Blending mode to Lighten. If necessary, darken the layer with Levels and add a mask to control what is visible.

34. Use B&W for color changes

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To control the brightness of different colors, add a Black & White adjustment layer, then set the Blending mode to Luminosity. Now simply drag the B&W sliders to change the color image.

35. Rough up your photos wIth textures

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To blend textures. with your photos, try using the Overlay or Soft Light Blending modes. if neither of these work, try Multiply or Screen. experiment with layer opacity to affect the strength of the texture.

36. Make a dodge and burn Layer

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Alt-click the New Layer icon in the Layers panel; then, in the New Layer dialog, set the mode to Overlay and check Fill With. Now you can dodge and burn on this layer to affect all the layers underneath.

37. Powerful sharpening with High Pass

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Duplicate your layer with Cmd/Ctrl+J, then set the Blending mode to Overlay. Go to Filter > Other > High pass and adjust Radius to make a clever sharpening effect.

38. Blending mode opposites

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Several Blending Modes have an opposite counterpart. Lighten/Darken are opposites, as are Screen/Multiply, Darker Color/Lighter Color and Linear Burn/Linear Dodge.

39. Layer fill or opacity?

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Layer Opacity and Layer Fill settings can have different results when used in combination with certain Blending Modes like Color Burn. Using Fill often gives better results.

40 Often it’s not immediately obvious which Blending Mode will work best for you. Press Shift and the plus or minus keys to cycle up or down through the entire list, enabling you to compare results quickly.

Tool skills

41. Disable Rich Tool Tips

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These are animations that explain how certain tools work. They can be useful for beginners, but quickly become annoying if you already know how the tool works. You can simply go to Preferences > Tools to enable/disable Rich Tool Tips, though.

42 Use spring-loaded tool shortcuts

Most tools in Photoshop are ‘spring- loaded’, which means if you press and hold the relevant keyboard shortcut for a tool you’ll temporarily switch to it, then when you release you’ll go back to your previous tool.

43. Try content-aware croppIng

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When you use the Crop tool, you can check Content-Aware in the tool options, then crop outside of the original image bounds. Photoshop will attempt to fill in the missing areas based on the surrounding details.

44 Commit quickly

Previously you’d need to press return or double-click to apply a transform or commit type, but thanks to recent updates, you can now apply these things simply by clicking away from the active area.

45. Use the Clone tool on Lighten

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If you need to quickly smooth out rough patches in skin or tone down eye bags, try using the Clone tool set to the Lighten Blending Mode. It’s best to use a low opacity around 10-20% for good results.

46. Dodge your backgrounds to full white

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When you’ve shot an object against a white background, you’ll often want to blow it out to full white. If any light areas still hold detail, grab the Dodge tool, set it to Range: Highlights and uncheck Protect Tones, then paint over the backdrop.

47. Pen Tool essentials

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Here are a few essential Pen Tool shortcuts: drag to add curved lines and alt-click points to remove the outer handle, allowing you to make sharp corners. Cmd/Ctrl-drag to move anchor points or control handles.

48 Use healing tools non-destructively

Several tools – like the Healing Tools, Clone Tool and Sharpen Tool – have a handy Sample All Layers option in the toolbar, meaning you can make your edits on a separate empty layer while sampling those below. Now it’s easy to change your mind later.

49. Make your own brushes

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The Brush Tool has hundreds of tips to choose from, and you can also make your own. Simply make a black-on-white shape and select around it with the Marquee tool, then go to Edit > Define Brush Tip. The new tip will be selected next time you use the Brush tool.

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The Edit Toolbar option at the bottom of the Tools Panel (the three-dot icon) lets you tidy away the tools that you never use in its ‘extra tools’ section. Simply drag your little-used tools to here, then access them through this dialog if you need them.

Camera Raw

51. Sharpening standards

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There are no default or standard settings for sharpening with the Camera Raw Detail panel – it depends on image resolution and content. But as a rule of thumb, with detailed images like landscapes you typically want a fairly high Amount of 100-150 and a low Radius of 0.8-1.2. With less detailed images like close-up portraits or macro, a higher Radius and lower Amount is a good starting point.

52. Use the plus/minus icons

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When you make a local adjustment with the Graduated Filter, the Adjustment Brush or the Radial Filter, it’s usually best to begin by clicking the plus or minus icon next to one of the sliders to on the right: this simultaneously loads a starting-point adjustment and resets all the other sliders to their defaults. You can then go on to fine-tune the sliders to suit your adjustment.

53. Target and adjust colors quickly

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Right-click with the Targeted Adjustment Tool to choose Hue, Saturation or Luminance from a pop-up menu, then drag over the image to change the targeted colors based on the selected parameters. Here for example, we’re able to target Luminance and drag down on the blue sky to darken it.

54. Improve fine details

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Choose Enhance Details from the Filmstrip dropdown menu, and Photoshop will apply advanced demosaicing, which corrects artifacts and addresses color discrepancies in your photos. This can sometimes result in finer detail and less noise, but often there will be no discernible difference.

55. Open raw images as Smart Objects

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Hold Shift, and the Open Image button in the bottom-right of the Camera Raw interface will change to Open Object. Use this to open the image in Photoshop as a Smart Object. Now you can bring the image back to Camera Raw at any time by double-clicking the smart object thumbnail in the layers panel.

56. Double-dose toning with a grad

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Sometimes you can take a tonal slider right up to 100%, but still feel that the image needs more of that effect. If you want to take a tonal slider beyond its limits – perhaps to add 200% Clarity – add a Graduated Filter, start at the edge then drag away from the image so that the adjustment covers the entire frame, then adjust the tool sliders to suit.

57. Copy and paste raw edits in Bridge

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You can copy settings made in Camera Raw from one image to another – or a set – without opening the images. Simply go to the edited file in Bridge, right-click it and choose Develop Settings > Copy Settings. Highlight the images you’d like to copy the effect to, right-click them and choose Develop Settings > Paste Settings.

58. Alter your view with Alt

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In the Camera Raw/Lightroom Basic panel, holding Alt changes the view of various sliders. With the Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Whites or Blacks sliders it gives you a grayscale view that displays clipping.

59. Only sharpen the parts that need it

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The Masking slider in the Detail panel can be hugely useful for restricting sharpening just to the detailed areas that need it – excluding soft or out-of-focus areas where sharpening is not only unnecessary, but might also amplify image noise. After applying sharpening to your image with the Amount and Radius sliders, hold down Alt and drag the Masking slider for a view that shows black areas appear as you drag across. These black areas will be excluded from the effects of the sharpening.

60. Fine-tune your B&W conversIons

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The Black and White panel in Camera Raw or Lightroom is the best tool for monochrome conversions. Drag the eight color ranges to fine-tune the conversion by altering the brightness of these colors. You can fine-tune the effect further by tweaking the Temperature and Tint control in the Basic panel.

30 Quick Raw tips

61 Double-click any slider in Camera Raw to reset it to a default value.

62 Click on a neutral point like a gray road or a white wall with the White Balance tool to fix color casts.

63 You can drag a box with the White Balance tool to sample from the median point of a wider set of pixels.

64 In the Tone Curve, double- click the words Point Curve to reset the curve line.

65 Double-click a profile in the Profile Browser to simultaneously choose the profile and collapse the panel.

66 Alt-click the New Preset icon in the Preset panel to create new Profiles.

67 Double-click the Zoom tool to jump to a 100% view, showing actual pixels.

68 Double-click the Hand tool to jump out to a ‘fit image’ view, for assessing the entire image.

69 When zoomed in, press and hold H then click-hold to zoom out of and into areas.

70 Double-click the White Balance tool to reset the white balance to As Shot.

71 Double-click the Straighten tool icon in the toolbar to instantly straighten an image.

72 When cropping, press X to toggle a horizontal or vertical aspect ratio.

73 When using the Adjustment Brush, hold Ctrl (mac) or right-click (win) and drag to change brush size.

74 Press R or L to rotate a photo 90 degrees left or right.

75 Click the bottom-right toggle slider icon to turn all settings in the current panel off or back on again.

76 When multiple images are selected in the filmstrip, alt- click to set the active image.

77 You can use Camera Raw without needing to open Photoshop: just right-click an image in Bridge and select Open In Camera Raw.

78 If you use tool shortcuts – like K for Adjustment Brush – pressing it again will select the previous tool.

79 When another tool is selected, press and hold the I key to temporarily use the White Balance tool.

80 When cropping, hold Shift and drag corners to constrain the ratio, and hold Alt to resize from the center.

81 If you want to set the image size or resolution, click the Workflow options or use the Save Image box.

82 When using the Spot Removal Tool, press V to toggle the overlay on or off so you can check your work.

83 When you add a new Radial Filter, double-click to automatically set it to the bounds of the image.

84 Press X after adding a Radial Filter adjustment to toggle between affecting inside or outside the circle.

85 Hold Space while dragging the circle to temporarily adjust the position of your Radial Filter adjustment.

86 The Graduated Filter snaps to 15-degree increments if you hold Shift as you drag.

87 Drag sections of the histogram to alter Blacks, Shadows, Exposure, Highlights or Whites.

88 When a value is highlighted in a number box, press the up/down arrow keys to alter it.

89 Hold Alt, and the Cancel button changes to Reset (this works in many dialog boxes in Photoshop).

90 When using the Point Curve, Cmd/Ctrl-click on the image to set a point on the curve line.

Tonal tips

91. The amazing S-curve

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The best way to give an image extra punch is with a simple S-curve. Either use a Curves Adjustment Layer in Photoshop, or the Tone Curve in Camera Raw or Lightroom. Drag one control point upwards near the top-right of the line, and a second downwards near the bottom-left. The more pronounced the S is, the greater the contrast and color saturation. An optional third point in the middle of the line lets you anchor the midtones.

92. Fade your filter effects

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After applying a filter effect, you can ‘fade’ it by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+F. You can also experiment with different Blending Modes in this dialog. A faded Gaussian Blur set to Screen can result in a lovely soft-glow effect on monochrome images.

93. Solarize with curves

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If you drag the bottom-left point all the way up to the top-left and the top-right point down to bottom-right, you invert all the tones for a negative effect. You can also create an authentic solarized effect by plotting a V shape, or an inverted V as shown.

94. Remove a white background

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If you need to quickly remove a pure white backdrop to comp one image into another, simply copy it over and double-click the layer to enter the Blending Options, then drag the This Layer White slider inwards. If necessary, hold Alt and drag half the slider to split it up for a gentler transition.

95. Use the Auto buttons

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The three Auto options in Photoshop’s Image menu can be very useful for quick fixes. Each affects your image in a slightly different way. Auto Contrast takes the darkest pixels to pure black and the lightest to pure white. Auto Tone does a similar thing, but to each individual color channel rather than the composite RGB. Auto Color is similar to Auto Tone but attempts to make the midtones neutral, correcting color casts. It’s worth noting too for Lightroom CC users that the Auto button here is more advanced than ever, utilising AI to determine the right corrections.

Cropping

96. Use compositional crop overlays

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For handy cropping overlays, grab the Crop Tool and click the Overlay icon in the tool options at the top. Choose Always Show Overlay, then press O to cycle through the overlay options, each of which adheres to a different compositional rule. Shift+O changes the orientation of some of the guides.

97 Set width, height and resolution

You can use the Crop Tool to change the resolution of your image or prepare it for printing at a certain size. Simply choose W x H x Resolution in the top-left dropdown, then use the boxes to choose a width, height and resolution for your crop; 300 pixels/inch is standard for printing.

98 Crop non-destructively

If you shoot in raw, it’s usually best to do your cropping at the start of your workflow when the image is in Camera Raw or Lightroom, as the crop is completely non- destructive. Photoshop supports non-destructive cropping if Delete Cropped Pixels is unchecked in the tool options at the top.

99 Don’t do the math

Like all measurement settings in Photoshop, the Crop measurement boxes have built-in maths, so rather than working out 15 divided by 4 inches in your head, you can simply type in ‘15/4in’. You can even mix up your measurement units.

100. Find crop ratios quickly

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While cropping, you can right-click to choose from different common crop ratios like 1:1. There’s also a handy Front Image option that simply crops to the exact same ratio and resolution as your original full image.

10 Photoshop Editing Tips for Beginners & Kids

Knowing where to start when editing images in Photoshop can be a challenge with the massive library of available tools. You don’t need to know all of the editing tools - in fact even experienced designers use some tools only rarely or not at all! Instead, start simply and develop good working habits that will translate to better images now, and as you develop as a designer, with these Photoshop editing tips for beginners.

To make awesome digital art and get live instruction from an expert teacher online, join a fun Photoshop class for kids. Or explore an easy-to-use graphic design tool, Canva:

Discover Photoshop editing tips for beginners and kids

Here are 10 tips to get you started on using this powerful program to edit images.

1. Use Social-Media Friendly Dimensions

If you think you might use your images on social media, start by making your document the right size for your use. Here are dimensions on popular social media sites:

What size to use? (All dimensions are in pixels)

Snapchat image - 1080 x 1920

Instagram post - 1080 x 1080

Instagram story - 1080 x 1920

Facebook post - 1200 x 1200

Facebook cover image - 1640 x 924

2. Crop and Straighten

One of the first adjustments you will want to make to your photos is to crop, and straighten them if needed.

To crop an image, choose the Crop symbol from the side bar and a crop box will automatically appear around the edges of your image. Drag the box as needed or click and drag your image to select the area you want to keep. While the crop box is still open, you will see a Straighten button appear on the top menu bar. After you click on this, a plus sign will appear as your cursor. Click and drag to rotate your image until it is straightened. Click the Enter key to finish.

3. Navigation Shortcuts

Learning some basic keyboard shortcuts will make your life easier and your work in Photoshop more efficient. Here are a handful to get you started on some of the most commonly used functions.

Undo - CTRL Z

Zoom Tool - Z key or CTRL + (Zoom in), CTRL - (Zoom out)

Rotate - R key, then click and drag mouse

Fit to Screen - CTRL 0

Crop - C key

Add to Selection - Hold Shift while using selection tool

4. Don’t Work Directly on the Background

A good Photoshop habit is to work on new layers to protect your original image. Rather than painting or directly manipulating the background, add a blank layer to paint on your image. This way, you can test multiple versions of your image and undo what you don’t like.

To add a new layer, click on the + at the bottom of the layer window.

5. Enhance Color and Lighting

Brightening colors with higher saturation, changing the color temperature, or brightening a dark photo are common fixes. Unlike boosting the lighting and saturation on a phone app, in Photoshop you can select which areas of the photo you want to adjust using Adjustment Layers.

Each adjustment you make automatically creates a new layer, which allows you to toggle the visibility on or off and adjust the opacity later.

To create a new adjustment layer, click the half black half white circle at the bottom of the layers panel. A new layer will pop up (for example, for Hue/Saturation). Use the sliders in the adjustment panel to change the photo to your liking.

You’ll see in this photo boosted Brightness and Hue/Saturation on the characters in the photo, while the background is desaturated.

6. Be Selective with Effects

To selectively apply a change, make sure the layer you want to work with is selected. Then choose a paint brush tool (for example, 150 pixels in width, soft edge) and paint with black the areas you do not want to apply the change to. Remember, on a layer, black creates a mask, while white will “erase” the mask and apply the change. You can see below the black and white areas painted on the Adjustment Layers.

7. Clone to Cover Unwanted Elements

Using the Clone tool is an excellent way to eliminate items that you don’t want in your photo - for example, a telephone pole in the middle of a landscape.

To use the Clone tool, click on the Clone brush in the menu bar. Alt + Click to select the starting point for where it will clone from. For example, in the image below we set the clone reference point in the middle of the leaves and plant matter so we could cover over the wagon in the top left corner with more leaves. Then adjust your brush size and hardness, and click and drag to paint over the area you want to cover.

8. Smart Selection

Often the first step in manipulating a part of your image is to carefully select one piece of the image - the subject, the background, or an object you want to remove, for example. Automated tools in Photoshop, like Select Subject, have improved greatly over the years. To try it, go to “Select” in the top menu bar, then pick “Subject.”

From there, refine your selection by using the regular Selection tool in the side bar. Hold down Shift as you select to add to an existing selection. After you have selected an area of your image, tap the letter Q to get a red Quick Mask of your selection. Quick Mask helps you to clearly see what is selected and then make refinements from there.

9. Choose a Focus with Tilt Shift

Tilt Shift is a blurring effect that allows you to keep part of the image in focus and blur around the edges. It is a good effect to add for a more creative look, or even to make something look like a miniature by making the background look out of focus.

To add a Tilt Shift, go to Filter > Blur Gallery > Tilt Shift in the top menu. Click and drag the bullseye to where you want the center of the focus to be. Use the sliders to change the amount of Blur and Distortion. In the image below, the dog’s face is the center point for the Tilt Shift, blurring the body so it is slightly out of focus.

10. Export the Final Image

How you save your image depends on how you would like to use it. If you think you might want a different version of the photo in the future, save the file as a Photoshop file.

To save a file that is editable in the future, go to File > Save As, and chose Photoshop to keep a copy of your file with all the layers intact.

For exporting or sharing, JPG is a good format to choose. Go to File > Export> Export As and choose JPG as the filetype. Set the quality of the image with the slider in the dialog box. A higher quality image will have a high file size. Medium is a good quality for posting online, while a Large file size is needed if you would like to print out a poster.

Try Photoshop editing tips for beginners

Give these Photoshop tips a try to enhance your photos and create some interesting art effects. To continue to improve your graphic design skills in a fun, interactive live format, sign up for Create & Learn's Canva for Kids class that teaches digital design using a fun free tool for making images and videos, or join Discovering Design to learn color theory and graphic design fundamentals. Check out great summer art camps too!

Up next, learn some cool Procreate tips and tricks for beginners.

Annie Schmitt is a Computer Science Teacher and Teaching Artist from Pennsylvania. She loves using art, technology, and science together to create exploratory hands-on learning experiences for students in grade K-12. As a Teaching Artist, she travels to schools and organizations in her state to teach children stop-motion animation, game design, and visual outdoor art. Annie has taught thousands of students from states all over the U.S. and countries around the world.

12 Adobe Photoshop Tips & Tricks For Beginners With Images

Home » Photoshop » 12 Adobe Photoshop Tips & Tricks For Beginners With Images

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Photoshop is a very powerful tool if you know all its features and understand how to effectively use them. However, that’s not realistic at the start for newcomers to Adobe Photoshop. This blog post is a tutorial on 12 quick Adobe Photoshop tips and tricks for beginners that will open up the new digital designing world and help create stunning artwork. For the sake of ease, many experienced designers remain content learning only the basics of Photoshop, but here’s your chance to get ahead of the pack.

The world of Photoshop is very vast, and no honest designer would ever claim to have explored all of it. Instead, designers tend to focus on tools that they need more often. This approach sometimes results in them missing out on various other tools and hacks. Tutorials on Photoshop, like this one, can be helpful for new web designers, graphic designers, photographers and new employees of digital marketing agencies where time is of the essence and client projects need to be completed fast.

Apart from learning about the various features of Photoshop, good designers also work on how to enhance their efficiency in every way possible. One way of improving your productivity in Photoshop is to complete your work faster. For this, you need to learn different hacks, tips, and tricks like these that can save you time, ultimately improving the end result and making clients and employers happy.

1. Master Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts can help you save time on all types of software. Their purpose is to transform complicated or repetitive actions into hotkeys that you can press and accomplish tasks. Adobe Photoshop comes loaded with a lot of default keyboard shortcuts. Starting from saving the document to adding layers, modifying brushes, transforming, and exporting, you can perform almost all the actions if you know the right shortcut for it.

A very useful functionality that Photoshop offers is the customization of your own keyboard shortcuts. You can easily view and modify shortcuts in the ‘Keyboard Shortcuts’ dialog box. Select Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts in Photoshop to open this dialog box. Then as per need and as per your working style, you can define new shortcuts or edit the existing shortcuts. However, you will have to remember these shortcuts so as to be able to use them and save time.

2. Switching Between RGB and CMYK

RGB and CMYK are two different color schemes that designers work on. RGB is used for digital media, while CMYK is used for print media. As a designer, you will come across a lot of jobs for which you will have to work on RGB but convert them into CMYK for printing. There also may be cases where you create a design that will be used in digital and print formats. Hence you will have to create the design in both formats.

The good news is that there is a trick in Photoshop that lets you design in RGB and keep checking how it will look in CMYK. While working in Photoshop, open the color picker and hit CMD/CNTRL+SHIFT+Y. This converts the area of design that won’t print in CMYK in gray color. This will help you identify such spots and make the necessary changes to them.

3. Copy Background Layers For Editing First

This is a very primitive hack that is simple to use but can be very effective. For individuals who already use Lightroom, you probably already have some idea of how this works. If your project deals with using complex objects and then further editing and modifying them, this tip will prove useful. Whenever you open the base image in photoshop, it will open as the background layer. Normally designers will quickly start working on it. Rather, we would advise that you create a new layer for this image by duplicating the background layer.

You should use these new layers to perform all sorts of edits that you wish to. This tip is more effective when you are performing destructive edits. For example, after making a lot of edits, you may often be unhappy with the outcome and want to revert back. This tip ensures that you have your background image intact, which you can use and start editing again.

4. The Fade Tool is Very Powerful

The foundation of designing in Photoshop is based on working in different layers. The outcome of Photoshop is a series of layers merged into one another. How these layers interact with each other is key to good design. This basic concept makes the use of the fade tool more significant. In Photoshop, the Fade Tool is used to change the transparency of the layers.

The fade effect is not just for overlaying images but can also be used for filters. For this, you should create filters in new layers. Then you can open the fade tool and adjust the impact of the effect by sliding right or left the fade tool. There are also various preset overlay effects like screen, darker color, dissolve, subtract, and more. You should use them extensively to get the desired effect quickly.

5. Adjust Photoshop Memory Usage

Each software running in your system, irrespective of the operating system, consumes a certain amount of RAM. By default, Photoshop uses around 70% of available RAM. However, professional designers are aware of the fact that they can change the memory allocation for different software. Which means you can allocate more RAM to Photoshop. This will make Photoshop execute its task faster.

To change the RAM allocation, you need to go to the Preferences tab and find the section for Performance. Over here, you will be able to check the existing settings and alter the RAM allocation. There are other advanced tab options as well, but you should not fiddle with them unless you are sure of their outcome.

6. Makes the Most of the Curvature Pen Tool

The latest Curvature Pen Tool is a very useful tool in Photoshop. You can select this special tool from the Pen Tool in your workspace. The reason why this tool is so handy is that it lets you create different shapes without hassles. Its operation is very similar to the existing pen tool, but it makes it easy for designers to create shapes with many nodes and curves.

This tool works perfectly when you are trying to trace something. First, put the base image on a layer. Then create another layer, choose the Curvature Pen Tool, and start drawing over the image using this pen tool. You will be surprised to see how quickly and precisely you will be able to recreate the object and that in no time. Of course, the more you practice with this tool, the better you will get.

7. Adjust Recovery and Background Save Options

Do you know that Photoshop keeps saving your work at a regular interval? This feature of autosave is available in the majority of all big software. It proves to be very beneficial when the software crashes or the system shuts down unexpectedly. Then you can restore to the last autosave point and not lose your hard work. This video will explain more details, however, this autosave can have a negative impact on your working speed.

This effect is more severe when you are working on a large-size file, as whenever Photoshop will auto-save your work, it will ride over other processes. As a result, you may end up not able to work for the 4-5 seconds it takes. To avoid this, it is better to alter the frequency of auto-save or even turn it off. This is risky but will ensure faster operations of Photoshop.

8. Culling Your Images Before Editing

This tip is for designers who get to edit many photographs for their design work. Because of mobile phone cameras, digital photography has become a problem of excess. You will get a huge dump of photos from your client, and they will ask you to use the best of them. If you are editing a photoshoot project, there will be a lot of photos with varied poses and settings. We can’t emphasize more how important culling your images will be on your overall productivity.

You should never ever start editing the photos without culling them. Create a separate folder and select the best of the photos from the entire dump you have got. Be very selective about the photos and choose only those that serve the creative brief. Only then start editing the photos. This way, you will not end up editing all the pics, most of which may never be used.

9. Master Perspective Warp

The perspective feature in Photoshop is highly underused but has a lot of potentials to give your design a 3D effect. You can even proportion your image using this tool. To use the master perspective warp, you need to Edit -> Perspective Warp. You will notice that your cursor will look different. Now you need to click on the image that you want to fix. Based on the image, an entire grid will appear.

Now comes the tricky part. You will have to pin a certain part of the image and then work on the other part to change its perspective. This may need a bit of trial and error in the start to get used to the effect. But once you master it, you will be able to do wonders to your design using the master perspective warp.

10. Use Smart Objects for Instant Color Modification

All designers would be aware of the power of smart objects. This is why we have not included that as a time-saving tip. But what we are showing here is how to use smart objects to make color adjustments to your image in no time. Of course, while working on any design, you will have to work within a certain color palette. Sometimes, this may change, and consequently, you will have to change all color effects in the image. However, there is a smarter way to achieve this.

Make a rectangle shape layer of decent size, fill it with the color of your primary palette and then convert it into a smart object. Now duplicate this smart object and clip it over the design elements you need to modify color for. This way, every time you want to modify colors, all you need to do is change the color palette in the main smart object, and that will be repeated for all objects.

11. Do Not Forget to Create Actions

Like keyboard shortcuts, using Photoshop Actions is a time-tested technique for saving time and increasing productivity. However, it is still surprising to see that many professional designers do not use the brilliant feature of Photoshop. Actions are a series of steps that you perform once and record. Then you can save it and deploy it whenever needed. No matter how many steps, you will be able to execute them on a single click with precision.

Actions become very useful when editing images in batches. For example, you may want to apply the same color settings to the images or add a specific watermark; then, Actions will help you execute them. All you need to do is go to the Actions tab, record the action you want to perform and then save it. The good part is that you also get to edit or add steps to be excluded in actions. This literally allows you to make the computer work for you.

12. Create a Workspace That Suits You

Every professional designer would have created his own workspace. This will be based on the tools they use the most and other working preferences. Your workspace is your window to Photoshop, and if you have the right tools in front of you, then you can quickly select them and use them for your design. Photoshop, by default, offers six different workspaces. This is based on the majority of the requirement for different types of work.

Photoshop also gives you the power to create a workspace tailor-made to your need. For example, if your work consists of editing photos, retouching, and adding text, you can select the tools you will use for these tasks in your workspace. Photoshop offers hundreds of tools, but you need to know which one to use as a designer. A well-organized workspace will go a long way in making your work faster and smoother.

Conclusion:

Our goal with these 12 Photoshop tips and tricks is to help beginners focus on the exciting parts of being a creative, which is using your imagination and creativity, instead of fretting over the technical stuff. It can be overwhelming and getting caught up in Photoshop trends can be a distraction too. These simple tasks can help your workflow move along more efficiently and encourage a more inspirational mindset for artists and designers. Because making your Photoshop technical work move along faster, means you’ll be able to free up some time and mental capacity to focus more on the fun part of your work. We realize that some of these tips are basic and simple, while others can be a little advanced. But get started today, because the more you practice them, the better you will get at using them.