Photoshop is one of the most commonly used tools by graphic designers, artists and photographer’s around the world. As part of Adobe’s collection of creative products, it is one of the best design tools on the market, but for beginners and those just starting out, its wide array of features can be very overwhelming.
From editing and retouching images, to creating logos, posters and infographics, there is a wealth of things that you can do in Photoshop. Let’s take a closer look at some of the program’s best and newest tools to get you started:
The Object Selection Tool
The smart object selection tool, a new feature from photoshop, is similar to the old quick selection tool and is found under the same spot on the toolbar. This new tool allows you to select an object, automatically correcting itself to frame the subject in question. This allows you to easily delete and remove certain parts of your image or duplicate them into a new layer where you can change or edit them separately from the rest of your image.
Masking
A favourite tool of many designers, Photoshop’s masking tools all you to hide or show specific areas in an image, similar to the object selection tool. Through masking you can easily remove backgrounds or make certain objects stand out. Photoshop offers a range of masking options which include creating masks in various shapes, such as letters.
Liquify Tool
Photoshop’s liquify tool allows you to distort or wrap parts of a photo, design or drawing. This is a simple way to quickly transform an image or modify shapes with a face aware feature build in specifically for portraits.
Image Adjustments
The adjustment panel is another frequently used one of Photoshop’s tools. It is here where many photographers work to add small adjustments to their images. By adjusting the curves, levels, hue and saturation of your image, you can drastically affect the color and tonal values of any image.
Measure Tool
Photoshop’s measuring tool is extremely useful for anyone that needs to create accurate drawings that reflect real dimensions, such as maps that are to scale or interior designers creating floor plan layouts. The measure tool in Photoshop lets you measure the length and width, while creating specific angles.
Spot Healing Brush
Photoshop’s spot healing brush is an absolute miracle worker. This tool can easily be used to magically get rid of any unwanted marks on your image that might have been caused by dust, bugs or fine hairs. It can also be used to fix facial blemishes or get rid of unwanted parts of an image, such as unsightly power lines and cables.
Clone Tool
The clone tool allows you to select a sample patch from an image and clone that patch elsewhere in an image. This would be an amazing tool for repeating great bets online! Much like the spot healing brush tool, this can be used to remove parts of an image you don’t want, for instance a brown patch of grass, or add in parts that you deem to missing, for example an extra glass at a table.