 Bunny Snow |
CD for learning Layers in Photoshop 7 I'm having difficulty understanding layers. I understand the concept, but not how to get started and each step of the way. Reading books doesn't help, as I still become confused. Is there a recommended tutorial on a CD-Rom that could walk me through it and allow me to practice at my own pace? Thanks. Bunny
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Alisha L. Ekstrom |
Hey I would like the same help as Susan. I get soo confused on the layering thing of PS. Layer mask, Adjustment layer....What's the purpose & when to use it & HOW...Thx
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Craig m. Zacarelli |
I think of it like this... when ever I "do" something to a pkoto in PS, I "make a duplicate layer" then change what ever it is I need to change or fix, on that new layer.. if you make a new layer for each step you do, you wont have to trash the whole project and start again if you make a mistake! So, say you have an old black and white photo of good old aunt clarabell, you scan it in and want to colorize it, you would make a new layer (copy) of it and start with that, then make another and do something with that, color her haor or glasses or what ever, then make another layer and do what ever with that and so on and so on till your done, then you can "flatten" the image which will add them all together as one finished project. Tyr this, open a pic of a person that DOSENT have a blurry background, then, make a duplicate layer, now on the DUPLICATE layer, go to filter and click on gaussian blur, set it to about a 4 or 5, then, go back to you blurry as H*** picture and select the eraser tool, now erase ONLY the places that you DONT want blurry (the person) see where im going ?...lol. after you have the person clear (which is actually the original layer, and the background blurry, which is actually the layer copy, then go to the layers tab and hit flatten image to make the picture (both layers) as one! hope this shed some light on it for ya! Craig-
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Pete H |
Layering is probably the REAL strength of Adobe PS or any other image editing program. I can't give you a complete course here, but perhaps a basic analogy might help. Pretend you just painted a beautiful picture, but want to see what it will look like with some pink clouds instead of the white ones you just painted. What if you could place a piece of clear plastic over the painting, and now just add the new cloud color. Hmm? Oh..you like the pink clouds and want to try to add some greener grass? Place another piece of clear plastic and paint on it. Now you have 2 "layers" Hmmm? The grass is "too" green in some areas? Lightly erase the areas of new green you painted so the darker green underneath will show thru. These are the basics of layers. Oh look..I just found this plastic overlay that someone else painted and I love the sky color...Let's see how it will look if I add it to "my" painting. :) Happy editing Pete
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Bunny Snow |
Thanks, Pete, I understand the concept. I just don't understand the order in which corrections should be done, and what each correction means. Nevertheless, I appreciate your reply. And, Craig, your answer was very helpful as well. I've been doing that, but not saving it to layers. The result of what I did was a pixelated image. That is not what I had wanted. So, are you saying that if I save each step of whatever I do and label that step to Layers, and when finished flatten that layer, that pixelation will not occur???? Thank you both again for your reply.
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Craig m. Zacarelli |
i dont save till the end, with each layer, you can do alot... there are tons of things.. its like taking a picture and then copying it a hundred times, each slightly different then putting em all together. When you say "adjustment layer" you mean a layer that you can then adjust, just a regular layer.. that you can adjust...nothing special or different. say saturate only the greens...or, sharpen, ..I recently re colored an old black and white pic from the 20's.. I did each seperate color as a layer, I was able to adjust each color as I went by going back to that layer and adjusting opacity or saturation..etc,etc. If you go into PS and just spend an hour a day making layers and playing with them, it will come to you. Betterphoto has a class on PS you should look into, I just finished a photography class here and it was awsome! Good luck! Craig- Ps. on your pixelated images, I dont understand what the problem could be. I dont save anything as layers..unless im not done with it, if I dont, I save as a ps file, but when im done I go to "Layers" and click "flatten Image" then I convert to 8 bit and save as Jpeg with a Medium (7) compression.
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Craig m. Zacarelli |
"So, are you saying that if I save each step of whatever I do and label that step to Layers, and when finished flatten that layer, that pixelation will not occur?" I think I understand the question now,. When you make a new layer and are done with it, just go back to layers and make another duplicate layer and PS will put the previous layer into the layers pallette (you can pull the pallette up by going to "window" and clicking layers or layer pallette) with the pallette you can retrace each layer to see what you did and can pull up each layer to adjust it more. its like painting a picture but doing it on seperate papers, one color at a time! And using the pallette you can even delete any layers you want.
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Craig m. Zacarelli |
"So, are you saying that if I save each step of whatever I do and label that step to Layers, and when finished flatten that layer, that pixelation will not occur?" I think I understand the question now,. When you make a new layer and are done with it, just go back to layers and make another duplicate layer and PS will put the previous layer into the layers pallette (you can pull the pallette up by going to "window" and clicking layers or layer pallette) with the pallette you can retrace each layer to see what you did and can pull up each layer to adjust it more. its like painting a picture but doing it on seperate papers, one color at a time! And using the pallette you can even delete any layers you want.
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