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5 Photoshop features I always use to speed up my workflow
Photoshop can feel like a maze of menus and sliders, especially with new features constantly popping up. Features can be fun to explore, but not all of them actually help you work faster. Over time, I've picked up a handful of tools, settings, and shortcuts that make things faster and simpler. So if you're looking for ways to get things moving, try these...
Create Brush Presets
Save your brush settings for future use
You probably use more than one brush in Photoshop on any given project—maybe a smooth round brush for blending and a textured brush for rough sketches. As much as I love all the brush customization Photoshop provides, adjusting the brush settings back to how they were every time you need to use them again can be such a time thief.
This is why I use brush presets. Instead of recreating your brush settings from memory, you can just save all the brush parameters and load them instantly. Start by adjusting your brush however you need: size, flow, opacity, etc. Then, bring up the Brush Settings window and click the little plus icon at the bottom to create a new brush. Photoshop will ask you which settings you want to preserve, so if the color isn't important, for example, you can uncheck it. Give your brush preset a name and hit OK.
Photoshop will save the brush in-app, which you can locate at the end of the brush library folders. But I recommend exporting them as well, just to be safe; that way, you'll always be able to use those specific brush parameters.
Use the HUD Color Picker shortcut
It's a quick way to select the color you need
I don't like that Photoshop's Color Picker tool is modal; having to open and close the window just halts everything. Although you can dock the color window, I much prefer the Color Picker shortcut. To bring it up, press Shift + Alt on your keyboard while right-clicking simultaneously. Hold everything down while you move your mouse to pick a color, then let go.
It's much faster than opening the Color Picker tool or navigating to the Color window if you've docked it. It doesn't give you the color values or offer other options, but it shouldn't be a problem if you're not working with precise hex values.
Color swatches
Save precise color selections for later use
Continuing from the above point, if you do need colors with specific hex codes, you can save them to the swatch library or export and import them again. Any color-related work goes much faster when I load my color palette in advance.
There are a couple of ways to do this. First, open the swatches window by going to Window -> Swatches. You can save your color swatches as you work or everything before starting your work; it's just a matter of preference.
To save your selected color, click the little plus icon at the bottom of the Swatches window, name it, and hit OK. Keep doing this until you've saved all your colors. Ctrl + click to select all of them, click the little folder icon to create a group, and give the group the same name as your project. To be extra safe, right-click on the group and select Export Selected Swatches — now you also have the ACO file for future use.
Select and Mask
The quickest way to make complex selections
There are many ways to select a subject and create a mask in Photoshop, but Select and Mask is the best route, in my opinion. It uses intelligence to detect a subject and mask it, and it does so with much better precision than the Quick Selection or Magic Wand tools. It's also faster than manual selection.
All you have to do is pick a selection tool and click Select and Mask in the top panel. You'll be redirected to a new window, and from there, you can make selections in no time, as well as make any necessary adjustments to your selection.
Turn off Brush Smoothing
Keeping it on will only slow you down
I'm going to conclude this with a Photoshop feature that I never use but always ensure is disabled: Brush Smoothing. If you work with brushes or pencil tools in any capacity, Photoshop's Brush Smoothing will have you in a workflow meltdown in no time. It lags so much that I don't even know why it exists.
To ensure Brush Smoothing is disabled, select your brush tool, and turn the slider next to Brush Smoothing down to 0% in the top panel. You can also disable it in the Brush Settings. I highly recommend doing this if you're going to brush over anything, and rather use a dedicated drawing program like Krita if you're after brush smoothing or stabilization features.
The ways I fast-track my Photoshop flow
By using these features, I reduce repetitive tasks and speed everything up. It might take a little extra time to create a preset or locate a specific setting to disable it, but doing this once saves me a lot of time in the long run, so I can ultimately finish my project faster.