From the Studio with Patrick McEvoy.
I love PhotoShop. It’s the program I use to do 90% of my illustration and web work. Oh, it can’t do everything, but it comes darned close. But with the power and the vast array of options (there are probably at least three ways to do everything!) comes one problem: there are SO many options that it might take you forever to find them all.
So in this two-part article, I’ll present some of the hidden gems I’ve found over the years, things that help me work in PhotoShop more quickly, more efficiently, and let me think more about the art than the process.
Step through history
Everyone knows cmd-z (ctrl-z PC) to Undo, and you know you can use the History palette to go back into history. But do you use the History Step function?
Step back through history: cmd-opt-z (Mac); ctrl-alt-z (PC)
Step forward through history: cmd-shift-z (Mac); ctrl-shift-z (PC)
Dragging between files
Have you ever had two versions of a file, and wanted to move part of one to the exact same place in the other? I do this a lot. (This trick only works if the two files are EXACTLY the same pixel size).
SHIFT-drag the selected area from one file to the other.
Filter shortcut
If you use a filter, cmd-f (ctrl-f PC) will let you perform the filter again. That’s fine, but if you want to bring up that filter’s dialog box again without using the pulldown menu:
cmd-opt-f (Mac); ctrl-alt-f (PC)
A trick for rotating accurately
Sometimes, you’ll find that a picture needs to be rotated so that the edges are at exact 90 degree angles. It may be a photo that isn’t exactly straight, or a sketch that wasn’t lined up on the page right, or whatever. This is a GREAT trick to find just the right angle and rotate it into place…
First step:
Along one edge, use the MEASURE tool (it’s under the eyedropper tool). Click along the edge that you want to square your picture to:
Now, bring up Image>Rotate Canvas>Arbitrary. The exact rotation angle you need is filled in for you!
Just hit “OK”, and you’re done!
