Photoshop - The Ultimate Beginner's Course: Complete Guide

Learn how the Photoshop tool panel and top menu adapt to each tool, master keyboard shortcuts like V, M, and W, and explore essential options for quick selection and crop.

Switch between multiple Photoshop images and view each document’s size and zoom settings, while using windows layouts to compare files side by side.

Learn to zoom and pan around an image in Photoshop using the zoom tool and hand tool, with shortcuts Z and H, to navigate at 100 percent and beyond.

Master Photoshop layers by creating and naming multiple layers and groups, using the layer panel, toggling visibility, and adjusting opacity and fill to build a composed image.

Change background color with the paint bucket tool or color overlay, using the color picker or hex/RGB values, and add a background image by dragging a layer into the document.

Create shapes in Photoshop using rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, polygon, line, and custom shape tools, applying fill, stroke, and vector-based shapes.

Master the free transform tool to scale, rotate, skew, and distort layers, using corner handles and holding shift for precise angles, while understanding vector versus image resolution.

Learn to create borders in Photoshop using strokes, solid colors, and gradients, with shape tools and layer styles, and adjust border size, color, and stroke type.

Apply and customize layer styles in Photoshop to make text and images pop, using color overlay, shadows, stroke, and quick copy-paste of layer styles.

Save your Photoshop documents as you work, using save as or save shortcuts, and choose between local or cloud storage while preserving layers and color profiles.

Enable and view the history panel to track up to 50 actions in a Photoshop document, and jump back to any previous state to undo or redo edits.

Explore Photoshop auto corrections, including auto tone, auto contrast, and auto color, and learn a practical workflow for importing from a camera card and applying adjustments.

Adjust brightness and contrast to fix underexposed and overexposed images, balancing highlights and blacks. Save as to keep a copy, apply non-destructive adjustments, and preview changes before finalizing.

Learn to adjust brightness and contrast in Photoshop using a non-destructive adjustment layer, modify properties, toggle visibility, and target specific image areas.

Brighten a targeted area using a layer mask and brightness/contrast adjustment. Learn to select with object or quick selection tools, duplicate and invert layers, and refine masking for smooth transitions.

Learn how to perform color adjustments in Photoshop, fix color casts, boost saturation and vibrance, and selectively recolor parts of an image using selection techniques.

Learn to fix color balance in Photoshop by using the color balance filter, adjusting midtones, shadows, and highlights, and balancing RGB opposites to correct blue, yellow, and green casts.

Explore how hue and saturation define colors in Photoshop, using the hue wheel and saturation triangle, and learn to isolate colors with a color picker and adjustment layer.

Discover how to change the color of a specific area by creating a selection, duplicating the layer, and adjusting hue and saturation, guided by the color wheel.

Learn how vibrance differs from saturation and use a vibrance adjustment to boost color while preserving natural skin tones, often alongside slight saturation on an adjustment layer.

Learn to replace colors in Photoshop by using replace color with hue and saturation adjustments, and by refining selections with color range and the plus eyedropper for precise results.

Learn to open raw images in Photoshop and adjust them with Camera Raw to achieve the look you want.

Explore camera raw basics and adjust luminance by tweaking exposure, shadows, and highlights, using auto or manual controls, white balance, and color temperature to balance a photo.

Explore camera raw profile options like adobe color and adobe vivid, use lens correction to fix distortion, and save as a DNG for seamless editing in Photoshop.

Master selections and cropping in Photoshop by using the lasso, marquee, and selection tools to precisely isolate elements, apply adjustments, and crop for horizon or perspective corrections.

Learn to use marquee and other selection tools in Photoshop, unlock layers, duplicate selections with cmd/ctrl j, and refine selections with add, subtract, and spacebar moves.

Master the lasso tool and selection techniques in Photoshop, including new selections, adding to, subtracting, and intersecting, then copy selections to new layers and adjust color with hue/saturation.

Master object selection, quick selection, and the magic wand in Photoshop to quickly select subjects, refine edges, and place them on a new background.

Learn how to crop and straighten images in Photoshop using the crop tool, adjust aspect ratios like 16x9 or 1x1, and manage layers to preserve or delete cropped pixels.

Use the straighten tool inside the crop tool to fix a crooked horizon by dragging the horizon line. Press enter to apply crop and straighten.

Learn how to use the perspective crop tool in Photoshop to remove perspective distortion and transform angled photos into a two-dimensional, frontal, poster-like view by adjusting the corners.

Explore how to use Photoshop's built-in brushes to paint with precision. Learn how brushes underpin skin retouching and practice painting techniques to achieve professional retouched skin.

Explore how to use the brush tool in Photoshop, reset tools, adjust brush size and color, set hardness, and understand spacing for smooth lines.

Master brush settings in Photoshop, including opacity, flow, smoothing, and symmetry, and explore how blend modes and pressure sensitivity affect your strokes for dynamic painting.

Explore changing brush types in Photoshop, adjusting size, hardness, spacing, and opacity. Preview presets, experiment with a flower pattern, and use bracket shortcuts to resize quickly.

Learn to use the eyedropper tool to pick colors from an image, see foreground color update, and adjust brush size, hardness, and opacity while understanding this isn’t retouching.

Master object removal in Photoshop by using the patch tool to replace marked areas with other image parts, and refine with the spot healing brush in content aware mode.

Master printing basics and exporting workflows in Photoshop, using export as to save for web or social media, while learning how image size and resolution affect exporting for printing.

Explore how resolution affects image size and quality in Photoshop, learn upscaling and downscaling from 72 to 300 ppi, and compare automatic versus preserve detail options including preserve detail 2.0.

Learn how to save and export in Photoshop, using export as to create jpg files, adjust quality, scale, and color space for web use.

Learn how to save images as PNG with transparency for logos and web use, compare PNG with JPEG, and explore export options, quick export, and legacy save-for-web settings.

Apply Photoshop basics through hands-on practice, exploring color changes, black-and-white converts, isolations, and layer masks, using test images from pixels.com to reinforce skills.