Photoshop tutorials for beginners

Photoshop tutorials for beginners: tools

01. How to use the Custom Shape Tool

Find out how to create complex shapes in this bite-sized Photoshop tutorial

This Photoshop tutorial introduces the Custom Shape Tool. You’ll learn everything
you need to know to start adding custom shapes to your designs and layouts – including how to use various settings such as Fill, Stroke and more – in less than three minutes. 

02. How to use the Dodge Tool

This Photoshop tutorial introduces the Dodge tool. You'll learn how to selectively lighten areas of an image. Learn about brush options, Range, and Exposure. Brighten eyes, pick out details, and much more.

03. How to use the Burn Tool

Learn how to use the Burn tool in two minutes

One of our Photoshop tutorials, hosted on the Creative Bloq YouTube channel, introduces the Burn tool. In this easy-to-follow video, discover how to selectively darken areas of an image, with an overview of settings and tips on working with Shadows, Midtones and Highlights. 

04. How to use Photoshop's Image Sizing tool

Being able to manipulate bitmaps enables you to create a virtually unlimited array of effects. In this tutorial, we run through how to get the best out of the Image Sizing tool in Photoshop CC.

05. Get creative with Face-Aware Liquify

Face-Aware Liquify makes caricaturing easy

The latest version of Photoshop CC's Liquify tool has some powerful facial recognition skills, enabling it to detect areas of the face, such as the eyes, mouth, nose and overall face shape, so you can adjust and warp them with impunity. 

In this Face-Aware Liquify tutorial, T3 art editor Luke O'Neill, explains how to get the most of it, from simple adjustments to crazy facial distortions.

06. How to use Photoshop layers: 6 top tips

It may take a bit of time, but learning to use Photoshop's layer system is the key to unlocking the software's versatility

Learning to use Photoshop's layer system is key to unlocking the software's versatility. In the same way that traditional animators use several sheets of acetate in a single shot, painting different parts of your picture on different layers means they can be edited separately while still being viewable as a whole. 

In this Photoshop tutorial, you’ll find out how to everything from create layers to locking them, grouping them and adjusting opacity. 

Now watch: 5 new ways of working with Photoshop layers

07. How to use Photoshop layer masks

These helpful layer mask tips will help to streamline your digital art workflow

The helpful layer mask tips in this Photoshop tutorial will help you streamline your digital art workflow. As any Photoshop beginner will quickly learn, layer masks are one of the most fundamental parts of the software: without them your work will look flat. Follow these seven tips and shortcuts to work more quickly and easily with layer masks. 

08. How to use the Colour Replacement Tool

This Photoshop tutorial shows you how to quickly replace colours

Another of our YouTube Photoshop tutorials, this short video introduces the Color Replacement Tool, which lets you paint roughly over an area of an image. Discover how to replace colours based on Hue, Saturation, Colour and Luminosity.

09. How to use the Content-Aware Move Tool

Get to grips with the Content-Aware Move Tool in this two-minute Photoshop tutorial

This Photoshop tutorial introduces the Content-Aware Move Tool, which lets you select pixels and move or extend them to another area of your image without the use of layers and masks.

In the easy-to-follow video, we reveal how Photoshop can analyse pixels and heal unwanted portions within an image.

Photoshop tutorials for beginners: techniques

10. Make quick selections in Photoshop

Simple cut-outs and masking tasks form the backbone of much design work in Photoshop

The ability to perform simple cut-outs and masking tasks is a basic requirement of any designer, and often forms the backbone of any Photoshop work that you may undertake. 

In this step-by-step Photoshop tutorial we run through three basic techniquesfor creating simple selections, and then cover the layer mask options and how they work a little more in depth.

11. How to customise animated GIFs in Photoshop

Alter any animated GIF to fit the style of your latest project

Animated GIFs are a great way to make your designs more eye-catching. With Photoshop, you can customise any animated GIF to fit the style of your project.

This tutorial runs through three methods of customising animated GIFs in Photoshop,  using adjustment layers, blending options and a more time-consuming – but flexible – frame-by-frame technique. 

12. Reduce camera shake in Photoshop CC

Get to grips with Photoshop's Camera Shake Reduction filter

As a photographer, it's inevitable that you will wind up with the occasional blurry image. Fortunately, in Photoshop CC, Adobe has a special 'Camera Shake Reduction' filter to help you repair these images. Follow this Photoshop tutorial to find out how to repair your images in six easy steps. 

13. Age a photograph in Photoshop CC

Turn any photo into an aged, sepia-toned image in Photoshop

Ageing a photograph in Photoshop is a classic technique that can turn even a ho-hum, full colour image into something striking. If your design work requires a vintage look, replicating the look of a distressed old photo digitally can work wonders. 

However, it’s more than merely converting a photograph to sepia tones and calling it a day. In this article, we explore how to age a photograph using the duotone technique.

14. Transform a pencil sketch in Photoshop

Make your hand-drawn sketches easier to work with digitally using these quick steps