Photoshop - Layers

Palette   -   Blending Mode   -   Layer Styles   -   Layer Masks   -   Adjustment & Fill Layers   -   Creating a Layer    -   Merging   -   Clipping Paths   -   Merging & Flattening   -   Examples

Layers allow you to separate out and work on individual aspects of an image or add additional enhancements to an existing image without actually making changes to the image itself.

Layers can be restacked, hidden from view, or displayed with varying levels of transparency to create different "looks" for the same image. For instance, adding a layer on top of an existing image and allowing the original image to "shine" through the layer adds a satiny, shimmering effect to the image. Layers are often used to create a image collages.

A particular area of an image can be selected and lightened, darkened or moved within a layer to give a 2-D look to the original image.

Photoshop allows you to add up to 999 layers to an image. However, the more layers you add, the more RAM is used up in your computer!

When you first create an image, it exists on one layer, called background. By using either the Layers Palette or the Layers Menu, you can easily add a layer on top of the background. However, if in creating a new image you select Transparent, the bottom will be a layer.

Layers can be enhanced using the techniques we've used previously: select, transform…

NOTE: Once you have saved your image in any format except .psd, all layers will be flattened.

NOTE: You can not create new layers on "indexed images" (.jpgs or .gifs). Open them up and resave them as .psd.

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Layer Palette

Upper Section:

Blending Mode - menu that relates to how the pixels in the active layer mix with the layers below the selected layer

Layer Opacity Slider - sets the amount of transparency a layer will have (how easily you can "see through" the layer).

Lock Boxes - (checkboxes)

1st lock - prevents you from painting outside the boundaries of the layer
2nd lock - prevents you from altering the contents of a layer
3rd lock - prevents you from moving or transforming a layer
4th lock - locks down everything

Middle Section:

Visibility icon - You can turn the visibility of a layer on/off by clicking on/off the "eye" in the Layers Palette.

Linking layers - If you wish to keep several layers together, link them. Click the first layer's name in the Layers Palette and then the column just in front of the second layer's name. A chain link will appear, indicating that the two layers are now linked.

To unlink, click the chain and the link will be broken.

Active layer - The "active layer" will always be framed in black.

Layer order - The Layers Palette will display the layers from top to bottom, with the bottom layers listed at the bottom of the list.

Renaming layers - press ALT while double-clicking the layer's current name.

Rearranging layers - click the layer name and drag to its desired location in the layer listing, then release the mouse when a dark horizontal line appears in the desired location.

Background Converted to Layer - The background layer cannot be moved unless you rename it (thus making it a layer). Double-click the layer's name in the Layers Palette and enter a new name.

Layer Converted to Background - click on the layer > layer > new > background from layer

Lower Section:

Layer Effects/Layer Styles - special effects used to enhance layers

Add Mask - temporarily hide portions of a layer. If part of a layer is selected, clicking this converts the selectio to a mask (hiding everything outside the mask).

New Set - creates layers sets

New Fill/Adjustment Layer - click to display a pop-up menu of specialized tools

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Blending Modes

Blending Modes impacts how the layers interact and blend together. Notice the variety of options available to you: altering the lighting effects, color saturation…

How to create the effect? Make sure you have a minimum of two layers - (Note: even two different images can interact with each other. Make each image active by clicking on its layer and then selecting the blending mode for the desired effect.)

Examples of the various modes

Multiple - the active layer darkens the layer below it

Screen - Used for color correction (dark picture, duplicate the image in the layers palette & set the top layer's blending mode to screen to lighten it up)

Overlay - combination of multiply & screen (darkens the dark colors and lightens the light colors). Often used when opacity doesn't give enough of the effect.

Soft Light & Hard Light are very similar to Overlay. Soft Light offers a more muted with softer transitions.

Color Dodge - add brightness from the active layer to the layers below - turns the lightest pixels in a layer into more of a "white".

Color Burn - subtracts brightness from the active layer to the layers below.

Darken - display only the pixels in the active layer that are darker than the pixels behind them - use to hide the light pixels and show the dark pixels.

Lighten - displays only the pixels in the active layer that are lighter than the pixels behind them - use to hide the dark pixels and show the light pixels.

Difference - finds the difference between the brightness levels on the active layer and the layers below it. Gives a photograph negative effect.

Exclusion - finds the difference between the brightness levels on the active layer and the layers below it - but inverts those behind it - changing colors to gray.

Hue - mixes the core colors from the active layer with the saturation and luminosity values of the layers below it.

Saturation - (intensity of color) mixes the saturation values from the active layer with the hue and luminosity of the layers below it.

Color - blends hue and saturation of the active layer with the luminosity of the layers below it. Used to colorize an image located on a lower layer.

Luminosity - reverse of color, mixing a grayscale onto the colors from another image.

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Layer Styles/Layer Effects

Layer Styles add special effects and enhancements, such as drop shadow, emboss, and pattern overlay.

TIP: Layer Styles work only on transparent layers and for the entire layer!

To work with an item with an image, select the area with the lasso/magic wand tools and then add your special effects.

Custom Layer Styles - make the combination of special effects you wish to "save", make the layer containing all the special effects active, then click on the New Style icon in the Styles Palette. The new style will now appear in the Palette.

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Layer Masks

A white box and a mask icon (next to the eye) in the Layers Palette indicate if you are working within a mask, not the actual layer. (If you are working within the layer, you will see a paintbrush icon.)

Although layer masks are applied when you create Fill & Adjustment Layers, they can be applied to any transparent layer. To do this, click on the Layers Mask icon.

TIP: When working in a mask, you can work only in the colors black, white, and shades of gray. A mask may be totally white is the whole layer is revealed.

• Black hides
• White reveals
• Gray makes the layer semi-transparent

"Paint" with black, white, or gray to hide or reveal parts of the layer.

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Adjustment & Fill Layers

Layers Palette > Adjustment icon
    Or
Image > Adjust

Adjustment layers are used for color changes and corrections.

Adjustment Layers - Fill

Layer > New Fill Layer
Gradient Fill > select a gradient and desired gradient options >click ok

The Fill Layer icon appears on the layers palette

Double-click on the Fill Layer icon to change position, color, scale or type of gradient

Adjustment Layers - Adjustments

Each selection creates a new layer that impacts color only. These layers are called Adjustment layers.

Example: open an image and select the Curves Adjustment layer from the dropdown menu > click and drag inside the box to change the existing curve > click ok. Notice the changes.

Notice how the icon in the Layers Palette now has a "graph" in it.

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Creating a Layer

Layer > New Layer (menu)
     or
Layer > Duplicate
     or
Layer > New Layer (Layers palette)
     or
Edit > copy/paste
     or
Use of the type tool

Layers Dialog box will appear:

Give the layer a nickname or let Photoshop number the layers consecutively.

TIP: If you select color, the layer icon in the Layers Palette will be color-coded.

To turn a selected area into a layer

• Create the selection.
• Layer menu > New > layer via copy

Create a copy of a layer

Drag the name of the layer to be duplicated over the "create a new layer" button at the bottom of the layers palette.
     Or
Layers drop-down menu > Duplicate Layer

Discard Layers

Click on the layer > drag into the layer palette's trash can
     or
Layers Palette > Delete Layer
     or
Layer > Delete

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Layer Clipping Paths use the Shape/Pen tools

· Select a shape tool - notice the options bar changes.

· New shape layer - creates a layer clipping path
· New work path - draw a work path that will appear in the paths palette
· Create filled region - create a raster or pixilated shape
· Shape options
· Select "new shape layer" tool
· Click and drag on the canvas. When you release the mouse, your shape will be visible and your layers palette will reflect the changes

· NOTE: shape layers are made up of fill layer & a layer clipping path.
Left icon - fill layer icon
Left of this icon - layer clipping path thumbnail

TIP: Thus, a shape layer is a layer filled with something (usually color). If you delete the layer clipping path, the "something" will show throughout the layer. But, the layer clipping path, "clips" the location of the "something" to that particular path (location). Drawing more shapes on this layer will reveal more of the "something" (ie, color).

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Merging & Flattening

As you add more layers and use more RAM, you will need to "condense" for the web.

Merging groups layers without flattening, thus saving memory but allowing you to still work on the layers.

· Merge Down - combines the active layer with the one just above it in the Layers Palette (as long as both are visible)
· Merge Visible - combines all visible layers and does not discard invisible ones
· Merge Linked - combines the active layer with any visible linked layers. All hidden layers are lost

Flattening compresses all visible layers into a single layer - which becomes the background. Beware: once you flatten your image, you can not go back and change a previous layer. Make sure you have all the layers visible that you wish to include… all invisible layers will be lost!

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