Practical Photoshop

Everyone has their own approach to image-editing, but there are a few universal workflow tricks that we can all take advantage of. So if you have the need for speed, read on to find a host of tips and tricks to transform you into a Photoshop whizz. w

DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES HERE http://bit.ly/pho_125 ON YOUR PC OR MAC ■

The best time to start organizing your images is when you first download them, before the excitement of looking through them gets in the way of housekeeping. The Lightroom Classic Import dialog offers a wealth of useful workflow tools. Here you can c

Keywording is vital for an organized image library: it allows you to quickly find any photo you might need, whether it was taken yesterday or a decade ago. As well as adding keywords when you import into Lightroom, you have lots of keywording options

Tons of tools in Photoshop are based around a brush interface, so we inevitably spend a lot of time brushing. As such, any time-saving brush tricks we can learn will save a heap of time in the long run. One of the biggest time-savers is a graphics ta

Collections are like Lightroom’s answer to traditional folders, but they have extra benefits. You can set up your collections just like a normal folder structure, using Collection Sets to house them. But the structure remains independent of your file

This handy command saves lots of time whenever you need to open several versions of an image into one document, such as when you’re focus-stacking or making a triptych. Simply highlight the set of images in Bridge then go to Tools > Photoshop > Load

The Crop Tool’s main job is to remove parts of a photo by cropping in tighter, but you can also use it to expand a canvas by dragging outside of the original image window to enlarge it. There’s also a handy Content-Aware feature in the Crop Tool opti

After making a Smart Object, we can link it to other Smart Objects so any changes we make to that image are replicated in all of the duplicate Smart Objects within our document. This means you could, for example, alter several similar icons in a docu

Actions let you record a sequence of edits, commands and changes to an image, then replay them on other images. They’re a huge time-saver, especially when it comes to making everyday, monotonous edits like cropping to a specific print size or sharpen

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3xNRs41 Open the image (we used a free image from Pixabay.com; search for 884069) then go to Select > Subject. Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy to a new layer. Highlight the bottom layer then grab the Clone Tool. Clone the tarm

Why not give the kids a superhero makeover? By utilizing the power of Blending Modes and a range of free images, it’s easier than it might look to create a shot that could pass for a movie poster. The key skill here is in mastering layer Blending Mod

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3wMYDZ3 The Texture control is one of the best tools in Camera Raw and Lightroom for controlling details in your images. On the face of it, the slider is very simple – drag one way to increase detail, drag the other way

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/2UZQfZ1 The golden hour has long been known as the best time of day to capture gorgeous landscape photos, but it’s being increasingly used by portrait photographers too. As the sun goes down the vibrant colors can creat

The best angle for our sunset portrait will usually be shooting towards the sun. The most vibrant colors will often form in this part of the sky as the sun reaches the horizon. Even if the sun disappears behind low clouds, you’re still likely to see

The great thing about using off-camera flash is that we get to place it wherever we like. So we can put it to one side of the subject for dramatic directional light that complements the backlighting of the sun. Try feathering the flash so it’s angled

The Color Mixer Panel in Camera Raw and Lightroom is very useful for targeting and enhancing different color ranges. Go to the panel and click the Saturation tab, then drag left or right over colors in the image to change the saturation of the colors

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/2V2LAoQ This issue, learn how to speed up your workflow with Lightroom Presets If you’d like to watch the complete course now, get the app from the Apple App Store LIKE THIS? NOW AVAILABLE ON THE APPLE APP STORE BIT.LY/

If you’re relatively new to editing in Photoshop, or you just don’t know where to begin, then this section is the best place to get started. Over the next 10 pages, you’ll find an overview of the different versions of Photoshop available; a breakdown

The latest version of the raw file processor included with Photoshop is so powerful that most photos can be processed entirely in the raw processor, with no need for further editing in Photoshop. And by making your adjustments in Adobe Camera Raw, ra

Photoshop has many types of layers and adjustment layers available, but there are six that you’ll find you need to use again and again. Learning how they should be used may seem a little daunting for beginners, but once you’ve got to grips with them,