Photoshop Alt+Ctr+Shift+E

TechBloxWriter — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 09:50:09 +0000

You created many layers and want to apply some effect or adjustment to all of them. What do you do? Ctr+Alt+Shit+E = Magic.

Here I have two layers that need to be pimped.

Hit Ctr+Alt+Shift+E to merge all visible layers into a new one.
Now I can try out some pimping without affecting the original layers. Weehoo.

Photoshop – Use Quick Mask Mode!

TechBloxWriter — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 04:00:32 +0000

Throughout the whole Adobe Creative Suites, masks are among the most important editing tools. In particular, Photoshop provides a quick mask mode, which allows for creating a suitable mask on the current layer fast and comfortably.

We wish to darken the borders of an image in a smooth manner. This can be achieved in probably a hundred thousand ways or more, but I shall present the Quick-Mask-Mode-way.

Select an area using the Marquee Tool (M).

Enter Quick Mask Mode (Q).
To edit the mask you can use any brush, shape, text, filters, etc. Let’s apply a Gaussian blur filter.
Invert the mask (Ctr+I).
Exit Quick Mask Mode (Q).
Edit the masked image to your liking. Open the Levels dialog (Ctr+L) and move the black point slider and the midtone slider up.

Sweet.

Btw: the picture was taken at the Santa Barbara City College.

TechBlox » Photoshop

Photoshop Alt+Ctr+Shift+E

Photoshop – Use Quick Mask Mode!