Daily Quick-Tips

Welcome to the Daily Creative Suite Quick-Tips from us at Bernskiold Media. Each day we are posting a new tip from one of the creative suite applications so that you can learn something new every day, especially the small tricks that makes it all go a lot faster.

QT: Faster layer colorizing in Photoshop

 

Did you know that colorizing layers don’t need to be cumbersome. Just right click on the layer visibility toggle (the eye icon) and you’ll get a drop down with all available colours. It makes a lot quicker to organize your layers instead of right clicking on the layer name, going into the properties and changing it there.

QT: Always open JPEG and TIFF files in Camera Raw in CS4

In Photoshop and Bridge CS4 (from Adobe Camera Raw 5.0 and up) Adobe has added some more advanced options on the control of how JPEG files and TIFF files opens into Camera Raw. Adobe has added some finer control over how that’s done now by separating JPEG and TIFF files and giving them a drop down option box of their own. So in the Camera Raw Preferences you can now at the bottom select for both JPEG and TIFF (individually) whether you want the files to open in ACR always, just if they have any ACR data already in them or simply never. So setting it to "Automatically open all supported JPEGs" for example, will open all JPEGs, regardless of their origin, into camera raw.

QT: Suit your font needs!

I often get the question where I go when I’m in need of a new font for something. There is one website that has got it all when it comes to fonts and that is Dafont.com. On there you can find a ton of free fonts in a staggering number of categories. Go and check it out!

QT: HDR Colour Picker

Here’s a little cool tip. If you are working on a 32-bit file, you can use the HDR colour picker to select colours from the raw 32-bit data, something that the normal colour picker wouldn’t let you do. This colour picker activates automatically when you have a 32-bit mode open and shows you a lot of info about the colour that you are selecting.

QT: How to get the 64-bit version of CS4 for Windows

Many questions arise on how you can purchase the 64-bit version of the CS4 applications for Windows (it’s not supported on the Mac yet, due to structural changes in the Mac OS). It’s really simple. Included on the purchase disk is installers for both versions, so there is just one purchase that enables you to install it on a 64-bit computer.

QT: Enable Lightroom 2 to run in 64-bit mode on the Mac!

Most Mac users are probably aware that you can now run Lightroom 2 in 64-bit mode. However important to notice is that you need to do just one thing before you can unlock that goodness. Just find the Lightroom 2 application in your applications folder and select it. Then press Command + I (Get Info) to bring up the info about the app. You should be seeing a checkbox that says "Open in 32-bit mode". Just uncheck that box and you have Lightroom running as a 64-bit application!

QT: Add favourite folders in Bridge

To add a favourite folder in Bridge so you can easily navigate back to it without a hassle, just right click on the folder and select "Add to Favorites" from the contextual menu that pops up. When you need to navigate to the folder the next time you can just open the favorites panel and select it there. 

QT: Add more undo’s in Photoshop

Who doesn’t like the ability to go back and undo things far more than the default 20 states? Luckily there is an easy way to increase the amount of states. Just go to Photoshop > Preferences > Performance (PC: Edit > Preferences > Performance) and you can see a history state option there. All you do is increase the number there and you get more states.

QT: Rate and move to the next image

 When you are rating your photos, a good shortcut is to turn on the Caps Lock and then when you press the rating shortcuts, once you’ve rated a photo it’ll move on to the next one. A real timesaver!

QT: Change your document settings afterwards

Did you know that you can still change your document settings after you’ve created the document and started working? You can. Under File > Document Settings you have all the settings of the new file dialog box so that you can easily modify your columns, margins, bleeds and slugs.

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Erik is a web designer, photographer and software trainer who runs web design company XLD Studios as well as software training company Bernskiold Media. Both web design and teching to others is one of his great passions. Another passion is photography and at his portfolio you can find many great collections of nature photographs.