This is part 25 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to convert an image into black and white. I have actually previously created a tutorial that show you how to turn an image black and white which can be found here. I will be briefly discussing these methods in this quick tip.

The first method involves changing the default RGB mode in a colour image to the greyscale mode. This is not the most common method of converting to a black and white image. If you are using Photoshop CS4 you will receive a message asking if you want to discard the colour information. You click the discard button if you want to follow through with the conversion.

The second method is the most common and can be done through the menu bar or using shortcut keys. The default desaturate keyboard shortcut is Shift + Ctrl + U, or the menu bar option is Image > Adjustment > Desaturate.

The third method is similar to the second as it desaturate the image, the only difference is that it takes more time. You again can use keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl + U), or you can go through the menu bar by selecting Image > Adjustment > Hue/Saturation.

This is part 24 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to close multiple windows in Photoshop. If you have several windows open in Photoshop you will receive a message asking whether you want to close down the window. This is not a problem if you have one or two windows, but if you have over ten windows open, this will be a very time consuming problem. When you close a window you get the following message.

There are two methods to close multiple windows. The first method is to hold down the Shift key then select File > Close on the menu bar. Or you can go directly to the menu bar and select File > Close All. This will close all the opened windows in Photoshop.

10. Cloak of Invisibility

Remove everything from the screen except for your file.

• F, F, F | Cycle through Screen Modes
• Tab | Remove Tools and Palettes
• Ctrl+H | Hide Extras (Grid, Guides, Slices, etc.)
• Ctrl+R | Hide Rulers

9. Quick Brush Jab

Quickly and easily customize a brush. This combo is a staple for digital painting.

• B | Brush Tool
• Right-Click and Select or F5 and Select | Open condensed or full Brush Palette
• or . or , or Shift+. or Shift+, | Cycle through brushes or jump to first or last brush
• [ or ]: | Shrink or enlarge brush radius
• Shift+[ or Shift+] | Decrease or increase brush hardness
• {Numeric Input} | Change brush opacity (e.g. ‘5′ = 50%, ‘55′ = 55%)

8. Quick Brush Jab Path Stroke

Stroke a path with a customized brush.

• {Draw Path} | Use any tool to draw a path
• B | Select Brush Tool
• Quick Brush Jab | Use the Quick Brush Jab Combo to customize brush
• Enter | Stroke the path with your customized brush

7. Gaussian Attack

Apply a filter, fade it and apply again. Good combo for fine-tweaking filters.

• {Apply a Filter} | Manually choose and apply a filter (warning: using the Lens Flare filter may result in a swift kick to the mouse balls)
• Ctrl+Shift+F | Fade the filter
• (Ctrl+F or Ctrl+Shift+F) | Reapply filter with or without dialog box

6. Shadow Maker

Create a basic shadow based on a chosen layer.

• {Select Layer} | Select the layer the shadow will be created after. The transparency of this layer needs to resemble the desired shape of the shadow.
• Ctrl+J | Layer via Copy
• Ctrl+[ | Move layer down
• D | Reset color defaults
• Alt+Shift+Backspace | Fill with black and preserve transparency
• Ctrl+T | Free transform
• {Transform} | Modify to your liking
• Enter | Commit

5. Layer Catcher

Select, group and mask layers. Often easier than using the layers palette.

• V | Selection Tool
• Ctrl+Click or Ctrl+Shift+Click or Ctrl+Shift+Right-Click | Select your layers
• Ctrl+G | Group Layers

4. OCD Layer Sort

Rearrange your layers quickly and easily. Great cure for you neuroticism.

• F7 | Show Layer Palette
• Alt+[ or Alt+] or Alt+, or Alt+. | Select a layer
• Shift+Alt+[ or Shift+Alt+] or Shift+Alt+, or Shift+Alt+. | Select more layers
• Ctrl+[ or Ctrl+] or Shift+Ctrl+[ or Shift+Control+] | Move layers down or up or send to bottom or bring to top

3. Ultimate Flattener

Merge All Layers (even those hidden). Quick way to flatten a file.

• Alt+. | Select Top Layer
• Shift+Alt+, | Select all layers between currently selected and bottom layer
• Ctrl+E | Merge the selected layers

2. Infinite Dupe

Duplicate and evenly distribute or transform items. Nice way to distribute something like nav buttons.

• Ctrl+T | Transform
• {Transform/Move} | Manually Move or Transform
• Enter | Commit Transform
• (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+T) | Duplicate and transform relative to the newest item

1. Finishing Move – The Web Extractor

Extract a selection and save it for the web. Extremely useful when pulling individual elements from a design, such as buttons or rules.

• {Create Selection} | Select the area you want to extract
• Ctrl+Shift+C | Copy Merged to clipboard
• Ctrl+N | Create New Image based on selection size
• Enter | Confirm New Image
• Ctrl+V | Paste from clipboard
• Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S | Save for the Web

Step 1

Open a regular photo in Photoshop. I used a photo of a cat that I found on sxc.hu http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1069561

Step 2

Duplicate the layer and go to Filter>Other>High Pass. Use 5 pixels. Then change the Blend Mode of the layer to Hard Light.

Step 3

Duplicate the High Pass layer. Keep the blend mode with Hard LIght.

Step 4

Duplicate the original photo and change its Blend Mode to Screen. Then with the Eraser Tool (E) or with a Mask. Delete the dark areas of the photo. Leave just the light areas, the eyes, nose, and mouth. Below you can see the areas I kept, the marquee selection.

Step 5

Group all layers and convert them to Smart Objects, Layers>Smart Objects>Convert to Smart Objects. Or if you prefer just merge the layers. Then go to Image >Adjustments>Shadow and Highlights. Use the values from the image below. With this adjustment you can edit how the shadows and highlights will be displayed, and you can simulate the HDR effect by increasing the Tonal Width and Radius on the Shadow and Highlights, and, also the Midtone Contrast.

Conclusion

This is just one way to enhance your photos, you can use the Unsharp Mask filter as well. But I prefer the high pass with hard light, I think it gives a better result, however that will depend the photo you are working on. The most important thing is test and play with the settings and of course add more techniques to your repertoire. If you have a different quick tip, leave a comment sharing and explaining it to us ;).

Step 1

Open a regular photo in Photoshop. I used a photo of a cat that I found on sxc.hu http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1069561

Step 2

Duplicate the layer and go to Filter>Other>High Pass. Use 5 pixels. Then change the Blend Mode of the layer to Hard Light.

Step 3

Duplicate the High Pass layer. Keep the blend mode with Hard LIght.

Step 4

Duplicate the original photo and change its Blend Mode to Screen. Then with the Eraser Tool (E) or with a Mask. Delete the dark areas of the photo. Leave just the light areas, the eyes, nose, and mouth. Below you can see the areas I kept, the marquee selection.

Step 5

Group all layers and convert them to Smart Objects, Layers>Smart Objects>Convert to Smart Objects. Or if you prefer just merge the layers. Then go to Image >Adjustments>Shadow and Highlights. Use the values from the image below. With this adjustment you can edit how the shadows and highlights will be displayed, and you can simulate the HDR effect by increasing the Tonal Width and Radius on the Shadow and Highlights, and, also the Midtone Contrast.

Conclusion

This is just one way to enhance your photos, you can use the Unsharp Mask filter as well. But I prefer the high pass with hard light, I think it gives a better result, however that will depend the photo you are working on. The most important thing is test and play with the settings and of course add more techniques to your repertoire. If you have a different quick tip, leave a comment sharing and explaining it to us ;).

This tutorial is an advanced guide covering how to use the Magic Extractor to change background in Photoshop. The Magic Extractor is an incredible useful tool, and something that can be used for many art projects.


To open up the Magic Extractor, go to Image> Magic Extractor.

These are the main and most important tools in the Magic Extractor. Using them is very simple. You use the foreground brush to paint on the part of the picture that you want to keep; i.e. whatever IS NOT background, and the background to paint on the part you don't want to keep; whatever IS in the background. The more you paint with the foreground and background brushes, the more accurate the background removal will be. Draw over all and inside the edges and inside the edges of the background and foreground with their respective brushes. Pay lots of attention to details and small objects that you want to keep as part of your final image. If your background has many objects and colors in it, made sure that you've used the background brush to paint over all of it, or you can use the Remove from Selection Tool as a more exact alternative. See instructions below.


WrongRightPoint Eraser Tool

Here is a collection of useful tips and tricks to improve your Photoshop skills.

Ten Golden Tricks

1. Hitting Tab hides all of your palettes. Hitting Tab again brings them back.
2. Shift+Tab hides all the pallets except your toolbar.
3. Hitting the "D" key resets your color pallets to Black foreground, White Background.
4. The "X" key will toggle your foreground and background colors.
5. Use CMD+Delete to fill your layer or selection with the current background color.
6. Option+Delete fills your layer or selection with the foreground color.
7. Change your paintbrush circle into a crosshair for precise control by pressing the Caps Lock key.
8. Double-Click the ruler on the top or side of your document brings up the Units & Ruler Dialogue box. (handy if you work in both print and web)
9. To quickly change the blend mode of a layer Shift+Option+(letter corresponding to mode) ie: Shift+Option+M is Multiply. Shift+Option+V is Vivid Light.
10. Using Shift+ the "+" or "-" will toggle through the various blend modes one at a time.

Speed Up File Browser
Adobe Photoshop tutorialIf you feel your File Browser is too slow in generating previews, you might want to try this setting.

Select Allow Background Processing in Photoshop /Preferences /File Browser to use extra processing power to pre-generate cache information like previews and metadata.

This setting will allow Photoshop to work on thumbnails for your files, while you're busy doing something else.


Help Menu Export?
Ok, I have no idea what was going through Adobe's head when they put an export option in the help menu. Yes you read that correctly. There is an export command in the help menu. I fiddled around with is for a little bit and discovered something interesting about this hidden option.

Adobe Photoshop tutorialThis is something that I think can be either a time waster or a time saver depending on your experience level and your personal work flow. For those that do not understand or avoid the pen tool for creating clipping paths, this can be a real time saver. If in the past you ever needed to make a clipping path from a selection it took a series of steps to get from the selection process to the final saved EPS. Well Adobe included a "Export Transparency" option. It's in the help menu and not in the file menu for some odd reason.

When you export your transparency, it will automatically include your clipping path and save your file as an EPS. You do have to follow a few on screen prompts so that the wizard knows what you are using the file for, (i.e. web or print).

I don't think this will be a replacement tool for many of us, however just knowing the option is there can be a big help from time to time.


Copying Path From Illustrator To Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop tutorialBy default when you copy a path from Illustrator to Photoshop it gets rasterized.

If you want to paste the path into Photoshop as a working path, you need to open Illustrator /Preferences /Files and Clipboard... and set the Clipboard to Copy As: AICB /Preserve Paths.

Next time you copy a path from Illustrator to Photoshop you will be given an option in Photoshop if you want your clipboard content as Pixels, Path or Shape layer.


Selecting The Right Layer
Adobe Photoshop tutorialMany times Photoshop files can get to many layers. This can be almost impossible to manage if you work only within the layers palette. First off, let me say that I am a big advocate of naming layers. Not only it is more descriptive than Layer 1 or Layer 2, itt gives other designers the ability to sort through your mess and hopefully call you a few less dirty names. With that said, using this next tip can greatly improve your speed when selecting layers.

Select the move tool (V) and hover over the area you want to select. CTRL-Click and a contextual menu will come up with a list of all the layers directly below your mouse. Simply select the appropriate layer and move on. As you can see naming your layers as you go greatly improves your ability to get through a project with as little headache as possible.


Adobe Photoshop tutorialExpanding And Reducing Selections
Have you ever made a selection like a square and tried to use the Select /Modify /Expand method to enlarge the selection? If you have, you noticed that you did not get a square at all. It will clip the corners off your selection.

If you want to get accurate results you will need to jump to quick mask mode by clicking the quick mask icon in the tool bar or by pressing the letter "Q". Once in the quick mask mode you will need to use Filter /Other /Maximum or Minimum. If your selected area is red use Minimum, otherwise use Maximum. Use the slider to adjust the amount of expansion. In my example I drew a rectangle marquee, and to enlarge it, I used the Maximum filter.

[tutorial and images © Ivan Raszl of CreativeBits]