Photoshop cs5 by steve Johnson part 17 potx

Once again, Photoshop comes to the rescue by giving you several options for 5 What You’ll Do Understand the Layers Panel Define Layer Designations and Attributes Create a New Layer Selec

Working with Layers

Introduction

To be successful with Adobe Photoshop, you need to be in

control You need to control color, to control elements of the

design, and you even need to control the order of design

ele-ments If control is what you crave, then layers, more than

any other feature, helps you achieve that control Layers give

you the ability to separate individual elements of your

design, and then control how those elements appear You can

think of layers as a group of transparent sheets stacked on

top of each other Through the creative use of these electronic

sheets, you can blend the elements of two or more layers,

and create layers to adjust and control contrast, brightness,

and color balance You can even group layers together to

help organize and manage your design

Layers are a digital designer's canvas, and they are just as

real as a stretched canvas is to a natural media designer The

strokes you apply to a real canvas, using a brush, are

equiva-lent to strokes in a Photoshop layer when you use any of the

painting tools The natural artist may use oils or watercolor in

the design while the Photoshop artist uses electronic ink The

Layers panel allows you to view the image almost as if you

were actually painting or designing with natural media

However, our canvas—the Layers panel—goes far beyond

anything possible in the "real" world

In Photoshop, using multiple layers is the way to control

the information within a document There are times when

you will create several layers; each layer will contain a

sepa-rate aspect of the total design Having multiple layers allows

you to adjust and move each element independently

Eventually, multiple layers may no longer be necessary

However, you might not want to link them together, or even

place them within the same folder Instead, you might want

to combine them into a single unit Once again, Photoshop

comes to the rescue by giving you several options for

5 What You’ll Do

Understand the Layers Panel Define Layer Designations and Attributes

Create a New Layer Select Layers Create a Layer Group Create a Selection from a Layer Create a Layer from a Selection Convert a Background into a Layer Control Image Information Using the Layers Panel

Move Layers Between Documents Use Merge Layer Options

Link and Unlink Layers Work with Layer Blending Modes Set Layer Opacity

Duplicate and Delete Layers Change Layer Properties Work with the Layer Comps Panel Export Layers as Files

Set Layers Panel Options Use Smart Guides

With the Layers panel, you can control

ele-ments of a Photoshop design by assigning

separate layers to each individual object In

addition, Layer effects control the application

of everything from drop shadows to gradient

overlays, and adjustment layers let you control

color overlays and image corrections To

access the Layers panel, select the Layers

panel or, if the Layers panel is not visible, click

the Window menu, and then click Layers

Blending Modes Select this option to change

how two or more layers interact or "blend"

together

Opacity Select a value from 0% to 100% to

change the opacity of the selected layers

(New!)

Fill Select a value from 0% to 100% to change

the opacity of the active layer without

chang-ing the opacity of any applied layer styles

Lock options Click the Lock Transparent Pixels,

Lock Image Pixels, Lock Position, or Lock All

button

Link Layers Hold down the Shift key and click to select two or more layers, and then click this button to link the layers

Add Layer Style Click this button, and then select from the available layer styles

Add Layer Mask Click this button to apply a layer mask to the active layer Click this a second time to add a vector mask to the active layer

Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer Click this button, and then select from the avail-able fill or adjustment layers

Create New Group Click this button to cre-ate a new group A group is a folder where you can drag, store, and organize layers

Create New Layer Click this button to cre-ate a new layer in the active document

Delete Layer Click this button to delete the active layer

Layers Options Click this button to access a menu of layer-specific commands

Understanding the Layers Panel

Lock options

Fill

Link Layers Add Layer Mask

Delete Layer Create New Layer

Create New Group Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer

Layers Options

Add Layer Style

Defining Layer Designations and Attributes

Not only does Photoshop give you the ability

to generate layers, it allows you to generate

layers with different designations The

desig-nation of a layer determines the type of

infor-mation the layer contains For example, a type

layer holds editable text, and a mask layer

holds image masks The ability to control the

designation of a layer helps to organize the

different elements that typically make up a

Photoshop image

Background The Background is a unique type

of layer element (technically, it's not called the

Background layer, just the Background)

Backgrounds are always positioned at the

bot-tom of the layer stack and they cannot be

moved In addition, the Background does not

support transparency

Layer Clicking the Create New Layer button

creates Photoshop layers New layers are

always inserted directly above the active

layer All of Photoshop's drawing and shape

tools, as well as opacity and fill and blending

mode options, are available to use on layers

created with this method, except for type

These "traditional" layers can be moved up

and down in the layer stack by dragging them

where you want them

Type To create a Type layer, select one of

Photoshop's Type tools, click in the active

doc-ument and begin typing Photoshop

automati-cally creates the Type layer directly above the

active layer in the Layers panel

Mask Masks are applied to a layer by clicking

the Add Layer Mask button on the Layers

panel Masks serve a function; they create

transparent areas in the visible image Use

masks to remove elements of an image

with-out physically erasing them

Shape Shape layers control vector data by the use of a vector mask You can create a shape layer in one of several ways: select the Pen tool from the toolbox, click the Shape Layer button (located on the Options bar) and begin drawing, or select any of Photoshop's shape tools using the Shape layer option

Adjustment Adjustment layers let you control everything from contrast to color To create an Adjustment layer, click the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button, and then select from the available options The adjustment layer is placed directly above the active layer and controls the information in all the under-lying layers You can also choose from one of the 15 icons in the Adjustments panel

Layer

Background

Type

Mask Shape

Adjustment

Layers give you control over the design elements of your document, so Adobe Photoshop makes sure you have plenty of layers available to you (up to 8,000) While that may be more layers than you would ever use in a single document, that flexibility guarantees that you have the creative options to carry your designs to any level you desire To create

a new layer, you must first have an open document A new image in Photoshop has a single layer If you have more than one document open, make sure the active image is the one to which you want to add

a layer You can quickly add a layer using a menu or button, or add a layer and select options using a dialog box You can select options to name the layer, designate it as a clipping group, or even change its color Blending mode, and Opacity If you want to add the contents of a file to a document as a new layer, you can drag it directly from the Finder (Mac) or Windows Explorer (Win) to the active document in Photoshop (New !)

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Create New Layer button

Active layer New layer

Creating a New Layer

Add Layers to an Active

Document

Select the Layers panel.

Click the Layers Options button,

and then click New Layer.

TIMESAVER Click the Create

New Layer button on the Layers

panel to quickly add a layer

The new layer is inserted directly

above the active layer

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Did You Know?

You can drag and drop a file to create

a new layer Drag a file from the Finder

(Mac) or Windows Explorer (Win) onto

an open Photoshop document (New!)

You can move a layer in the stacking

order Press the Ctrl (Win) or A (Mac)

key, and then use the Left/Right

Bracket keys ([ ]) The Left Bracket key

moves the layer down and the Right

Bracket moves the layer up

You can hide all layers except the

clipping mask layer and the layer to

which it is clipped Press the Alt (Win)

or Option (Mac) key, and then click the

layer’s visibility icon

Add Layers and Select Options

Select the Layers panel.

Hold down the Alt (Win) or Option

(Mac) key, and then click the

Create New Layer button to open

the New Layer dialog box

Select the layer options you want:

◆ Name Enter the name of the

layer into the Name box

◆ Use Previous Layer to Create

Clipping Mask Select this

check box to use the image

information in the previous

layer to mask the elements of

the new layer

◆ Color This option lets you

color-code your layers Click

the Color list arrow, and then

select from the available

colors

◆ Mode Click the Mode list

arrow, and then select from the

available blending modes

◆ Opacity This option controls

the visibility of the new layer

Select a value from 0% to

100%

Click OK.

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Did You Know?

You can control to which layers the

adjustment is applied To confine the

effects of an adjustment layer to the

layer immediately below, hold down

the Alt (Win) or Option (Mac) key, and

then click on the visible line separating

the adjustment layer from the next

lower layer

Selecting Layer Options

When you create a new blank layer in Photoshop, the size of the file does not increase It's only when you begin painting, or adding infor-mation to the layer that the size of the Photoshop document will begin to grow For example, creating a blank layer in a document with a file size of 10 MB does nothing to increase the size of the file

However, opening a 10 MB file, and creating a copy of the original document layer, will create a file size of 20 MB Layers are great cre-ative tools, but you only want to use them when you need them

Remember, performance is directly related to the size of the active document file, and the bigger the file size, the slower Photoshop per-forms

For Your Information

Photoshop lets you select multiple layers either in the Layers panel, or directly in the document window, using the Move tool Say, for exam-ple, you want to quickly move two or more layers but you don't want to spend the time linking, and then unlinking them You just want to quickly select the layers, and then perform the move Or, perhaps you want to delete several layers but don't want to delete them one at a time The ability to select multiple layers allows you to exert even more control over Photoshop, and that control provides more fuel for your creative

energy A single selected layer is called the active layer.

Selecting Layers

Select Layers

Open a multi-layered document

Select multiple layers in the Layers

panel using the following options:

◆ Contiguous Layers Click on the

first layer, and then Shift+click

the last layer to select first, last,

and all layers in-between

◆ Non-Contiguous Layers Click on

a layer, hold down the Ctrl (Win)

or A (Mac) key, and then click

on another layer

Select layers in the document

window using the following options:

◆ Single and Multiple Layers.

Select the Move tool, choose

the Select Layer or

Auto-Select Group in the Options bar,

and then click on an object in

the document window The layer

holding that object is selected

To add to or subtract layers from

the selection, Shift+click (or

drag)

TIMESAVER Select the Move

tool, hold down the Ctrl (Win) or A

(Mac) key, and then click on an

object Hold down the Shift+Ctrl

(Win) or Shift+A (Mac), and click

on another object to add that

object's layer to the selection

To deselect all layers, click the

Select menu, and then click

Deselect Layers.

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Contiguous Multiple Layers selected

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Non-Contiguous Multiple Layers selected

Layer groups help to bring organization to large, multi-layered docu-ments Photoshop layer groups give you control over all the layers within the group at one time For example, multiple layers within a group can all be hidden or locked with one click of a button In addition,

if you click on the Group name, you can transform or move all the layer objects within the group as one unit To further help organize your Layers panel, Photoshop lets you create nested groups Nested groups are groups that are located within other groups Layer groups can be nested more than five levels deep (New !) When you nest groups, you control all of the groups by clicking on the main group's name, or you can control the individual groups by selecting the nested group name

Creating a Layer

Group

Create a Layer Group or Nested

Layer Group

Open a document

Select the Layers panel.

If the document contains a layer

group, click the triangle to expand

the group, and then select one of

the layers within the group to

create a nested group

Click the Create New Group button

on the Layers panel, or press

Ctrl+G (Win) or A+G (Mac)

Photoshop creates a layer group

TIMESAVER To quickly create

a Layer Group, hold down the Shift

key and click the layers you want

in the group, click the Layers

Options button, and then click

New Group from Layers

To add layers to the group, drag

layers from the Layers panel onto

the folder icon of the group

To remove layers from the group,

drag them from the group back

into the Layers panel

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New group

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Expand triangle