10 Fundamental Photoshop Techniques Every Beginner Should Know

ADVERTISING

For any beginner photographer, grasping the basic know-how of Photoshop can seem pretty daunting – especially if you’re trying to go it alone without classes or professional instruction. These ten easy tips, however, will quickly get you acquainted with the basics of Photoshop. After these tutorials you will be on your way to creating amazing photo effects in no time.

1. Touchups and Blemishes

This is usually the first trick that people are dying to learn in photoshop. Who wouldn’t want to erase those unsightly blemishes from portraits of themselves and their loved ones? If you’re planning to ever go into professional photography or would even just to enhance personal photographs from let’s say, vacations or family reunions, the Spot Healing Brush will undoubtedly be one of the most important Photoshop tricks in the book. Thankfully, it’s one the easiest ones to learn!

2. Non destructive editing

The great thing about non destructive editing on Photoshop is that this feature allows you to test and try out different effects on your photo without permanently changing the original. Before making any sort of adjustment to your image, all you need to do is just apply an adjustment layer to the original photo that you’re intending to make adjustments to. Doing this allows you to keep an original copy of the photo you’re working with so you won’t have to worry about any changes that you’ve made being permanent. Take this step for every change you make so you keep saving and compounding on additional changes with the ability to take away mistakes, risk-free.

3. Automatic Image Adjustments

As a beginner, you may want to test out some of Photoshop’s automatic photo adjustments. Doing this will help you learn the basics of “complicated sounding” photo adjustments such as Brightness and Contrast, Levels, and Curves. These terms may all sound like nay-say now, but after some time learning the ropes you’ll be able to accurately change color levels manually. In the mean time, let Photoshop do the complicated work for you.

4. Resizing your Images

This may sound boring or even too obvious, but when it comes to printing your photos, this is a necessary photoshop function that you must understand. Different paper sizes will call for different photo sizes, and of course, you want to make sure that you don’t distort your photo by unproportionallly resizing it in the process.

5. Cropping

When cropping a photo, it is also important to understand ratio sizes. Luckily, photoshop has made this function easier where you can choose between original ratio settings or ratios such as 1:1, 4:6, etc. Knowing how to properly crop a photo, can not only enhance the focus point in your photo, but it will add that extra dose of oomph to really make your photo stand out.

6. Remove objects from Images

Want to take out an unnecessary object from your photograph’s background? With either the Lasso tool or the Quick Selection Brush tool, you can draw a rough outline around the undesired object. Once selected, just hit delete and voila, object gone!

7. Image Borders and frames

Adding frames to photos is a way to enhance the image in an artistic way. It is just like adding a gift wrap as a creative finishing touch.

8. Different Saving Formats

When it comes to saving your work, make sure you save in .psd file in order to keep all your editable data. If you want to export and share your work, the next most common format is the .jpg, which you can save through the “save for the web” option. Ever tried emailing an image only to be left with an “File too large” error message? The “save for web” option has you covered! Not only will it safely compress your image but will allow for optimal loading times online.

9. Black and White Conversion

Another popular trick that beginners love to know is how to make a Black and White Conversion. While one can take a whole course just on this subject alone, converting your photos can also be incredibly easy. Give any photo an old world charm right now!

10. Add Text to your Image

Easily add text to your photos by clicking the Text tool. From there, you can change the font style and colors to your desire. With time and patience, you’ll eventually be able to create and incorporate amazing Text effects into your photos, click HERE to see the possibilities.

ADVERTISING