Intro To Adjustment Layers In Photoshop

This video from TutCast.com (IceFlowStudios on YouTube), talks about using adjustment layers and its benefits.

Photoshop Retouching Tools: Clone Stamp, Healing Brush, Spot Healing Brush, Patch Tool

This video by IceFlowStudios on YouTube talks about 4 different Photoshop tools that can be used to retouch images: the Clone Stamp, the Spot Healing Brush, the Healing Brush and the Patch tool.

I would just like to add a few things regarding some of the tools:

Healing Brush
When you follow along the tutorial, check the Healing Brush tool options to verify that for the Source options, Sampled is selected. The other option would be Pattern. Selecting the Pattern option lets you retouch areas based on a pattern which you can select from Pattern pop-up palette.

Patch Tool
In the Patch tool options, you can choose to patch the source or to patch the destination. In the example demonstrated in the video, the source was being patched - the area that was originally selected was retouched. If you choose to patch the destination, then it would work the other way around. The area that you originally select will be the area to be sampled from, and the new area that you drag the selection to will be retouched.

Using The Clone Stamp Tool

Here's a 4-minute tutorial from IceFlowStudios on YouTube that demonstrates how to use the Clone Stamp tool in Photoshop. NOTE: When you follow along this tutorial, make sure that you select the Clone Stamp tool and NOT the Pattern Stamp tool. The speaker in the video mentions the keyboard shortcut for accessing the Clone Stamp tool (which would be the S key), but if the Pattern Stamp tool is active in the Toolbar, then you'll end up selecting that. So do verify that you actually have the Clone Stamp tool selected as you follow along this tutorial.

How To Reset Back To The Default Photoshop Settings

There are times when you may accidentally change some of the Photoshop settings and then can't quite figure out how to change them back. Or perhaps you work on a shared computer and the users before you tweak the settings often. When this happens, you may want to reset back to the default settings. Here's how:

1. Launch the Photoshop application and immediately hold down the CTRL+ALT+SHIFT (Windows) or COMMAND+OPTION+SHIFT (Mac) keys.
2. Click Yes when you are prompted with the message that asks "Delete the Adobe Photoshop Settings File".

When your Photoshop application initializes, it should now have reverted back to the default settings.

Introduction to Layer Masks in Photoshop

Layer masking is a very useful feature in Photoshop that allows you to hide some areas (make them invisible) of a layer. A layer mask can be altered using the brush tool. To hide areas using a layer mask, you must paint the mask using black. To make areas fully visible, you use white. Using gray will make areas translucent (not quite visible, but not quite invisible as well).

I've posted three different videos about layer masks here. They're all introductory videos about layer masks, but there are some things in one video that you might not learn from the others, so I've decided to add them all here.

This first one is by Nathan Ridley from Graphics District. He uses Photoshop 7 in this tutorial, but you can still follow along even if you're using CS2 or CS3.

Introduction To Layer Masks In Photoshop 7 from Nathan Ridley on Vimeo.

This next one is from IceFlowStudios on YouTube. The speaker also talks a little bit about vector shapes in the end. But it's ok if you're not familiar with what vector shapes are and what you can do with them. The main point of these videos is for you to learn how to use layer masks and you don't really need knowledge in vector shapes in order to achieve that. The speaker simply wanted to show an example that uses a layer mask on a vector shape. The Photoshop version used in this video is CS3.


This last one is from TutorialStop.com. The Photoshop version used in this video is CS3.

If you want to use the images in this video, here are the links:
Waterfall
Highway
Be sure to read the Creative Commons license applied to both images.

Photoshop's Selection Tools

Nathan Ridley of Graphics District talks about the different Selection tools in Photoshop and how some keyboard keys can be used to aid the Photoshop user in making selections.

Photoshop version used in this video: CS2

Part 1

Introduction To The Selection Tools In Photoshop CS2: Part 1 from Nathan Ridley on Vimeo.

Part 2

Introduction To The Selection Tools In Photoshop CS2: Part 2 from Nathan Ridley on Vimeo.

Photoshop's Move Tool

In this tutorial, Nathan Ridley of Graphics District talks about the Move tool.

Photoshop version used in this video: CS3


The Move Tool - A Photoshop CS3 Tutorial from Nathan Ridley on Vimeo.

Introduction To Photoshop Layers

This video by Nathan Ridley of Graphics District shows you the basics of working with layers in Photoshop.

Photoshop version used in this video: CS3


Introduction To Layers In Photoshop CS3 from Nathan Ridley on Vimeo.