Photoshop Tricks and Techniques

Copy and paste

Copy in place

Make a copy all pixels from all layers that fall within a selected area. The pixels are merged into a single layer.

• Make a selection.
• Edit > Copy merged
• Then Edit > Paste special > Paste in place

Step and repeat

• Option + Cmd + T ( ⌥ + ⌘ + T )
  • The "option" key copies the layer or selection.
  • ⌘ + T will move the layer/selection without making a copy, but the translation will still be buffered.
• Move the selection
• Hit Enter
• Shift + Option + Cmd + T ( ⇧ + ⌥ + ⌘ + T ) will repeat the last transformation
  • (⇧ + ⌘ + T will repeat the translation, but without making a copy of the current selection or layer.)

If a selection is transformed, step and repeat will duplicate into the same layer. If there is no selection, new layers are created for each transformation.

"Black & White" adjustment properties

"Black & white" adjustment behaves differently than setting saturation to -100 in an HSB adjustment.

"Black & White" preserves values while removing saturation. HSB adjustment alters the values.

Blending options

• Layer > right click > Blending Options
• Blend If: gray
• Adjust sliders for "Underlying Layer" to clip the visibility of the layer depending on how dark or light the underlying layers are.

Original file:

Add a new layer and clip it to the layer with the mountain.

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Change the blending mode for the overlying layer to "color". The blend mode doesn't effect how the next steps work. But it's a more realistic use of this using the "color" blending mode.

Right click on the overlying layer and choose Blending Options to get the Layer Options dialog.

• Blend If: gray.
• To clip the layer where it is on top of lighter pixels, move the right (light) Underlying Layer slider to the left.
• To clip the layer where it is on top of darker pixels, move the left (dark) Underlying Layer slider to the right.

This will result in a hard line between the visible and clipped pixels in the overlaying layer.

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To soften the transition between the clipped and visible pixels, hold down the Option key ⌥ while clicking on the slider. This will separate the two sides of the slider. Spreading them further apart will make the transition between clipped and visible pixels more gradual.

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Painting straight lines

Similar to holding down shift while painting: click once with brush and release. Hold the Shift key and click again for a straight line from the first click point to the 2nd click point. Then any subsequent dicks will add more fine segments. So, slightly different from holding down shift while moving the brush which creates straight times perpendicular to the app window.

Show pixels that fall outside the canvas

Image > Reveal All

Fit Layer(s) to Screen

The goal is to click on a layer to zoom on it so its visible pixels fill the window.

Application menu View > Fix Layer(s) on Screen

If you Option-Click ( ⌥ + Click) on a layer mask the result is that it toggles between showing the RGB layers and the layer's mask.

To instead zoom in on a layer's visible pixels, Option-Click ( ⌥ + Click) on the layer's name in the Layers menu.

Crop content outside the canvas

Select the Crop tool ( C ).

Click inside the canvas. This will create a crop preview which will display any content that lies outside the canvas.

The default crop box is the borders of the existing canvas.

Apply the crop using the default crop box to maintain the existing canvas size while discarding anything that lies outside the canvas.

Customizing brushes

Extracting the texture from an existing brush

• Select a brush
• Open the Brush Settings panel
• Click ***Texture***
• Click the small "plus" icon to the right of the texture sample to add the brush's texture as a pattern preset.

Stepping through actions

• Expand an action in the Actions menu and select an individual step in the action to play.
• ⌘ + Click on the play button in the Actions menu.

Notes

See Also

• Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts
• Photoshop Brushes How-To