Add Hours to Your Life With Keyboard Shortcuts

A big part of being a professional photographer is making sure your workflow is as efficient as possible. Even if you’re not a professional, using keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop will drastically shorten the amount of time it takes to edit photos. You can use this time saved to be more creative with your editing, or even join a water polo class.

All of these shortcuts work for PC computers as well! Just use CTRL instead of Command and ALT instead of Option.

Save As: Cmd Shift SSave for Web: Cmd Shift Alt SUndo: Cmd ZStep back: Cmd Alt Z (lets you keep going back in time)Stamp Visible: Cmd Shift Alt EHide selection: Cmd HFullscreen: FDefault Colors: D (black and white)Flip Foreground and Background colors: XRotate View: R (Make sure OpenGL setting is turned on in your preferences)Move around image: (hand Tool) Hold SpacebarInvert: Cmd IDelete Layer: DeleteTransform: Cmd TNew Layer: Cmd Shift Alt NDuplicate Layer, or if selection is active, Duplicate Selection: Cmd JTransform menu: right click on layer, Cmd TStep and Repeat: Cmd Alt T(first step), Cmd Alt Shift T (second step)Move Layer Up: Cmd ]Move Layer Down: Cmd [Move Layer to Top: Cmd Shift ]Move Layer to Bottom: Cmd Shift [Group Layers: Cmd GSelect: Cmd Click on thumbTemporarily disable: Shift Click on ThumbShow black and white: Alt Click on ThumbShow quick mask display: \Fill with Foreground: Alt DelFill with BG Color: Cmd DelFill Dialogue: Shift DelInverse: Shift Cmd I (for selections)Select All: Cmd ADeselect: Cmd DSelect Layer: Cmd Click on ThumbBrush Opacity: 1-0Brush Flow:Shift + 1-0Brush Larger: ]Brush Smaller: [Brush Harder: Shift ]Brush Softer: Shift [Levels: Cmd LHue/Sat: Cmd UCurves: Cmd M

Make sure to check out these FREE keyboard shortcut desktop backgrounds. Every key lists the tool it’s associated with in Photoshop. They’re available in two different sizes for different sized monitors, and even come with a .PNG version so you can use your own photos!

Today, I’m going to add hours to your life. Hey guys, welcome to the floor and my name is Aaron Nace. You could find me on Twitter @aknacer. Today I’ve got something really exciting for you. Actually, you might think it’s totally lame but I think it’s really exciting. We’re going to talk about keyboard shortcuts. I’m going to show you guys some of the commonly used ones, and how to make your own and below we got a link to our commonly used keyboard shortcut list.

Why are we doing this? The biggest thing that makes me fast in Photoshop is using keyboard shortcuts. When I watch other people do Photoshop and they’re like hunting and moving all around the screen and things like that, it’s just taking up valuable time. Although it might not seem like it matters a lot, if you can save a few minutes here and a few minutes there eventually, it’s going to add up and you get more time of your life back because you can edit much, much faster. Creating keyboard shortcuts are going to really help that out and especially if you can create custom keyboard shortcuts the things that you do most common in Photoshop.

I’m going to show you guys just a quick example of how I use keyboard shortcuts and then we’re going to talk about how to create some custom ones. Here we are in Photoshop. I don’t have a document open and that’s on purpose because I’m going to create a new one by hitting command N. by the way, anytime I say command, if you guys are on PC, it’s going to be ctrl. If I say option it’s going to alt for you and shift remains the same. Command N creates a new document and then you can just say that looks good and hit okay. For the most part I work on my images with full screen. I like that it take up the entire screen. You can get to that by hitting F. if you’d like to get out of it you can hit shift F or F3 tab.

Let’s go to our full screen mode. If you want to move things around hold down your space-bar and click and move anywhere you want. I’m not even using my [inaudible 0:02:09] today. All of the tools over here on the left also have keyboard shortcuts to get to them. Things like on the top left you have your marquee tool. M is your marquee tool and you can see if you hover over it it’ll say elliptical marquee, there we go, and it’ll have [inaudible 00:02:25] M. If you’d like to go through there are a couple of different marquee tools. If you want to go through those you can hold down the shift key and then hit M, and you could see that it’s flipping through those.

Let’s say L is our lasso tool so you can hit L for there and then hold shift and hit L a couple of times. That’s going to rotate through those. W is the wand tool. V is the move tool. C is the crop tool. J is the healing brush tool. S is the clone stamp tool. B is the brush tool. G is the gradient tool. E is the eraser tool. All these things you can see you can hit a button and if you’re in the middle of working on a document you don’t have to go back over here and work on things. Those are some really big things that are going to help save a lot of time.

Let’s to our brush tool and I’ll talk about a couple of these keyboard shortcuts that are really going to help you save time as well. It’s going to be control and option, if you guys are on a Mac … sorry, it’s going to be control and alt if you guys are on a PC. Just hit those two buttons down and click and if you drag it left to the right it’s going to make your brush either larger or smaller and if you drag up or down it’s going to make your brush harder or softer. It’s some really great ways to control your brush size very easily.

Let’s do a couple of cool things. I’m going to hit M for my marquee tool and I’m going to create a little marquee, and then we’re going to fill this with a color. This is very handy. Filling selected with colors on your layer mask is what I mostly use for. Let’s say you have a layer mask and you want to make everything invisible, you can fill with that either your foreground or background color. Let’s hit the D key on our keyboard. D is going to bring up your default colors which will always be black and white. D for your default colors. Your foreground color will be black, your background color will be white. If I want to fill a selection with my foreground color, you hold down option and hit delete. If I want to fill it with my background color, command and hit delete. Pretty cool, huh?

Let’s just fill the entire thing, option delete, with our foreground color. Then if I want to invert that, which I do very frequently on layer mask, command I, will then invert it. You see, you can do just about anything with a keyboard shortcut instead of going to invert image, adjustments down here, and then you got to look for it. Oh, there it is, command I is to invert, just quite a bit faster. Now, if you guys are not used to using keyboard shortcuts you can find them here. Everything you see will actually have a keyboard shortcut if there already is a keyboard shortcut assigned to it, but we can take that a step further.

Let’s just say filter and blur. Let’s say our Gaussian blur … I created a custom keyboard shortcut for my Gaussian blur because I use it quite frequently. I’ll show you guys how to do that right now. Unless you’ve already done it, you do not have a custom keyboard shortcut for a Gaussian blur. Let’s say I wanted to fill that with a color, I’ll option delete fill with black, command D to deselect and then my keyboard shortcut for my Gaussian blur is shift option command G, which brings up my Gaussian blur and now we can go ahead and blur that. You can see it just saves quite a bit of time. I use blurs all the time and it’s a good way to do it. [Inaudible 00:05:29] will take a step back in time.

I’ll show you guys how to do that same thing. You can create any keyboard shortcut that you’d like. Just go to edit right over here and then go down to where you see keyboard shortcuts, or you can hit shift option command K. There we go. Here are our keyboard shortcuts and they’re really easy to create in Photoshop and make it very easy for you. What we’re going to do we’re going to go ahead and go to the blur. We’re going to go to filter and we could just basically scroll down. You have your blur and then you have your few different blurs and right over here you would see Gaussian blur. Let’s just go ahead and subtract that out. This is basically how it’s going to look on yours if you don’t have one setup.

Let’s say Gaussian blur we want to setup a keyboard shortcut. Literally, all you do is hold down the keys which you need to. Those are going to be the keys that are going to create the keyboard shortcuts. In this case we’re going to hold on shift, option command and hit G and we’ll say accept. Now, our keyboard shortcut for the Gaussian blur is shift option command G. If you have other ones like adaptive right angle, shift command A. I’ve never used that in my life but it’s that one that you want now they’re listed here as well.

Let’s try another one. Let’s just say we’re going to go file and I want to go to … if I want to go to save. Let’s say I don’t even like the keyboard shortcut for save. I want to make it my own. Let’s look over here and I’m going to hit shift command S. What it’s going to tell me is shift command S is already in use and will be removed from file save as, if accepted. You can undo this change. You can, okay it’s already used I don’t want to use it up or you can just say, okay, I’ll accept that and I’ll go to accept the conflict. Now save is shift option command S and then save as can be command S. If you want to switch those around you can totally do that too. I don’t like that, so I’m going to switch it back. Command S, accept to go to conflict and then save as will be shift command S. There we go. Accept that as well. A really great way to add keyboard shortcuts if you’re not already using them.

A couple of them that I add, shift option command G, we already talked about that one. That’s a pretty good one for the Gaussian blur. Let’s just hit cancel there. If I want to … let’s just fill that with white. Shift option command N will create a new layer. That comes loaded by default. Let’s go ahead and fill this. If I do want to crop to a certain area, which I do quite often, I can hold down the command key and click on whatever’s on the layer and then setup the crop. To do that, I don’t have it setup on this computer. I have it setup on the one behind me. Let’s setup crop, what do you say? We’ll go to image and then we’ll go down here to crop and I have that one setup as shift option command C. I believe it’s down here at the bottom. There we go. Shift option command C and it will [inaudible 00:08:27] scale, which is okay because I don’t ever use that. We’re going to say okay. This is selected. Shift option command C will now crop to exactly what you have selected which is very nice. All right, option command Z will undo that.

The high pass filter I have setup. I use that for sharpening quite a bit so that is setup to shift option command H. there we go. We’ve added a high pass filter onto a circle which makes it gray. Very nice. You can use it for sharpening. In this case it really doesn’t do much. Delete will delete the layer you’re currently on so you don’t have to click it and drag it to the trash can. Shift option command N will create a new layer. Delete will create a deleted layer. It won’t create anything, it’s just going to delete your current layer that you have.

That’s it guys. Some of the keyboard shortcuts that I use quite frequently and then how to create them and then down below we have a very simple list of the keyboard shortcuts we used as well as some really cool wallpapers that you guys can put on your computer. If there’s anything that I missed guys, if you have some keyboard shortcuts that you use and love, make sure to leave them in a comment down below. Help everyone out. Help the community. Help the family. Help one another and that’s the end of the episode. Thanks so much guys. I’ll phone you later. Bye everyone.

Photoshop now responds to audible shortcuts as well. When I clap my hands twice it’s going to be the keyboard shortcut to end this episode.

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Weekend Inspiration XXXI

Hello everyone and welcome to our 31st edition of Weekend Inspiration!

This week we have gathered 25 images from 500px, Flickr, and photographer’s personal websites to give a jumpstart to your weekend! These images are from both amateur and professional photographers, as well as a photo or two from the Phamily.

So what are you waiting for?! Check it out and don’t forget to tell us your favorites!

A Colorful Winter by Florent Tanet

Aerial Photograph by Normann Szkop

Anya Ayoung-Chee by Laura Ferreira

Arrest Me, see if I care by Marc Ayres

Bird Man by Neil Kremer

Black and White by Vasco Casquilho

Burger Baron Menu Image by Kiriako Iatridis

By Christian Aslund

by Marcin Ryczek

Close Up of Starfish by Alexander Semenov

Determination by peter j

Do not send me flowers. (I just want a bunch of love) by Marie Casabonne

drive by CoolbieRe

Having a Bad Day? by Viktoria Haack

inside by David Duchens

Little Big Men… In Paris by Cal Redback

Salt fields, Phetchaburi, Thailand by isarescheewin

Smileys by Prasanta Singha Photography

summer time by Danielle Tunstall

The Struggle to Right Oneself by Kerry Skarbakka

Tranquility Base by Karezoid Michal Karcz

Trimarano Boat by Azzurra Piccardi

untitled by hui+

Untitled by Jason Skinner

Untitled by Michal Pudelka

If that wasn’t enough inspiration for you, you can check out previous editions of Weekend Inspiration here!

If you have any suggestions of what to feature in upcoming editions of Weekend Inspiration, or would like to submit your own work e-mail Angela at angela@phlearn.com

Have a great weekend!

Complete Post here

Perfecting and Playing with White Balance

As photographers we often question the strength, type and direction of light, but because most of today’s cameras’ auto-functions are greatly enhanced, it can be easy to forget about the colour of light.

Seasoned shooters will undoubtedly be aware of the importance of white balance, but for those new to photography or for photographers looking to go ‘off piste’ and take a more manual approach to image-capture then this whistle stop guide might be able to help. In this handy tutorial, we’ll explain not only the importance of controlling white-balance, but how it’s done and what effects can be achieved.

In this image we wanted to exaggerate the warmth in the light hitting the leaves in the trees, so we used a ‘Cloudy’ present in the White-Balance options.

By controlling the colour of light photographers are able to shoot with a balance that is as neutral as possible, replicating the colour of natural daylight whilst resolving issues with colour casts. Alternatively shooters can manipulate white-balance values for creative effect.

Most contemporary cameras do a solid job at rectifying ‘problems’ with colour casts in the light, and so when a scene is put in front of the camera it will attempt to compensate for any shift in values to make the scene look as close as possible to natural daylight as possible. So say you were using an auto-white balance setting to shoot a scene flooded with a rich amber afternoon light, you may be disappointed to find the camera diluted the richness of the hue as it has attempted to cool down the scene by using a blue cast to pull back the colour balance to replicate that of natural daylight. Conversely, when you shoot with flash a cool tone is usually projected from the bulb, as such cameras set to auto-white balance will warm the picture up in-camera using an orange/amber cast. Another issue is night photography, as the colour of neon signs or street lights can often affect the camera’s reading and results in confused colour-cast frames. By setting the white balance manually you’ll find a more realistic result is attained.

1. Use Presets

Within your camera’s settings menu you should find a section labelled ‘White-Balance’. Here various presets are offered, each with an icon clarifying in what light the option should be used, for example; flash, cloudy, fluorescent, ambient, indoor, outdoor, sunset etc.  

By telling the camera what conditions you are shooting in, it can more accurately and consistently apply values to compensate. It is especially wise to use this mode if you feel the auto white-balance isn’t on point.

2. Use Custom

By taking a white-balance reading from the swan’s white feathers we were able to get a more realistic and natural result

Whilst presets have their place, they can sometimes be a little wide of the mark, so to influence greater control find ‘Custom’ within the White Balance settings. This option allows you to take a reading by photographing an area of white or natural grey so your camera recognises and understands the exact lighting conditions you are working in.

If this is the approach you want to go with, it can be a good idea to carry a piece of white or grey paper, card or plastic to take readings from when you’re out and about.

3. Post-Production
Should you return home to discover your images carry an unsightly colour cast, all is not lost. Almost all contemporary photo-editing software allows users to correct colour balance issues with a touch of an ‘auto colour balance’ button or slight incremental change with a slider, but by far the best option is to use a white balance Colour Picker or White Balance Tool to select a part of the image you know to be white or grey. What is more, most of these software products offer options to apply values to batches of images instantaneously, potentially saving you hours! To do this most effectively it’s best to shoot in RAW so you can have a wider scope of flexibility to resolve colour balance issue.

Using a manual white balance will allow you resolve colour cast issues in-camera, but just as it is possible to neutralise the colour of light, it is also possible to manipulate values to create colour-thrown captures. For example, to exaggerate the rich red hues of a sunset force the camera to pump up the colour even further by using the Custom option or use a Preset such as Daylight or Cloudy to make the camera ‘think’ it is shooting a dreary scene and as such will add a warming cast. The result will be a vivacious and colour-striking sunset. There are dozens of situations when using the ‘wrong’ white balance can enhance or exaggerate the colour values of an image, it just takes a little imagination and practice.  Good luck!

Natalie Johnson is the former editor of Digital Photographer magazine and after seven years in the business has chosen to pursue her dream of becoming a freelance photographer and writer.

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100 Clever Digital Photography Ideas [Book Review]

One of my faves is lists of ‘clever’ ideas and hints on how to improve your digital photography, so this book hit home immediately.
Author Cope recalls that ‘there was a time, not so long ago, when photography was in serious decline …. Although cameras were becoming easier to use … people were just not buying them as they once had.” Digital cameras and photography arrived just at the right time.

Cope’s book is an absolute treasure house, beginning with a camera parade that identifies the various camera types (camera phones, compacts, bridge, DSLR etc) and their capabilities. For example: camera phones are not ideal if you need control over your picture making, whereas DSLRs are far from ideal if you want to be a discreet snapper.

Then follows single page helpers on such tasks as shooting for eBay auctions, making identity/passport photos, recording a car accident, making a home inventory, etc.

The tips keep coming: when shooting table top subjects (models etc), locate the camera at table top level, use the widest lens angle and smallest aperture; when shooting jewellery, especially rings, focus on the gem and let the band go out of focus; shoot kids at eye level, focus on their eyes, use the zoom’s mid range, blur the background, avoid flash etc; when shooting sports choose a fast shutter speed, move in close, follow the action, know the event.

A useful chapter on colour matching explains how you can colour match a house’s interior and its contents in the pursuit of the correct colour paint or furnishings. Digital cameras are far from perfect when it comes to precise colour rendering so the book suggests using a card colour checker containing colour swatches to help the paint mixer.

There are ideas on how to make a photo comic strip, shooting in the city, capturing landscapes, making atmospheric shots in low light, being aware of cultural sensitivities, finding your way home in a strange city by shooting a ‘photo trail’ … and here’s one hint that retail outlets will ‘love’: take a shot of the product you crave in-store so you can duck home and buy online with accuracy!

Then you can buy accessories to perform some unusual photo tricks: shoot ultra low angles with mini tripods or photo clamps, acquire a door spyhole lens, magnifying lens, Lensbaby or similar so you can shoot ultra closeups of bugs and the like.

Shoot the seasons: while a snowy landscape is entrancing, the high brightness can fool your camera’s auto exposure function: use the snow/sand setting; shoot rainbows by turning your back on the sun; summer time shots can be improved by using flash in people shots to fill in the heavy shadows; when shooting sunsets you can improve the rendering by slightly underexposing the shots.

Shoot a ‘flickback’ video by combining a sequence of stills that, when played back as movie, confer movement … a bit like a high speed slide show.

Some useful tips on future proofing your shots follow: shoot RAW as often as possible; shoot at the highest resolution; shoot lots!
Share your photo online via flickr or YouTube, etc: select your best shots; remember you don’t have to make your Web photo gallery public; some Web sites let you photo share so others can order prints.

There’s heaps more: add borders to some of your favourite shots; add a keyline or a frame; crop shots and straighten horizons of sloppily composed shots; create a scrapbook.

Overall, the book is chock full of information and, in one respect, is less of a book of tips and hints and more an encouragement on how to maximise your photo pursuits.

Top book!

Author: P Cope.
Publisher: David & Charles.
Length: 144pages.
ISBN 978 1 4463 0216 4.
Price: Get a price on "100 Clever Digital Photography Ideas: Getting the Most from Your Digital Camera and Camera Phone at Amazon

Barrie Smith is an experienced writer/photographer currently published in Australian Macworld, Auscam and other magazines in Australia and overseas.

Complete Post here

Weekend Inspiration XXXI

Hello everyone and welcome to our 31st edition of Weekend Inspiration!

This week we have gathered 25 images from 500px, Flickr, and photographer’s personal websites to give a jumpstart to your weekend! These images are from both amateur and professional photographers, as well as a photo or two from the Phamily.

So what are you waiting for?! Check it out and don’t forget to tell us your favorites!

A Colorful Winter by Florent Tanet

Aerial Photograph by Normann Szkop

Anya Ayoung-Chee by Laura Ferreira

Arrest Me, see if I care by Marc Ayres

Bird Man by Neil Kremer

Black and White by Vasco Casquilho

Burger Baron Menu Image by Kiriako Iatridis

By Christian Aslund

by Marcin Ryczek

Close Up of Starfish by Alexander Semenov

Determination by peter j

Do not send me flowers. (I just want a bunch of love) by Marie Casabonne

drive by CoolbieRe

Having a Bad Day? by Viktoria Haack

inside by David Duchens

Little Big Men… In Paris by Cal Redback

Salt fields, Phetchaburi, Thailand by isarescheewin

Smileys by Prasanta Singha Photography

summer time by Danielle Tunstall

The Struggle to Right Oneself by Kerry Skarbakka

Tranquility Base by Karezoid Michal Karcz

Trimarano Boat by Azzurra Piccardi

untitled by hui+

Untitled by Jason Skinner

Untitled by Michal Pudelka

If that wasn’t enough inspiration for you, you can check out previous editions of Weekend Inspiration here!

If you have any suggestions of what to feature in upcoming editions of Weekend Inspiration, or would like to submit your own work e-mail Angela at angela@phlearn.com

Have a great weekend!

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