Photoshop Tips and Tricks

Ever wondered why the fashion photo shoots of glamorous models that get printed on the cover of illustrious magazines are so picture perfect? Most magazines deny it but it is common knowledge that these photos are altered or should I say "photo shopped" as the popular term goes. Photoshop is revolutionary software that lets you do almost anything with graphics and photos as evident from the name. It's a premier graphics editing tool developed and published by Adobe systems incorporated.

Photoshop has a complete generic suite of features and tools which are very descriptive by themselves and designed to be user friendly. The software since its inception has undergone major changes which are all for the better. It won't be untrue to say that with the palette of robust tools, Photoshop puts at the disposal of users; their imagination is the only limit to their creativity.

There is a minimal learning curve to study Photoshop which is the primary lure and major reason for its popularity and world wide acceptance. A novice can learn quite a few things by simply referencing Photoshop tutorials which are found in abundance on the internet. There is no requirement of being familiar with a programming language; all you need is seeking out proper howtos and you could be well on your way to creating eye catching graphics and images using this magnificent software.

So without further adieu, let's discuss a few simple tips and tricks which every novice can start off with! Let's start off with something very basic and rudimentary like altering the colorization scheme of a photo.

First of all, locate the colorization effect which is present under the image tab, in the adjustment menu.

Provided along with this effect are the hue and saturation sliders which work just like a scroll bar. But before you can use the hue and saturation bar, click and check the small box at the bottom of the dialog box. Checking this box in combination with the sliders would allow you to produce a unified color scheme for the entire image. This tool can come in very handy when attempting to match a particular image's color scheme with another seamlessly. There you go! Your first photo alteration using Photoshop! It's pretty easy, isn't it?

Another very remarkable feature which is incorporated in Adobe Photoshop is creating the blur effect. This effect is used to depict a body in motion, blur out edges and create scenes which require haze.  To begin copy the desired image or figure onto a new layer, now with the selection still activated, fill a layer below the original image with color of your choice. Now locate filters menu and from there select motion blur filter; this would enable you to replicate movement by creating lines that represent motion. All of this is done without in any way altering or disturbing the original image.

With the flexibility and array of tools available, the user is encouraged to try out different techniques like varying the distance and angel of the motion to see what other blur effects can be added.

These are only some very basic tricks you can perform with Adobe Photoshop. Like mentioned earlier, with Photoshop you are only limited by your imagination.