PSE8 Tips and Hints

[Karen]

Here are some tips and hints I give my students:

1) Never ever save over the original image – why? Because this is the digital negative and once it has been altered, it cannot be changed back to the original
2) ALWAYS SAVE AFTER MAKING ANY CHANGES
3) When saving an image for email, always use .jpg format on a low setting
4) ALWAYS SAVE AFTER MAKING ANY CHANGES
5) When saving an image for commercial printing, make sure you crop to the correct size
6) ALWAYS SAVE AFTER MAKING ANY CHANGES
7) When saving an image for commercial printing, always use .jpg format on the highest setting
8) ALWAYS SAVE AFTER MAKING ANY CHANGES
9) Never flatten the working copy of your project, always save it as a TIFF or PSD file
10) ALWAYS SAVE AFTER MAKING ANY CHANGES
11) You can create and save your own colour swatches
12) ALWAYS SAVE AFTER MAKING ANY CHANGES
13) You can create and save your own gradients
14) ALWAYS SAVE AFTER MAKING ANY CHANGES

Get the message? It is very, very important to save your work at regular intervals; at least every five minutes and never, ever more than ten minutes!! If you don’t, you could lose an hour’s work or even more – I know because I have been there, done that, got the T-shirt!!


Karen

[Karen]

More hints & tips I give my students.

1) If a tool is not working the way you think it should, click the widget to the left of the tool preview window and “Reset Tool”
2) Always park the cursor on the Move Tool “V” because it is the least destructive tool
3) If you cannot see the brush on the screen properly, check that the Caps Lock is OFF
4) To draw a perfect square/circle when using the Marquee Tool, hold the Shift Key down
5) When working in a selection and the “marching ants” are obstructive, press Ctrl+H to hide the “ants” but keep the selection active; to make the “ants” visible, Ctrl+H again
6) The square brackets increase/decrease brush size; left ( [ ) decreases; ( ] ) increases
7) To move between before and after, use Ctrl+Z (undo) and Ctrl+Y (redo)
8) Remember to check the printer properties before printing
9) If things don’t appear to be working properly:
a) Make sure you have accepted/rejected an action
b) Make sure the correct layer is active
c) Check the tool you are trying to use is not constrained
d) Check opacity of the tool; e.g. if eraser opacity is not 100%, it will not work to full capacity
e) If you get “no pixels selected”, it could be that the feather is too big or you are on the wrong layer
f) Nothing will work properly if there are hidden “marching ants” > Ctrl+H to show any concealed “ants” > Ctrl+D (deselect)
g) Make sure another layer is not hiding the layer you are working on
h) If all else fails, press Enter and/or ESC
10) If you hold the Ctrl key down when using the straighten tool (P), you can straighten vertically
11) When Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E is used, it combines all visible layers but keeps original layers intact
12) To draw a straight line,hold down the shift key and drag the mouse across/down the page and there is the straight line
13) Need to move that selection before you release the mouse? Hold the space bar down and move the selection to where you want it; release the space bar to continue sizing the selection
14) To change the brush from soft to hard, hold the shift key down and tap the right square bracket ( ] ). To go from hard to soft brush, hold the shift down and tap the left square bracket ( [ )
15) To zoom in use Ctrl+= (equals); to zoom out use Ctrl+- (minus sign)
16) Double clicking the zoom tool zooms to 100%
17) Double click the hand tool zooms to fill the workspace
18) When the magnetic lasso tool attaches to an unwanted area you can backspace to make it let go; each backspace takes it back one magnet at a time
19) If you can’t find the cursor because of the colours you are working on, hold the space bar down; changes cursor to a hand


Karen

[robyn]

Thank you Karen for some excellent tips.

[MsKaty]

Karen you are terrific! I will copy these and save them! I kept my 7 version tho, something in 8 bugged me. :) I can't even remember what it was. I'd sure love to take a class--do you also do CS5??

[Digidonna]

Fantastic, Karen!
How I wish I would have had these tips when I first started. It would have saved me many hours of frustration!
So, glad you posted these tips.

[Diane]

Thanks for the very helpful tips, Karen!:)

[Grace]

Karen, excellent tips!

To me, the three most important tips are (1) make sure you're working on the right layer, (2) use keyboard shortcuts, and (3) save often.

[NancyP]

Karen, these are GREAT!!! Thanks so much. Although they don't answer my particular problem (I will pm you) I still learned some things I didn't know before.

[Karen]

Karen you are terrific! I will copy these and save them! I kept my 7 version tho, something in 8 bugged me. :) I can't even remember what it was. I'd sure love to take a class--do you also do CS5??

No I don't do CS5 [laughing] I have enough problems keeping up with PSE.

I'm pleased everyone like the hints & tips and I agree with Grace - the most important thing is to save often and to use the keyboard shortcuts.

Karen

[Grace]

1) Never ever save over the original image – why? Because this is the digital negative and once it has been altered, it cannot be changed back to the original
[/SIZE]
Karen

Karen's number 1 tip is the most important. I always work on duplicate images.

Always work on a duplicate copy.

[Karen]

To avoid saving over the original image, I always do Ctrl+J (duplicate layer) as soon as I open an image. It is then impossible to save over the original because once you have more than one layer, PSE automatically saves the image as a layered file in either PSD or TIFF.

Karen

[Reene]

http://www.digitaldesignden.com/photopost/data/500/thumbs/Karen_s-Tut_4e_ipg.gif (http://www.digitaldesignden.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=353&title=cool-orb&cat=500)
Cool Orb (http://www.digitaldesignden.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=353&title=cool-orb&cat=500)

[Reene]

Okay for you Karen! You have 'opened a can of worms'!! I loved making the orbs. And I made quite a few BUT NOW I want the other stuff too: Something to set it on and how to remove it from background. Do you have more tuts??...I sure had a fun afternoon! Thanks so much.

[robyn]

I found yet another orb from some years back in my hard drive..............

http://www.digitaldesignden.com/photopost/data/504/thumbs/fairy-fantasy.jpg (http://www.digitaldesignden.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=354&title=another-orb&cat=504)

[sandy]

I found yet another orb from some years back in my hard drive..............

http://www.digitaldesignden.com/photopost/data/504/thumbs/fairy-fantasy.jpg (http://www.digitaldesignden.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=354&title=another-orb&cat=504)

Another gorgeous piece of work Robyn!

[Karen]

Okay for you Karen! You have 'opened a can of worms'!! I loved making the orbs. And I made quite a few BUT NOW I want the other stuff too: Something to set it on and how to remove it from background. Do you have more tuts??...I sure had a fun afternoon! Thanks so much.

Yes I do have more tutorials but you will have to be patient; we are going away for a couple of days. I will make sure the next one I post is on extracting the orb.

Karen

[sandy]

Have a great time Karen!!! We'll miss you!

[Grace]

I found yet another orb from some years back in my hard drive..............

http://www.digitaldesignden.com/photopost/data/504/thumbs/fairy-fantasy.jpg (http://www.digitaldesignden.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=354&title=another-orb&cat=504)

Robyn, absolutely gorgeous and magical.

[Grace]

Karen, have a wonderful time while you're away.

[Karen]

Thanks Grace, we will.

Karen

[robyn]

You off touring Karen?

[Reene]

Have a good trip. I'll just make a few more orbs!!

[Karen]

You off touring Karen?


LOL - no Robyn, with Michael's back problems our touring days are over as are our coach tour days. We have a voucher for two nights at Preston Beach, half way between Mandurah and Bunbury.

Thanks Renee.

Karen

[Andrea]

Somewhere between the first couple of pages till the last... I thought this was a tips and hint thread... then I seen some comments about going away for a few days.... Oh Well...... Have a good holiday!