Photoshop Tips – The Most Important Button in Photoshop
So let’s talk about buttons, shall we? One thing I think us Photographers, Landscape Photographers, Nature Photographers etc are all agreed on – Photoshop is just chock-full jam-packed, zillions of Buttons! The keen reader will note I am still on CS5, but this holds true what ever version of Photoshop or Elements you are on.
Now – this article will work on JPEGS, but I just know that are already shooting RAW. You are, aren’t you? If not, then please read this first, and then this. Honest, it’ll save your (photographic) life.
Curves, Masks, Layers, Brushes, they all have buttons. However, I am going to go out on a limb –
One is more important than all the others.
Now – that might look like I am saying that the Curves layer is in some way the most important. Whilst it is important, powerful and I use it all the time, it’s not by far the most important. In this instance I had applied a curves layer, fine tuned the curve amount for contrast to my taste. I had walked away for a day or so and then returned. I thought the contrast was a little harsh.
So….
Rather than messing with the shape of the curve, I merely dropped the opacity down from 100% to – in this instance – 55% and the effect was less pronounced. The Opacity Slider is the most important button in Photoshop. In my humble opinion of course.
And sad but true, I could post ‘before’ and ‘after’ images here, but on your phone or monitor, you will not be able to see the small difference here in a single layer. However, adding many layers together is the key, small steps each time.
Try it – it works on everything, and makes all your editing smoother, less giant-leap-followed-by-giant-leap, and more tiny-step-by-tiny-step. Very few of my layers are set at 100%, particularity when I revisit an image after a night away from the computer.
Thanks for reading this far
Andrew Barnes
The Berowra Photographer
PS – the fine print. Opacity and Fill pretty much do the same thing when we do Landscape Photography. If we have strokes or drop shadows on layers and the like, they start to behave a bit differently – but doing Landscape Photography it’s not a biggie.