Essential Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts to Make Your Life Easier

Your Photoshop workflow depends on several factors, including the volume of work you’re dealing with and your own mastery of the software. Lightroom and Photoshop instructor Ben Willmore has another secret for helping speed up your workflow when editing photos: Photoshop keyboard shortcuts.

Becoming familiar (and quick) with these shortcuts can help you make changes without requiring a lot of physical movement, which can take valuable time out of your editing. Zooming, undoing changes, and even nudging layers can all be done with your hands on the keys — so long as you know where the keyboard shortcuts are.

Below are Ben’s recommended Photoshop keyboard shortcut guides.

Source: Critical Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts to Make Your Life Easier – Creative Live

Get tutorials & freebies delivered to you.

Subscribe to the Photoshop Roadmap newsletter, a weekly roundup of new tutorials, insights and quality downloads, trusted by 6500+ readers.

How to Apply an Exact Hex Color to Any Object in Photoshop

Matching an object's color to a specific hex code is harder than it looks. Real surfaces carry highlights, shadows, and texture — meaning no single pixel represents the true color. The solution is to average the surface first, then use either Hue/Saturation or Curves to bring that average...

How to Remove Creases from Clothing and Fabric Backdrops in Photoshop Using AI

Creased clothing and fold lines in fabric backdrops are common problems that are difficult to control on a shoot day. Using generative AI tools in Photoshop, you can remove them in a matter of clicks — preserving fabric texture, detail, and the overall integrity of the original photograph. Watch the Video...

Photoshop 2026: 5 New Features Worth Adding to Your Workflow

Photoshop 2026 arrives with a set of updates that genuinely change how certain editing tasks get done. The Light adjustment layer alone could replace a step many photographers have been routing through Camera Raw for years — and that's just the start. Watch the Video Practical Tips Here are...

How to Apply a Cinematic Color Grade in Photoshop or Lightroom

Separating a subject from its background through selective toning is one of the most effective ways to give a photo a cinematic feel. This walkthrough covers a full color grading workflow using Camera Raw masks, radial gradients, and the color mixer to create warm subject tones against a cooler, darker...

How Pen Pressure and Barrel Rotation Work in Photoshop's Brush Settings

Pen pressure in Photoshop gives you direct control over brush size, opacity, and angle — but most users only scratch the surface of what's possible in the Brush Settings panel. The Wacom Art Pen 2 adds barrel rotation to that mix, letting you physically twist the pen to change...

How to Build a Soft Highlight Glow Effect Manually in Photoshop

A soft light bloom adds depth and atmosphere to portraits and nature shots without making them look over-processed. This technique isolates the actual highlight information from your photo, blurs it across multiple layers, and finishes with color grading and grain — all built manually using standard Photoshop tools. Watch the...