Photoshop tips

I found these tips on Designer Digitals and thought they would come in handy in the future.

How to Straighten a Photo in Photoshop:

Get the Ruler Tool which is hiding under the Eyedropper Tool in the Tool Palette. Click and hold the mouse on the Eyedropper Tool until the fly-out menu appears, showing the tools hiding under the Eyedropper. Click on the Ruler Tool to select it.

(Note: in earlier versions of Photoshop, select the Tape Measure Tool or Measure Tool which hides under the Eyedropper Tool in the Tool Palette.)

Find something in the photo that should be a straight horizontal or vertical line. A horizon, a piece of furniture, someone’s belt, or anything else that can tell Photoshop what “level” should be (but isn’t!)

Position your cursor on one end of the unlevel line you selected in the last step. Click and hold as you drag out a thin line from end to end, following the unlevel line. The line you are drawing should not be level. When you reach the end, let go of the mouse.

Choose Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary.

Photoshop will automatically calculate the angle of rotation that will make your image level. Click OK in the Rotate Canvas Dialog box and watch as Photoshop automagically uses your line to level the photo.

Finally, select the Crop Tool and crop away the canvas surrounding the straightened photo.

A Text Message

Photoshop and PSE have a handy feature that makes it easy to edit type. With the Text Tool selected, the software detects when you move the cursor close to existing type. Photoshop and PSE are programmed to assume that you want to edit your type, so the software selects the existing type layer. This is helpful most of the time, but if you are trying to add new text close to your existing type, this feature prevents you from being able to perform the task.

When this happens, you can disable the feature by holding the Shift key as you click with the Text Tool. Holding the Shift key allows you to create a new text layer, ignoring the existing type. You can even create a new line of text on top of your existing text this way!