Fortunately, Photoshop offers layer modes! Make a duplicate of the photo on another layer, the easiest way is hitting Command + J. Then, set the layer mode of the newly created layer to Overlay.

This should really boost the color & contrast, but not mess with your highlights and shadows. Of course, you can adjust the new Layer’s Opacity to control the intensity of the Overlay Layer.

To avoid this problem, hold down the Control key to turn off the Snap To feature, temporarily allowing you to freely size your crop area.

Activate a Layer Set, go to the pop-out arrow in the upper right corner of the Layers panel, and drag down to Merge Group—or hit Command + E. This will REPLACE the Layer Group that combines all the Layers from the Group into one Layer.

But sometimes I want to get a merged version of a Group to work with and maintain the Group with its component layers intact.

To do this, select the original Layer Group and hit Command + Option + E. This will merge the Group into a NEW Layer above the existing Layer Group rather than replacing it.

Why would you want to do this? Perhaps you want to blur the entire Layer Group to make it appear as though it’s in the background, but still keep all the Layers editable just in case you want to adjust and re-blur later.

To select a color located anywhere on your screen(s) while remaining in Photoshop, simply select the Eyedropper tool, hold down the mouse key while you move around the screen until you’re over the color you want to grab – then just let go of the mouse button.

As you can see in the screenshot above, I’ve grabbed a shade of red from my desktop wallpaper without leaving Photoshop. Quite handy!

I recently had a co-worker ask what they were and why I use them. I had a difficult time explaining it, so when I came across this video tutorial, I quickly fired-off a link. It’s a great walk-through for those who’ve never used them.

Adobe has announced that they’re going to do what they want to do, and you’re going to like it, or else…

The next major release of Creative Cloud will not support macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) or lower in order to take advantage of the latest OS advancements in modern operating system versions. The word “support” is important. That means that while they may or may not actually run on those OS versions, Adobe will simply not care if they do or don’t, nor will they help you if they don’t.

I find their reasoning believable, yet obnoxious at the same time considering Full Screen mode in macOS has been around since 2010 with the release of macOS 10.7 (Lion) and they still haven’t implemented the ability to use it with any of their apps.

But that’s not all. Unofficially, you can expect a price increase for your Adobe CC subscription in the near future. I have no evidence supporting that, but I know it’s going to happen.

I’ve been using this method for quite a while now, and I can tell you that in my experience it is the easiest way I’ve come across that yields good results.

Don’t feel bad if you don’t recognize the name. You’ve seen it. And you’ve probably used it… sort of. But trust me, once you watch this 11-minute video you’re going to look forward to the next time you use a Layer Blend Mode. The results can be the difference between so-so and stunning.

If you don’t watch or read any Photoshop tutorials this year, make this one the exception!

The major bugs present in the CC2017 versions of Illustrator and InDesign running on High Sierra have been worked out between a macOS update and the latest CC apps, and I’ve noticed fairly significant speed gains in both those apps. As for Photoshop, I’ve not noticed much of an increase in speed, but no decrease either.

Some of the cool features include the ability to add rules around paragraphs in InDesign without having to resort to crude workarounds is a God-send! And I’m happy to see Adobe add the ability to keep text in CC Libraries and have them available in both InDesign and Illustrator. Type fanatics can now use InDesign’s Character panel to search for fonts based on visual similarity, a nice feature that you would normally need Suitcase Fusion for—though Suitcase still works better because it will find fonts that aren’t activated. Read about InDesign CC2018’s new features here.

Illustrator users will love the speed increase the most, but the variable font feature is really, really cool. The new Properties Panel is fantastic for those with a smaller screen or people like me who just hate having a bunch of panels open all the time. It’s a contextually aware panel that changes based on what you’re doing. Draw out a text frame and the panel displays text-related features like font, size, kerning, etc. Draw a shape and you get stroke and fill settings. Select multiple shapes and you’ll get the Pathfinder features. You get the idea. It’s only taken me a few days of using the new Illustrator to get used to using the Properties Panel vs. having a bunch of panels open all the time. Read about Illustrator CC2018’s new features here.

You might also want to take a look at the new Adobe Dimension app. Adding 3D objects to your 2D image just got a whole lot easier. It’s ultra-slick!