Section 4: Layers
When making composite images in Photoshop (one image from several elements), we use layers. Imagine a layer as a sheet of clear transparent film over the image. When painting on these sheets, anything underneath the layer will show trough the transparent unpainted areas. Layers give us precise control over the position and look of different elements without altering the rest of the image.
- Layer Primer
- The Layers Palette
- Move, Copy & Transform Layers
- Layer Styles
- Quiz
Layer Primer
When making composite images (one image from several elements), we use layers. Imagine a layer as a sheet of clear transparent film over the image. When painting on these sheets, anything underneath the layer will show trough the transparent unpainted areas. Layers give us precise control over the position and look of different elements without altering the rest of the image.
Three shape Layers in the Layers Palette
The same three layers in the document window.
The Layers Palette
To better understand some of the more important features of layers, let’s look at the Layer Palette.
Blend Mode – Blending determines how a layer affects the pixels in the layers underneath it. We will look at an example of this in one of our exercises.
Opacity & Fill – Layer opacity changes the transparency of a layer making any image underneath the layer more visible. Opacity changes the absolute transparency of a layer, including blending and styles while Fill affects the pixels on a layer only and not the blending mode or any styles applied to that layer (more on layer styles later).
Layer locks – It is also possible to prevent a layer from being changed using the various layer locks.
Lock transparency – Only edits the transparent areas of a layer
Lock Image – Prevents pixels on the layer from being altered by painting tools
Lock Position – Prevents layer from being moved
Full Lock – Prevents any changes from being made to the layer
Link Layers – Links one or more layers as one group to be adjusted and transformed together. In order to link layers two or more layers needs to be selected.
New Layer group – Layers in a group behaves similarly to linked layers, but is more versatile when working with large groups of layers together. It is possible to adjust the position of one layer without unlinking and re-linking all the layers.
Add layer style – Applies a predefined style to a particular layer. These styles are changeable until the layer is rasterized.
Create new layer – Creates a new empty layer above the currently selected layer. If the currently selected layer is part of a group, the new layer will also form part of the group.
Delete Layer - Deletes currently selected layer or layer group
Move, Copy & Transform Layers
To move a layer around the work area, the Move tool needs to be selected from the Toolbox. Once selected we once again see various option in the Options Bar.
The most important of these is the Auto Select Layer checkbox. By having this checked, it is not necessary to first select the layer from the Layers Palette. Simply click on an area of the image that contains pixels of the layer you want to select and move it to its new position. It is important to note that if two or more layers have pixels over the same position of the image, the top most layer will be selected. Leaving the Auto Select Layer checkbox unchecked enables us to move the currently selected layer by dragging from anywhere on the image. To select a different layer to work on, we need to select it from the Layers Palette.
There are two ways to copy a layer. Either by making a duplicate within the same document or by copying the layer to another document that is open. To copy a layer within a document, we once again look at the Layers Palette. Click on the Layer Palette menu arrow and select Duplicate. This makes a duplicate of the currently selected layer. When a layer group is selected, this command changes to Duplicate Group and all layers in that group are duplicated.
Transforming layers is similar to transforming selections. First select the layer you want to transform. Select Free Transform from the Edit menu and change the layer shape using the controls of the bounding box that appears around the layer.
Exercise 4
In this exercise we will create a composite image using some of the layer features we discussed.
- Open image S4A.jpg from the CD. This will be our background layer.
- In image S4A.jpg, you should see a thin blue line running horizontally through the middle. This is a guide and is not part of the image. If you cannot see the guide, go to the menu bar and select View menu>Show>Guides.
- Now open the images named S4Yellow.psd, S4Green.psd, S4Blue.psd and S4Red.psd from the CD.
- Select the Move tool and from the Toolbox, making sure that ‘Auto select layer’ is checked in the options bar, and drag each of the glasses to the document with the gradient background.
- Again using the Move tool, align the glasses in a row with their bases all lined up on the guide.
- We are now going to rename our layers to make them easier to work with. In the Layers palette, double click on the layer containing the green bottle and rename it Green. Repeat the process with all the other layers giving each one a unique name.
- Select the top four layers by clicking on each one while holding down the shift key. Click on the link icon, in the bottom of the layers palette to link the top four layers. We can now manipulate them as one.
- Go to the layers palette menu and click on ‘Duplicate Layers’. We now have one duplicate of each of the layers which are also liked together.
- Go to the layer palette menu again and select ‘New group from layers. Name the group ‘Reflections’ in the dialog box that follows. This place all four duplicate layers in its own group named ‘Reflections’.
- With the Reflections Layer Group selected in the layers palette, go to the menu bar and select Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical. This flips the whole layer group upside down.
- With the Reflections Layer Group still selected in the layers palette, go to the menu bar again and select Edit>Transform>Scale. This brings up a bounding box around the layer group.
- Dragging from the top of the bounding box, scale the layer group to about 80% of its vertical size. Do not scale it horizontally.
- Using the Move tool, drag the Layer group down until it is just below the guide. This will be our reflection.
- To create a more realistic look, we are going to manipulate the Reflection layers some more. Because it is not possible to apply a filter to a layer group, we first have to merge the group into one layer. With the Reflections layer group selected, go to the layer palette menu and select ‘Merge Group’. This converts the different layers in the group to one layer.
- To make the reflections look more realistic, we are first going to apply a Motion Blur filter. With the Reflections layer selected, go to the menu bar and select Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Set the angle to 90 degrees and the distance to 60 pixels. Click OK.
- Because a reflection is not always 100% clear, we need to set the opacity of the layer too. Go to the Opacity setting in the layers palette and move the slider to 30%. This gives us a fairly realistic reflection.
Layer Styles
A Layer Style is a predefined set of attributes that change the look of a layer with one click. The number of effects from combining styles and style settings are endless. To apply a style go to the Layer>Layer Styles menu and select one. In the dialog that follows the various settings can be selected.
Once a style has been applied to a layer, it can easily be changed by double clicking on it in the layers palette. To remove a layer style, drag it to the trash icon in the layers palette.
Section 4 Quiz
- When creating a new layer, where does it appear in the Layers palette?
- How can we minimize file size without affecting its quality or dimension?
- How can we manipulate several layers as one?
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