Photoshop tips, tricks & tutorials for the rest of us

Video Tutorials

Turn Any Photo Into an Illustrated Design Asset in Under 5 Minutes

There’s a specific kind of client panic I know well. You’ve got a photo that’s technically fine but creatively boring, a design layout that needs something, and a deadline that does not care about your feelings. I’ve been there more times than I’d like to admit, sitting in a coffee shop on my second Americano, staring at a stock photo wondering how to make it not look like a stock photo.

September 21, 2026

Video Tutorials

Stop Guessing Which Selection Tool to Use — Here's the Cheat Sheet You Actually Need

If selections aren’t clicking for you in Photoshop, I promise it’s not because you’re bad at software. It’s because there are about a dozen different ways to make a selection and nobody ever explains when to use which one. I spent the better part of my early freelance years defaulting to whatever tool I’d used last, regardless of whether it was the right call. Spoiler: it usually wasn’t. Getting a better grip on selection tools is genuinely one of those skill-ups that changes how fast you work, not just how well.

September 21, 2026

Video Tutorials

Liquify in Photoshop: The Tool You're Probably Underusing (And How to Fix That)

I’ll be honest with you. For way too long, I treated the Liquify tool like that one kitchen gadget you only pull out for a specific recipe once a year. I knew it existed. I’d used it in a panic to fix something weird in a portrait. Then I’d close the dialog and pretend it never happened. It wasn’t until I started digging into Aaron Nace’s work over at PHLEARN that I realized I was barely scratching the surface of what this thing can actually do.

September 21, 2026

Video Tutorials

How to Wrap Textures on 3D Objects in Photoshop (Without Losing Your Mind)

I’ll be honest with you. The first time I tried to texture a 3D object in Photoshop, I spent about 45 minutes dragging things into places where they didn’t belong, watching textures stretch across geometry like a grocery bag over a basketball, and ultimately just giving up and going back to flat design. Nobody talks about how disorienting Photoshop’s 3D workflow can be when you first get into it. There are panels everywhere, nothing behaves the way your muscle memory expects, and the relationship between your texture file and your 3D object feels weirdly indirect.

September 20, 2026

Video Tutorials

How to Rescue a Damaged Old Photo in Photoshop: Plan First, Clone Second

Client work will humble you fast. Early in my freelance run, someone handed me a scanned family photo that looked like it had survived a move, a flood, and a toddler with a crayon. I opened it in Photoshop and immediately started clone-stamping like a maniac, no plan, no structure, just vibes. Two hours later I had a mess that somehow looked worse than the original. That experience stuck with me, mostly because I invoiced for it anyway, but also because it taught me that photo restoration has a correct order of operations and I had been ignoring it.

September 20, 2026

Video Tutorials

Build a 3D Wireframe Globe in Photoshop (Without Destroying Your Computer)

There’s a certain kind of Photoshop project that looks impossibly complicated from the outside but is actually built on two or three clever decisions made early on. A wireframe globe is exactly that kind of project. It looks like something you’d need a dedicated 3D application to pull off, but Photoshop handles it surprisingly well if you know which tools to reach for and, more importantly, which workflow traps to avoid.

September 20, 2026

Video Tutorials

Fake the Light You Wish You Had: Color Gradient Enhancement in Photoshop

There’s a specific flavor of frustration that comes from shooting a solid portrait in flat, boring light and knowing the subject deserved better. The photo is technically fine. Exposure is good. Focus is sharp. And yet it looks like a LinkedIn headshot when it should look like a movie poster. I’ve been there more times than I care to admit, usually sitting in whatever coffee shop I’ve claimed as my office that week, staring at a Lightroom catalog full of “technically fine” images.

September 19, 2026

Video Tutorials

Flow vs. Opacity in Photoshop: The Brush Setting Difference That Actually Changes How You Paint

For an embarrassingly long time, I was treating Flow and Opacity like they were basically the same thing. Same neighborhood, different house. I’d bump one up, leave the other wherever it landed, and wonder why my brush work looked either muddy or weirdly flat depending on the day. It wasn’t until I sat down with this Aaron Nace tutorial from PHLEARN that I realized I’d been misunderstanding one of the most fundamental brush settings in Photoshop for years.

September 19, 2026

Video Tutorials

Fog, Light Beams, and a Free Brush: Aaron Nace's Photoshop Atmosphere Trick Is Actually Brilliant

There’s a specific kind of photo that drives me crazy. You know the one. Great composition, solid exposure, interesting subject, and then – a flat, dead bottom half that looks like the photographer just forgot that gravity exists. I’ve had this problem more times than I want to admit, especially with moody indoor shots where the lighting drama is happening up top but the floor is just… there. Embarrassing and beige.

September 19, 2026

Video Tutorials

Turn a City Photo into a Watercolor Painting Using HDR Toning (Yes, Really)

Client asks for something “painterly.” You stare at the Artistic submenu in the Filter Gallery, slap a Watercolor filter on a photo, and the result looks like a kindergarten project that got rained on. We’ve all been there. The problem isn’t the filter itself — it’s the approach. Dropping a single filter on a flat image is like seasoning food after it’s already on the plate. You need to build the effect into the image from the ground up.

September 18, 2026

Video Tutorials

Quick Fill vs. Full Control: Getting the Most Out of Content-Aware Fill in Photoshop

There’s a specific kind of freelance panic that hits when a client photo has a distracting element right in the middle of an otherwise perfect shot. A shadow cutting across a clean background. A trash can lurking at the edge of a landscape. Some random blob that your eye keeps getting snagged on. You need it gone, and you need it gone without spending 45 minutes cloning pixels by hand like it’s 2009.

September 18, 2026

Video Tutorials

From Flat to Gallery-Worthy: Fixing Vacation Landscape Photos in Photoshop

Every photographer knows the feeling. You’re standing at the rim of something genuinely breathtaking, the light is doing that thing, your camera is out, and you’re sure you’re capturing a moment you’ll show people for years. Then you get home, open Lightroom or Photoshop, and the photo looks like you took it through a foggy shower door. Flat, hazy, weirdly blue. I’ve been there more times than I’d like to admit, and for a while I just wrote it off as “skill issue, buy a better lens,” which is exactly the kind of expensive wrong answer I specialize in.

September 18, 2026