Things I Wish I had known about: Photoshop

Hey guys! Here’s a post that I hope some will find helpful, things I have picked up along the way that I wish I had known from the start!  These are not set in stone, and only just suggestions, I’m no expert okay guys

THINGS I WISH I HAD KNOWN ABOUT PHOTOSHOP:

1.  FLOW.  Flow was put in place primarily for the airbrush folks.  Now its relevance has changed slightly.  With textured brushes, try reducing the flow to “expose” texture.

2.  Ctrl+U : HUE/SATURATION/LIGHTNESS.  For people who are indecisive about color, use this to slide around the color quickly instead of repainting or replacing the color.

3.  CLIPPING/ LAYER MASKS.  Seriously, take five minutes to do this.  A good online resource is ctrlpaint.  This will be instrumental in creating hard edges, something beginner digital artists really struggle with.  Also non-destructive, you will save SO much time. 

4.  With that said, ctrl+alt+g makes the current layer you are on a clipping mask.  You can layer mask a group. 

5.  MULTIPLY and the surrounding layer types in its little section is like a dark glaze.  Good for shadows.

6.  OVERLAY and the surrounding layer types in its little section is like a lightening glaze.  Good for lighting. LIGHTEN and the dudes around him are also good for lighting, esp. screen. 

7.  MAKE YOUR GOSH DARN BACKGROUND IN THE INTERFACE LIGHTER.  Your contrast will thank you.  Right click on the background of the interface and choose the one you like the best.  I know dark grey looks sexy, I know. 

8.  TRANSFORM TOOLS ARE THE BEST (but paint over them).  If you have a tile, pattern, whatever- Image>transform> choose your weapon.  Have a tiled floor? Don’t you dare paint all those tiles. Scales?  Paint them flat in a square, then use the warp tool to push them around the form.  Then make your painterly adjustments.

9.  PAINTING SHORTCUTS:  Numbers affect the opacity. Shift+ Number affects the flow. Holding down alt gives you the eyedropper. Brackets [] change size of brush, these dudes <> cycle between your brushes.

10.  HISTOGRAM. If you have a fairly even histogram, this means your distribution of lights mids and darks is even.  If it is skewed, and you don’t mean it to be, adjust accordingly. 

Just be casual about it and love your art I love you all

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