My buddy Eddie Tapp is working on a new book, Photoshop Workflow Setups: Eddie Tapp on Digital Photography. You can download a chapter of the book from creativepro.com, in which Tapp shows you how to set up efficient workspaces in Photoshop and Bridge.

There's lots of good stuff here, including Tapp's suggestions for setting up different palette combinations for different types of work, like color correction, masking, or retouching. The chapter includes instructions for using the Match Zoom feature (Window>Arrange>Match Zoom) to view multiple images at the same magnification, using Full Screen Mode to show your client an image against a clean black background (F, F, Tab, and then Command/Control+zero to center), and using the New Window command (Window>Arrange>New Window) for detail work.

There are so many Photoshop books that rehash the same old lessons, that it's refreshing to see a book on a unique topic like workflow setups.

Boy, these Adobe guys sure know how to bait: check out the inaugural post at Nonprofit @ Adobe. It sounds like the company has put together a Nonprofit Team that will be offering eSeminars, a nonprofit pricing program and the obligatory software tips and tricks.

That one post is all we get for now though. If you have anything to do with the worlds of nonprofit and design, I think Adobe just gave you something else to bookmark.

Jennifer Apple over at The Photoshop Blog posted a great tip for getting that perfect selection when you're having a tough time with other methods, possibly due to backgrounds or surrounding elements that are stumping Photoshop and its various selection tools.

Jennifer's idea is to give your selection tool of choice a helping hand by using a Levels or Curves adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer) to increase the image's contrast. Using an adjustment layer (instead of applying the changes directly) will allow you to preserve the image the way you want it, make the selection you need and then throw out or turn off (for later use) the layer in order to go on about your business.

This method is both a great technique and a prime example of the power of adjustment layers that should be incorporated into nearly every Photoshop user's toolbelt as soon as possible.

This might seem like a basic tip to some, but I've been meeting more and more Photoshoppers from all walks of life who are so delighted to find out about this tip that I thought I'd post it.

Using the Measure Tool (oddly hidden under the Eyedropper Tool) in CS2 and CS, as well as 7 and I think 6 and earlier, you can draw a straight line and use it to orient your comp. For example: say you need to rotate an image ever so slightly so the side of a building is perfectly vertical or the edge of a table exactly horizontal. Simply draw a line with the Measure Tool along whatever object, edge or item you would like to straighten out with, then go up to Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary. The Angle field will already be filled in with the value needed to straighten out the line you drew, in which case your canvas will rotate by that amount.

See? No more 'rotating and guessing.'

For a while now, the Be a Design Group Blog has been producing fantastic posts under a series called Be Aware. While not Photoshop-centric by any means, the series collects bits and pieces of knowledge from various designers that cover a wide gamut of general design topics touching on everything from software and business tips, discussions on ideals, typography and a whole lot more.

The series is up to its 17th post, so you'd better get crackin' if you plan on traveling down the path of the accomplished design ninja.

Trevor Morris, of GFX^TM, has raised the bar for defining the phrase "too much time on one's hands" by producing a 4-page PDF containing (what I assume is) every keyboard shortcut for Photoshop CS2. As you might guess, he had to use some pretty small type to fit all the available keyboard shortcuts on only four pages, including editing mode-specific ones. For those not living on the bleeding edge of Photoshop/CS versions, it seems he's created documents like this for every Photoshop version back to 5.0, so take your pic.

[via creativebits]

A lot of Photoshop users know you can change brush sizes by using the bracket keys, but I just found out from an iStockphoto newsletter (of all things) that you can hold the shift key when using those brackets to change the brush's softness. How handy is that?