Photoshop:
| Tool / feature / technique | What it does / Description | Where you used it / Reason | Value / usefulness / advantage |
| Magic wand selection tool | Selects pixels based on tone and colour. | It can be used to select a portion of a frame and enables you to get rid of it. | It is a fast selection tool and is much easier than selecting it manually. |
| Quick Selection tool | To quickly paint a selection using an adjustable round brush tip. | In the options bar. | I used this tool to paint a section using an adjustable round brush. When used the selection expanded and it defined the edges of the image. |
| Adjust selections | Can add or subtract pixels to selections. | Add to the selection option in the options bar. | Saves you from having to select a new section. |
| Adjust hue and saturation | Enables you to adjust the colors in your image based on their hue, saturation, and lightness. | Found in image adjustment. | Gives a more intense effect when producing an overly smooth, overly saturated synthetic appearance if used aggressively. |
| Replace colour tool | Samples the original colours and replacing them with your selected foreground colour. | Control-click on the Brush Tool to select the Color Replacement Tool. | It maintains the midtones, shadows, and highlights of the original image so you get a realistic-looking colour adjustment. |
| Spot healing / healing brush tool | It paints from sampled pixels from an image or pattern and matches the depth. | In the vertical Toolbar. | Removes blemishes or imperfections in the image. |
| Clone stamp tool | Selects and samples an area of your picture and then uses the pixels to paint over any marks. | Click and hold the rubber stamp in the toolbox, and then select Clone Stamp Tool. | Acts like a brush so you can change the size, allowing cloning from just one pixel wide to hundreds. |
| Crop tool | It deletes parts and edges of an image manually to a specific size. | Choose the crop tool from the tool bar. | It deletes selected parts of an image that are not wanted. |
| Rectangular and elliptical marquee tool | It allows us to draw oval or circular selections. | From the Marquee flyout menu in the toolbar. | It is designed for circular/round objects and makes it very easy to draw rounded shapes. |
| Eyedropper | Select the foreground (or the background) in the Tools panel or the Color panel. Select the Eyedropper tool in the Tools panel (or press the I key) Click the color in your image that you want to use. | Used in tools panel or colour panel. | The Eyedropper looks exactly like a real eyedropper so it is very clear what it is used for. |
| Dodge and burn tool | The Dodge tool and the Burn tool lighten or darken areas of the image. | In the vertical Toolbar with the Sponge Tool. | To increase the contrast on parts of the image by increasing or reducing the amount of light exposure on the print. |
| Layer opacity / transparency | To have a foundation layer, then a retouching layer, then a layer for any other added objects and a layer for colour toning. | Opacity drop-down arrow at the top of the Layers panel. | It can make every edit easy to reverse. |
| Zoom tool | Allows you to zoom in on the image to get a better idea of the actual pixel makeup of a section you are working on. | Click and hold in the image to zoom in. Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) to zoom out. | Zooms in to fill the image window at the highest magnification that includes the selected area. |
| Lasso tool | It allows you to soften the edges of your selection or add a feathering effect. | Keyboard shortcut L to access the Lasso Tool. Then, use your right mouse button on the Lasso Tool while selecting and use the drop down menu to select the three tools. |
Illustrator:
| Tool / feature technique | What it does / Description | Where you used it / Reason | Value / usefulness / advantage |
| Basic shapes | It creates different shapes for you. | To recreate the shape of an object. | There are many different shapes you can choose from. |
| Modifier keys | Changes the behaviour of something you are using. | ALT (PC) / OPTION (Mac) | Once they are released the behavior changes back to the original state. |
| Grid | Creates rectangular grids of a specified size and number of horizontal and vertical dividers. | Where the tool panel is under the line tool. | Creates concentric circles of a specified size and specific number of concentric and radial dividers. |
| Snap to grid | To snap shapes or other objects to grid lines that go through the vertical and horizontal edges of other shapes or objects. | Choose View > Snap To Point. | Allows us to snap each object to the Grid, making our process a lot more straightforward. |
| Gradient tool | Is a graduated blend of two or more colours or tints of the same colour. You can use gradients to create colour blends, add volume to vector objects, and add a light and shadow effect to your artwork. | Hold the Shift key. | Allows for very flexible and detailed application of colour to objects. A Gradient Mesh creates a grid inside the object that follows the contour. |
| Shape builder | It combines edits, and fills shapes on your artboard. The selected shapes are combined into one shape. | The Shape Builder tool also enables merging objects, breaking overlapping shapes, and subtracting areas. | Lets you merge and exclude portions of shapes to create compound paths, with very little effort. |
| Direct selection tool | Allows you to isolate any single object or path, even if it’s already part of a group. | Direct Selection tool from the Tools panel, click inside the desired object, or click and drag around part of the object’s path. | Selects entire objects or groups. This tool activates all anchor points in an object or group at the same time, allowing you to move an object without changing its shape. |
| Text tool and text on a path | To create horizontal text along a path, select the Type tool or the Type On A Path tool. To create vertical text along a path, select the Vertical type tool. | Set text-formatting options in the Control panel, Character panel, or Paragraph panel. | To show the credits of a movie. Has different fonts and positions. |
| Zoom tool | Using the Zoom tool, you can click the Document window to zoom in and to zoom out. Double-click with the Zoom tool to quickly resize the Document window to 100 percent. | Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac). | It is handy when you want to make a precise shape. |
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