Mastering Adobe Photoshop CC

Explore Photoshop essentials, starting with the interface and a cross-platform look at Mac and Windows, and how raster and vector relate to image resolution and bit depth.

Explore the Photoshop interface, from pull-down menus and shortcuts to the options bar, tools, workspaces, and panels, and learn how layers enable nondestructive editing and flexible workflow.

explains mapping between Macintosh and Windows keys, including Cmd to Ctrl, Option to Alt, Return to Enter, and Delete to Backspace, with onscreen guidance for color shortcuts in Photoshop.

Explore the difference between raster images in Photoshop and vector images in Illustrator, and learn how resolution, measured as pixels per linear inch, affects screen and print quality.

Explore how bit depth affects color in photoshop, compare 8-bit and 16-bit channels, and learn how higher bit depth offers greater control for color correction while noting file size implications.

Explore efficiency through Photoshop and color setting preferences, customize menus, use shortcuts to boost productivity, arrange panels, and save personalized workspaces for your workflow.

Explore essential Photoshop preference settings to boost efficiency, covering export clipboard, interface tweaks, memory allocation, scratch disks, and history states for faster, smoother editing.

Learn to synchronize Photoshop settings across devices using cloud sync. Upload and download preferences, workspaces, actions, brushes, and more to keep your workflow consistent anywhere.

Explore the new experimental features manager in Photoshop CC to enable options like multi-tone 3D printing, scaling, and touch gestures, tailoring your workflow.

Set up color settings to synchronize Photoshop with your output device, ensuring consistent colors from monitor to printer or web, using presets like general purpose 2 and Bridge synchronization.

Explore how to customize Photoshop menus by using application menus and edit to tailor items you see, including fade options, color highlighting or visibility, and saving custom menus.

Learn to save time in Photoshop by mastering a focused set of shortcuts (about 12–14 per program) and customizing them via Edit > keyboard shortcuts.

Master Photoshop panel organization by customizing the essentials workspace, dragging and grouping panels like colors, swatches, and styles, and using the tab key and blue lines to arrange them.

Create and manage custom workspaces in Photoshop to align panels and shortcuts with your workflow. Save, reuse, and reset these configurations for speed, control, and creativity.

Learn the difference between embedded and linked smart objects in Photoshop CC, and how to link a logo across multiple documents so updates propagate automatically.

Open and control images in Photoshop through multiple methods, learn to manage image metadata like photographer and editor, and adjust the view with zoom, hand tools, and the navigator panel.

Master the most efficient ways to open images in Photoshop, including drag-and-drop, double-clicking psds, right-click open with, and using file open or Bridge.

Discover how to read and embed image metadata in Photoshop with File Info, using XMP and IPTC data, add keywords, author info, camera details, and export reusable metadata templates.

Change and arrange multiple images in Photoshop, switch between tabs or windows, and use match zoom to synchronize views across all open images.

Master the hand and zoom tools in Photoshop to navigate large images, rotate the view, and fit or fill the window using shortcuts and space-bar panning.

Navigate and zoom images in Photoshop with the navigator panel. Set precise zoom levels, scrub between scales, and jump to spots using Ctrl/Cmd drag.

Explore Adobe Bridge as the backbone for organizing your assets, using favorites, labels, ratings, keywords, and collections for instant access, while tailoring the workspace and preferences to your workflow.

Explore Adobe Bridge as your central organizer for Photoshop workflows, using workspaces, favorites, recents, and camera import. Navigate review mode, refine metadata, keywords, and filtering to sort and manage images.

Organize your Photoshop workflow by customizing workspaces, resizing thumbnails, switching previews and light table layouts, managing metadata and keywords, and saving new workspaces like Andy's for different tasks.

Modify bridge preferences to customize interface, thumbnails, and metadata, control file type associations, manage cache, and enable features like history and contact sheet for efficient image workflows.

Use favorites in Bridge to quickly access ongoing projects and files across drives or cloud without moving them. Drag items to favorites, reveal in Finder, or remove to declutter.

Discover how to organize images in Adobe Bridge using ratings, labels, and keywords, with shortcuts for quick rating changes and a review mode to efficiently identify approved or rejected photos.

Master keywords and collections to organize images in Bridge, creating personal keyword sets, using regular and smart collections, and applying filters and stacks for fast, targeted search.

Learn to manage images in bridge by searching by name or number, renaming and moving files, duplicating with the alt/option key, and batch renaming with metadata preservation and undo.

Organize assets with Bridge as a universal tool for images, documents, and more, using photo merge for panoramas and contact sheets, and load files into Photoshop layers.

Define what a raw file is and explore the Adobe camera raw plugin, including preferences, workflow, sharpening, noise reduction, and saving options that preserve the original.

Explore what camera raw is, how RAW data differs from JPEG and TIFF, and how the Adobe camera raw plug-in unlocks more color information and control over dynamic range.

Configure Adobe Camera Raw preferences via Bridge to tailor cache size, sidecar files, and default image settings to your workflow, ensuring non-destructive edits with DNG and SMP.

Explore the Adobe Camera Raw interface, practicing white balance, cropping, and brush work. Use gradient and radial filters, curves, lens corrections, presets, and snapshots in a non-destructive workflow.

Master camera raw preview features in Photoshop CC with raw plugin and raw filter. Compare before and after using left-right, split, and vertical views, then apply changes to finish edits.

Explore non-destructive basic adjustments in camera raw, including white balance, exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, clarity, vibrance, and saturation, using snapshots to capture and compare image states.

Fix color balance across multiple raw images by using the white balance eyedropper and synchronizing adjustments to all selected photos in Bridge and Photoshop.

Master selective edits in Adobe Camera Raw by adjusting white balance to daylight, using radial and graduated filters to reduce hotspots and brighten edges, and saving non-destructive snapshots.

Generate and apply camera raw presets to reduce luminance noise and preserve details, then save camera raw defaults by serial number for automatic application on Nikon images.

Master the camera raw sharpening and masking in ACR, then save images directly with your preferred formats (DNG, JPEG, TIFF, PSD), choose destination and file naming, without opening Photoshop.

Explore how Photoshop handles color, from color management and calibrated monitors to color sync profiles and color balance techniques. Learn non-destructive color correction, remove color cast, and targeted edits.

Set region-based color settings in Photoshop, choose RGB spaces such as Adobe RGB 1998 or Pro Photo, enable perceptual or relative intent, and save a monitor color preset for print.

Calibrate your monitor using a Spyder to align colors with ambient light, gamma 2.2, and a 6500 kelvin white point for accurate photo output.

Create a color-friendly Photoshop workspace by using distraction-free backgrounds and calibrated monitors; choose solid earth-toned desktop colors to keep focus on color correction.

Balance color using a color balance adjustment layer to tune midtones, shadows, and highlights for non-destructive color correction. Apply opposites on a calibrated monitor to compare before and after.

Fix color casts in photos using Photoshop color balance and levels adjustment layers, guided by the color wheel and neutral midtone samples to balance primary and secondary colors non-destructively.

Learn to use destructive and non-destructive adjustments in Photoshop by employing adjustment layers, fading techniques, and opacity and blending modes to preserve original images and enable easy edits.

Learn nondestructive ways to tint images in Photoshop CC: use black-and-white adjustment layers with color blending, or add a color-filled layer and apply color blending, adjusting opacity.

Master precision color control in Photoshop using a nondestructive hue/saturation adjustment layer, with targeted sky and blue tones, eyedropper tools, and colorize options.

Master the swatches panel in photoshop by saving custom color sets, such as a flesh tone library, and loading colors from websites for design consistency.

Explore new color panel features in Photoshop, including an expanded sample area, brightness cube, and hue cube, to precisely control foreground and background colors and sampling.

Explore layers as the backbone of Photoshop CC, including layer types, grouping, and the background versus regular layers. Learn to stack, copy, merge, and use layers for non-destructive editing.

Explore the layers panel in Photoshop, learn to manage and rename layers, use opacity and fill, work with layer masks and adjustment layers, and organize with groups for precise editing.

Master how to align objects across separate layers in Photoshop using the move tool, multi-layer selection, and alignment and distribution controls, with tips for isolating layers via alt/option click.

Reduce chaos in Photoshop by grouping related layers into a single unit to simplify movement, visibility, and opacity, then learn to create and manage groups from layers.

Learn the difference between background and layer in Photoshop, including how to move, erase, and apply effects on layers, why backgrounds cannot support transparency, and how to convert between them.

Explore stacking order to control which layer shows, and learn efficient ways to copy and delete layers using drag, keyboard shortcuts (bracket keys, ctrl/command+J), and trash handling.

Learn how to reduce layer clutter in Photoshop by merging layers, using merge visible and merge down with shortcuts, while reducing complexity and improving portability.

Master non-destructive layer vignettes using the layers panel, elliptical marquee selections, inverse masking, and gaussian blur to softly frame the subject while preserving the original image.

Discover how to use Photoshop's generate feature to create image assets from one or multi-layer images and organize them into subfolders for GIF, JPEG, and PNG outputs for web design.

Explore blending modes in Photoshop by combining one image in one layer with another, experiment with their effects, and compare opacity versus fill to understand creative results.

Explore how blending modes on layers in Photoshop mix base color with blend color using multiply and screen to darken or lighten and create color effects.

Learn how the normal and dissolve blending modes interact with underlying layers in Photoshop. Dissolve uses semi-transparent pixels to create a random breakup, changing effects such as a vignette.

Explore the difference between opacity and fill in Photoshop, and see how fill preserves layer effects like bevel and emboss while opacity hides the entire layer.

Learn how the darken blending modes in Photoshop compare base and blend colors to darken images, covering darken, multiply, color burn, linear burn, and darker color.

Explore how the lighten blending modes in a Photoshop CC blend layer affect base and blend colors, including lighten, screen, color dodge, linear dodge, and lighter color.

Explore contrast blending modes in Photoshop CC, including overlay, soft light, hard light, vivid light, linear light, pin light, and hard mix, and learn their darken or brighten effects.

Practice applying Photoshop blending modes to a single image, exploring difference, exclusion, subtract, divide, color, saturation, and luminosity to create varied grayscale and colorized results.

Explore how brush blending modes interact with layers in Photoshop, including normal, dissolve, and multiply, and learn to use behind and clear options, brush reset, and eraser-like effects.

Learn to access and manage the most recently used brushes and brush presets in Photoshop, using the presets panel, window menu, and hover details to track modifications.

Explore how brushes in Photoshop CC go beyond painting, using presets and quick mask for precise selections, dodge and burn, and cloning tasks, with visual indicators for modified brushes.

Explore nondestructive editing with adjustment layers in Photoshop CC, learn to adjust exposure and apply adjustments to specific layers using clipping groups, layer masks, and gradients.

Master non-destructive editing in Photoshop using adjustment layers, the adjustments panel, and layers to preserve the original image while applying color, black and white, and other effects.

Adjust image exposure in Photoshop using exposure controls, including offset and gamma correction, as well as levels and curves, with nondestructive adjustment layers and 16-bit channels for flexible edits.

Learn to control adjustments on individual layers in Photoshop CC by separating sky and ground and linking adjustment layers to a single layer using hue/saturation, vibrance, and tint.

Gain precise control over edits with the adjustment layer mask, painting with black, white, or gray to define where the adjustment applies, and refine with density and feathering.

Transfer a customized black and white adjustment between images in Photoshop CC by dragging between documents or saving a black and white preset and applying it.

Master gradient-based masks with adjustment layers to control image adjustments. Create linear and radial gradients on masks, combine multiple gradients with multiply blending to reveal subjects precisely.