You’ve Installed Photoshop… Now What?
I will preface this blog post with a basic background of myself. I went to the magnificent University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Like most students, I partied all the time and had no direction in what I wanted to do after graduation. Ok… maybe I wasn’t the average college student, and ended up with a degree in economics. So how am I qualified to talk about Photoshop as if I know something? Throughout college you could find me out almost any night and it became abundantly apparent that this was not an economical hobby. The entrepreneur that I was, I put my skills to work and funded partying by… throwing parties. Like most young startup entrepreneurs, my limiting assets were both funding and knowledge. I had to make the flyers myself and, justly, decided to learn Photoshop.
The following list the top 10 things I wish I had known before I had started. The only other bit of knowledge I’d like to leave you with, before you begin your journey, is the following:
Using Photoshop is a skill that evolves and takes time; don’t get overwhelmed. There are many sources of knowledge and you are only limited by your thirst. The best approach is to just get your hands dirty.
1. User Interface
One of the most important things that users tend to overlook is optimizing their workspace. This applies to any application, program, or web tool you may use, and Photoshop is no exception. With the vast number of features available, it’s very important to make your most frequently used tools easily accessible. As you gain experience, the number of tools you’ll need readily available will grow over time, and so, too, will your environment.
In my personal experience, the most important windows are Navigator, Layers, and Character/Paragraph. Within the application frame, make sure that Tools and Options are displayed to fully utilize the potential of the tools. These features, as well as others, can be hidden or displayed using the Window menu. Once you have set up your interface, make sure to save the workspace.
2. Shortcuts
Whether you use Photoshop sparingly or routinely, keyboard shortcuts will help increase your productivity and ease of use.
The following are some workspace shortcuts to get you started on your way:
- Within the workspace, there are 3 different screen modes; Standard Screen Mode, Full Screen Mode with Menu Bar, and Full Screen Mode. The keyboard shortcut to switch between screen modes is simply ‘F,’ for both Windows and Mac. Personally I prefer the second option (Full Screen with Menu Bar), but it’s purely a matter of preference. It can also be accessed by clicking the View menu.
- Sometimes the best environment is no environment. To toggle off and on all the windows and tools, use the ‘Tab’ key, on both Windows and Mac.
3. Project Variables and Setup
Another, equally important, tip to remember is setting up your image/project environment. I still remember my first time using Photoshop, and even though the images looked great on my computer, the final print product was horrific. Although this tip mostly applies to print jobs, it can be translated for all Photoshop projects. You should always know the parameters of the final product. For print items, this generally means a height, width, dpi, and color setting. My first project failed because I didn’t pay attention to the dpi and color variables. More often then not, the measurements will be in inches, color mode (i.e. CMYK), and dpi (i.e. 300). When it comes to web projects, be sure to get the exact dimensions of whatever you have to create in pixels.
These variables can all be set when you first create the document; use the keyboard shortcut, ‘Ctrl+N’ for Windows and ‘Cmd+N’ for Macs, or go under the File menu.
4. Rulers, Units, and Measuring Guides
Now that your workspace is optimally set up, and your new project has all the correct dimensions and settings, you’re almost ready to begin. With print projects or web pages, there are secondary constraints that are often overlooked. After spending all that time getting the spacing and feel of your project just right, the last thing you’ll want to do is adjust your entire design because the side column width wasn’t the same across the site.
One of the most important elements in the workspace is the Ruler; not mentioned earlier in User Interface because it deserved its own section. It can be displayed from the View menu, and the units can be adjusted by simply right clicking on the ruler itself. Make sure the units setting is appropriate for your project.
When printing, you will usually be working in inches, but there’s often a “fudge” area on paper due to cutting and natural variability by the printing company. When working with web design, there is usually a set width and height for the different sections and elements. You can create guides for your workspace by simply clicking, holding, and dragging from the ruler. Guides can help you establish sections within the project area and can easily be turned off and on via the shortcut: ‘Ctrl + ;’ for Windows and ‘Cmd + ;’ for Macs (yes, that is a semi-colon). They can also be toggled via the View menu.
5. Use the Tools You Know
I’m not going to lie and say I know (or even want to know) every single tool in Photoshop; the majority of my work only requires about 5 or 6 of the tools. There is no one right or wrong way to do something, and more often than not, there are several right ways to do it. While it’s certainly helpful to know about more tools, to increase your versatility with the program, that doesn’t mean you should stop using what you are already good at, especially when it can already get the job done. I’ve worked through countless projects where it would have taken less time and stress to leverage what I already knew, for a new issue, instead of researching how to set up some type of automated solution.
Some of the most basic of tools to master are: Marquee, Move, Type, and Shape. These features are surprisingly easy to learn and will account for almost 75% of work that most users will ever need to accomplish within Photoshop.
6. Your Biggest Tool: Google Search
Anything that you could possibly want to do in
Photoshop has already been done, and often times there have been hundreds of tutorials written about it. In this day and age, the most efficient tool for learning is Google.
When searching for specific Photoshop guides, use keywords or phrases that include “Photoshop”, “Tutorial”, and/or “How to.” Think of Google as some kind of Photoshop genius – you can ask it any questions you may have. I don’t know how many times I’ve searched the most idiotic questions* on Google… and found the exact answers I needed.
* “How to bling photoshop” or “lightning tutorial photoshop” (laugh all you want, there are some pretty good tutorials with these searches)
7. Do It Yourself
Although Google is a great tool, doing things yourself provides critical learning experiences. There are many open source, free-for-use, elements that other designers have provided, and for time-sensitive projects, it’s completely fine to use these resources. But when time permits, I always try to recreate them with my own personal touch. The benefits of this are two-fold:
- Versatility – What if you’re using open source icons, but you need one that isn’t included? If you reproduce them yourself, you can use them for any situation.
- Learning – Figuring out how something is done takes effort, however, the experience you acquire along the way far outweigh the costs of time and stress.
8. Step Back / Step Away
The flow of ideas for any project, complex or simple, can be daunting and discouraging to even the most experienced designer. Often times, the path to the final product is long and filled with dead ends, detours, and obstacles. Not every designer accomplishes a task in the same way or in the same amount of time. Many times, it helpful to step back and take a look at the finished product. I’ve come back to a project the next day, realized I needed to scratch it and start over again. Being critical of your own work will help you grow and improve.
Throughout the course of a project, you may need to return to a previous point. One of the greatest features of Photoshop is its ability to remember your actions. You can undo and redo like most programs, but Photoshop goes further and allows you to step back and forth multiple steps.
The keyboard shortcuts for going backward and forward are: Ctrl+Shift+Z or Cmd+Shift+Z (backward) and Ctrl+Alt+Z or Cmd+Alt(Option)+Z (forward) for Windows and Mac, respectively. These tools can also be accessed via the Edit menu.
9. Chaos is Good
Photoshop is a layer-based program and, sometimes, you may find yourself with more layers than you know what to do with. There will be times when you need your work to be organized but, for the most part, you’re the only one that sees the chaos. I’ve had projects where the number of layers was in the thousands. Don’t be afraid to use a multitude of layers even if only one is required. Also, be sure to group layers so you can quickly move, hide, or delete elements within your design. Stacking layers can help you separate effects, and quickly troubleshoot anything that stands out since it’ll be easy to identify and hide the problem layers.
10. Save
The final tip is a bit more general… MAKE SURE YOU CONSTANTLY SAVE YOUR WORK! Photoshop is an overwhelmingly powerful program by nature. Unfortunately, it does tend to crash and you don’t want to end up repeating hours of work. It’s also wise to save multiple files so that it’s easy to return to a previous state.
I would also recommend backing up your project files on an external source. I’ve seen too many crashed computers and lost portfolios to not mention and stress this.
Author: Team VaynerMedia
