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Photoshop Basics

Finding Your Way Around Photoshop

Photoshop is notorious for its steep learning curve, but I’ve discovered that if you get just a few critical basics under your belt you can gradually tap the depths and learn as you go.

The Most Efficient Workspace Setup

The first thing is to have your workspace set up in an efficient manner for the task at hand. No matter what your art or craft, you want to have all the tools you will need within easy reach so you don’t have to go searching for them.

For photo work in Photoshop, the setup is not very elaborate. However for graphic design, you need more tools and, most importantly, you need Layers. Following is the configuration I’ve found works best for graphic design work.

Click on Windows in the top tool bar and select the following items to place on your workspace: History; Layers (which also gives you easy access to Channels and Paths from your workspace); Navigator (which gives you on-screen access to Info and Histogram; Options (will display a second top tool bar containing options for the currently selected tool once you get going); Styles (also gives on-screen access to Swatches and Colors); and Tools (which gives you the basic tool bar vertically on the left of the screen).

By the way, when you’re working on a design close-up and find you can’t get to the edges because one of the tool bars is in the way, simply position the cursor on the gray bar on the top of the offending bar.

Click and hold while you move it away from the area you want to work on. When you’re ready to move it back the same way, you’ll find that it snaps right back into place.

Some Critical Basics

Once you have your workspace set up optimally, there are several other steps you can take to advance rapidly along the Photoshop learning curve.

Learn how to backtrack using History. Don’t junk up History with a lot of repetitive steps like trying all the blending modes on a layer. Settle on one.

Then backtrack (using History) to the prior action (before all the blend tests) and go forward applying the one you settled on. The next tip will help you understand why I recommend this.

Save frequently in case of a computer or power glitch; but take care not to close and reopen the file until you’re certain you won’t want to undo any History.

If you close and reopen the file, all history from prior sessions will be gone.

Use File>File Info to document anything new and tricky you may want to use again. Also use it to list any design products used in your work along with the designer’s name. You cannot use another designer’s work commercially unless you bought the commercial license. If you post your work on a gallery or in your personal blog, you need to give credit where credit is due. File Info is a very efficient way to keep track.

Stop and think if Photoshop won’t let you do something you’re attempting. Photoshop is almost always right! You may be trying to do something on a locked layer if you see a little circle with a slash through it. If Photoshop keeps beeping at you when you try to do something, you may not have completed the last action. For example, if you were using the Transform Tool, you need to select the Move Tool and Apply before you can move on.

Finally, you’ll find many step-by-step tutorials on The Artful Crafter. Just type “Photoshop” into the search box.

Keyboard Shortcuts

You’ll feel like a real Photoshop pro once you learn some keyboard shortcuts. They are real timesavers but, if you’re like me, they’re just too much to tackle when you’re not even comfortable with all the Photoshop features yet.

I knew they would be great to know so I printed out the whole list from Photoshop and posted it on my bulletin board.

The list is very extensive and I found it more trouble (and time) to look for what I wanted when I wanted something quick. It was anything but quick and got me quite frustrated.

Then I noticed (while doing things the old-fashioned way) that the shortcuts are indicated to the right of any command which has one. That kind of puts the cart before the horse – doing the manual steps and then looking up the keyboard shortcut – but it’s working for me. So I’m learning them one-by-one. Some are quite intuitive like Ctrl + P for Print and Ctrl + D for Deselect. Others are anything but, like Alt + Shift + Ctrl + P for Print One Copy. Another advantage to my system is that I am learning the shortcuts according to the frequency with which I use a particular feature or command.

I won’t be ready anytime soon to create my own keyboard shortcuts, so I couldn’t care less about Alt + Shift + Ctrl + K!

(Secret) Keyboard Shortcuts

Well they’re really not “secret”; their codes are just not found anywhere in the on-screen menus. These are some of my favorite Photoshop keyboard shortcuts. I think I learned all of them in the free daily Scrap Girls newsletter.

Whenever I read about one of these secret shortcuts, I make a Post-it note and stick it onto my computer. Once I can use one without peeking, I discard the note. Again, this is much easier for me than dealing with the extensive list that comes in the Photoshop manual.

• [ makes a brush size smaller
• ] makes a brush size larger
• X toggles the foreground and background colors
• Ctrl + J creates a duplicate layer (Here’s a memory trick to help remember this one: J is for “jump” to a new layer.)

I absolutely love my Scrap Girls newsletters. When I do my morning e-mail before heading off to Eileen’s Gifts, I save it for last. It’s a treat I want to savor.

Not only is it beautifully put together (a testament to the fine Scrap Girls graphic design team), but every day includes a thought-provoking muse, tutorial or interesting tips from the Scrap Girls message board, and a freebie. I download almost all of the freebies and frequently later purchase the kit each comes from. I just can’t get enough of Scrap Girls!

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