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Unmesh Dinda is one of our most popular Photoshop instructors, and in this basic tutorial he demonstrates how add creative effects to a photograph with a simple Photoshop Layer Mask trick.  

Photoshop’s Selection tools offer a variety of ways to improve an image. They enable you to lighten or darken one portion of a scene without affecting the rest of the image, selectively adjust colors, remove distracting elements, or cut out an object from one photo and place it on another.

If you’re like most folks, photographers and “civilians” alike, you probably have a bunch of old family photos lurking in shoeboxes and tattered albums just waiting for some TLC. And because you’re a photographer, relatives will likely solicit your help to restore their often-damaged mementos.

Today’s Photoshop primer is designed to broaden your editing skills by demonstrating how to use simple selection tools that can make a big difference in your photos. Whether you’re creating a fun special effect or engaged in a more “serious” task, the video below explains everything you need to know.

Photoshop has a number of tools for accomplishing similar tasks, and sometime the approach you take is a matter of personal preference. Other times, however, like in the case of Flow, Fill and Opacity, tools may appear to control the same variables but the differences are worth noting.

The darkroom technique of “dodging and burning” an image to selectively manipulate the exposure of a photograph has been around far longer than digital photography. The idea is to “dodge” portions of a scene that are underexposed, and “burn” areas that are overexposed.

Some photographers avoid Layers in Photoshop because of a misconception that this style of editing is overly complicated, but the quick tutorial below demystifies the process in a way that make it possible for inexperienced users to understand and employ. And after barely 10 minutes your edits will be far better than ever before.