Lesson B: Intro to Layers

We interrupt this exciting project (so soon?) to bring you a short explanatory exercise.

• From the “Project A- Welcome” folder, open the image called “trading faces.psd.”

Backgrounds vs Pixel Layers

The most important feature in Photoshop is the Layers panel and what it contains. The longest (and first) chapter in this book’s Compendium is called “Layers & Smart Objects.” I can promise it will likely be the one you refer to most.

This document contains two layers, one of which is hidden. Look at the Layers panel in the lower-right corner of Photoshop’s interface.

The document has two layers of two different kinds: a Background and a pixel (or image) layer. Backgrounds are very limited: they have to be the bottom layer and they cannot have transparency. Sometimes we need to change layer stacking order or achieve transparency, so we end up converting the Background into a pixel layer or something called a Smart Object. Let’s explore a few of these things.

• Right-click on either layer thumbnail and choose Large Thumbnails. When layers proliferate, you’ll want them small again, but this should be helpful for now.
• Click the small square to the left of the layer called “familiar face.” It’s now visible.
• Click once near the top layer’s name. The layer is now highlighted, which means it’s the active layer.

When a layer is active, anything you do happens to that layer alone. We could move, blur, or lighten or darken it, and all other layers will remain untouched. We are going to mask this layer, hiding the bits we don’t want to see. When we’re done, her face will be on his head! But that’s a little later.

• Click the little padlock near the Background’s name. As you can see, it isn’t a hard lock to pick!

Now that layer is no longer a Background. It needs a better name.

• Double-click the current name and type something. I think “grumpy face” is appropriate.
• Drag that layer just above the other one. You’ll see a blue line appear when you get to the right spot. Then drag it below again.

Layers higher in the stack are in front of and obscure those below.

• Highlight the top layer (“familiar face”). Note the Opacity control near the top of the Layers panel.

There are several ways to make the layer less opaque. Try this: hover the cursor over the word Opacity and notice how it looks like a pointing hand with tiny arrows pointing right and left. That’s a “scrubby cursor.” It is available whenever you hover over the name of a numeric field. To “scrub” the value of that field, press and drag left or right to lower or raise (respectively) the value.

• Scrub the Opacity to the left to lower it. Note that I’ve already positioned that layer over the face of Mr. Grumpy. We’ll learn about how to do that soon. Scrub the Opacity back to 100%.

We can now return to our actual project, but let’s leave this document open for now. If you’d like to save it, press ⌘-S/Ctrl-S or choose File > Save.