7 Overlooked Photoshop Tools That Will Save You Hours

You're probably using Photoshop the hard way.

You've mastered the basics - Magic Wand for selections, Clone Stamp for removals, layer masks for compositing. But you're likely missing out on dozens of features that could cut your editing time in half.

Adobe has quietly (okay, not so quietly) added dozens of time-saving features that most users never discover.

Here's the thing: Photoshop's interface is overwhelming. With hundreds of tools and panels, it's natural to stick with what works and ignore everything else. But while you've been perfecting your go-to techniques, Adobe's engineers have been building smarter shortcuts that do the same work in seconds instead of minutes.

The difference between a 2-hour edit and a 30-minute edit often comes down to knowing which tool to use. Your skills matter, but using the right tool for the job matters just as much.

Most of these tools are hiding in plain sight. They're not buried in obscure menus or locked behind premium subscriptions. They're right there in your toolbar, waiting to transform your workflow.

Ready to discover what you've been missing?

1. Object Selection Tool

The Magic Wand tool is dead. Long live the Object Selection Tool.

This AI-powered selection tool is what the Magic Wand wishes it could be. Instead of selecting based on color similarity (which rarely works perfectly), the Object Selection Tool actually understands what objects are in your image.

⏱️ How it saves time: This is Adobe's most interesting AI-powered selection tool that gets smarter with every update. It can recognize and select various image elements - from simple objects to complex subjects like people with detailed hair and clothing. The tool offers multiple selection methods and is constantly gaining new capabilities. What used to require meticulous manual work now happens with intelligent automation that understands what you're trying to select.

🎯 When to use it: Perfect for product photography, portrait cutouts, or anytime you need to isolate an object from its background. It works especially well on objects with clear definition against their background.

2. Remove Tool

This is Adobe's newest magic trick, and it's absolutely addictive.

The Remove Tool is like having a professional retoucher built into your brush. Simply brush over anything you want gone - people, objects, blemishes, distractions - and watch it disappear with AI-powered intelligence that understands context and lighting.

⏱️ How it saves time: No more complex selections, sampling areas, or multiple attempts. Just brush and it's gone. What used to require careful Content-Aware Fill workflows now happens in real-time as you paint.

🎯 When to use it: Removing tourists from travel photos, cleaning up product shots, eliminating distracting elements, or quick retouching. It handles everything from large objects to tiny details with the same ease.

3. New Gradient Tool

Photoshop quietly gave the classic Gradient Tool a complete overhaul—and most users haven’t noticed.

Instead of creating static gradients that can’t be changed later, the new Gradient Tool creates editable live gradients (as gradient fill layers). You can move, resize, recolor, or restyle them anytime without starting over.

⏱️ How it saves time: No more deleting and redrawing gradients just to tweak a color stop. You can make instant adjustments directly on the canvas, and even revisit gradients long after you’ve placed them.

🎯 When to use it: Perfect for background designs, product mockups, or any project where you want flexible, non-destructive gradients you can fine-tune at any stage.

4. Frame Tool

Think of it as smart placeholders for your designs.

The Frame Tool creates containers that you can drag images into, and they automatically resize and crop to fit. It's like having a professional layout assistant built into Photoshop.

⏱️ How it saves time: No more manual cropping and resizing for mockups or multi-image layouts. Create your frame, drag in your image, and it fits perfectly. Change your mind? Drag in a different image and it adapts instantly.

🎯 When to use it: Creating mockups, designing layouts with multiple images, or anytime you need consistent image sizing across a project.

5. Blend If

Blend If is one of Photoshop’s most powerful hidden features—and most users don’t even know it exists.

Tucked away in the Layer Style panel, Blend If lets you hide or reveal parts of a layer based on brightness values. Instead of masking or erasing, you can blend layers seamlessly in seconds with just a couple of sliders.

⏱️ How it saves time: No more manual masking, selections, or complicated blend modes. You can instantly remove skies, blend textures, or apply effects only to highlights or shadows—completely non-destructively.

🎯 When to use it: Compositing multiple photos, adding textures or overlays, or applying light effects that interact naturally with the tones of your base image. It’s perfect for quick, realistic blends without the cleanup work.

6. LUTs (Color Lookup Tables)

Color LUTs have been in Photoshop for years, but most users still overlook them—especially the built-in presets that can completely change the mood of an image with a single click.

A LUT (Look-Up Table) is like a color recipe: it remaps the tones and colors of your image to create a specific look. Photoshop includes a library of ready-made LUTs, and you can also create your own custom LUTs for consistent and reusable color grading across projects.

⏱️ How it saves time: Instead of stacking multiple adjustment layers, you can apply or swap complex color treatments instantly with one LUT layer.

🎯 When to use it: Perfect for giving a cohesive tone to a photo series, quickly experimenting with different moods, or building your own reusable “signature” color styles.

7. Puppet Warp

The name sounds intimidating, but it's actually intuitive once you try it.

Puppet Warp lets you place pins on an object and then drag those pins to reshape it naturally. It's like having invisible strings attached to your image that you can pull to adjust poses, straighten objects, or fix perspective.

⏱️ How it saves time: Instead of complex selections and transformations, you can adjust poses, fix leaning buildings, or reshape objects with simple pin-and-drag movements. Natural-looking adjustments in seconds.

🎯 When to use it: Adjusting poses in portraits, straightening architecture, reshaping objects, or making natural-looking adjustments to any part of your image.

Conclusion

These tools represent years of development by Adobe's engineers, designed to solve the exact problems you face every day. They're not experimental features or premium add-ons - they're core Photoshop capabilities that have been waiting for you to discover them.

The next time you open Photoshop, try exploring beyond your usual workflow. Pick one tool from this list and experiment with it on your next project. You'll quickly see how much time you've been spending on tasks that could be automated or simplified.

Your editing skills got you this far, but combining those skills with the right tools will make you much faster. These features are already installed on your computer, tested by millions of users, and ready to streamline your workflow.

The difference between working hard and working smart often comes down to one simple question: Am I using the best tool for this job?

Now you know where to find the answer.

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