Bits and Bytes

by J.R. vanLienden

I am always looking for ways to speed up my time using the computer while working on images. I tend to do much more than I ever would have if I was paying the lab and here are a few of the most common short cuts that save us time. Before I go on I can tell you from experience that learning a program’s short cuts is the fastest way to learn that program well. These short cuts are for Adobe PhotoShop and work for 5, 5.5 and 6.0.

  1. To give your screen more room use the tab key to make the palettes and tool bar go away and come back. This gives you more image room to have on your screen and only shows them when you really need them.
  2. The rubber stamp tool can be reached by just hitting the S key.
  3. The zoom tool is available by using the Z tool. You can also zoom in and out by using the “ctrl” key along with the {+ or -} keys together. Hold the “ctrl” down and keep hitting the “+” and it will keep zooming up.
  4. The Pick tool or little arrow is available by hitting the “V” key. You use this tool to drag around added layers like when pasting on another head you are changing.
  5. For instant access to a paint brush use the “B” key. To see much more of the power of what the brushes can do in any tool that uses a brush (paint, rubber stamp, air brush) use your right mouse button and click on it, you will have to play with these to really learn all they can do for you but they can be wondrous as you learn.
  6. To copy something you have selected like a face or head you want to take to another image just make the selection and then hit “Ctrl C” to copy it.
  7. Now to paste it go to the image or layer you want it to land on and then hit “Ctrl V”.
  8. A big favorite of everyone is the undo key and for that you just hit “Ctrl Z”. For even more fun you can Use the “Ctrl with the Alt along with as many Z’s” this is a multiple undo, it takes you back one step of the history each time you use it. “Ctrl Z” will only take you back one step and then back to where you just were if you hit it again.
  9. To bring up the Curves dialog box it is “Ctrl M”.
  10. For Levels it is “Ctrl L”.
  11. This stuff can get a little on your nerves from time to time because things don’t want to work right and one of the first things to do when this is happening is to hit the “DAMN IT KEY” It is “Ctrl D”, it really is the deselect key. If you have a selection on your image you can’t do anything but work in that area so this will get rid of the selection so you can work on the whole image. When in doubt, shout it out! Damn it! or “Ctrl D”.
  12. When you are working on a selection sometimes those little blinking lines or marching ants get in the way, to make them visible disappear use “Ctrl H” You can then see the area without the ants. This is again a good time to back over 11 because without the ants you can forget you have made a selection.
  13. This one actually cover a few but I am being a little lazy, rather than me telling you what they do I want you to go explore them. On top of your key board are “F” keys, F1 is for contextual help and I will give you that one but go hit the others and make a note of what they do. Hit once they appear and again and it disappears.
    I hope this will help you become faster and more knowledgeable when using PhotoShop. It takes time to learn all of this fun stuff but as it becomes easier it really does become fun so take some time and learn these first and then more will becoming later.

Masterpiece Portraits is a Sarasota based portraits studio and digital lab specializing in output on watercolor papers and photo papers from a wide format inkjet printer. High resolution scanning and digital retouching are also available.