|
I'm an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop CS. I mainly use CS3 now on a daily basis, and I never did take the tests for the later versions. My first unofficial tip will be not to take the Adobe ACE exam unless there truly is some financial benefit to doing so, meaning you are a consultant or you may receive a raise with more credentials to your name.
Otherwise, spare yourself the $150 (U.S. -the cost when I took the test) unless you have the spare cash and just want the bragging rights.
These are mostly written using the shortcuts from the Mac version of Photoshop CS3, although I believe Photoshop CS2 and CS4 are similar, Photoshop CS has the menus moved around a bit, but the features are still there.
Also, these are mostly general tips to explain a paradigm of working to make you more efficient. You will still have to look up some of the features and learn to use them. Just hit me up with any questions. So, on with the tips:
1. Learn Keyboard Shortcuts
This is a real time-saver that will make you much more efficient. Moving your cursor up to the menus over and over again and searching through all the pulldowns wastes valuable seconds that you could be using to complete your task.
Instead, when you find yourself using the same menu commands consistently, take note of the keyboard command that is listed on the right of its name. Then, force yourself to get in the habit of using the command instead of the menu.
Pretty soon you won't even be looking at the keyboard when you choose your tools or apply menu commands.
2. Customize Keyboard Shortcuts
Some of the aforementioned keyboard shortcuts can be pretty long. Take for instance The "Save for Web & Devices" command under the File menu. The default keyboard shortcut for this is 'Option-Shift-Command-S' (most likely 'Alt-Shift-Control-S' on a PC).
Man that's a handful. I always change that to the 'F4' key, so when it's time to Save for Web, it's just a quick stab to the F4 key and it's on, instead of aggravating my carpal-tunnel syndrome with the default setting.
You can customize the keyboard shortcuts by using the 'Keyboard Shortcuts' command under the Edit menu (even this command has a keyboard shortcut!). You can't save over the default setting so it will make you create a new set. Just name it as you will and that's that.
3. Customize Menus
If you prefer to use the menus, you can still customize them to make them a bit more friendly. Directly under the 'Keyboard Shortcuts' command is the 'Menus...' command.
Choosing this will bring you to a screen where you can color code menu entries to stand out more, and also turn off menu entries that you feel you never use. This can save you a second or two of scrolling through long lists of menu commands that you never use anyway.
4. Modifier keys
The modifier keys are keys such as 'Shift', 'Control', 'Alt/Option'. These keys help you by allowing you to modify your currently chosen tool's behavior without returning to the menus or tool palettes.
Let say I want to select something using the Lasso tool. I would type the 'L' key, and it would be selected for me. Then I would draw an outline around something.
Then I might notice that I forgot to select part of the image. What I need to do now is press the 'Shift' key. When I do this, I'll see a small "plus" sign appear next to the tool. This is indicating to me that whatever I select next will be ADDED to the current selection.
If I needed to remove part of the selection, I would press the 'Alt/Option' key, which would result in a "minus" sign appearing next to the tool. This would indicate that whatever I selected with this tool would be SUBTRACTED from the current selection.
Usually, Shift will add and Alt/Option will subtract. In Photoshop, you can be sure that the modifier keys will always have some function depending on the context of the tool you have selected.
I make it my business to cycle through those keys and see what is visually happening with the cursor as I do so. you can normally save quite a bit of time this way.
5. Hand Tool vs. Scroll Bars
When you want to move around in your image, many people will use the scroll bars on the side and bottom. This is painfully slow and not too accurate.
Instead, you'll use another modifier key - the Space bar. Holding down the Space bar will switch you over to the Hand tool from your current tool. As long as you're holding the Space bar down, you can click and drag on your image to move it around to the exact part that you want to see or edit.
Letting go of the Space bar will then return you to the tool you were using.
The exception to this is if you are using the Type tool and the cursor is blinking. In this case, as you might expect, holding down the Space bar will result in spaces getting added to your text.
6. Layers Palette
This is a very powerful palette to keep open. Layers are essentially a way for you to non-destructively edit your file.
If I want to blot out one part of a picture, I can make anew layer and then paint on that layer. While it will cover the layer below it, it will not destroy any of the pixels on those lower layers.
Additionally, the Layers palette is where I can add layer effects, such as drop shadows or glows. Also I can add Layer Masks quicker than from using the pulldown menus.
Using the Layers palette, I can adjust the opacity of a single layer, or put many layers into a group and then adjust all of their opacity at once. Layer Modes let me apply the top image to the lower image using an approximation of photographers techniques, such as lighten, color dodge, and soft lighting.
Adjustment layers are probably the best reason to keep the layers palette handy. With these, I combine a Layer Mask and and Adjustment Layer to adjust color on only a specific part of an image, then i can turn it on or off as needed, all without destroying any pixels in the original image.
It's all a lot to digest, but the point of this is to make you aware of the functionality that you might otherwise not know of. You need to play around with them to truly understand what they do.
7. Tab key for palettes
Speaking of layers. Sometimes having a bunch of layers open really uses up your screen real estate if you have a small monitor, or only one.
At my job I have two large widescreen monitors, so one screen is filled up solely with palettes. At home however, I have a much smaller screen, and only one of them to boot, so it's imperative that I manage my palettes wisely.
But even when they're organized, they're still blocking some of my view. When I really need to see, I just press the Tab key, which hides all the palettes. I then have an unobstructed view of my image. Once I'm done editing or I need another palette, I just press Tab again, and back they all come.
8. Actions
If you find yourself doing the same routine of mouseclicks over and over again, you may be able to spare yourself some work by creating an action. These are controlled by the Actions palette.
Essentially what you do is record your own menu selections and actions in Photoshop. So if I know that every time I make a selection, I'm going to modify the selection by expanding it 10 pixels, I can click the record button on my action, then modify a selection by expanding it, then stop the recording.
When I want to repeat this, I just click the play button on the Actions palette, and the action will be repeated on whatever is selected currently.
You can also add keyboard shortcuts to actions, so a multi-step procedure could become as simple as pressing one key.
Or, you can create an action and then run it from the Automate>Batch command under the File menu. this will allow you to run the same action on multiple files.
9. History palette
Sometimes beginners don't realize that Photoshop can have more than one undo. Well, technically there is only one 'Undo', but you can always go back in the History palette if you need more.
The History Palette is a list of actions that you have taken since the file was opened (you start over when you close the file). If you click ABOVE an action, then it never happened, but it's still there greyed out in the list to be reapplied if you click down to the bottom of the list. But if you go on from there and do something different you wipe out the greyed action entirely.
This palette starts off with a default state of 20. You can up the limit, but beware, it stores the history on your computer so it may become a trade-off for performance if you raise it too high.
10. Preferences
Most likely, if you are a beginner you won't know what all the preference setting in the Preferences dialogue are about. You should take the time anyway to go through all the screens.
When I was first starting out I would click through all the screens, and if I came across something that I did not understand, I would go look it up quickly. There, I just learned one more thing.
Besides, if you're going to be spending a lot of time in Photoshop, you may as well invest some time in getting it set up they way you want. At best it will speed up your work, and in the worst case it will spare you some annoyance.
If you have any questions regarding any of these tips please contact me or leave a comment.
|
My Projects 
Comments