Photoshop can be bewildering for beginners and experienced amateurs alike because of the vast array of features available. In essence, all this versatility comes at the cost of a confusing workspace that makes your favorite tools difficult to find.

The video below from the popular PHLEARN YouTube channel will help you cut through the clutter, get better organized, and create a streamlined workspace that caters to you specific needs. Instructor Aaron Nace is an accomplished shooter and a post-processing expert who says, “This tutorial guides you through using default settings, adding/removing tabs, grouping panels, and resizing sections.”

Most photographers don’t limit themselves to images of one specific genre or style of editing, which is why Nace demonstrates how to create and save personalized workspaces for different tasks, thereby ensuring that your Photoshop tools are right at your fingertips whenever you need them.

Another important consideration is understanding how to reset and lock the workspaces you create for an efficient workflow that delivers consistent results from one session to another. Nace begins by clicking on the Window tab atop the screen and choosing the Essentials option from a dropdown menu that appears.

He then demonstrate how to reset these Essentials and then this is how Photoshop will appeae at first. You’ll notice how all the windows are grouped together at the top of a panel on the right side of your screen. And it’s easy to enable or disable various tools and options.

At this point you’ll be looking at Photoshop’s default settings, and the remainder of the 16-minute video is devoted to creating the workspace (or workspaces) that meet your preferred method of adjusting and enhances images to perfection. There are many more Photoshop and Lightroom how-to videos like this one on the popular PHLEARN YouTube channel.

And be sure not to miss our earlier tutorial featuring a notable German expert who demonstrates how to use Lightroom’s Color Contrast tools to rehabilitate dull nature and landscape photographs that lack impact.

Today’s detailed post-processing tutorial from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel demonstrates a straightforward technique for creating what one of our favorite pros refers to as “impossible” photos. In fact he says that you’ll achieve “otherworldly” results—not due to outlandish effects, but rather because the job can’t be easily accomplished in other ways.

The comprehensive tutorial below from German photographer Christian Mohrle is a bit of a departure because his image-editing lessons typically involve Lightroom techniques for embellishing landscape photos. This episode, instead, reveals a powerful Photoshop workflow for enhancing a seaside cityscape photo that needs a bunch of work.

The image in question is a nicely composed photo of a small European village, and we encourage you to download the sample Raw file via a link in the description beneath the video so you can mimic Mohrle’s changes in real time. As you’ll see, there are nice colors in the sky, but the foreground is boring with dark, empty streets and nary a light in the windows of any buildings.

Mohrle solves all these problems and more with a Photoshop technique known as “time blending.” In the next 17 minutes he explains the best way to capture multiple image of the same scene at different times of day and how to edit and combine them appropriately in Photoshop for a single, spectacular shot.

Here’s how he describes the simple process: “We’re going to achieve the desired effect by capturing just two images from the exact same position with the camera mounted atop a tripod—one taken at sunset for the sky, and the other for the foreground made during dark hours with light streaming through the buildings’ windows.”

With the necessary images in hand the next step is aligning and blending the shots together in a natural-looking way, and Mohrle walks you through every step in the process. After comparing his before/after images you’ll definitely want to add this simple technique to your Photoshop bag of tricks.

Then head over to the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel and explore a wide variety of Photoshop and Lightroom lessons for improving you skills.

And don’t miss another transformational post-processing tutorial featuring a popular instructor who demonstrates how to get organized, eliminate clutter, and create a personalized workspace with your favorite tools right where you need them for different tasks.