Blurring an image that is to be saved as a JPEG file will reduce its file size, whereas sharpening it will increase the size. To sharpen an image for the Web. Choose Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask and use a low Amount setting (somewhere around 20 per cent), a high Radius setting (15-20 pixels) and a low Threshold setting (3-5 levels). This will keep your file size down but will still make your image appear a little sharper.

SETTING FEATHER OPTIONS

Feathering and anti-aliasing are very important to give a natural to your selections. Make sure you choose the Antialiased option and give your selection a pixel or two of Feather before you use any selection tool such as Lasso or Marquee.

FEATHERING SELECTIONS

To feather a part of a selection, switch to Quick Mask Mode, select the area you want to feather and apply the Gaussian Blur filter. To make the transition look as smooth as possible, you should feather the selections before you apply the Blur effect.

PAINTING SELECTIONS

You can paint selections using Photoshop’s painting tools such as Airbrush. Click on the Quick Mask Mode button and start painting your selection. The default colour is red but you can change this by double-clicking on the Quick Mask Mode icon. When you have finished painting your selection, click on the Standard Mode button to get the selection.

HIDING PALETTES

You can get rid off all your open palettes to create more space by pressing the (Tab) key. Alternatively, you can also press (Shift) + (Tab) to hide other palettes except the toolbar. Press the same keys to bring them back.

USING THE DODGE TOOL

For white, bright, shiny effects like, say, the brightening of teeth or pure white marble texture, you can make use of the Dodge tool. This tool helps in faster whitening and brightening of the desired selection. In the Options palette, select Midtones and set the Exposure to about 20 per cent. Select a small, soft brush. Besure the brush is smaller than the portion selected. Carefully paint over the selection with the Dodge tool. For better accuracy, select the portion before working with the Dodge tool. It can definitely brighten up the smile on your face.

DEFRINGING CUTOUTS

The Defringe command in the Layer>Matting option removes unwanted pixels from cutouts. For this, just type in the number of pixels you want to defringe and they will be deleted from the edges of the cutout.

WORKING WITH COLOR RANGE

If you are working with images that do not have the highlights and shadows in order, you can use the Color Range option to correct them. Go to Select>Color Range, choose Highlights or Shadows from the drop-down menu to apply in the troubled areas and click OK. Then feather your selection and use the Levels dialog box to get those shadows or highlights under control. The Color Range option is quite useful as you get better selections than with the Magic Wand tool. You will notice that you get selections that also contain partially selected pixels (shown as grey), which the Magic Wand cannot do.

GRAYSCALE CONVERSIONS

If you have an image which is in RGB or CMYK and you have to convert it to Grayscale, don’t convert it directly. To get more accurate conversions, first convert the image to Lab Color. Then select just the Lightness channel and again use the Image>Mode option to convert to Grayscale. Click OK when prompted with ‘Discard other channels?’

WORKING IN CMYK

The move from RGB to CMYK can cause some nasty shocks. To avoid this, always use the CMYK preview from the View menu. Also, if you are working towards a printed output, you should always work in CMYK. If you work in RGB and convert to CMYK, you run the risk of getting dull, flat and out of Gamut colours.