This is a list of my favorite and most used Photoshop keyboard shortcuts and there’s nothing more damaging to your productivity than doing everything the long way round when using a programme. Searching for tools or buttons is a task that can easily be bypassed with some quick memorization of shortcuts.

Undo, Multiple Times – (Ctrl + Alt + Z)

Most programs allow you to press (Ctrl + Z) multiple times to perform multiple Undo’s, but Photoshop requires (Alt), otherwise you’ll just keep undoing then re-doing then undoing then re-doing then undoing then re-doing.

Hand/Move Tool – (Spacebar)

Holding the spacebar will turn your cursor into the hand in almost any situation… when using different tools, with dialog boxes open, etc… allowing you to quickly navigate your document no matter what you’re doing.

Switch Document Windows – (Ctrl + Tab)

Your Photoshop workspace can become a mess when working on multiple files, so being able to switch windows quickly is a must.

New Layer – (Ctrl + Shift + N) – with dialog?(Ctrl + Shift + Alt + N) – without dialog

Layers are the greatest thing(s) ever invented in any (design) program and being able to manage your layers properly is important.

Duplicate Layer – (Ctrl + J) – without dialog?(Ctrl + Alt + J) – with dialog

You can duplicate an entire layer, or, if you have a selection, the selection will be duplicated to it’s own layer. This is great when trying different techniques or effects without having to worry about errors.

Re-run Filter/ Fade Filter -  (Ctrl + F) – run filter again?(Ctrl + Alt + F) – run filter again, with dialog?(Ctrl + Shift + F) – fade filter

Even though Photoshop provides preview windows in the dialog box for most filters, there’s still no true way of telling whether you’ve achieved your desired effect until you see the full image. If something goes wrong, you can quickly undo, then go back to your filter and try again without having to go through the hassle of moving your cursor. 

The effect of a black and white image with a splash of colour is a popular effect used in photographs and images especially for adverts in magazines and on the internet. This tutorial will teach you the basic instructions for different ways to achieve this effect. 

1.) To create an image to grayscale you need to begin by creating a duplicate of the original image, and then convert the duplicate image to grayscale by using the option Image > Mode > Grayscale, and then convert the grayscale image to RGB. 

2.) Use the appropriate selection tool to select only the portion of the image that you want to have in black and white in your final composition. What we are doing is creating a “hole” in the grayscale image so that the colour image shows through the hole when the two images are combined in the next step.

3.) Combine the selected portion of your grayscale image with a duplicate of your original colour image. One simple way to do this is to copy the grayscale selection and paste it on top of the colour image then combine/merge the two.

4.) Make a duplicate of your colour image and work with it. Mask (protect) the portion of your image that you wish to remain in colour. 

5.) With the mask in place protecting the part you want in colour, desaturate your image. The masked portion will remain in color. Image > Adjust > Desaturate. Do any other manipulations you care to make then, if the image is destined for print, convert to CMYK before placing the image in your page layout program. As a RGB image will not create the same given effect.

Auto Color

Image > Adjustments > Auto Color (Ctrl + Shift + B) For those of you that are professionals in the color-correcting field, this is a great feature to sometimes fix the poor colors a digital camera can capture.

Auto Levels

Image > Adjustments > Auto Levels or (Ctrl + Shift + L)?This is another quick way to do some minor color-correcting on your images. What this does is correct the black point and white point in your image automatically. It’s looking for the nearest-to-white color and setting that as the white point, then finding the nearest-to-black.

Auto Contrast

Image > Adjustments > Auto Contrast or (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + L) Auto contrast is another quick adjustment for Photoshop to automatically color correct your image. You usually don’t need to use this with Auto Levels, but sometimes it helps for images that look a bit more washed-out than you’d like.

Auto-Align Layers

Edit > Auto-Align Layers This feature is pretty cool as it attempts to align the content on your layers as close as Photoshop can figure out. When you run this command you’ll get a set of options as to how you want Photoshop to try to align. You’ll need to have your layers selected in the Layers palette by Ctrl-clicking or Shift-clicking on the layers. This is pretty much your savior for stitching together panoramas.

Auto-Blend Layers

Edit > Auto-blend Layers ?Like Auto-Align, this feature is probably most useful in photography situations. When stitching together a panorama, it will attempt to match and blend the color across all of your layers to make sure your stitch looks seamless.

Vertical + Horizontal Centering

Layer > Align > (options)…?This one is great when mocking up a new website design. This will allow you to align things vertically and horizontally to the center, left, right and top. Make sure your text layer is higher in your layers palette than the one you want to align with. Click on both layers by control-clicking or shift-clicking.

Vertical + Horizontal Centering (to a selection)

Layer > Align to Selection > (options)…?If you don’t have another layer you want to align something to, you can make a section and align your object to the selection. Just make sure the layer you want to align is selected in the Layers palette before going to the Layer menu.

Straighten Crooked Photos

You’ll want to start with the Ruler tool (located under the Eyedropper [I]) and draw a line for your horizontal axis to be straightened. After drawing your line, go to Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary. Photoshop will have automatically entered the angle in degrees needed to straighten your image, so just click OK. After running this you will have white areas in the corners, so be prepared to crop a bit.