10)The Image Arrangement shortcut provides a wealth of options for displaying several concurrently open images on screen. The first four icons across the top allow: Single Image, All Tiles, All Vertical Tiles, and All Horizontal Tiles respectively.Then there are 16 special layouts for displaying multiple images. I find 3 Vertical tiles or 3 Horizontal tiles useful when I am working with three bracketed images from my camera. Finally the Match Zoom and Location command is helpful to get all 3 images lined up - so to speak.

11) The Screen Mode shortcut is very useful switchjng between Full Screen mode (no menus, no panels, no toolbar - but all the keyboard shortcuts are available. Remember that the ESC or "F" keys will return Photoshop to Standard Screen Mode. I find the Full Screen Mode with Menu Bar much more useful - but only if you have collapsed or iconized all the panels in use. Otherwise the panels take up too much of the workspace. Again, ESC or "F" key returns to the standard screen.

12)TheCrop tool allows a user to kill three birds with one crop. By setting the Width and Height readings plus the Resolution setting, during cropping, the image will be constrained to meet the desired Width + Height aspect ratio. Then when the Crop is approved the image will be cropped and resized to the chosen Width + height while maintaining the requested DPI resolution. Coupled with an Action macro - this can save lots of time preparing images for Web usage or printing.

13)The second part of the Crop workflow occurs after you have made your intial choice for the crop. The Property Bar changes to allow for another nifty operation - setting the perspective for the crop. This allows users to make a flat object like a painting or poster look like it was taken flat on or perfectly perpendicular. Just make sure the Perspective checkbox is clicked. Than just drag and drop the corner icons to fit the painting, building facade or image space you want to project. This is very handy; however- realize the more the distortion, the more radical the results. Also make sure you have enough pixels. Rule of thumb - double the final pixels in the original.


14) After working for awhile and getting the various toolbars and panels set up exactly the way you want - wouldn't it be nice to save the layout of the Photoshop UI for the next time you used the program. Well that is what the Windows | Workspace | Save Workspace command(see yellow highlight in the screenshot to the left) allows users to do. And of course you can give your persoanl namespace a name - see my brushset and whichtype saved workspaces at the top of the menu. I have seen users with over a dozen saved workspaces for specialized color correction or touch up workflows.

15)If you are willing to save the layout of Photoshop into a personalized "your-own-named workspace" - why stop there?
Use the Keyboard Shortcuts & Menus command to customize the menus and/or keyboard shortcuts (like SHIFT+CTRL +C for the Curves command).

Users can change the Shortcut Key to any menu command. As well users can add and subtract items from the dropdown menus or create their own. You can tell when you have become a Photoshop pro - it is when you feel to make yourself maximally efficient, you have to edit the Shortcuts and/or the default Photoshop menu layout.

Styling Tips

Many Photoshop users leave the styling capabilities on the table - only the truth and veritas of the image must stand itself and alone agther praise and admiration. These last 5 tips are dedicated to those that see Photo Finishing as a kind of poetry - in which the emotional tone of the image is brought to full expression.

16)Use the Free Transform Warp tool - the warp tool allows a photo composition to be molded into an expression. To trigger the Warp option first choose Edit | Free Transform then click on the Warp icon on the top right of the property bar [highlighted in yellow]. Next click on the preset Warps pulldown that are provided by Photoshop and choose Warp style - I often use this just as astarting point for a custom warp design.
17)Use a Selection/Mask plus underlying layer with Warp Tool - this combination allows one to reveal selectively whats on the layer below. Only the Masked part of the top layer is moved/warped as you can see in the screen shot above. This allows for a pleasing "denoument".


18)Use Adobe Plugins - In this case it is the Organic Edges plugin from Flaming Pear and this plugin really adds dramatic coloring and styling to the image. See our review of Flaming Pears plugins here and Organic Edges here.


19)Take advantage of Layers Blend Options - This is a natural when exposing an under layer as in this case. The whole trick of photo compositions is using transparency, judicious cropping and layer stylings. In this case the Drop Shadow and Outer Glow blend options have been used.
20)Take advantage of gradient presets - the Gradients command allows for a whole array of user and Adobe predefined gradients. And these gradients are then available in a number of finishing tools like the Outer Glow blend option here. Thin line gradients add provocative coloring as in this image.

As one can see, Photoshop CS4 is so rich it is easy to add dozens of favorite tips to your reportoire of commands. I find Photoshop to be a most welcome tool precisely because of this richness plus its speed and stability.

Summary

In the last two editions of their Graphics Suites, Adobe has recognized that to be able to sell their suites as a Master Collection, they will have to standardize the interface in order to reduce the learning curve for users that need to switch among Flash, Fireworks, InDesign, PremierPro, Photoshop, etc. These tips show some of the key ways that Adobe has delivered on that goal. In addition, Adobe has made working within the GUI more useful. There are two areas that still are outstanding. First, Adobe does not allow users to create icons shortcuts for their commands as say in Corel's PaintShop. This user finds icons very useful for latching onto to creative tools. Thus Adobe's move to iconized Panels is appreciated.

But Adobe has another underlying mess lurking. Photoshop is the prime example. There are at least 4 different macro commands systems including VBA, JavaScript, Actions, and the new Pixel Blender among others for extending and/or customizing Photoshop. With the purchase of Macromedia and its very strong, cross platform Extension system using JavaScript I thought that a common macro command system would finally arrive at Adobe - not so yet. Still the improvements to the Adobe GUI interfaces are very helpful, making moving among the different Apps, keyed on the main role that Photoshop plays, a lot easier.