1) removing pimples!

No, this isn’t an ad for acne medicine: we’re talking about clearing up skin’s imperfections digitally. Trust me, it’s much faster in Photoshop than in real life! Have a pimple in a photo that you need gone? The SPOT HEALING BRUSH is pure magic for this! Just select the tool from the toolbar (4^th from the top; bundled with the MAGIC WAND TOOL). Place the brush over the area you want to “fix”, making sure the brush is a bit bigger than the blemish and click. Photoshop automatically samples from around the retouched area to color match your image to perfection.

2) whitening teeth!

The DODGE TOOL lightens pixels wherever you use it—which makes it perfect for brightening eyes and whitening smiles! Select it from the toolbar (7^th from the bottom; bundled with the BURN TOOL which kinda looks like half of an okay sign). Choose a soft brush, set it to HIGHLIGHTS under RANGE and EXPOSURE to around 20%. Brush it under the eye area to refresh “tired eyes” and modify the RANGE and EXPOSURE settings to brighten the whites of the eyes and teeth. With those, I typically set it to MIDTONES under RANGE and bump up the EXPOSURE percentage. Be careful not to get carried away or you’ll wind up with that fake “used car salesman” look!

3) selecting pixels

The QUICK SELECTION TOOL located in the toolbar (4^th down from the top; bundled with the MAGIC WAND TOOL) works like a brush so you can change the size of the tool with the bracket keys ( [ for smaller and ] for larger) when selecting an object. Just drag the tool over your subject and stop when the “marching ants” get to the edge. If you select something that you don’t want, just click on the ALT key to switch to deselect and drag the selection back to where it should be. Once you have what you want selected, you can click on the SELECT AND MASK button on the top menu and adjust the pixels to make the selection smooth and realistic. Move the slider in EDGE DETECTION so fine selections, like hair, have more transparency. Press OK to accept.

4) lassoing with magnets!

This amazing selection tool helps you trace the outline of an object that you want to separate from the rest of your image. Like a magnet (hence the name!) it snaps to the edges of an object, so it works best when you have a bold contrast between an object and its background. Select it from the toolbar (3^rd from top; bundled with the regular LASSO TOOL), place your cursor on the edge of your object, click your mouse once, release and then follow the edges of the object you want to select.

Want to try these tips out but don’t have Photoshop? No problem, click on this link and get a 30-day trial absolutely FREE!

If you’re not already on my webinar list, sign up here:

Like this article? subscribe for more!

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Email Address

5) making paths

Photoshop gives you the ability to save images with a clipping path so that objects in other programs, such as InDesign, will appear to be in silhouette or have a background that’s transparent. To do this, you’ll use the PEN TOOL to trace around the object, and after closing the path, you’ll choose SAVE PATH from the OPTIONS MENU located at the top right of the PATHS panel (WINDOW / PATH). This will take it from the default “WORK PATH” to “PATH 1” or a path name you enter. You’ll then save this path as a “CLIPPING PATH” from the same OPTIONS MENU, leaving the FLATNESS field blank. When you save out your file, choose PHOTOSHOP EPS as the FORMAT, choose TIF (8 bits/pixel) as the PREVIEW and BINARY as the ENCODING an uncheck all the other options.

 6) utilizing shortcuts

By now you’ve probably noticed why they call me the “Shortcut Queen”! I do loves me a keyboard combination to do something faster than dragging my mouse up to the menu. But I do acknowledge that not everyone works in the same way. I think the adoption of a shortcut should be in direct correlation to how often you use it. For example, I often have to increase and decrease the diameter of a brush in Photoshop, so selecting the RIGHT BRACKET ] to INCREASE the brush and LEFT BRACKET [ to DECREASE the brush is just one time-saving tip I couldn’t live without. I’ve compiled an entire sheet of some of my favorite Photoshop shortcuts that I think you’ll really love below.

Download your FREE Photoshop shortcut sheet that you can keep by your computer while you work here:

7) sharpening images

Once you have a nice selection in Photoshop, you can choose to modify it in infinite ways! One way could be to sharpen the overall image. To do this, SELECT ALL (CONTROL/COMMAND + A) and then go to FILTER / SHARPEN / UNSHARP mask. In the dialog box, try settings like AMOUNT 100%, RADIUS 1%, THRESHOLD 1% to begin with, but play around with them so that your image doesn’t look too crisp. Be sure to view your image at 100% and check the PREVIEW button to see the effect.

8) adding style!

Add some pizazz to your image! LAYER STYLES are special effects that can be quickly applied to individual layers of your image. Just click on the FX icon at the bottom of the LAYERS panel or double click on a layer to choose the effect you like. You can select from a whole variety of features like adding a STROKE, OUTER GLOW, DROP SHADOW and much more with just a click of the mouse. Be careful to not overdo it though: too many effects can give a ‘whiz-bang’ cookie-cutter look. Come original!