Tips&Tricks: Photoshop

[Haswell]

I hope this is the correct place! Ive just installed CS3 within the last few days and was troubled by flashing cursor/ tool icons. I couldnt get the drop down menus to open (so I couldnt get the stamp tool for instance to change opacity)

It seems this is a commonplace problem if you have lagacy copy of CS2. So: copy all your plug ins from CS2 plugs to CS3 plugs (no need to intall them) and the bug is fixed. Hope this helps.

(remember to unclick "additional plug ins directory" in prefs)

[jazz5555]

I found this tip for quickly setting the opacity for a layer. You must have the Move tool selected for this tip to work. While the move tool is active you can set the opacity for a selected layer by just typing one number. ie type 9 for 90%, 7 for 70%, 3 for 30%, etc. without having to actually move sliders or type in the opacity textbox. If you want a more accurate value for your layer opacity, type 2 numbers in quick succession ie 7 followed quickly by 5 for 75% (if you type too slowly it will set the opacity to 70% then to 50%). Typing a 0(zero) will set opacity to 100%. Remember you must have the move tool active for this to work.
The brush tool opacity can be set in a similar way. With the brush tool active type numbers in the same way described above but obviously the move tool cannot be active ('cause the brush tool is active) and the brush opacity will change according to the number (or numbers) typed. Hope this helps someone.
Regardz

[krosbonez]

With the move tool (V) active, you can CNTL click an object to select it and the layer it is on.

[bagets]

Zoom with Keystrokes. If you just want to change the overall magnification of an image, press Command-plus (+) or Command-minus (-) to zoom in or out. We find this especially handy because it resizes the window at the same time if necessary. But if any palettes are open, this keystroke won't increase the document window beyond the edges of the palettes unless you click the Ignore Palettes checkbox in the Options bar while the Zoom tool is selected. The setting persists when you choose a different tool. To change it, select the Zoom tool again, and click to uncheck the Ignore Palettes checkbox. Note that adding the Option key to this mix tells Photoshop to zoom in or out without changing the size of the window.

[Zummie]

Optimize performance of Photoshop CS3:

Adobe recommends that you set the primary scratch disk to a different hard disk than the one Windows uses for its virtual memory or paging file.

To set the scratch disk:

1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Performance.
2. Select the Active? box for each hard disk you want to contain a scratch disk.
Note: Unless you have a drive that has considerable space open, and is defragmented regularly, choose more than one drive, if one or more is available.
3. Click OK.
4. Restart Photoshop.

[DrNoXx]

yeah, right... and you have to watch it a little... photoshop when crashes leaves gigabyte large temp files in your filesystem... so don't forget to search for them after crashes... an easy to use tool for such jobs is overdisk for instance. you will immediately find the largest directories/files LOL... have phun

[theeUG]

Remember your Adjustment Layers
Brightness and Contrast and Curves layers can change your piece from bad to bliss
they are the key to depth and lighting