Welcome to Photoshop Essentials, where everyone can learn Photoshop! We offer fun, exclusive, step-by-step tutorials for all skill levels, and all written with beginners in mind. From Photoshop Basics to Photo Editing and Retouching, Photo Effects, Text Effects and more!
Check out our latest Photoshop tutorials below. Or download our tutorials as PDFs and get exclusive bonus content!
Learn how to create an interesting effect by adding a texture to text in Photoshop, using nothing more than a photo for the texture, a layer mask, a simple image adjustment, and of course, some text! Includes a trick for pasting an image directly into a layer mask in Photoshop!
In a previous tutorial we looked at how to place a single image inside text. This time, we take things further and learn how to fill text with multiple images!
Reality isn’t the only thing we can fake in Photoshop! Thanks to paths and Photoshop’s ability to use a path as a container for text, we can easily fake the “Text Wrap” feature you’d normally find in a page layout program!
Take your Photoshop skills into the third dimension! Wrapping text around an object in 3D couldn’t be easier and takes only a few simple steps!
Easily make text appear as if it’s made out of plastic using Photoshop’s Layer Styles and some additional contours we’ll be loading in.
Learn how to easily give text a worn, cracked look to it using nothing more than a basic selection tool, a brush filter and a layer style.
Learn how to create a “fragmented tiles” effect with text using Photoshop’s Tiles filter.
Learn how to use layer styles to easily create a fun gel text effect in Photoshop, then save it as a preset style that you can select instantly whenever you need it.
Learn how to easily create a sparkling gold-plated text effect in Photoshop using Layer Styles, some sampled colors and a neat little brush.
In this Photoshop text effects tutorial, learn how to engulf your text in an explosion of light and color.
Photoshop allows you to use any shape as a container for your text, and in this tutorial, we’ll see that you can even use text as a container for text.
Why settle for one stroke around your text when you can have as many as you want?
Add some visual interest to text with this easy shadow effect.
Learn how easy it is to place an image inside text in Photoshop.
Convert text to a shape, then learn how to use one of Photoshop’s more interesting shape options to knock out sections of letters that overlap each other!
Learn how to make a simple 3D text effect in Photoshop.
Learn how to make a simple text reflection effect in Photoshop.
Let’s look at one of the most popular uses for Photoshop, how to resize your images! We’ll learn how to make photos smaller using the Image Size command, and why making them larger is almost never a good idea.
Learn how to resize, optimize and save a copy of your photo for uploading to the web or emailing to family and friends using the Image Size and Save For Web & Devices commands in Photoshop CS5!
Uploading your photos to the web can be a great way to get yourself and your work noticed, but before you send an image out into the world, make sure your contact and copyright information is included with the file. This tutorial shows you how!
Feeling overwhelmed by the number of file formats to choose from when trying to save your images in Photoshop? This quick guide looks at the essential formats we need to know, including the pros and cons of each one and the situations where it makes the most sense to use it!
It’s a fact of life with digital photos that sometimes we need to compress them to make our file sizes smaller. Our computer screens don’t always make it easy to see the damage being done to the image, but thanks to one of Photoshop’s rarely-used blending modes, the horrors of jpeg compression become strikingly clear.
The whole point of editing images in Photoshop is to make them look better, so why risk making them look worse in the process if you don’t have to? If you’ve been editing 8-bit images when you could have been working in 16-bit mode, you’ve been missing out on a world of flexibility.
If RGB is just a three letter word to you and color channels are something you watch on tv, your Photoshop work is suffering. Learn how Photoshop displays colors in your images and take your skills to the next level.
A lot of people use the term “image resizing” whether they’re resizing or resampling an image in Photoshop as if they’re the same thing, which they’re most definitely not, and if you’re concerned about image quality, it’s important to know the difference.
Image pixels are the tiny building blocks of every digital image. All Photoshop sees is pixels. It’s these pixels that you’re changing in some way with every edit you make to your image, and it’s these pixels you’re printing when you send your digital photos to the printer.
In this section, we’ll look at some of the most confusing terms you’ll come across when working in Photoshop: image resolution, pixel dimensions and document size – what it all means, why it’s so important to understand, and why you may not need to understand it at all!
Learn how image resolution and the number of pixels in your image will affect the quality of your digital photos when you print them, why images you download off the internet usually print with poor quality, and how many megapixels (MP) your camera needs to have in order to print professional quality photos at different sizes.
Can’t decide if your photo would look better in color or black and white? Why not try both at once! Learn a fast and easy way to do selective coloring in Photoshop, turning most of your image black and white while keeping your main subject in full color!
In this Photoshop Effects tutorial, learn how to easily add folds and creases to a photo as if it had been folded and unfolded like a map!
In this Photoshop Effects tutorial, learn how to give someone’s eyes a fun, easy to create ‘zoom’ effect with blur streaks that zoom out from the center of the eyes. We’ll also enhance the brightness and color of the eyes while we’re at it!
In this Photoshop Effects tutorial, learn how to create a “faded pixels” photo border, with the image appearing through randomly-sized and scattered square pixel shapes that gradually fade into a solid colored background.
Learn the essentials of blending textures with photos in Photoshop, including how to quickly cycle through the layer blend modes, how to blend only the brightness values of the texture to keep the photo’s original colors, how to invert textures for different results, and more!
In this Photoshop effects tutorial, learn how to easily turn a photo into a pattern of colored dots, using one of Photoshop’s filters, a layer mask and a simple repeating pattern we’ll create from scratch!
In this Photoshop effects tutorial, learn how layer groups and clipping masks make it easy to create the illusion that a photo is being displayed as a series of vertical panels!
In this Photo Effects tutorial, learn a quick and easy way to simulate film grain in an image with Photoshop, including how to keep the effect fully editable using Smart Filters!
Learn how to display a single photo as a cluster of shapes, similar to larger wall cluster displays where several photos, usually in different frame shapes and sizes, are arranged together on a wall to form a larger design. In this tutorial, we’ll create something similar but on a smaller scale using just a single image!
In this Photoshop effects tutorial, learn how to quickly add a timeless, classic vignette border to a photo! Perfect for wedding and engagement photos, anniversaries and other family portraits!
In this photo effects tutorial, learn how to add a sense of action and movement to an image by giving your main subject an easy to create motion trail!
In this photo effects tutorial, learn a fast and easy way to add rays of sunlight to an image with Photoshop!
In this photo effects tutorial, learn how to easily create and add lightning to an image with Photoshop!
In a previous tutorial, we learned a way to convert a photo to a sketch in Photoshop that works great for portraits. In this tutorial, we learn a slightly different way that’s better at bringing out fine details when converting other types of images to a sketch! Plus, learn how to create the entire effect in 60 seconds or less!
In this Photoshop tutorial, learn how to easily convert a portrait photo into a pencil sketch, including how to colorize the effect with the photo’s original colors!
In this Photoshop effects tutorial, learn how to create a popular “punch through image” effect, often seen in sports and movie ads, as if a person or object has punched a hole right through the page or image!
In this Photoshop tutorial, learn how to create an old looking paper texture, perfect for use as a background for a scrapbook-style photo layout!
In this Photoshop effects tutorial, learn how to turn a photo in a grid of randomly colorized squares! We’ll use Photoshop’s guides and rulers, a couple of rarely used selection tools, the Magic Wand, adjustment layers, blend modes, and more! Any recent version of Photoshop will work!
Photoshop’s Drop Shadow layer style may be great for adding simple shadows to images or text, but for creating realistic looking shadows of people or objects, it just doesn’t cut it. In this tutorial, learn an easy way to create a realistic cast shadow effect!
Learn how to create a simple snowflakes photo border, a fun finishing touch for photos of family and friends during the holidays or of any snowy winter scene!
Just in time for the holidays! Learn how to create a simple and fun ‘Happy Holidays’ greeting card-style photo border in Photoshop!
In this photo effects tutorial, learn how to colorize a photo using a Color Balance adjustment, then how to select and stretch a single column of pixels across the image to create a cool motion blur effect!