Adobe Photoshop Tips, Tutorials & Techniques

I know I’ve covered selections in Adobe Photoshop about a hundred times on this blog, but it really is an endless topic. I bet someone could create an entire website and limit their content to just selections. It’d be a fairly large site too. The whole thing is almost infinite and since it revolves around creativity, it becomes exponentially almost infinte.

I’m going to keep things easy today. I merely want to discuss one area of selections that has to do with expansion and contraction. Basically, after you make a selection in Photoshop and see the marching ants doing their things, you have the ability to grow the entire selection a specific number of pixels that you designate. You can also shrink the selection the same way. Now, I understand that many of you might ask, “Why in the world would I want to do that?,” so I’m going to walk through a quick project today that should give you some idea of how creative you can get with this type of thing. The project might not be realistic in a sense that anyone would ever want to replicate it, but my hope is that it will get the gears in your head turning.

My plan is to make a selection of some silhouettes at a music concert. After I have that all squared away, I’ll both shrink and expand that selection and do a few interesting things to it. The end result should add a creative touch to the original and I’m hoping that it will look like something that might be used on a CD/vinyl cover or something like that.

Demo Photo

This is the photo I’ll be using. I chose it because there are some distinct lines that will be fairly easy to select. Since this isn’t a post about how to effectively make a selection, per se, I didn’t want to spend a lot of time doing that.

Making the Selection

I’ll start off by using the Quick Selection Tool to outline the darker parts of the people in the audience. I don’t want to get everyone, just the people in the darker shadows. To learn how to make an effective and accurate selection, please read to beginning part of this post:

Reusing Selections & Masks in Adobe Photoshop

As I did in the post I just linked to, I’ll click the Select and Mask button up in the options bar, refine my selection and output it to a mask. This will be the result. I’ll show you the layer and mask in the Layers panel as well as the image itself.

The reason I created a mask like this was so I could easily reselect the same portion of the image over and over again. I’ll want to do that at least a few times in the sections below. This will be my template of sorts.

Copying & Filling In the Crowd

Okay, let’s get creative. To start out, I’m going to click the layer mask in the Layers panel to activate it. Then, I’m going to press the Ctrl+Shift+D keys on my keyboard to reselect the area the mask is keeping visible. Basically, this is the same area I initially selected. If I didn’t want to use that keyboard shortcut, I could head up to the Select > Reselect menu item and click. That will accomplish the same task.

After that, I’ll go back to the Layers panel and click on the actual image thumbnail as opposed to the mask thumbnail. I want to activate the regular thumbnail now. Then, I’ll use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl+C to copy and then Ctrl+V to paste. This will copy the selected area and place it in its own layer.

That’s perfect. Now, I’ll double-click on the new layer’s thumbnail (the copied crowd) and by doing that, the Layer Style palette will appear.

I’ll click on the Color Overlay option in the left column and once I’m in that area, I’ll choose the color Black. I’ll then click the OK button to exit out of the palette. This will be my result.

Now I’ve got a true solid black silhouette.

Expanding & Contracting the Selection

The next thing I’m going to do is to go back to the original mask thumbnail and click on it. Then, I’ll reselect it once again and then after the selection is active, I’ll go up to the Select > Modify > Expand menu item and click.

If you’ll notice, the Contract menu option is directly below the Expand one. Whatever the Expand option does, the Contract one does the opposite.

After I click that menu item, the Expand Selection dialog will appear. I’ll type in 30 to grow the current selection by 30 pixels all around it. Doing this sort of acts like blowing up a balloon does.

When I’m finished, I’ll click OK to grow the selection. Let’s look at the result.

I’m not sure if you can see that or not, but the selection has been expanded. Look closely at the marching ants. Also, if there are any artifacts that were unknowingly selected, I can always get rid of those with the Eraser Tool later on. That’s not a big deal.

Making an Outline

What I really want to accomplish today is an outline of the silhouette I created earlier. Since I already have the original selection expanded, all I have to do is make sure the original layer thumbnail is clicked on and then copy and paste again. Doing this will result in the screenshot below.

Do you see that outline? That’s all I was after. That’s why I needed to use the expand selection feature. Again, I could just as easily have contracted the selection. The only reason I didn’t was because I had no use for it this time.

Okay, now I’m just being silly. I figure that an stroke might look interesting along the edge of the outline, so I’ll double-click on the layer thumbnail that was created with the outline in it. Doing this will pop open that Layer Style palette again. Once open, I’ll click Stroke in the left column and then I’ll change the size to 15. That should do it. I’ll also be sure to change the color to White and then click the OK button to apply the change.

After all this work, I’ll have the silhouette that has an outline of the original image and a stroke around that outline. If I added a new layer all the way at the bottom of the stack in the Layers panel and filled that layer with black, this is what I’d have:

And if I imported the original image and placed it right above the bottom black layer and reduced the opacity of the image to 50%, I’d have this final image.

It’s just a quirky little idea I thought up today as an example of what the Expand selection feature might be used for. It’s interesting, to say the least.

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I hope I clearly explained how to use the expand and contract selection features in Adobe Photoshop. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please leave them in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!

I’m going to let you in on a little secret about Adobe Photoshop. I’ve been working in this application for a long time and I’ll tell you that there really aren’t many people on the planet who truly know how to use it. Sure, many folks can launch a photo and edit that photo in a limited fashion, but when it comes to the heavy lifting and getting dirty of making something look beautiful, nine out of ten people have no idea where to begin. So, if this is true, how in the heck do so many of these editors churn out images that appear so stunning and professional? Well, it’s because there are shortcuts built right into the program. You just need to know where to look. And as long as we’re talking about shortcuts, I’ll let you know that almost everything we do in Photoshop these days is a shortcut. If you have ever worked with color channels back in 1999, you know what I’m talking about. We’ve come a very long way. Back then, we oftentimes had to take the long way around. The very long way.

In today’s post, I’m going to explore a very small portion of what I referred to above. There’s an area inside of Photoshop’s Adjustments panel that’s called Color Lookup. This Color Lookup adjustment allows us to change the overall appearance of a photo. It’s sort of like overlaying an old school film effect on top of a photo to give it a haze, contrast, warming or cooling feeling. There are tons of presets in this little area of Photoshop, so once you know about it, you’ll be able to experiment to your heart’s content. Below, all I want to do it tell you how to get to where you need to be and to display a few different examples. You’ll be able to take it from where I leave off.

The Color Lookup Adjustment

The best part about using this adjustment is that it’s non-destructive. It functions just the same as any other adjustment in that we can turn it on and off and even delete it if need be. Needless to say, it’s got some flexibility attached to it, so as we use it, there’s very little to be concerned with when it comes to permanently altering a photograph.

The Demo Photo

For this post, I wanted to use a photo that offered a way to realistically see what kind of effect these color lookups can offer. I think I found a really good picture to use. It’s of a lighthouse and it’s got lots of sky in it as well as a structure. I think this will be perfect. Here it is.

Applying the Adjustment

I’ve already got the photo opened up into Photoshop. From here, I’ll head up to the Adjustments panel and click the Color Lookup option.

Once I do that, a new adjustment layer will appear in the Layers panel and the Properties panel for this adjustment will automatically open.

If you take a look inside the Properties panel, you’ll see three drop-down boxes. These are the lookup table categories and they’re called 3DLUT File, Abstract and Device Link. It’s inside of these drop-downs that you’ll find the actual lookup tables. Currently, there are 27, 8 and 5 lookup tables, respectively. Because the first category has so many, you can imagine most people hang out in there. The other categories do have some interesting effects though, so they shouldn’t be overlooked. Here’s a screenshot of the first drop-down.

To select a lookup table to apply the effect, simply click one of the options in the drop-down. I’ll give you a few examples below.

Let’s see, I think I’ll start off with Candlelight.CUBE.

Next, I’ll show you Crisp_Warm.look.

After that, I’ll show you Crisp_Winter.look.

As you can see, by clicking one mere option in a drop-down, the entire look of a photo can be transformed. Some of the options are fairly crazy looking and may need a few extra steps to tame things down a bit. Others, however, can be used right out of the box. Here’s one last one for you. It’s the LateSunset.3DL option.

So basically, as you’re asking yourself how some photographer out there made that photo look so good, remember that it only takes a few steps inside of Photoshop to make a change.

Combining Lookup Tables with Blend Modes

A common step to take after finding the look you’re after is to add a blend mode to the mix. Doing this will tamp down the effect somewhat and will certainly take the edge off, if there is one. It’ll also give you the opportunity to add another effect. Perhaps one that wasn’t available in the lookup table you chose.

For this example, I’m going to keep the Late Sunset option I just ended with. I’ll head back to the Layers panel and I’ll click the Blend Mode drop-down. Inside this drop-down, I’ll see the Overlay option, so I’ll click it.

Once I do that, I’ll notice that the contrast inside of the photo was increased. The overall appearance was enhanced as well. If you aren’t familiar with how blend modes work in Photoshop, please read through these posts:

What are Blending Modes in Adobe Photoshop?

Adding Color: Blend Modes & Adjustments in Adobe Photoshop

The Overlay blend mode is part of the Contrast group, so that explains things. Let’s take a look at the result.

Adjusting Opacity

Just like it’s common to play with blend modes in these types of circumstances, it’s also common to adjust the opacity if the overall effect is too strong for your liking. To lessen the effect of the lookup table and the blend mode, I’ll turn to the Opacity slider in the Layers panel and I’ll nudge the slider to the left.

When adjusting opacity, be sure the proper layer in the Layers panel is selected. The change you make will affect whichever layer is active. In my case, I went with 75% opacity. Here’s the result. It’s not too terribly different than the photo above.

As you can see, there are a lot of possibilities here. I encourage you to experiment with them to see what you can come up with. I’m sure you can imagine how things might turn out after you finish making these type of changes and move further along. You can truly transform a photo in no time flat.

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I hope I clearly explained how to use the Color Lookup adjustment in Adobe Photoshop. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please leave them in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

When editing video inside of Adobe Photoshop, there are a few tasks that you’ll find yourself repeating over and over again. None of these tasks are mind blowing or anything like that, but they are important to learn at the beginning of your training because you’ll find yourself needed them quite frequently. Basically, they allow you to set up and edit your video as seamlessly and as efficiently as possible.

In today’s post, I’m going to very quickly cover a common workflow. It goes like this; someone opens a video clip into Photoshop. Then, because they want additional video clips in the same project, they’ll add those clips. Also, because this person wants to stay organized, they’ll record some comments that identify what they added to the project. Working with video is similar to working with photographs. We need to understand how the process goes when it comes to adding to a project and keeping things clearly situated. Oftentimes, we organize via naming conventions, but in this case, we can use comments because they’re so easily accessible.

The Current Workspace

To kick things off, I opened one of the two demo video clips into Photoshop. I chose some random clips just for demonstration’s sake. The first one is of a bunny chewing on some leaves and the second one is of some sort of a temple in the woods. Here’s a screenshot of the bunny.

Right after I opened this clip, the Timeline panel automatically opened up and the clip was visible inside of a group in the timeline.

Now, if this was a simple, one clip editing job, I could continue on working by adding some transitions, audio or effects. Since I have more video, I’ll need to add that to this project file.

Adding Additional Video Groups

By adding an additional video group, I’ll be essentially adding sort of a bucket for more video clips. Adding groups is a good idea because you never quite know how many clips you’ll be including in the project. Groups are a great way to keep clips organized. I could have added the additional clip to the same group that already existed, but because I’m thinking about the future, I decided to go with expansion in mind. I’ll add the group and then put the additional video inside of it.

To add a video group, I’ll head down into the Timeline panel and click the small filmstrip icon that’s inside of the existing one. When I do that, a menu will appear. I’ll select New Video Group from that menu.

Once I do that, a new group will appear above the current one. But, as you’ll notice, it’s empty.

Adding a Video Clip

The next step I need to take to add the new video clip is to click the Add Media to Track icon that sits all the way over to the right of the timeline. Since there are more than one of these icons, I’ll need to be sure to click on the one that corresponds with the group to which I’d like to add the clip.

After I click the icon, a window will appear, giving me the ability to browse my computer for the media I’m after. When I find it, I can double click it and it will be inserted into the Timeline. Take a look.

Adding a Comment to the Video Timeline

I already wrote a post that covered how to add comments to the timeline, but since this was related to what I’m discussing today, I figured I’d add the content again. You can read my previous post here if you’d like to.

My video clips won’t likely be all lined up in a row. In any given project, bits and sections of video will be scattered all over the place. Keeping track of them via comments is important.

To add a comment to the timeline in Photoshop, move the playhead to the spot where you’d like the comment to live. Then, click the small stopwatch icon that’s inside of the Comment track.

Once that occurs, the Edit Timeline Comment panel will appear. Write the comment inside of that and then click OK to apply it.

After that’s done, the new comment will be indicated by a small yellow box.

To read the comment, or any comment for that matter, in the future, simply double click on its yellow box. To delete the comment, click it once to select it and then press the Delete key on your keyboard.

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I hope I clearly explained how to add a video group, a video clip and video comments to the Timeline panel in Adobe Photoshop. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please leave them for me in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how to add a vector mask to video in Adobe Photoshop. I’ll give you the link to that post below. Adding vector masks to video is something that’s critical to learn about and understand because it’s called for all the time. Videos in videos, animated videos, working with a combination of images and videos – there are countless combinations when it comes to something like this. The thing is, while it’s important to become fluent with the vector mask thing, it’s even more important to learn how to move those masks around. If you aren’t sure why moving masks around might be helpful, think about how many video transitions you see on a daily basis. Those transitions use the same principle as the one I’m going to cover below.

Combining Vector Shapes with Clipping Masks for Video in Adobe Photoshop

In today’s post, I’m going to discuss the very simple process of animating a vector mask in an effort to reveal a hidden video in Adobe Photoshop. I’ve already gone ahead and set the two videos and the vector shape up inside of one tab and I’ve also gone ahead and created a clipping mask relationship between one of the videos and the vector shape layer. All this took me about 30 seconds to complete, so if you’re not sure how to go about doing something like this, I encourage you to read through the link I just shared above. Either that, or you can simply click here.

Demo Videos

For this post, I randomly selected two videos that were around the same dimensions. Any size differences were cropped out. Then, since both videos were in different tabs, I dragged one of the video layers over into the other video tab. I dropped it there, which created my primary project tab. After that, I added the vector shape layer, which happened to be a rectangle and finally, I created the clipping mask. Here’s a screenshot of part of the two videos.

Since the videos weren’t as crisp as I would have liked them to be, I added an adjustment layer to increase the contract. Here’s a capture of the Layers panel.

The top layer is the adjustment layer, which affects all the layers below with increased contrast, the second layer down is the hidden video that will be revealed, the third layer is the vector rectangle shape and the fourth layer is the primary video that will reduce in size because of the impending animation.

Altering the Vector Mask Position

To create this animation, the same rules need to be followed for that you would for any other type of animation. Basically, I’ll need to create a start point and an end point (keyframes). The only tricky part is remembering to add the correct type of keyframe. At first glance, I might be tempted to add keyframes to the Position row. What I really want to do is add them to the Vector Mask Position one. Attempting to change the position of a vector mask inside of Photoshop isn’t possible by using only the Position keyframe feature. I’ll show you what happens if I try.

I’ve gone ahead and selected the vector shape layer in the Layers panel. Then, I clicked on the small arrow in the timeline that sits to the left of that layer name. Doing this opened up the animation controls for that layer. Take a look.

If I click on the timeline in the Position stopwatch icon, I’ll immediately see this warning pop up.

It says, “Animating the layer position may not have any effect. You may need to animate the mask.” That’s interesting because at first glance, many people may think they’re attempting to animate the actual layer shape, but in essence, they’re attempting to animate the mask, just as the warning stated. To work around this warning, I’ll steer clear of the Position control and I’ll skip down a few spots to the Vector Mask Position row. That’s where I want to be.

Before I click in the row though, I’ll need to slide the mask over to the left, so it’s just off screen. My goal with this animation is to have the video in question start off in a hidden state and then slide in, while the video is playing, to the half way point. That’s where I’ll have the animation stop and the video content continue on playing. Sort of like an animated split screen.

Okay, I’ve repositioned the mask so it’s off screen. At this point, I’ll go ahead and make sure the playhead is at the 0:00 second mark and then I’ll click the little stopwatch icon that sits to the left of the words Vector Mask Position.

Next, I’ll push the playhead to the 3:00 mark. That’s going to be the end of the transition. After that, I’ll hold down the Shift key on my keyboard to lock any layer mask movement into a horizontal plane and then I’ll drag the layer mask over so the video stops at the center point. When I let go of the mask layer with my mouse, the end point keyframe will automatically appear.

And that’s all I need to do. If I play the video back and want to make any adjustments with the timing, I can easily drag the keyframes around. Those would be just small tweaks.

Basically, adding an animation for a vector mask layer is much like adding one for a regular layer. Again, the only area you need to pay attention to is which type of keyframe you apply.

Here’s a look at the final video. If you’re reading this via email, you’ll need to click the link below.

Video Link

Pretty cool!

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I hope I clearly explained how to add an animation to a vector mask in Adobe Photoshop. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please leave them down in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

When working in Adobe Photoshop, you’ll quickly learn that there are dozens of methods for accomplishing the same thing. It doesn’t take much to set a goal and to work with the most obvious tool for accomplishing that goal. As you become more advanced with the application though, you’ll find that you’re able to use additional or alternative tools to give you the same result, but that will offer different flexibilities later on. Examples of such tool may be the Clone Stamp Tool, Spot Healing Brush Tool, Healing Brush Tool and the Patch Tool. Let’s just say that there’s more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to working with these tools.

In today’s post, I’m going to walk through the process of using two different tools to accomplish the same goal in Photoshop. I’ll use a sample photograph of a woman who has fairly dark shadows under her eyes. To lighten the shadows, I’ll first use the Clone Stamp Tool, along with some specific settings and after that, I’ll use the Healing Brush Tool to do the same thing. I’ll set that tool as well but then after I’m finished, I’ll make one final adjustment that will bring everything together.

The Sample Photo

Okay, as you can see in the photo below, there certainly are shadows under the woman’s eyes. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing because we all experience shadows, but when it comes to photo retouching, this area is generally corrected. Take a look.

Using the Clone Stamp Tool

Both methods for dealing with this issue are relatively simple. Neither takes much time, but both require explanation. I’ll begin with the Clone Stamp Tool.

To activate this tool, I’ll head over to the left vertical toolbar and click the tool.

Next, I’ll resize the tool by pressing the [ and ] (bracket) keys on my keyboard. I want the size of the brush to be about the height of the shadows. In this case, I’d say that’s around a half inch. I’ll also keep a soft edge.

After that, I’ll move up to the options bar and set the Opacity to 10% and keep the Aligned box checked. Finally, I’ll make sure All Layers is selected in the Sample drop-down box. Sampling all layers means that even if I place a blank layer above the background photo layer (which I’ll do), Photoshop will still recognize that background layer, even if the blank layer is the active one.

Finally, I’ll head over to the Layers panel and I’ll create a new blank layer that sits above the background layer.

Copying Objects & Areas with the Clone Stamp Tool in Adobe Photoshop

Making sure the blank layer is active by clicking on it, I’ll then take a sample of the woman’s cheek by holding down the Alt key on my keyboard and clicking once with my mouse. Basically, when doing this, I’ll be looking for a sample area that I would like to see under the eyes. I’ll sample the clearest and brightest area of her cheek that isn’t too close to any edge.

Next, I’ll paint the shadows with the brush. As I do this, I’ll find that I’m really not making much of a difference. It will take many clicks and drags with the mouse to accumulate any amount of overlay. This is intended because the low Opacity value in the options bar offers a chance for any change to accumulate slowly. I’ll follow these instructions for both sides. After a few seconds of painting, here’s my result.

Notice how I didn’t completely remove any shadow or wrinkle? The goal is to keep things looking as natural as possible. If I had continued on and removed everything, the result would have looked very odd.

Using the Healing Brush Tool

This method is slightly different than the last. To start off, I’ll delete the blank layer I just created and worked with and will replace it with another blank layer. Then, I’ll head over to the left vertical toolbar and I’ll select the Healing Brush Tool.

Working With the Healing Brush Tool in Adobe Photoshop

Next, I’ll revisit the options bar up top and make sure some values are set correctly. In this options bar, I want Mode to be set to Normal, Source set to Sampled, the Aligned box checked and the Sample drop-down set to All Layers. After this, I’m going to follow the same exact steps I laid out above. The only difference will be that instead of applying 10% of the brush strength, I’ll be applying 100%. Things will look very strange in the beginning.

I’ll go ahead and do this now. Here’s the result.

If we look at the above result, I think we can all agree that the shadows have been completely removed, but that the outcome looks a little strange. With the previous method, I applied the correction slowly and over many brush strokes in an effort to build it up. Here, I applied it all at once, which gave me quite the unnatural looking result. In order to fix this and make the shadows look much more natural, I’ll go back into the Layers panel and I’ll reduce the Opacity value to something around 75%.

By doing that, I’ll, in essence, be blending the unnatural looking result with the original shot. I’ll get this result.

This is arguably a much better outcome. Let’s take a look at the entire image.

Wow, that is so much better looking. I hope you agree.

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I hope I clearly explained how to go about correcting under-eye shadows by using the Clone Stamp Tool and the Healing Brush Tool in Adobe Photoshop. If you have any concerns or questions regarding this post, please leave them in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

A while back, I wrote a post about whitening and brightening teeth in Adobe Photoshop. In that post, I covered everything someone may want to know about the topic of making teeth look better. The only issue with what I wrote was that I found the method of selecting the teeth sort of cumbersome. I asked myself, is it really necessary to select each of the teeth? Is there a better, easier and faster way? After thinking about it for a while, I decided that there is.

In today’s post, I’m going to briefly talk about another selection method for accomplishing the same exact goal as last time, which is whitening teeth. Everything I already wrote after the selection process will remain the same. The only thing that will differ is the beginning part.

The Old Way vs. the New Way

In my previous post, I used the Quick Selection Tool to select the teeth. I zoomed in pretty close and traced the edges of each and every tooth in the subject’s mouth. While it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to have to do this, I did find it kind of annoying that I would have to spend so much time on selecting something for such a simple purpose. I also realized that all I was selecting the teeth for was to remove any yellow that may be mixed with the white.

I got thinking about that yellow and realized that if I were to use the, say, Lasso Tool to make the selection, I wouldn’t have to be as careful with what I was doing. I could be much more liberal with what I traced. I could even include some of the gums and lips, if need be. Since there’s no noticeable yellow in the those two areas that would be removed, they would remain unaffected. Because of this epiphany, I’ve updated my method. Now, I use the Lasso Tool for tasks like this.

Demo Photo

Today, I’ll be using a very realistic photograph of two girls. One of the girls is smiling and showing her teeth, which is rather helpful. There’s also a very light yellowish overlay that extends over the teeth themselves. It’s this overlay I’d like to remove. I’ll also show you how to go about brightening the smile by using the same Lasso Tool in conjunction with the adjustment layer mask.

Selecting the Smile

Okay, let’s get going. To select the smile, I’ll head over to the left vertical toolbar and activate the Lasso Tool.

After that, I’ll zoom into the photo by pressing Ctrl++ on my keyboard a few times. Then, I’ll use the Lasso Tool to trace around the teeth as closely to them as I can.

Once I’m happy with the selection, I’ll go ahead and click on the Hue/Saturation icon in the Adjustments panel. This will add a new layer to the Layers panel as well as open up the Properties panel for this adjustment.

Whitening the Teeth

All I have to do now is remove the yellow from the teeth. To accomplish this, I’ll choose Yellows from the color selection drop-down in the Properties panel.

Then, I’ll push the Saturation slider all the way to the left to remove all of the yellow color. By selecting Yellows from the drop-down, I’m limiting what colors will be affected by this particular slider movement. It’s an ingenious method for manipulating color in Photoshop.

Touching Up

At this point, I can see that the teeth are indeed whiter. I can also see that there was some inadvertent saturation removed from one of the lips. That small part is now gray. Since adjustment layers work based off of masks, I can easily fix this. To do so, I’ll head back over to the left vertical toolbar and activate the Brush Tool. I’ll make sure Black is selected in the color picker and I’ll size my brush so it’s about the size of a penny. Then, I’ll add some softness to the edge of it as well.

When I’m ready to fix the lip area, I’ll make sure the mask thumbnail in the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer is selected and then I’ll simply paint over the affected area. I can actually follow these steps for any area that I find unappealing. This is the beauty of working with adjustment layers and masks.

To see what the mask looks like, I’ll hold down the Alt key on my keyboard and click once on the mask thumbnail in the Layers panel. This will create a visual overlay.

To remove the overlay, I can press and hold Alt again and then click the thumbnail once more. This is just a cool way to see if you’re in the right track when working with masks.

Brightening the Teeth

The problem with removing saturation from teeth without doing any brightening is that the teeth end up looking somewhat gray. To counter this, we can brighten them. Doing this is just as easy as removing the yellow. The only issue I’m facing right now is that my selection is gone. To bring it back, I’ll press and hold the Ctrl key on my keyboard and then I’ll click once on the mask again. This makes the selection reappear. I should see the marching ants.

Now, I can go back up to the Adjustments panel and click on the Brightness/Contrast icon. When the Properties panel for this adjustment appears, I can push the Brightness slider ever so slightly to the right to add just a hint of brightness. I have to be very careful here because it’s extremely easy to go too far. In this case, I barely moved the slider at all.

After doing this, I ended up with this result.

And this is the final image.

Again, if there were any areas that I needed to adjust (correct), I could simply click on this layer’s mask thumbnail and brush away those areas with the Brush Tool. It’s all fairly straightforward.

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I hope I clearly explained how to whiten and brighten a smile in Adobe Photoshop with the Lasso Tool. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section down below. Thanks for reading!

If you use filters in conjunction with Smart Objects a lot in Adobe Photoshop, I have a tip you’re going to love. It’s one that you probably didn’t even know you needed, but when you realize what it does, you’ll thank me. It’s so silly, but so easy and powerful.

In today’s post, I’d like to show you two different aspects regarding the filter menu in Photoshop. First, I’ll show you how the default menu appears. Then, I’ll make one small change in the Preference area that will open things up inside the Filter menu and allow you to view a lot more of what you’re working with.

After that, I’ll explain how the change I made affects the named filters listed under the Smart Object mask in the Layers panel. You really need to read this post to determine which view you like the most. Some folks prefer a clean streamlined (default) look, while others prefer to see everything at once. Personally, I like to have as much in front of me as possible. If I can’t see it, there’s a chance I’ll miss it.

Demo Photo

I’ll be applying some filters in this post as examples, so I thought I’d show you the photo that I’ll be using to apply those filters to. It could have been any photo, but I found this one interesting.

The Default Filter Menu View

Okay, let’s get going. To start things off, I think I’ll show you what the default view of the Filter menu looks like in Photoshop. This is what you’ll get if you make no modifications to the menu in any way.

If you’ll notice the primary (largest) section of the menu, you’ll see that there are currently 11 items in it. I was a little surprised by this a few years ago because I seemed to have remembered a few more items in there. I wondered where they went. You know which ones I’m talking about. Colored pencil, cutout, dry brush and so many more. Where were these items? I remember them being nested under primary headings, but I couldn’t find them. But really, this was the least of my problems.

Take a look at this. I’m first going to change the background layer into a Smart Object because I’m going to be applying filters to it and then I’m going to head up into the Filter menu and click on Filter Gallery. Let’s see where that brings me.

Okay, well I guess I just found where all the filter items I was looking for went. I think Photoshop decided to hide all the top level filter groupings that held these filters and placed them all under the heading of Filter Gallery. This palette contains the filters that were missing. I guess that makes sense if you enjoy having a cleaner interface. One click gets you straight to everything you might want.

I’m going to go ahead and click on Colored Pencil and then on OK to apply this filter. I want to check something out. First, I’ll show you what a colored pencil picture looks like.

I’m not sure I told you this, but I enjoy working in a descriptive environment. Since I deal with a zillion things a day, I need everything labeled and easily identifiable. I’m going to now head over to the Layers panel to see how this colored pencil filter was labeled under the Smart Filters mask.

Really? I just applied the Colored Pencil filter and all I get is a label that says Filter Gallery in the Layers panel? Yes, it’s true. That’s what you get these days. I’d like to let you know that if I went ahead and applied more of these types of filters, they’d all say the same thing – Filter Gallery. So let me ask you something. How in the heck am I going to identify the one I may want to double-click on to edit in the future? Do I have to double-click on all of them? There has to be a better way.

Expanding the Filter Menu

Luckily, there is. To bring the Filter menu back to it’s glory days so I can see a few more options, I’m going to head to the Edit > Preferences > Plug-ins menu item and click.

Doing this will open up the Preferences palette, where I’ll check the box that says Show All Filter Gallery Groups and Names.

I’ll click on the OK button and then I’ll return to the Filter menu up top. I’d like to see if what I did had any effect.

It did have an effect. I can now see some groupings for those filters that are held in the Filter Gallery palette. The top level groups are Artistic, Brush Strokes and Sketch. While each of these headings contains items that will bring me right back into the Filter Gallery palette, I’ll be brought straight to the section that’s related to the menu item I clicked on. If you aren’t aware, the Filter Gallery is fairly huge and it takes some time to navigate. Landing right in the section I’m working on is a big help.

This isn’t the best part though. If I open the Filter Gallery again and apply another filter, I should see something change in the Layers panel. For this example, I’ll apply the Artistic > Cutout filter.

First, let’s see how this filter affects the photograph, just for fun.

Next, I’ll head over to the Layers panel to see if this filter is labeled differently under the Smart Filters section.

Ah, would you look at that. Instead of this filter description simply saying Filter Gallery, which isn’t very descriptive at all, it now says Cutout, which is much more descriptive. I like this a lot more.

To wrap up, there are two benefits to altering your preferences in this regard. First, you’ll have the ability to see more in the way of filters under the Filter menu and second, you’ll have more descriptive filter labels in the Layers panel. I really hope this helps.

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I hope I clearly explained how to expand the filter menu in Adobe Photoshop. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please leave them in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

If you find yourself using a certain command time and time again, you probably should create a keyboard shortcut for that command, if one doesn’t already exist. Personally, I find myself returning to both the sharpen and blur filters almost every time I use Adobe Photoshop. Currently, there aren’t any keyboard shortcuts for these filters, so it would likely be in my best interest to make some. Doing so sure would save a lot of time.

In today’s post, I’d like to walk through the process of creating a keyboard shortcut in Photoshop. I’ll use a random photo in this post and will show you each step necessary to create the shortcut. As I mentioned above, I use the sharpen and blur filters often, so I’ll just choose one of those to work with. The process is fast and painless, so this shouldn’t take too long.

The Demo Photo

Not that it matters because I won’t be doing anything to it, but here’s the photo I’ll be using in this post. It’s of a few bubbles on top of a liquid. Simple enough.

The Current Situation

First, let’s make sure that no shortcuts already exist for the Smart Blur filter. I wouldn’t want to go through the trouble of doing all this if I don’t have to. To confirm its absence, I’ll head up to the Filter > Blur > Smart Blur menu item and simply hover over it.

Okay, it appears that there is no current keyboard shortcut applied to this filter. If there were, it would appear to the right of the menu item, as they are in the above filters such as Liquify and Vanishing Point, among others.

Creating the Keyboard Shortcut

To create the keyboard shortcut, I’ll head up to the Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts menu item.

I’ll click on that and then inside the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus panel that appears, I’ll add a new set.

Creating New Keyboard Shortcut Sets

When altering the existing set of keyboard shortcuts, it’s important to create a new set altogether. Doing this helps with organization and its keeps any changes you make separate from and default shortcut set.

To create a new set, I’ll click on the New Set button.

When I do this, the proper folder will automatically pop up, where I’ll have the ability to name the new set. In this case, I’ll call mine Custom. Notice how I kept the .kys file extension intact. I’m not sure if this is necessary, but I decided to keep it there because it was already like this when the folder opened.

When I’m finished with that, I’ll click on the Save button down in the lower right corner of this window and the new set option will appear in the Set drop-down. If I click the drop-down, I’ll notice that I have Photoshop Defaults and Custom. Perfect. I’ll choose Custom and continue on.

Choosing Which Shortcuts to Add or Edit

The next area I need to pay close attention is the Shortcuts For drop-down. As you probably already know, Photoshop is full of shortcuts and all those shortcuts can be broken down and divided into sections, The sections include Application Menus, Panel Menus and Tools.

Tools are the actual tools in the toolbars. For instance, if I wanted to use a Lasso Tool in the left vertical toolbar, I can use the keyboard shortcut of L.

Panel Menus are situated inside the panels. The menus are usually in the upper right corner of the panel and are indicated by four or so horizontal lines. Clicking on any one of these menus will offer many different options, some of which have keyboard shortcuts associated with them.

Finally, Application Menus are what I’m interested in today. These are the menus up at the top of the applications, such as those in the File menu, Edit menu and so forth. Since I’ll be working inside of the Filter menu, this is the option I’ll select.

Adding the New Shortcut

Okay, the time has come to add the new shortcut. To locate the one I’m interested in, I’ll need to do some clicking around in the large box that holds all the menu items. I’ll first click the small arrow that sits to the left of Filter and then I’ll scroll down a bit. When I locate Smart Blur, I’ll stop looking. That’s the one I want to edit.

If I click on the words Smart Blur, I’ll notice an editable field appear. It’s there I need to type in the keyboard shortcut that I’d like to add. The issue is, many shortcut combinations have already been used by other areas of Photoshop. I’m either going to have to get lucky and choose something that’s not already in use or overwrite something I don’t use all that often, which is completely doable. For now, I’ll choose Alt+F12 as the new shortcut. That hasn’t been used in Photoshop yet. I’ll just type that right into the waiting field.

And finally, I’ll click the Accept button to the right to apply my changes and then the OK button to close out of the window.

Verifying the Creation of the Shortcut

To verify that my new shortcut has actually been created, I’ll take a look at that menu item. I’ll click on Filter > Blur > Smart Blur and look to see if anything has been added to the right of Smart Blur.

It has. That’s good. As one final step, I’ll press Alt+F12 on my keyboard to make sure everything works and the Smart Blur panel opens. And, it does. That’s great.

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I hope I clearly explained how to create a new keyboard shortcut in Adobe Photoshop. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please leave them in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

I can remember the very first time I opened a photo in Adobe Photoshop. It was a very long time ago, but this I recall quite clearly. I opened the photo, looked around Photoshop’s interface a bit and somehow landed inside of the Filter menu. From there, I began randomly clicking things. Blur, Sharpen, Cutout, Plastic Wrap, Wind, Lens Flare. Some of what I just listed may not have even been available back then because I’m just pulling these from the top of my head. It doesn’t matter. My point is, what I discovered was seriously cool. How many of us can remember the days of embossing every single piece of text we ever wrote? Um…yeah.

Filters are huge in Photoshop. There is no shortage of creative potential when it comes to them, but after wasting a few hours or days simply toying around with things, it’s important to get a handle on what’s exactly going on. There’s a lot to learn when it comes to filters and I’ll admit that many folks don’t know nearly enough. Knowledge of how to use filters are what separate the okay editors with the genius ones. Actions are chock full of them. Filters really are where it’s at.

In today’s post, I’d like to begin exploring how to go about applying a filter to a photograph. I’ll use a sample photo to mess around with and I’ll show you a few ins and outs regarding this entire area. I’ll also demonstrate how you can apply a filter and then quickly reapply it using a keyboard shortcut. You’ll want to know about this because as you learn more and more about these things, you’ll be using them much more frequently. You’ll also likely speed up your process and this keyboard shortcut can save a lot of time.

Demo Photo

Any photo would have been fine for this post, so I decided to go with one of some nostalgic Christmas ornaments. I can remember these pointed ones from when I was a kid. Plus, this photo is really good quality, so whatever I do to it will stand out nicely.

What Do Filters Look Like in the Layers Panel?

The very first task I’ll complete before doing anything else is to convert the photo layer into a Smart Object. By now, you know why to do this. It’s to preserve the layer, just in case you’d ever like to see it in its original format again. I’ll convert the layer by right-clicking on its thumbnail in the Layers panel and then by selecting Convert to Smart Object.

Next, I’ll head up to the Filter menu and select a filter. Any one will do at this point, so I’ll just randomly choose Filter > Artistic > Dry Brush.

I’ll apply that filter and then I’ll head back up to the Filters menu and choose another one. This time, I’ll go with Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

I’ll apply that one too and when I’m done, I have a Layers panel that looks like this.

What do I have here? Well, it’s basically the background layer that was converted to a Smart Object, with a virtual plastic wrap overlay that holds filters on top of that. Since I converted the background layer into a Smart Object, any filter I apply to the layer will really be applied to a mask that sits on top of the photo. Doing things this way gives me tons of flexibility. If I wanted to, I could use the Brush Tool set to black to wipe away part of the filter effects. I’m not going to do that, but I could if I wanted to. I could also turn off and on the visibility of each filter as well as delete them one by one. All of this is a benefit of working with Smart Objects. If I hadn’t converted the layer before I began, I’d be stuck with whatever filter I applied and I’d have absolutely no recourse if I ever changed my mind.

How Filters Differ From Adjustment Layers in the Layers Panel

Because both Smart Objects and Adjustment Layers use masks to offer flexibility, many editors confuse the two. I’d like to take just a moment to show you how they differ.

Okay, you’ve already seen the filters in the Layers panel in the above screenshot. Now, I’ll head up to the Adjustments panel and click the Brightness/Contrast icon. This will open up the appropriate Properties panel as well as create a new layer.

As you can see, adjustment layers appear differently in the Layers panel than filters do. Adjustment layers are independent from the layer they’re affecting as well as from each other. If I were to apply more than one adjustment layer, each one would be in its own layer. If I were to apply more than one filter, they would all be stacked upon one another under the Smart Filters mask. These two aspects of Photoshop are very different from one another.

Sneaky Extra Filters

It’s not only filters from the Filters menu that get stacked up under the Smart Filters mask in the Layers panel. If I were to head up to the Image > Adjustments menu item and click something from the sub-menu, that item would be added to the same area. For example, I’ll go ahead and select the Image > Adjustments > Invert menu item to see what happens.

If I select that menu item and then look over in the Layers panel, I should see it in the Smart Filters area.

It’s there. What’s the benefit of this? If I double-click the Invert item, the photo will revert to the way it was before that specific item was applied. If I were to go ahead and apply some Shadows/Highlights from the same menu area, something else would take place.

The Shadows/Highlights item would be added to the Smart Filters area. That would be the same.

But if I double-clicked on this item, the appropriate dialog box would open up where I could edit this item’s values again and again.

Since this enhancement has been added to the Smart Filters area, I can edit its values any time I want. That’s wicked handy, I’d say.

Applying & Reapplying Filters

I’m going to erase everything I’ve done so far, just to get back to the beginning. That will be helpful for this next section. I’ll keep the Smart Object though.

Now, I’m going to apply some brush strokes to this photo. I’ll head back up to the Filter menu and choose Brush Strokes > Accented Edges.

I’ll simply click the OK button when the workspace opens up. Doing this will apply the default values and it will add Accented Edges to the list under the Smart Filters mask.

Earlier in this post, I mentioned that it’s popular to return to the same filter more than once while working on a project. Laying filters gives even more flexibility than I’m discussing here, but we’ll get to that in another post. For now, I’ll tell you that you can easily apply the previous filter by using a simple keyboard shortcut. If I press Ctrl+Alt+F (Command+Option+F on Mac) on my keyboard, the same filter workspace as I just used will open back up for another go round. This time though, it will be used for another of the same filters.

Whenever you use filters, Photoshop saves the most recent used and places it at the top of the Filter menu. You can click that or just take advantage of the keyboard shortcut I just mentioned.

In previous versions of Photoshop, you could simply press Ctrl+F to reapply your previous filter. If you wanted to reapply and change values, you’d have to use the Ctrl+Alt+F shortcut. It appears that Adobe has removed the Ctrl+F option in these later versions. It appears that way. I may be wrong.

There’s a lot more to the filter feature in Photoshop and I’ll cover all of it in later posts.

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I hope I clearly explained how to apply and reapply a filter in Adobe Photoshop. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please leave them in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

When it comes to text effects in Adobe Photoshop, the Layer Style dialog is where it’s at. The sheer volume of creative effects you’re able to apply to not only text, but to a wide array of other graphics, is overwhelming. It seems like this dialog has been available in this application forever and it’s one of the most popular places to go when you want to add pop and flavor to something. One of the most popular, that is, after you learn that it exists.

In today’s post, I’d like to introduce you to the Layer Style dialog in Photoshop. I’ll use a simple graphic with a few words in it to exemplify what I’d like to convey. I’ll demonstrate how I create the text and then I’ll show you how to access the dialog. Finally, I’ll show you how any applied layer effects affect the layer itself, in the Layers panel. This is an introductory post, but it should lead you down a path that can be very rewarding in the future. And by no means will this one post be all that I’ll share. There’s a lot more in the pipe when it comes to this topic.

Creating Some Text

The first task I’d like to complete is to create some text. At this point, it doesn’t matter what the text says, just that some exists. I already created a file that uses the dimensions of 700×466. Next, I’ll click on the Horizontal Type Tool over in the left toolbar to activate that tool.

I think I’ll create something that says, “TEXT Layer Effects.” The TEXT part will be in one layer and the Layer Effects part will be in another. I’ll type those two parts out and then head towards the Character panel to fine tune what I’ve done.

Primarily, I focused on the font, font size and tracking for this project. Here’s the result.

Now, if you’re brand new to Photoshop and have no idea how I did what I just did, don’t sweat it. As I said above, I will be writing about text until the cows come home. Trust me, there will be a lot more of this in the future. Photoshop is quite extensive (almost like a bottomless pit) when it comes to this particular area.

Adding Some Effects via the Layer Style Dialog

The best part about using layer styles in Photoshop is that they’re non-destructive. I’ll talk more about this later on. For right now, I’d like to jazz up this boring text. For the TEXT layer, I think I’ll change the color of the word to white as opposed to black, add a stroke around the letters and then add a simple-drop shadow. To do this, I’ll double-click on this layer in the Layers panel. I have to make sure not to click the thumbnail or the name of the layer. I’ll need to click on an empty area. After I do this, the Layer Style dialog will appear.

First, I’ll visit the Stroke effect section via the menu item over to the left.

I’ll adjust the Size, Position and Color attributes until they meet my needs.

Next, I’ll visit the Color Overlay section by clicking on another menu item in the left column.

Here, I’ll make sure the Blend Mode is set to Normal and then I’ll click the color square and make sure to choose White (#FFFFFF) as the new color.

Finally, I’ll visit the Drop Shadow section. As a reminder, just clicking on the menu item in the left column activates the effect. If that wasn’t intended, you’ll need to uncheck the check box for that item to deactivate it.

In this area, I’ll simply click on the Reset to Default button underneath all the attributes because the default setting usually offers a fairly decent shadow effect. I’d like to again reiterate that this is merely an introduction post to give you an idea of what’s in this dialog as well well as how to access it. I’ll talk about the specifics of each area in future posts.

Okay, once I’m finished with all that, I’ll click on the OK button and see what the result looks like. Also, if I were interested in seeing how things look in real time, I could check the Preview box that sits under the buttons in the upper right corner.

Here’s the result.

Now, I’ll add similar effects to the words beneath this one. I’ll also head back to the Character panel and enlarge everything. I think the original version was too small.

Ah, that’s better. I made everything bigger and by using almost the same instructions I gave above, I changed the color of the lower text, added a stroke to it and also added a drop shadow. I think that looks fabulous.

What Effects Look Like in the Layers Panel

Earlier in this post, I mentioned that everything that’s derived from the Layer Style dialog has a non-destructive effect on the layer itself. It’s true. Take a look at the layers in the Layers panel as evidence of this. The structure of these text layers sort of remind me of Smart Object layers.

In the above screenshot, you can see each text layer as well as all the effects applied to each as a list below. To hide an effect, simply click the eyeball that sits to the left of its name. To hide all the effects at once in a layer, click the eyeball that’s to the left of the word Effects. To hide (collapse) the list from view but to keep the effects active and visible, click the small arrow that’s to the right of the layer.

Most importantly, to remove an effect without returning to the Layer Style dialog, you can simply click and drag that effect from the layer in the Layers panel to the trash can down underneath it at the bottom of the panel. Drop it there and that effect will be gone forever. Well, until you replace it again.

Make Default & Reset to Default

A really cool and very helpful feature of the Layer Style dialog is the fact that you can set certain attributes as the default as well as reset any existing attribute to the default. Basically, Photoshop has default positions and values for all of the settings in this area. When you make a change to one area to apply effects to a layer, you’re effectively changing those values. Photoshop remembers this. The next time you open the panel, those old values will be staring you in the face. To quickly reset your old settings to the Photoshop defaults, just click the Reset to Default button found at the bottom of each area.

If you’re a power user and find yourself consistently using the same or similar values over and over again, you can make those values the default, as opposed to the Photoshop ones. To accomplish this, just set each slider and drop-down and then click the Make Default button.

It’s that easy. Stay tuned because there’s much more to come.

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I hope I clearly explained how to apply a layer style to a layer in Adobe Photoshop. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please leave them in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!