One way to understanding Layers in Photoshop is to imagine you have thin transparent sheets of glass, these are our Layers. For this example, lets say three Layers. One of those Layers will be your background. The background Layer stays in place. All the Layers will be stacked on top off the background Layer allowing you to see through to the background image. So think of it as looking down through your stacks of transparent sheets of glass from the top sheet down through to your background sheet.
Your background Layer is an image of a rose. You can put a Layer with a picture of a hummingbird over the image of the rose, making it appear that the hummingbird is hovering over the rose. You may need to position your hummingbird to create the effect you want.
You might want to add rain drops, so you will take another Layer with the image of the raindrops and put it on top of the images of the hummingbird and the rose. In the stacking order in the Layers Panel each Layer will have the appearance of being stacked on top of each other but in the image window these stacks appear to be flattened, giving it the illusion of just the one picture.
Layers interact with each other through Opacity, (Opacity refers to the amount of transparency a Layer has). You can set the Opacity to complete transparency or opaque, meaning you can’t see through it. By adjusting the Opacity settings you can have your background Layer partially show through the top Layer. The more you adjust the settings toward 0% Opacity, the top Layer becomes more transparent, allowing more of the background Layer to show through.
Now Let’s say you want to change the color of the rose. You do all your edits to the rose on that one Layer, so you can make mistakes or even delete or replace it with another flower. Each edit is done on an individual Layer, which means you can go back and edit that particular Layer without the rest of your work being affected.
You can also change the stacking order in the Layers Panel. By changing the stacking order you can have the rain appear either behind or in front of the hummingbird.
You can turn each Layer on and off by clicking on the ‘eye icon’ next to the Layer you are working on. So if we wanted to see what the picture would look like without the rain, you just click on the ‘eye icon’ next to the Layer with the image of the rain on it turning that Layer off, making the Layer invisible.
The Layers are organized and displayed in the ‘Layer’s Panel’ which is usually to the right of your image. You can also move the panel around. By keeping the panel visible you can tell which Layer you are working on just by glancing over and seeing which Layer is highlighted.
In my retouching tutorials I take the reader through the process of whitening the eyes, cleaning up blemishes with the Healing Brush, Airbrushing away those shiny patches and tidying the hair. If your new or relatively new to the concepts of Adobe Photoshop Elements 8, then this overview will help you understand the benefits of working with Layers throughout these processes.
At this stage I may decide that I am happy with my finished product. I now have the ability to flatten all the Layers into one, leaving me with all the finished edits which were on individual Layers, on the one Layer.
In this Video Tutorial – Understanding Layers It will take you through an in-depth look into Layers. It will demonstrate simple yet highly effective techniques in helping you to understand and familiarize yourself with the concept of Layers.
So that is Layers in a Nutshell!
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