PhotoShop Features:

PhotoShop Cropping: Cropping is the process of removing portions of an image to either create focus, or strengthen the composition.

PhotoShop Layering: Layering enables the user to organize and manage various components of the image without interfering with the rest of the image. This allows him/her to paint on successively higher layers and then control the transparency and interactions between the layers

PhotoShop Filters: These are mostly used to achieve special effects, such as enhancement, or distortion. A few tools are:

• Liquify – to edit out unwanted areas of the picture with colourful swirls
• Artistic Filters – to give an artistic flare to a simple image
• Textures – to modify the look and feel of an image

PhotoShop Extraction: Extraction is the process of isolating an object from its background, giving the user the ability to replace the background with a new one.

PhotoShop Actions: Actions record all the information associated with each action or Photoshop command executed by the user. Actions can be later edited or merged together with other Actions, and then saved and used over again to modify a completely different image.

PhotoShop Marquee tool: The Marquee tool is used to create complex selections based on geometric shapes. This tool specifically allows the user to draw rectangular and elliptical selections.

PhotoShop Lasso Tool: This tool enables the user to draw out a selection area in a similar manner as tracing over an image through tracing paper.

PhotoShop Masking: Masking allows the user to hide or reveal a portion of an image. Masking is considered ‘non-destructive’ as it does not permanently alter the image.

PhotoShop Clone Stamp: This tool samples a part of an image and then allows the user to apply that area of the image over another image, or a different part of the same image.

More PhotoShop Features:

Healing Brush: This tool corrects imperfections by blending them into the surrounding parts of the image. Unlike the Clone Stamp tool, the Healing Brush matches the texture, lighting, and shading of the sampled pixels to the source pixels. Consequently, the repaired pixels blend seamlessly into the rest of the image.

Patch: This tool is a combination of the Healing Brush and Clone Stamp. Like the former, the Patch tool matches the texture, lighting, and shading of the sampled pixels to the source pixels. It can also be used to clone isolated areas of an image.

Adobe Camera RAW: This is a plug-in developed by Thomas Knoll, which can read several RAW file formats from various digital cameras and import them into Photoshop without any additional filters, add-ons, or plug-ins.

Shadow/Highlight: This tool allows the user to 'suppress' highlights and 'push out' shadows while maintaining most of the image details.

Easter Eggs

Easter eggs are undocumented pieces of code that are hidden inside operating systems, applications, Web browsers, games, and other programs. These are well hidden and require knowledge of undocumented commands. In Photoshop, holding down Ctrl or Alt Key (in Windows) or the Command Key (on Mac versions), while selecting About Photoshop from the menu shows a different version of the ‘About’ screen with a special graphic. This graphic is different in each version and is based on the code name for that version. For example, "Liquid Sky" was the code name for Photoshop 7.0 and "Fast Eddy " for version 2.0.

Plug-ins

A plug-in is a software module that can be added to a program to extend its functionality.
Plug-ins integrate into the host application and are executed from within the application.

There are several types of Photoshop-compatible plug-ins available, e.g. filter plug-ins, import and export plug-ins, file format plug-ins and automation plug-ins. The most common type are: filter plug-ins, which have the file extension .8bf, and usually supply special image effects; Import/export plug-ins allow the user to acquire or write image data from or to certain devices; file format plug-ins open and save exotic image formats, and automation plug-ins automate certain tasks in the manner of Photoshop Actions.

Almost all image editors today support the Photoshop standard for plug-ins. A few popular plug-ins for Photoshop include Alien Skin Software’s Eye Candy 4000, which contains 23 powerful special-effect filters, and Xenofex 2, which includes 14 exceptional effects for graphic designers and digital photographers.