15 Photoshop Techniques That Graphic Designer Should Know
The Photoshop is must for every photographer which has a conventional camera that boots and curved to digital. It allows the photographer to convert their images into masterpieces. The Photoshop is software which has related our thoughts with reality. The Abode Photoshop is used to edit the images. It is published by Adobe Systems for Windows PC and Mac OS. At present, it has become a hub of imagination for all domains such as web designing, animation, graphic designing, photography and digital designing for designing various purposes like photo editing, comics & storyboarding designing, UI & UX design, logo design and many more. It is considered one of the popular and well-known photos editing software. Also, it is widely used editing software among the designers.
It enables the users to manipulate, re-size, crop and correct colors of digital images. This software tool is mostly used by specialized graphic designers and photographers. Adobe Photoshop is an effective graphics editor which can edit and make images in multiple layers. It supports masks, alpha compositing, and many color models.
Photoshop techniques
The photographers have a very complex task to edit photographers at their own ways. They want to intricately see each and every detail of the photograph to modify it in a method which it looks pleasing to the eye. The computer programs will aid anyone to edit as well as amplify their own photos. The most common and popular program among others is Adobe Photoshop. Most of the professional are offering tips and techniques which could aid you and improve your Photoshop skills.
Generally making a round selection in a picture is a very daunting task. Therefore it is essential to see some Photoshop free tutorials. It will teach you each and everything about Photoshop. In addition to that techniques also help you a lot. There are many tools available in the software so make use of it and enhance your photo quality. Overall the Photoshop is a computer program which could aid people to improve their creativity. There are many techniques aid you to boost your workflow and productivity. In this post, we have listed out most excellent latest & advanced techniques to aid you to design quicker and enhanced with the Adobe Photoshop software tool. The following techniques should be known by every graphic designer:
- Local Contrast Enhancement
The local contrast enhancement technique works by brightening or darkening areas where a change dark as well as light tone occurs. It is the best way to add contrast to a picture without darkening or lightening large areas too much. This technique is particularly suited to pictures with a low contrast texture you need to bring out. To apply this technique to an image, one must start by duplication the current image. Thus follow the below-given ways to do this:
- Opt for the image and press Ctrl + J
- Click the layer and drag it down
- Now Press Ctrl + A, and Ctrl + Shift + C to copy merged
- Then Press Ctrl + V to paste, select the new layer on the menu and go to filter > other > high pass.
- Now pick 100 pixels for the high pass filter and click OK
- Finally, change the blending mode to overlay for High pass layer and reduce the effect
- Curves adjustment
The curves adjustment is an easy method to change specific tones in an image. In addition to that, it can also be used to darken or brighten the whole image. Normally it is to enhance the contrast by darkening or brightening tones. It is very helpful and essential Photoshop technique to globally increase contrast.
- Modifying the background
The modifying the background can enhance the look of the particular subject in an image. Choose the appropriate filter to make or break an image; therefore it is best to stay away from the crazy filters. To get this technique, follow the steps given below:
- First, duplicate the layer of the image by using the tool
- Roughly select the main subject of your picture
- Then go to select > feather. The radius of the pixel will depend on your image dimensions.
- Go to Layer and new and then layer via copy
- Select the layer copy
- Finally, try out with filter styles
- Softening
The softening is the commonly used technique in Photoshop. It is used to effect applies a blur to photo and give it a soft look. To do this, first, duplicate the layer of the image and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. To achieve the desired effect, play around with the layer dullness. We highly recommended using 50% but it depends on your picture.
- Personalize your workflow by using actions
One of the most effective tools in Photoshop is Actions. The actions are nothing but you do over and over in PC which involves sequences of clicks which are repetitive. It is built into Photoshop. To do this first load the actions palette from Window. And then load the production actions assortment from the palette. There are many varieties of simple production actions in the collection. It will provide you with a high-quality idea of how actions can be used to rate your production. The possibilities of actions are essentially endless.
- To create your own actions, follow the steps. Just click New Action icon at the palette
- Once it is created, the record button will light
- From there, the Photoshop will record each and every function you perform until you click on the stop button
By this, you can convert your image to any size and save a JPG for the web. It is very simple to record to action and do with the click of a button. You can also convert your Actions Palette to display buttons. For this, select button mode from the palette. Now you can run actions by easily clicking the suitable button.
- Save best brushes by using tool presets
By using the tool presets you can save your best brushes. Just open the Tool Preset palette and click the new Tool preset icon. If you have a lot of collection of presets you can save them and use it later. For this, click save tool presets from the menu. And organize your presets by a tool or by project type. Basically, the Photoshop comes packed with many collections of tool presets. So just pick the brush tool to view the presets for that device.
- Batch Processing
The batch processing is a powerful tool. You can convert a picture into black and white and then saved as a GIF. We can make an action to do that with the click of a button. We can use the batch processing to open all the images one by one and perform an action and then save & close each file. To do this technique Photoshop only takes a few minutes to do. Therefore you can save a lot of time. To batch processing option go to File > Automate > Batch. The graphic designers can also use Batch Processing to save a copy of your files to a new file. Just simply choose a destination directory from the Batch Processing Windows.
- Create seamless art
Creating seamless art in Photoshop is an unseen feature. One can do some very powerful things by utilizing pattern layers. Creating a background pattern expands to well any dimension document window. It can be completed with easiness by using the seamless patterns. Creating and defining patterns is a good idea to keep seamless designs. The best and effective way to make a seamless pattern in Photoshop is by using filter > other > offset. For instance, if your picture is 500 X 500 pixel, so your offset need to be 250 pixels horizontal and vertical.
- One click art
Creating the own brush sets is the most favorite way to customize workflow in Photoshop. One can do some incredible things with the snap of a single brush. There are very little limitations when creating brushes. The one and only thing to keep in mind is size. The maximum size for a brush must be 2500 x 2500 pixels and then the result is black and white. The source materials for brushes are taking photos and scanning objects. Once you have brush click edit > define brush preset. Then the brush will be available from the brushes palette. In that, the custom brushes are a very effective and fun tool. It is highly suggested to experiment and find out the style of brush which you would locate helpful within your artwork.
- Add flexibility with custom shapes
The custom shapes are an unseen and hidden tool in Photoshop. To view this tool you need to pick and grasp downward the mouse down over the shape tool in the Tools Palette. Now the drop down will appear and the last option is Custom Shapes. The shapes are laden like to patterns. There is a drop down in the tool tap which shows all the shapes. Usually, Photoshop comes with numerous collections of built-in shapes. You can load them from the small arrow at the top of the drop down. Load some of the present experiment and shapes. In addition to that, you can create your own custom shapes from vector files. Just simply paste the vector from illustrator as a path in PS. Then press Ctrl + click on the path and select the custom shape from drop down. Finally, your shave will appear in the custom shape drop-down menu in the toolbar.
- Layer Comps
With aid of layer comps, you can do multiple compositions. The layer comps is an easy way to sustain alternative layouts in a single design file. This method is easier than organization numerous files of a single composition. To apply Layer comps you need to open the Layer Comps panel. Once you created a new layout, press the New Layer Comp icon at the underneath of the panel. Now this will record the document state. Then you are free to continue editing. The graphic designer can refresh the current layer comp and create a new one.
- Quick Mask mode
There are many tasks to do in Photoshop; one of the most boring tasks in PS is making a selection from a picture. Making selections is very easy as painting by using the Quick mask mode. With aid of it, you can simply paint when you need your selection to appear. When you leave it, your painted area will become a selection. The QMM just simplifies the job of creating a difficult selection. Also in the QMM, you can edit your brush used for the selection area. Adjust the softness of brush to select areas which are somewhat out of focus within a picture.
- Use the background eraser tool
Could you like to erase only the background of your picture? If so then you can make use of the Background Eraser tool. To get this tool, just select this tool from the Eraser tool drops down. Once you selected the three options available in the top menu bar for choosing how the tool performs. They are mentioned below
- Sampling continuous – This tool continuously samples color to be erased as you paint
- Sampling once – It erased only the color you sampled by clicking the color previous to erasing
- Sample Background Swatch – This tool erases the color currently set as the background swatch
- Enhance image tones
This technique enhances the dark as well as light tone while softening the picture. The colors in the picture will appear more glowing. To do this duplicate the layer and go to filter > blur > Gaussian blur. Then in the layer palette, modify the blending mode to Overlay. Now you can experiment with more options to achieve a better effect like bright light.
- Clone stamp tool
Every graphic designer is familiar with the Clone stamp tool. It can be used to paint using a clone surface within a document. With aid of it you can from multiple layers and even more documents. For this choose the clone source icon at the top of the panel and then click anywhere in the document to set that source. Then pick another icon and do the similar.