We have received a great response from some past “How to” blog tutorials like How to Rotate Photoshop Brushes and How To Create a Fanpage on Facebook With Custom HTML so here is another quick Photoshop tutorial on a technique that saves me tons of time.

As a Web developer here at Vital, production work is a big part of my job, so any way I can speed up my part of the process is going to help the bottom line. Masking images is a huge time saver itself, but when I learned you could mask a group of layers rather than taking the time to mask each layer individually, again my mind was blown by how such a simple thing could save me so much time!

I have found that masking a group of layers is especially handy when you are prepping images for photo galleries. Generally for galleries you need lots of images that are the same size, with the same effects applied. Whether you are just looking to make all the images a consistent size or your adding rounded corners etc., a layer mask is a great way to give you a consistent, clean edge. In this example I had to crop photos for the Portfolio Luxury Kitchens photo galleries.

There were a total of 35 images for the main galleries that had the same dimensions, and a thumbnail for each. Cropping each image and thumbnail, or masking them individually would have taken hours. The solution was to put all the photos layers in a group and mask the group. This way the images can be moved around individually inside the mask for the prefect layout and the dimensions will stay exactly the same when copied out.

Here is how it’s done.

Open the PSD of your design, and start by snapping guides to the size you need.

Vital Tip - Zooming in and holding shift while dragging guides, will snap the guides to exact pixels.

Next, add your photos to individual layers and make a group of those layers. They can be moved around later for composition. Now, making sure you are on the layer of the group, use the marquee tool to select the area you want to have masked. Click the “Add vector mask” icon in the footer of the layers pallet.

Now you will see that you have masked the whole group of layers. If needed, you can select the individual layers to position them correctly.

Keyboard Shortcuts to Quickly Copy and Paste Your Images

Use the marquee tool to select the area you have masked.

You can easily copy each layer (shift, command, C).

Vital Tip - Using “copy merged” opens your new window at the correct size.

Open a new window (command, N).

Paste the image (command, V).

and save it for web (shift, option, command, S).

As you go back to your original PSD, leave the marquee in place, turn off the next layer and repeat these steps.

This is really handy for rounded corners and custom shapes too. You can simply drag the mask from any shape to the layer or group of layers you want masked. And the best part is that if you hate it you can just change or remove the mask and you original image is intact!

Have fun and feel free to post questions in the comments below.

This may be old news to some, but when I figured out this technique I was blown away by how much time I had been wasting. This quick tutorial will show you how to easily rotate your Photoshop brushes to any angle you need. It may sound silly, but it’s a huge time saver!

We’re all fans of Photoshop brushes. Easily adding textures, patterns, images etc. to my designs is great although I always felt like they had their limitations based on their “out-of-the-box” layout. I can’t tell you how many times I have used the brush I needed on a separate layer, then rotated or flipped it to where I wanted it to end up. A huge waste of time.

With a couple mouse clicks, you can make the brushes do whatever you want. Here’s how.

STEP 1

Open up a blank document and grab your brush tool. Pick a pattern (anything but round) from your brushes pallet. I’ll choose this cloud brush that’s alway annoyed me because I thought it could only be used in the lower right corner of the page, without transforming or erasing part of it.

STEP 2, here’s where it gets good…
Now, in the brushes pallet (Window > Brushes) select “Brush Tip Shape.” I never noticed this as an option because of the check boxes next to all the other choices. Check out your options, flip X, flip Y, angle, even a dragging option. Too easy! You can just click and drag to the exact angle you need.

Here is a sample with the clouds rotated to all 4 corners. How celestial.

Quick and easy, but a huge time saver. I hope you found this to be helpful!