10 Handy Tips for beginners to Adobe Photoshop Class - 8  [Adobe Photoshop for Beginners]:

Asssalam.o.Alaikum

welcome to Tech Learning 4U

In this tutorial, I'm going to Cover ten handy tips

in Photoshop that you should know as a beginner.

The tips I'm going to cover in the next few minutes

are things that are going to improve your work flow,

and help you use the program effectively.

So, with the project folder open, click Introduction,

Handy Tips, and open the document inside,

and you should have something that looks like this.

Along the way, I will be mentioning

some useful shortcut keys,

and in the shortcut key page in the project pdf.

Which you can also download in the Last.

We're going to be covering a lot in this Blog,

and in quite some depth.

If you wish to skip ahead, or back

at any point in the Blog,

you can do so quite simply.

The topics covered in this Blog are listed

in the description, along with their times.

So be sure to check that out.

Okay, so lets get into it.

Tip number one, Undo.

One of the most common things you may find yourself doing

in Photoshop is undoing your actions.

If you make a mistake, or wish to go back a few steps,

you will want to Undo.

So, for example, I click a layer in the layers panel,

I'll press V to activate the Move tool,

and move one of the origami birds around

across the canvas.

If I want to go back a step, I can press Command Z.

Command Z is the shortcut for Undo.

Now, keep in mind, Command Z is only for one step.

This time, I will move the same bird into a new space,

then select another layer, and move that.

Then select a new layer, move that,

and select another bird, and move that.

So I have just taken multiple steps

to move various elements around.

If I want to go back now, this time

I will press and hold Command and Alt on the keyboard

and press Command Z as many times

as I wish to go back. Like so.

So remember, Command Z for one step,

Command and Alt plus Z for multiple steps.

Tip number two, zooming.

Getting a good grip of the zoom tool

can really help speed things up.

The shortcut key for the zoom tool is Z.

Pressing the Z key on the keyboard,

you will notice the mouse change

to a magnifying glass with a plus in it.

This will allow you to click and zoom in, like so.

To zoom out, simply press and hold Alt on the keyboard

and notice the plus change to a minus.

Then simply click again a few times to zoom out.

Now, in Photoshop CC and later, with the zoom tool active,

you can come up to the control panel,

here you will notice the option called Scrubby Zoom.

With this ticked, with the zoom tool active,

you will be able to click and drag.

As you click and drag, you can easily zoom in

and out of your document rather smoothly, like so.

Now, should you uncheck Scrubby Zoom

up in the control panel, instead of clicking and dragging

in and out, like before, this time you can click and drag

to make a particular selection

of what you would like to zoom into.

Upon release, you will zoom into that particular area.

So be sure to practice these zoom techniques

and keep in mind Scrubby Zoom,

and go with whichever you prefer.

Another handy shortcut is Command 0.

This will snap the current canvas dock

to your workspace area.

So lets say we are zoomed in quite a lot in the canvas area,

pressing Command 0 will zoom out to show the full

document area, like so.

Another handy zoom shortcut is Command 1.

This will snap the current canvas dock to 100 percent.

So, lets say we are zoomed in quite a lot

on the canvas area, pressing Command 1 will zoom out

to show the document at 100 percent.

Notice the percentage value in the bottom left

of your document window.

Tip number three, maneuvering.

Another cool tip is to use the space bar.

No matter what tool you have active,

if you press and hold space bar, you will notice the cursor

change to what looks like a little hand symbol.

With the space bar held down, I'm going to click and drag

around the canvas, maneuvering around the area, like so.

I can zoom out and press the space bar to move around,

I can zoom back in, hold the space bar,

and move around, like so.

This is a really useful tip

to maneuver around your artwork swiftly.

Tip number four, layer tips and shortcuts.

So here are some useful shortcuts and tips

to keep in mind with regards to using

and managing layers in Photoshop.

First up, selecting a particular layer, fast.

So currently, in this document,

we can see I have multiple layers in the layers panel.

Each one of these origami birds is a separate layer.

Now there may be an occasion

where you wish to move a particular element around.

With multiple layers in your composition,

It can become tedious and time consuming

to find the one you're looking for.

A handy tip is to first press V,

to activate the move tool,

then place your mouse cursor over the element

y

ou wish to move around.

For example, I want to find this blue bird layer,

and move it around.

If I put my mouse cursor over this visual element

and right click, upon click,

up will pop a menu

listing all the layers beneath the mouse area.

Here we can see blue bird, white and blue base.

These are the names of the layers beneath my mouse area.

From this list, I'm going to select blue bird.

Upon click, the blue bird layer is selected,

and I can now move this visual element around

with my mouse tool, with the move tool.

If I move my mouse over this red bird,

right click and select the red bird,

just like that, I have that layer selected,

and can move that layer around, Easy.

Next up, duplicating layers.

Now, there will be occasions

where you will want to duplicate elements in your document,

which exist on separate layers.

So lets say we want to duplicate

this orange bird at the bottom here.

If I press V to right click on the bird to select the layer,

with the layer now selected in the layers panel,

if I press and hold Alt on the keyboard, click and drag,

I can very quickly duplicate that creative element, like so.

Upon release, notice in the layers panel

we have a new layer called orange bird copy.

Photoshop has copied the layer and renamed it

for us to identify the new layer.

Another cool tip to duplicate a layer,

if you come into the layers panel,

select the layer you wish to duplicate,

by pressing Command J this will quickly duplicate the layer,

maintain the same name, but add copy

on the end, for identification.

Next up, new layer.

If you wish to create a new layer in the layers panel,

to fill with color or draw with the pen tool,

Simply press Command Shift N on the keyboard.

Upon click, you will get the new layer menu

which you can rename.

Now, keep in mind, when creating a new layer,

it will make it immediately above

the layer you had selected previously.

Next,

delete layer.

So, if you wish to remove a creative element

from your composition permanently

simply select the layer, for example I'll press V,

right click on the green bird, select the layer

and press backspace on the keyboard.

That will delete the layer permanently.

Next up, select multiple layers in the layers panel.

On occasions, you may find you want to move

multiple objects in your document around at once.

Lets say I want to move all the birds in the composition,

by coming into the layers panel,

I will first select the top layer,

by pressing and holding shift, I'll scroll down

and select the bottom bird layer.

Upon click, you will see all the layers become selected

in the layers panel.

Once you have your layers selected,

you can then use the move tool by pressing V

and move them around at the same time in the document area.

To select multiple layers individually,

first click the layer you want to start with,

and by pressing and holding Command on the Mac,

or Control button on the PC,

with this held down on the keyboard,

this will allow you to select multiple layers

one at a time in the layers panel.

Once you have your layers selected

you can then use the move tool by pressing V,

and move them around at the same time in the document area.

Lastly, grouping.

Now, if you have some layers you wish to group in a folder,

a swift way to do this is to first select the layers

you wish to place into a folder group,

again, I'll select them all,

with the layers selected, press Command G.

Upon pressing Command G, we'll create a new group folder,

in the layers panel

and the selected layers will be contained, easy.

So, tip number five, aligning.

So currently, I have these origami birds

on individual layers in the document.

Now for this, I'm just going to toggle the visibility

of some of the birds I have here

just to focus on a few.

Now, these currently appear scattered in the canvas area.

If I want to align these objects,

I can do this quite simply.

First I will need to select the objects

I wish to align together,

and that will mean first selecting the layers.

So just like earlier, I'm going to select the first layer,

then press and hold Command, control for PC users,

and select my other layers in the layers panel.

With them all selected,

I'm going to come to the top control panel

across the top of my interface.

And you should notice some alignment buttons here.

If you're using earlier versions of Photoshop

and you don't see these buttons for whatever reason,

you should go to Menu along the top of the screen,

go to Window, and open your Align panel

from the panel selection.

I'm going to go ahead and click

the align vertical center button,

and upon click, you can see them align

to the center, horizontal, like so.

Now, as you can see, they are oddly spaced out.

If I want to align them with equal spacing between,

I can simply click on the Distribute Horizontal Center

b

utton, and now they are perfectly spaced out.

Excellent.

So keep in mind, you can also align in other ways,

using other alignment options.

So be sure to experiment with these.

Tip number six, rulers and guides.

Now this is a function that can allow you

to create margins in a document

and accurately place and align your objects

in relation to each other on your canvas area.

A useful shortcut for this is Command R.

As you can see, if you look around

the edge of my document area,

as I press Command R repeatedly,

you can see the rulers becoming visible

and hiding again.

So I'm going to press this until I can see them.

Now, I'm going to move my mouse over the vertical ruler,

and click and drag out and over into the right, like so.

And as you do this, you'll notice a gray line appear.

This is your new guide you're about to drop

into the canvas area.

So I'm going to drag this over to the right,

and place it roughly in the middle,

and once I'm happy, I'm simply going to release

and my guide will be placed.

Now if, for some reason, you do not see your guide,

you can press Command colon,

this is the shortcut to hide and reveal guides.

Or you can simply come to View,

come down to Show, and come across to Guides.

So what if I want to edit this current guide?

For example, I want to move this guide over to the right.

Well, this is easy, all you have to do

is select the guide with the Move tool,

though you must first make sure that you can edit guides.

If we come back to View, and scroll down

we have an option here called Lock Guides.

To edit guides, we need to make sure this is unchecked,

and then we can simply click a guide on the canvas area

and move it around like so, simple.

If we set up some guides in the composition

and wish to lock them, come up to View,

a

nd make sure that there is a tick next to lock guides.

Tip number seven, image size, canvas size, and crop.

Now, if you want to know exactly what size

and dimension an image you have open in Photoshop is,

by pressing and holding Command and Alt,

and pressing I, up will pop the Image Size menu box.

Here, you can clearly see Image Size, Dimension,

and Resolution, with the ability to change

the image size if you wish.

If you wish to change the canvas size,

simply come up to Image, and select Canvas Size.

Here we can expand, or decrease the size

of a canvas easily.

If you wish to crop an image,

simply press C on the keyboard.

This will activate the crop tool.

Here, I can either toggle the tabs on the outside

or click and drag an area, like so.

By pressing Enter, this will commit to the crop.

Though, I'll just press Command Z to undo that.

Tip number eight, full screen and toggle panels.

This is a really simple tip, but kind of useful

if you want to remove all the interface panels

and take a look at your work

nice and clear on the screen.

First, if you press Tab on the keyboard,

this is going to remove all the panels in the interface.

And if I press Tab again, this will bring them back.

So as I press Tab repeatedly,

you can see the panels toggle off and on.

If I press F on the keyboard once,

this will remove the panels from view,

and if I press F again, this will go into full screen mode.

Simple, yet useful.

Tip number nine, rotate canvas.

Now, this is a small tip,

but can be useful if you are using a pen tablet,

or you are working on a complex layout

that would require you to have to rotate the canvas area.

By simply pressing R on the keyboard,

you will activate the Rotate Canvas tool.

Now if you click and drag,

you can rotate the canvas, like so.

If you press and hold Shift while you drag,

you can snap to increments of 15 degrees.

If you are looking for an approximate value,

you can look up in the control panel, to the left,

and click in the Angle field to type in a precise value.

Once you're done, you can click the Reset View button

up in the control panel to snap back to normal view.

Tip number ten, grids.

For the last tip, I'm going to show you grids.

The shortcut to show your grid is command apostrophe.

Or you could simply come to View, and Show Grid.

If you are creating an intricate piece of artwork,

and need to use a grid, you will find this useful.

If you wish to customize your grid,

you can come to Photoshop in the top left corner,

I believe this is Edit for Window users,

and click preferences,

scroll down

and select guides and grid.

Up will pop a menu,

and here you can change the grid properties,

such as the color, style, gridline, quality,

and subdivisions.

As you can see here, I have mine set

to a gridline every two centimeters

and a subdivision of four.

Here, I'll change my gridline to every one centimeter

with a subdivision of ten.

To the right of this, you can set a color.

I click into this and set this color to a magenta color,

I click Okay.

So that's a few handy tips in Adobe Photoshop

to help with your workflow.

In the next Blog, we're going to move

into the essential practice section of this course.

In this section, we will be practicing

some of the basic tools, and familiarizing ourself

with some of the features in Photoshop,

to ready ourselves before we embark on the full project.

In the next Blog we are going to be focusing

on one of the most basic principles in Photoshop,

and that's making selections.

See you in the next Blog.

Keyboard shortcuts used in this Blog:

V - Move tool

Z - Zoom

C - Crop

F - Full screen

R - Rotate Canvas

Tab - Toggle visibility of interface panels 

Press & hold alt + click & - Zoom out (with zoom tool active)

cmd (Ctrl PC) + R - Show Rulers

cmd (Ctrl PC) + 0 - Zoom to fit document to application frame

cmd (Ctrl PC) + 1 - Zoom to 100%

cmd (Ctrl PC) + Z - Undo one step

cmd (Ctrl PC) + alt + Z - Undo multiple steps

cmd (Ctrl PC) + Shift + N - New layer

cmd (Ctrl PC) + G - Group layers

cmd (Ctrl PC) + ; - Show guides

cmd (Ctrl PC) + ‘ - Show Grid

Press & hold alt + click & drag - Quick duplicate object (with selection tool active)

Press & hold shift + click - Select multiple layers

Press & hold cmd (Ctrl PC) + click - Select multiple individual layers

Press & hold cmd (Ctrl PC) + alt + Press & hold I - Image size