The process of learning is perpetual in Photoshop. You have literally hundreds of tips and tricks that can boost the productivity. This article discusses some useful, but lesser known things that you can do using Photoshop. It also talks about some incredible skills that are essential for every user.

Five things you didn’t know possible using Photoshop

Well, you might know about popular features of Photoshop, but as you read this article further, I am going to reveal some incredible things that you didn’t know possible using the software. This flexible, feature-rich image manipulation software gets empowered further as Adobe releases a new version of Photoshop. New dimensions of design enhancement get added. New plugins and workflows get introduced.

Want to enhance the Photoshop experience by doing a few things you never imagined about? Here are five most amazing ones. These are equally exciting from novice users to experts.

1. Want to get rid of perspective errors? It is possible with the feature available in the software. Go to the Edit option and choose Perspective Warp. Click on the image and activate the grid. Now you need to only align the grid to the right perspective. It makes a tilted perspective vertical. Deactivate the grid by clicking the Warp button on the Menu. Drag the pins and make the building straight. Once you are done, click on the checkmark. The changes are applied to the image. Isn’t it simple and user-friendly?
2. When you enlarge a bitmap, it becomes blurred. Want to do it without compromising on the sharpness of the image? Photoshop does it for you. The quality loss is so negligible that you won’t even notice it. You need to go to the Image Size option in the Image menu. There is a Resample option in the bottom. It has further sub-options to control the quality of the image. You can increase the size without making the image blurred.
3. When you have similar images where similar change has to be applied, it becomes quite boring to do it again and again. No need of doing repetitive, mundane work. You have the option of applying the change to multiple files. What you need to do is; load multiple files into a single document. Apply effects on the stack; it’s done! You have the flexibility of skipping a few images in the stack. Load the files first to the stack by clicking File-Script-Load files. This facility gives great flexibility and convenience.
4. Conversion of format to a batch of images is possible using Image Processor option of Script sub-menu of File menu. When you are required to change format quickly, this tool is incredibly useful. It is possible to control compression and compatibility settings without hassles. You can save the image in any of the popular formats such as JPEG or TIFF.
5. You can reverse the preference file settings to the default settings if it is causing trouble. Undoubtedly, preference file is a convenient way of applying settings, but it causes strange problems sometimes. You spend a lot of productive time to isolate the fundamental cause, but nothing happens. The situation is more troublesome when your system goes pathetically slow and crashes. There is a simple way of removing the settings of preference file. You need to go to the directory structure and delete the file. Now close the Photoshop session and restart. New preference file with default settings will be created automatically.

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A few incredible Photoshop skills you must learn

Everybody knows that Adobe Photoshop is the best software for image manipulation of professional levels. It is a multipurpose, versatile tool which is equally useful for website designers, layout designers, and product designers. Whether you are a novice user or intermediate, it is highly important to learn a few skills that are useful in the day-to-day application of Photoshop.

Layers

Layers make the work easy and manageable. You can decide the order images get displayed. Also, you can manage project easily by keeping parts of it separate. Layers menu allows you to group or merge layers. Also, you can duplicate layers using the menu. The layer is the best way of overlapping images without any problem. It offers superb control on the design and layout.

Brushes

It is the fundamental tool when you work on Photoshop platform. Therefore, it is highly important that you learn the basic and advanced skills of using it. When you master the use of brushes, it gives a good understanding of other tools such as clone stamp or eraser. Three things you must learn; how to use the right brush for the right purpose, how to decide about the hardness and size of the brush, how to change brush flow or opacity as per your requirement.

Transform Tools

When you want to resize or manipulate images, no tool can beat the Transform tool. Free Transform tool is the best choice because it gives choices to rotate, skew, scale, or distort images. There are multiple combinations possible by using Shift, Alt or Ctrl keys. You can use them for creating wonders using Photoshop.

Masking tool

Different types of masking are useful in performing different things. When you use brush or selection tools, masking allows you to isolate certain portion of it. You can make required changes later in the masked portion. Selective rendering of the image by making part of it invisible is the basic purpose of masking tool.

Clone Stamp

When you grab the fundamental skills of Photoshop, now it is the turn of using the Clone Stamp. Yes, it is indeed a great fun using clone stamp. It copies a certain portion of your image canvas for retouching purpose. You will find several adjustment choices just like the Brush tool. It takes some time to learn the use of it. However, once you are familiar with it; you can create wonders using clone stamp.

Selection Tools

Though there are several selection tools in Photoshop, two are most widely used. They are Lasso and Marquee tools. Lasso is very much useful for freehand drawing whereas the latter is useful in creating ellipses, single pixel rows and columns, or rectangles.

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