[Rob Barron]

Layers Tutorial

Several people have asked for a bit of help with using layers in Photoshop (and other progs) so, as promised, I have made a little tutorial to try and help get over the initial fear of this powerful tool. I have kept this fairly simple but have tried to cover the main basics so that you are fully equipped to go and have a play.

If there is anything I have not made clear enough or something you'd like me to cover further, I will be happy to do a separate tutorial taking it on a step further. Just let me know.

What is Layers?

Layers is nothing complicated, it just looks it... I promise! The simplest way to explain layers is to think of an overhead projector (OHP). You print something onto clear acetate and can then project it onto a screen. If you printed something onto two separate acetates and put them both on the OHP together, it will project them as one image, effectively combining everything on both acetates.

In theory you could add a whole load of acetates together and as long as the bulb is bright enough could project the whole lot onto the screen at once. In the world of OHP, that is rarely necessary but in digital imaging....

Where is it in photoshop?

No matter what version you are using (at least since about PS 5 so i think that will be most of us!) and for this tutorial, PS Elements works just the same, you will usually find the Layers Pallette on the bottom right of the screen. If it isn't showing, just click on F7 or VIEW > LAYERS and it will appear.

Open a photo and you will see it showing as a single layer in the Layers Pallette. This will be called 'Background' by default. We now have one acetate on our OHP!

Why would I need more layers?

Various reasons and this is what we will look at during this tutorial. I'll be covering the use of multiple layers with different things on each, adding a text layer, adjusting layer opacity and a very brief introduction to using blending modes. Now don't panic, none of this will be technical, I am aiming to keep this as simple as possible ... a bit like me!

Ok, let's take a look at a picture...

Here we have a charming little picture of a cute girl sat with a birthday cake and a pretty butterfly hairslide in her hair. Nothing particularly unusual or remarkable about it. Except, that is, until we take a look at the Layers Pallette for this picture...

We can see from this that the image is not actually one picture but three separate layers (acetates if you like!).

The bottom layer (background layer here) is the original and just shows the girl smiling at the camera. No cake, no hairslide....

The second layer contains nothing more than a cake. Here is the original photo of the cake...

And here is our layers picture showing the original picture and the cake which I added as the second layer (labelled Cake Layer)...

There is a third layer (labelled Butterfly Layer) which is a simple graphic I made (I won't bore you with how to do that right now, let's stick to layers!) and made it look like a little girl's hairslide.

The three images go together (three acetates on our OHP!) to make a 'composite' image that looks completely normal. I showed my wife just now and she didn't realise it was anything other than one image until I showed her what I had done!

So that is the basic use of layers. Cut out parts of pictures, add them to separate layers and you'll get one image that contains everything.

How to Show Layers

You might not want to show all the layers, you might decide you don't want the little girl to have a hairslide after all. No problem, you can switch off that layer by clicking on the Eye symbol to the left of the layer concerned. This makes it invisible but it is still available if you want it. Just click in the same place and the eye will reappear, showing the layer once again.

Because of the limit of how many pictures I can upload each day, I have to stop this tutorial now. I'll come back to it tomorrow to add more info about opacity, blending modes and text layers. Please bear with me

Cheers,
Rob

[simpbow]

Cheers Rob.

[stepheno]

Good tutorial

[silkstone]

Thanks Rob!

This is *not* an anti-Adobe rant, but just to point out to those with Paint Shop Pro that the procedure is more-or-less the same, and the Layers Palette looks quite similar. When Rob gets on to discussing opacity and blending modes, I think that most of these are also in PSP and go by the same names.

[Ali]

Excellent stuff and just what's needed! Layers are one of the many PSP/Photoshop mysteries for me. I am looking forward the next installment!

[Dave]

Don't forget you can give some Rep points to Rob if you appreciate his tutorial

[Ali]

Originally Posted by Dave

Don't forget you can give some Rep points to Rob if you appreciate his tutorial

Already done

[dogdots]

Thanks Rob....I look forward to more when ever you have the time