Photoshop Panels Often Overlooked
Greetings TipSquirrel Fans!!!
Today I want to take a moment to talk about a few panels in Photoshop that often get overlooked.
The Navigator Panel
This is a necessary part of my retouching/restoration workflow. It’s an even better tool if you use two monitors. HINT – you should really get a 2nd monitor. The Navigator Panel provides a complete image view at all times, and shows you which part of the image you’ve zoomed in on. Most people ignore the fact that you can RESIZE the panel. When used with a 2nd monitor, the panel can be expanded to a considerable size. The benefit to workflow is a decreased amount of zooming in & out of the image you’re working on. When zoomed in closely for a touchup, you can simply glance at the Navigator Panel to see how that touchup looks in the context of the entire image.
The Notes Panel
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could open up a Photoshop PSD you worked on a year ago, and remember how you created all those cool effects? If you incorporate the Notes Panel into your workflow, you’ll be able to do just that. Using the Note Tool–found under the Eyedropper Tool–you can tag yellow “sticky notes” to your image. Select a sticky note, and type your comment in the Notes Panel. If you prefer not to see a flurry of yellow notes all over your image, simply choose View from the menu and toggle “Extras” on or off.
The Layer Comps Panel
If you want a quick way to switch between variations in a design to show a customer, you may want to take a look at the Layer Comps panel. A layer comp retains visibility of all the layers, their position on the canvas, and layer style settings. When used effectively, layer comps can prevent the need for duplicate layers, or memorization of layer style settings for design variations. I use it to help when presenting comps to a client as it’s easier to click between layer comps than it is to toggle several layers on & off or change style settings.
I encourage you to take a look at these panels, and hope they’re a benefit to your Photoshop workflow.
I am so delighted to have run across your site. There is so much to learn in Photoshop and your site seems to be very, very promising. I didn’t know anything about the buttons you’ve explained above. Thanks so very much. I love learning new things!!!