From little-known secrets to all-time classic tools, here are 50 of the best tips, tricks and shor tcuts you’ll find in Photoshop…

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01 FIND A HANDY LIST OF LAYERS

When your document contains lots of overlapping layers, it can be tricky to target a specific layer without having to trawl through the Layers Panel. Instead, grab the Move Tool and right-click over any point in the image for a list of all the layer names at that particular point. Of course, things are easier if you’ve renamed your layers so you know which is which.

02 MOVE A SELECTION

When you make a selection, you can hold the Space bar (while still holding the right mouse button down) to move the entire selection around. You can also move Pen Tool anchor points by holding Space while you’re plotting the point.

03 ROTATE YOUR DOCUMENT

The Rotate Tool can be very useful for temporarily rotating the document to allow a better angle for painting or drawing. Hold down R to temporarily switch to the Rotate Tool, drag to rotate, then release R to return to your previous tool. If you want to reset the rotation afterwards, simply press the Escape key.

04 HOLD ALT TO SWITCH TOOLS

Several tools have a natural partner or opposite, like the Brush and Eyedropper Tools, or the Dodge and Burn Tools. You can temporarily switch between them by holding Alt. The same works for Freehand Lasso/Polygonal Lasso, Sharpen/Blur and Eraser/History Brush.

05 SPRING-LOADED SHORTCUTS

If you want to switch to another tool for a moment, then go back to your current tool, you can use spring-loaded shortcuts. Simply hold down the keyboard shortcut for the tool - like S for the Clone Tool or B for the Brush Tool - and once done, release the key to return to your previous tool.

06 USE ADAPTIVE PRESETS

Adaptive Presets work in combination with AI masking tools in Camera Raw and Lightroom to target and enhance areas with a single click; so you can, for example, boost skin in a portrait or add drama to a sky. You can also create your own Adaptive Preset by making edits with the AI masking tools, then saving as a new Preset.

07 BATCH PROCESS WITH DENOISE

The Denoise command in Camera Raw and Lightroom is great at cleaning up noise in high-ISO images. You can easily run it on a batch of raws. Open and select the files, then go to the Detail Panel. Either click the Denoise button to enter and adjust the settings, or Alt-click Denoise to simply run the command with the last-used settings.

08 SHORTCUT TO THE RIGHT PANEL

When you work in Camera Raw or Lightroom, it can be a drag to constantly have to scroll up or down the list of panels on the right to find the setting or slider you want – so instead, get to know this simple keyboard shortcut. Hold Cmd/Ctrl and press the number keys 1-9 to open up the different panels: 1 for the Basic Panel, 2 for the Curve Panel, 3 for the Detail Panel, and so on.