Julieanne Kost's Blog

With the On-image tool selected on the Curves Adjustments panel (that’s the one that looks like the hand with the up/down arrow – otherwise known as the “scrubby slider”, as oppose to any of the eyedropper tools), Shift + (plus) will select the next point on the curve and Shift + (minus) will select the previous point.  Shift -click multiple points on the curve to select more than one and move them all at once. Command (Mac) / Control (Win) + D will deselect all selected points.

With the On-image tool selected on the Curves Adjustments panel (that’s the one that looks like the hand with the up/down arrow – otherwise known as the “scrubby slider”, as oppose to any of the eyedropper tools), hovering the cursor in the image area will display a preview circle (bouncing ball) over the corresponding value on the curve.
• Click in the image area to add a point to the curve.
• Click and drag up/down in the image area to add a point on the curve to lighten/darken the targeted value or
• Use the up / down or left/right arrows to move the selected point. (Add the shift key to move it in larger increments.)

If a Curves Adjustment layer is targeted in the Layers panel, selecting the flyout on the Adjustments panel reveals the “Curves Display Options”. Here, you can choose to show your numeric values on a scale from 0-255 (light) or 0-100% (ink), Channel Overlays, Histogram, Baseline and Intersection Line.

You’ll be amazed how much faster you can fine tune your images with the new Adjustments and Masks Panel in Photoshop CS4. Julieanne Kost shows you how in this video tutorial – The New Adjustments and Masks Panels in Photoshop CS4.

Although I prefer the interactively and simplicity of the Adjustments panel in PSCS4, sometimes I add adjustment layers the “old fashion way” – by Option (Mac) / Alt (Win) -clicking the Adjustment Layer icon on the Layers panel. This method displays the New Layer dialog box which allows for a variety of options including naming layers, color coding of layers and the selection of “blend modes” and opacity.

When working with the Adjustments panel, holding the backslash key, displays a temporary preview of the unadjusted state of a document.  (It’s like unchecking the Preview check box temporarily – so you have to have made a change to the adjustment for this to work.)  Because of the need to distinguish a tap from a hold, there’s a slight delay before the results of the hold behavior become visible.

Clipping masks are most commonly used when an adjustment needs to be applied to a single layer in a multi-layer document. For example, if you have a triptych of images (each on their own layer) within a single document and need to brighten only one of the images, you can add an adjustment layer and “clip” it so that it only effects that single layer.

The easiest way to “clip” an adjustment layer to the layer below it is to target the layer that needs the adjustment in the Layers panel, then click the clipping icon at the bottom of the Adjustment panel before adding the adjustment, (or, if you forget, you can click the clipping the icon after adding the adjustment at the bottom of the Adjustment panel). As you make the adjustment, you will notice that the modification is only effecting the layer that the adjustment is “clipped” to.

Another use of clipping masks is to clip content suce as a photo to a shape such as type. In order to do this, put the type layer under the photo layer on the Layer’s panel, target the type layer (by clicking in it in the Layer’s panel) and select Command-Opt (Mac) / Control-Alt (Win) + G to create a Clipping Mask.

Or, on the Layers panel, hold the Option (Mac) / Alt (Win) key and position the cursor over the line that separates the two layers in the Layer’s panel. When you see the icon switch to a triangle with two overlapping circles -click to create a Clipping Mask.

You can have multiple layers clipped to a base layer. Visually, you will know that the layers are clipped because the bottom most layer’s name will be underlined in the Layers panel, and the clipped layer(s) will be indented with an arrow pointing downwards towards the base layer.

Quickly select all of your Type layers by targeting one in the Layers panel and then choose Select > Similar Layers. This also works with Adjustment layers, Fill layers, Smart Objects etc.

In this training video, (Creative Retouching Techniques and Edge Effects in Photoshop), you will discover how to to completely change the look and feel of a photograph with some simple retouching, creative adjustments, and the addition of edges and texture.