Layer « Tools « Photoshop Tutorials

Let?s say you have a layer in Photoshop and apply a Layer Style (drop shadow, stroke, bevel, etc?). The Layers palette shows which effects you?ve applied (see picture below). Quite often, I find myself needing to duplicate layer effects on other layers.

The Layers palette is where all the action takes place. From it, you can control the position and the appearance of all the data in your image. It would not be an exaggeration to say the Layers palette is at the heart of any image editing (Figure 3-29). Apart from giving you control over layers, the palette also gives you access to Layer Styles and layer Blending Options. Layer Styles are simply effects, such as drop shadows, bevels, glows, and so forth, applied to a layer. Blending Options is a feature that lets you apply advanced blends to layers, as opposed to the simple blends that you can apply from within the Layers palette.

Layer effects was new in Photoshop 5 and makes a lot of third party plugins unnecessary. Here's a brief overwiev of these effects. Be sure to check out how to use them in the "glass spheroid" tutorial.

Layers are controlled through the Layers palette in Photoshop. In this palette, you can see each layer along with a thumbnail showing the contents of the layer.

2. On the layers palette, click on the door layer to make it your active layer. You should see the paintbrush in the second column.

With this frame having all these layers it can be changed indifinately and the photo can be swapped for another 4 x 5. Might be handy to do this in other sizes too and save this as a pdf file naming it 4X5frame.

The image can be saved in this state. At any stage, a double-click on the large icon in the adjustment layer will open its dialogue box. Further changes can then be made and saved. Only when the image is flattened, saved and closed are the changes to the image layer made permanent.

The next of our Photoshop for beginners tutorials introduces Layers, which is a most important feature in Photoshop for all users. Different parts of an image can be put on separate layers and stacked on top of each other.

Part One This tutorial continues our Introduction to PhotoShop series and will introduce you to Layer Styles. Since they were implemented into PhotoShop, Layer Styles have exploded and become one of the most commonly-used features of the popular graphics creation software package. In this tutorial, we will look at how we use Layer Styles and what we can achieve with them.

Layer Masks have a lot of power in PhotoShop. They are used to block out (or mask) certain parts of layers so that other layers can be shown in only certain areas of the document. What's great about layer masks is that they are not destructive - they can be undone and changed, as opposed to erasing parts of your image.

To give the monitor more of a 3D look, we will open up the Layer Styles window for the Monitor layer and then choose the Bevel and Emboss style. Notice that this style has two options underneath it: Contour, and Texture; which we can choose to set or not set. The settings for the Bevel and Emboss style are plentiful. We are provided with a host of options for this one style. We will stick with the Inner Bevel, but you can choose the other options to see what they look like, and how they're different. We will also leave the technique as smooth, but again, see what Chisel Hard and Chisel Soft do. We will set the Soften to 5px, and you can play around with all the settings to get comfortable, as that is the best way of learning PhotoShop. If we then check the Contour style beneath Bevel and Emboss, we will be presented with a few different options to choose what the contour of the bevel uses. We will use the bottom-left, curved one:

So far so good. In fact, that first filled selection turned out so incredibly well that we want to add a second filled selection to our document. Let's do that. First we need a selection, so select the Rectangular Marquee Tool from the Tools palette again and drag out another selection. Just for fun, start your selection from somewhere over top of the existing red shape so that the new green shape will be overlapping it a little. Not too much, just a little, so we can still see the red shape behind it. Once you've dragged out your new selection, we need to pick a green color to use, so go back to the Foreground Color selector square in the Tools palette and click on it, which brings the Color Picker back up. Left-click your mouse on a green area inside the hue selection bar, and then left-click on the saturation and brightness levels you want for the hue in the large square area on the left. Once you've chosen the green you want to use, click on the OK button. Finally, to fill our new selection with the green color, we need to go up to the Edit menu in the Menu Bar at the top of the screen and select "Fill" from the list of options, which brings up the Fill dialog box. Make sure "Foreground Color" is selected for the "Contents", and click the OK button. Photoshop will go ahead and fill the new selection with green. Press Ctrl+D (Win) or Command+D (Mac) to deselect the selection, and you're done. Here's what I have below. You should have something similar:

In our look at Photoshop's Layers palette, we saw that there are several options for locking layers, all of which are found at the top of the Layers palette directly below the Layer Blend Modes option, as I've highlighted below:

In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we're going to look at one of the most essential features in all of Photoshop - layer masks. We'll cover exactly what layer masks are, how they work, and why you want to use them. If you've been staying away from using layer masks with your Photoshop work because you thought they were somehow beyond your skill level, well, if you know the difference between black and white and can paint with Photoshop's Brush Tool, you already have all the skills you need!

As we did before when we tried this without layers, make sure "Foreground Color" is selected for "Contents". If it isn't, click the down-pointing arrow and choose it from the list of available choices. Ignore everything else in the dialog box and click OK. Photoshop will go ahead and fill out selection with the red we chose in the Color Picker, and your document will look something like this:

Photoshop gives us the ability to change the size of the layer's preview area, or to not show a preview at all, in the options for the Layers palette. If we go back up to the top of the Layers palette once again, you'll see a small, right-pointing arrow in the top right corner of the palette (I've highlighted it in yellow below):

If free time is in short supply, not to worry. Photoshop makes it easy to save our layer style creations so we can easily re-apply them to other images without having to redo any of the steps! In this tutorial, to give us something to work with, we're going to be creating a simple photo frame using nothing but layer styles. When we're done, we're going to save the completed effect, and then we'll see how to apply the exact same photo frame to a different image instantly!

This little example may have been extreme, but hopefully the point of it is clear. Photoshop's standard image adjustments, all found under the Image menu, make permanent changes to our images and cause us to lose image detail with every edit we make, detail that once lost is lost forever. Adjustment layers, on the other hand, offer us the exact same editing abilities as the standard image adjustments, but they have the major advantage of allowing us to work freely, flexibly and non-destructively on our images. Even after losing half the detail in our image, we were able to restore it quickly and easily simply by re-opening the dialog box for the adjustment layer and making changes. Again, it's because Photoshop does all the work directly inside the adjustment layer. Turn off the adjustment layer or drag it down on to the Trash Bin at the bottom of the Layers palette to remove it completely and the image returns instantly to its original state.

Being able to work non-destructively on our images is certainly a great reason to stop using Photoshop's standard image adjustments and start using adjustment layers, but there's other equally good reasons to make the switch. One of the biggest complaints with Photoshop is that no matter how much memory (RAM) you have in your computer, it never seems to be enough. And with the number of megapixels in the latest digital cameras always increasing, the problem just keeps getting worse. Larger photos mean larger file sizes, and the larger the file size, the more of your computer's memory Photoshop needs to work with it. And that's just to get the original photo open your screen. Typically, as you edit the photo, you add more and more layers, and each one of those layers takes up more and more of your computer's memory. On top of that, Photoshop needs even more memory to complete all of the fancy, complex math that goes on behind the scenes as you're working on the image.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, you'll enjoy it even more as a PDF eBook! The eBook version is downloaded directly to your computer and let's you view the tutorial just like a book! It's easier to read, 100% ready to print on your home or office printer, and you can jump instantly to any page or step using the convenient index - just like a real book, with no internet connection required! There's no web pages to scroll through, no website graphics, navigation areas, buttons, ads, or anything else getting in the way. And best of all, it's yours to keep!

And that's how easy it is. Simply hold down Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) as you're clicking the New Layer icon, and Photoshop will add the new layer below the one you currently have selected.

I don't know why that option isn't turned on by default, but it isn't, so make sure you enable it and your Layer Styles and masks will work together as you'd expect them to in Photoshop.

I went a long time without knowing this trick, and the moment I stumbled upon it, I suddenly wished I could go back and relive all the time I'd wasted selecting multiple text layers one at a time in my Photoshop documents.

Again, to change one type of Adjustment Layer to another at any time, simply make sure the Adjustment Layer is selected in the Layers palette, then go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen, choose Change Layer Content, and then select whichever type you want to change it to.

If your photo is your "Background" layer, do this: A Layer Mask though cannot be added to a Background layer in Photoshop. Therefore, you need to change your photo layer into a normal, editable layer first; before we can do anything to it. Double-click the photo layer, then click the OK button in the window that comes up. Now it'a a normal layer. And now we need to create a white background layer that will show up behind our photo layer. Add a New Layer, and make sure it's filled with white. Then drag this layer below the photo layer

To reduce the strength of the effect, select the top two contrast layers and group the selected layers (Layer> Group or Ctrl+G). Then, select the new group and adjust the opacity.

2 Process Raw Files as Smart Objects Process the first version of the image in Adobe Camera Raw for a specific area (in our example, we???re keeping the sky from getting too washed out). To preserve maximum flexibility, click on the blue Workflow Options link below the preview and turn on the Open in Photoshop as Smart Objects checkbox. Click OK then Open Object to bring the file into Photoshop. Choose Layer>Smart Objects>New Smart Object via Copy to create a duplicate smart object of the embedded RAW file (the smart object duplication must be done this way to apply different RAW develop settings).

Basically, layer comps act as a way to capture your design in different states, based on what layers you have visible. You can then capture these states, in different �layer comps� and export them as a PDF slideshow to present all your designs to your client. Be careful though, keep your options to a minimum. Often times, the more options you show, the more confusing you make things for the client. I always try to keep the options between 2-4.

Final Results The differences are obvious. Adjustment layers enabled us to make major changes to the tone, color and saturation, and isolate those changes to just the spots we needed them. The best part about the changes that we made using adjustment layers is that they can be adjusted or removed at any time! that's right, double click the Adjustment Layer to change the original options, or turn it off through the layers palette.

I ended up blending this layer in, not "normal" but "darken" and adjusted Fill to 28% (OK not much of change to the 4 pictures up, but my Work flow sometimes goes in mysterious ways ;-)

So the image looks like this 6 Then I add a third layer for coloring. Note how the blend mode of the layer is set to "Soft Light"

Wow. i NEVER had even heard of that option! i was thinking of making a the curl its on layer but it would have been to difficult to just select it and not the corners!!! Thanks for the Tip howard!

-- you can not affect in which way will the effect interact with the layer it is used on (in Adjustment layers, you can work with the effect as with a layer)

I Know How To Load And Install The Styles..But Everytime I Do So, I Lose Whatever Styles I Created Myself. When I Load A New Styles It Asks If I Want To Save Any Other Previous Ones, An When I Click �Yes� It Says There Is a Problem Or Error So Everytime I Have To Re-do My Styles, Anyway To Fix That? I Have Photoshop CS3 Extended.

Photoshop comes packed with a good number of Layer Style Presets, all which are accessible through the Styles Palette (Window > Styles). To apply a Layer Style, select the Layer you'd like to work with in your document from the Layers Palette, and then select the Layer Style which you would like to apply.

To the viewer, this is simply one flat graphic. However, in Photoshop, it is actually 4 separate layers (graphics if you will) stacked on top of one another. There is a Blue Background layer, two separate layers with a T9 Cloud, and a top layer with the �Tutorial9? text.

This tutorial aims to show you how to use the layer mask feature in Adobe Photoshop to your advantage. By following this tutorial you should become familiar with what the Layer Mask has to offer and how you can use it. The Layer Mask is also featured in LearnHawk's "Slick Vista Wallpaper" tutorial which you can find here.

Step 3: Click this icon to create a layer mask, with this you can easily hide places with BLACK, and make things visible with WHITE. So if you use a gradiant from black to white, you have a smooth image from visible to transparant, which makes a very neat reflection effect. Let's get to work.. Get the gradient tool , take the black to white and drag a gradient from the bottom of the image we just cut to the top, look below if your not sure. NOTE: Hold shift to make a straight line, this is also with the pencil tool, brush and more.. And there you have it, a nice small reflection. I will show you some more reflections now.

When Photoshop guru Matt Kloskowski was asked why he wrote this book, he replied, �It's simple: I wanted to write the Photoshop book that I wish had been around when I was learning Photoshop.� You've always known that layers were the key to understanding Photoshop, and now you have a resource to show you exactly how.

You may get .psd* file of "The Ghost in the old House" Photoshop tutorial by making a donation. Put the tutorial title in "Add special instructions to seller" line of PayPal and it will be sent to you shortly.

When you lower the opacity of a layer you are also lowering the opacity of the layer effects (regardless if they are there or not). Opacity is the master tool and Fill retains any layer effects.

Note that you have full access to all of the adjustments with these method vs. a limited choice with the adjustment layer method. You should become comfortable using adjustment layers, they're easy and fun to use. You'll discover your own favorite adjustments for fixing up or enhancing your images.

NO - DEFINITELY MAY NOT! I don't mind, of course, any form of back link to Digital Photo News tutorials section, but taking any one of the tutorials whole and supplanting it on your website is theft. If you really like the tutorials and want to advertise them, why not just hyperlink directly to their URL? Is it possible to submit some of my own tutorials?

You can click on the little triangle in the layers palette (5) to view a menu that has all kind layer groups related options that you can use.

Creation To create an Adjustment Layer, click on the arrow at the top-right of the Layers palette, and select New Adjustment Layer... Select the type of effect desired, and then hit OK. The properties window for the effect choosen will appear, where that effect can be customized. After accepting the values for the Adjustment Layer, all of the layers underneath it will be affected. Double click on the Adjustment Layer to edit the effect again.

Thank you for reading.... This concludes our tutorial. I hope you have a better understanding of how to Link/Unlink and Hide/Unhide layers. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please E-Mail us by going to the Contact page.

Now we can just go start having fun with creating layer styles and trying different things out. It's important to note that you actually have to click on the 'long bar' or 'title bar' to enter the options field. If you just click the checkmark it doesn't necessarily take you to the editing options. Even after a lot of experience you'll still find it kind of awkward, that's ok. Here I'm just adding a basic bevel.

While layer opacity can be set when a layer is first created, it can also be changed in existing Adobe Photoshop CS3 layers. In this video tutorial, you will learn how to change layer opacity in Photoshop CS3.

One advantage of linking two or more layers in Adobe Photoshop CS3 together will enable you to be able to move the layers at the same time. In this video tutorial, you will learn how to link layers in Photoshop CS3.

Now, by altering the layer modes and hiding/showing the 3 layers, you can produce a huge range of stylised images. 15 examples are shown below:

What we need to do now is create another layer. Think of layers in Photoshop as being exactly the same as the clear plastic you use in overhead projectors. You can fill it up with colour, you can use just a small part of it, you can do exactly what you can do with a standard image. The difference is, you can apply all sorts of layer effects and you can be a lot more selective about what you change within your final image.

Welcome to another Photoshopâ„¢ video tutorial. In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to adjust the contrast and saturation of an image using the Soft Light Layer mode. This is a quick and easy alternative from using our traditional Levels or Curves adjustments. I'll show you how it can be applied to a nature landscape photo or a portrait studio photo. I encourage you to share your alternative methods for adjusting image contrast or saturation by posting in the comments.

Fun with Layer Styles I haven't done much with styles lately, so I thought we'd just have a bit of fun this week getting back into the styles palette. Let's take a look at single layer styles, stacking styles, and applying existing styles created for type and applying them to other shapes. Believe it or not, I still receive email about how to apply type or button styles to other objects, so I'll try to clarify things a bit in this regard. First, let's just create a few styles using a single layer and a line of type. When developing styles, I generally begin with the bevel and build from there. The last style element I apply is the drop shadow, primarily so I can get a feel for the color the shadow should be. I usually don't know this until the majority of the work is done. Now we will add a bit of color. I'm going to do this by first adding a gradient overlay, with the blending mode set to Luminosity, and then a color overlay set to Overlay. We sort of have a plastic effect going on here, so to increase the illusion of plastic we can apply our good friend Inner Shadow. I'll go ahead and put my drop shadow in now as well. That's not too bad. But we can dress it up quite a bit just by applying a similar style to a layer beneath this one. Case in point: create a new layer beneath the type layer. Command/CTRL+Click the type layer in the Layers Palette to bring up the selection. Go to Select>Modify>Expand, and increse the selection size by a few pixels. In the layer beneath the type layer, fill with your foreground color. Apply the same style to this layer, with mayby just a bit of variation. In this example I've added a pattern overlay to the new Layer, and a Stroke to the original type layer just to give the type some seperation from the new layer. Here's the result: Now let's clear up the question of type styles on other objects. Don't let the shape the style is applied to confuse you. If you have a type or button style, you can still apply it to another shape or filled are in a layer. For example, using the styles I just created I can create a shape using the Custom Shapes tool, and apply the same styles using the exact process used above. This also works with frames for photos, text styles to buttons, so on and so forth.

The video is teaching user how to using photoshop to do some simple effects works. It is quite simple & useful for dummy users.

Some things to take note of when working with layer style effects and the Layer Style dialog: - Layer styles cannot be applied to the Background layer. - Layer styles can be applied to only a single selected layer at a time—not to multiple selected layers or to layer groups. - Layer styles are attached to the layer. Therefore, when you move the layer in the Layers palette, the effects tag along. - Type layers remain editable even after a layer style effect is applied. - Layer styles can be copied from one layer to another. - Adobe Photoshop displays applied Layer style effects as items in the Layers palette. - Clicking the eye icon next to each effect’s name in the Layers palette temporarily disables the layer style. Click the eye next to the word Effects to temporarily disable all the applied layer styles for that layer. - Lowering the Fill percentage in the Layers palette reduces the Opacity of the layer, but not the applied Layer styles. - The Global Light option in the Layer Style dialog box tells Adobe Photoshop to apply the same angle to all direction-dependent effects, such as Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, and Bevel And Emboss. The idea here is to simulate consistent real-world lighting. - Combinations of layer style effects can be saved for later use in the Styles palette.

Contour: Use this option to specify how the glow effect transitions from opaque at the layer boundary (or at the center of the layer content if using an Inner Glow with the Center setting) to transparent at the edge of the glow. Pick a contour from the Contour box, and the glow follows that contour, working from the layer boundary (or center) on the right to the edge of the blur on the left. The higher the point on the curve, the more opaque the result. Choose from a preset contour by clicking the downward-pointing arrow next to the box, or create your own contour by clicking the graph in the box.

[...] For color image, as in this example, you can use Hue/Saturation to lighten or darken selected color. This can soften the strength of Curve, that you will use in later step, to keep better brush detail. You can use menu Image » Adjustment » Hue/Saturation or Ctrl(Command) + U to open Hue and Saturation dialog. But the better way to do, and you can go back and change your setting, by using Adjustment Layer. Click Create Adjustment Layer Button at bottom of Layer Palette and select Hue/Saturation.Select Color Channel you want to adjust, by select Eyedropper Button and click at the color to sample. Select button and Click or Shift + Click to add color to sample. Or use button and click or Alt(Option) + Click to remove color from sample. Now you can use Lightness slider to make sampled color lighter or darker. For this tutorial, First I select Blue and sample color at the sky and cloud. I also Shift + Click at other area of sky and also around the sea background to add color to sample. Then I move Lightness slider to +100. Next I select green channel and sample at the green area on the leaf of coconut tree and decrease Lightness to -100. Be-careful not to sample overlap color of both channels. Now go to Master Channel and decrease Saturation to -100%. (You can also see more detail about Adjustment Layer at PhotoshopTips.net) [...]

So have a look at this, it's extensive, and will give you a good working knowledge of layers. Layers, Layers And More Layers There's always more to learn with Photoshop, and I'll be adding to this page as I discover new layer tricks, so make sure to check back soon! tutorial and images � Jennifer Apple of PhotoshopSupport.com. Photoshop CS4 & Photoshop CS4 Extended - Best Deals From Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended feature a newly refined, tab-based interface in a single, integrated window, with self-adjusting panels arranged in docked groups. Automatically keeping tools well organized and away from your work area means you get greater efficiency, less clutter, and better results, faster than before. Delivering all the features of Adobe Photoshop CS4 software, including the new Adjustments and Masks panels, Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended also provides breakthrough 3D editing and compositing power to paint directly on 3D models, create 3D animations, convert 2D images to 3D objects, and more; richer motion graphics editing; and more powerful and flexible image analysis and tracking. Learn more on our Photoshop CS4 Tutorials Page. To download the free trial, see details on our Photoshop CS4 Free Trial Download Page. Find upgrade options and package deals at the Adobe USA Store. Teachers and students get special pricing at the Adobe Education Store. You can also buy in your country currency and language at the following Adobe International Stores: Adobe United Kingdom | Adobe Germany | Adobe France | Adobe Eastern Europe Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium - Complete CS4 Bundle Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium software is the designer's dream toolkit for print, web, and mobile publishing. Creativity is rarely confined to one medium, so put your vector illustrations in motion, moving fluidly between Adobe Illustrator CS4 and Adobe Flash CS4 Professional. And use Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended to design and slice a web page for publishing with Adobe Dreamweaver CS4. Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium combines essential tools for producing everything from professional page layouts to rich interactive experiences in a unified, intuitive environment. Also includes Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro, Adobe InDesign CS4, plus Adobe Fireworks CS4. Buy now or download the free trial at the Adobe USA Store, or buy in your country currency and language at the following Adobe International Stores: Adobe United Kingdom | Adobe Germany | Adobe France | Ad...

Once again I am going back to one of my old favorite photo mods, colorized black and white photos. I have always loved the classy and often antique look of them. I will however be using a different technique this time. Just like you, I am always learning new stuff in photoshop, and this is my latest "stumble-upon".

Before we start, I would like to focus your attention on the right upper History panel to follow all actions done by every single step. Also, don't miss follow the Layers tab in the right lower corner to have an info which one is actually selected. Keep an eye on these two items all the time! They could significantly help you to clarify some doubts.

Email (required)

1. Go ahead an open up an image that you would like to save multiple versions of.

Email (required)

Email (required)

You can open and close layer sets by clicking on the arrow. You can drag any layer into a layer set. Once you have a layer or layers that are in a layer set you can move them all at once around the document when the layer set itself is highlighted in the layers palette.

I recently had to scan some 220 snapshots for a video presentation ranging from the 1930s through present day. Many, many of the photos through the 1950s and 1960s had either gone blue due to age, or were originally shot using the original Kodak "technicolor" 120 film which is a little blue to begin with. It was a 3-day chore, but without the Photo Filter Adjustment Layer it would have probably taken 4 days.

Mail (will not be published) (required)

It is quite bit of a nuisance that the wonderful guys at Adobe do not let us swing around our canvas ever so freely. I think it would not be that hard for them to code a continuous canvas on edges so strokes at one edge affect the opposite side, and you could be panning around an infinite tile of your canvas (of course all of them being optional). Some texture maker programs has this superb functionality, with one little disadvantage: They are not Photoshop.

1. File -> Open ... and choose the picture with which you want to work.