Photoshop_User_June_2017

> PHOTOSHOP USER

>^ JUNE 2017

[ 92 ]

CLIPPING IN LEVELS

When you’re adjusting the brightness of a photo, there’s

a point where the image “clips.” Clipping means that

brights become 100% white with no visible detail, and the

darks become 100% black with no detail. As a rule, you

should avoid clipping your images. When you’re making a

Curves adjustment, if you hold down the Option (PC: Alt)

key while moving either the white or black triangle below

the curve, your image will show only the areas that are

clipping. This clipping preview helps you to avoid “over­

correcting” or clipping details in your photographs.

ESCAPE COMMITMENT ON YOUR TYPE

When you’re applying type, you need to apply or commit

the type. Enter commits the text. (You may have inadver­

tently found that hitting the Return key starts a new line.)

You can also apply your text by clicking the checkmark in

the Options Bar, or choosing a different tool in the Toolbar.

You can also use the ESC key to apply your text. The first

time you use the ESC key with text, Photoshop brings up

a dialog asking if you’d like “to use the ESC key to commit

text or cancel the text entry.” Choose Commit Text. If you’re

creating a design with a lot of text, this is a good option to

use. You can always change it later in Preferences by going

to Photoshop CC (PC: Edit)>Preferences>Type and turning

off the Use Esc Key to Commit Text option.

RELEASE THE BACKGROUND

There are certain things that require you to convert the back­

ground into a regular, editable, floating layer, such as add­

ing masks, smart objects, etc. There have been many ways

of doing this in the past, such as Option­double­clicking (PC:

Alt­double­clicking) the Background layer’s thumbnail. Now,

there’s an even faster way (it’s actually been there for a cou­

ple of years now). Simply click the padlock to the far right

of the Background layer in the Layers panel and, voilà, you

now have a floating layer. What about changing it back to

a background? (Huh?) Just choose Layer>New>Layer from

Background. There you go—round trip!

NONDESTRUCTIVE HEALING

The Spot Healing Brush tool (J) and the Healing Brush tool

have revolutionized retouching because they’re so easy to

use. Here’s a little tip: Don’t heal directly on your photo or

image layer. Instead, create a new blank layer on top of the

layer stack and name it “healing.” By doing all your healing

work on that layer, it’s easy to undo or edit corrections later.

The trick to healing on a blank layer is to make sure you turn

on the Sample All Layers option in the Options Bar, or you’ll

be healing nothing.

WHAT’S THE STUFF AT THE TOP MEAN?

Have you ever looked at the top of your Photoshop docu­

ment, saw something like “Untitled­1 @100% (RGB/8)*,”

and wondered what it all means? Well, the first part is the

filename and the @ symbol followed by a percentage is the

magnification level you’re currently viewing. This is impor­

tant because you always want to be at 100% when retouch­

ing or sharpening. The term (RGB/8) means that you’re in

RGB color mode and working in 8 bits per channel. And

the last part, the “*,” is really important. This means that

there are some changes to the document that are unsaved.

Bonus, if you’re working on a layer or mask, it will also dis­

play which layer or mask is currently active; for example, if

you’re working on a mask on Layer 1, you’ll see (Layer 1,

Layer Mask RGB/8).

BOOST YOUR PRODUCTIVITY & CREATIVITY

It’s my favorite time, time for more tips. I mean it’s always time for tips, right? Because they save

you time. Okay, enough of the bad jokes. What’s not bad, though, is this nice collection of Photoshop

tips. Enjoy!

COLINSMITH

Photoshop Tips