15.1. Photoshop Basics

Photoshop Interface

When you first open Photoshop you see several main areas. At the center is the document window where your photo appears. Around it are panels that hold tools and settings. At the top is the menu bar, which gives access to every command, and below it is the options bar, which changes depending on which tool you have selected.

On the left is the Tools panel. This is where you find the tools you use for selecting, retouching, painting, cropping, and more. Each tool can have extra options that appear in the options bar at the top. Many tools have hidden tools beneath them, shown by a small triangle on the icon. Click and hold to see the related tools.

On the right you will see panels such as Layers, Properties, Adjustments, Color, and History. The Layers panel is the most important one for photographers, because it shows how your image is built up from different pieces. You can rearrange panels by dragging their tabs, and you can show or hide panels through the Window menu. You can also change workspace presets in the Window > Workspace menu to get a Photography-focused layout.

At the bottom of the document window is the status bar. It can show information such as zoom level, file size, and color profile. You can change the zoom of your image with Ctrl + and Ctrl − on Windows or Command + and Command − on Mac, or with Ctrl / Command and the spacebar with dragging. Always remember that zoom only changes your view. It does not change the actual resolution of the photo.

For beginners it is useful to reset Photoshop to a known state. If something looks strange, you can reset the current workspace in Window > Workspace > Reset. This brings tools and panels back to their default positions, which makes it easier to follow tutorials and instructions.

Layers

Layers are like transparent sheets stacked on top of each other. The final image you see is the result of all visible layers combined. Each layer can hold pixels, adjustments, or text. You can turn layers on and off, change their order, and blend them in different ways.

In the Layers panel each row represents a layer. From left to right you usually see the visibility icon (the eye), the thumbnail preview, the layer name, and sometimes icons showing masks, effects, or smart objects. Click the eye to hide or show a layer. Drag a layer up or down to change the stacking order. Higher layers appear on top of lower layers in the image.

There are several basic layer types that matter for photography. A normal pixel layer holds image pixels. A background layer is a special pixel layer at the bottom, often locked. You can unlock it by clicking the lock icon or by double clicking and renaming it. Text layers hold editable text. Adjustment layers, which you will learn about in the next section, apply edits without changing the underlying pixels.

You can create a new empty layer with the plus icon at the bottom of the Layers panel or through Layer > New > Layer. You can duplicate a layer with Ctrl / Command + J. Duplicating the background layer before making big changes is a simple safety step, because you always have the untouched version hidden below.

Each layer also has an opacity slider at the top of the Layers panel. This controls how strong that layer appears. At 100% opacity the layer is fully visible. At 0% it is invisible. Many edits become more natural if you reduce the opacity a little so the effect blends with the layers below.

Blending modes, in the drop down menu that usually shows "Normal", control how a layer mixes with the layers under it. For example, the Multiply mode darkens, and the Screen mode brightens. Blending modes are powerful but you do not need to learn them all at once. For photography the most common ones are Normal, Multiply, Screen, Overlay, and Soft Light.

Adjustment Layers

Adjustment layers let you change exposure, contrast, color, and more without permanently altering the pixels. They sit above your image layers and affect all layers beneath them in the stack, unless you limit them with masks or clipping.

You create an adjustment layer from the Adjustments panel or from the Layer > New Adjustment Layer menu. Common adjustment layers for photography include Levels, Curves, Brightness/Contrast, Exposure, Hue/Saturation, Color Balance, Black & White, and Selective Color. When you add an adjustment layer, a new layer appears in the Layers panel with a special icon, and its settings open in the Properties panel.

An important feature of adjustment layers is that you can edit them at any time. Double click the adjustment icon on the layer to reopen its settings and refine the effect. You can also reduce the opacity of an adjustment layer, change its blending mode, or hide it with the eye icon, all without changing the underlying photo.

You can group several adjustment layers with Ctrl / Command + G. This keeps complex edits tidy. You can also clip an adjustment layer to affect only one layer directly below. Right click the adjustment layer and choose "Create Clipping Mask" or hold Alt / Option and click between layers. This is useful when you want to adjust a single element, such as a sky layer in a composite, without affecting everything else.

Every adjustment layer automatically has a layer mask linked to it. The mask thumbnail appears next to the adjustment icon. This allows you to control where the adjustment is visible, which prepares the way for precise local edits.

Layer Masks

Layer masks control which parts of a layer are visible. Think of a mask as a stencil. Wherever the mask is white, the layer shows. Wherever the mask is black, the layer is hidden. Shades of gray reveal the layer partially. This system lets you blend edits smoothly and target specific areas of the image.

In the Layers panel a mask appears as a small thumbnail next to the layer thumbnail. If a layer does not have a mask yet, you can add one by clicking the mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. By default the mask is white, so the whole layer is visible. You can fill the mask with black to hide the entire layer, then paint with white to reveal the effect only where you want it.

To paint on a mask, select the mask thumbnail, then choose the Brush tool. Set the foreground color to black to hide the layer, or white to reveal it. You can press X to swap foreground and background colors quickly. Adjust brush size and hardness in the options bar. A soft brush gives smooth transitions, which is useful for blending sky and foreground, or softening skin adjustments.

Careful work with masks allows very precise control. For example, you can apply a Curves adjustment layer to brighten the whole image, then mask out bright areas so you do not blow the highlights. Or you can desaturate most of the image, but use the mask to keep color only in a specific object.

If you Alt / Option click on a mask thumbnail, Photoshop shows the mask itself as a black and white image. This can help you clean up rough edges or see where your brushing is uneven. Shift clicking a mask temporarily disables it, which is useful to compare before and after.

Selections

Selections define which pixels are active for editing. When an area is selected, your edits affect only that region. Everything outside the selection is protected. Selections are useful for making local adjustments, cutting out objects, or creating masks.

Basic selection tools include the Marquee tools and the Lasso tools. The Rectangular and Elliptical Marquee tools create simple geometric selections. The Lasso tool lets you draw a freehand selection. The Polygonal Lasso creates selections with straight lines. More advanced tools for subjects and edges are covered in other chapters, but for now, focus on how selections behave.

When you use a selection tool, you will see a marching ants outline around the selected area. You can add to an existing selection by holding Shift while drawing a new selection, or subtract from it by holding Alt / Option. In the options bar you can also choose modes such as New, Add, Subtract, and Intersect to control how new selections combine with the current one.

The Select menu offers commands to refine selections. For example, Select > Inverse switches the selection from the current area to everything else. Feathering, available through Select > Modify > Feather, softens the edges of a selection. A slight feather, such as 1 to 3 pixels on a typical photo, prevents harsh transitions when you apply adjustments.

You can turn a selection into a mask by clicking the layer mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. If a selection is active when you add a mask, Photoshop automatically converts it to a mask. White appears where the selection was and black elsewhere. This is one of the most common ways to make precise masks based on shapes or areas.

Selections are temporary, so it can be useful to save them. You can do this in Select > Save Selection, which stores the selection as an alpha channel. You can reload it later from Select > Load Selection. This is helpful if you spent time creating a detailed selection and want to reuse or refine it without starting over.

Healing Tools

Healing tools are designed to remove spots, dust, blemishes, and other small distractions by blending them into the surrounding texture and color. For photographs these tools are essential for retouching skin, cleaning skies, and fixing minor defects.

The main healing tools are the Spot Healing Brush, Healing Brush, Patch Tool, and often the Content Aware tools. The Spot Healing Brush is the simplest. You just paint over a blemish and Photoshop automatically samples nearby pixels to fill the area. It works well on simple backgrounds and small imperfections.

The Healing Brush gives more control. You choose a source area by Alt / Option clicking on a clean part of the image, then paint over the flaw. Photoshop blends the texture from your source with the color and brightness of the target area. This is useful when you want to control exactly where the replacement texture comes from, such as matching skin pores or detailed patterns.

The Patch Tool works with selections. You draw around the object you want to remove, then drag the selection to an area that should replace it. Photoshop uses that area to heal the selection. This tool is good for larger areas, like removing a person from a simple background, but it can create warping or smearing if the patterns are complex.

For all healing tools you should work on a separate empty layer instead of directly on the background. In the options bar set Sample or Sample All Layers so the tool uses the visible image as its source but writes new pixels onto the empty retouch layer. This technique keeps your original image intact and makes it easy to undo or adjust changes.

Try to use a brush size just a bit larger than the blemish you want to remove. If the brush is too big, you may pull in unwanted edges or textures that look out of place. Also pay attention to repeated patterns. If you heal the same way over and over, the image can show obvious repeating textures that give away the retouch.

Clone Stamp

The Clone Stamp tool is more literal than healing tools. It copies pixels exactly from one area to another without trying to blend color or tone automatically. This gives you more control for difficult textures, edges, and repeating patterns, but it also requires more care.

To use the Clone Stamp, select it from the Tools panel, then Alt / Option click to set the source point. This tells Photoshop where to copy from. Then paint in the target area. As you paint, the tool copies pixels from the source location and places them where you brush. By default the source moves in sync with your brush, which is called aligned sampling. You can turn this off in the options bar if you want to reuse the same source starting point each time.

Brush settings matter a lot with cloning. A soft edge brush blends more smoothly with surroundings and is often better for organic subjects like skin, clouds, or foliage. A harder brush may be useful along sharp edges, such as architecture or product shots, where you want clean lines. You can change brush size with the bracket keys and adjust hardness in the brush panel or the right click menu.

Like with healing, you should use the Clone Stamp on its own layer. Create a new empty layer and enable Sample Current & Below or Sample All Layers. This way the tool reads from your photo but writes new cloned pixels on a separate layer. If you make a mistake you can erase part of this layer or reduce its opacity to soften the effect.

For realistic results, frequently change your source point. If you always clone from the same spot, the eye will notice repeated patterns. Also watch for light direction and gradients. Copying pixels from a darker area into a lighter one can create obvious patches. Sometimes it is better to clone in several small steps from slightly different areas rather than one big clone from a distant patch.

You can also combine the Clone Stamp with layer masks. For example, you can clone a large fix on one layer, then add a mask to fade parts of that fix gently into the original image below. This gives you an extra level of control and helps you avoid clear edges.

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