7 essential steps to basic Photoshop knowledge - Day 2 - Layers



Today we will achieve a clear view of one of the most important concepts in Adobe Photoshop: The Layers!

Layers can be understood as a virtual counterpart to acetates in the real world. The are put in a stack on top of each other where some parts can be transparent and others are not.

This post is structured into 5 several sections that will make it easier for you to access the part(s) which interest you most.

• Basic concepts of Layers
• Organizing Layers
• Blend modes
• Opacity and fill
• Layer styles and layer effects

Basic Concepts of Layers

To become an overview of how layers work in Photoshop, take a look at the illustration below.

Just imagine that the grey parts of each acetate are transparent and the coloured parts are not. If you put all these acetates on top of each other, we will achieve the impression get the german national flag. The bottom layer is totally covered with white, so none of its parts is transparent. Here you have it,  that’s how layers work. The appearance of the layers can be modified by several settings, which we will cover later on in this post (e. g. blend modes, opacity etc.)

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Organizing Layers

Your stack of layers is a fast growing thing. Layer quantity ranges from one layer for simple pictures over 20 t0 30 layers for small-sized projects up to several thousand for huge projects worked on over several months by famous digital artists. Therefore one of the most important things to remember is to keep your layers organized. This can be achieved mainly by to actions:

1. Naming your layers correctly
2. Grouping your layers in a meaningful order

So how do you name your layers? Several ways are possible but the most common are by double-clicking on a layers name (take care that you exactly hit the name) and then overwrite the previous given name “Layer #”. The second way is to click besides the layer name and in the upcoming popup simply enter the name you want to assign. A hint for naming layers is always to be as descriptive with your layer names as possible.

Grouping your layers into a meaningful array is possible since Photoshops version 6.0. Imagine that you have five layers that together make up your background. If you now e. g. want to move this background slightly you have to put your hands on every single layer move and take care that the combined image stays the same. With a layer group (which works like a folder) you simply put them into one “set” and instead of moving each layer separately you simply move the group (or set), orientation within then stays the same.

For grouping layers simply click on the first layer you want to group, then add additional layers by shift-clicking them (meaning you hold down the shift-key on your keyboard) and then click on the little folder icon at the bottom of your layers palette (if this palette is not shown, press F7 on your keaboard):

Please note that in newer versions of Photoshop (like CS3 and CS4) it is possible to use the keyboard shortcut SHIFT+G instead of clicking the icon. In older versions, you first create a folder by clicking the icon mentioned above and then put the layers manually in it (e. g. Photoshop 7.0).

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Blend modes

In the upper left corner of your layers palette there is dropdown field where you can choose what is called “blend modes” (The standard value here is “Normal”).

These blend modes control how the colors of the actual selected layer interact among each other. There are six groups with 25 different blend mode alltogether. The groups are:

1. Opacity relevant blend modes
2. Darkening blend modes (where white is neutral)
3. Brightening blend modes (where black is neutral)
4. Contrast increasing blend modes (where 50% grey is neutral)
5. Color inverting blend modes (where black is neutral)
6. Blend modes using color attributes (where hue, saturation and luminosity are relevant)

Don’t be scared if you do not understand everything that is written above (especially the part within the braces). As we will only give a brief overview of some of the most important blend modes, there will be a more detailed post purely focussing on blend modes in the near future.

The single blend modes are as follows:

• Normal (Group 1)
• Dissolve (Group 1)
• Darken (Group 2)
• Multiply (Group 2)
• Color Burn (Group 2)
• Linear Burn (Group 2)
• Darker Color (Group 2)
• Lighten (Group 3)
• Screen (Group 3)
• Color Dodge (Group 3)
• Linear Dodge - Add (Group 3)
• Lighter Color (Group 3)
• Overlay (Group 4)
• Soft Light (Group 4)
• Hard Light (Group 4)
• Vivid Light (Group 4)
• Linear Light (Group 4)
• Pin Light (Group 4)
• Hard Mix (Group 4)
• Difference (Group 5)
• Exclusion (Group 5)
• Hue (Group 6)
• Saturation (Group 6)
• Color (Group 6)
• Luminosity (Group 6)

We will focus now on 6 of the modes which are NORMAL, MULTIPLY, SCREEN, OVERLAY, DIFFERENCE, SATURATION.

NORMAL - A layer in this mode normally (you maybe guessed it from its name) with a opacity of 100% covers the layers below it totally. You can control the opacity of a layer by using the slider directly right of the blend mode dropdown:

MULTIPLY - Layers with the blend mode will work exactly as if you put two acetates together on an overhead projector. Where both acetates contain colors they will combine (or “multiply”) resulting in a darker image. Imagine a blue and a yellow layer. Putting the blue one on top of the yellow one in multiply mode, we will receive a green color.

SCREEN - If in the blend mode screen, your top layer will lighten a lot. As white is the basic color for calculation in this group this mode can be used to enhance the brightness of to dark images for example. That can be achieved by duplicating the layer (keyboard shortcut CTRL-J) and then put the top one to “screen”.

OVERLAY - The overlay blend mode works similar as the multiply or screen blend modes, but for this one the base color for the calculations Photoshop does is neither black or white, it’s something inbetween: 50% grey which on the color scale is in the middle between black and white. So it works a little bit as multiply/screen “lite”.

DIFFERENCE - This blend mode will show “extreme” results, as it calculates the exact opposite of the chosen color for regions where the layers don’t overlap. For overlapping parts it calculates a color somewhere near the middle of the distance between original color and opppsite one on the color scale. This blend mode is very good for experimenting with images, when you want to achieve unexpected results.

SATURATION - This blend mode calculates the difference between two layers based on the saturation of a color. Full saturation in this circumstance means that it is a very bright, pure color where a low saturation value gives the color a more pastel, dull look. In the example shown below, we have again used our yellow layer (which we did in all examples for the blend mode section) and reduced it to a very low saturation below 20% (don’t be afraid, saturation will be covered in this series, I promise )

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Opacity and Fill

Opacity and fill can be modified on the top of the layers pallette, using the corresponding sliders.

Those two adjustments work in a very similar way with one big difference. Where opacity changes the complete layer including all maybe attached layer effects (for more on layer effects, wait a moment, they are soon to be covered), the fill control handles only the layer itself without affecting a layer effect.

Let me give you an example. In the following two images, the opacity of the top layer (the pink one) was changed from 100% to 50%. Especially look at the shadow as it fades out together with the color of the box.

On the contrary take a look at the same image, where opacity stays at 100% but the fill changes from 100% to 50%.

Do you see how the applied layer effect, in this case the drop shadow stays at its full intensity?

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Layer styles and layer effects

Layer effects are some of the most popular functions of Photoshop. This comes mainly from 2 reasons:

1. They are combinable
2. They lighten your daily work

Imagine what it took in past days to create the shadow effect, that you have seen in the examples above (opacity and fill). You must create a new layer, place it below the main layer, reduce its opacity, let it “fade out”, take care that it only shows on two edges (in the examples above the bottom and right edges) etc. Since the incorporation of layer styles, you simply click the corresponding icon at the bottom of the layers palette

There are 10 different styles, which can be applied and combined freely. Those styles are:

• Drop Shadow
• Inner Shadow
• Outer Glow
• Inner Glow
• Bevel and Emboss
• Satin
• Color Overlay
• Gradient Overlay
• Pattern Overlay
• Stroke

We will have a look on three of them, which are DROP SHADOW, GRADIENT OVERLAY and STROKE.

DROP SHADOW - This layer effect places a shadow directly beneath the layers contents thereby following its outlines. Normally it shows with an angle of 120° meaning it implies that the light comes from that direction.

You can adjust this setting by moving the indicator to whatever direction you want. Please also make sure, that the preivew checkbox is marked, as this allows you to see the outcome of your adjustments.

Other adjustments that you can apply are the size of the shadow itself, the distance between the object and the shadow or the shadow color.

GRADIENT OVERLAY - The gradient overlay is a tool, for replacing or adjusting the original object color with a predefined or custom made gradient. Gradients are a little like rainbows, they smoothly convert from one color to another (or three or four or whatever number of different colors you want to apply). To apply this layer effect, click it’s checkbox in the effects panel (to access the panel click the icon mentioned above) and set the checkbox for gradient overlay.

To assign the different settings, make sure, that the checkbox is not only marked but the section is also highlighted (blue in this example - see image above). In the settings you now can make changes to the several options available. E. g. we here - again - have our blend modes, meaning that this time the blend mode corresponds between the effect and the object layer.

We also have an angle which can be adjusted as well as the opacity of the effect. When you doubleclick on the black to white color range in the middle of the toolbox, you can choose another gradient (there are several predefined) as well as create your own. Don’t bother if this seems very complicated to you. As mentioned before Photoshop is a mighty tool which needs its time to get learned. We will have a complete series only on layer effects including examples in the near future. For this moment it is good to know, that the gradient shown in the palette is defined by the foreground and background color of Photoshop itself (which can be found on the bottom of the tools palette).

STROKE - With stroke we can give our layers contents an outline. We can define position, size, opacity etc. What makes this function quite funny, is the fact that we can not only can apply any kind of color but also e. g. a gradient, if we want to (see below).

To apply this effect, simply change the fill type from color to overlay:

Another “cool” function of Photoshop is, that you cannot only combine these effects (e. g. an object can have a drop shadow AND a stroke) but once you’re satisfied with your outcome, you can save the effects applied as a style, which can be reused later on. To do so, simply click the “New Style…”-Button and give it a descriptive name.

To re-apply the formerly saved styles, open up your styles palette through using the keyboard-shortcut SHIFT+F9 for CS4 otherwise go to the main menu and choose Window / Styles. In the upcoming palette you can hover over the several styles available and with clicking one, you apply its settings.

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This concludes our second day and although it was quite some stuff to read (more than 2.000 words) I hope you like it and can achieve some new information for your everyday use of Photoshop.

See ya, tomorrow

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This post is day 2 of the 7 day series “7 essential steps for basic Photoshop knowledge”. Previous published posts can be found here:

• Day 1:  Introduction, overview and differentiation