The Photoshop Tip of the Week for the Clients and Friends of Ben Willmore (www.digitalmastery.com):

Using keyboard commands will take you a long way towards using Photoshop with rhythm and speed. Let's start off with the logic behind Photoshop's keyboard commands.

The command key (Mac), Ctrl (Windows) usually replaces a menu command. So, if you use a menu command over and over, if you'd like to speed yourself up, then the shortcut will always involve the Command key (Mac), or Ctrl key (Windows).

The Shift key usually does one of two things. It either constrains something, or it lets you work on more of something. Let's look at a few examples. Hold Shift while you create a rectangular selection and it will be constrained to a square. Or hold Shift while using the Move tool to reposition a layer and you'll only be able to move it horizontally or vertically, but not at an odd angle. Or, if you already have a selection active on your image, you can hold the Shift key *before* creating another selection to add to the selection that was already there. If you have multiple images open, you can hold Shift and click on one of the screen modes at the bottom of the Tool palette, and it will apply to all open documents.

The Option key (Mac), or Alt key (Windows) changes the behavior of something. Here are a few examples; All of the choices available under the Image>Adjust menu use the default settings each time you open them. But, if you hold the Option key (Mac), Alt (Windows) when picking one of those choices, then Photoshop will use the last settings you applied to an image in this session in Photoshop. Or, if you're in the middle of making an adjustment with one of those choices from the Image>Adjust menu, you can reset the dialog box back to its default settings by holding the Option key (Mac), or Alt key (Windows) and click the Cancel button, which will be relabeled Reset. Or, if you click on the New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette, you'll get a layer with a generic name like "Layer 1". If you Option-click (Mac), Alt-click (Windows) that same icon, then you'll be prompted to enter a name for the new layer.

Now let's move on to talk about selections.

When creating a selection using the Marquee tool, you can hold the Spacebar to reposition the selection without having to release the mouse button. Or, when you are using the Lasso tool, the Spacebar will allow you to scroll around your image without having to release the mouse button.

When using the Magic Wand tool, it's often much easier to select the opposite of the area you would really like to end up with. That is, if the area that you don't want selected is simpler than the area you want to select, which is often the case. Then after you've got that unwanted area selected, you can choose Select>Inverse to get the opposite area selected.

You can Command-click (Mac), or Ctrl-click (Windows) on the name of a layer to select the contents of that layer.

When you need to create a selection that blends into the surrounding image, you'd usually end up choosing Select>Feather. I like to replace that command with the following technique because it gives you a visual preview. Create a selection, type "Q" to turn on Quick Mask mode (that will look like a red overlay), and then choose Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur to soften the edge. Once the edge fades out the amount you want it to, click ok and then type "Q" to turn off Quick Mask mode and you'll end up with a feathered selection.

Be careful when creating selections using the Marquee tool in Photoshop 6.0. If you make a selection when viewing your image at 100% magnification, and then click and drag up or towards the left, you'll find that your selection will be inaccurate by one pixel at the bottom or left edge. To prevent that, either apply the Photoshop 6.0.1 updater that was just released, or always drag down and to the right when making a selection using the Marquee tool.

Enough with keyboard commands. Now lets look at some bits and pieces of info that can help you when working in Photoshop.

When using the Burn tool to darken an area, you might find that the result looks rather gray. If that's the case, then open the Channels palette and click through the different channels and only retouch those that display the problem you are trying to fix. Each channel might need a different amount of darkening, whereas if you adjust them all equally, you'll often end up with a gray result. When you are finished retouching the individual channels, then click on the top-most channel to get back to normal.

If you'd like to make a photograph show up inside the shape of some text, place the photo on top of the text and then choose Layer>Group with Previous. Just make sure that when you choose that command, the text is on a layer directly under the photograph layer, and that the photograph layer is active.

To create a slide show, place all the images you'd like to use on an individual layer. Then Option-click (Mac), Alt-click (Windows) the eyeball next to the layer that is active and then hold Option (Mac), Alt (Windows) and use the bracket keys (][) to switch which layer is active.

If you'd like to quickly switch which layer is active while using any tool, try Ctrl-Cmd-clicking (Mac), Ctrl-right click (Windows) to choose from a list of all the layers that appear directly below your cursor. When you choose the name of the layer you'd like to work with, it will become active in the Layers palette.

Or, if you'd rather create a slide show by opening multiple documents, just type Ctrl-Tab (Mac and Windows) to switch which document is the front-most. You might also want to Shift-click the full screen mode icon near the bottom of your Tool palette (the rightmost of three icons). You can also press Tab to hide your palettes.

When you have an image open, you'll find a tiny thumbnail version of your image at the top of the document window. On a Mac, you can click on that thumbnail image and pause for about a second, then you can drag that thumbnail to any location on your hard drive to physically move that file on your hard drive. Or, Command-click on the name of the file at the top of the document to find out exactly where it is stored on your hard drive. Sorry Windows users, this option doesn't work for you.

You can use the Crop tool to add space to your document. Just turn on full screen mode first (middle of three icons near the bottom of your Tool palette), then pull the cropping rectangle beyond the edge of your image (it will snap to the edge of the image, but you can easily pull it beyond the edge after it has snapped).

When working with a number in Photoshop (like type size), you can click on the number and then use the up or down arrow keys to change the number in increments of 1. Hold Shift to change the number in larger increments.

When converting any image to CMYK mode, it is best if you merge all layers before making the change. The result will usually look better, especially if it involves any blending modes, or if it includes a bright color fading to black.

If you copy an image from a bright colored background and paste it onto a dark colored image, you might notice a tiny rim of the old background color appearing around the image. When that happens, choose Layer>Matting>Defringe and use a setting of 1.

When you make a change to a color image using Levels or Curves, the colors in the image can easily shift or become more saturated. If you only wanted to change the brightness or contrast of the image, then immediately after adjusting the image, choose Edit>Fade (Photoshop 6), or Filter>Fade (Photoshop 5.5) and set the blending mode menu to Luminosity. That will limit whatever you did last to only change the brightness of the image and will prevent it from changing the colors and saturation of the image. This is also useful immediately after sharpening a color image because it prevents odd colored halos around the edges of objects. Instead the halos will be in a color suitable for the image.

Ok, my fingers are getting tired from typing and your eyes are probably starting to water from reading all this stuff on your computer screen, so I'm going to call it a day and stop typing. Catch you next time.

-Ben Willmore
Founder, Digital Mastery