4 Surprising Photoshop Techniques You Need to Try 

Did you know that Photoshop 1.0 was exclusively released on February 19, 1990, for Macintosh? Since then, PhotoShop has become the must-have software and the industry standard for raster graphics editing and digital art as a whole. When using PhotoShop and PhotoShop tricks, the possibilities are endless.

So, keep reading for four Photoshop techniques you need to try today!

1. A Bokeh Effect

Bokeh is usually soft balls of light. You tend to see this effect in the blurred background of portraits. While it is possible to create this effect manually, you won’t always have the tools needed at hand. That’s where a Bokeh overlay comes in.

To create this effect, you’ll need to start by blurring the image’s background. Then, in the Effects tab, you’ll find a Light Bokeh slider which you can move around to add soft balls of light. From there, you just need to experiment with the color and intensity slider!

2. Film Grain

While we may have moved away from old-school film photography, there is a certain beauty to texture produced by shooting film. Luckily you can recreate this feeling by adding a few effects to your image. Just make sure you’re working in a new layer so that you can easily undo the effect if you want to.

The easiest way to recreate film grain is to add Gaussian Noise to your layer. From there, you can blur the Noise until you achieve the perfect amount of texture on your image.

3. Add Lens Flare

Lens flare can add a beautiful and whimsical feel to photos. But, unfortunately, capturing natural lens flare is inconsistent depending on the time of day, weather, and location. Luckily this PhotoShop trick can give you full control over the intensity and color of your lens flare.

PhotoShop actually has a lens flare filter that you can use. You can find it by clicking on: Filter > Render > Lens Flare. Or press CTRL+F for the Photoshop CC keyboard shortcut for Windows (Command+F for Mac OS X). 

Once you’ve added your lens flare in a new layer, you can play around with the position and setting until you have the perfect image.

4. Work Paths

Did you know that you can use the Pen Tool to draw a path around any object you want to include in another image? Once you save the Work Path you created with the Pen Tool, you’ll be able to add the object to any image you are working on. You simply need to copy and paste the object.

You can even add a mask in Photoshop to your images if you want to! By doing this, you can edit images to reflect current matters without needing to retake photos.

Photoshop Techniques Made Easy

Tools like Photoshop are meant to give you a way to express your creativity, so if you can imagine it, you can create it. There are tutorials on every Photoshop use imaginable if you’re unsure how to make your creation into a reality. So go ahead and experiment with these Photoshop techniques today! 

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