> PHOTOSHOP USER>^ APRIL 2020[ 118 ]
BOOST YOUR PRODUCTIVITY & CREATIVITY
WHY THE DULL COLORS?
One question I often receive is, “Why do the colors in
my images look so dull in Photoshop compared to Light-
room?” There are several possibilities, such as color
profiles, but here’s one possibility that’s easy to check.
Sometimes people accidentally trigger the color proofing
feature in Photoshop without realizing it. Command-Y
(PC: Ctrl-Y) will toggle this option on and off. Go to
View>Proof Colors and make sure there’s no check-
mark beside it. Proof Colors is useful if you’re working
in RGB and you want to see what your image might look
like once converted to CMYK. Working in RGB has the
advantage of all the filters working in RGB; many Photo-
shop filters (including Camera Raw) don’t work on CMYK
images. Once you’re done editing your image, you can
then convert it to CMYK if needed.TRANSFORM SELECTION
When working with an object or shape on a layer, you
can use Free Transform (Command-T [PC: Ctrl-T]) to
rotate, scale, skew, and keep doing all sorts of stuff to it.
Did you know you can also use a kind of free transform
on selections? It’s called Transform Selection. Choose
Select>Transform Selection, and you’ll see a bounding box
around the selection, where you can change the shape,
move it, rotate it, etc. This option is so useful, I assigned
a keyboard shortcut to it (Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts). Iron-
ically, I use Command-Y (PC: Ctrl-Y) from the previous tip,
so I don’t accidentally turn on Proof Colors. There you go!
Two tips for one.THE STAR TOOL
If I asked you to use the Star tool in Photoshop, would
you know where to go, or would you think it was an
April Fools’ prank? It’s there, just a bit hidden. Start by
choosing the Polygon tool under the Rectangle tool (U)
in the Toolbar. Click on the gear icon in the Options Bar
to open the Path Options, and click on the checkbox next
to Star. Play around with the Indent Sides By percentage
and number of Sides to get different star shapes. (Sidesis in the Options Bar, not the Path Options drop-down.)
Speaking of pranks, you could go onto a coworker’s com-
puter and turn on the Star option, although it might be a
while for the payoff because the Polygon tool isn’t exactly
a daily tool for most people.Hello, Tip Junkies! I’m back with a fresh haul of Photoshop tips. These are the tips you’ve been
looking for. If you want to get things done faster, better, or just generally look cooler than your peers,
read on.FIND AVERAGE COLOR
There are times when finding the average color of some-
thing is useful. It could be to create a backdrop, for color
correction, or to make a palette to smooth out uneven
colors. It’s easy to do it too. Here’s how: Make a selec-
tion around the area where you want to average the
colors. Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to copy the selection
to a new layer. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-c lick) on the
layer thumbnail to load the copied area as a selection, and
then choose Filter>Blur>Average to create a solid color of
the average of all the colors in the selection.COLINSMITH
Photoshop Tips