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Scott Kel

The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers

PhotoShop CS3 Essential Skills

Previous:
How to Make Selections in Photoshop

Next:
How to Work with Photoshop Layer Masks

How to Work with Photoshop Layers

Sometimes you’ll use Photoshop to open a photo and just make a simple change or two. But sometimes you’ll want to make more extensive changes, such as adding text, combining several photos into one, and so on. To do these types of tasks in Photoshop, you’ll need to use layers.

What Are Layers?

Layers are like virtual panes of glass that you can stack one on top of one another as you work in Photoshop. You can also switch the order of the layers in the “stack” so that certain parts of the photo appear on top of (or hidden beneath) other parts. The number of layers you can use is virtually limitless—artists who create images from scratch in Photoshop sometimes end up with files that contain hundreds or even thousands of layers. Then again, sometimes you’ll just need two or three layers.

Why Use Layers?

Photoshop’s layer system allows you to modify the content in each layer separately, without altering the content in the other layers. For instance, if you’re designing a holiday card in Photoshop, you might create a layer for the photo in the card and a separate layer for the text that you superimpose over the photo. If you decide to change the text or the underlying photo later, you can change either one (or both) without starting the entire project over from scratch.

In addition to the flexibility and versatility that layers offer, they also let you blend parts of images from various sources into one image. For instance, if you’d like to design a brochure with your corporate logo superimposed on a photo of your headquarters, you’ll need to use layers to bring both images together into one.

The Layers Palette

The Layers palette lists all the layers in the image you’re currently working on. It also lets you create, rename, duplicate, and delete layers, and access various other layers-related features. The Layers palette is usually located on the right side of the Photoshop workspace. If you can’t find it, go to Window > Layers in the menu bar and it will appear.

When you open an image in Photoshop, Photoshop creates a layer called the Background layer and places the image into that layer automatically. The sample Layers palette shown here is that of an image with just two layers—the Background layer (on which an image of a cookie appears) and a separate layer that contains some text. As you can see, layers with image content contain a thumbnail of that content (in this case, a cookie) in the Layers palette. Layers with text contain an icon with a capital “T.”

How to Use the Layers Palette

The sample Layers palette shown here is taken from Photoshop CS3, but the instructions below will work in previous versions of Photoshop as well.

To activate a layer: Any changes you make to your image only apply to the active layer—the layer that you’ve activated (selected) in the Layers palette. To activate a layer, click on the thumbnail, the name of the layer, or anywhere in the gray area to the right of it. The active layer will appear blue in the Layers palette.
To add a layer: You can create (add) layers in several different ways. The fastest way is to click the Create New Layer icon in the row of icons at the bottom of the Layers palette. Photoshop will then add the layer to the Layers palette, give it a default numbered name (“Layer 2,” for instance), and make it the active layer. Another easy way to add layers is to go to Layer > New > Layer in the menu bar. When you do so, a dialog box will appear in which you can name the layer yourself and select various more advanced options to apply to that layer.
To rename a layer: Double-click the layer’s name in the Layers palette and type the name you prefer. Renaming layers is crucial when using more than just a few layers, as it can become hard to remember (or see) which layer is which in the Layers palette.
To show/hide a layer: Click the checkbox with the eye-shaped Show/Hide Layer icon just to the left of the layer’s thumbnail. If the eye is visible, the layer’s content will also be visible in the image itself.
To duplicate a layer: Right-click the layer in the Layers palette and choose Duplicate Layer in the submenu that appears. In the dialog box that then appears, give the duplicate layer a name and click OK. It’s always a good idea to duplicate the Background layer as a first step before making extensive changes to an image in Photoshop. That way you preserve a “copy” of the original on a separate layer that you can easily revert to later if need be.
To unlock a layer: Photoshop locks the Background layer by default. Locked layers are restricted from certain kinds of editing and arranging, so always unlock the Background layer before you get started working on your image. To unlock a layer, double-click it, rename it in the dialog box that appears, and click OK.
To delete a layer: Click the layer to activate it and then click the Delete Layer icon . Click OK in the dialog box that appears to confirm that you’d like to delete the layer.

Note that in some cases Photoshop automatically creates new layers for you. For instance, if you add text to your file, Photoshop creates a new layer and places the text in that layer for you automatically. The same goes for adding an image from an external source to your current image, and several other scenarios. To keep track of the layers that Photoshop adds to your image, just look at the Layers palette periodically as you work.

Acknowledgments & Disclaimer