ADOBE™ PHOTOSHOP™ IS WITHOUT A DOUBT the industry standard for image editing in the photography world. The program is incredibly powerful and what you can achieve is limited only by your own imagination and your ability to bend the program to your will.

But because the program is so versatile, and contains so many features, it can be incredibly daunting for those who are new to its interface.

In the first of our series of articles explaining the basics of Adobe Photoshop, you will get to know the tools palette, which is the most often used part of the workspace.

Getting to know the Photoshop Tools Palette

The image above displays the Adobe Photoshop workspace. This is where the magic happens. But new users often come to this interface with big dreams of incredibly complex image manipulation, such as adding a devil's tail and ears to a picture they recently took of their mother-in-law, only to find themselves lost in the maze of buttons and submenus.

The first and most useful area of the interface is called the Tools Palette. There are two versions of this palette available in the latest version of the program, the one on the far left of this screen is a slightly longer, narrower version of the one that experience users will be familiar with.

Both versions of the toolbar contain the same tools, but the new, narrow one allows for more screen space, allowing the user a better view of the images they are working on.

As you move your mouse over the tools palette, you will see that the tool under your mouse becomes highlighted. If you keep you mouse still for a moment, the name of the tool will be displayed. Look carefully at each tool. Some have a little triangular arrow-head in the bottom right-hand corner. This is to indicate that there are related tools hidden underneath the one which is being displayed.

Click and hold the left mouse button on one of these tools. If you did this on the rectangular marquee tool (the second one from the top on the narrow toolbar) you will be presented with four options. One for the default Rectangular Marquee Tool, one for the Elliptical Marquee Tool, for the Single Row Marquee Tool and for the Single Column Marquee Tool. When you select any of these tools, it becomes the one displayed in the Tools Palette, with all the others hidden underneath it.

Also note, that as you hold your mouse cursor over most of the tools, when the tool title appears, there is also a single letter enclosed in brackets displayed next to the title. This is the shortcut key for the tool, and if you press it while in the program, provided you are not busy writing copy with the text tool, or have your cursor active in one of the dialogue boxes, you will be able to press this shortcut key and the tool will instantly be selected. This is a great time saving technique, and experienced Photoshop use invariably have one hand on the keyboard and the other on the mouse, allowing them to quickly access shortcut keys and increase their efficiency in the program.

The Toolbar Palette can easily be moved to other parts of the workspace if you find this more convenient by clicking and dragging on the light area above the blue PS logo.

The Tool Options Bar

By default, there is a Tool Options Bar right underneath the dropdown menus at the top of the screen. This is where individual tools and their effects are modified.

The content of this bar will change, depending on which tool you have selected. You will use this bar to modify how the tool you have selected will interact with the image.

For instance, with the Brush tool selected, you will be able to change the size and shape of the brush, as well as its opacity and blending mode.

In future editions of the magazine we will discuss each tool individually and give in-depth information for how you can modify them with the Tool Options Bar to create the effect you want to achieve.

Note: This site is not affiliated with Adobe or the Photoshop brand. A link to the official Adobe website can be found below.