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Parallel Track↔ Recipes Library

Short, standalone answers to "how do I do that again?" Jump in any time, in any order. Each recipe spells out its steps and links to a lesson, for when you want the why behind the how.

📚 How to Use This

  • Search or scan. Filter by keyword below, or browse the categories.
  • Follow the quick steps. Each recipe is the short version, enough to get it done.
  • Go deeper when you want. A 🔗 Deep dive link opens the lesson that teaches the recipe in full. A 🔗 Related link points to a lesson that covers the building blocks when no lesson teaches that exact recipe.

New here? The linear course path teaches these skills in order. Recipes are the reference you keep open alongside it.

Categories

No recipes match all of those words. Try fewer or simpler words, like "sky", "type", or "batch".

🩹 Fix & Prepare

Straighten a crooked horizon

When the horizon or a wall is visibly tilted.

  1. Grab the Crop tool (C).
  2. Move your cursor just outside a corner until it becomes a bent arrow, then drag to rotate until the grid lines match the horizon. (Or click Straighten in the options bar and drag a line along what should be level.)
  3. Press Enter / Return to commit.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 0: Fix & Export One Photo

Crop to an exact size or ratio

When you need a specific shape (square, 16:9, a print size).

  1. Crop tool (C).
  2. In the options bar, open the Ratio menu and pick a ratio (or type your own), or choose W x H x Resolution and enter exact dimensions.
  3. Drag to frame it, then press Enter / Return.

🔗 Related: Lesson 6.2: Generative Expand & Reframe (the Crop tool's Ratio menu) · Module 0: Fix & Export One Photo (Crop tool basics)

Remove dust spots & specks

When little marks dot a sky or a wall.

  1. Add a new empty layer named retouch.
  2. Spot Healing Brush (J), tick Sample All Layers in the options bar. (Using the Healing Brush or Clone Stamp instead? Set their Sample: menu to Current & Below (or All Layers), or they will sample the empty layer.)
  3. Zoom to 100% (Ctrl/⌘ + 1) and single-click each spot with a brush just larger than the spot.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 1.3: Cleaning Up: Spots, Distractions & Edges

Remove a distracting object

When something (a sign, a trash can, a photobomber) pulls the eye.

  1. Easiest first: on an empty retouch layer, pick the Remove tool (in the healing group, J), tick Sample All Layers, and brush over the whole object.
  2. Or loosely select the object with a little margin, click Generative Fill in the Contextual Task Bar, leave the prompt empty, and click Generate.
  3. Or, for a non-cloud option: click the photo layer, select the object, choose Edit ▸ Content-Aware Fill, and set Output To: New Layer.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 1.3: Cleaning Up: Spots, Distractions & Edges (Remove tool, Content-Aware Fill) · Lesson 6.1: Generative Fill

✂️ Select & Cut Out

Remove a background

When you want to isolate a subject or drop it onto a new scene.

  1. Select ▸ Subject for a first pass.
  2. Choose Select ▸ Select and Mask… (Ctrl + Alt + R / ⌘ + ⌥ + R). Click Refine Hair if there is hair, then paint any missing wisps with the Refine Edge Brush.
  3. Under Output Settings, tick Decontaminate Colors and set Output To: New Layer with Layer Mask.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 4.1: Cut It Out Cleanly

Cut out wispy hair or fur

When a normal selection chops the hairline into a helmet.

  1. Make your selection, then choose Select ▸ Select and Mask… (Ctrl + Alt + R / ⌘ + ⌥ + R). Click Refine Hair, and under Edge Detection tick Smart Radius and raise Radius a few pixels.
  2. Paint the Refine Edge Brush along the wispy edge only (never across hard edges).
  3. Nudge Shift Edge slightly negative to bite off leftover background. To kill the colored halo, tick Decontaminate Colors and output to New Layer with Layer Mask.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 4.1: Cut It Out Cleanly

Select (or grade) just the sky

When you want to darken, warm, or replace only the sky.

  1. Select ▸ Sky for an instant selection.
  2. Add an adjustment layer; the selection becomes its mask automatically.
  3. Grade away, sky only. (Or Edit ▸ Sky Replacement.)

🔗 Related: Lesson 1.2: Selections That Hold Up (selection basics; Select ▸ Sky itself is not covered in the course)

Turn a selection into a mask

When you have a good selection and want to keep it editable.

  1. With the selection active, pick the layer you want to mask.
  2. Click the Add Layer Mask button at the bottom of the Layers panel. The selection becomes white (revealed).
  3. Paint the mask later to refine: black hides, white reveals.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 1.2: Selections That Hold Up

🎨 Color & Light

Fix a color cast

When whites look orange, blue, or green.

  1. Right-click the layer (on its name, not the thumbnail) ▸ Convert to Smart Object, then choose Filter ▸ Camera Raw Filter… (Shift + Ctrl + A / ⇧ + ⌘ + A).
  2. Grab the White Balance eyedropper and click something that should be neutral gray or white.
  3. Fine-tune Temperature and Tint, then click OK. It stays re-editable as a Smart Filter.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 2.1: The Develop Step: Camera Raw

Add punch with contrast

When a photo looks flat and hazy.

  1. Add a Curves adjustment layer (the ◐ button at the bottom of the Layers panel ▸ Curves).
  2. Pull the shadows point gently down, the highlights point gently up (an S-curve).
  3. Keep it subtle; small moves, big effect.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 2.2: Curves: Precise Tone & Color

Brighten just one area

When you want to lift a face or a subject, not the whole frame.

  1. Add a Curves layer and brighten it noticeably.
  2. Click its mask thumbnail, then fill the mask black: press D, then X so black is the foreground color, and press Alt + Backspace / ⌥ + Delete. (Or press Ctrl/⌘ + I to invert the white mask.)
  3. Press X for white, then paint with a soft brush (B) over the area to reveal the lift.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 1.1: The Layer Stack & Your First Mask

Give it a cinematic grade

When you want a "teal and orange" film look.

  1. Add a Curves layer, switch the channel menu from RGB to Blue.
  2. Lift the shadow end slightly (cool shadows), drop the highlight end slightly (warm highlights). For a truer teal, switch to Red and pull its shadow end down slightly (less red = more cyan).
  3. Move in tiny amounts; channel curves are strong.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 2.2: Curves: Precise Tone & Color

🧑‍🎨 Retouch

Whiten teeth or eyes

When teeth or the whites of the eyes look dull.

  1. Add a Curves layer and brighten slightly. (Yellowish teeth? Add a Hue/Saturation layer too, masked the same way, and lower the Yellows saturation a touch.)
  2. Click its mask thumbnail and press Ctrl/⌘ + I to turn the mask black (hiding the effect everywhere).
  3. Paint white with a small soft brush over just the teeth or eye-whites. Keep it subtle: clean, not glowing.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 3.3: Dodge & Burn: Sculpting Light

Smooth skin without plastic

When skin tone is blotchy but you want to keep pores.

  1. Stamp Visible (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E / ⌘ + ⌥ + ⇧ + E), then duplicate it twice (Ctrl/⌘ + J ×2): name the lower copy LOW and the upper HIGH. Hide HIGH and apply Filter ▸ Blur ▸ Gaussian Blur to LOW until blotches and pores vanish.
  2. Show and select HIGH: Image ▸ Apply Image, Layer: LOW, Blending: Subtract, Scale 2, Offset 128 (8-bit settings). Set HIGH's blend mode to Linear Light.
  3. Even the blotches on LOW with a soft brush or a small blur; fix texture only on HIGH (heal or clone, Sample: Current Layer).

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 3.2: Frequency Separation

Remove a blemish naturally

When there is a temporary spot you want gone.

  1. Add a new empty retouch layer.
  2. Spot Healing Brush (J), Type: Content-Aware, Sample All Layers ticked: click the blemish (leave permanent freckles and moles). Near an edge, use the Healing Brush with Sample: Current & Below (or All Layers) and Alt/⌥-click clean skin to sample.
  3. Lower the retouch layer's opacity to about 85–90% so it never looks too perfect.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 3.1: Natural Skin: Heal, Don't Erase

Sculpt a face with light

When a portrait looks flat and needs dimension.

  1. Alt/⌥-click the New Layer button. Set Mode: Soft Light and tick Fill with Soft-Light-neutral color (50% gray).
  2. Brush (B), soft, Opacity ~10%. Press D, then X, so white is the foreground, and paint white to dodge the highlights.
  3. Press X again for black to burn the shadow planes. Follow the photo's existing light and build up slowly.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 3.3: Dodge & Burn: Sculpting Light

🔠 Design & Type

Add a title that pops

When flat text needs to lift off the background.

  1. Set your text with the Type tool (T).
  2. Double-click the empty area to the right of the layer's name (or choose Layer ▸ Layer Style) to open Layer Style.
  3. Add a Gradient Overlay and a subtle Drop Shadow.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 5.3: Layer Styles & the Poster

Curve text along a shape

When you want text arced over a title or around a badge.

  1. Draw a path: pick the Ellipse tool (or the Pen), set its mode to Path in the options bar, and drag. (Any shape layer's edge works too.)
  2. Hover the Type tool (T) over the path until the cursor shows a wavy line.
  3. Click and type; drag with Path Selection (A) to slide the text along the path or flip it to the other side.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 5.1: Type & Hierarchy

Fix messy, flat type

When a layout has no clear "read me first".

  1. Give each line a job: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, fine print.
  2. Size boldly to match (make the main line much bigger). In the Character panel, tighten leading on titles and add tracking to small all-caps labels.
  3. One or two fonts, one accent color, generous spacing.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 5.1: Type & Hierarchy

Make a crisp, resizable graphic

When a logo or icon must stay sharp at any size.

  1. Use the Shape tools (U) or the Pen (P) in Shape mode.
  2. Set Fill and Stroke in the options bar.
  3. Inside your .psd it scales without pixelating, so avoid rasterizing it. Exported JPG or PNG files are pixels, so export at the size you need.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 5.2: Shapes & the Pen

⚙️ AI, Speed & Export

Add something that was not there

When the scene needs an extra element (a boat, clouds, a prop).

  1. Select an empty area sized and shaped for what you want.
  2. Click Generative Fill in the Contextual Task Bar (no task bar? use Edit ▸ Generative Fill) and type a short, concrete prompt.
  3. Click Generate, then cycle the three variations or generate again.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 6.1: Generative Fill

Uncrop or reframe a photo

When a subject is cropped too tight or you need a different shape.

  1. Crop tool (C), set Fill: Generative Expand in the options bar.
  2. Optionally pick a Ratio, then drag the handles outward past the photo.
  3. Optionally type a prompt in the task bar, then click Generate. Expand in small bites for big changes, and check the seam at 100%.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 6.2: Generative Expand & Reframe

Watermark a whole folder

When you need the same treatment on many images.

  1. Record an Action (Window ▸ Actions): Edit ▸ Convert to Profile (sRGB), File ▸ Automate ▸ Fit Image, File ▸ Place Embedded the watermark, Layer ▸ Flatten Image, Save As JPEG, close.
  2. File ▸ Automate ▸ Batch: choose the Action, a Source folder and a Destination folder, and tick Override Action "Save As" Commands. Click OK to run it.
  3. For drag-and-drop reuse, turn the Action into a droplet: File ▸ Automate ▸ Create Droplet.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 6.3: Actions, Batch & Droplets

Export for Instagram vs print

When the same image needs to go to screen and to a printer.

  1. Keep the layered .psd master.
  2. Screen: File ▸ Export ▸ Export As, JPG (or PNG if you need transparency), sRGB, at the platform's pixel size.
  3. Print: 300 ppi with bleed added via Image ▸ Canvas Size. On a copy (Image ▸ Duplicate), convert to CMYK with Edit ▸ Convert to Profile (or let a PDF/X preset convert it), then File ▸ Save a Copy as Photoshop PDF. Confirm the specs with the printer.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 5.3: Layer Styles & the Poster

Resize without wrecking quality

When you will scale a layer up and down repeatedly.

  1. Right-click the layer (on its name, not the thumbnail) ▸ Convert to Smart Object.
  2. Scale it with Ctrl/⌘ + T as often as you like; it re-renders crisp from the original. (Scaling past the original pixel size still softens it.)
  3. Filters on it become re-editable Smart Filters too.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 2.3: Smart Objects & Finishing the Grade

🎓 Want the full story?

Recipes get it done; the course path teaches you why, so you can solve problems these recipes do not cover yet.