If you're just starting out in graphic design and manipulating photos for your business, here are some tips that should help you keep things under control. Photoshop is a huge program and does almost anything you can think of ... and that's the program's problem (if it has one).
Palettes
Limit the number of palettes or windows displayed on your screen. You could fill an entire other monitor with them if you chose, and I used to do just that, but it's just not necessary. Keep your Layers, Swatches, Info, Character and History palettes open and pull up the others as needed.
The Brush Tool
Master the Brush tool. It is the most basic tool Photoshop has, so learn it inside and out. Play with it. Vary the brush sizes and shapes. Learn the difference between hard and soft edges, levels of opacity and the different effects of each of blending mode.
Swatches
Save your favorite or most used colors as swatches. Swatches are great for quickly picking a color, but I like to store my most used colors in the pallet so I'm not having to constantly sample parts of the image or open other files where my colors exist to import them.
Layers
You can never have too many layers! I always create a new layer for every object; it's just easier in the long run. It gives you the ability to make certain parts visible while hiding others, and makes organizing things into groups possible.
Saving
Save multiple versions of your files. I'll save a file as a new version of itself rather than just hit Save all the time. It's useful to be able to change ideas without losing your previous work. And, then I'm able to go back an idea or two if I want. You'll need a large hard drive but layered Photoshop files are worth keeping around.
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Learning the basics of Photoshop has many advantages. You can use it to create promotional materials for your business, improve your website's content and even edit some photos for fun.
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