CLONE ON AN EMPTY LAYER

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: MONDAY

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Always do your cloning on an empty layer, leaving your Background layer intact. Remember to check the Sample All Layers box in the Options Bar to be sure you aren't sampling an empty layer.

PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS - BONUS - PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS

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I got this from Chris Fawke's Xanga Site
check it out it works great!!!


© PARADISE DESIGN AND PHOTOGRAPHY www.PARADISEDP.com

This a pic of my nephew and I used the action from
Chris Fawke's Xanga Site

REDUCE NOISE

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: FRIDAY

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Avoid the temptation to make Reduce Noise do its job all in one shot. Try this: Open a photograph and apply Reduce Noise in three passes. First, select Filter>Noise>Reduce Noise. Then, press Command-J (PC: Control-J) to duplicate that first-pass layer and apply Reduce Noise once again. Finally, duplicate that layer and apply Reduce Noise once again, this time paying particular attention to a problem area that was not handled in the first two passes. Now, reduce the opacity of the third duplicate to help smooth the transitions of the first two layers

HISTORY CAN BE SAVED

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: THURSDAY

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If you use the History palette often you'll notice that it doesn't save a history state when you show or hide a layer (click on the little eyeball icon column in the layer). In Photoshop CS2 this can be changed in the History pop-up menu. Select History Options and then be sure that Make Layer Visibility Changes Undoable is checked.

UNDO ON A SLIDER

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: WEDNESDAY

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After you've applied a filter, used a tool such as the Brush, Blur or Dodge tools (any tool that uses a brush shape) or used an adjustment command like Levels, you can use the Fade command to gradually reduce the effects. After using any of these techniques, look under the Edit menu for the Fade command - it will say Fade Gaussian Blur, Fade Brush tool, Fade Levels etc. Drag the slider to gradually fade out the effects of the last step you just did - undo using a slider!

GET BETTER RESULTS FROM THE EXTRACT TOOL

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: TUESDAY

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Trying to deal with fine details like hair, and you're unhappy with the results of the Extract tool? Before starting over, try this: press Command-J (PC: Control-J) to duplicate the layer (the result of using Extract). Often simply duplicating two or three times will make a dramatic improvement to the resulting edges. Then merge the resulting layers to produce your final image

USE THE EXTRACT COMMAND TO CREATE BORDER EFFECTS

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: MONDAY

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To create an unusual border effect, open the Extract command (Filter>Extract) and use the Edge Highlighter tool (B) to paint some edges. To get straight lines, click once, hold down the Shift key and then click a second time. Try using different brush sizes for the highlight and/or overlap several lines. Fill the newly enclosed space with the Fill tool (G), then click OK. (Keep in mind that the Extract command creates a transparent layer, so you may want to work on a duplicate of your Background layer.)

ADJUSTING THE OPACITY IN FREE TRANSFORM

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: FRIDAY

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This is bigger than it sounds. You can now adjust the opacity of a layer while in Free Transform. It's really wonderful for situations like manually stitching panoramas together, or trying to composite body parts for retouching situations, and about a dozen other instances where you forgot to lower the opacity before you entered Free Transform (or if you did remember, the amount you chose was too much or too little).

MAXIMIZE BRIDGE

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: THURSDAY

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Give yourself the maximum viewing area for Bridge by viewing it in Full Screen. To do this, press-and-hold the Command key (PC: Control key), then click on the Bridge button in the Options bar and you'll get the maximum viewing space.

OPEN MULTIPLE IMAGES

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: WEDNESDAY

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In the Open dialog, Shift-click to open documents "in a row," or use Command (PC: Control) to click on discontinuous names. Then click Open.

BETTER GRAYSCALE CONVERSIONS

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: TUESDAY

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Using the Channel Mixer is a great way to convert a color image to grayscale, but it does take some experimentation. Another way to do this (with less control but excellent results) is to convert your file to Lab mode. In the Channels palette, just click on the Lightness channel, and then change the mode to Grayscale

DUPLICATING A LAYER MASK THE EASY WAY

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: MONDAY

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Now this one is cool (or hot). In previous versions of Photoshop, duplicating a layer mask was kind of a pain in the neck. In CS2, you can just Alt/Option drag on the layer mask and drag a duplicate to another layer. Much like duplicating a layer in Photoshop CS2, dragging will produce the double arrowhead cursor to let you know you're duplicating it.

MOVING A LAYER MASK

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: FRIDAY

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Moving a layer mask from one layer to another just got easier in Photoshop CS2. Try just dragging the layer mask to whatever layer you'd like in the Layers palette.

ACCESSING GRAYED OUT FILTERS IN CMYK

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: THURSDAY'S TIP

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If you're working in CMYK mode, you'll notice that some of the filters are "grayed out" in the Filter menu, preventing you from accessing them. Rather than converting to RGB, which could affect colors, try this: go to the Channels palette and click on the Cyan channel. Now look in the Filter menu and you'll see that all filters are available. All you have to do is apply the same filter to all four channels, one at a time. To do this quickly, apply the filter to the Cyan channel, then press Command-2 (PC: Control-2) to activate the Magenta channel, and Command-F (PC: Control-F) to reapply the same filter. Press Command-3, Command-F (PC: Control-3, Control-F) for the Yellow channel then Command-4, Command-F (PC: Control-4, Control-F) to apply it to the Black channel. Note: This doesn't work as well with "random" filters such as Render Clouds.

BYE BYE RED EYE

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: WEDNESDAY'S TIP

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The new Red Eye tool is a great addition to Photoshop. Most of the time you can just click on red eyes in a photograph and they'll be removed. However, there are times when red eye gets a little unruly and it's not restricted to a small area within the eye. If this is the case, try increasing the Pupil Size setting. Then click-and-drag a box around the red eye. Keep in mind that you can hold down the Spacebar to reposition the box so it's centered in the exact spot you need to correct.

ADD A LAYER BELOW THE ACTIVE LAYER

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: TUESDAYS TIP

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TCommand-click (PC: Control-click) the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a layer below the one that's currently active.PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: TUESDAYS TIP

IMAGE SIZE NOW HAS ITS OWN KEYBOARD SHORTCUT!

PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS: MONDAY'S TIP

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This one is a favorite of mine. Image Size now has a keyboard shortcut to call its very own. Yep... it's true. Just press Command-Option-I (PC: Control-Alt-I). But hey, if you thought that was cool, check this one out - Canvas Size now has its own shortcut too. It's almost the same shortcut you used for the Image Size dialog but requires a "C" instead of an "I" (Command-Option-C [PC: Control-Alt- C]).

THIS IS IT!!!!!

Well, our Photoshop Tips and Tricks have been taking up lots of space on our blog so we decided to move it here to blogger. But that is ok we will have a link to this from our xanga account so you can come and check for new tips as often as you like. Please, please give us feedback on our tips and tricks. Let us know if it is at all helpful for you. Alright, now another blog for me to keep up with!!! YAY!!!