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Photoshop Quick Tips: Fast Tutorials Under Five Minutes

Short Photoshop tips you can learn in the time it takes to make coffee: keyboard shortcuts, hidden tools, one-click fixes, and time-saving techniques from Aaron Nace and the PHLEARN team. More than 40 free quick tips, each one a single idea you will use every day.

What You’ll Learn

Quick Tips are the things a professional does without thinking that a beginner never gets told. Each one is a few minutes long and changes how you work in Photoshop from that day on.

Shortcuts and speed. The keyboard shortcuts worth memorizing, faster ways to switch tools, and workspace tricks that cut clicks.
Hidden tools. Features buried in menus and panels that solve a specific problem in seconds.
One-click fixes. Fast exposure, color, and cleanup moves for when a photo needs to be good, not perfect, right now.
Better habits. Small non-destructive habits, naming, and layer hygiene that save hours over a year.
New features, fast. Two-minute looks at the useful new tools in each Photoshop release, without the marketing.

Where to Start

There is no order to these; watch the ones that match what you did most recently in Photoshop. If a tip mentions a tool you have not met, the Tools & Techniques tutorials cover each one properly, and 30 Days of Photoshop teaches them in sequence.

Free and PRO Tutorials

Free tutorials are complete lessons, not previews. PRO tutorials go deeper and longer, and they include the sample images, RAW files, actions, and presets used in the lesson so you can follow along on the exact same file. A PHLEARN PRO membership unlocks every PRO tutorial on the site, including all of the ones in this category.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the most useful Photoshop shortcuts?

Ctrl/Cmd+J to duplicate a layer, Ctrl/Cmd+Alt/Opt+Shift+E to stamp visible, B for brush and X to swap colors, Ctrl/Cmd+I to invert a mask, and the bracket keys to resize a brush. Several quick tips here cover these and the less obvious ones.

Are quick tips enough to learn Photoshop?

No, and they are not meant to be. They are the polish on top of the fundamentals. Learn the basics first and the quick tips will make you noticeably faster.

Do the tips work in older versions of Photoshop?

Most do, since they rely on tools that have been in Photoshop for years. Tips about new features say which version introduced them.

Where to Go Next

When a quick tip opens a door, the subject hubs go through it: Photo Editing, Retouching, Color Grading, and Workflow, which is where most of these tips come from.

Learn the Tools Properly

Quick tips make you faster; 30 Days of Photoshop teaches the tools they rely on.

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