Double-click on the name ‘Background’ in the Layers panel, and then click OK, or press Return (PC: Enter) in the New Layer dialog to accept the new name. Or, even better, you can hold down…

I never used to use keyboard shortcuts for blend modes. Then about a year or so ago, I realized that the keyboard shortcuts for blend modes are actually very easy. It always involves the Option-Shift…

Instead of dragging a layer to the Trash icon to delete it, you can quickly delete a layer by pressing the Delete (PC: Backspace) key in Photoshop CS4. In CS3, using that key will only…

Pressing Command-Shift-N (PC: Ctrl-Shift-N) creates a new layer but it brings up the New Layer dialog so you can name it. Personally, I find it kind of annoying and it’s not a lot faster for…

To rapidly change the Size, Feather, Flow, and Density of a brush, use the A and B preset brushes. To set them up, click one of the brushes (A or B) and change its settings….

If a mask appears splotchy, it’s usually because the Auto Mask checkbox is turned on and the brush didn’t apply the mask to pixels that were too different from the original sample (beginning brush stroke)….