Adobe Photoshop: Tips and Tricks
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While working on a Photoshop lesson on reconstructing and retouching photographs and thinking about how to cover Photoshop’s Neural Filters, which use artificial intelligence to touch up and modify photos, I thought I’d see how a different artificial intelligence tool could help me out. So, I had the following conversation with ChatGPT, and used some of the content in its replies in the course:
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When working with type, you should understand the difference between kerning, tracking, and leading.
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A solid-color fill layer is exactly what it sounds like: a layer filled with a solid color. Creating a solid-color adjustment layer, as opposed to simply filling a layer with a solid color, has the added benefit of automatically creating a layer mask that can be edited.
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The Replace Color adjustment in Photoshop is a simple way to make global changes to a specific color range within an image without having to create a selection marquee first.
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Three-dimensional images can be created in Photoshop either from scratch, by using Photoshop's pre-configured shapes, or by importing wireframes and rendered artwork from 3D applications such as 3D Studio Max or Maya. 3D modeling in Photoshop is processor-intensive, so if you've seen a message when launching Photoshop about insufficient vRAM, you will not be able to work in 3D. Keep in mind that 3D modeling is a complex topic and volumes have been written about it, so this tutorial is merely an introduction where a 3D object will be created using a second image above the background image layer.
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In cases where the subject of an image is large, such as a building, a foreshortening distortion can occur because of photographer's angle in relation to the building. The Perspective Warp feature in Photoshop allows you to straighten the image to reduce some of the distortion.
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The Black & White Adjustment Layer allows you to easily make a color image appear grayscale and then apply other effects from there.
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Slices allow one large image to be divided into several smaller ones, which will load faster, and allow for layering when creating the design. Once slices are created, there are options which allow you to name individual slices and also create hyperlinks. There are various methods for creating slices in Photoshop. The technique below shows how to create slices using existing guides.
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Use a gradient mask in Photoshop to help blend one image into another. The depth and opacity of the blending may be adjusted as well as the blending mode of the layer.
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Actions are steps that can be recorded in Photoshop. A series of actions can then be saved as an Action Set to automate repetitive steps when batch-processing images.
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Photoshop offers many 3D options for both image and text layers. In this example, a 3D extrusion will be applied to text.
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When pasting paragraph text into Photoshop, the text often ends up on a single line extending beyond the width of the image. In this article, I will show you how to fix that.
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Print production refers either to digital printing, such as color lasers, or to commercial printing, such as offset lithography. Digital printing typically only requires about 120 ppi for good print quality.
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Photoshop's Magic Wand Tool makes selections based on color similarities.
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Iris Blur is one of the options in Photoshop's Blur Gallery, which allows selective blurring of some regions of an image while maintaining focal points in others. Iris Blur creates a blur that radiates from the center in all directions. To apply an iris blur to an image, follow these four steps.
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When montaging photos, the lighting in different images can be mismatched, so that it becomes obvious in the composited images that the light is coming from two separate and incongruous sources. The Lighting Effects filter in Photoshop allows you to apply lighting sources and types for creative effect or to harmonize the lighting in different image elements.
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The Clone Source Panel works with the Clone Stamp Tool to give you the ability to define up to five sampling sources, and also to transform the sample by rotating, scaling, etc. You can even define a sampling source in another file. In this example, we show how to repair a dog-eared corner.
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The 3D postcard is the simplest of the 3D mesh presets in Photoshop. 3D modeling is processor-intensive, so if you've seen a message when launching Photoshop about insufficient vRAM, you will not be able to work in 3D.
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The warp transform in Photoshop offers many predefined styles, such as bulge or arc, that, in many cases, will work just fine. In some cases, however, those existing styles are not enough. In this example, a banner will be superimposed on a hot-air balloon and warped to the balloon's shape.
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Control for variable fonts, also known as Multiple Masters, has been added in Photoshop CC 2018. Basically, a variable font lets a single font file be customized to to create variations such as bold, condensed, italic, etc.
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Tilt-Shift Blur is one of the options in Photoshop's Blur Gallery, which allows selective blurring of some regions of an image while maintaining focal points in others. Tilt-Shift creates blurs in a linear direction. To apply a tilt-shift blur to an image, follow these four steps.
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Much of the power of Photoshop resides in panels, and each panel has a dedicated function. There is a Layers Panel for managing layers, an Adjustment Panel for controlling color correction, a Swatches Panel for managing color swatches, and so on. The panels are normally anchored to the Panel Dock. Photoshop provides several preset default workspace configurations based on tasks that affect what is displayed on both the Panel Dock and Toolbar. The following steps will help you use the Panels in Adobe Photoshop.
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The Pen Tool has been the primary drawing tool in Adobe design software since the beginning, allowing users to create custom outlines. It has also been a source of frustration for many a novice because it involves various mouse techniques and keyboard shortcuts to create perfect curves. Photoshop now features a Curvature Pen Tool which simplifies the drawing process considerably.
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Restoration of images is achieved by using various brushes and tools, including the Spot Healing Brush, Clone Stamp Tool, and Healing Brush.
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Photoshop CC 2018 has added a new smoothing feature for use with the Brush, Pencil, Mixer Brush and Eraser tools that allows more control over the jagged effect when painting or drawing.
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Blending modes look at the tonal quality of the pixels you are painting on and the color you are painting with to affect the result in various ways. In this example, we will colorize a grayscale image using a blending mode, so as not to destroy the shaping of the image created by the gray.
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Photoshop Actions are great for speeding up or automating repetitive processes. Most, but not all commands can be recorded in an action. Action stops can also be created to allow user input at the end of a recorded command. In this example, an action will be recorded to create a Black & White adjustment layer and then apply a gradient to the layer mask, with an action stop for the user to determine where the gradient should be applied in the mask.
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Designers will commonly use Photoshop to create the look and feel of a website and then transfer the various pieces to a programmer for assembly in an application such as Dreamweaver. With the advent of Creative Cloud, Adobe Generator was added to Photoshop, making it very easy to generate web-ready assets from layers in the Photoshop file. In addition to image assets, Adobe Generator also allows the CSS to be copied directly from text layers. CSS can be generated from any layer that is not a Smart Object.
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Layer styles, such as drop shadows, glows and overlays, are effects that can be used and combined to create visual interest in a composition. Once a layer style has been created, it can quickly be applied to other layers within the same file or copied to a different file.
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When an image is scaled, each individual pixel is squashed or stretched, and if scaled in only one direction, rather than proportionally, the image is distorted. Content-aware scaling attempts to analyze the image, based on user-specified criteria, and preserve areas of detail. Content-aware scaling can be applied to RGB, CMYK, and gray-scale images. It doesn't work on layer masks, adjustment layers, 3-D layers, or Smart Objects.
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In the past, if you needed to share a high-resolution image with a client, or post to social media, it involved creating a copy of the flattened file, and then downsizing it, all of which takes time. The new Quick Share button lets you instantly share either a full or low resolution version of the image to email, as well as a range of social media outlets and cloud services. It doesn’t get any easier. Simply type a caption and off it goes.
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Guides help to control the size and location of the slices you will make in Photoshop. They are optional but often set the stage for a successful artwork set. Organization using folders is key to making sure the art layers are easily hidden when needed.
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Photoshop gives you tools for aligning and distributing layers. In this example, thumbnail images will be placed in a base image, then aligned and distributed down the right side.
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While blending modes can be used with the Brush Tool for retouching, they are also a powerful feature of the Layers Panel and can be used for simple color correction. The following steps show how to utilize blending modes to lighten an image; a color adjustment that is often necessary with digital photography.