5 Photoshop TRICKS in 90 SECONDS!! Useful Tricks That You Probably Don’t Know
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Your choices stick across every tutorial on this device.
These five quick Photoshop tricks take about 90 seconds to learn and save you clicks on every project after that.
These quick Photoshop tricks are for anyone who opens Photoshop every day and wants fewer steps, from beginners to working retouchers.
None of them needs a plugin or a download. Every one is already built into Photoshop.
The video was recorded in Photoshop CC 2018, and all five tricks work the same way in the latest version of Photoshop.
Key Takeaways
- The Eyedropper Tool samples any color on your screen if you start the click inside the canvas and drag outside Photoshop.
- Window > Arrange > New Window for opens a second view of the same document, so one window can stay zoomed in while the other stays zoomed out.
- Hold Shift while you choose Select > Select and Mask to open the old Refine Edge dialog box.
- A Black and White adjustment layer on the Luminosity blending mode keeps the color, and its sliders control the brightness of each color.
- Renaming a PSD to PSDT makes a template. Photoshop opens a fresh copy each time and never touches the original.
Table of contents
- What You Will Learn
- Requirements
- Trick 1: Pick Colors From Outside Photoshop
- Trick 2: One Photoshop Document in Two Windows
- Trick 3: Bring Back Refine Edge in Photoshop
- Trick 4: Black and White Sliders on Luminosity
- Trick 5: Make Your Own Photoshop Templates (PSDT)
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Quick Photoshop Tricks Worth Keeping
- Related Links
What You Will Learn
- How to pick a color from any app on your screen with the Eyedropper Tool
- How to view one document in two windows at two different zoom levels
- How to open the Refine Edge dialog box that Select and Mask replaced
- How to brighten or darken single colors with a Black and White adjustment layer
- How to turn any PSD into a reusable Photoshop template
Requirements
Before you start
- Photoshop CC 2018 or the latest version of Photoshop
- Any image
Trick 1: Pick Colors From Outside Photoshop
The Eyedropper Tool reads the color under your cursor and makes it your Foreground color. Most people only ever use it inside the canvas.
It can also read any color on your screen. That includes a website in your browser, a logo in a PDF, or a swatch in another app.
Move the Photoshop application frame to the side, so the other app is visible next to it.
Select the Eyedropper Tool. Click inside the canvas and keep the mouse button held down.
Still holding, drag the cursor out of Photoshop and over the color you want. The Foreground color updates as you move. Let go when it shows the color you want.
Note: The click has to start inside the canvas. If you click on the other app first, that app takes the click and Photoshop samples nothing.
Trick 2: One Photoshop Document in Two Windows
When you retouch fine detail, you zoom in close. Then you zoom out to check the whole image, and zoom back in. That back and forth adds up.
Photoshop can show the same document in two windows at once. One window stays zoomed in on the detail. The other stays zoomed out on the overall image.
Go to Window > Arrange > New Window for followed by the name of your document. A second tab opens with the same file.
Then go to Window > Arrange > Two-Up Vertical to place the two tabs side by side. Two-Up Horizontal stacks them instead.
Zoom in on one window and leave the other zoomed out. Any adjustment you make, in either window, shows up in both right away.
Note: The second window is not a copy of the file. Both windows show the same layers, so there is nothing to merge later and nothing extra to save.
For a deeper look at this workflow, including the shortcuts for panning and zooming both windows, see Same Document in Two Windows.
Trick 3: Bring Back Refine Edge in Photoshop
The Select and Mask workspace is where you refine a selection or a layer mask. It replaced the older Refine Edge dialog box.
Some people still prefer the old dialog. It is smaller, and if you learned masking on it, you already know where everything is.
Photoshop kept it. It is hidden, not removed.
Make a selection, or click a layer mask so it is active. Then hold Shift (Windows) or Shift (macOS) and go to Select > Select and Mask.
The Refine Edge dialog box opens instead of the workspace, with the same sliders you remember.
If you have never used the workspace at all, start with How To Cut Out Anything From a Photo in Photoshop, a full Select and Mask crash course.
Trick 4: Black and White Sliders on Luminosity
A Black and White adjustment layer does what its name says. It turns a color image into black and white.
The sliders in the Properties panel control how bright each of the original colors becomes. Drag a color’s slider right to lighten that color, or left to darken it.
Now change the layer’s Blending Mode to Luminosity. The menu sits at the top of the Layers panel. The color comes back.
Luminosity tells Photoshop to apply only the brightness of the layer and ignore its color. The sliders keep working, but now they brighten or darken each color in a full-color image.
That gives you a brightness control for every color. You can darken a blue sky or lift a red jacket without changing its hue or its saturation.
For what the other modes do, read the Blending Modes Crash Course. For a full conversion, see How To Make Black and White Photos In Photoshop.
Trick 5: Make Your Own Photoshop Templates (PSDT)
A template is a document you start from again and again: a social media layout, a client proof sheet, a watermark frame.
Since Photoshop CC 2015.5, Photoshop has had its own template format, PSDT. There is no special command to create one.
Save your document as a normal PSD. Then, in File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS), rename the file and change the extension from .psd to .psdt.
When you open a PSDT file, Photoshop opens a new, untitled copy of the document. The template itself is never touched, so you cannot overwrite it by accident.
To edit the template, rename it back to .psd, make your changes, and rename it to .psdt again.
Warning: If your computer hides file extensions, typing .psdt onto the name can quietly produce a file called name.psdt.psd, which is still a plain PSD. Turn on file extensions before you rename.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Select the Eyedropper Tool, click inside the canvas, and keep the button down while you drag over any other window. The Foreground color becomes whatever is under the cursor when you let go.
Go to Window > Arrange > New Window for and pick your document. Then choose Window > Arrange > Two-Up Vertical to see both windows side by side.
Yes, but it is hidden. With a selection or a layer mask active, hold Shift and go to Select > Select and Mask. The old Refine Edge dialog box opens instead of the Select and Mask workspace.
The color stays, and the sliders in the Properties panel change how bright each color is. Luminosity applies only the brightness of the layer, so each color can be lightened or darkened on its own.
PSDT is Photoshop’s template format. Rename a PSD to PSDT, and Photoshop opens an untitled copy each time instead of the original. Rename it back to PSD when you need to edit the template itself.
Quick Photoshop Tricks Worth Keeping
None of these quick Photoshop tricks takes more than a few seconds to try, and each one removes a small annoyance you probably stopped noticing.
Pick the one that fits the work you do most and use it today. The rest will be there when you need them.
Watch the full video above to see all five in real time, then comment on the video with your own favorite trick that is not on this list.
Selections and Masking Mastery
Complete course includes 2.5 hours of step-by-step lessons, 6 structured modules, downloadable practice files, and custom Photoshop brushes. Everything you need to master selections and masks in one place.
Keep going
Next, work through 19 more Photoshop tips and tricks you probably do not know.
