Ctrl + Shift + C (Copy Merged) - This works basically like the copy command, except you get a merged copy of the composite image sent to the clipboard.Ctrl + Alt + Shift + N (New Layer No Dialog) - This command skips the dialog box and just places a new layer on top of the active layer.Ctrl + Shift + N (New Layer) - This will bring up the new layer dialog box and place a new layer on top of the active layer.Use this command to switch focus from point to point without moving them around. Sometimes you want to make very minor shifts in those points by nudging with the keyboard, but clicking on the point to activate it usually moves it to an undesired location.
Z (Zoom Tool) - This command just brings up the zoom tool, which allows you to zoom in.Likewise, if you hold down the Alt key, you can zoom out without changing tools. Also, if the hand tool is active and you hold down the Ctrl key, you can zoom in without changing to the zoom tool. H (Hand Tool) - When zoomed in to a portion of your photo, this command brings up the hand tool which allows for quick panning.Get More Tips like this by Subscribing to Digital Photography School So if you want to learn more about this topic, read to the bottom of the article for additional resources.
I’m also only showing the commands for Photoshop CS3 (thought CS2 should be almost identical) on a PC (sorry Mac users). Again, these are MY most used Photoshop shortcuts.
The intermediate commands are somewhere between the two. The advanced commands take a little coordination, and I don’t use them quite as often. The simple commands are pretty easy to pull off, and they’re heavily used. The following are 18 of my most commonly used shortcuts, broken out into three groups: simple, intermediate, and advanced. This method of working with Photoshop can really decrease your time spent on the computer and give you more time to get behind the camera. The whole idea is that while one hand is running the mouse, the other hand might as well be doing something too. They’re a little awkward and cumbersome at first, but once you pick up a couple of commands on the keyboard you’ll never go back.
Keyboard commands, or shortcuts, are simply a way to bypass a few mouse clicks when doing tool changes or tool property adjustments. Fortunately there’s a way to help streamline your Photoshop workflow. If you’re anything like me, you’re switching tools so often that most of your time spent in Photoshop isn’t even on the photo - it’s messing with the vast array of editing tools. Once you’ve worked with it for a while, you begin to find that you’re constantly going back and forth between the same menu items or palette buttons. Working with Photoshop can be quite time consuming for both beginners and advanced users. This guest post was submitted by Brian Auer from Epic Edits Weblog.