11 Photoshop Essentials Every Designer Needs to Know

Photoshop is a complex program with many features. However, there are some basic skills that every designer should know in order to create effective graphics. In this blog post, we will discuss 11 Photoshop essentials that every designer should learn. These skills will help you create better graphics for your website, marketing materials, and more!

1. Photoshop Essentials: Cropping

One of the most basic Photoshop essential qualities is cropping. Cropping allows you to remove unwanted parts of an image, and it can be a great way to improve the composition of your photos. Then, use the cropping tool. When cropping, be sure to use the Photoshop crop tool rather than the slice tool. The crop tool will allow you to keep the original aspect ratio of your image intact, while the slice tool will not. To crop an image, go to the “Image” menu and select “Crop.”

2. Photoshop Essentials: Resizing

Resizing images is another basic Photoshop skill that every designer should know. Resizing allows you to change the dimensions or file size of your image. This can be useful when you need to create different versions of an image for different uses. For example, you may need to create a smaller version of an image for use on a website, or a larger version for printing.

3. Photoshop Essentials: Adjusting Brightness and Contrast

Adjusting the brightness and contrast of a photo can be a good way to make it pop. This is especially true for photos that are too dark or too light. To adjust the brightness and contrast of an image, go to the “Image” menu and select “Adjustments.” Then, choose “Brightness/Contrast.” You can also use the “Levels” tool to adjust the levels of an image.

4. Photoshop Essentials: Adjusting Color Levels

In addition to brightness and contrast, you can also adjust the color levels of a photo. This can be a great way to fix problems with color cast, or to simply change the overall color of an image. To adjust the color levels of an image, go to the “Image” menu and select “Adjustments.” Then, choose “Color Levels.”

5. Photoshop Essentials: Working with Layers

Layers are one of the most powerful features in Photoshop. They allow you to make changes to an image without affecting the rest of the image. Layers also let you add text, graphics, and other elements to an image.

6. Photoshop Essentials: Masking

Masking is a Photoshop technique that allows you to isolate parts of a photo. This can be useful when you want to make changes to only certain parts of a photo. For example, you may want to change the color of a person’s shirt without affecting their skin tone. To do this, you would create a mask around the person’s shirt. Then, you could change the color of the shirt without affecting the rest of the image.

7. Photoshop Essentials: Blending Modes

Blending modes are a great way to add interest to your images. They allow you to blend two or more images together to create a new image. There are many different blending modes, each of which produces a different effect. Some of the most popular blending modes include “multiply,” “screen,” and “overlay.”

8. Photoshop Essentials: Sharpening

Sharpening is a Photoshop technique that can be used to make a photo look clearer and more defined. This is especially true for images that are fuzzy or have low contrast. To sharpen an image, go to the “Filter” menu and select “Sharpen.” Then, choose the amount of sharpening you want to apply.

9. Photoshop Essentials: Adding Text

Adding text to an image is a good way to create graphics for your website or blog. Photoshop makes it easy to add text to a photo, and there are many different ways you can do it. But personally, I prefer not to use text in photoshop, but edit the photo in photoshop and then if texts are involved I use, for example, Illustrator or Indesign, because these programs work with vectors, it will be much sharper, more beautiful and so become more professional.

10. Photoshop Essentials: Saving for the Web

When you’re finished creating your image, you’ll need to save it in a format that can be used on the web. The most common file format for web images is JPEG. To save an image as a JPEG, go to the “File” menu and select “Save As.” Then, choose “JPEG” from the drop-down menu. You can also use the “Export” function to save an image as a JPEG.

Photoshop Essentials: Actions and Batch processing

Actions and batch processing can save you a lot of time when you need to perform the same task on multiple images. For example, if you need to resize a group of photos, you can create an action that will automatically resize them for you. Then, you can run the action on all of the photos in one go.

Wrapping Up

These are just a few of the essentials every designer needs to know. Photoshop is an incredibly powerful design tool, and every designer needs to know the basics. In this blog post, we went over the different ways to select and edit images, create layers, use layer masks, and adjust colors and tones. We also briefly touched on some of the more advanced features Photoshop has to offer, like actions and batch processing.

For more tips and tutorials, be sure to check out our blog. Like our last tutorial: HOW TO PHOTOSHOP SOMEONE INTO A PICTURE (QUICKLY AND EASILY )