How Do I Do That In Photoshop?: The Quickest Ways to Do the Things You Want to Do, Right Now! (2nd Edition)

By Scott Kelby

The simplest, easiest, and quickest ways to learn over 250 Photoshop tips, tricks, and techniques!

Scott Kelby, the world’s #1 best-selling photography technique books author, is back with a totally updated and revised new edition of his bestselling book How Do I Do That In Photoshop? The first edition of this bestselling book presented an entirely new concept in Photoshop books—one that’s designed from the ground up to get you straight to whatever it is you need to do in Photoshop right now, get your answer fast, and get you back to editing your images in Photoshop.

Thanks to Adobe’s incredibly popular Creative Cloud Photography plan, which includes Photoshop and Lightroom, photographers are extending the depth and power of Lightroom by jumping over to Photoshop to do all those things Lightroom just can’t do (or Lightroom can do, but in Photoshop, it’s faster and easier, or the results are just better).

Because Photoshop has so much power and depth, sometimes the things you need are…well…kinda hidden or not really obvious. There will be a lot of times when you need to get something done in Photoshop, and you know Photoshop can do it (because Photoshop can do just about anything), but you have no idea where Adobe hid that feature, or what the “secret handshake” is to do that thing you need now so you can get back to working on your images. That’s why this book was created: to quickly get you to the technique, the shortcut, the setting, or exactly the right thing you need to do right now.

Here’s how it works: When you need to know how to do a particular thing, you turn to the chapter where it would be found (Layers, Printing, Fixing Problems, Special Effects, etc.), find the thing you need to do (it’s easy, each page covers just one single topic), and Scott tells you exactly how to do it just like he was sitting there beside you, using the same casual style as if he were telling a friend. That way, you get back to editing your images fast.

This isn’t a book of theory, full of confusing jargon and detailed multi-step concepts. This is a book on which button to click, which setting to use, and exactly how and when to use it, so you’re never “stuck” in Photoshop again. This will be your “go to” book that sits within reach any time you’re working in Photoshop, and you are going to love having this type of help right at your fingertips.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rocky Nook
• Release date: Jul 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781681989273

Scott Kelby

Scott Kelby is the world’s #1 best-selling author of photography technique books, as well as Editor and Publisher of the highly acclaimed <i>Photoshop User</i> magazine. He is co-host of the influential weekly photography talk show <i>The Grid</i> and he teaches digital photography workshops and seminars around the world. Scott is an award-winning author of over 60 books, including <i>How Do I Do That in Lightroom?</i>, <i>How Do I Do That in Photoshop?</i>, <i>The Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers, The Digital Photography Book series, Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques for Photographers, and Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It</i>. He lives in Oldsmar, FL. For more on Scott, visit his fantastic blog at scottkelby.com.

Book preview

If You Skip This One Page, You’ll Regret It for…

(1) Okay, it’s possible that I exaggerated a bit in that headline…as a ruse to get you to read this quick intro, but only because it’s for your own good. Well, technically it’s for both our goods (goods?) because if you skip this, you might not know how this book was designed to be used, which is different than most other books for a number of reasons, the first being most other books don’t try to trick you into reading the intro. But, in this case, I had to do it (and I feel semi-bad about it, sort of, kinda, in a way) because (a) I want you to get the most out of this book (another selfish author only wanting for himself), and (b) you want you to get the most out of it (you paid for it, or at the very least, shoplifted it), so it’s for both our goods (thankfully, my editor doesn’t require me to use real words). Anyway, in short, here’s how to use this book:

Don’t read it in order. It’s not that kind of book. This is more like an I’m stuck. I need help right now book, so when you’re working in Photoshop and need to know how to do a particular thing right this very minute, you just pick it up, turn to the chapter where it would be (Layers, Masking, Special Effects, etc.), find the thing you need to do, and I tell you exactly how to do it, pretty succinctly ($5 word—bonus points!), and you’re off and running back in Photoshop. If I did my job right, you should only be in this book for like a minute at a time—just long enough to learn that one important thing you need now, and then you’re back to lounging on your yacht (at least, that’s how I imagine your life will roll after buying this book).

Same Thing Over Here. Regret (or Worse). Ack!

(2) There’s something in here that, depending on your general disposition, might make you mad. Well, maddish. I do this thing that either delights readers or makes them spontaneously burst into flames of anger, but it has been a tradition for many years, so now it’s a thing I can’t get out of, which is how I write the chapter intros. In a normal book, they would give you some insight into what’s coming in the chapter. But, mine…um…well, they don’t. Honestly, they have little, if anything, to do with what’s in the chapter, as I’ve designed them to simply be a mental break between chapters, and these quirky, rambling intros have become a trademark of mine. Luckily, I’ve relegated the crazy stuff to just those intro pages—the rest of the book is pretty regular, with me telling you how to do things just like I would tell a friend sitting beside me. But, I had to warn you about these, just in case you’re a Mr. Grumpypants and all serious. If that sounds like you, I’m begging you, please skip the chapter intros—they’ll just get on your nerves, and then you’ll write me a letter to tell me how the book was unreadable because of those few pages, and you’ll mention my mother, my upbringing, etc. So, read them at your own risk.

Once Again…Deep Regret!

(3) I’ve done a couple things differently with this new edition of the book. The first thing I’ve done is that I threw a bonus chapter up on the book’s companion webpage for you. If you read the first edition of this book, you might remember that I included a chapter on editing video in Photoshop. Well, apparently, not that many people edit video in Photoshop. So, to allow for more important stuff to be included in the book, I moved this Video chapter online. Now, if you’re that one-in-a-million, diamond-in-the-rough, needle-in-the-haystack person that does still want to edit video in Photoshop, I’ve got you covered. Here’s the link to where you can find the Video chapter: kelbyone.com/books/howps2.

You Really Don’t Want to Skip This One!

(4) The other thing that I’ve done is I’ve included a bunch of tips on an awesome new AI-powered feature that is currently in the Photoshop public Beta (that’s the prerelease testing version of Photoshop) because it’s just too mind-blowing to leave out. This feature is called Generative Fill, and you’ll learn all about it about in Chapter 8. To help you know which pages cover this Beta feature, I’ve added an asterisk (*) to the end of their page titles. Now, by the time you read this book, Generative Fill may have already graduated to the current version of Photoshop. But, if it hasn’t (you’re not seeing it yet), here’s how you download Photoshop (Beta), so that you can try out Generative Fill: Open your Creative Cloud app and, on the left side of the window, click on Beta Apps. Look for Photoshop (Beta) under Desktop Apps, then click on the Install button to its right, and you’re good to go! (Note: This Beta version does not replace your current version of Photoshop. It is its own separate app.) Okay, that’s pretty much it. You’re now fully certified and cross-checked (flight attendant lingo) to use this book and I really hope you find it helpful in your Photoshop journey.

Chapter 1

How to Get Around Like a Pro

Photoshop’s Interface

Let’s start this first chapter intro off with a quiz. Now, you might think that this is a bit early for a Photoshop pop quiz seeing as you haven’t read any pages yet, but I have good news: this isn’t about Photoshop (which is a good concept to keep in mind as you move through the subsequent chapter intros). This is more about reading comprehension, but don’t worry, you’ll be happy to learn that (1) it’s only a two-question test, and (2) there is no wrong answer, unless you choose (B), which is the wrong answer. This is a timed test and you are not allowed to use your calculator. Also, all answers should be submitted in your native language. Ready? You may begin. Q. Which of these statements is true? (A) I read page xv in the introduction of this book and fully understand that these quirky chapter introductions have little, if anything, to do with what’s actually in the chapter ahead. I acknowledge that they are simply designed to give readers, like me, a mental break between chapters, which is what makes this first chapter introduction so vexing as I haven’t read any Photoshop stuff yet, yet I’m receiving a mental break. But, I’m okay with all this. I’m chill. I don’t anger easily and I wouldn’t let a paragraph of incoherent ramblings at the beginning of a chapter affect me to any major extent. (B) I find any minor interruption in my quest for proficiency, no matter how brief, excruciatingly painful. I have little tolerance for things like chuckling, laughing, or giggling, nor do I have time for superfluous things, like sunny days, rainbows, or puppies. The most important thing for me is the pursuit of Photoshop knowledge, so that I can go to online photography forums and poke fun at people who ask simple Photoshop questions. In particular, I enjoy answering their questions using things that don’t actually exist. For example, if they ask, How do I save a JPEG file?, I might answer, Go under the Edit menu and choose the JPEGulator, which as we know, does not exist. Then, when they write back that they can’t find the JPEGulator, my colleagues and I pile on until that person deletes their account. I find that quite pleasurable, versus pointless drivel like these chapter intros. The answer was (A), though, wasn’t it? I knew it. This test is rigged!

Open Panels?

Many of Photoshop’s features are found within the panels (they’re kind of like palettes that pop out from the side of the screen). The most-often-used panels are already visible onscreen by default (like the Color panel, the Swatches panel, the Libraries panel, the Layers panel, and so on), and appear on the far right of the window. There’s also a thin horizontal panel across the top of the window called the Options Bar (when you’re using one of Photoshop’s tools, it shows all the options for that tool here). To keep your screen from being totally cluttered with panels, some panels are nested behind other panels, so all you see is a small tab sticking up with the name of the panel (as seen here, on the left, where you see the Layers panel, and to the right of its tab you see two other tabs for panels that are nested with it—the Channels panel and the Paths panel). To see one of these nested panels, just click on its tab, and the full panel appears (as seen here, on the right, where I clicked on the Channels tab, and now you see the Channels panel). Of course, there are a lot more panels than what you see onscreen at first. To open any closed panel (there are around 30 in all), go under the Window menu (at the top of the screen), and you’ll see all of them. Choose one and it opens onscreen, alongside the panels that are already open.

Make Panels Float?

If you want a particular panel to be detached from the others that it’s nested with, so that it’s on its own, just click-and-drag a panel tab away from the rest of the panels and it floats (as shown here).

Hide or Close Panels?

You don’t have to work with all your panels open all the time. Depending on the workspace you’re working in (found under the Window menu), you can collapse them down to just their icons and names, like you see here, in the center (just click on the two little right-facing arrows in the top right of a panel, shown circled in red above left), or collapse them even further, so only their icons are showing (once you’ve collapsed them, click on the left edge of the panel group and drag to the right until just the icons are showing, as seen here, on the right). Collapsing these panels gives you a larger working area for your images, but your panels are still just one click away (click on any icon and that one panel pops out to full size). If you want to expand all the collapsed panels as a group (like you see here, on the left), click on the two little left-facing arrows in the top right of the panel header. If you actually want to close a panel (not just collapse it; you want it off-screen altogether), click on the panel’s tab and drag it away from the panels it’s nested with (this makes it a floating panel), and now an x appears in the top-left corner of the panel. Click on that to close it. To reopen it, go under the Window menu and choose it.

Have Hidden Panels Automatically Pop Out?

Go under the Photoshop (PC: Edit) menu, under Settings (PC: Preferences), and choose Workspace. When the Preferences dialog opens, in the Options section, turn on the Auto-Show Hidden Panels checkbox (as shown here, on the left). Now when you move your cursor to the far-right edge of the screen where the panels are hidden (above center), the hidden panels pop out (above right).

Hide All the Panels?

Hit the Tab key and it hides all the panels, including the Options Bar up top and the Toolbar on the left, as well. If you just want to hide the panels on the right side (or shall I say, everything but the Toolbar and Options Bar), then press Shift-Tab. You only have to press the Tab key again, in either case, to bring back the hidden panels.

Organize All These Panels?

When you choose to add a panel to what you see onscreen, in most cases, it just appears onscreen next to the ones you already have open. In many cases, they attach to the left edge of your already open panels, and they start to cover more and more of your image area. I personally prefer to keep all my panels in groups over on the right side of the window, so I have as much room for my images as possible. If you like keeping things tidy like this, there are two things you can do: (1) You can group (nest) panels together by clicking on a panel’s tab and dragging it onto another panel’s tab. As you’re dragging over onto the other panel you want to nest it with, you’ll see a blue stroke appear around the group of panels (as seen here, on the left). Once you see that, just release your mouse button and it joins that group. So, you’re pretty much dragging tabs together to form a group. Easy enough. (2) You can also attach panels directly below any open panel, pretty much the same way. But, in this case, you’ll drag the tab to the bottom of a panel. When it’s about to dock, you’ll see a solid blue line appear along the bottom of the panels you’re about to dock with (as seen here, in the center). Now, just release the mouse button and it attaches to the bottom of the existing panels to form a vertical group (as seen here, on the right).

Save How I’ve Set Up All My Panels?

Once you have all the panels you want open, and organized the way you want them (by the way, you can click-and-drag the Toolbar from the left side of the window [grab it right at the top] and have it either float or dock it with the panels on the right side. You can also click-and-drag the Options Bar from the top of the window and position it at the bottom, if you want), you can save this layout (Photoshop calls this custom layout a workspace) by going to the right end of the Options Bar and clicking on the Workspace icon (it’s the last one on the right) or on the pop-up menu of workspaces (if you’re using Application Frame; it probably says Essentials, but it could say something else if you’ve already played around with workspaces). From the pop-up menu, choose New Workspace (as shown here), and it brings up a dialog where you can name and then save your layout (you can have multiple workspaces saved as presets, so you can set up one for retouching, one for doing illustration, one for image editing, etc.). Now, to get that exact layout back anytime, just choose it from that same pop-up menu. Also, when you bring up your workspace, you can still make changes on the fly (like changing the location of a panel, or making a panel float). If at any time you want to get back to your saved workspace, just choose Reset from that same pop-up menu (I named my workspace Scott’s Workspace [I know, really original], and that’s why you see Reset Scott’s Workspace in this pop-up menu), and it resets your workspace. Of course, it’s unlikely yours will say Scott’s Workspace, but you knew that, right? ;-)

Create a New Blank Document?

Go under the File menu and choose New to bring up the New Document dialog (seen here). Across the top are various categories with presets and pre-designed templates for common sizes and uses. Click on any one to reveal a grid of sizes for that category. The first category up top (Recent; the one with the little clock icon) keeps track of document presets you’ve recently opened or created (as seen here). To use one of the presets, just click on it, then click the Create button at the bottom right, and it creates a new blank document with those specs. You can also type in any size you want on the right (as I did here, making a 24x16" wide document at a resolution of 240 ppi). If you want to save these custom settings as your own preset, up at the top right, click the Save Preset icon (circled here in red). Just name your preset and now you can get to it by clicking on the Saved tab up top. In the options on the right, you can also choose the color you want for your background (in case you don’t want it to be white), along with a color mode. Also, if you click on a category, like Photo for instance, in the top section, you’ll see thumbnails for common preset sizes, but obviously, there are more common sizes for photo prints than you’ll first see. To see more preset sizes, just click the View All Presets+ button below those thumbnails.

See More Than One Image at a Time?

When you open multiple images, they open kind of like panels do—you see the active image in front, and then little tabs (in the top of the image window) for the other open images behind it (if you have this tabbed viewing set in your Preferences). If you want to see all the images onscreen at the same time, go under the Window menu, under Arrange. At the top of the menu are a bunch of choices for how you can display them: show them all in thin vertical tiles or horizontal tiles, or display two, three, four, or six images equally (like the four images I have onscreen here. When I choose 4-Up, it instantly resizes the image windows, so all four open images fit onscreen. You’ll see that I also have Application Frame turned on here, in the Window menu [on a Mac]). If you look a little further down in the Arrange menu, you’ll see some controls for making all those image windows open onscreen work together—anything you do to an image window you click on happens in all the other windows. For example, if you click on an image window and zoom in on that photo, then choose Match Zoom, the other three open images all zoom in the exact same way.

Change the Color Outside My Image Area?

If you want to change the color of the canvas area outside your image, just Right-click anywhere outside your image (if you’re using Application Frame with tabbed documents, you may need to shrink your image view a bit [zoom out]; if not, click-and-drag out your image window, so you can see the canvas area), and a pop-up menu will appear with choices. Choose the one you want and you’re good to go.

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