Adobe Photoshop is a digital artist go-to application as it is a powerful editing application providing a lot of tools to users. It let users correct exposure and colour balance, removing flaws in images, changing colours in photographs, or combining images and turning it into a scene. Adobe Photoshop may not be easy to use for first time users and it requires experience and time to master it. If you are a beginner just starting to use Adobe Photoshop, fret not as these are some tips and tricks for you.
- Learn keyboard shortcuts
- Adobe Photoshop provides plenty of different tools for users to edit their artwork. It has a lot of tools and it would be a hassle to navigate through numbers of them. Therefore, using shortcut keys would be more efficient and faster. There are many shortcuts’ keys such as “W” key for the magic wand tool and “P” key for pen tool.
- Always perform destructive edits on new layers
- Destructive edits are edits that are made directly to the original image. You can undo the edits, however there is a history’s panel limit and when you exceed it, the changes would be permanent. The best way is to do the destructive editing on a new layer so, your original image and edited image are safe.
- Save your Photoshop files correctly for future editing
- When saving your artwork from Adobe Photoshop, make sure you save it and name your file. Not just that, organizing your files into folders would be helpful as this would allow you to easily navigate through your artwork if you need to edit them in the future.
- Practice using layer mask
- Layer mask is crucial when you are editing your image. Layer mask is an adjustable way to hide parts of your layer. Instead of deleting a part of your layer for good, it gives more flexibility when editing an image. Layer mask is handy when making complex images, barring edits to a part of layer and carving out objects to be used in another image or document.
- Follow along with Photoshop tutorial videos
- If you are still not familiar or don’t fully understand the functions of the tools, you can look up the internet for guides and tutorials. A great example, would be YouTube as there are plenty of tutorial videos created by experienced digital artist where they provide detailed explanation and demonstration on the tools of Adobe Photoshop.
- Find what works for you and create a consistent workflow
- Adobe Photoshop is flexible as you can rearrange your workspace so that it allows to create a workspace that is comfortable for you thus, allowing you to feel more comfortable while creating digital art and have a more consistent workflow.
It requires time to master Adobe Photoshop. As a beginner you would feel slow as there are many things to learn and understand in Adobe Photoshop. However, as time went by, you will slowly get used to using Adobe Photoshop and eventually mastering it.
You can learn more through Adobe Photoshop Get Started Course here: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/tutorials.html
