> PHOTOSHOP USER>^ AUGUST 2019[ 116 ]
BOOST YOUR PRODUCTIVITY & CREATIVITY
ALL IMAGES BY COLIN SMITHIn this installment of “Photoshop Tips,” I’m going to show you a bunch of tricks that will enable
you to create your own presets, make better selections, and generally open some new areas of
Photoshop to you. So, happy tipping!MOVING A SELECTION
When you make a selection with the Elliptical Marquee
tool (nested under the Rectangular Marquee tool [M] in
the Toolbar), it’s really difficult to get the circular selection
in the right place. It seems that no matter where you start
the selection, it just doesn’t line up where you want. Save
yourself some pain and use the Spacebar. While you’re still
drawing your elliptical selection, press-and-hold the Space-
bar, and you’ll be able to move the entire selection. When
it’s in place, release the Spacebar and finish making your
selection. If you hold down Option (PC: Alt), you can create
the selection from the center instead of the edge.APPLYING ADJUSTMENT LAYERS
TO INDIVIDUAL LAYERS
When you create an adjustment layer, it affects all the lay-
ers below it. But what if you only want to apply the effect
to a single layer? Place the adjustment layer directly above
the layer you want to affect in the Layers panel. At the bot-
tom of the Properties panel (Window>Properties), you’ll see
a little square with a bent arrow. Click this icon to clip the
adjustment to only the layer directly beneath it. Alternatively,
with the adjustment layer active, you can press Option-Com-
mand-G (PC: Alt-Ctrl-G).TRANSFORM SELECTIONS
Have you ever wished that you could transform a selec-
tion as easily as transforming a shape? You know, warping,
rotating, and all that. Well, you can, and it’s not new. When
you have a selection active with the marching ants, choose
Select>Transform Selection. Now you can adjust it just like
a shape. Right-click inside the bounding box and you’ll see
more options such as Distort, Skew and more. [For more on
transforming selections, check out page 84 .—Ed.]LAYERS TO FILES
Have you ever worked in a multi-layered document where
each layer is going to be used as a separate document? A
good example of this is resizing or arranging thumbnails or
similar designs. Rather than hiding and revealing layers, SaveAs, hiding and revealing layers, Save As, etc., there’s a much
faster way. Choose File>Export>Layers to Files. Choose your
options, click Run, and bingo! each layer will now be its own
file. If you didn’t know about this tip, it’s one of those things
that will make you a bit frustrated for not knowing it before.CHANGE COLOR OF ANYTHING
WITHOUT SELECTIONS
If you ever need to change the color of something, such as
clothing, a pair of shoes, a car, the color of a house, etc., this
tip will be your new best friend. Click on the Create New
Adjustment Layer icon (half-black/half-white circle) at the
bottom of the Layers panel and select Hue/Saturation. In the
Properties panel (Window>Properties), click on the pointing-
hand icon. Now click on the color in your image that you
want to change. You’ll notice that a color range is selected in
the gradient ramps at the bottom of the Properties panel. If
you move the Hue slider, the selected color will change in the
image. If you want to fine-tune the colors that are changed,
move the brackets in the color ramps to expand or decrease
the range, or to change the transition of the color change.COLINSMITH
Photoshop Tips