Peter Bauer

This Cheat Sheet is handy to keep nearby when you're working in Photoshop as a quick reference to selection tricks, layer-merging tricks, filter gallery colors, and troubleshooting tips.Troubleshooting in Photoshop CCWhen you run into a problem with Photoshop CC, like the program won’t do what you want it to, or Photoshop simply won’t do anything, try these quick fixes to troubleshoot: When Photoshop tools don’t work Deselect.

When cleaning up photos in Photoshop CC, large challenges sometime require drastic measures, such as duplicate layers and layer masks. Take a look at the following figure. At the top left, you see the “before” photo: at the top right, the “after” image. Below are images from three key steps in the process.Here are the steps taken to remove the boy from the group photo: Decide what needs to go and how best to cover it.

Sometimes in Photoshop CC you need to copy/paste over something that needs to be removed from a photo. The Clone Stamp tool is usually faster and easier than working with selection. One of the keys to using the Clone Stamp tool is keeping an eye on your work.Zoom in close so you can work precisely, but choose Window→Arrange→New Window for [filename].

Painting certainly has a place in your arsenal of Photoshop skills, even if you never create an image from scratch. Painting. The word evokes images of brushes and palettes and color being precisely applied to canvas. Or, perhaps, images of drop cloths, ladders, rollers, and buckets — color being slopped on a wall and spread around.

The Brush Settings panel in Photoshop CC, like the Layer Style dialog box, has a column on the left that lists options. Like the Layer Style dialog box, you mark the check box to activate the feature, but you have to click the name to open that pane in the panel.As you can see in this figure, the Brush Settings panel menu offers very few commands, whereas the Brush panel menu includes variations in how to display the panel content, some housekeeping commands for resetting/loading/saving brushes, and a list of brush sets in the bottom half of the menu.

The Styles panel in Photoshop CC is hidden by default. Choose Window→Styles to make it visible. This panel, which you see with its menu open in this figure, is where you find and store layer styles and is the easiest way to apply a layer style to your active layer.When you first open the Styles panel, you see four sets: Basics, Natural, Fur, and Fabric.

Photoshop CC offers basic shape tools for working with your images and artwork. Rectangles, rectangles with rounded corners (rounded rectangles), circles and ovals, multisided polygons, straight lines and arrows, and a whole boatload of special custom shapes are all at your command with a simple click-drag.Select the appropriate tool in the Toolbox, select the desired options in the Options bar, and click-drag to create your object.

The custom shapes already available in Photoshop cover a wide range, but they might not fill all your needs. You can purchase commercial collections of custom shapes from a couple of sources. You can create custom paths and define shapes from them, too.But you’ve already got bunches of custom shapes on your computer, just waiting for you to use them.

Here you are, the proud owner of the world’s state-of-the-art image editor, Photoshop CC, and now you’re adding text, setting type, and pecking away on the keyboard. You’re faced with a lot of variables.Which options are you going to need all the time? Which ones are you going to need now and then? Which ones can you ignore altogether?