Ben's Extra-Strength Tips for the Clients and Friends of Ben Willmore (www.digitalmastery.com):

As I write this I'm between corporate training events, sitting in a booth at the Angelic Brewing Company in Madison, Wisconsin. So, while the beer-guzzling patrons fixate themselves on the latest sports news, I am hunkered over my keyboard conjuring up a storm of tips that will help you speed up your work with the painting and retouching tools. Oh, I almost forgot-If you're interested in any of my hands-on seminars, I've got two events coming up in San Francisco. Read the end of this letter for more. Now, on to the tips.

The first thing that comes to mind is that I barely ever use the Brushes palette. Instead, I like to use the bracket keys (][) to change the size of my brush. Add the Shift key and you'll end up changing how soft the edge of the brush is (five sittings total). Or, if that limits you too much and you'd rather cycle through all the brushes that show up in your Brushes palette, then type. (the period) or , (the comma). I think of it as using the > or < keys, even though you don't have to hold the Shift key. Or, if you'd rather do things in the normal Brushes palette, try pressing the right mouse button (Windows), or holding Control while clicking the mouse on the Mac. Then when the Brushes palette appears, double-click on the brush you'd like to use.

Then, if I ever need to lower the opacity setting of a painting tool, I simply type a number (2=30%, 23=23%, 0=100%, etc.). That will allow you to see through the paint strokes you make. You can also hold the Shift key when typing those number keys to change the Flow setting (new in version 7.0). Flow determines how much of that opacity setting you'll get when you first paint. Flow allows you to slowly build up the opacity with multiple coats of paint, while never letting you exceed the opacity setting you've specified (unless you release the mouse button that is).

If you found that you've done a perfect paint stroke, but your opacity setting was set on the low side, then you can choose Edit>Fade Paintbrush (immediately after painting with a low opacity) and then increase the opacity of the paint stroke you just completed.

If you'd rather have the Brushes palette act like Photoshop 6.0's palette, where it shows just the brush tip instead of a stroke preview, then choose Small Thumbnail from the side menu of the Brushes palette.

If you ever need to be overly precise about where you put your paint, then press the Caps Lock key, which should deliver a crosshair cursor instead of the normal circular one.

If you ever end up painting with a large hard-edged brush, then you'll most likely want to open the main Brushes palette in 7.0 (Window>Brushes), click on the Brush Tip Shape setting on the left side and then lower the Spacing setting to 1%. Otherwise you'll end up with non-smooth edges.

When painting, try clicking in one spot and then holding Shift as you click on a second spot. That should connect the dots with a straight paint stroke.

When you're using a painting tool, you can hold Option (Mac), or Alt (Windows) to temporarily access the Eyedropper tool, which will allow you to click on your image to pick a color to paint with.

If you like to change the blending mode of the painting tool you're using (it shows up in the options bar at the top of your screen), then try holding Shift and then using the + and - keys on your keyboard. That should cycle though all the blending modes you have available.

If you're used to using the Pen tool, then you might like to know that you can have Photoshop trace the currently visible path (assuming you have a painting tool active) by typing Command-Enter (Mac), or Ctrl-Enter (Windows).

Finally, if after playing with all these tips, your painting or retouching tools aren't acting normal anymore, right-click (Windows), or Ctrl-click (Mac) on the tool icon that appears on the far left of the options bar at the top of your screen and choose Reset Tool to get things back to normal.

If you're having troubles figuring out what to get a friend for the holidays, then you might want to make it easy on yourself by giving one of my Photoshop video tapes or my books. For details, point your browser to www.digitalmastery.com

If you're in the U.S., have a great Thanksgiving; I'll catch up with you after Turkey day.
-Ben Willmore