Video Tutorials

Fake Light Rays Through Clouds in Photoshop (That Actually Look Real)
Video Tutorials

Fake Light Rays Through Clouds in Photoshop (That Actually Look Real)

Client deadlines have a way of revealing every gap in your skill set. I can’t count how many times I’ve stared at a flat, lifeless sky photo and wished I could punch some drama into it without spending an hour in a rabbit hole of YouTube tutorials. Dramatic light rays cutting through clouds are one of those effects that look like they’d require a PhD in Photoshop, but the actual process is surprisingly lean once someone walks you through it properly.

Photoshop User TV Is Back, and They Brought a New Co-Host Worth Paying Attention To
Video Tutorials

Photoshop User TV Is Back, and They Brought a New Co-Host Worth Paying Attention To

There’s a specific kind of comfort in watching people who actually know Photoshop just… talk about Photoshop. Not in a “here are 47 hacks” clickbait way, but in the way where you can tell they’ve been in the trenches, missed deadlines, and made bad layer decisions at 2am. That’s what Photoshop User TV has always been for me, background noise that occasionally stops me cold with something I didn’t know. So when KelbyOne dropped Episode 341, kicking off a brand new season, I watched it with my third coffee of the morning at my usual corner table.

Stop Making Flat Images: How to Add Texture in Photoshop the Right Way
Video Tutorials

Stop Making Flat Images: How to Add Texture in Photoshop the Right Way

There’s a specific kind of embarrassment that comes from spending three days on a composite, only to have a friend glance over your shoulder and say “why didn’t you just use a texture layer?” I’ve been there. Flat images are one of those things that you don’t notice until you do, and then you can never unsee them. Adding texture is one of those techniques that separates images that feel alive from images that look like they were printed on copy paper.

Face-Aware Liquify Is the Retouching Shortcut I Wish I'd Had Years Ago
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Face-Aware Liquify Is the Retouching Shortcut I Wish I'd Had Years Ago

Portrait retouching used to eat my afternoons alive. A client sends over headshots, one eye looks slightly more closed than the other, or their expression came out a little flat, and suddenly I’m pushing pixels around with the standard Liquify brush like I’m trying to sculpt clay with a garden hose. Technically possible, consistently frustrating. When Adobe dropped Face-Aware Liquify in the CC 2015.5 update, it solved a problem I’d been brute-forcing for years without realizing a smarter solution existed.

Stop Clicking Through Menus: How to Build Custom Keyboard Shortcuts in Photoshop
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Stop Clicking Through Menus: How to Build Custom Keyboard Shortcuts in Photoshop

I have a deeply embarrassing confession: for longer than I care to admit, I was manually clicking through Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur every single time I needed it. Which, when you’re doing any kind of compositing or light painting work, is approximately nine hundred times per session. I just assumed it didn’t have a shortcut. I accepted my fate like someone who refuses to ask for directions and ends up in a different state.

How to Nail the Expendables-Style Gun Composite Using Smart Objects in Photoshop
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How to Nail the Expendables-Style Gun Composite Using Smart Objects in Photoshop

A few years into freelancing, I had a client ask me for a “gritty action movie poster vibe” for a gym promotion. They sent me a reference image, and it was basically the Expendables poster. Which, fair enough, that poster slaps. I spent an embarrassing amount of time fussing with selections and layer masks before I stumbled onto a workflow that actually made the whole thing manageable. The technique Corey Barker walks through in this Watch the full tutorial on YouTube episode of PhotoshopUser TV is almost exactly what I wish I’d had that day.

Changing Hair Color in Photoshop Without Making It Look Like a Halloween Wig
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Changing Hair Color in Photoshop Without Making It Look Like a Halloween Wig

A client once asked me to change a model’s hair from auburn to blonde in a product photo. I said sure, no problem, charged them accordingly, and then spent the better part of an afternoon producing what looked like a highlighter had exploded on her head. I eventually delivered something passable, but I knew I was winging it. Hair color is one of those things that looks simple until you try it, and then it humbles you fast.

The $199 Camera That Makes People Actually Want to Talk to You
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The $199 Camera That Makes People Actually Want to Talk to You

I spend a lot of time in coffee shops staring at screens. Laptop screen, phone screen, occasionally the menu board because I’ve been awake since 5am and still can’t decide if I want a cortado. So when I came across a camera designed with zero screens, I stopped scrolling immediately. In Watch the full tutorial on YouTube, Tony Northrup walks through the CampSnap CS-8 – a $199 video camera that shoots Hi8-style footage, has physical analog dials for battery and storage, and deliberately gives you no way to review your footage until you get home.

How to Fake a Vintage Film Look in Photoshop Without Destroying Your Original
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How to Fake a Vintage Film Look in Photoshop Without Destroying Your Original

There’s a specific kind of job that shows up in my freelance queue every few months. A client wants their photos to feel “analog” or “cinematic” or, my personal favorite, “like it was shot on film but not too grainy.” They never quite know how to describe it, but they know it when they see it. For years, I was hacking together a solution: slap on a LUT, add some noise, call it done.

Reflectors, Diffusers, and Filters in Macro Photography: What the Pros Actually Carry in the Field
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Reflectors, Diffusers, and Filters in Macro Photography: What the Pros Actually Carry in the Field

I shoot a lot of flat-lay product work, and for a long time my macro shots had this problem I couldn’t quite name. The light was technically fine. Exposure was good. But something looked dead about them. No dimension, no pop. Turns out I was ignoring one of the simplest tools in outdoor photography: a cheap collapsible reflector. I stumbled onto this CreativeLive tutorial while falling down a rabbit hole at my usual coffee shop table, and it filled in a bunch of gaps I didn’t even know I had.

Pop Art Splatter Portraits in Photoshop: Start With a Solid Cut (Part 1 Breakdown)
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Pop Art Splatter Portraits in Photoshop: Start With a Solid Cut (Part 1 Breakdown)

There’s a specific kind of project that lives in my head rent-free until I figure out how to pull it off. Pop art splatter portraits are one of them. You know the ones: bold colors, ink-splash edges, comic-book energy. I kept seeing them in branding work and concert posters and telling myself I’d reverse-engineer one eventually. “Eventually” kept getting pushed back because, honestly, I wasn’t sure where to even start.

How to Retouch and Color Grade a Portrait Like a Pro (Without Losing Your Mind)
Video Tutorials

How to Retouch and Color Grade a Portrait Like a Pro (Without Losing Your Mind)

Portrait retouching is one of those skills that separates the “I know Photoshop” crowd from the people who actually get hired to use it. I spent a good chunk of my early freelance life dodging portrait work because I was terrified of making someone’s skin look like a wax sculpture. Turns out, the difference between a natural-looking retouch and a creepy one often comes down to a handful of small, deliberate choices — not some massive toolkit of esoteric techniques.