Photoshop
Elements 3 Tutorial
Layers
Layers don't have to be complicated. Think of a
layer as a piece of transparent film where you
can add shapes, photos, colors or text. You can
also chop off or cut out pieces of the layer to
reveal areas of other layers beneath it. And,
each layer can have different percentages of
transparencies applied to them.
The bottom layer is called the background. It's
like a blank canvas. If you were painting a
picture, you would start with objects in the
distance and come forward, making the objects
closest to you look sharper and brighter, but
instead of thinking of back and forward, you
will be working from bottom to top. Each layer
on top hides or reveals areas of each layer
beneath it, so you can easily edit each piece of
your composition.
A graphic saved in editable format (.psd) saves
all the layer information and data. You can also
save editable graphics in other flattened
formats for printing and the web from your
original.
Create a new graphic 200 x 100 pixels with white
as the background color (File - New - Blank
File). With yellow as the foreground color,
select the rectangle tool and draw a rectangle
on the background layer.
Elements just created a shape layer
automatically for you. To create a new
transparent layer yourself, click on the 'create
a new layer' icon on the layers palette. Now the
new layer is the selection. If you save your
file as a .psd, it will hold the layers you just
created and you can edit them later. To save the
visible layers as a graphic in another format,
use the 'save as' command. You will then have
two graphics, one editable and one in a
flattened format. Only use the 'save' icon or
menu selection to save changes to your .psd
file.
Add as many layers as you like and put shapes,
text or paste a photo into each layer. The eye
icon on each layer turns on or off the
visibility of that layer only.
To delete a layer, make sure the layer you want
to delete is selected and then click on the
little trash can.
You can also create various other layers from
the drop down menu or you can create a duplicate
layer by selecting the layer from the layers
palette and dragging it to the "create a new
layer" icon and just dropping it in. You can
delete a layer the same way by dragging and
dropping it into the trash can icon.
That's a basic introduction to layers. The more
you work with them, the easier it gets to use
them.
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