Photoshop How To

Sometimes it takes a familiar example to clarify the difference between two similar concepts, like in the video below. Photoshop expert Unmesh Dinda provides a clear understanding about the strengths and weaknesses of Photoshop’s Levels and Curves tools by comparing them to a simple calculator and a more advanced scientific calculator.

In basic terms, Luminosity masks are selections based upon the brightness (or darkness) of various portions of a scene. As you’ll see in the quick tutorial below, they enable you to discretely select the bright, dark, or midtone pixels in an image and then make whatever adjustments you desire.

One very common Photoshop task is making selections that are used for a variety of purposes during the editing process. We’ve featured tutorials on this several times in the past, but the video below is all about a specific refinement that’s easy to accomplish and will vastly improve your results.

If you’ve ever seen beautiful sunbeams piercing through the trees in a forest, you know much they can add to the impact of a photograph. The tutorial below shows you how to add natural-looking light rays to an image when the sun isn’t in the right position to capture the effect in-camera.

Have you ever noticed an ugly white edge around an object in a photograph? This so-called “fringing” can ruin the appearance of an otherwise nice shot, and in the video below you’ll learn two simple methods for eliminating these distractions in Photoshop.

Sometimes you come across a great scene, apart from the fact that two or more objects in the frame are too close together for an ideal composition. In some situations it’s possible to rectify the problem by changing your vantage point, but if that’s not possible there’s a quick editing fix.

Using long exposures during the day is a great way to create unique landscape and nature photos. This technique results in an ethereal look, with soft, dreamy water and cotton-like clouds. The typical approach is using ND filters to dramatically reduce the amount of light entering the camera, but there’s a post-processing trick for getting the job done.