1. Hold down the Cmd/Ctrl key while at the same time clicking on a layer in Photoshop’s main image window to auto-select a layer.

2. If you want to remove all the colour from an image, and don’t want to go into grayscale mode, press Shift Cmd/Ctrl U (called ‘Desaturate’) and make your image grayscale while still in RGB mode. Note: using the channel mixer will produce a better result. Click on the Grayscale option.

3) Move Selection to its Own Layer - Copy the selection by pressing Cmd/Ctrl J. Press Shift Cmd/Ctrl J to cut and move a selection.

4. Press Ctrl/Cmd H to hide the ‘marching ants’ (selection marquee).

5) Feathering ” When setting a feather using the Lasso Tools, press the Return/Enter key. This will highlight the Feather field in the Options palette and you can enter or change the value.

6. Press Alt/Option Delete to fill a selection or layer with the color in the foreground. Press Cmd/Ctrl Delete to fill a selection or layer with the color in the background.

7. To change the brush size. Press the [ ] keys. If you hold the shift key down and press the [and ] keys, the brush gets softer and harder, respectively. (You can change the level up to five times).

8. If your version of Photoshop is without the Spot Healing Brush, double click on the Blur Tool and in the Options palette, decrease the opacity to 15% and change the mode to Lighten to remove the undesired scratches and blemishes. When you paint over these marks, they will disappear before you eyes.

9. To draw a straight line with any of the brush tools, just click, hold the Shift key, and click again where you want the line to end. Photoshop will draw a straight line between the two points! This trick also works with most tools, including erasers and even the highlight tool in the Extract filter.

10. In the Layers palette, when you choose Duplicate Layer, you can change the document setting to ‘New’ to create a brand new picture from any layer.