3 Easy Adobe Photoshop Tips and Tricks

In this blog post, we will be covering 3 easy Adobe Photoshop tips and tricks that anyone can do in just minutes! Photoshop has become a powerful tool in helping to manipulate as well as enhance photos.

Replacing the Sky in Adobe Photoshop

Sometimes we capture the perfect landscape in a photo, but the sky is blown-out or it’s a dreary cloudy day. Luckily, Adobe Photoshop has the Sky Replacement Tool! It has never been easier to find a perfect new sky, and then use the Sky Replacement Tool to create a seamless composite, adjusting color temperature, brightness, and the foreground lighting for a realistic final image in just minutes!

Steps to Replace the Sky

1. Once your image is open, go to Edit → Sky Replacement
2. Click the dropdown arrow to add your own sky.
3. Select either your own sky from an uploaded image or select one of the Photoshop presets.
4. Adjust the following sky settings to the desired outcome: Shift Edge, Fade Edge, Brightness Temperature, and Scale.
5. Adjust the foreground settings as well to match the sky.
6. Click “Okay” and adjust the outputted layers if needed.

*An important thing to note with the sky replacement tool in Photoshop is that it works best with a blown-out sky and a hard horizon line.

Swapping Faces in Adobe Photoshop

Swapping faces or swapping heads is perhaps what Photoshop is most commonly used for. Almost every magazine cover or movie poster that you see has had a head or face replaced. There are many methods that allow you to swap faces in Photoshop, but one of the quickest and most effective techniques is to use the Auto-Blend Layers option under the Edit menu. Auto-Blend Layers was designed to stitch panoramas together in Photoshop. It automatically matches tones and colors, and it fills transparent pixels with Content-Aware. We will use this technology to quickly and easily swap a face in a photo. Swapping faces in Photoshop can be a ton of fun, and it is not just for professionals anymore! After watching this Photoshop tutorial you will now be able to easily combine pictures and put a face on different bodies with just a few clicks.

Steps to Swap Faces

1. Open up two windows, one with the face you want to be swapped out and one with the face you want to swap in.
2. Duplicate the base layer on the image that you want the face swapped out.
3. Open the image with the face you want swapped in and use the select tool to select the key features of the face that you want to swap in.
4. Copy the selected area and then paste it into the window with the face that you want to swap out.
5. Change the opacity of the pasted face features to 50% so that you can see the layer underneath.
6. Scale and transform the cut-out face to match the features of the face beneath it that you want to swap out.
7. Once the faces are aligned, select the pixels of the face layer with the copy and pasted face so that the edges of the face has “marching ants” around it.
8. Go to Select → Modify → Contract and contract by around 7 pixels. This number can vary depending on your images.
9. Press “Okay” and select the layer that you want to swap the copied and pasted face into and hide all other layers. Make sure that your contracted selection is still selected.
10. Delete the selected area where the face would be. You should see the transparent background of Photoshop.
11. Unhide all the layers and then select both the layer with the copied and pasted face and the layer with the deleted face.
12. Go to Edit → Auto-Blend Layers
13. Select “Panorama” as the blend mode and leave both the checkboxes underneath that selected.
14. Press “Okay” and then make further edits to blend the face in better.

*An important note here is that the better aligned the faces are (the same angle, same skin tone, etc) the better the blend will be.

Sharpening Photos Using High Pass in Adobe Photoshop

Sharpening is the best way to enhance all of the details you worked so hard to preserve. It’s also a great tool to help guide the viewer’s eye to the subject of the image. In this video, you will learn the best sharpening method out there to target and highlight the details that matter. Sharpening should be the very last step in your post-processing workflow so make sure to take care of all of the retouching and coloring first. This ensures that you only end up sharpening details that you intended to be in the final image.

Steps to Sharpen Your Photos

1. Duplicate your image and create a second layer.
2. Select the top layer and go to Filter → Other → High Pass
3. Select a pixel radius. The higher the radius, the sharper the image, and the harder the edges. The lower the radius, the less sharpened your image will become. It is important to find a good balance when choosing the high pass pixel radius.
4. Go to the opacity settings and select one of the following options:

• Overlay
• Soft Light
• Hard Light

*An important note is that these are just suggested opacity settings that work well with the high pass filter to sharpen your image. Some other opacity settings may work and it comes down to preference.

We hope this tutorial has taught you 3 easy Adobe Photoshop tips and tricks. Photoshop can be a life-saver when it comes to editing or manipulating photos. Here at Camera Drop, we specialize in camera gear that helps you to take the perfect photo/video! Visit our store to see what we have to offer!