Home Technical Talk

101 Photoshop tips in 5 minutes

polycounter lvl 18
Offline / Send Message
Mister Sentient polycounter lvl 18
I thought the Photoshop users on the board might get a kick out of this...

http://www.deke.com/content/101-photoshop-tips-5-minutes

Replies

  • moose
    Offline / Send Message
    moose polycount sponsor
    i unbound that revert keybinding because it wasn't undoable.

    annoying video :)
  • Ghostscape
    Offline / Send Message
    Ghostscape polycounter lvl 13
    amusing, and I must admit I had no idea that ctrl-alt-shift-T did anything.
  • Mister Sentient
    Offline / Send Message
    Mister Sentient polycounter lvl 18
    moose wrote: »
    i unbound that revert keybinding because it wasn't undoable.

    annoying video :)

    Yes I must apologise for the cheese factor. :P
  • pior
    Offline / Send Message
    pior grand marshal polycounter
    transcript :

    Time: 00:00.00
    #1: Wanna copy a layer? I say jump it: Ctrl+J.
    You a Mac user? Awesome.
    #2: When I say Ctrl, press Cmd, the one with an apple on it.
    #3: For a new layer, press Ctrl+Shift+N (Cmd-Shift-N on the Mac).
    #4: To delete a layer, get the move tool and press Delete (or Control-Delete).
    #5: Every letter selects a tool.
    #6: Except F for full-screen,
    #7: Q for quick mask,
    #8: and D
    #9: and X for default and switch colors.
    Who knew X stood for “switch”?
    #10: Press a number to change the opacity.
    #11: Or two numbers for better control.
    #12: Press Shift+plus to advance a blend mode;
    #13: Shift+minus to back up.
    #14: Press Shift and Alt with a letter for a specific mode.
    #15: Mac folks, Alt means Option.
    #16: Ctrl+plus zooms in.
    #17: Ctrl+minus zooms out.
    #18: Spacebar gets the hand so you can drag the image around.
    #19: There’s also Ctrl+spacebar in
    #20: and Alt+spacebar out.
    #21: Ctrl+spacebar-drag to zoom way the hell in.
    #22: Ctrl+Z undoes.
    #23: Ctrl+Alt+Z backsteps.
    #24: Ctrl+Shift+Z steps forward.
    #25: Ctrl+Shift+F fades an edit.
    #26: F12 reverts,
    #27: Itself an undoable operation.
    You hear that? You can undo a revert? That’s a hell of a tip!
    All that pasteboard stuff works too:
    #28: Ctrl+X cuts.
    #29: Ctrl+C copies.
    #30: Ctrl+V pastes.
    Dan Gookin of DOS For Dummies fame joked that V stood for “vomit,” as in vomiting up the Clipboard. His publisher refused to print that. They actually refused to print that!

    Time: 01:15.43
    #31: Photoshop’s most essential command? Image Size: Ctrl+Alt+I.
    #32: It’s partner, Canvas Size, Ctrl+Alt+C.
    #33: Ctrl+F repeats the last filter.
    #34: Ctrl+Alt+F for different settings.
    #35: Using a selection tool? Drag to start a new selection
    #36: Or move a selection outline.
    #37: Shift adds to the selection.
    #38: Alt deletes.
    #39: Shift and Alt finds the intersection.
    #40: Press the spacebar to move the selection on-the-fly.
    #41: Ctrl+A selects everything;
    #42: Ctrl+D selects nothing.
    #43: Ctrl+Shift+I selects what’s not selected and deselects everything else.
    #44: Ctrl+Alt+R brings up Refine Edge.
    #45: Alt-click with the lasso tool to draw straight-sided selections.
    #46: Shift-click with a brush to paint straight lines.
    #47: Press Alt with a brush to get the color-lifting eyedropper.
    #48: Press Ctrl to get the move tool.
    #49: Ctrl+H hides selections and other “extras.”
    What’s an extra? Press Ctrl+H and find out?
    I gotta quicken the pace. Shit!
    #50: Ctrl+1,
    #51: 2,
    #52: 3 to switch channels.
    Hell yeah, I’m counting those as three!
    Here’s another one:
    #53: Ctrl+tilde for full-color composite.
    #54: Ctrl+L for Levels,
    #55: Ctrl+M for Curves,
    #56: Ctrl+B for Color Balance,
    #57: Ctrl+U for Hue/Saturation.
    #58: Add Alt to bring up the last settings.
    #59: Mash your fist on Ctrl, Shift, and Alt and press B for Black & White.
    #60: In Levels and Curves, Alt-drag that white slider triangle to preview the clipped highlights
    #61: Or that black one for clipped shadows.
    Want to duplicate an image? Don’t choose this [Duplicate];
    #62: Just click here [Create new document from History state].
    #63: Press Ctrl+W to close an image.
    #64: Y to save changes,
    #65: N to abandon them.
    #66: On the Mac, that’s S and D.
    #67: Either way, it’s Esc for Cancel.
    You know, Esc. C’mon, Esc!

    Time 02:48.36
    #68: Press Ctrl+T to invoke Free Transform.
    #69: Press Enter to apply or Esc to skip it.
    #70: Ctrl+Alt+T transforms a copy.
    #71: Ctrl+Shift+T repeats the last transformation.
    #72: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T plays a transformation sequence.
    #73: Press a bracket key to change the size of a brush.
    #74: Press Shift+bracket to change its hardness.
    #75: Caps Lock for precise cursors.
    #76: Alt switches dodge to burn and burn to dodge.
    #77: The comma and period keys cycle through gradients.
    See this tool [sharpen]? Worthless. Look at this. You want this? Worthless!
    Yes, that’s a tip: Don’t use the tool!
    #78: Bang, there’s another one!
    #79: Ctrl-click a thumbnail in the Layers, Channels, or Paths palette to load a selection.
    #80: Press slash to lock a layer’s transparency.
    #81: Press tilde to hide the image while viewing a mask.
    #82: Press backslash to view the layer mask.
    #83: Ctrl+Backspace fills the background color;
    #84: Alt+Backspace: foreground color.
    #85: Add Shift to fill just the opaque pixels.
    #86: Press Shift+Backspace to get the Fill dialog box.
    Hey, look at that!
    #87: That’s trans lock’s opposite [Behind mode]. It locks opacity.
    What the hell is it doing here?
    #88: Ctrl+bracket moves layers forward and back.
    #89: Add Shift to go all the way.
    #90: Alt+bracket selects layers.
    #91: Press Shift to select multiple layers.
    Press Ctrl+Shift+A to select all layers.
    #92: That’s wrong. It’s Ctrl+Alt+A!
    I don’t even know what Ctrl+Shift+A does.
    It doesn’t, Adobe, it doesn’t do anything! I don’t think it does anything.
    #93: But Ctrl+G, that groups layers in a folder.
    #94: Ctrl+E merges selected layers.
    #95: Ctrl+Shift+E merges visible layers.
    #96: Ctrl+Alt+E stamps a layer onto the one below.
    #97: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E merges everything on a new layer.
    #98: Ctrl+Shift+C copies a merged version of the layers.
    #99: Ctrl+Shift+V pastes an image in a selection.
    #100: Alt-click here [Add layer mask]
    #101: Or here [Cancel to Reset]
    #102: Or here [trash without warning]
    #103: Or here [color ramp to switch background color]
    #104: Or here [eyeball to hide all others]
    Yeah!
    #105: Or here [horizontal line to make clipping mask]
    #106: Or here [color swatch to delete].

    Time: 05:08.16
    Holy crap, I just went over! 106 tips! No! No, no, no.
    [to off-screen director]
    You should’ve stopped me, you should’ve let me know. That’s your fault.
    [to viewer]
    That’s his fault. I do not fail. Remember, I do not fail!
    Alt-clicks out. I want them all out. Gimme that time back!

    Time: 05: 27.92
    [clock rewinds]

    Time: 04:56.73
    Okay. Nicely done, me. For those wondering why I left out your favorite tips,
    #100: Like Tab to hide all palettes
    #101: Or Shift+Tab to hide just the right-side palettes.

    Time: 05:00.00
    I didn’t! Ha ha! I just mentioned ’em. Works for me!
  • TWilson
    Offline / Send Message
    TWilson polycounter lvl 18
    Wow that guys been listening to way too much dust brothers and I want to punch him.

    Surprising to me I know all of these. I actually wish there were more hotkeys for some things in PS. I guess I could figure out how to bind them. Like flip horizontally and vertically for the canvas and image. And why no default hotkey for Brightness/Contrast?
  • Tumerboy
    Offline / Send Message
    Tumerboy polycounter lvl 16
    Thanks for the transcript Pior! It sounded like he had some useful things, but I stopped listening after about 5 of them.
  • breakneck
    Offline / Send Message
    breakneck polycounter lvl 13
    yea Pior did you really spend the time?!? thanks
    i watched the whole thing and still no magic hotkey to open up the color picker menu :( .
    wtf.jpg

    can i script that in somehow?
    tried to find a way in the Ctrl+alt+Shift+K menu but no dice
  • HarlequiN
    Offline / Send Message
    HarlequiN polycounter lvl 18
    Not scriptable. You can open the system color picker through a script, but not the Adobe one. Yes, that's right, you are unable to open Adobe's color picker in Adobe's software in any way short of clicking the set color icons.

    Amazing.
  • pior
    Offline / Send Message
    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Haha BN no way, I couldnt stand the guy so I certainly could not do a transcript either!
    It's on the blog but needs a login. Budgmenot has one :P Thank you Lifehacker!
  • Ironwolf
    HAHA. I hardly use buttons. To each there own
  • Sage
    Offline / Send Message
    Sage polycounter lvl 19
    This thread was nice. Thanks pror for doing whatever it is you did. LOL

    Alex
  • [Deleted User]
    Offline / Send Message
    [Deleted User] polycounter lvl 18
    breakneck wrote: »
    the color picker menu :(

    colorpicknu0.jpg
    I leave that open all the time. And it's got that super cool bar that mixes between the foreground and background colors. I love that thing.
  • Bal
    Offline / Send Message
    Bal polycounter lvl 17
    breakneck, I so share your pain, I wish there was a shortcut to open the color picker in the center of the screen, the color tab just doesn't cut it.

    Nice video anyways, there were a few useful ones I didn't know, but nothing so new.
  • MoP
    Offline / Send Message
    MoP polycounter lvl 18
    fly_soup: same as I use! :)

    anyone: Know if there are hotkeys for moving up and down the layer list? I can't find any. It seems like up and down arrow keys with a modifier key would be best, but they don't work. Is it scriptable?
  • pior
    Offline / Send Message
    pior grand marshal polycounter
    mine is alt[ alt] ... but I can't remember if this is default :P
  • LoTekK
    Offline / Send Message
    LoTekK polycounter lvl 17
    yeah, alt[ and alt] are the default for moving through the layer list. Ctrl[ and ctrl] will move the current layer up and down the list.
  • MoP
    Offline / Send Message
    MoP polycounter lvl 18
    Cheers guys. Looks like they're hard-coded though, can't find those keys anywhere in the Customize Hotkey menu of Photoshop CS2. Maybe it's customisable in CS3, does anyone know?
  • HarlequiN
    Offline / Send Message
    HarlequiN polycounter lvl 18
    Nope. They're hard coded as you've correctly surmised. You could probably script it and then assign a different short cut to run the script - but that's akin to dropping a MOAB to light your barbeque ;)

    And no fly soup, that's not the same thing at all. Yes it ends up in the same place (You made a colour), but the work flow for using it is very different (I find the palette irritatingly small to work with). Personally I think both colour selectors/mixers could do with being redesigned for better useability.
  • konstruct
    Offline / Send Message
    konstruct polycounter lvl 18
    TWilson wrote: »
    no default hotkey for Brightness/Contrast?

    for frucking real...

    I guess theres always levels, but I hate the levels because it over complicates.
  • moose
    Offline / Send Message
    moose polycount sponsor
    You can mop:

    Check the drop down menu when editing the keyboard shortcuts, it has 3 options: Application Menus, Palettes, Tools. @ the bottom of tools they have the [ ] hotkeys for increasing and decreasing brush size. The "move up/down" etc hotkeys (ctrl / alt []) are in Application Menus, Layers. Not sure if that is in CS2, but im fairly certain it is. If not, I am using CS3, and its there :)

    binding brush pallete to control - b ftw.

    the [ ] for brush size is also incremented by shift as well, shift [] goes up by 10. Will also work for the line tool, and shape tools that use settings.

    I go in and edit/remove a ton of keybindings, saves a lot of hassle. Use that color palette as well, though its hard to be accurate. I also have F1-12 bound via either straight hits or modified with shift/alt for actions.
  • achmedthesnake
    Offline / Send Message
    achmedthesnake polycounter lvl 17
    i know its all for efficiency and workloads - put there's a limit to how quick one can get while still pressing Ctrl+Shift+Alt+space+f+z+p+numlock....... without breaking one's wrists heh


    honestly - does anyone remember all of these? or all just the specifics to their job details?
  • moose
    Offline / Send Message
    moose polycount sponsor
    i only use the ones i need, and if they're hard to hit i just rebind :P A long time ago i memorized all the tool hotkeys, and its just stuck with me and has become second nature :) Only fucked me up when they changed the airbrush from J to B.

    most of what i use though are the custom actions and misc new hotkeys for:

    duplicate layer
    delete layer (why do 2 clicks when you can have 1!)
    flip H
    flip V
    rotate 90 C
    rotate 90 CW
    Filter > Offset
    Filter > Blur
    open layer blending options (not action, hotkey)
    various multi-stepped things (normal map rotations, mirrors, setting up layers for NVfilter)
    rasterize text
    align layers > left, right, top, bottom, H center, V center
    etc, etc etc

    generally, if its annoying and takes some menu digging, i try to figure a way to make it bettah
  • Blaizer
    Offline / Send Message
    Blaizer interpolator
    huh? why don't you check the user reference? you have all the working keys ¬¬
  • [Deleted User]
    Offline / Send Message
    [Deleted User] polycounter lvl 18
    And no fly soup, that's not the same thing at all.
    Oh, okay. Yeah, nevermind then.
  • HarlequiN
    Offline / Send Message
    HarlequiN polycounter lvl 18
    Moose - You're a bloody genius - I've been looking for those for ages, but for some reason I've always completely spaced on the Tools list and therefore thought you couldn't change them. I've selected it of course, but never really scrolled to the bottom. So obvious - I'm so stupid.

    I have to go eat some crow now :) And change some keyboard commands ;)

    (That said I'm almost 100% certain you can't open the Adobe color picker except by an icon click - If anyone can prove me wrong on that score I'll be a very, very happy man indeed)
Sign In or Register to comment.