- Featured article
- People at Skills360 13 - March 2025 | 7 min read
Every day is a new day for students learning Graphic Designing at Skills 360. From mastering the basics to learning advanced techniques, the course has endless opportunities to enhance your creative expertise. Most designers already know essential Photoshop tools like layers, masks and filters. However, very few know about the tricks that can make your work a whole lot easier and professional. Today, we’re excited to share some of these hidden gems that we teach our students at Skills 360. So without further ado, let’s dive in!
Have you ever struggled to match subtle colors between images in RGB or CMYK modes? Skills 360 has a solution for that. The LAB Color mode in Photoshop is a game-changer for precise color accuracy for consistent branding.
To get started, first convert your image to LAB mode (Image > Mode > Lab Color), and then open a Curves Adjustment Layer (Image > Adjustments > Curves). Here, you can isolate the L (Luminance), A (Green-Magenta), and B (Blue-Yellow) channels and tweak the colors independently. This lets you match your colors without messing with the overall brightness. After you’ve perfected the colors, convert the image back to RGB mode (Image > Mode > RGB Color).
Make subtle adjustments to hues without affecting the rest of the image using the Selective Color Adjustment layer. To start, add a Selective Color adjustment layer from the Layer > New Adjustment Layer menu. Choose a color range (reds, greens, blues, etc.) and adjust its cyan, magenta, yellow, and black values. This will help you target specific colors for enhancement or correction. It’s ideal for perfecting portraits, landscapes, or creative color grading, and gives you full control over your image’s color balance.
Photoshop allows you to create your own custom brushes for adding unique textures, strokes or effects to a project. Start by selecting the image or texture you want to turn into a brush. Then, go to Edit > Define Brush Preset and name your selected brush. Now you can use this as a new brush for incorporating consistent unique textures or strokes across your design. You can also download new brushes by clicking the Gear icon and choosing Import brushes,
Did you know you can create animations with Photoshop? To start, go to Window > Timeline and click on the Create Video Timeline icon. Here, you can create frame-by-frame animations and also turn layers into moving objects. Adjust the timing for each frame and add your desired effects to bring your design to life. When all is set, you can export your animation as a GIF or video easily.
The Blend If sliders allow you to blend layers depending on tonal ranges. This gives you control over how layers interact with each other. To access this, double-click on a layer to open the Layer Style panel, then adjust the Blend If sliders under the Advanced Blending section. You can use these sliders to make parts of a layer blend seamlessly into the background, depending on brightness or darkness. This is beneficial in particular for compositing, creating realistic shadows, or integrating textures without harsh edges.
These hidden tricks go beyond the basics of Photoshop and can really help you elevate your projects. At Skills 360, we advise our students to master these skills, along with many others, to have an edge in the competitive design world. By experimenting with these tools daily, you will not only push your creative limits but also uncover something new each time around!
The steps are making it AI generated, even though i used my own words…
Get curated emails on out of class learning and work on your skills on your free time.
