COLINSMITH
> Photoshop Tips BOOST YOUR PRODUCTIVITY & CREATIVITY Hello, everyone! Welcome to this issue’s “Photoshop Tips.” In this edition, we’re looking at some features that are brand-new to Photoshop, as well as some that are as old as the (digital) hills. You should try all of these for yourself; I’m sure there’s something in this article you’ll want to incorporate into your workflow.
> PHOTOSHOP USER > AU G U ST 202 0
CHANGING THE SIZE AND ANGLE OF TEXTURES It’s amazing how much visual interest simple textures can add to a design or composition. Since Photoshop 2020, these can now be managed from the Patterns panel (Window>Patterns). To apply a texture is as simple as dragging the pattern from the panel to the canvas. To change the size and angle of the texture, double-click on the Pattern Fill layer’s thumbnail in the Layers panel. In the Pattern Fill dialog, you now have Scale and Angle options for adjusting the way the texture is applied. If you scale the texture smaller than your document, it will tile.
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CLICK IN THE CANVAS TO ACTIVATE A LAYER Selecting layers is something we do all the time in Photoshop. If you have lots of layers and layer groups, it can be difficult to find the correct layer in the Layers panel, especially if you didn’t name them (or even if you did name them). Here’s the fastest way I know to select layers (and it’s the way I use all the time): Choose the Move tool (V), and up in the Options Bar, make sure Auto-Select is off. Set the drop-down to the right of Auto-Select to Layer (not Group). All you need to do now is hold down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and click on a layer on the canvas to make it active. When you hold down Command (PC: Ctrl) and move your cursor around the document, you’ll see pink smart guides appear around the various layers, which will help you target the correct layer before you click. Note: The reason I turn off Auto-Select is simple: If I want to drag the selected layer, I don’t want to accidentally select a different layer each time I click.
KEEPING THE ERASER SIZE THE SAME IN ADOBE CAMERA RAW If you’ve ever used the local adjustment tools in Camera Raw (the Radial and Graduated filters or the Adjustment Brush), you probably know they come with an eraser, which allows you to paint away the adjustment. The eraser can be activated by holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key. One way I use the Adjustment Brush is to go a little loose with painting on a difficult area, and then erase the “overspray.” One thing that can be frustrating is that the eraser doesn’t scale with the brush; you can enlarge the brush, but the eraser stays the same. If you find this annoying, here’s how you can lock the eraser so it’s always the same size as the brush. With a local adjustment tool active, click on the three-dot icon at the top right of the panel and turn off Separate Eraser Size.
TURN OFF SMOOTHING FOR BETTER BRUSH PERFORMANCE Have you ever been painting or retouching with the Brush tool (B) and found it to be laggy—I mean really laggy? Some people might think that the Brush tool is broken but, believe it or not, this is a feature. No, not the Slow Brush feature, but Smoothing. For people who do illustration in Photoshop, it smooths out the lines by reducing the little jiggles and simplifying the brushstrokes. Of course, this causes lag. When
