Ten tips for getting started with Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular graphic design software currently. It can be said that as long as you come into contact with graphic design, you will have to deal with it sooner or later. There is so much to say about Photoshop, but whether you want it to be your right hand, or just use it to do some basic image processing work, then the following 10 things you must know , whether you are a beginner or already have a certain understanding of it.

　1. The use of shortcut keys: This is the foundation of Photoshop, but it is also the best way to improve work efficiency. The use of shortcut keys allows you to better focus on your work rather than the tool panel. Once you are proficient in using shortcut keys, you can use the full-screen working mode, eliminating unnecessary panel positions, making the field of vision wider, and maximizing the use of screen space; some simple commands can be completed using the keyboard without having to separate The focus is on the choice of tools, even if it only takes up a very small amount of time, but we prefer not to be interrupted while working.

Note: You should try to use shortcut keys as much as possible. The following shortcut keys are a good helper to improve efficiency, but for some reason many books just pass them by without even mentioning them. Please keep them in mind. live.

Ctrl+J: Copy the current layer to a new layer;

J: Switch to the airbrush tool;

M: Switch to the marquee tool;

　[ ]: When the current tool is in brush mode (including airbrush, brush, pencil, imitation stamp history brush, eraser, and blur and deepen tools), increase or decrease the size of the pen head in sequence;

Shift+BackSpace: Bring up the fill dialog box.

At first, you may not be able to remember all the shortcut keys, so use Photoshop’s tool tips to help you. The method is to open Edit>Preferences>General and select "Show Tooltips". In this way, when you move the mouse over the tool panel, the tool name and its shortcut keys will appear and will not disappear until you move the mouse away.

　2. Seamless mapping: Whether it is the production of 3D images or web pages, seamless mapping is very important, and we can easily complete it in Photoshop. After customizing your image, run Filters > Other > Displacement to shift horizontally and vertically. Generally, set the displacement to half the size of the image. The most important thing is to set the undefined area to fold. After the displacement is complete, use the Rubber Stamp Tool to smear over the flattened areas of the image, eliminating seams and defining the image as a pattern. With this pattern fill, you can get a seamless background image.

　3. Customize actions for commonly used combination commands: When processing images, we will use combination commands in many cases. For example, you need to move a document with multiple layers of images to another document. The fastest and safest method is: Create a new layer Shift+CTRL+N; Flatten all visible layers below Shift+Alt+CTRL+E; Select all images Ctrl+A; Copy CTRL+C; Deselect Ctrl+D; Delete Current layer. This set of commands is to create an image for the image, which contains all visible layer images below the current layer. At this time, the content of the image is already left on your clipboard. You only need to paste it into the required document. . This is a typical example. Although you can use a series of shortcut keys to complete this set of commands, it is recommended to save it as an action. In the action options panel, you can set a convenient function key for this action. Such as Shift+F2, you can call it at any time, which is very convenient, especially when importing images from Photoshop to other applications, the time saved is considerable! Different combinations of Shift, Control and F2 to F12 can define many actions and greatly improve efficiency.

　4. Automatically select layers: It is a rather inconspicuous little action, but it is very useful, especially in some large files with multiple layers. Even if you order each layer in a regular manner, press Stacking layers in order is also more troublesome when selecting - you may not remember which layers they belong to, and the consequences of incorrect operation are sometimes dire. At this time, you can first select the move tool and check "Automatically select layers" in the tool options. In this way, except for the slice tool, path component selection tool, pen tool and gripper tool, the other tools in the toolbox are the current ones. When selected, while holding down the Ctrl key, the current tool will temporarily become the move tool. Click on any object on the canvas, and Photoshop will automatically go to the layer where it is located, so that you can operate it. When the move tool is currently used, even if automatic layer selection is not selected, as long as you hold down the Ctrl key, you can freely select image content belonging to different layers.

　5. Create custom brushes: There is a very useful resource in Photoshop that is underutilized by most people, and that is creating custom brushes. Create a new document with the size of the brush you want to create, and draw your brush image in black (it can also be colored or different grayscales, but the color of the brush made in this way will be lighter), such as a small flower, a few Small trees and so on. Then select it with a rectangular marquee and define it as a new brush. If not selected, Photoshop will define all images on the canvas as brushes. In this way, you can use these custom brushes to create a variety of unique images, especially decorative patterns such as borders.

6. Lens flare effect: In primary image processing, lens flare can be said to be one of the most commonly used modification effects. Typically, you can use Filters > Rendering > Lens Flare directly in the image to add atmosphere to the image. So, if you are very satisfied with a certain lens flare effect and want to save it, we can use the layer blending feature. Create a new layer on the image in advance, fill it with black, then apply the lens flare filter, and then set the layer blending mode of this layer to "Screen", so that the black is hidden and you will get a separate halo Effect layer. However, the only disadvantage of this method is that it cannot be displayed on white images.

　7. Lighting effect filter: The biggest surprise of this filter is that it can create a variety of realistic texture effects. The simplest usage is: place a simple texture in a channel, then apply Filter>Rendering>Lighting Effect to a certain layer, select the channel where the texture was just stored in the texture channel, and adjust various corresponding lighting settings. , so that you can get a three-dimensional texture effect.

8. Use adjustment layers: No one is sure that they can adjust the image perfectly in one go. Therefore, in addition to developing good backup habits, it is best to use adjustment layers. Use adjustment layers whenever possible. You may find it troublesome, but this trouble is nothing compared to the loss of image corruption. And more importantly, you can make new adjustments at any time during the creative process without worrying about image damage.

　9. Quick copying tips: In the same document, make sure the current tool is the move tool (or temporarily the move tool), press the Alt key at the same time, drag the object to copy, hold down the Shift key , which can ensure moving in multiples of 45 degrees; between different documents, hold down the Shift key when moving. If the sizes of the two documents are the same, the object will be copied to the same position in the new document. If the document sizes are different, the object will is copied to the center of the new document. Copying in this way is not only convenient, but also reduces the use of the clipboard and further saves system resources.

　10. Accumulation of results: After you use Photoshop for a period of time, you will definitely save a lot of good stuff. For example, the gradients, contours, styles, etc. you have worked so hard to prepare, as well as some color palettes that are convenient for work. These are only temporarily saved in Photoshop. Once reinstalled, Photoshop will return to its default state and become cleaner, and these customized things will disappear without a trace. This is not only a pity, but will also affect your work (such as the loss of defined color palettes). Therefore, it is best to use the preset manager to save your favorite works every time and store them in a special folder. The preset manager can save brushes, color swatches, gradients, styles, patterns, contours, and custom shapes so that your work is never lost. After reinstallation, you can return to your familiar working environment by overwriting it with the corresponding files.

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