I’ve always known Photoshop is considered *the* tool for image editing, but I never really understood why. I thought I could use it just fine, and it looked like it did about the same stuff as any other image editing software. You know, resize images, adjust the colors, apply some filters. And then there’s that mysterious paintbrush thing, that never seemed to do anything useful.

Well, I recently discovered that Photoshop can actually build webpage galleries. And that it does a pretty good job with them. Oh, well that’s neat. And you can customize them a bit, unlike in my (very old Macromedia) version of Fireworks. So then I started really wondering what else Photoshop could do that I never knew about. I mean, I know people do some amazing things in Photoshop, but I always assumed that they could do amazing things because they were amazing graphic artists.

Turns out Photoshop is just a downright amazing program . . . it’s just impossible to find exactly what you want to do without having someone tell you a few tricks, or taking a class, or something like that.  In a matter of a couple days (mostly by coincidence, but partly because I was looking), I figured out how to use the airbrush correctly (duplicate the layer, blur it so it looks soft and airbrushy, add a “hide all” layer mask, and then paint on the mask to reveal the softened image where you want it), how to automatically align objects and layers (select all, then layer->align to selection), how to do batch processing by creating actions (window->actions, then just hit record while you process an image), and how to create really cool HDR images (file->automate->generate HDR in CS2 and later).

So between automating web galleries and file processing, I’ve now shaved over an hour off of my weekly update time AND know how to put my logo at the bottom of all my images without adding any time. Oh, and my galleries are now split across pages so the thumbs load faster, and have better navigation. And no more broken links from my less than perfect typing skills

What am I going to do with all that time I save? Dress up and take more photos of course!