PHOTOSHOP TIPS

While the very basics of Photoshop may seem obvious, there are a few helpful hints that can enhance your Photoshop experience.  Photoshop has the ability to create separate workspaces that allow you to work with the various elements of your image. So if you are editing a photograph and want to insert a text caption, you can save all the text tools you’ll be using in one workspace. That will come in handy every time you’re working with text and you can always modify it if you need extra tools. It’s the same for picture editing, as you can create workspaces that have any of the various palette groups (Color Swatches, Brushes, History and Actions, and Layers, Channels, and Paths).Customizing Photoshop to the way you want to use it will enable you to get the most of this program, whose defaults can sometimes cost you time and efficiency.
Another idea that many users find helpful is looking at an image you are editing in side by side panes. By opening an image you are working on in separate windows, you can easily compare the changes you are making in the magnified view with the way the whole picture will look, rather than having to zoom in and out every time you want to take stock of your work.
Another great tool that Photoshop offers is the ability to sharpen your picture image, but you have to keep in mind that sharpening an image for printing is different than sharpening a web image. When you are sharpening pictures you are planning to post online, it’s pretty easy to see what the result will look like, as the computer screen image will be the same, scaled only to the size of the image allowed by the site where you are posting. When you are printing, however, you will find that you actually need to make your images even sharper than appears to be correct on the computer monitor, for when you print on photo paper you lose a bit of that added sharpness.
The ability to straighten out your pictures is one more great tool that Photoshop provides. Unless you are shooting with a tripod, you’ll often find that your pictures are shot at an angle. This can be annoying, especially when you have that beautiful landscape photo and find that the edge of the ocean is tilted! Fortunately, Photoshop can make sure you are always steady by using the ruler and drawing a line where you want the picture to be straightened. You then go to Image—Rotate canvas—Arbitrary, and Photoshop will calculate what is needed to get your picture back on an even keel. It’s a detail you might never think of at first as you shoot photographs, but once you begin to notice it, you’ll find it one of your favorite Photoshop features!
The layers palette is perhaps the most exciting part of working with Photoshop. The layers feature allows you to work with each element of a photograph separately, as well as add almost anything you can imagine to a photo-shopped picture. Sitting at your computer desk, you get to do all the kind of complex editing that at one time required a massive photo studio. Once you open the layers palette, begin to play with its many possibilities. Practice adding effects and text, working with specific parts of a picture, and adding elements to a photograph.
These few areas to explore are only the surface of the vast array of options that Photoshop offers to photographers in this digital age of infinite potential. Make Photoshop your own unique tool. Share your tips online with the ever growing community that is using Photoshop to take our imagination to new worlds of possibility!