10 Helpful Photoshop Timesavers

By David Peters

1. To auto-select a layer. Hold down the Cmd/Ctrl key while clicking on a layer in Photoshop's main image window

2. Press Shift Cmd/Ctrl U (Desaturate) to do away with all color in an image in RGB mode and without having go into grayscale mode. Using the channel mixer and clicking on the Grayscale option will create a better result however

3. Press Cmd/Ctrl J to copy a selection into its own layer. Press Shift Cmd/Ctrl J to cut and move a selection.

4. To hide the 'marching ants' (selection marquee). Press Ctrl/Cmd H

5. To set a feather using the Lasso Tools press the Return/Enter key to highlight the Feather field in the Options palette and here you can enter or change the value.

6) Color Fill - Press Alt/Option Delete to fill a layer or area with the color in the forefront. To fill a layer or selection with the background color, press Cmd/Ctrl Delete.

7. To change the brush size. Press the [ ] keys. If you hold the shift key down and press the [and ] keys, the brush gets softer and harder, respectively. (You can change the level up to five times).

8) Removing Scratches or Blemishes " If your edition of Photoshop does not have the Spot Healing Brush, edit out blemishes or scratches from a photo by double clicking on the Blur Tool. Next in the Blur Tool Options palette, decrease the opacity to 15%, and then change the mode to Lighten. Now when you paint over scratches they will vanish.

9) Drawing With Brush Tools " If you want to draw a straight line with one of the brush tools, click, hold the Shift key, and click again where you want the line to end. The Photoshop program will draw a straight line from point to point. These steps also work with most tools, including erasers and even the highlight tool in the Extract filter.

10. In the Layers palette, when you choose Duplicate Layer, you can change the document setting to 'New' to create a brand new picture from any layer.

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