Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers

Today, I am going to tell you about the ‘top 10 Photoshop hacks for beginner photographers.’ Filming behind, there are gigabytes of photos on the memory card. The next step is processing. Where to begin? How to remove unnecessary colors, crop, and tone the picture? How to increase sharpness? I am sharing life hacks in Photoshop that will quickly help you improve your work and apply some excellent effects in no time.

How to Sharpen Photos in Photoshop?

In post-processing, sharpness is a tremendous visual trick. When we raise it, the photo does not become sharper and does not lose focus. It is an illusion that Photoshop creates by increasing micro-contrast.

Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers
Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers

The contrast, in this case, is the degree of difference between light and dark. Micro contrast is the same, but only on the scale of a couple of pixels and not on the whole light and shade in the picture.

Steps to Sharpening Photos in Photoshop

  1. Open Photoshop and find in the top menu bar Filter.
  2. In the dropdown list, select the section Sharpness/Sharpen, and then Smart sharpening/Smart sharpen.
  3. In the window that appears, all the work happens with three sliders:
  • Radius. It affects how thick the sharpening halos will be. Stick to a range of 0.5 pixels for small photos to 1.2 pixels for large images. You can set the average value to 1 pixel and leave this slider untouched – the program will remember this setting.
  • Reduce Noise. Reduces noise roughness in areas of the image with no contrasting borders. For example, you want to increase the sharpness but do not affect the skin. Then raise the value of this slider.

When you set the desired values, press Ok or the Enter button, which will apply the effect.

Tips: Sharpen at the very end of the work on the image. Without points, it will be easier to work with the skin if you retouch it.

You may also like to read: 20 Best Photo Processing Steps in Sequence for Quality Photos

How to Crop an Image in Photoshop?

The suitable composition helps to make the photo more expressive and direct the viewer’s eye in the right direction. The tool Frame/Croop Tool will help you crop the extra parts of the frame and harmoniously compose the picture.

Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers
Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers

To do this, that has grids that will tell you how to crop a picture according to the rules of composition, for example, according to the rules of thirds or the golden ratio.

Steps to Crop an Image in Photoshop

  1. Open the desired file in Photoshop, and on the left panel, find the Frame/Crop Tool.
  2. Move the frame that appears around the corner, horizontal or vertical edge, to get the desired crop.
  • Amount (Effect). It will show how much the sharpness will rise.

Tips:

  • To crop was proportional, that is, the vertical and horizontal sides changed simultaneously, hold down Shift.
  • Do Not click the Delete Cropped Pixels button. In this case, Photoshop will leave the cropped parts of the image in memory. It is helpful if, during processing, it became clear that the cropping was not the best and needed to be redone.
  • If you did not finish processing, save the file. PSD format turned off the computer and returned to it later; Photoshop will not erase the cropped areas. With files in .JPEG and other formats this does not work after closing Photoshop.

How to Flatten the Horizon in Photoshop?

Open the desired file in Photoshop, and on the left panel, find the Frame/Crop Tool. A light frame will surround the photo. That’s the way it should be. Now we need to level the horizon.

Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers
Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers

There are two ways, semi-automatic and manual:

1. Find the tool Level/Straighten in the panel at the top and use it to draw a horizontal or vertical line along the line of the object, which should be vertical or horizontal. The horizon will align itself along the specified line.

2. Move the mouse cursor outside the photo to any corners. Press the left mouse button and, without releasing it, move the mouse. You will see a grid with horizontal and vertical guidelines. In addition, the frame and photo will rotate relative to each other.

Align the horizontal or vertical guides with what you want the image to be vertical or horizontal. For example, a traffic light or a road sign must be strictly vertical. Press Enter to apply the correction.

How to Take a Vertical or Square Photo for Instagram in Photoshop?

Here, I tell you how to quickly make a trendy vertical or square crop for Instagram in just a couple of clicks.

  1. Open the desired file in Photoshop, and on the left panel, find the Frame/Crop Tool.
  2. Find the dropdown list in the top panel with Original Proportions/Original Ratio.
  3. Select an aspect ratio of 4:5. It is the currently accepted vertical photo format for Instagram posts. For lovers of the classics, a ratio of 1:1 is suitable. It is a square crop.
Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers
Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers

The method is convenient since you do not need to monitor the aspect ratio – the program does everything itself. You can move the cropping area using the mouse or the arrows on the keyboard. Trim excess by pulling on either side.

How to Make an Image Black and White in Photoshop?

You can convert a photo to black and white in Photoshop in almost a dozen ways. I will show two – the fastest and the most flexible in customization and creativity.

Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers
Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers

Instant Conversion to Black and White

In the Layers palette, find the black and white circle – the tab with adjustment layers. Grab the Hue/Saturation tool. In the window that opens, move the slider Saturation/Saturation to a value of – 100. It is a method with flexible black and white settings.

In the same palette, Layers/Layers go to the tab with adjustment layers and select Black&White. The picture will immediately become monochrome.

Color sliders allow you to adjust the brightness of a color if it was in a color image. For example, if the model had red lips, then in black and white, you can lighten or darken them.

How to Remove a Specific Color in Photoshop?

Does a shining bright sign against the background of a model interfere, which draws all the attention? Or maybe you want to repeat fashionable tinting when there are only one or two colors in the photo? Here’s how to remove a specific color in Photoshop.

Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers
Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers

Steps to Remove a Specific Color in Photoshop

  • In the Layers palette, find the Adjustment Layers tab. Grab the Hue/Saturation tool.
  • Click on the Master tab. You will see a dropdown menu with all the primary colors.
  • Click sequentially on those colors you do not need in the photo. Going into each color, remove the Saturation/Saturation parameter to a value of – 100. So gradually you will have only those colors that you need as planned.

Using this method, you can remove the color and change the shade of the existing one. To do this, select a color from the dropdown list, but instead of the Saturation slider, move the Hue/Hue slider.

Toning in Photoshop

Toning sets the mood for the picture, quickly makes the photo more spectacular and allows you to design the entire social network feed in one color scheme.

There are dozens of ways to tone in Photoshop. For example, in the text, where we talk in detail about working with curves, there are also several recipes for quickly toning a photo. Let’s look at two more alternative ways.

Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers
Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers

Gradient Map

It is a tool that is used for split-toning. Split toning is when highlights and shadows are colored in two different colors. For example, red is added to the highlights, and purple is added to the clouds.

  1. In the Layers/Layers palette, take the tool Gradient Map in the tab with adjustment layers.
  2. Choose any of the presented gradients, create your own, or download a set from the Internet.
  3. Find a suitable gradient. Sometimes, to make the tinting look better, you need to change the colors in which the shadows and lights are painted in some places. To do this, check the Reverse checkbox in the palette.
  4. You can refine split-toning in two ways:
  • Reduce the opacity of the layer so that the effect is not so strong;
  • Put the layer in a different blending mode. As a rule, Overlay/Overlap or Soft Light work well. Often, when switching blending modes, a layer still needs to lower its opacity.

Toning One Color with Photo Filter

Photo Filter brings a tint of one color to the photo. With it, for example, you can quickly add sepia or bring in any other color.

  1. In the Layers/Layers palette, in the tab with adjustment layers, find Photo Filter.
  2. Select a color from the presets in the Filter/Filter menu, or click on the Color/Color box and select a color of any hue, brightness, and saturation.

Freckles in Photoshop

We want to enhance this effect when we photograph a model with freckles. Let’s look at an easy way to reveal freckles in Photoshop with just one layer.

Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers
Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers
  1. In the Layers/Layers palette, find the tab with adjustment layers. Grab the Channel Mixer tool.
  2. Check the Monochrome checkbox. Set the Red slider to negative values ​​(-10 to -50 will do) and Blue to positive values ​​(up to +120).
  3. Put the layer in blending mode Soft light.
  4. Invert the layer mask with Channel Mixer. For example, using the hotkeys Ctrl+I. The mask will turn black.
  5. Using a white brush, paint the effect to remain only on the freckles.

How to Make a Tan in Photoshop?

Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers
Top 10 Photoshop Hacks for Beginner Photographers
  1. In the Layers/Layers palette, take the tool Color/Solid Color.
  2. The palette will open. You need a color that will imitate a tan. Look for it in a range of reds, oranges, and yellows.
  3. Put the layer in blending mode Soft light. Invert the layer mask Color/Solid Color and paint a tan on the skin with a brush.

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