As many of you who watch Dave Kelly’s weekly TK8 series on YouTube already know, he recently did a two-parter on the “hidden” features in the TK8 plugin for Photoshop. Most of these are documented in the tooltips embedded in the panel or in the instructions PDF. However, many users might not be familiar with all of them, and Dave did an excellent job of organizing them in one place.
The TK8 plugin does a lot of different things, and the hidden features help to save space, prioritize the most the important function associated with each button, and allow additional options to be incorporated into the panel. Accessing them usually requires holding down an auxiliary key on the keyboard (CTRL/command or ALT/option) when left-clicking the mouse. Right-click is also sometimes used as an alternative. It might seem difficult to remember which shortcut will activate which hidden feature, but the possibilities have been organized into just three main categories:
- Right-click to reset. Instead of having a separate button to reset some adjustments facilitated by the panel, right-clicking the same button does that. This is sort of like double-clicking sliders in Lightroom and Camera Raw to reset them. Examples in TK8 include resetting color grading by right-clicking the tonal range buttons at the top of the color-grading interface and resetting the web-sharpening presets in the Web-Sharpening section.
- ALT (Windows) / option (Mac) is reserved for tooltips. If automatic tooltips are turned off in the TK8 preferences, holding down ALT or “option” and moving the mouse over a button brings up its tooltip. In other words, if you forget what a button or other feature (like a slider) does, ALT/option is your friend. It displays the button’s tooltip as a quick reminder of its function. The info window disappears when you move the mouse off the button and release the ALT/option key. You can also continue to hold down the ALT or “option” key to keep viewing tooltips as you mouse over different buttons.
- CTRL (Windows) / command (Mac) is for everything else. This means that most of the hidden features are accessed by holding down the CTRL or “command” key while clicking the button containing the hidden feature. Dave’s second video is devoted entirely to the CTRL/command options.
Not all hidden features will be useful to all photographers. By their nature, these are things that aren’t generally needed all the time. Knowing the ways to access them and where they are located will hopefully help you get more out of the TK8 plugin. I’ve linked to both of Dave Kelly’s videos below. In the description on YouTube, Dave provides a link to download a PDF that details the hidden features discussed in that video. So, be sure to switch to watching on YouTube if you’d like to get his notes as a reference.
Good Light Journal 
There are masks based on such variables as saturation, color, tone etc. I would like to have one that works on “Focus”
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I have that request on my list of features to add in the future. I’ll add a “+1” for you.
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thank you, Tony Mariann
“The effort of the imagination is to turn the boundary into a horizon. The boundary says, ‘Here and no further.’ The horizon says, ‘Welcome.’”—Barry Lopez
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Love Dave Kelly’s Lessons every Friday
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