20 Simple Photoshop tricks for beginners

Have you just started using Adobe Photoshop? If yes, then these helpful tips are obviously for you. Adobe Photoshop is the foremost tool that people start to use when they are just stepping into the graphics designing field. Some people learn this tool to enhance their beautiful photos or find a photoshopper to do the task. There is a lot more you can do with Photoshop on an advanced level. Here are some essential Photoshop tricks for a beginner through which you will be able to use Photoshop effectively.

Spots Removing

Suppose you click your picture, and your face is covered with blemishes that are ruining your photo. Don’t worry; Photoshop offers you a solution with the Spot Healing Brush Tool, which is located on the left sidebar.

• Choose the tool from sidebar
• Maintain the size of its brush accordingly
• Move your cursor to your blemish or any other spot
• Left-click once and let the magic happen

Cropping Image

Cropping is very common, and everybody knows- or at least should how to do it. In Photoshop, it is even easier to crop images as per your needs. Navigate to the crop tool present on the left sidebar. It will automatically give you the crop controls. Just drag the tool to crop the image accordingly, and that’s all. It is simple but one of the best photoshop tricks.

More Layers

When you drag an image from your computer to Photoshop. It only contains one layer. You can add more layers to the same image to apply filters and do more with it. To achieve this, select the image and on the top menu bar, select layer, and click on the duplicate layer option.

Pen Tool

The pen tool is magical. Beginners use it as well as advanced Photoshop users. You can select Pen Tool from the left sidebar. Use the tool to mark any object in the image. After selecting the object. Just press ctrl+j from your keyboard and your object will be separated from the background.

Camera Raw Filter

Camera Raw filter works great for the color grading of your pictures. It consists of many options like saturation, brightness, and exposure options, which can easily make your dull picture bright.

Adding Text to Images

Text can give meaning to your image, especially if it is written in a beautiful font. There are thousands of fonts available online to download. You can utilize those fonts to add text into your images by clicking the text tool in the left bar. You can change text colors, and if you want to go a little bit advanced, you can add shadow and play with other text options.

Layer masks

Layer masks are useful to specify the area in an image, where you can change brightness, contrast, etc. for that specific masked area. It can be used wisely to get into advanced Photoshop techniques.

Removing objects from images

We talked about pen-tool above, but there are other easy selection tools available as well. You can use those tools to remove any selected object from your image. These tools include the Quick Selection Tool and Lasso tool.

Eye-dropper tool

If you are having difficulty in guessing the color of anything present in your image. Then you can select the eye-dropper tool from the left menu and click on the object whose color you want to select. Eyedropper will choose the exact matched color, which you can later use to write text on images or using a paintbrush.

Custom Shape tool

This tool is fun. A custom shape tool is used to draw many shapes just by selecting it and dragging it on your image. The shapes can be resized, and you can fill color in those shapes as well.

Magic wand tool

Magic wand tool works like magic. You have to select the magic wand tool from the left menu. Now click anywhere on the image where you want to make a selection. On your single click, Photoshop will automatically make a selection for you. Magic wand tool is effective for simple shapes.

Dodge tool

If you want your images to be lightened up, especially if your face is looking dull. You can use the Dodge tool to light the pixels of your image, which will give a better look to it.

Blur tool

The blur tool is another small but useful tool that can be utilized to make a strong blur effect on an object. You can use the smooth Blur tool to hide blemishes on your face with un-noticeable blur effects.

Filter Gallery

Filter gallery can be located from the Filter menu present in the top bar. There you will find a lot of filters that will change the look and colors of your pictures. You can play with those filters to choose the best for you. These filters include oil painting, sketch, and many other amazing filters.

Hand tool

The hand tool is just used to easily move through your image. You can choose the hand tool from the tools menu. Just long-press the left click mouse button and move your mouse to use the hand tool. You can also hold the spacebar and move your mouse to do the same. This type of photoshop tricks can improve the quality of your work.

Smudge tool

Smudge tool gives you a finger paint type effect on your image. The smudge tool stretches the colors present on your image.

Fun-tip: You can use the smudge tool on your hair to change its shape and to make it look longer.

Magic Eraser

The Magic eraser works like a magic wand tool, but instead of making a selection, the magic eraser erases that part of the image. Click on the part you want to erase by using the magic eraser tool, and it will automatically detect and erase the same colored part. It is one of the best photoshop tricks for beginners.

Blending Options

Blending options are great to play with your image or text to drop shadow, stroke, texture, and outer glow on your image. You can access blending options by right-clicking on a layer, and from there, choose the “Blending options” on the top. 

Gradient options

Gradient effects look great. To make a gradient effect, you can choose the gradient tool from the left toolbar and draw on your image with the selected colored patch. You can try out different gradients to choose the best for yourself.

Different file formats

There are many file formats in which you can save your image. You mostly save it in JPEG or PNG, but if you save your image file in PSD format, then it will be editable at any time you want in the future. Other file formats are also available there for some particular purpose.

These Photoshop tricks will help you use the tool better.