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The Hibernate command copies the current state of your computer (including all open programs) into computer memory, and then turns off the computer. When you later power up the computer, the copied programs are quickly returned to active status without the usual start-up delays. This means that if you command your computer to hibernate while you are working on one or more images in Photoshop, the next time you turn on the power, you’ll quickly be back in Photoshop, with the open images displayed, ready for your next step. And if you had another application program running in another window when you hibernated, that program will also be running in its window when you power up.
So the next time you want to take a dinner break or a sleep break, see if this 3-key shortcut to hibernation is helpful. Just remember to save your work in all open programs including Photoshop as an extra safeguard, just as you would if you were shutting down your computer (or as you should even if you were to leave it running for some time).
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS AND COMMANDS
Shortcuts and Commands for a Levels Adjustment For example, one of the most common adjustments for improving an image is to make a Levels adjustment in order to increase the dynamic value range and contrast, change the midtone darkness or lightness, correct a color cast, or some combination of these. In order to make these changes you can open the Elements Levels palette in several ways:
You can open the Levels palette and create a Levels adjustment layer in the Layers palette by clicking on the adjustment layer icon (a split black and white circle) at the top or bottom of the layers palette, and then clicking on Levels…in the dropdown menu.
Layers Palette: Levels Icon
Command Menu
How to Choose the Shortcuts Worth Memorizing It’s obvious that with the Levels adjustment being only one of a great many Elements tools, filters, and procedures, you might never get to finish a photo in Elements if you insisted on first memorizing all of the alternative commands and keyboard shortcuts available in the program. On the other hand, if you ignore all the possible alternatives, you could miss out on developing a more efficient personal workflow. The answer is to experiment initially with some of the alternative ways to perform the operations you find yourself using most frequently, so that you can decide which method typically produces a better workflow for you. If that operation has a keyboard shortcut, then it becomes worth learning and using that shortcut. (I find that alternating between mouse and keyboard commands not only saves time, but also minimizes wrist and eye strain, making long Elements sessions easier and more comfortable.) So the best list of favorite keyboard shortcuts is the list you create for yourself, based upon your standard workflow. To help you come up with your list, however, here are some additional tips:
A good place to start is to learn the keyboard shortcuts for activating the popular tools. Each tool in the Toolbox has its own single-letter keyboard shortcut. They’ve usually been assigned a letter that is easily associated with the tool (H for Hand tool, B for Brush, etc.). As a further aid to learning, if you hover the mouse cursor over a tool, the tool name and shortcut letter appear.
Some Toolbox cells are shared by several related or unrelated tools. In that case all of the tools in that cell also share the same keyboard shortcut. To maximize efficiency, make sure that in the dialog box under Edit>Preferences>General (which can also be reached with CTRL/CMD-K), the option Use Shift Key for Tool Switch is turned off. Then you can cycle through the tools in a tool group by simply pressing the same keyboard shortcut letter repeatedly, without the need to hold down the Shift key.
Alternative Functions For the Same Shortcut
The “Claw” (Stamp Visual)
And finally, I can’t resist closing these keyboard shortcut tips with my favorite complicated (and essentially undocumented) shortcut, the “Claw”, aka “Stamp Visible”. If you have an adjustment layer active at the top of your layers stack, various procedures such as the Unsharp Mask filter cannot operate because they can work only with image pixels, and not adjustment formulae. The quick cure for this is to use the Stamp Visible command in Elements 4.0: Simultaneously press SHIFT-CTRL-ALT-E (or SHIFT-CMD-OPT-E on the MAC) to merge all of the visible layers into a new layer above the active layer, while retaining all of the original layers. (In prior Elements versions, you must first separately create a new empty layer to receive the merged pixels.) You’ll find that keyboard shortcuts are definitely helpful. The important thing is to be selective about learning only the ones you’ll likely be using as part of your regular Elements workflow.
ARE DUPLICATE LAYERS NECESSARY? The standard advice for Photoshop users is to create a new duplicate layer before starting each new procedure (Tool, Filter, etc.). Some users find that this practice can cause very large image files, and also create so many layers that the users may lose their way in the Layers palette. Let’s take a closer look at Photoshop’s Layers palette in order to understand why and when duplicate layers are needed, and how to minimize any problems. I should begin by declaring my bias on this issue. I guess it’s theoretically possible to have too many layers, just as it’s theoretically possible to have too much chocolate, but I just haven’t experienced either of those in real life. So this analysis of duplicate layers is based upon the Photoshop workflow that I actually use; other users may develop other standards that work best for them. WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT LAYERS: Layers is one of the most powerful features of Photoshop, allowing you to isolate each change you make to the image so that you can go back to modify or delete a particular change without destroying your other changes and having to start over from scratch. Photoshop also lets you control how your changes on particular layers will combine with the image components on other layers.
All this power is made even more valuable because, if you save your image file in Photoshop’s native PSD format, all the separate layers will still be there when you reopen the file. (But if you want to use the convenient JPEG format for emailing, CD-burning, or web-posting, you must save the image to a separate file, because the standard JPEG compression format cannot handle multiple layers.) If you’re working with a relatively new computer, you probably already have enough main processing speed, RAM processing memory capacity, hard drive storage capacity, and backup hard drive or disk capacity to enable you to work on layered Photoshop files without significant delays. If you have an older computer, these memory capacities can usually be upgraded at a relatively modest cost, and that usually resolves any file size problems caused by using multiple layers. (If your computer’s processor speed is too slow, however, you might consider buying a new computer rather than trying to replace the motherboard or the processing chip.)
WHEN DO YOU NEED A DUPLICATE LAYER? Just because you can work with and save layers, when should you? The answer turns on the two types of changes that Photoshop makes to an image: destructive (permanent) or non-destructive (reversible). Using the Paintbrush tool to add or change some color is an example of a destructive operation – it permanently changes the pixels in the active layer. Filters such as the Unsharp Mask filter likewise destructively (permanently) change the pixels of the active layer. While you can use the Edit>Undo function or the Undo History palette to promptly reverse a destructive change, this can’t be accomplished without losing all subsequent steps in that Photoshop session. And once the file has been saved and closed, even this limited power to recover from destructive changes is lost. So the basic rule is to begin any destructive change by first creating a duplicate layer to work on. Then even when you reopen a file that has been saved and closed, you can trash or hide the destructive changes and redo only that step. (Note that a few destructive changes such as cropping and resampling affect all layers; these universal changes can only be isolated for later revision by saving them under a different file name.) The major exception to the need for a duplicate layer for destructive changes is when you use an Adjustment Layer. You don’t need to first create a duplicate layer to begin a change, such as Levels or Color Fill, if you use an Adjustment Layer (clicking on the split white-black circle icon in the Layers palette) because as its name implies, an Adjustment Layer automatically creates its own new layer and is automatically non-destructive.
MY LAYERS RULES: Based upon this analysis, my workflow rules are simple:
1. To protect against my fingers working faster than my brain, I start out my Photoshop processing of any image by first making a duplicate Layer of the original camera image (drag the opening Background Layer to the New Layer icon in the Layers palette). This preserves a sort of archive of the original camera image as the bottom Layer in my Photoshop file, in case I later accidentally make and save a destructive change. 2. Whenever possible, I use Adjustment Layers rather than Menu commands. Adjustment Layers not only automatically create their own separate layers, but they can later be reopened and modified without starting over the adjustment from scratch. 3. Throughout my Photoshop session, I begin each separate Photoshop change by first making a duplicate layer of the layer to be modified (unless I’m using an Adjustment Layer). And for the Clone tool or the Healing Brush tool tool, I maximize my ability to see the changes later by making them on a new blank layer rather than a new duplicate layer. (This requires checking the Use All Layers box in the Tool Options bar.) 4. Having a lot of Layers can be confusing, so another part of my standard Photoshop workflow is to immediately give each new Layer a descriptive name (change the “Layer 1” or “Layer Copy” default name by double-clicking on the name in the Layer bar and typing in a new name, followed by Return/Enter). 5. I’m careful not to use standard Layer>Merge Down (Ctrl/Cmd-E) or Layer>Flatten Image commands to combine Layers, because this will permanently combine their individual changes. Instead, when I need to merge layers (for example, to combine an Adjustment Layer with its underlying image Layer in order to apply a filter), I create a new empty top Layer (Layer>New>Layer, or the keyboard shortcut Shift-Ctrl/Cmd-N) and apply the Merge Visible command (Layer>Merge Visible, or the keyboard shortcut Shift-Ctrl/Cmd-E). I actually use the faster “Claw” keyboard commands (for a PC: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-N, followed by Shift-Ctrl-Alt-E; or for a MAC: Shift-Cmd-Opt-N, followed by Shift-Cmd-Opt-E). 6. Finally, if I’m working with many layers, I may find myself doing a lot of scrolling in order to see the entire Layers palette. To reduce this problem, I temporarily increase the length of the Layers palette by dragging down the bottom border after minimizing or closing the other palettes. CONCLUSION: This tip is actually something that I really don’t have to try to convince you about. The first time that you change your mind about a destructive image change that you made earlier when you forgot to start with a duplicate layer, you’ll understand why even the busiest pros take the time to include duplicate layers as the first step in their Photoshop changes.
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To turn off your computer, you would click on the middle icon, Turn Off. But if you’re like me, and have managed to install a bunch of programs that seem to have greatly lengthened the time required for the Turn Off and later Turn On cycles, you should explore the “hidden” fourth Turn Off option: Hibernate.
And where is the Hibernate command? For many screens, it’s hidden behind the Stand By icon in the Start>Turn off computer menu panel. So if you like to navigate with the mouse, just click on Start, click on Turn off computer, and HOLD DOWN THE SHIFT KEY to change the Stand By icon to a Hibernate icon before you click on it.
You’ll probably find it even faster and easier to use the built-in Windows keyboard shortcuts to hibernate: Press the Windows key (ever wonder what that was for?) to open the Start menu; press U to open the Turn off computer panel, and press H to hibernate. MAC OS computers have a comparable hibernate command, and some laptops have a dedicated function key for hibernation. 
You can also use the command menu across the top of your screen to open the Levels palette directly (without creating an adjustment layer) by clicking on 
Finally, you can use a built-in Elements keyboard shortcut, CTRL/CMD-L, in place of the three individual menu clicks of the above procedure to open the Levels palette directly. This
At the bottom of the Toolbox are the Foreground and Background color swatches, which have their own associated keyboard shortcuts: press D to return the colors to their default values of black for the foreground and white for the background, or press X to reverse the foreground and background colors at any time. These shortcuts are especially important if you are working with the Layer Mask associated with any of the adjustment layers, since painting on the Layer Mask with black or white is used to selectively conceal or reveal the effect of the adjustment.
