Course Highlights


Common Photoshop Shortcuts

Many of you using digital and non digital cameras alike probably have a substantial interest in photograph manipulation. This lesson is for those of you with photo editing software programs such as Photoshop. In this lesson we use Photoshop to manipulate our images. However, the concepts are similar in other photo editing software programs. If you don’t currently have a photo editing software suite consider downloading “the GIMP”. It is a free Photoshop alternative with much of the functionality. Visit their website here

http://www.gimp.org/

Below we are going to introduce you to your digital darkroom. We will explain how to manipulate images, exaggerate certain elements and fix or touch up other elements. This is a great lesson for those of you who want to take your photography to the next level. We’re going to start out by first introducing you to some of the most common Photoshop shortcuts.

Common Photoshop shortcuts

Below you will find some of the most common Photoshop shortcuts.

Ctrl+N -- New Document
Ctrl+O -- Open Document
Ctrl+Tab -- Switch between actively open documents within Photoshop (if you use a tabbed browser, this usually switches tabs in that as well)
Ctrl+A -- Select All
Ctrl+C -- Copy
Ctrl+X -- Cut
Ctrl+V -- Paste
Ctrl+S -- Save
Ctrl+P -- Print
Ctrl+Shift+S -- Save As (this allows you to save the document while adjusting different parameters, such as name, location, file type, compression, etc.)
Ctrl+Z -- Undo
Ctrl+Y -- Redo
Ctrl+Alt+W -- Close all documents

The following are mostly Photoshop-specific.

Ctrl+K -- Toggle Preferences Dialog Box
Ctrl+J -- Duplicate Currently Selected Layer
Ctrl+Shift+N -- Create New Layer
Ctrl+L -- Open "Levels" Dialog Box
Ctrl+Shift+L -- Apply "Auto Levels" (note that this is the same effect as opening the "Levels" Dialog Box and hitting the "Auto" button)
Ctrl+M -- Open "Curves" Dialog Box
Ctrl+F -- Reapply Last Used Filter (it retains the last settings used)
Ctrl+U -- Open Hue/Saturation Dialog Box
Ctrl+B -- Open Color Balance Dialog Box

Ctrl+Alt+Z -- One "Step" Back in History (this is a glorified "Undo"; the number of "steps" that Photoshop remembers can be adjusted in the Preferences Dialog Box)
Ctrl+Shift+Z -- One "Step" Forward in History

Ctrl+R -- Toggle Ruler Display (adjusted in Preferences Dialog Box)
Ctrl+' -- Toggle Grid Display (adjusted in Preferences Dialog Box)
Ctrl+; -- Toggle Guide Display (adjusted in Preferences Dialog Box)

Ctrl+E -- Merge Down (this merges one layer into the one directly below it; it also merges layers in a group or a selection)
Ctrl+Shift+E -- Merge Visible (this merges all layers that are currently visible, indicated by the presence of the little eye icon by the layer thumbnail)

Ctrl+T -- Free Transform
Ctrl+Shift+T -- Reapply Last Used Transform

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Common Photoshop shortcuts
Photoshop: Making circle selections
Rectangle marquee tool
Creating an artificial depth of field
Magnetic lasso tool

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