10 Simple Photoshop Hacks That Will Save Your Time Drastically!

Well, the shooting process is finished. Now you also have gigabytes of photos on the memory card, and it’s time to delve into editing. Where to begin? How to remove unnecessary things, boost colors, crop the photo or increase sharpness? No worries, here are the Photoshop hacks that will quickly help you improve your work and also apply some cool effects in no time. Also, learn how to put a watermark on a photo without photoshop.

Photoshop hacks: #1 Sharpening

In post-processing, sharpness is a tremendous visual trick. When we raise it, the photo doesn’t become sharper, and it doesn’t lose focus. This is the illusion that Photoshop creates by increasing micro-contrast (the degree of difference between light and dark).

To increase the sharpness in Photoshop, Filter – Sharpen section – Smart Sharpen.

In the window that appears, all the work happens with three sliders:

• Amount (Effect). How much the sharpness will rise.
• Radius. It affects how thick the halos will be, which raises the sharpness.
• Reduce Noise. Reduces noise “roughness” in areas of the image with no contrasting borders.

When you have set the desired values, press Ok or the Enter button, which will then apply the effect.

See Also: How to Remove Watermark from Photos Quickly – TechWhoop

Photoshop hacks: #2 Cropping the Image

Crop Tool will help you crop the extra parts of the frame and also harmoniously compose the picture.

Open the desired file in Photoshop, and then on the left panel, find the Crop Tool. Then move the frame that appears around the corner, horizontal or vertical edge, to get the desired crop. 

Those parts of the photo that turned dark gray after applying the frame will be cropped.

Photoshop hacks: #3 Flattening the Horizon

1. Open the desired file in Photoshop, and then on the left panel, find the Crop Tool. A light frame will surround the photo. Now we need to level the horizon.

2. Find the tool Straighten in the panel at the top and then use it to draw a horizontal or vertical line along the line of the object, which should be vertical or horizontal. The horizon will also align itself along the specified string.

Photoshop hacks: #4 Making Vertical or Square Photos for Instagram

1. Open the desired file in Photoshop, and on the left panel, find the Crop Tool.
2. Find the dropdown list in the top panel with the Original Ratio setting.
3. Select an aspect ratio of 4:5. This is the currently accepted vertical photo format for Instagram posts. For lovers of the classics, a percentage of 1:1 is suitable. This is a square crop.

The method is convenient since you don’t need to monitor the aspect ratio – the program does everything itself. You can move the cropping area using the mouse or the arrows on the keyboard. Trim excess by pulling on either side. Learn to fix grainy photos here.

Photoshop hacks: #5 Removing the Background

Magic Wand is the easiest and fastest tool to remove background from an image. The principle of operation is simple – it finds and then selects pixels of a specific color.

1. Select a tool and point to the background of the image.

2. The program will create a selection based on the color you specified. The higher it is, the more shades of color the tool captures. To make the spread of shades more oversized and the program does not highlight the color of a random pixel on the background, set the Sample size to 3×3 or 5×5 and increase the Tolerance parameter.

3. Finish the resulting selection with a Quick Mask or Select and Mask and convert it to a regular layer or a layer with a mask.

Photoshop hacks: #6 Making an Image Black and White

You can convert a photo to black and white in Photoshop in almost a dozen ways. We will show two – the fastest and the most flexible in customization and creativity.

Instant Conversion to Black and White

In the Layers palette, find the black and white circle – the tab with adjustment layers. Then grab the Hue/Saturation tool. Then in the window that opens, now you move the slider Saturation to a value of – 100.

A method with flexible Black and White Settings

Layers go to the tab with adjustment layers in the same palette and select Black and white. The picture will immediately become monochrome.

Color sliders allow you to adjust the brightness of a color if it was in a color image. For example, if the model had red lips, then in black and white, you can lighten or darken them.

See Also: 23 Best Image Viewer Software To Download [2022]

Photoshop hacks: #7 Removing a Specific Color

1. In the Layers palette, find the tab with adjustment layers. Grab the Hue/Saturation tool.
2. Click on the Master tab. You will see a dropdown menu with all the primary colors.
3.  Then click sequentially on those colors you do not need in the photo. Going into each color, remove the Saturation parameter to a value of – 100. So gradually you will have only those colors that you need as planned.

Using this method, you can remove the color and change the shade of the existing one. Select a color from the dropdown list, but instead of the Saturation slider, move the Hue slider.

Photoshop hacks: #8 Toning

Toning sets the mood for the picture, quickly makes the photo more spectacular, and also allows you to design the entire social network feed in one color scheme.

There are dozens of ways to tone in Photoshop. Let’s look at two alternative methods.

Gradient Map

This is the tool used for split toning. Split toning is when highlights and shadows are colored in two different colors. For example, red is added to the highlights, and magenta is added to the clouds.

1. In the Layers palette, on the Adjustment Layers tab, select the Gradient Map tool.
2. Then choose any of the presented gradients, create your own, or even download a set from the Internet.

You can also refine split-toning in two ways:

1. Reduce the opacity of the layer so that the effect is not so strong;
2. Then put the layer in a different blending mode. Generally, Overlay or Soft Light works well. When switching blending modes, a layer still needs to lower its opacity.
   There is something else you can do.

See Also: Top 15 Tools to Unblur Photos Online – TechWhoop

Toning one color with the Photo Filter

Photo Filter brings a tint of one color to the photo. With it, for example, you can quickly add sepia or bring in any other color.

1. In the Layers palette, find Photo Filter in the tab with adjustment layers.
2. Select a color from the presets in the Filter menu first, or click on the Color / Color box and then select a color of any hue, brightness, and saturation.

Photoshop hacks: #9 Adding Freckles

Let’s look at an easy way to reveal freckles in Photoshop with just one layer.

1. In the Layers palette, find the tab with adjustment layers. Then grab the Channel Mixer tool.
2. Also, check the Monochrome checkbox. Set the Red slider to negative values ​​(-10 to -50 will do) and also set Blue to positive values ​​(+120).
3.  Put the layer in blending mode Soft Light.
4. Then invert the layer mask with Channel Mixer. For example, I am using the hotkeys Ctrl+I. The show will also turn black.
5. Using a white brush, paint the effect to remain only on the freckles.

Photoshop hacks: #10 Applying a Tan

1. In the palette Layers, take the Solid tool Color.
2. Then the palette will open. You also need a color that will mimic a tan. Also, look for it in a range of reds, oranges, and yellows.
3. Put the layer in blending mode Soft Light. Then invert the layer mask to Solid Color and paint a tan on the skin with a brush.

See Also: How to Pixelate an Image Using Microsoft Paint [And Other Methods]

Wrap up 

Photoshop gives you a lot of photo editing options. We’ve also shown valuable tools and tricks that help you work on CG, identity, and web projects that you might not know about. We hope that this article was interesting and valuable to you!