The Ten Commandments of Photoshop

Susan R. from Ohio wrote to ask what would be good advice for a person just starting with Photoshop. First, I’d suggest buying a copy of “Learning the Basics of Photoshop in 6 Hours.” (hint hint)

But here, in no particular order are the commandments I believe have been handed down from Photoshop guru to acolyte for many years now.

1) Thou shalt always work upon a copy of thy original otherwise thou shalt be really annoyed when thou messeth it up.

2) Thou shalt venerate “Undo” as the greatest gift since sliced bread, for “Undo” doth maketh thy stupid mistakes disappear.

3) Thou shalt take time to learn thy shortcuts, for verily, thy shortcuts shall prevent thy fingers from wearing down to little nasty stubs and save thee a whole bunch of time.

4) Thou shalt use thy eraser and, indeed, any other repetitive Photoshop tool, in little bursts. That way when thou doth screw up thy image (and thou wilt at some point) one “Undo” command shall only lose thee a little work instead of a great smoking pile of careful and time consuming labor.

5) Thou shalt keep thy original files in a perfect, unchanged state. Yea, verily, for with this thou hast ensured that thou canst access them again if thou wantest to and will not call thyself a moron for having overwritten them.

6) Thou shalt save two copies of thy work. The first copy shall be thy finished work. The second shall be in Photoshop format with thy layers unflattened. For if thou findest out that there is only one “s” in the word “mistake” thou canst fix it quickly and not be forced to look upon thy error for all time…or startest over from the beginning with great cursing and gnashing of teeth.

7) Thou shalt keep thy finished work and original graphics safe upon an external drive. For in this way, shouldst thou dropest thy computer and wrecketh thy drive thou shall still have thy work safe.

8) Thou shalt “Save” frequently. For all wise artists doth know that all computers are inherently evil machines that occasionally crash. If thou hath “saved” thy work, thy work hath been saved indeed. If thou hath not saved thou art screwedeth.

9) Thou shalt take time to learn the rules and then thou shalt break them. For in this way true art is created (and also a lot of poop.) Thou shalt seek to create very cool stuff and forgive thyself for thy poop. Thou shalt also keep thy poop to thyself and avoid attempting to talk others into seeing thy poop as art. For yea, verily, poop is poop.

10) Thou shalt have fun. For thou art blessed to be creating art with Photoshop and verily, what’s not to like?