3 Photoshop Editing Tips

Learn how to turn your photos into digital masterpieces with these quick and easy Photoshop tips from Melbourne-based photographer and digital artist Tom Noske.

1. Reimagine Reality with “Composition Hacking”

With “Composition Hacking” in Photoshop you can breathe new life into old images and turn them into something truly special. Perhaps you have a landscape image or travel photo that didn’t quite capture the drama and intensity of the moment you lived. Or perhaps you want to portray the sense of scale and enormity that you felt while exploring a certain destination. With Photoshop, the only limitation to what you can create is your own imagination.

Simply open your image in Photoshop and use the Marquee tool to select the area of the photo that you want to manipulate or accentuate, whether this be a mountain range, dramatic ocean scene or endless vista of sand dunes. Hit Command + C on your keyboard and, while holding Shift, simply stretch out different parts of your image to create entirely new compositions. The secret is to explore with different compositions until you find something that excites you.

Pro Tip: Remember, the whole point of “Composition Hacking” is to distort reality so that it matches what you see in your mind’s eye – so don’t be afraid to experiment!

2. Enhance Your Landscape Images with the Gradient Tool - AKA "One Click Sky Replacement Tool"

Photoshop is perfect for replacing certain parts of your image. For example, replacing boring grey skies with beautiful pink sunset skies is sure to get you more traction on Instagram! To do this, simply create a new layer with your new sky image and place it underneath your main image. Then simply add a layer mask to your image and select the Gradient tool by hitting ‘G’ on your keyboard. Then, while holding Shift, drag down from the top of your image to the horizon line to create a nice even gradient and reveal the beautiful new sky beneath it.

3. Create Your Own Colour Changing Strategy

With Photoshop you can quickly manipulate the colours in your images to create some seriously dramatic effects. To do this, simply go to your Adjustment Layers tab and click Selective Colour. From here you can select the colour range you would like to change – whether it be red, blue, green or yellow – and adjust the slider until you reach your desired look and feel.

Pro Tip: If you want to make more intense colour adjustments to specific parts of your image then you can mask out the areas that you don’t want to be affected by using the Brush tool. This is really useful when editing portraits, for example, where you would like to change the colour of your subject’s surroundings without altering the colour of your subject or their clothing.

What images do you have sitting on your hard drive that you could re-imagine with a little bit of Photoshop magic?

Watch the full tutorial in the video above, or find more photo and video editing tips from Tom here.