IntroductionWelcome| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:07 | I'm Jan Kabili and this is Photoshop
CS4 Layers in Depth. For over a decade,
| | 00:13 | I have been teaching Photoshop in
classrooms and online as well as writing books
| | 00:17 | and magazine articles about using and
understanding Photoshop. Without a doubt
| | 00:22 | I found the designers, photographers,
and other Photoshop users who take
| | 00:26 | advantage of all that layers have
to offer, have the tools to make good
| | 00:30 | projects into standout projects.
| | 00:33 | In this course I will show you the
many ways of using layers to enhance your
| | 00:36 | images. I'll cover the basics of
creating, managing, and working with layers.
| | 00:41 | I will teach you how to user layer masks
to hide content and to combine images.
| | 00:46 | I will show you how layer blend modes
can work for you and I will walk you
| | 00:50 | through working with type and shape
layers and I will introduce some exciting
| | 00:54 | special layer types including Smart
Objects layers, adjustment layers,
| | 01:00 | video layers, and new 3D layers. Now
let's dive deep into everything layers with
| | 01:07 | Photoshop CS4 Layers in Depth.
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| Using the exercise files| 00:00 | If you are premium member of the
lynda.com Online Training Library or if
| | 00:05 | you are viewing this course on a DVD,
you have access to the exercise files.
| | 00:09 | The exercise files are image files that
I use as examples as I teach each lesson.
| | 00:14 | I have organized the exercise files by
chapter, the same chapters that you see in
| | 00:19 | the table of contents for this course.
| | 00:21 | Here, you can see my exercise files
open on my Mac. If you are on a PC,
| | 00:25 | you have a similar directory structure.
Inside the exercise files folder are
| | 00:29 | chapter folders and inside each
chapter folder is a sub-folder for each movie
| | 00:34 | in that chapter that contains
the exercise files for that movie.
| | 00:38 | For most movies, I will start with
the files open and you can open the same
| | 00:42 | files to follow along. If you are a
monthly subscriber or an annual subscriber
| | 00:46 | to lynda.com, I'm sorry but you don't
have access to the exercise files.
| | 00:51 | But that's okay because you can still follow
along with the lessons using your own files.
| | 00:56 | I hope you enjoy using these exercise files
as examples to learn all about Photoshop layers.
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|
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1. Layer BasicsWhat is a layer?| 00:00 | If you ask me to name the single most
important feature in Photoshop, I would
| | 00:04 | have to say it's layers, and I'd wager
that most Photoshop users would agree
| | 00:08 | with me. In this chapter, I'll cover why layers
are so important. But first, what is a layer?
| | 00:14 | At the simple level, a layer is a
virtual transparent platform that holds some
| | 00:18 | content. That content could be text,
it could be a photo, it could be graphics.
| | 00:23 | In a file that has more than one layer,
these virtual platforms each holding
| | 00:27 | separate pieces of content are
stacked, one on top of the other.
| | 00:31 | An important property of these layers
is that they are transparent by nature.
| | 00:35 | So you may have heard the metaphor that
a layer is like a flat pane of glass that
| | 00:39 | has some opaque areas that are
covered by content and some other areas that
| | 00:43 | remain completely or partially
transparent, and where a layer is transparent
| | 00:49 | you can see down through it to
the content of the layers below.
| | 00:52 | To help you visualize all this I have
opened two files here. On the right is a
| | 00:57 | layered Photoshop composition and on
the left is an illustration that shows
| | 01:01 | the layers in the same file in perspective.
| | 01:04 | In this illustration on the left the
areas that are transparent on each layer
| | 01:09 | are represented by these pale white
pixels. Say for example, if you look at the
| | 01:12 | third layer down you can see that it
contains this image of candies at the top
| | 01:17 | of the layer but that the rest of the
layer is transparent. So you can see down
| | 01:21 | through it to the image of the sleeping
boy on the layer below. And that layer,
| | 01:25 | the bottom-most layer happens to be
completely filled with pixels so that there
| | 01:29 | are no transparent areas. This
illustration is just a fictional representation
| | 01:34 | of what's happening in the layers
in the actual image on the right.
| | 01:37 | When you look at the real image on the
right, the perspective shifts a little
| | 01:41 | so that it's if you were standing at
the top of layer stack and looking down
| | 01:45 | through the transparent areas of each
layer. So here in the image just like in
| | 01:49 | the illustration you can see through
the transparent pixels on the candyies
| | 01:53 | layer to the sleeping boy on the layer below.
| | 01:56 | Another way to visualize the layers in
an image is to take a look at the Layers panel.
| | 02:00 | In the default arrangement of
panels here in Photoshop CS4, the Layers panel
| | 02:05 | is down at the bottom. And the
panels above are taking up so much space
| | 02:09 | that you can't see all of the layers in
this file. To create more room for the
| | 02:12 | Layers panel I'm going to close these
panel groups above. To do that I'll go to
| | 02:16 | the top panel group and I'm going to
click on this small icon on the right side
| | 02:20 | of the panel group. That opens the panel
menu and I'll choose Close Tab Group from there.
| | 02:25 | I'm going to do the same with this
Adjustments and Masks panel group, clicking
| | 02:29 | on its panel icon and choosing Close
Tab Group. I'll also close the Paths panel
| | 02:35 | and the Channels panel that are grouped
here with the Layers panel. I'll click
| | 02:38 | on the tab for the Channels panel,
I'll go to its panel menu on the right and
| | 02:42 | I'll choose Close and I'll do the same
for the Paths panel, clicking on its tab,
| | 02:47 | going to its Paths panel and choosing Close.
| | 02:50 | I've done this because I'm going to be
focusing on the Layers panel throughout
| | 02:54 | this course. So I think it's a good
idea to save this panel configuration so
| | 02:58 | that it's easy to get back to it any
time. To do that I'm going to go up to the
| | 03:02 | Workspace menu here on the application
on a Mac or on the menu bar on a PC.
| | 03:07 | And I'll click there I'll choose Save
Workspace, and in the Save Workspace window
| | 03:12 | I'll name the workspace Layers. I'll
make sure that Panel Locations is checked
| | 03:17 | and I'll click Save.
| | 03:18 | Later, if you happened to switch to
another workspace, as I'll do now here going
| | 03:23 | back to the Essentials workspace, it
will be quick and easy to switch back to
| | 03:27 | the Layers workspace by going back to
the Workspace menu and choosing Layers.
| | 03:31 | Now that you can see the Layers panel
better notice that it contains four bars,
| | 03:36 | each of which represents one of the
layers in this image. By the way, if your
| | 03:41 | Layers panel doesn't show these
particular four layers, be sure to click on the
| | 03:45 | tab of the image on the right
to make that the active image.
| | 03:48 | To see what's on a particular layer in
this file, you can make only that layer
| | 03:52 | visible. So for example, to see what's
on the boy layer I'm going to move my
| | 03:57 | mouse over the eye icon to left of the
boy layer, I'm going to hold down the
| | 04:01 | Option key on a Mac or the Alt key on
a PC and I'm going to click on that eye icon,
| | 04:05 | and that makes all the other
layers temporarily invisible. You can see
| | 04:09 | that the photograph on this
layer covers the entire layer.
| | 04:12 | To bring back the other layers, I'll
hold the Option key on a Mac, the Alt key
| | 04:16 | on a PC again and click on that same
eye icon. And I'm going to be using that
| | 04:21 | technique throughout this course. To
see what's on the candies layer, the same way
| | 04:25 | I'll Option or Alt-click on the eye
icon on the candies layer and you can
| | 04:30 | see that there is some content appear
at the top of the layer and that the
| | 04:34 | rest of the layer is transparent or
semi-transparent. The gray-and-white
| | 04:38 | checkerboard here represents
transparency throughout Photoshop.
| | 04:42 | I'll Option or Alt-click again on the
candies eye icon to bring back the rest
| | 04:46 | of the layers. To give you a better
sense of the transparent nature of a layer
| | 04:50 | I'd suggest that you go ahead and
make a new layer with me. To create a new
| | 04:54 | transparent layer I'm going to go down
to the bottom of the Layers panel and
| | 04:58 | I'm going to click this icon, the one
with the turned-up edge. When I click
| | 05:02 | that icon a new layer
appears here in the layers stack.
| | 05:06 | And if I hold the Option of Alt key
and click on the eye icon to the left of
| | 05:10 | this new layer, you can see that it is
completely transparent. There is nothing
| | 05:14 | on it now. I'll Option or Alt-click
again on the eye icon to the left of that
| | 05:18 | new layer and I'm going to go ahead
and add some simple content to this layer.
| | 05:22 | I'll make a brush stroke underneath
the words 'dreamy treats' so that it's
| | 05:26 | easier to read that text.
| | 05:28 | The first step is to make sure that
the new layer, Layer 1, is highlighted in
| | 05:32 | blue in the Layers panel; if it isn't
you want to click on that bar and that
| | 05:36 | selects that layer.
| | 05:38 | Next, I'm going to select a color to
paint with. I'll go over to the toolbox
| | 05:42 | and I'll select the Eyedropper tool
here. Then I'll move into the image on the
| | 05:46 | right and I'll hover over a color like
this pink and I'll click to sample that color
| | 05:50 | and that color now appears down here
in the foreground color box in the toolbox.
| | 05:55 | Now I'm going to select the Brush tool
to paint with here in the toolbox.
| | 05:59 | I'll move over the image and I can see by
the circular icon the size of my current brush.
| | 06:04 | It's a little smaller than I
would like. To make it bigger I'm going to
| | 06:08 | hold down the Ctrl key and the Option
key on a Mac, on a PC that's hold down
| | 06:13 | the Alt key as you right-click, and
then I'll drag to the right to make the
| | 06:17 | brush bigger and as I do, I can see a
representation of the size of the brush
| | 06:22 | here in this red overlay.
| | 06:24 | Now I'm just going to click-and-drag
with the mouse to paint with pink, and
| | 06:27 | the important point is that that paint is
now located on the new layer 1. So if I
| | 06:33 | Option or Alt-click on the eye icon to
the left of Layer 1 you'll see that it
| | 06:37 | contains not only transparent pixels
but also the paint that I just added to
| | 06:42 | the layer. And I'll Option or Alt-
click again on the eye icon on Layer 1 to
| | 06:47 | bring back the other layers.
| | 06:48 | The content of this new layer like the
content of all the layers in this file
| | 06:52 | is independent of the rest of the image,
and that independence is what makes
| | 06:57 | layers such a key feature in Photoshop.
As you'll see, as you work through the
| | 07:01 | movies to follow.
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| What are the advantages of layers?| 00:00 | There are some real advantages to
making use of layers when you are working in
| | 00:03 | Photoshop. A major benefit of
layers is that they allow you to isolate
| | 00:07 | individual pieces of artwork and that
means that you will be able to move and
| | 00:11 | to edit the content of each layer
independently without disturbing the rest of
| | 00:15 | the image. For example, in this
composition, I have the candies that you see
| | 00:20 | here on a separate layer as represented
by the candies layer in the Layers panel.
| | 00:25 | To show you the content of this layer
alone I'll hold the Option key on a Mac
| | 00:29 | with the Alt key on a PC as I click on
the eye icon to the left of the candies layer,
| | 00:34 | and that shows you in the
document window that there is content on this
| | 00:37 | layer up here, and that the
rest of the layer is transparent or
| | 00:41 | semi-transparent. I'll Option or Alt-
click again on the eye icon to the left of
| | 00:46 | the candies layer to make
the rest of the layers visible.
| | 00:48 | Being able to move the content of this
or any layer independently of the rest
| | 00:52 | of the image is an
important benefit of using layers.
| | 00:55 | To move just the candies for example,
I first have to select the candies layer
| | 01:00 | by clicking on that layer in the Layers
panel. Then I'll go to the toolbox and
| | 01:04 | I'll click on the very first tool,
the Move tool, to select it. And then
| | 01:08 | I'll come into the image, I'll click
anywhere and I'll drag. I'm going to drag up.
| | 01:13 | And notice that I didn't have to
click directly on the candies that were
| | 01:17 | showing in order to move the
content of this layer because when you
| | 01:20 | click-and-drag on a layer, the entire
layer moves just one unit. When you drag
| | 01:25 | with the Move tool, if you want to
constrain the direction of the movement so
| | 01:29 | that you don't inadvertently move left
to right, if you're just trying to move
| | 01:32 | directly then you can hold
down the Shift key as you drag.
| | 01:36 | Notice that I push some of the content
of the candies layer up off the top of
| | 01:39 | the canvas. But that content isn't gone
forever. If I want to get it back all I
| | 01:44 | have to do is drag down in the other
direction and it reappears. And that's true
| | 01:49 | even if I were to save and close
this image and then reopen it. I'm going
| | 01:53 | to drag the candies up again to show
you that the stars are now noticeable on
| | 01:58 | top of the candies. That's because
the candies layer is located beneath the
| | 02:02 | stars layer in the stack of layers,
and you can see that here if you look at
| | 02:07 | the Layers panel. Here's the candies
layer and above it is the stars layer.
| | 02:11 | I'll have more to say on this subject
of stacking order later in this chapter.
| | 02:15 | Moving the content of layers
independently is a huge benefit of using layers.
| | 02:19 | But it's not the only benefit that
layers offer. Just as important is the fact
| | 02:24 | that I can edit the content of each
layer independently of the rest of the image.
| | 02:28 | And when I say Edit I'm
referring to almost anything you can do to
| | 02:32 | content in Photoshop from adding a style to a
text layer to dodging or burning a photo layer.
| | 02:38 | To give you just a taste of what I mean,
I perform a simple edit on one of the
| | 02:42 | layers in this file. I'm going to
select Layer 1 here, which is the layer that
| | 02:46 | I added as a new layer in the
preceding movie. To show you what's on Layer 1
| | 02:51 | I'll hold the Option or Alt key and
click on the eye icon to the left of that layer,
| | 02:55 | and you can see in the document
window that this layer is composed
| | 02:58 | primarily of transparent pixels. But it
does have this small pink brush stroke
| | 03:03 | at the bottom of the layer,
which I added in the last movie.
| | 03:06 | I'll go back to the layer and I'll
Option or Alt-click on its eye icon to bring
| | 03:10 | back the rest of the layers. Because
I want to edit the content of just this
| | 03:14 | layer it's important to double-check
that this layer is selected. In other words
| | 03:19 | highlighted here in this
Layers panel. I'll talk a lot more about
| | 03:23 | selecting a layer in later movies. But
now I'd like to show you one of the many
| | 03:27 | things that I could do to this layer
without affecting the other layers. So
| | 03:30 | let's say for example, I want this
pink stroke to be larger so it covers a
| | 03:35 | little more of this area
down here at the bottom right.
| | 03:38 | To do that I'll use the Transform
command in Photoshop. The most direct way to
| | 03:42 | transform layer content is to select
the Move tool, which I already have
| | 03:47 | selected in the toolbox, and then to
go to the Move Tool Options bar up here
| | 03:51 | and check this box next to Show
Transform Controls. That displays these anchor
| | 03:56 | points around the contents of the
selected layer. I can click on any of these
| | 04:01 | anchor points and drag to change the
size and shape of this image. If I hold
| | 04:06 | down the Shift key and click on one of
the corner anchor points and then drag,
| | 04:10 | that maintains the proportions of
the original artwork as I resize it.
| | 04:14 | When I'm transforming bit-mapped or
pixel-based artwork like this stroke
| | 04:18 | I'm always careful not to make it too
much bigger than the original or it will
| | 04:21 | start to get blurry and at some point
of it will begin to actually display the
| | 04:25 | pixels that make up that content.
| | 04:27 | When I'm done I have to commit this
transformation and to do that I'll go up to
| | 04:32 | the Options bar and I'll click the
big check mark here on the right. And to
| | 04:36 | make the anchor points disappear down
here I'm going to go to the Options bar
| | 04:40 | for the Move tool and un-
check Show Transform Controls.
| | 04:44 | The take-home point of what I just did is
that the changes I made to this content
| | 04:49 | affected only the pink stroke on Layer 1.
They didn't affect any other part of
| | 04:54 | this image, and there are lots of other
manipulations that I could make to this
| | 04:57 | layer or to any layer without
affecting the other layers in the file. I could
| | 05:01 | add a filter, I could change the
color of the content, I could add a layer
| | 05:05 | style and lots more.
| | 05:06 | You can start to see from the simple
examples that I have showed you that being
| | 05:10 | able to move and edit individual
pieces of artwork in isolation from the rest
| | 05:14 | of a Photoshop composition is a major
benefit of using layers. I do want to
| | 05:18 | mention that there are some other
advantages of using layers that are
| | 05:21 | associated with special kinds of layers.
To give you just one example I have a
| | 05:25 | type layer in this file and a type
layer is a special kind of layer, in part
| | 05:31 | because it remains editable.
| | 05:32 | So even if I were to save and close
this file and then reopen it, I could
| | 05:36 | change the look or the content of this
type layer. I'll be talking about type
| | 05:40 | layers in depth later also, but just to
give you a quick look at how that would work
| | 05:44 | I'm going to select the dreamy
treats layer by clicking on that layer, and
| | 05:49 | then I'm going to go to the toolbox and
I'm going to select the Horizontal Type tool.
| | 05:53 | Then I'll come into the image,
I'll click just to the right of the last
| | 05:57 | letter and drag over the other letters
of that text. And now I'm going to type
| | 06:02 | something different. I'll type sweet
dreams and then I'll go up to the Options bar
| | 06:07 | for the Type tool and I'll click
the check mark to commit that edit.
| | 06:11 | That's just one example of an
advantage associated with a special kind of
| | 06:15 | layer. Later in the course I'll be
covering lots more about type layers and
| | 06:19 | introducing you to the advantages of
other special layers including shape
| | 06:22 | layers, Smart Object layers and some
special layers in Photoshop CS4 Extended,
| | 06:28 | video layers and 3D layers.
| | 06:31 | So that gives you a look at some of the
advantages that layers offer. Increase
| | 06:35 | in file size due to layers is
becoming less-and-less of an issue, and it's
| | 06:39 | often outweighed by this serious power
and flexibility that Photoshop layers offer.
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| Introducing the Layers panel and Layers menu| 00:00 | The Layers panel is your command center
for working with layers. It's the place
| | 00:04 | to go to access the major layer-
related features in Photoshop, and it also
| | 00:08 | serves as a diagram of the layers that
make up whatever document is active at
| | 00:13 | the moment. I'd like to take you on
a tour of the Layers panel and of the
| | 00:16 | related Layers menu to show
you what those features offer.
| | 00:20 | I will be introducing a lot of layer-
related features in this movie, and I'll
| | 00:24 | just be covering them briefly here.
But I'll be going back to cover each one
| | 00:27 | in-depth in later movies in this course.
I happened to be working in the Layers
| | 00:32 | workspace, which is a custom
workspace that I showed you how to make in the
| | 00:35 | first movie in this chapter. If you
were following along with that movie you
| | 00:39 | can switch over to the Layers workspace, so
that there is lots of room to see the Layers panel.
| | 00:43 | If you weren't following along with
that movie, you may want to just collapse
| | 00:46 | any other panel groups that are on your
screen. By going to the light-gray bar
| | 00:50 | on any panel group and clicking there
to collapse the entire group. And that
| | 00:54 | will give you more room for the Layers
panel. By the way if your Layers panel
| | 00:57 | isn't open, you can always open it by
going to the Window menu at the top of
| | 01:01 | the screen and choosing Layers. Or you
can press this keyboard shortcut, which
| | 01:06 | is the Function key F7 on your keyboard.
| | 01:09 | The main attraction in the Layers
panel is of course the layers. Let's take a
| | 01:13 | look at the structure of layers.
Each one of the bars here represents a
| | 01:16 | separate layer in this image, and on
each bar there is a small thumbnail. The
| | 01:21 | thumbnails identify the type of layer,
and in the case of layers that are made
| | 01:25 | of pixels like the chocolate top
layer, the chocolate center layer, the
| | 01:29 | chocolate bottom layer, the Layer 1
and the pool layer. You can see a little
| | 01:34 | picture of the content of the layer in
its thumbnail. You can also see in the
| | 01:38 | thumbnails on pixel-based layers,
any transparent pixels on that layer
| | 01:42 | represented by the gray-and
-white checkerboard here.
| | 01:45 | There are other types of layers other
than pixel-based layers. And a layer
| | 01:48 | thumbnail helps identify the type of
layer. So for example I know that this is
| | 01:53 | a special editable type layer because
it has this T icon on it. And I know that
| | 01:58 | this is a special shape layer even if I
change the name of the layer because it
| | 02:02 | has this thumbnail, which represents
the color of the shape, which in fact is
| | 02:06 | this rounded rectangle here. And it
has another thumbnail that represents a
| | 02:11 | vector outline of the shape. And I know
that this layer is a special adjustment
| | 02:15 | layer, in fact it's a Vibrance
adjustment layer because it has an adjustment
| | 02:19 | layer icon here, and it has the special layer
mask that comes with every adjustment layer.
| | 02:25 | I'll be covering the special layer
types in much more detail in other chapters.
| | 02:29 | But for now I just wanted to introduce
the concept of the different kinds of
| | 02:33 | thumbnails on different kinds of layers.
Right now all of these thumbnails are
| | 02:37 | pretty small. You can make them bigger.
So you can see their content better, by
| | 02:41 | holding down the Ctrl key on a Mac
as you click on any one of the layer
| | 02:44 | thumbnails. That's right-click on the
layer thumbnail on a PC. And from the
| | 02:48 | contextual menu, you could choose to
switch from Small Thumbnails to Medium or
| | 02:53 | Large Thumbnails. I'll choose Medium
Thumbnails. The other thing I can change
| | 02:57 | from that menu is what's showing in
the thumbnails on the pixel-based layers.
| | 03:02 | So rather than show the entire
boundaries of the document in a layer thumbnail,
| | 03:06 | I can show just the content of a
thumbnail on a pixel-based layer like this. On
| | 03:11 | my Mac, I'll Ctrl-click on one of
the layer thumbnails. On a PC I'll
| | 03:14 | right-click on one of them. And from
the menu, I'm going to switch to Clip
| | 03:19 | Thumbnails to Layer Bounds. And now in
each one of the pixel-based thumbnails,
| | 03:23 | I can see just the content of the layer.
I think the most important thing to
| | 03:27 | know about the layers in the Layers
panel is that if you want to work on the
| | 03:30 | content of a particular layer,
that layer has to be selected first.
| | 03:34 | So it's just one example let's say
that I wanted to move the model in this
| | 03:38 | image. First I have to make sure that
her layer is selected. So I'll take a
| | 03:42 | look at the thumbnails in the Layers
panel, and I can see that the model is
| | 03:47 | located here on Layer 1. To select
Layer 1, I'm just going to click in the
| | 03:51 | blank area of this layer and the layer
is now highlighted in blue meaning it's
| | 03:55 | the active layer. I happened to have
the Move tool selected in the toolbox. So
| | 03:59 | now if I click-and-drag I'm affecting
the content of Layer 1. To the left of
| | 04:03 | each layer there is another icon the
eye icon. And the eye icon controls
| | 04:08 | whether a layer is visible or not.
| | 04:10 | So let's say I wanted to turn off the
content of this chocolate top layer. So
| | 04:14 | that I could work on some content on
a layer below. To do that I would just
| | 04:18 | click the eye icon on the chocolate
top layer, and the content goes away, and
| | 04:23 | if I wanted to bring that content back,
I would go back to the eye icon spot on
| | 04:27 | the chocolate top layer and click there.
| | 04:29 | Layer Visibility is another topic that
I'll be covering in more depth later in
| | 04:33 | this chapter. Now let's look at the
controls on the face of the Layers panel.
| | 04:37 | Up at the top of the Layers panel
let's start with the Blend Mode menu. The
| | 04:41 | blend mode changes the way that the
colors on a selected layer blend with the
| | 04:44 | colors on the layers below. So right
now I have Layer 1 selected that contains
| | 04:48 | the model and I have the pool below that.
If I go to the Blend Mode menu and I
| | 04:53 | choose a different blend mode say
Multiply that changes the way that the colors
| | 04:57 | in the model are blending with
the colors in the pool below it.
| | 05:00 | So I'm going to go back and change
that to Normal again. Next is the Opacity
| | 05:05 | slider. Opacity controls how much you
can see through the content and any layer
| | 05:10 | effects on a selected layer. To show you
this I'm going to select the Shape 1 layer.
| | 05:15 | I can see on the right of the Shape 1
layer this notation, fx, and that tells
| | 05:20 | me that there is a layer effect on
this layer. If I click the arrow to the
| | 05:23 | right of fx I can see that there is
indeed a sub-layer with an Outer Glow. If
| | 05:28 | you look in the image you can see
that the content of this layer is this
| | 05:32 | rounded rectangle, and the Outer Glow is
this brown stroke around the rectangle.
| | 05:38 | So now I'm going to show you Opacity.
If I go up to the Opacity slider at the
| | 05:42 | top of Layers panel and I click on the
arrow to the right of that slider. I can
| | 05:46 | change the Opacity from 60% to which
it's currently set, all the way up to 100%
| | 05:52 | by dragging the slider to the right,
and at 100%, you can no longer see through
| | 05:57 | this white shape or the brown glow
around it. If I go back the other way both
| | 06:03 | the shape and the glow become more-and-
more transparent. May be I'll put that
| | 06:07 | at about 70 for now. And then I'll click
in this blank area to close the slider.
| | 06:12 | The Fill slider right beneath the
Opacity slider is similar, except that it
| | 06:16 | only affects the opacity of layer
content, not the opacity of any layer effects
| | 06:22 | on a layer. So in this case if I
click the arrow to the right of the Fill
| | 06:26 | field, and I drag to the left, I'm
lowering the opacity of that white rectangle
| | 06:31 | but I'm not changing the opacity of the
brown Outer Glow around the rectangle.
| | 06:36 | So I'll click back in the
blank area to close that slider.
| | 06:40 | Next step are the four layer locks
located right here. I'm going to select the
| | 06:44 | chocolate top layer to show you this.
Each of these locks locks down different
| | 06:49 | properties of the selected layer.
I'll go through each of these in another
| | 06:52 | movie but just to give you a taste if I
click on the Full Lock right here I now
| | 06:57 | can do nothing to the chocolate top
layer. I can't move it with the Move tool.
| | 07:03 | I can't paint on it with a Paint Brush.
I can't even delete the layer. So I
| | 07:09 | might use this complete lock when I
was very satisfied with the complicated
| | 07:13 | layer and I wanted to be sure to keep it intact.
| | 07:16 | To unlock the layer I'll go back and
click on that Lock symbol again. Down at
| | 07:21 | the bottom of the Layers panel are
yet more controls. There is a Trash Can
| | 07:25 | that's used to delete a layer. So if I
wanted to delete the chocolate top layer
| | 07:29 | with that layer selected, I can click
the Trash Can. Photoshop asks if I really
| | 07:33 | want to delete the layer and if click
Yes I have now lost the content of that
| | 07:37 | layer. I cannot open the Trash Can to
get it back. Like I might do with the
| | 07:42 | Trash Can on a Mac operating system or
the Recycle Bin on a Windows Operating
| | 07:47 | system, there is no way to open that
Trash Can to take that deleted layer out
| | 07:51 | of the trash. The only way to get that
layer back would be to undo using the
| | 07:56 | one of Undo commands like Command+Z on
a Mac or Ctrl+Z on a PC. Or to open the
| | 08:02 | History panel and go up through the
layers of History until I got that piece of
| | 08:06 | chocolate back on screen. But if I saved
and closed the image it would be gone forever.
| | 08:11 | The next icon down here is the Create
New Layer icon. If I click that icon a
| | 08:16 | new blank pixel-based layer is created
above whichever layer had been selected
| | 08:21 | when I click the icon.
| | 08:22 | The next icon is the Make New Group
icon. If I click that icon I get a new
| | 08:27 | empty group, and I could drag related
layers into that group to organize them.
| | 08:32 | So I'll take the chocolate center layer
and I'll drag it up, and release on top
| | 08:36 | of Group 1. And then I'll take the
chocolate bottom layer and I'll drag that
| | 08:40 | one up and release on top of Group 1.
And now they are both inside that group
| | 08:44 | which I could collapse by clicking this
arrow or expand by clicking the arrow again.
| | 08:49 | The next icon down here can be used
to add a special adjustment layer or a
| | 08:54 | special Fill layer. I actually like
another method of adding adjustment layers,
| | 08:58 | which is the new Adjustments panel.
I'll be telling you more about that in
| | 09:02 | future movies as well.
| | 09:05 | The next icon is the Layer Mask icon.
If I click that a layer mask would be
| | 09:09 | added to whichever layer is currently
selected. I happened to have a layer here
| | 09:13 | already which has a layer mask on it,
and that's this chocolate bottom layer.
| | 09:17 | I'm going to make that layer mask
temporarily invisible, by holding the Shift
| | 09:21 | key and clicking on the mask. So that
you can see the original content of this
| | 09:25 | layer, which included all this blue
background area. When I added a layer mask
| | 09:29 | the black areas of the mask are hiding
all of this blue that's on the layer.
| | 09:34 | And the only thing that shows on this
layer is what's under that little white
| | 09:38 | part of the layer mask, which is the
bottom piece of chocolate. This reddish
| | 09:42 | piece of chocolate. I'm going to Shift-
click back on that layer mask to enable
| | 09:47 | it again. And I'll be telling you much
more about layer masks in movies to come.
| | 09:51 | I am going select Layer 1 to show you
the next icon at the bottom of the Layers
| | 09:55 | panel, which is the Effects icon. If I
click here, I can choose anyone of these
| | 10:00 | layer effects like a Drop Shadow. I
then get the great big Layer Style dialog
| | 10:05 | box, which we'll be investigating in
detail. I'm just going to click OK right
| | 10:09 | now to close that. And now you can see
that there is a Drop Shadow along the
| | 10:13 | edges of the content of Layer 1.
| | 10:15 | And finally there is a Link icon at the
bottom of the Layers panel. This is yet
| | 10:19 | another way to join two related
layers together, so that you can move them
| | 10:23 | together or transform them together.
So if for example instead of a group, I
| | 10:28 | wanted to link together these two
chocolate layers. I would click on one, and I
| | 10:32 | would hold down the Command key and
click on another to select them both, and
| | 10:36 | then I would click the Link icon and
they are now linked together and so when I
| | 10:41 | get my Move tool and drag both
pieces of chocolate go together.
| | 10:45 | So those are the controls on the face
of the Layers panel. There are also some
| | 10:49 | menus that contain layer-related
commands. One of those menus is located here
| | 10:54 | in the Layer panel menu. If I click
this small icon on the top right of the
| | 10:58 | Layers panel I get this menu that
contains lots of layer-related commands,
| | 11:03 | everything from Duplicate Layers
down to Merge Layers and Flatten.
| | 11:10 | In addition, if I right-click on a PC
or Ctrl-click on a Mac on any layer I get
| | 11:16 | a contextual menu with commands
relevant to the selected layers. So here I
| | 11:22 | could delete the two selected layers, I
could unlink them, I could merge them and so on.
| | 11:26 | There is one other important place
where you can find layer commands, and that
| | 11:31 | is Layer menu up in the menu Bar at the
top of the screen. I'm going to select
| | 11:35 | just one layer now, the Layer 1 layer
to go up to the Layer menu at the top of
| | 11:40 | the screen and open it so that you can
see all of the many commands here. There
| | 11:44 | are a few commands here that you
won't find in any of the other menus. So
| | 11:48 | sometimes you'll have to
come up to the Layer menu.
| | 11:52 | As you've seen there are lots of layer-
related features packed into the Layers
| | 11:56 | panel and the Layers menu. As with
any interface elements, the best way to
| | 12:00 | remember what's here and where
everything is, is to practice. If you do that
| | 12:05 | here in the this course and with
your own images pretty soon locating the
| | 12:08 | various layer-related controls that
I've just shown will become second nature.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Selecting and moving a layer| 00:00 | Selecting a layer is one of the most
basic but important skills in Photoshop
| | 00:04 | because if you don't have the right
layer selected before you move or paint or
| | 00:08 | perform some other editing task you
are going to get results that you didn't
| | 00:11 | expect and don't want.
| | 00:13 | Selecting a single layer is pretty
straightforward. First, figure out which
| | 00:17 | layer you are after, and the best way
to do that is to be consistent about
| | 00:20 | getting each layer a meaningful name,
as I'll show you how to do it in another
| | 00:24 | movie. So if I wanted to select this
center piece of chocolate in this design,
| | 00:29 | I would go to the Layers panel and look
for the chocolate central layer. And if
| | 00:32 | I hadn't named this layer, I would at
the layer thumbnails to try to find the
| | 00:36 | content that I want.
| | 00:37 | Then to select that layer, I would just
click once on its bar. That highlights
| | 00:41 | the layer in blue, telling me that
it's now the active layer and it also adds
| | 00:45 | the layer name to the Document Tab up
here. And that comes in handy if you have
| | 00:49 | lots of layers in the Layers panel so
that you can't necessarily see them all
| | 00:53 | at any one time. Checking up here will
always tell you which layer is selected.
| | 00:57 | Now that I have the chocolate central
layer selected, I could edit it or move
| | 01:00 | it, and let's say I just want to move
the piece of chocolate. I don't actually
| | 01:04 | have to go the toolbox and select the
Move tool. Often when I want to move
| | 01:08 | something, I'm in the middle of
working with some other tool and I just need
| | 01:12 | the Move tool temporarily. So here
for example, I have been using the Dodge
| | 01:16 | tool to lighten part of the image, and
I'd like to continue with that work, but
| | 01:20 | in the meantime I need to
move that piece of chocolate.
| | 01:23 | So I can access the Move tool
temporarily like this. I'm just going to hold
| | 01:27 | down the Command key on my keyboard,
that's the Ctrl key on a PC keyboard and
| | 01:31 | that changes the icon for the tool
to the Move tool icon. And now, if I
| | 01:36 | click-and-drag anywhere in my image,
I don't have to actually click on that
| | 01:40 | piece of chocolate, the entire
chocolate central layer moves and I can
| | 01:44 | reposition that piece of chocolate
where I wanted on the screen, and then I
| | 01:47 | release the Command or Ctrl key and my
cursor changes back to the Dodge tool
| | 01:52 | cursor and I could keep
on working with that tool.
| | 01:54 | Sometimes I'd like a more precise
tool to move an item. So let's say I just
| | 01:59 | want to nudge this piece of chocolate
over a little bit, again I'm going to
| | 02:02 | hold down the Command key on a Mac or
the Ctrl key on a PC to select the Move
| | 02:07 | tool temporarily, and then I'm going to
use the Arrow keys on my keyboard. I'll
| | 02:11 | press the Right Arrow a few times to
nudge that piece of chocolate over to the
| | 02:15 | right. If I'd like to move that
piece of chocolate in slightly bigger
| | 02:18 | increments, I'll hold
down the Shift key as well.
| | 02:21 | So now on a Mac I've got Command and
Shift key held down, on a PC that's Ctrl
| | 02:26 | and Shift key and at the same time,
I'll click the Right Arrow and that will
| | 02:30 | move that piece of
chocolate in larger increments.
| | 02:33 | Even though selecting a single layer
and then moving at or working on it in
| | 02:37 | some other way, sounds pretty
straightforward. There are a couple of things
| | 02:40 | that can trip you up. And I want to
mention those so you keep your eye out for
| | 02:44 | them. First of all, it's pretty easy
to just plain forget to select a layer
| | 02:48 | before performing a task.
| | 02:50 | I have seen lots of people and I'll
admit myself included, who will do
| | 02:53 | something like this. You are working
along and then you realize that you want
| | 02:57 | to move, say, this top piece of
chocolate. So you go over and you select the
| | 03:01 | Move tool, and you come in and click
on the top piece of chocolate and drag.
| | 03:05 | And wow, a different piece of
chocolate is moved. And you know why that is?
| | 03:09 | It's because I skips the step of
selecting the chocolate top layer.
| | 03:13 | So when I drag it with the Move tool,
the chocolate central layer which I had
| | 03:16 | selected before is the one that moved.
Now if you make a mistake like this, the
| | 03:21 | easiest way to put things right is
not to try to move that piece of dark
| | 03:24 | chocolate back because it will be
hard to get it exactly where it was.
| | 03:28 | Instead, use the undo command, which,
on the Mac is Command+Z and on the PC is
| | 03:33 | Ctrl+Z. Or if you've made an error
that involves a number of steps, you can
| | 03:39 | always open the History panel from the
Window menu at the top of the screen,
| | 03:43 | and here you'll see the history of
each step you've taken and you can just
| | 03:48 | click on those states to move back in
time. Or you can click Forward to move
| | 03:53 | forward in time. But do watch out
because if you move back in time like this
| | 03:56 | and then you do another action in your
image, you will lose that linear history.
| | 04:01 | So I'm going to move forward in time to
where I was and then I'm going to click
| | 04:05 | the panel menu on the History
panel and close that tab group.
| | 04:09 | Another thing to watch out for when you
are trying to select a layer is to just
| | 04:12 | single-click on the bar in the
Layers panel, don't double-click. If you
| | 04:16 | double-click on a blank area of this
layer that will open the Layer Style
| | 04:20 | dialog box and that's not what you want.
So I'm going to cancel that. And if
| | 04:24 | you happened to double-click on the
name of the layer that does something else
| | 04:27 | as well. It opens the layer name for
editing. So you don't want to do that
| | 04:31 | either. I'll click off of that
to close that editing window.
| | 04:34 | Selecting a layer manually by clicking
on it in the Layers panel I think is the
| | 04:38 | most straightforward and the safest
way to make sure that you've selected the
| | 04:42 | right layer. But there are some
automatic ways to select a layer, which I'll be
| | 04:45 | showing you in another movie in this chapter.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Selecting multiple layers| 00:00 | There will be times when you want to
work on the content in more than one layer at
| | 00:03 | a time. For example you may want to
move the content in more than one layer
| | 00:08 | together, or you may want to change the
size of artwork on more than one layer,
| | 00:13 | or you may want to add the same style
to web buttons that happened to be on
| | 00:17 | different layers, or maybe you just
want to align the content of multiple
| | 00:20 | layers one piece to the other.
| | 00:22 | In all those cases after you select
multiple layers in the Layers panel you can
| | 00:27 | act on those layers all at once. The
way that you select multiple layers in the
| | 00:31 | Layers panel depends on whether those
layers are next to one another in the panel.
| | 00:35 | I'm going to start out by selecting
three layers that are next to one another.
| | 00:39 | These three type layers: Delectables,
Fine Chocolates and From France. The
| | 00:44 | content of these layers is over here
in the image. One line of type on each
| | 00:48 | layer. When you are working with
contiguous layers like these, to select them
| | 00:52 | all you just click on the top layer
and then you hold down the Shift key and
| | 00:56 | you click on the bottom-most of those layers and
that will select any number of layers in between.
| | 01:00 | Now that I have these three layers
selected, with my Move tool selected in the
| | 01:04 | toolbox, I can click-and-drag and
all three lines of type go with me.
| | 01:12 | Now let's say that I'd like to move
these three lines of type again and also
| | 01:16 | have this little butterfly icon go
with them. To add another layer to the
| | 01:20 | selection of layers that I already have,
I'm going to hold down the Command key
| | 01:24 | on a Mac, that's the Ctrl key on a PC.
As I click on the butterfly shape layer,
| | 01:30 | and now when I click-and-drag with
the Move tool, the content of all four
| | 01:34 | layers moves together.
| | 01:38 | Now let's say that I want to move these
three lines of type separately from the
| | 01:42 | butterfly. To remove one layer from
this selection of layers, again on the Mac
| | 01:47 | I'll hold the Command key and on the
PC the Ctrl key and click on the layer
| | 01:51 | that I want to remove from the
selection. And now when I drag with the Move
| | 01:54 | tool, only those three lines of
type move and not the butterfly.
| | 01:58 | Well, how do I select layers that
aren't next to one another in the Layers
| | 02:01 | panel? So for example let's say that I
want to work on these three pieces of
| | 02:05 | chocolate. One of those is on the
chocolate top layer, another on the chocolate
| | 02:09 | center layer down here, and another on
the chocolate bottom layer; and those
| | 02:13 | layers are non-contiguous in the Layers panel.
| | 02:16 | I'll start by clicking on the
chocolate top layer to select it and then I'm
| | 02:20 | going to hold down the Command key,
that's the Ctrl key on the PC and click the
| | 02:24 | chocolate center layer, and still with
the Command or Ctrl key held down, I'll
| | 02:29 | click on the chocolate bottom layer.
So that's how you select multiple
| | 02:32 | non-contiguous layers in the Layers panel.
| | 02:35 | With those three layers selected I'm
going to do something different rather
| | 02:38 | than just move them, I'm going to
transform them. One way to transform is by
| | 02:42 | going to the Edit menu and choosing
Free Transform or choosing the Transform
| | 02:47 | command and choosing one of
these flavors of transformation.
| | 02:51 | Another way is to select the Move tool
and click Show Transform Controls which
| | 02:56 | I'm going to do now, and then come
into the image and holding down the Shift
| | 03:00 | key to constrain proportions, I'm going
to click-and-drag in to make all three
| | 03:05 | pieces of chocolate on those three
layers smaller, all at the same time.
| | 03:09 | I could also rotate these three pieces
of chocolate by moving my mouse outside
| | 03:13 | of that corner anchor point and
dragging and that turns the three pieces of
| | 03:17 | chocolate. If I click inside of this
bounding box, I can click-and-drag to move
| | 03:21 | the three pieces together.
| | 03:23 | When I'm all done with the various
transformations that I want to make, I'll go
| | 03:26 | up to the Options bar and I'll click
this check mark to commit the transforms.
| | 03:31 | And to hide these anchor points, I'm going to
go up to Show Transform Controls and un-check.
| | 03:36 | Another thing you can do with multiple
layers is to add the same style to all
| | 03:40 | the layers at once. So if I'd like to
add the same style to these three lines
| | 03:44 | of type, I'll select them all again by
clicking the Delectables layer and then
| | 03:49 | holding down the Shift key as I click
the From France layer. Then I'm going to
| | 03:53 | open the Styles panel. I'll do that by going
to the Window menu and then down to Styles.
| | 03:58 | Here in the Styles panel there are
lots of styles and I can apply any one of
| | 04:01 | these to all three layers at once by
just clicking the Style. I'll try this
| | 04:05 | blue style here and when I click it,
you can see that all three type layers
| | 04:10 | have turned blue, and in the Layers
panel under each one of the type layers you
| | 04:14 | can see all of the effects that are
included in this particular style.
| | 04:18 | Because these are type layers there
are couple of other things that I could
| | 04:20 | change about all three of these
selected layers that I couldn't change about
| | 04:24 | pixel-based layers if I select the
Type tool in the toolbox, and then I go up
| | 04:29 | to the Options bar and I click on the
arrow to the right of the Font Field, I
| | 04:34 | can see all of the fonts that I have
on my computer. You may have different
| | 04:38 | fonts and you can select any font you
like here. I'm going to scroll up to find
| | 04:41 | a different font. I think I'll
choose this Calligraphy font, Lucida
| | 04:45 | Calligraphy; but if you don't have that on
your computer, choose whatever font you like.
| | 04:49 | As you can see that changed the font
of all three of these lines of type.
| | 04:54 | I could actually change any of the
options here in the Type Tool Options bar and
| | 04:59 | all three of the selected
type layers will change.
| | 05:02 | To show you one more thing that you
can do to multiple layers, you can align
| | 05:05 | them one to the other. As I'll show
you in much more detail in another movie,
| | 05:09 | but for now with these three type
layers selected, I can go the Move tool and
| | 05:14 | in the Move Tool Options bar I'm going
to click on this option which will align
| | 05:18 | the three selected layers
by their own left edges.
| | 05:21 | So as you've seen you can select
multiple layers in Photoshop's Layers panel,
| | 05:26 | and you can make some kinds of changes
to all the selected layers at once. But
| | 05:30 | there is a caveat. You can't do just
anything you want to multiply selected layers.
| | 05:34 | So to show you that I'm going to
select those three chocolate layers again by
| | 05:38 | clicking on the chocolate top layer
and then scrolling down to find the
| | 05:42 | chocolate center layer holding the
Command key on a Mac or the Ctrl key on a PC
| | 05:46 | and clicking that and then scrolling
down to the chocolate bottom layer and
| | 05:50 | Command or Ctrl-clicking on that.
| | 05:52 | Now with those three chocolate pieces
selected, if I were to go to the Brush
| | 05:56 | tool and try to paint on those pieces,
I wouldn't be able to; and I get this
| | 06:00 | message that the Brush tool can't be
used because more than one layer is
| | 06:04 | selected. The same is true of any of
these painting Type tools including the
| | 06:08 | Dodge tool, and the Burn tool, and the
Sponge tool, and the others that you see
| | 06:13 | in this section of the toolbox.
| | 06:15 | And finally I want to show you how to
de-select when you have multiple layers
| | 06:18 | selected. One way is just to click on
another single layer. Another way would
| | 06:24 | be to go up to the Select menu and
choose Deselect Layers. So I'm going to do
| | 06:29 | that and that de-selects all layers
in the Layers panel. But I want to be
| | 06:32 | careful because now if I try to work in
the Layers panel, I'll get this message
| | 06:36 | that I can't use the tool because no
layers are selected. So I have to have at
| | 06:40 | least one layer selected in order
to work on the image. I'll click OK.
| | 06:44 | So now you understand that you can
select multiple layers in Photoshop's
| | 06:48 | Layers panel and you can act on
those layers in lots of interesting ways.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Automatically selecting layers| 00:00 | The most common way to select layers in
Photoshop is to click on layers in the
| | 00:04 | Layers panel, but that's not the
only way to do it. There are also some
| | 00:08 | automatic layer selection methods. As
you become more proficient in Photoshop
| | 00:12 | and you're looking for ways to save time,
you may prefer to use these methods.
| | 00:16 | To show you the Auto-Select feature of
the Move tool I'm going to select the
| | 00:20 | Move tool in the toolbox and then I'm
going to go up to the Options bar and
| | 00:24 | there I see Auto-Select. This option is
disabled by default. To enable it, I'm
| | 00:29 | going to click its check box and then
I'm going to go to the menu to the right
| | 00:32 | of it, and instead of Group, which refers
to layer groups, I'm going to choose Layer.
| | 00:38 | So I'm now instructing Photoshop to
automatically select a layer. How does it -
| | 00:41 | now which layer to select? That
depends on which object I click on in the
| | 00:46 | image. So for example let's say that I
would like to work on this translucent
| | 00:51 | box, but I'm not sure which layer it's
on. All I have to do with Auto-Select
| | 00:55 | layer enabled is just click on this box
and its layer is automatically selected
| | 00:59 | in the Layers panel. It happens to this
Shape 1 layer. And if I turn that layer
| | 01:04 | on and off, you can see that that's
where this translucent box really is located.
| | 01:09 | I can even select multiple layers using
Auto-Select layer. To do that I'll just
| | 01:13 | hold down the Shift key and click with
the Move tool on these other translucent
| | 01:17 | boxes and their layers are also
selected automatically. Just think about what a
| | 01:22 | time saver this feature could be if you
were working with a file that somebody
| | 01:25 | else had made for you and you weren't
familiar with its layers. There will be
| | 01:28 | no more guessing about which layer is
which. You could just click on objects in
| | 01:32 | the image and the layers
would be automatically selected.
| | 01:35 | But there is one big downside to using
the Auto-Select layer option in the Move
| | 01:39 | Tool Options bar and that is that it
remains checked unless you remember to go
| | 01:43 | in there and un-check it. So it can
sneak up on you. Selecting a layer whenever
| | 01:48 | you click on anything in the image
with the Move tool. Let me show you.
| | 01:52 | Let's say I'm working in this image
and I decide that I want to move this
| | 01:55 | Delectables type layer here. So
normally I would just click on the Delectables
| | 01:59 | type layer, make sure I had the Move
tool selected and then I would click
| | 02:03 | anywhere in the image and drag and I
would expect that the contents of the
| | 02:07 | Delectables layer at this line of type
here would move. But if I just happened
| | 02:12 | to click over here and drag, it's
not the Delectables type that moves but
| | 02:17 | rather the model on which just l
clicked. And the reason is that Auto-Select
| | 02:21 | layer has switched me over to the Model
layer here in the Layers panel. I don't
| | 02:26 | like surprises like that so I usually
keep Auto-Select layer unchecked in the
| | 02:30 | Move Tool Options bar unless and until
I specifically want to use that feature.
| | 02:35 | Another way around this problem is to
use Auto-Select layer temporarily with
| | 02:39 | the keyboard shortcut. That way it
won't stay enabled so that you're surprised
| | 02:43 | in the future. To use Auto-Select on
the temporary basis, I'll move into the
| | 02:47 | image and let's say that I want to
select this gold piece of chocolate. I still
| | 02:52 | have the Move tool selected in the
toolbox and I'm going to hold down the
| | 02:55 | Command key on a Mac or the Ctrl key
on a Windows machine as I click on that
| | 03:00 | piece of chocolate.
| | 03:01 | Keep your eye on the Layers panel and
you'll see that the layer that contains
| | 03:05 | that chocolate is automatically selected.
The best part is that once I release
| | 03:09 | the Command key on the Mac or the Ctrl
key on the PC, Auto-Select layer is no
| | 03:13 | longer enabled. So I can use my Move tool
anywhere in the image without being surprised.
| | 03:18 | Another way to use Auto-Select image
is to click-and-drag over content in the
| | 03:23 | image and have the layers on which that
content lives be automatically selected
| | 03:27 | for you in the Layers panel. I'm going
to go back and check Auto-Select layer
| | 03:31 | just so that you can see that it really
is enabled; and then I'm going to come
| | 03:36 | into the image and I could try to
select these three lines of type by
| | 03:40 | clicking-and-dragging. But
watch what happens if I do that.
| | 03:44 | That background, the pool, starts
moving with me because its layer, the pool
| | 03:49 | layer has now been automatically
selected. So I'm going to undo and show you
| | 03:53 | how to get around this problem. I'll
press Command+Z on the Mac or Ctrl+Z on
| | 03:57 | the PC to put the pool layer back
where it goes. The secret to this technique
| | 04:02 | is before you drag with Auto-Select
layer you'll have to lock down any layers
| | 04:07 | that are behind those that you want to select.
| | 04:09 | So in this case, I only have to lock
down this one layer, the pool layer. To do
| | 04:14 | that I'll make sure the pool layer is
selected in the Layers panel and then I'm
| | 04:17 | going to go up to the Lock icons here
at the top of the Layers panel and I'm
| | 04:21 | going to select the Move Lock which
the second one from the right. I'll click
| | 04:25 | on that and then I can see the Move
Lock icon here on the pool layer, which
| | 04:29 | means that if I were to come in to the
image and try to move the pool layer, it
| | 04:34 | just wouldn't move.
| | 04:35 | So now when I have the Move tool
selected and Auto-Select layer turned on, I
| | 04:40 | can come in and click-and-drag over
these type layers and all three of the type
| | 04:45 | layers are automatically selected in
the Layers panel. I'm going to de-select
| | 04:49 | all layers now to show you another
technique. I'll click in this blank area of
| | 04:53 | the Layers panel to show you
how to select similar layer types.
| | 04:57 | So let's say that I have a file with
lots and lots of layers and I'd like to
| | 05:01 | select all of the type layers so I
could align them. To do that I only have to
| | 05:05 | click on one type layer, and then I can
go up to the Select menu at the top of
| | 05:09 | the screen and I can choose Select
Similar layers and automatically all type
| | 05:15 | layers in the image are selected.
| | 05:17 | Then I could do something like move
those type layers and they all would move
| | 05:20 | together, or I could align them by
using the Alignment Options here in the Move
| | 05:25 | Tool Options bar. So for example I
can click this icon to right-align those
| | 05:29 | three type layers. I can do the
same with other kinds of layers.
| | 05:33 | Let's say I wanted to select all the
pixel-based layers, I would just click on
| | 05:36 | one of the pixel-based layers and go
to Select and choose Similar Layers; or
| | 05:41 | let's say I wanted to select all shape
layers, I'll select One Shape Layer and
| | 05:46 | again select Similar Layers. Using
any of these automatic layer selection
| | 05:51 | features can really come in handy for
quickly and effortlessly selecting one or
| | 05:55 | more layers to work on, but you do
have to watch out for a few of the gotchas
| | 05:59 | that I've shown you and use the techniques
that I've described to work around them.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Selecting from a contextual menu| 00:00 | There will be times when you are
working on a complex file that has lots of
| | 00:03 | layers and you need to find a
particular layer so that you can work on the
| | 00:07 | content on that layer. If you have lots
of layers in the Layers panel it's hard
| | 00:12 | to find a particular one, particularly if
you have to scroll down to see all the layers.
| | 00:18 | So that's not the most efficient way
to find a particular layer. I'd like to
| | 00:21 | show you a special technique that will
help you in this situation. I'm going to
| | 00:25 | take a look at this image to find the
content that I'm looking for and I do see
| | 00:30 | it here, I'm looking for this
reddish piece of chocolate that's partially
| | 00:33 | hidden underneath all of
these other pieces of content.
| | 00:37 | To select the layer that contains that
particular piece of chocolate I can't
| | 00:40 | rely on the Auto-Select feature that
I've shown you in another movie because if
| | 00:45 | I were to get the Move tool and then
enable Auto-Select and come in and click
| | 00:50 | on top of that red piece of chocolate,
Photoshop would select not the layer
| | 00:54 | that contains the chocolate but rather
the topmost layer at this location that
| | 00:58 | contains pixels and that happens to be
this Shape 3 layer that contains this
| | 01:04 | translucent white rectangle.
| | 01:06 | So that's not the way to go. I'm going
to go up to Auto-Select, I'm going to
| | 01:09 | un-check it and show you a different
technique. I'm going to move my cursor in
| | 01:13 | the area of that red chocolate in the
image and then I'm going to hold down the
| | 01:17 | Ctrl key on a Mac and click. That's
right-click on a PC. When I do that
| | 01:22 | Photoshop shows me a list of every
single layer under my cursor that has some
| | 01:27 | pixels on it and that includes the Red
Chocolate layer, and that's the one I'm looking for.
| | 01:31 | So I'll select that and when I do,
keep your eye on the Layers panel. The
| | 01:35 | Layers panel automatically scrolls down
to reveal that red chocolate layer and
| | 01:40 | it automatically selects that layer.
Now that that layer is selected, I can
| | 01:44 | edit that red piece of chocolate or I
could move it. So with the Move tool for
| | 01:48 | example, I can click-and-drag
anywhere in the image and I'll bring out that
| | 01:52 | single red piece of chocolate that I was after.
| | 01:55 | So there is a quick technique that
you can use when you are working on a
| | 01:58 | complex layered file to find just
the layer that you want to work on.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Controlling layer visibility| 00:00 | Every layer in a Photoshop file has a
small eye icon to its left. This eye icon
| | 00:05 | is a toggle that controls the
visibility of its layer. Clicking the eye icon on
| | 00:10 | any layer hides the layer's content in
the image like this and then clicking in
| | 00:14 | the same space shows the layer content
again. You can change the visibility of
| | 00:19 | single layers as I just showed you. But
if you'd like to change the visibility
| | 00:22 | of multiple layers at a
time, you can do it this way.
| | 00:25 | Let's say I would like to make the
content of the Stars, Candies and Brush
| | 00:29 | Stroke layers invisible. I'll click on
the Brush Stroke layer to select it and
| | 00:33 | then I'll hold the Shift key and click
on the Stars layer and that will select
| | 00:36 | all layers in between. Now I'm going
to go up to the Layer menu at the top of
| | 00:40 | the screen and use a command there to
hide all of these layers at once. I'll go
| | 00:45 | down to Hide Layers and the content of the
three layers is now invisible in the image.
| | 00:50 | With those three layers still selected,
I can bring that content back by going
| | 00:54 | back to the Layer menu again and down
to the same command, which is changed to
| | 00:59 | Show Layers. So I'll select that and
I've now made the content of those three
| | 01:04 | layers visible once again. I'm going to
click in the bottom of the Layers panel
| | 01:08 | to de-select those three layers.
| | 01:10 | One of the things that I use layer
visibility for all the time is to
| | 01:13 | de-construct layered files that
someone might give me or that I made a long
| | 01:17 | time ago, and I just can't remember
what's on each layer. So I'll go through
| | 01:21 | layer-by-layer so that I can
understand how the file is built.
| | 01:24 | Here's how I do it. I'll start with
this layer here with the boy layer. If I'd
| | 01:28 | like to see only the content of this
layer, I'm going to hold down the Option
| | 01:32 | key, that's the Alt key on a PC,
click on the eye icon of the boy layer.
| | 01:37 | Photoshop automatically makes
invisible the content of all the other layers
| | 01:40 | that we're on. Then when I hold the
Option or Alt key again and click on that
| | 01:44 | same eye icon, Photoshop brings back
into view all layers that have been
| | 01:49 | visible when I toggled Visibility off.
| | 01:52 | I could continue to go through this
file doing the same thing. Option or
| | 01:55 | Alt-clicking on each layer to see its
content. So the Brush Stroke layer has
| | 02:00 | just this small pink brush stroke and
the rest is transparent as you can see
| | 02:04 | from this gray-and-white checkerboard.
| | 02:07 | If I Alt or Option-click on the candies
layer, I'll see that it has transparent
| | 02:11 | pixels, semi-transparent pixels here,
and regular pixels up here. And by the
| | 02:16 | way if I hadn't have done that, I
might not have known that there was a blue
| | 02:21 | background here. I might have thought
that this area was transparent too and
| | 02:24 | that I was seeing
through to the boy layer below.
| | 02:27 | I could continue on de-
constructing the file the same way, Option or
| | 02:31 | Alt-clicking on each layer, and then
Option or Alt-clicking to bring the layers
| | 02:36 | back. This is a technique that we're
going to see in use throughout this course
| | 02:39 | and it's definitely one worth
remembering to use on your files.
| | 02:43 | A few other things to know about layer
visibility. One of the reasons that you
| | 02:47 | might want to make a layer invisible
is that you put some content there and
| | 02:51 | you're not sure that you're going to
include that content in your final file
| | 02:54 | but you'd like to have it there just in
case you change your mind. When you're
| | 02:57 | all done and you've decided against
some particular layers of content, I
| | 03:01 | suggest that you delete them in order
to save file size and speed up processing
| | 03:05 | if you have a slow computer.
| | 03:07 | So let's say that I decided I didn't
want the Brush Stroke and I didn't want
| | 03:10 | the dreamy treats text in this image.
So I've made those two layers invisible.
| | 03:15 | I can easily delete them both from the
file without having to go in one-by-one
| | 03:19 | and delete. The way to do that is
simply to go to the panel menu on the right
| | 03:23 | side of the Layers panel, click there
and choose Delete Hidden Layers, and both
| | 03:29 | of those layers are now gone.
| | 03:30 | If I wanted to bring them back, I
could go to the Edit menu and there I could
| | 03:36 | choose Undo Delete Hidden Layers or
use the popular shortcuts Command+Z on a
| | 03:41 | Mac or Ctrl+Z on a PC. Those layers
are back but they're still not visible.
| | 03:47 | Although you can undo the deletion of
hidden layers, you can't undo changes
| | 03:52 | that you make to layer visibility using
either the Undo commands or the History panel.
| | 03:57 | I'm going to open the History panel so
you can see what I mean, by going up to
| | 04:00 | the Window menu and down to History.
Notice that if I turn some of these layers
| | 04:05 | off and then I turn them on again,
the History panel is not recording these
| | 04:09 | activities. But that's something that I
can change. To do that, I'm going to go
| | 04:13 | to the panel menu on the History panel
and I'm going to choose History Options.
| | 04:18 | Here I'm going to check Make Layer
Visibility Changes Undoable. A little known
| | 04:22 | option, but one that can really come
in handy. I'll click OK. And now if I do
| | 04:28 | change the visibility of any layer I
get a state in the History panel that
| | 04:32 | reflects that change.
| | 04:35 | And then if I need to go back in time
to one of these earlier states, I can
| | 04:39 | just click on that state, and Photoshop
will replicate that situation. I could
| | 04:44 | also go back the other way in this
list of states moving forward in time. The
| | 04:49 | History panel is really useful, but do
remember that once you've closed your
| | 04:52 | file, these history states are no longer there.
| | 04:55 | Another thing to remember about layer
visibility is that if you flatten a file
| | 05:00 | or if you save a file in a format that
doesn't on our layers you will lose any
| | 05:04 | layers that are invisible at the time.
So for example if I go over to the
| | 05:09 | Layers panel menu and I choose
Flatten Image, I'm asked whether I want to
| | 05:13 | discard the hidden layers and I really
have no choice. It's either OK or Cancel
| | 05:18 | the flattening. So I'll Cancel. And
if I were to save in JPEG format for
| | 05:22 | example which is a flat format that
doesn't contain layers, the final file
| | 05:27 | wouldn't contain any of the three
layers that are currently invisible.
| | 05:31 | There are lots of good reasons to
toggle layer visibility on an off. You may
| | 05:35 | want to make a layer temporarily
invisible if its content is obscuring a layer
| | 05:39 | below that you want to see or work on.
You might want to de-construct a layered
| | 05:43 | file as I've showed you how to do here.
You might be involved in making layer
| | 05:47 | comps or animations, both of which can
involve layer visibility. The ability to
| | 05:53 | change layer visibility is yet another
layer feature that enhances efficiency
| | 05:57 | and flexibility in Photoshop.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Changing layer stacking order| 00:00 | The Layers panel is like a diagram
that describes the position of layered
| | 00:04 | content in an image. The order of
layers in the Layers panel determines whether
| | 00:09 | the content of a layer appears in
front of or behind other content in the image.
| | 00:13 | The order of layers is not set
in stone. It's routine to change the
| | 00:17 | stacking order of layers
as you build a composition.
| | 00:20 | Let's take a look at the order of the
layers in this file. I'm going to turn
| | 00:24 | off all of the layers except for the
top one. By going to the eye icon on the
| | 00:28 | left of the topmost layer and holding
down the Option key on a Mac or the Alt
| | 00:32 | key on a PC and turning off all the
other layers and you can see that the only
| | 00:36 | thing on this layer is this
bottle top with transparent pixels.
| | 00:40 | I'll move down the layer stack turning
on each layer one at a time so you can
| | 00:44 | see what's on that layer. Here for
example is the Frame layer. It's beneath the
| | 00:48 | Bottle layer in the Layers panel and
so the image of the frame is beneath the
| | 00:52 | image of the bottle in the document.
I'll turn on the Stars layer. It's beneath
| | 00:57 | the frame in the Layers panel and so the
stars are behind the frame in the image.
| | 01:02 | There are couple more Stars layers
and finally there is a Background layer
| | 01:06 | behind everything else and at the
bottom of the Layers panel. To change the
| | 01:10 | stacking order of a single layer in the
Layers panel, I'll go to that layer,
| | 01:14 | in this case the Frame layer. I'll
click on it to select it and then I'll
| | 01:18 | click-and-hold and I'll drag the
layer to wherever I want it in the layer
| | 01:21 | stack. So in this case I'd like the
frame to be behind the stars. So I'll
| | 01:26 | click-and-drag down beneath the Stars
3 layer. Notice that the border at the
| | 01:31 | bottom of the Stars 3 layer has now
turned bold. That means I can release my
| | 01:35 | mouse and the Frame layer will move
beneath the Stars layer in the Layers panel
| | 01:40 | and in the image the stars
are now on top of the frame.
| | 01:43 | I can also move multiple layers. So if
I wanted to move all three Stars layers,
| | 01:48 | I'd select the first Stars layer, hold
the Shift key and select the bottom-most
| | 01:52 | Stars layer, and then I'd click-and-
drag on any one of the selected layers,
| | 01:57 | I'll move them up above the bottle layer,
and when the border at the top of the
| | 02:00 | bottle layer turns bold like this, I
release my mouse. These layers are now
| | 02:04 | above the bottle layer in the Layers
panel and their content is above the
| | 02:08 | Bottle content in the image.
| | 02:10 | I can move any of these layers with
the exception of one and that's the
| | 02:14 | Background layer. If I click on the
Background layer and try to move, I get
| | 02:18 | this Cancel symbol. And if I try to
move any other layer behind the Background
| | 02:23 | layer, the same thing happens. That's
because the Background layer is slightly
| | 02:27 | different than other pixel-based
layers, it's locked by default, and so it
| | 02:32 | can't move and you can't paint on it
and it has a few other properties that
| | 02:36 | make it different than a
regular pixel-based layer.
| | 02:39 | You'll often find that you have an
automatic background layer like this in
| | 02:42 | files that you bring in from a digital
camera for example. So it's worthwhile
| | 02:46 | knowing how you can change this layer
into a regular layer so that you can
| | 02:50 | change its stacking order. To do that
I'll just double-click anywhere on the
| | 02:53 | Background layer and in the New
Layer dialog box, I'll just click OK. Now
| | 02:58 | that's a regular layer and so I could drag it
anywhere else in the layer stack and release.
| | 03:04 | It's most common to change the layers
stacking order as I just showed you by
| | 03:07 | dragging layers up and down in the
Layers panel, but there is another way, and
| | 03:11 | that's to use the Arrange menu which
is located up here under the Layer menu.
| | 03:15 | So in the Layer menu I'm going to go down to
Arrange and then I have these various commands.
| | 03:21 | With Layer 0 selected if I choose Bring
to Front that will send Layer 0 to the
| | 03:26 | top of the layer stack. Something I
don't really want to do because it'll
| | 03:29 | obscure everything else in the file. I
could also choose Bring Forward, which
| | 03:33 | will send the selected layer up one
in the layer stack. Let's see what that
| | 03:37 | looks like, or I could go back to the
Layer menu and down to Arrange, and I
| | 03:42 | could Send Backward which would send
the selected layer back one level in the
| | 03:46 | Layers panel, or I could choose Send to
Back. And that's what I'd like because
| | 03:50 | that will send Layer 0 down to
the bottom of the layer stack.
| | 03:54 | I'd like to show you one more thing
about the Layer > Arrange menu and that is
| | 03:58 | each one of these commands has a
shortcut. Even if you don't use these
| | 04:01 | shortcuts very often, they will come
in handy if you're creating an action in
| | 04:05 | which you need a layer to move.
| | 04:07 | Re-stacking layers can be practical
and it also could have dramatic effect on
| | 04:13 | the look of an image. I'd like to show
you one special effect that's simply the
| | 04:17 | result of re-stacking layers. You
remember that I have a bottle top here on
| | 04:22 | this layer. I'll Option or Alt-click
again so you can see that. And that I have
| | 04:26 | a full bottle on this layer.
| | 04:28 | What I'm going to do is take that
bottle layer and I'm going to move it up just
| | 04:32 | under the bottle top layer and then
I'm going to put a layer in between those
| | 04:36 | two and that's the layer that contains
this frame. I'll drag the frame layer up
| | 04:41 | and when the border between bottle top
and bottle turns bold I'll release my
| | 04:45 | mouse. Keep your eye on the image and
you can see the result. It looks like the
| | 04:50 | bottle is coming out of the frame. This
is a popular special effect and you'll
| | 04:54 | often see it in images that have an
action figure in them with the action
| | 04:58 | figure coming up out of the frame.
| | 05:00 | Changing layer stacking order is one
of those Photoshop basics that comes up
| | 05:03 | all the time. It can help you to
construct a layered file, to change up a
| | 05:08 | design, or to create special
effects like the one I've just shown you.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Varying layer opacity| 00:00 | The content of a layer is completely
opaque by default, and by opaque I mean
| | 00:05 | that you can't see through a layer's
content the layers below, i.e., unless you
| | 00:09 | reduce the layer's opacity. And the
good news is that you can control the
| | 00:13 | opacity of individual layers in a
Photoshop file. Why would you want to reduce
| | 00:17 | the opacity of a layer?
| | 00:19 | Well, one reason is to blend two
images together. So for example, here I have
| | 00:23 | two images on separate layers,
the ribbon layer and the candy layer.
| | 00:27 | To show you what's on the candy layer,
I'm going to hold the Option key on the
| | 00:31 | Mac, the Alt key on a PC, as I click
on its eye icon, to make all the other
| | 00:35 | layers invisible, and you can see the
image that's on the candy layer. I'll do
| | 00:39 | the same for the ribbon layer, Option
or Alt-clicking in its visibility spot,
| | 00:44 | and that's the image on the ribbon layer.
| | 00:47 | The content of the ribbon layer is
completely opaque so that even if I were to
| | 00:52 | Option or Alt-click again, so that the
candy layer we are visible, I can't see
| | 00:57 | through the ribbon to the candy. I
would actually like to use the texture on
| | 01:01 | the ribbon layer to add a little bit
of visual interest to the candy image.
| | 01:05 | So I'm going to reduce the opacity of
the ribbon layer. To do that I first have
| | 01:09 | to select the ribbon layer, I'll do
that by clicking on it in the Layers panel,
| | 01:13 | and now I'm going to go up to the Opacity field,
which is here at the top of the Layers panel.
| | 01:18 | The easiest way to reduce opacity
here is to move my mouse over the Opacity
| | 01:22 | label, and that gives me the scrubby
slider icon, which is this hand with the
| | 01:26 | double pointed arrow. When I see that,
I can drag to the left to reduce the
| | 01:31 | opacity of this layer, or I can drag to the
right to increase the opacity of the layer.
| | 01:36 | Another way to change the opacity of a
layer would be just to click and drag in
| | 01:40 | the Opacity field over whatever number
is there, and typing a different number.
| | 01:44 | I'll type 75 for example. As I do that
you can see the opacity of the ribbon is
| | 01:49 | changing, so you can see partially
down through it to the candy image on the
| | 01:54 | layer below. And yet another way to
vary opacity is to click to on the arrow to
| | 01:58 | the right of the opacity field, to
bring up this opacity slider and to drag
| | 02:03 | that slider. So I'll put the opacity
down to say 61 there, and then click above
| | 02:08 | the slider to close the slider.
| | 02:10 | So those methods are fine to start
with, but if you've gotten to the point
| | 02:14 | where you are using keyboard
shortcuts in Photoshop, I think you are really
| | 02:17 | going to like the numerical keyboard
shortcut. I'm going to show you now.
| | 02:22 | To show you that I'm going to select
a different layer, the Box layer right
| | 02:25 | here. I'll click on it in the Layers
panel to select it. Notice that the Box
| | 02:29 | layer contains this white box that
you see here as well as this brown outer
| | 02:34 | glow around the box, which is created
by the Outer Glow layer effect attached
| | 02:40 | to the Box layer. I'm going to reduce
the opacity of both the white box and the
| | 02:44 | layer effect. To do that I first have
to eliminate the blinking cursor that's
| | 02:49 | currently in the Opacity field, and
I'll just press Return or Enter key to make
| | 02:53 | that blinking cursor go away.
| | 02:55 | Now let's say I want to try about 80%
opacity on this layer. To do that, I'm
| | 03:00 | going to press the 8 key above the
letters on my keyboard, and that changes the
| | 03:04 | opacity to 80%. If I press 7, I get 70
%. 6, 60%, 5, 50 %, and so on. And if I
| | 03:14 | want a number in between these
multiples of 10, I'll just press two numbers in
| | 03:18 | rapid succession. So for 56
%, I'll press 5 and then 6.
| | 03:23 | So this is a really efficient method,
but there is one gotcha, one thing to
| | 03:27 | watch out for, and that is that when
you use the keyboard shortcut method of
| | 03:31 | changing layer opacity, be sure that
you don't have one of the brush type tool
| | 03:35 | selected over here in the Toolbox, and
the brush type tools include the brush
| | 03:40 | tool here, and those tools beneath it
all the way down to this line right here
| | 03:47 | beneath the Dodge Burn and Sponge tools.
| | 03:51 | To show you what the problem is, I'm
going to click on the Brush tool. So let's
| | 03:55 | say that I have the Brush tool selected,
because I happen to have been painting
| | 03:58 | in my image, and then I decide that I would
like to lower the opacity of the ribbon layer.
| | 04:04 | So I'm going to go over to the ribbon
layer and click on it. Its opacity is
| | 04:08 | currently 61%. Let's say that I want
to try it at 50%. Using the keyboard
| | 04:13 | shortcut method, I'll click the 5 on
my keyboard, expecting that the layer
| | 04:18 | opacity field will change to 50%. But
it did not change at all. What did change
| | 04:23 | is in the Options bar for the Brush tool,
the opacity for the Brush tool, which
| | 04:29 | affects the way that the
brush tool lays down paint.
| | 04:31 | So for example, I happen to have
white selected here in my foreground color
| | 04:35 | box, and if you don't, you can get
white there by pressing the D key on your
| | 04:40 | keyboard, which sets the foreground
color to black, and then the X key which
| | 04:45 | switches the foreground and background
colors. And I'll go up to the Brush Tool
| | 04:49 | Options bar, and I'll get a more
interesting brush by clicking the arrow to the
| | 04:52 | right of the brush picker, and then
scrolling down in the Brush menu. I'm going
| | 04:56 | to choose this 60 pixel brush right
here, and then I'll click in the Options
| | 05:00 | bar to close the brush picker.
| | 05:02 | So now if I paint on the ribbon layer
with the brush tool set to 50%, you can
| | 05:08 | see that the tool paints with a
partially transparent streak of white. To avoid
| | 05:15 | unintentionally changing the opacity
of a tool like the Brush tool, when what
| | 05:19 | you mean to do is change the opacity of
a layer, just make sure that you don't
| | 05:23 | have any of the brush type tool
selected, when you use the numerical keyboard
| | 05:27 | shortcut for varying layer opacity.
| | 05:30 | Another thing to know about opacity is
that it differs from this control, the
| | 05:35 | Fill control. And the way that it
differs has to do with any layer effects or
| | 05:39 | styles that happen to be attached to a
layer. You remember that when I had the
| | 05:43 | Box layer selected and I reduced the
Opacity control, that affected not only
| | 05:49 | the white box, the content of that
layer, but also that brown glow, the layer
| | 05:53 | effect on the layer.
| | 05:55 | By contrast, the Fill control affects
only the content of a layer and not it's
| | 06:00 | layer effect or layer style. So for
example, keep your eye on that white box
| | 06:04 | and brown glow again as I reduce the
Fill control here by clicking and dragging
| | 06:09 | using the scrubby slider. You'll
see that the content, the white box is
| | 06:13 | becoming more transparent, but nothing
is happening to the brown glow around
| | 06:17 | the box. That's a subject that I'll be
showing you in more detail in another
| | 06:21 | movie in the Layer Effects chapter.
| | 06:22 | So now you know how to vary layer
visibility, and I have shown you some
| | 06:26 | situations where you might want to do
that. When you are blending images, when
| | 06:30 | you are making one of this popular
semi opaque boxes to setup type, or maybe
| | 06:35 | you just want to see through a layer
temporarily, so you can work on content
| | 06:40 | below it or perhaps align it with
content on a layer below. Whatever your
| | 06:44 | reasons for varying layer opacity, it's
the Opacity control in the Layers panel
| | 06:48 | that's your ticket to
controlling layer opacity in Photoshop.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Deleting layers| 00:00 | If you've got some extra layers in a
file that you don't plan to use in the
| | 00:03 | final image, you can save storage space,
and possibly speed up your processing
| | 00:08 | by deleting those layers.
| | 00:09 | There are lots of ways to delete
layers in Photoshop, and Photoshop CS4 has
| | 00:14 | introduced yet a new way to delete a
layer. It's really the fastest and easiest
| | 00:18 | way, and that is to select one or
more layers in the Layers panel.
| | 00:22 | So I'll select the stars 1 layer for
example, and then just press the Delete
| | 00:26 | key on your Mac keyboard or the
Backspace key on the PC keyboard, and that
| | 00:31 | layer is gone. Because it's so easy,
you might say that this method is a little
| | 00:35 | bit dangerous, but you can always use
an undo command to bring back a layer, or
| | 00:40 | go to the History panel and back up
state. But remember you can only do that
| | 00:44 | until you have closed an image, and
then those opportunities are gone.
| | 00:47 | There are other ways to delete layers.
The way I'm used to doing it is to
| | 00:50 | select the layer, and then to click
and drag that layer down to the trash can
| | 00:54 | at the bottom right of the Layers
panel, or with a layer selected like this
| | 00:59 | stars 3 layer, I can just click the
trash can at the bottom right corner of the
| | 01:04 | Layers panel, down here, and that
brings up this message, which gives me a
| | 01:08 | chance to change my mind about
whether I want to delete this layer.
| | 01:11 | If you don't like this message, you
can click Don't show again and it won't
| | 01:15 | come up. I kind of like the idea of
having a safety check with some of the
| | 01:19 | layer deletion methods. So I'm going to
leave this as is, and just click Yes to
| | 01:24 | delete the selected layer.
| | 01:25 | Another method is to select a layer
like the bottle layer here, and then go to
| | 01:30 | the panel menu icon at the top right
of the Layers panel, and from there,
| | 01:34 | select Delete Layer. Again, I get this
message, and I'll click Yes, I do want
| | 01:38 | to delete that layer.
| | 01:40 | I'll select another layer, the frame
layer, to show you yet another way to
| | 01:43 | delete a layer, and that is to go up
to the Layer menu at the top of the
| | 01:47 | screen, and from there choose Delete
and go over to Layer. Again, I get a
| | 01:53 | warning message. I'll click
Yes, and the layer is gone.
| | 01:56 | And finally one last method is to
select a layer, and then on the Mac
| | 02:01 | Ctrl-click on that layer, on a PC,
Right-Click on that layer, and from there
| | 02:06 | choose Delete Layer, and click Yes in
the warning message. So all kind of ways
| | 02:11 | to delete layers, find one that you
like and stick with it, so that it becomes
| | 02:15 | second nature. And don't forget that
all of these methods work with more than
| | 02:19 | one layer at a time, if you go
ahead and select multiple layers before
| | 02:22 | employing one of the methods.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
2. Creating LayersMaking a new blank layer| 00:00 | There are lots of ways to add pixel-
based content to a Photoshop image.
| | 00:04 | For example, you might filled in an area
with color, or stroke a selection with color,
| | 00:09 | or use the brush tool, or the
retouching tools, or the dark room tools,
| | 00:14 | like the Dodge and Burn tool.
| | 00:15 | No matter how you add pixels to an
image, I strongly suggest that before you do,
| | 00:19 | you create a new blank pixel-
based layer to work on, so that you have
| | 00:24 | maximum flexibility to
move or edit those new pixels.
| | 00:27 | I am going to use this composition to
show you how to create new pixel-based
| | 00:32 | layers. I'll call those regular layers
to distinguish them from special kinds
| | 00:35 | of layers, like type layers, shape
layers, video layers, adjustment layers, all
| | 00:41 | of which are created a little bit
differently, and which I'll address in
| | 00:44 | separate movies later in the course.
| | 00:46 | Before I begin making new layers in
this composition, I'll give you a sense of
| | 00:50 | what's on each of the layers that are
already here. To do that, I'll go over to
| | 00:54 | the Layers panel and I'm going to
Option-click on the top layer, the model
| | 00:57 | layer, that's Alt-click on a PC, and
you can see that that layer contains this
| | 01:02 | model surrounded by transparent pixels.
| | 01:06 | Then I'll Option or Alt-click on the
apple layer, and you can see that contains
| | 01:10 | the apple a little bit of green
surrounding area, and it's all in the shape of
| | 01:14 | a rounded rectangle
surrounded by transparent pixels.
| | 01:18 | I'll Option or Alt-click again on that
eye icon to turn all the layers back on.
| | 01:23 | The first step in making a new layer is
to think about where you wanted in the
| | 01:26 | layer stack, so that you don't have to
move it later, and that's particularly
| | 01:30 | to if you've lots and lots of layers,
and it's hard to find the layer and
| | 01:34 | nowhere to move it.
| | 01:35 | In this case what I would like to do is
add a glow behind the model. And so, I
| | 01:40 | need to make a new layer behind
the model, but in front of the apple.
| | 01:44 | Translated into the layer stack in the
Layers panel. That means that I want to
| | 01:48 | make a new layer in between the apple
layer and the model layer. So I'm going
| | 01:52 | to select the apple layer, because the
rule is that by default a new layer will
| | 01:57 | come in above whatever layer you've selected.
| | 02:00 | There are a couple of different ways
to make a new regular layer. My favorite
| | 02:03 | way is to use the new layer icon at
the bottom of the Layers panel, which is
| | 02:08 | the icon down here at the bottom of the
Layers panel just to the left of the trash icon.
| | 02:13 | To make a new blank layer, I'm just
going to click that icon, and there is my
| | 02:17 | new layer called layer 1 in between
the apple layer and the model layer, just
| | 02:21 | where I want it. To add some pixels
to this new layer I'm going to make a
| | 02:25 | selection, and then I'm going to fill
that selection with a light color and
| | 02:28 | that will add a glow behind the model.
| | 02:30 | I'll go to the Toolbox and I'm going to
select the Elliptical Marquee tool from
| | 02:34 | the Marquee tool flyout menu. And then
I'll come into the image, and I'm just
| | 02:38 | going to draw a rough oval around the
model. I'll release my mouse, and if I
| | 02:44 | don't select any other tool, I can
click in the middle of the selection and
| | 02:48 | drag to move it, but as soon as I
select another tool; if I did this, I would
| | 02:51 | actually be dragging not just the
selection boundary, but rather the content of
| | 02:56 | the selection, and I don't want to do that.
| | 02:57 | I'd like to make a really soft edge
selection here, so that this looks like a
| | 03:02 | glow. So I'm going to go to the Refine
Edge button in the Option bar for this
| | 03:07 | selection tool, and that opens the
Refine Edge dialog box. I can see a preview
| | 03:12 | of the selected area against the
white background, because this icon is
| | 03:16 | selected down here, and you can
experiment with these other preview icons as well.
| | 03:20 | All I want to do in this dialog box is
to feather the edge of this selection,
| | 03:24 | and that will blur that edge, making
it nice and soft. So I'm just going to
| | 03:28 | pull that slider up until I like the
look in this preview over here. So I'll
| | 03:33 | leave it here a little over 9
pixels, and then I'll click OK.
| | 03:37 | Now that I've feathered that selection,
I'm going to fill it with color. First,
| | 03:40 | I'm going to look in the Layers panel,
and I'm going to make sure that I have
| | 03:44 | Layer 1 selected. A selection isn't
tied to any particular layer, but if a
| | 03:49 | layer is selected at the time that I
fill a selection, those fill pixels will
| | 03:54 | land on the selected layer. And
that's what I'd like to do here.
| | 03:57 | Next I'm going to get a color to fill
with, so I'll get the eyedropper tool in
| | 04:01 | the Toolbox, and I'll use that to
sample a color from the image. First I'll
| | 04:05 | look in the Options bar and I'll make
sure that the sample field is set to
| | 04:08 | sample from all layers, rather than
just current layer, and that way I don't
| | 04:12 | have to worry about which layer is
selected, and I'll just click on a light
| | 04:15 | color here on the apple, and that sets
the foreground color box down here at
| | 04:20 | the bottom of the Toolbox,
to the color I have sampled.
| | 04:24 | Finally I'll fill the selection by
going up to the Edit menu, and choosing the
| | 04:28 | Fill command. I use this command all
the time. It gives you the option to fill
| | 04:32 | with the foreground color, which is
the one that I want to use, but you have
| | 04:35 | these other options too. So with
Foreground Color selected in the Use field,
| | 04:40 | I'll leave all of the other settings at
their defaults, and I'll click OK. And
| | 04:44 | then I'm going to get rid of this
boundary of marching ants by deselecting,
| | 04:49 | going up to the Select menu and
choosing Deselect, or more likely using the
| | 04:53 | popular keyboard shortcut
Command+D on a Mac or Ctrl+D on a PC.
| | 04:59 | Now if I turn off all of the layers
except for the new Layer 1 by Option or
| | 05:03 | Alt-clicking on its eye icon, you can
see that those pixels that I have just
| | 05:07 | added to the image are indeed located
on the brand new Layer 1 layer. I'll
| | 05:12 | Option or Alt-click again to
turn the other layers back on.
| | 05:15 | So that's how to create a new layer and
one of the many things that you can do
| | 05:20 | with a new pixel-based layer.
| | 05:22 | You remember, I mentioned that by
default a new layer comes in above whatever
| | 05:26 | layer is selected at the moment, but
what if you want to add a new layer below
| | 05:30 | a selected layer? So in this case, I
would like to add a new layer at the
| | 05:33 | bottom of the layer stack, and I'm
going to fill that layer with a color that
| | 05:37 | will act as the background for this
entire image. To make that happen, I'm
| | 05:42 | going to select the apple layer again,
and then I'll go down to the New Layer
| | 05:46 | icon at the bottom of the Layers panel.
Again, this time I'm going to hold down
| | 05:50 | the Command key on a Mac or the Ctrl
key on a PC, and when I do that, I get a
| | 05:55 | brand new layer below the selected layer.
| | 05:57 | I am going to fill this new Layer 2
completely with pixels. So again, I'll use
| | 06:02 | the Eyedropper tool to sample a
complementary color. I'll click on this light
| | 06:07 | green here, and that becomes my
foreground color down here in the toolbox.
| | 06:12 | Instead of going up to the Edit menu
and choosing Fill again, I would like to
| | 06:15 | teach you a shortcut that I think is
really important to remember, because you
| | 06:19 | will use it all the time, and
that's the shortcut for filling with the
| | 06:22 | foreground color. That is on a Mac,
holding the Option key and clicking the
| | 06:27 | Delete key; and on a PC, holding the
Alt key and clicking the Backspace key. So
| | 06:32 | again, Option+Delete on the Mac, Alt+
Backspace on the PC, will fill a layer or
| | 06:37 | selection with the foreground color.
| | 06:39 | There is one more way to make a new
layer that I'd like to show you. If you are
| | 06:43 | someone that prefers using the
commands in the Layer menu up here, there is a
| | 06:48 | command here, Layer > New Layer. That
will make a brand new layer for you.
| | 06:53 | That's an alternative to using the
new layer icon in the Layers panel.
| | 06:56 | Before I make this new layer, again,
I'm going to select the layer beneath
| | 07:00 | which I would like my new layer. I'm
going to use this new layer for a special
| | 07:04 | purpose. Rather than just painting on
it or filling it with pixels, I'm going
| | 07:07 | to use it to retouch the model space.
So I want the layer to come in above the
| | 07:11 | model. That means that I'm going to
select the model layer in the Layers panel,
| | 07:16 | and then I'll go back to the Layer menu,
and down to New, and over to Layer.
| | 07:20 | That opens the New Layer dialog box
where I have an opportunity to name this
| | 07:24 | layer, although I'll just leave it as
its default for now. And I also usually
| | 07:27 | leave all of these settings at their
defaults. But if I wanted to, while I was
| | 07:31 | creating this new layer, here I
could set its opacity, I could change its
| | 07:36 | blending mode, I could even add a color
label to it from this field, all things
| | 07:42 | that you can't do to a layer after you
created if you prefer. So that's what
| | 07:46 | I'm going to do, I'll just click OK here.
| | 07:48 | Here is my blank Layer 3, which came in
on top of the selected model layer, and
| | 07:52 | the work that I'm going to do on this
layer is to add some pixels that will
| | 07:56 | cover up some flaws in this model face.
And there aren't many flaws. She really
| | 08:00 | looks great. But there are a couple of
things I can do to show you how this works.
| | 08:05 | First of all, I'm going to get the
Zoom tool and zoom in so you can see more
| | 08:08 | closely what I'm going to do. I'll
click the Plus or the Zoom In option in the
| | 08:12 | Options bar, and then I'll click in the
image to zoom in. Then I'll select the
| | 08:16 | Healing Brush here in the Toolbox.
| | 08:19 | In the Options bar for the Healing
Brush, it's important that I go to the
| | 08:22 | sample field, and I'm going to change
that from the default of Current Layer to
| | 08:26 | All Layers. What does that mean? What
it means is that, as I used the healing
| | 08:31 | brush, Photoshop is going to pick up
or sample good pixels from all of the
| | 08:36 | layers in the image, but it's going to
place them down right here on Layer 3,
| | 08:41 | because that's the selected layer. And
the reason I'm doing it that way is so
| | 08:44 | that all of my healing marks will be
on a separate layer. They won't be right
| | 08:48 | on the image of the model. That way
I'll be able to lower the opacity of the
| | 08:52 | healing mark layer. I'll be able to
delete the healing mark layer, and I'll be
| | 08:56 | able to work on it without directly
affecting the photograph of the model.
| | 09:00 | That's one way to do nondestructive editing,
which is a great way to work in Photoshop.
| | 09:05 | So the other thing I'm going to
change in the Options bar for this healing
| | 09:08 | brush is I'm going to change the mode
to Lighten, because all I want to do is
| | 09:13 | lighten some dark pixels on her face.
Then I'm going to come into her face,
| | 09:17 | I'll make my brush smaller, and one way
to do that is to press the Left-bracket
| | 09:21 | key on the keyboard and that
makes the brush smaller on the fly.
| | 09:24 | Now I'm going to sample some good
pixels for her forehead by holding down the
| | 09:28 | Option key that changes the cursor to
this target symbol, and I'll click there
| | 09:32 | to sample those pixels. And then I'm
going to move over part of her face,
| | 09:37 | perhaps, I'll go over here, over these
small wrinkles and in Photoshop CS4, I
| | 09:42 | can get a preview inside of the brush
tip of the pixels that are going to be
| | 09:47 | placed down on top of, and blended in
with these wrinkles. So I'll click there
| | 09:52 | and I'll just draw a little bit on top
of her wrinkles, and like magic, they
| | 09:57 | are all gone and the eye area is smooth.
| | 10:00 | I can do the same thing with her eyebrow.
I can get rid of some of these stray
| | 10:03 | hairs here, so I'll Option-click to
sample some good pixels, and then I'm just
| | 10:08 | going to click and drag a bit across
the top of her eyebrow. I also can get rid
| | 10:12 | of bags under eyes this way, so I'll
Option-click to sample some good pixels on
| | 10:17 | her cheek, and then I'll click and drag
over these bags here, and I might also
| | 10:21 | try to minimize this line on her cheek
here. So I'll Option-click and then I'll
| | 10:27 | drag over that line.
| | 10:28 | Now to see these differences, I can go
to Layer 3, and I can turn it off, by
| | 10:33 | clicking its eye icon, so that you can
see that this is how she was before the
| | 10:37 | healing, and this is how she is after
the healing. If I wanted her to look more
| | 10:41 | natural, one of the benefits of doing
that healing on the separate layer is
| | 10:45 | that I can reduce the opacity of this
layer. So with Layer 3 selected, I'll go
| | 10:49 | up to the Opacity field at the top of
the Layers panel, and when my cursor
| | 10:54 | changes to a scrubby slider, I'll drag
to the left. And that brings back just a
| | 10:59 | bit of the natural lines on her face.
| | 11:03 | I also want to show you the marks that
are on Layer 3, so I'm going to Option
| | 11:07 | or Alt-click on the eye icon on Layer 3,
so that you see only that layer and as
| | 11:12 | you could see there are some flesh
colored marks here, which are the healing
| | 11:16 | pixels that I sampled and placed on
top of the dark areas of her face.
| | 11:20 | I will Option or Alt-click again on
that eye icon to turn all the other layers
| | 11:24 | back on. So I have just shown you yet
another way to create a new pixel-based layer
| | 11:29 | from the Layer menu at the top
of the screen, and one of the special
| | 11:33 | things that you can do with a pixel-based
layer, which is to use it for retouching.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Duplicating layers| 00:00 | You can use the same image multiple
times in a Photoshop composition by
| | 00:04 | duplicating its layer. Saving yourself
lots of time and trouble. For example,
| | 00:08 | the pile of candies in this image was
all made from just two layers, each of
| | 00:12 | which had one piece of candy. I would
like to show you some ways that you can
| | 00:15 | duplicate layers to get a result like
this with a minimum amount of work.
| | 00:19 | I am going to switch to another image.
And here, I would like to show you how
| | 00:23 | to duplicate a layer by dragging the
layer to the New Layer icon at the bottom
| | 00:27 | of the Layers panel. I'll do that with
this gold chocolate layer, which as you
| | 00:31 | can see in the layer thumbnail,
contains just this piece of chocolate
| | 00:35 | surrounded by transparent pixels. I'll
click and drag on that layer all the way
| | 00:40 | down to the New Layer icon, which is
the icon just to the left to the Trashcan
| | 00:44 | icon at the bottom of the Layers panel.
| | 00:47 | When I release the mouse, I get a new
layer in the Layers panel, gold chocolate copy.
| | 00:51 | But you may be wondering why
you still see only one piece of gold
| | 00:54 | chocolate in the image? That's because
the duplicate comes in directly on top
| | 01:00 | of the original. So the new candy is
obscuring the old. To fix that, I'll make
| | 01:05 | sure I have the Move tool selected
and I'll click anywhere in the image and
| | 01:08 | drag to move that new piece of
chocolate off the top of the old piece.
| | 01:13 | I can leave them overlapping like that,
or I could move that new piece away from the
| | 01:17 | old piece. Now if I wanted to make
even more gold chocolate pieces, I could
| | 01:22 | select both the gold chocolate copy
layer and the gold chocolate layer.
| | 01:26 | I'll hold down the command key on the Mac
or Ctrl key on a PC, and click on the gold
| | 01:31 | chocolate layer to add that to the
selection, and then I'll drag both of those
| | 01:35 | layers on to the new layer icon at the
bottom of the Layers panel, and now,
| | 01:39 | I have got four total gold chocolate layers.
| | 01:42 | Leaving the two new layers selected,
I can click and drag with the Move tool,
| | 01:46 | and then I'll move off the top of the
original two. See you can see that using
| | 01:51 | duplicate layer, you can get lots of
copies of an image very quickly. Another
| | 01:55 | even faster way to duplicate a layer
and to reposition it all at the same time
| | 02:00 | is to do that directly in the image
using an option for the Move tool.
| | 02:04 | So I still have the Move tool selected.
I'm going to go over to the Layers panel
| | 02:08 | and I'm going to select the dark
chocolate layer this time. Then I'm going to
| | 02:11 | go into the image and I'm going to
hold down the Option key on the Mac,
| | 02:15 | that's the Alt key on the PC, and click and
drag anywhere in the image, and that makes
| | 02:19 | a copy of the dark chocolate layer on
the fly. And when I release my mouse
| | 02:24 | you can see the new dark chocolate copy
layer in the Layers panel, and a second
| | 02:28 | piece of chocolate in the image.
| | 02:30 | So I can quickly do that again
Option or Alt+drag, and again, Option or
| | 02:36 | Alt+drag. I can even duplicate a
layer and have the result appear in an
| | 02:41 | entirely new document. To do that I
can use the Duplicate Layer command that
| | 02:45 | shows up in two different menus. It's
here in the Layers panel menu and also
| | 02:51 | up the Layer menu at the top of the
screen. These work the same way. So I'll
| | 02:55 | just show you from the layer menu at
the top of the screen. This time I'm going
| | 02:59 | to scroll down in a Layers panel and
select the red chocolate layer here. Then
| | 03:04 | I'll go up to the Layer menu and I'll
choose Duplicate Layer. In this dialog box,
| | 03:08 | I can choose a destination document.
By default, the destination document
| | 03:14 | is the current document, which happens
to be called delectables6.psd, but I can
| | 03:19 | change that if I go into that Document
menu and there I'll see a list of all
| | 03:24 | the open documents.
lotsochocolate.psd is also open.
| | 03:28 | So I'm going to choose that as the
destination and I'm going to give this layer
| | 03:32 | a new name here in the As field. I'll call
it Special Chocolate, and then I'll click OK.
| | 03:38 | Now, if I go over to that lotsofchocolate.psd
document and I look in the Layers panel,
| | 03:44 | there's my Special Chocolate layer.
It comes in right above whatever layer
| | 03:48 | was selected in the Layers panel
in the lotsofchocolate.psd document, and
| | 03:53 | here is that new red chocolate piece
in the image. So if I click-and-drag,
| | 03:59 | I can reposition it. I'm going to go
back to the delectable06 document for a
| | 04:03 | moment, and I want to show you one
more thing. That I can copy a layer from
| | 04:08 | this document and have it appear in
an entirely brand new document that
| | 04:12 | Photoshop will create for me. And that way, I
can start a whole new composition in a new file.
| | 04:18 | So again, I'll leave the red chocolate
layer selected here and I'll go back up
| | 04:22 | to the Layer menu, again choose
Duplicate Layer, and this time I'm going to
| | 04:26 | choose as the destination document, New.
I'll give the new document a name.
| | 04:32 | I'll call this Special Document, and
I'll name the layer that will appear in
| | 04:38 | that document, I'll call it
Special Chocolate, and I'll click OK.
| | 04:45 | You can see that there is now a third
tab appear in the document window for the
| | 04:48 | new automatically created Special
Document file, which by the way is the same size
| | 04:53 | as the delectable06.psd document,
from which I copied this layer, and
| | 04:58 | you can see in the new Special Document
that there is one layer and it is that
| | 05:03 | special chocolate piece, and here it
is in the image. All these methods of
| | 05:07 | duplicating layer content can save
your time and effort as you design layered
| | 05:11 | compositions in Photoshop. By the way,
if you are a photographer rather than a
| | 05:15 | designer, you'll also find reason to
duplicate layers. Later in the blend modes
| | 05:20 | chapter, I'll show you how you can fix
exposure problems by duplicating a photo layer,
| | 05:25 | and then changing the blend
mode on that duplicate. So if you work on
| | 05:30 | lots of photographs in Photoshop, be
sure to check on that movie later in this course.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating layers from selections| 00:00 | Another way to create a new layer
is to copy or cut a selection from an
| | 00:04 | existing layer. This is how I created
the illusion that this bottle is coming
| | 00:08 | out of the frame. This looks
great, but it's really easy to do.
| | 00:12 | I am going to switch to a pre-built
file to show you how to do it. There are
| | 00:17 | just three layers in this file. I'll
Option or Alt-click on the eye icon next
| | 00:21 | to each layer, to show you that there
is a frame on a transparent layer, a
| | 00:25 | bottle on a transparent layer, and
then there is a background and then I'll
| | 00:29 | option or Alt-click on the background eye
icon again to turn those other layers on.
| | 00:33 | The first step is to select part of the
bottle, and because the bottle is on a
| | 00:38 | layer surrounded by transparency, it's
really easy to select just the top part
| | 00:42 | of the bottle. Some times making a
precise selection can be a struggle, but not
| | 00:47 | in this case. All I have to do is take
the regular Lasso tool from the Toolbox,
| | 00:52 | and come in to the image and drag a
selection around part of the bottle. What I
| | 00:57 | want to do is include part of the
bottle top that's inside of the frame, and
| | 01:01 | the part that's outside the frame as
well. It doesn't matter which layer is
| | 01:05 | selected when I make that selection,
but for the next step I need to select the
| | 01:09 | Bottle layer, so I click on the Bottle layer.
| | 01:12 | Now I'm going to make a new layer from
a selection of the bottle layer. To do
| | 01:17 | that, I'll go up to the Layer menu at
the top of the screen, I'll choose New,
| | 01:20 | and I'll go over to Layer via Copy. I
could use Layer via Cut, but Layer via
| | 01:27 | Copy often works better, because you
don't get aligned where you cut the image.
| | 01:31 | And by the way, once you get used to
using this technique, you'll probably want
| | 01:35 | to use this popular keyboard shortcut
for a Layer via Copy, which is Command+J.
| | 01:41 | When I release my mouse over that
command, Photoshop makes a brand new layer
| | 01:45 | for me, Layer 1. I'll Option or Alt-
click on its eye icon to show you what's on
| | 01:50 | that layer. It's a copy of the
selected portion of the bottle top and if I
| | 01:54 | Option or Alt-click on the Bottle layer,
you'll see that that whole bottle is
| | 01:57 | there. Because I just copied that
selected portion; I didn't cut it. So I'll
| | 02:02 | Option or Alt-click again to turn all
the layers back on, and what makes the
| | 02:07 | bottle look likes it's coming out of
the frame is simply to reorganize the
| | 02:11 | stacking order in the layers panel.
| | 02:13 | So I'm going to select Layer 1 that
contains the bottle top and drag it above
| | 02:18 | the frame, so that the frame is in
between the bottle top and the rest of the
| | 02:22 | bottle. This is the image that results.
Well, that was almost too easy, because
| | 02:27 | the bottle was on a transparent layer.
Let's see how this would work on a
| | 02:31 | different kind of image. I'll click on
this Document tab to show you another
| | 02:35 | image. In this image, I'll go to the
layers panel. And I'm going to Option or
| | 02:39 | Alt-click on each layer to show you
it's there. The Poster layer is just this
| | 02:44 | poster for bistro with transparent
pixels on the left. The model layer is this
| | 02:50 | model holding a white poster with
transparent pixels as well, and then there is
| | 02:55 | a background layer. I'll Option or Alt
-click on that to bring back all the
| | 02:58 | layers. And you can see that when the
Poster layer is on, the models fingers
| | 03:03 | don't look realistic. What I need to do
is select a portion of her fingers from
| | 03:07 | the model layer, and copy those to a
new layer above the poster layer, and that
| | 03:13 | will make this look realistic. And
that's basically the same technique that I
| | 03:16 | used on the bottle, the only
difference is it will be a bit harder to select
| | 03:20 | the content that I want.
| | 03:22 | To do that, I'm going to turn off the
Poster layer by clicking its eye icon.
| | 03:26 | I'll make sure that I have the Model
layer selected. I'll go to the Toolbox and
| | 03:31 | I'm going to choose the Quick
Selection tool, which is one of my favorite and
| | 03:34 | fastest selection tools. I'm not
going to agonize about making a perfect
| | 03:39 | selection here. I just want to give you
the general idea. So I'm going to come
| | 03:42 | in with this tool, I have made my
brush to very small by pressing the Left
| | 03:46 | Bracket key, and now, I'm just going
to click and run over her fingers, and
| | 03:51 | I'll do the same down here, and this
part of the selection will automatically
| | 03:55 | be added to the first, because
that's how the Quick Selection tool works.
| | 04:00 | Now what I want to do is to delete the
parts of her fingers that are not on top
| | 04:04 | of the board. I'll use another
selection tool for that. I'm going to use the
| | 04:08 | Polygonal Lasso tool, which creates
straight edged selections. I'll choose that
| | 04:14 | tool, and then I have to go up to its
Options bar, and make sure that this
| | 04:17 | third icon is selected. This is the
Subtract from Selection icon. Now I'll come
| | 04:22 | into the image, and I'll click along
the edge of the white poster board, and
| | 04:26 | then I'm going to drag down. And as I
drag you can see that this tool brings a
| | 04:31 | thread along with it. So I want to drag
along the edge of the poster board. And
| | 04:35 | I don't have my mouse pushed down right
now. I'm just moving it and I'll go all
| | 04:40 | the way down here beneath her other
hand. Then I'm going to click again. And
| | 04:44 | I'm just going to come around in any
fashion. It doesn't matter. Back to the
| | 04:48 | beginning of that selection and I'll
double click. And what that does is remove
| | 04:53 | everything that I just selected with
the Polygonal Lasso from the original
| | 04:57 | selection that I'd made
with the Quick Selection tool.
| | 05:01 | Now this is in a course in selection,
so if you aren't successful in doing
| | 05:05 | that, then here's what you can do
instead. I'm going to actually delete the
| | 05:09 | selection by going to Select > Deselect
or using the keyboard shortcut Command
| | 05:14 | or Ctrl+D. And I'm going to load a
selection that I saved for you with this
| | 05:19 | file, and you can do this too, if you
are having trouble making the selection.
| | 05:23 | I'll go to the Select menu at the
top of the screen, and I'll choose Load
| | 05:26 | Selection. Then I'll go to the Channel
field in the Load Selection dialog box,
| | 05:31 | and I'll choose the hands channel, and
I'll click OK, and that will load the
| | 05:36 | selection that comes with the file.
And now for the heart of this technique,
| | 05:41 | I'm going to copy the selected fingers
and put them on the separate layer by
| | 05:45 | again going up to the Layer menu and
choosing New > Layer via Copy, or just
| | 05:52 | pressing Command+J on the Mac or a Ctrl+
J on a PC, and Photoshop makes a brand
| | 05:58 | new layer called Layer 1. If I Option
or Alt-click on its eye icon you can see
| | 06:03 | that the only thing on Layer 1 are
these two areas of selected fingers. If I
| | 06:08 | Option or Alt-click on the Model layer,
you can see that the fingers are still
| | 06:11 | there, I just copied them
on to their own new layer.
| | 06:14 | Now I want to turn all the layers back
on. I'm going to Option or Alt-click on
| | 06:18 | the model layer here, and I'm also
going to click in the visibility slot on the
| | 06:23 | Poster layer and the final piece of
this technique is just to reorganize the
| | 06:28 | stacking order of the layers. So I'll
go in the Layers panel, I'll click on
| | 06:33 | Layer 1 that contains the selected
fingers, and I'll move that above the Poster
| | 06:37 | layer, and there are her fingers.
| | 06:40 | Now sometimes you do end up with a
little bit of a disconnect between the
| | 06:44 | copied selection and the original.
To fix that I'm just going to move the
| | 06:49 | fingers on Layer 1 over a bit, and I
can do that by temporarily selecting the
| | 06:54 | Move tool by holding down the Command
key on my Mac, or the Ctrl key on a PC,
| | 06:59 | and keeping it held down, and then
using the arrow keys on my keyboard,
| | 07:04 | pressing the left arrow to just move
Layer 1 over a bit to the left. I think
| | 07:10 | that looks fine and it does create
the illusion that she is holding this
| | 07:14 | poster. So that's how you can use the
Layer via Copy or Layer via Cut commands
| | 07:19 | to create a new layer that
gives you this interesting effect.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Making layers by combining images| 00:00 | Another way to make new layers in a
file is to bring in content from other files.
| | 00:06 | In this case, I have two files.
This one has some foreground images that
| | 00:10 | I like, these pieces of candy, each of
which is on a separate layer which I can
| | 00:14 | show you by Option or Alt-clicking on
their layers, and a model on a separate layer,
| | 00:19 | and there's also a background.
| | 00:21 | I'll Option or Alt-click to bring all
the layers back. I would like to bring
| | 00:26 | the candies and the model into this
image. I'll click on its tab to make it
| | 00:30 | active, which just has a background and
some text. So I'll go back to the first
| | 00:35 | image by clicking on its tab. One way
to bring content in from this image is to
| | 00:40 | just copy and paste. So I'll click on
the model layer in the Layers panel to
| | 00:44 | select that layer, and then I'm going
to go up to the Select menu and choose All,
| | 00:48 | or press the keyboard shortcut,
Command+A on the Mac, Ctrl+A on the PC to
| | 00:53 | select the entire content of this
layer. Then I'll go to the Edit menu.
| | 00:58 | And from there I'll choose Copy. Or more
likely I would use the common keyboard
| | 01:02 | shortcut Command+C or Ctrl+C on a PC.
Then I would click on the tab for the
| | 01:08 | first image, and here I would click on
whichever layer I wanted the new layer
| | 01:14 | to come in above. In this case, I'll
bring it in right above the background layer.
| | 01:18 | Then I'll go to the Edit menu at the
top of the screen, and choose Paste or
| | 01:22 | I could use the keyboard shortcut
Command+V on the Mac, Ctrl+V on the PC, and
| | 01:27 | that brought the model into the image.
Notice in the Layers panel, there is a
| | 01:31 | brand new layer1, and that layer
contains just the model. I'll Option or
| | 01:35 | Alt-click on the eye icon to show you
that and again, Option or Alt-click to
| | 01:40 | turn the other layers back on. So
this technique is okay, but it's a lot of
| | 01:45 | menu commands or a lot of shortcuts,
and it puts the content directly in
| | 01:50 | the center of the second image. So then I
would have to get the Move tool and move
| | 01:54 | this model into place.
| | 01:56 | However, because these two images are
the same size, in just one step, I can
| | 02:01 | get the model in exactly the same
position in the second image that she was in
| | 02:05 | in the first. So I'm going to delete
the model layer by clicking on layer1 and
| | 02:10 | dragging it to to the trashcan at
the bottom of the Layers panel and
| | 02:14 | I'm going to do this again using
another technique. I'll go back to
| | 02:17 | chocobar.psd and I'm going to
deselect the selection there by going to the
| | 02:22 | Select menu and choosing Deselect or
pressing Command+D on a Mac or Ctrl+D on a PC.
| | 02:28 | Now with the Model layer selected
in the Layers panel, and the Move tool
| | 02:33 | selected in the toolbox, I'm going to
click anywhere in this image and drag up
| | 02:37 | to the tab for the destination image.
I'll hover there for just a moment and
| | 02:42 | that switches me to the destination
image. Then I'll move over this image and
| | 02:45 | I still have my mouse held down and
here's the secret. I'm going to hold the
| | 02:49 | Shift key and then I'll release my
mouse when I see part of the gray box over
| | 02:54 | this image and then I'll release the Shift key.
| | 02:57 | That registers the two images, so that
the model is in exactly the same place
| | 03:01 | here that she was in the original
image. I can do the same thing with
| | 03:06 | multiple layers. So if I go back to
chocobar.psd by clicking on its tab,
| | 03:11 | and I go to the Layers panel and select the
first of the chocolate layers, hold the
| | 03:15 | Shift key and select the bottom-most
of the chocolate layers to select all
| | 03:19 | three of those. Again, with the Move
tool, I'll click anywhere in this image,
| | 03:24 | drag up, hover over the tab for the
destination image. I'll hold down the Shift key
| | 03:31 | and when the gray box is over the
image, I'll release the mouse and then
| | 03:35 | I'll release the Shift key and those
pieces of chocolate went right into the
| | 03:39 | same place that they were
in the chocobar document.
| | 03:43 | Now that's not all that there is to
compositing images. You can also blend
| | 03:47 | images that aren't selected against
the transparent background by using layer masks.
| | 03:51 | You can transform the size of
the images as you put them together.
| | 03:55 | You can use blend modes, and lots more,
but I did want to show you the basics of
| | 04:00 | compositing images and the fact that
that automatically creates new layers as
| | 04:06 | you move content from one file to another.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Organizing LayersNaming layers| 00:00 | One of the simplest but most
effective ways that you can keep track of many
| | 00:04 | layers in a multilayer document is to
give a meaningful name to each layer,
| | 00:08 | taking care of this housekeeping tour
upfront, will pay off later, when you are
| | 00:12 | working on the image and you need
to find a particular layer fast.
| | 00:15 | By default, layer names are generic,
like the ones you see here, Layer2,
| | 00:20 | Layer1, Layer0 and so on. So it's hard
to distinguish them by those names. If I
| | 00:27 | make another new layer by going down to
the Create New Layer icon at the bottom
| | 00:30 | of the Layers panel, it will also come
in with a generic name. I can give this
| | 00:35 | layer a meaningful name by double-
clicking on its layer name, and typing
| | 00:39 | something else. So I'll type White
Chocolate here, and then I'll click off of
| | 00:45 | that text editing box to close it.
One thing to watch out for when you are
| | 00:49 | renaming a layer like that is that
you have to click directly on the layer
| | 00:54 | name. For example, here on Layer2, if
I would have double-clicked just to the
| | 00:57 | right of the layer name, on the blank
part of the layer, or over on the layer
| | 01:01 | thumbnail, watch what happens. This
big layer style dialog box comes up. I'll
| | 01:07 | be covering layer styles in a later
movie, but that's not what I'm doing right now.
| | 01:10 | I just wanted to change the name
of that layer. So I'm going to cancel out
| | 01:14 | of here, and the way around that
problem is just to make sure that you
| | 01:17 | double-click directly on the layer
name when you want to change it. You may
| | 01:21 | prefer to add the layer name at the same
time that you are creating a new layer.
| | 01:25 | One way to do that is to hold down the
Alt key on a PC or the Option key on a
| | 01:30 | Mac, as you click on the Create New
Layer button at the bottom of the Layers
| | 01:34 | panel. That will open the New Layer
dialog box, where you can type a name in
| | 01:38 | the Name field. So I'll call this one
Special Chocolate, and I'll click OK, and
| | 01:44 | the layer comes into the image with
that meaningful name right from the get-go.
| | 01:49 | There are a couple of cases when you
don't have to worry about naming a layer.
| | 01:52 | For example, if you make a type layer
like this one here, you don't have to
| | 01:56 | worry about giving it a name, because
its name comes from the text that you
| | 02:00 | type. In this case, Fine Chocolates,
or in this case, from the Netherlands.
| | 02:05 | You can see that that's the automatic name
of this type layer, or if you bring in a
| | 02:11 | layer from another file, and I'll
scroll down to show you one like that, and
| | 02:16 | the layer has a name as this one did in
the original source file, then it will
| | 02:20 | bring that name with it
when it comes into your file.
| | 02:23 | So you don't have to worry about naming
it. Giving layers meaningful names is a
| | 02:26 | really good habit to get into, and
being strict about it can save you time and
| | 02:31 | headaches later on when you are
working on an image and you just need to out
| | 02:35 | your finger on a particular layer fast.
So do try to remember to give all your
| | 02:39 | layers meaningful names.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Managing layers with layer groups| 00:00 | When you have lots of layers in one
image, it's a good idea to combine related
| | 00:04 | layers into layer groups. Layer groups
keep your Layers panel organized, and
| | 00:09 | they'll help you to move, transform and
perform other tasks on multiple layers at once.
| | 00:14 | This bar in the Layers panel, Group 1,
is a layer group. I'll click the arrow to
| | 00:18 | the left of this group so that you can
see that it contains five layers, each
| | 00:22 | of which is indented to the right,
and by the way, each of these layers
| | 00:26 | contains one of the five dots
that you see down here in the image.
| | 00:30 | I am going to click the arrow to the
left of this group to collapse the group.
| | 00:34 | Doing that reduces the number of
separate items in the Layers panel, and it
| | 00:38 | helps make the Layers panel more organized.
| | 00:40 | So how do you make a layer group? One
way is to create the group first and then
| | 00:45 | drag layers into it. Like layers, a
layer group will come into the layer stack,
| | 00:50 | above which every layer
is selected at the moment.
| | 00:52 | So if I want to make a layer group
above the Fine Chocolates layer, I'll click
| | 00:56 | on the Fine Chocolates layer to select
it, and then to create the layer group,
| | 01:01 | I'll go down to the bottom of the
Layers panel and I'm going to click the third
| | 01:04 | icon from the right, which is the
Create New Layer Group icon. That brings in
| | 01:09 | this empty layer group called Group 2.
It's important to name groups just like
| | 01:14 | it's important to name layers so that
you can distinguish one from the other.
| | 01:18 | So I'm going to double-click right on
the name Group 2 to open the Text Edit
| | 01:22 | field, and I'll type message group here,
and then I'll click off of the Text
| | 01:28 | Edit field to close it. To bring layers into
this layer group, I can click and drag layers.
| | 01:34 | So I'll click on the divine layer,
and then I'll drag it into the message
| | 01:37 | group, and when I see the bold outline
around message group, I'll release my
| | 01:41 | mouse. You can see the divine layer is now
indented to the right inside of the message group.
| | 01:47 | I can bring multiple layers at a time
into a group. So if I want to bring both
| | 01:51 | these type layers in, I'll click on one
of the type layers, and then I'll hold
| | 01:55 | the Command key on a Mac or the Ctrl
key on a PC. As I click on the other one
| | 01:59 | of those layers, and with them both
selected, I'll click and drag on either
| | 02:03 | one, up on top of message group until I see
the bold outline, and then I'll release my mouse.
| | 02:10 | I now have three layers inside of the
message group, and when I click the arrow
| | 02:14 | to the left of message group, the group
collapses with all three layers inside
| | 02:19 | of it. I'll click that arrow again to
expand the group. If I wanted to include
| | 02:24 | some more layers in here, I could drag
them in it any time, or if I wanted to
| | 02:29 | make a new blank layer inside of this
group, then with the group expanded like
| | 02:34 | this and selected, I would go to the
Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the
| | 02:38 | Layers panel, and click there, and
in would come this new blank layer.
| | 02:42 | I am going to leave that blank for now,
and I'll collapse this message group.
| | 02:47 | Another way to make a new group is to
select layers first, and then to make a
| | 02:51 | group from the selected layers; that
are actually the way that I usually do it.
| | 02:56 | Let's say I would like to put the
content of this white box and this green and
| | 03:00 | white background into a layer group
that contains these background elements.
| | 03:05 | I'll select the rectangle shape layer
that contains the white box, and then
| | 03:08 | I'll hold the Command key on a Mac, the Ctrl
key on a PC as I click on the pool layer too.
| | 03:15 | Now with both those layers selected,
I'm going to go up to the panel menu icon
| | 03:19 | at the top right of the Layers panel.
I'll click there, and from the menu that
| | 03:23 | appears, I'll choose New Group from Layers.
| | 03:27 | Now I have a chance to name the group
as I make it, so I'm going to call this
| | 03:31 | background group, and I'll click OK.
You can see that the two layers have been
| | 03:37 | collapsed into the new background
group. If I click at 0, you can see those
| | 03:42 | layers indented there. I'll collapse
that group one more time, and you can
| | 03:46 | start to see that the Layers panel is
really becoming organized and manageable.
| | 03:51 | I can even make a super layer group
that contains other layer groups nested
| | 03:56 | inside of it. So for example, I have
here my message group; if you remember it
| | 04:00 | has these four layers in it, and I have
this Group 1, which has the five dot layers.
| | 04:07 | I am going to give Group 1 a meaningful
name by double-clicking on the Group 1
| | 04:12 | name and typing dots group instead and
then clicking off of that. Now I have
| | 04:19 | the dots group selected, I'm going to
also select the message group by holding
| | 04:23 | the Command key on the Mac, the Ctrl key
on the PC and clicking on message group.
| | 04:29 | With the two groups selected, I'll go
up to the panel menu at the top right of
| | 04:32 | the Layers panel again, and again
I'll choose New Group from Layers.
| | 04:37 | I am going to call this umbrella group,
my logo group, and I'll click OK. So
| | 04:44 | now I have one umbrella group, the
logo group, and if I expand that, you can
| | 04:48 | see that there are two other groups
nested inside of the logo group, and what
| | 04:53 | that means is that all of the layers
here; the three type layers and all five
| | 04:58 | of these dot layers are
nested inside of the logo group.
| | 05:02 | One caveat is that layers have to be
next to one another in the layer stack to
| | 05:06 | be part of a layer group. So for
example, if I wanted to put into a group the
| | 05:11 | three layers that contain pieces of
chocolate, the gold chocolate layer, which
| | 05:15 | contains this piece of chocolate, the
dark chocolate layer which contains this
| | 05:19 | piece of chocolate, and the red
chocolate layer which contains this piece of
| | 05:23 | chocolate here; I cannot do that, and
the reason is that this green swirl is on
| | 05:29 | top of the red piece of chocolate, and
I want it stay there. That's my design.
| | 05:33 | So I need this swirl2 shape layer to
be on top of the red chocolate, but
| | 05:38 | beneath the gold and dark chocolate
to create this particular look in the
| | 05:42 | image. Although I can't group together
these three chocolate layers, there is a
| | 05:48 | solution; I can link them to one
another, and I'm going to show you how to do
| | 05:51 | that in another movie in this chapter.
| | 05:53 | Layer groups are a great way to keep
your Layers panel organized as you have
| | 05:56 | seen, but that's not the only function
of layer groups. They also give you the
| | 06:01 | opportunity to perform some
tasks on multiple layers at once.
| | 06:05 | For example, you can move or scale, or
otherwise transform the content of multi
| | 06:10 | layers at once by working on a layer
group. To act on a layer group, you have
| | 06:15 | to select it first, just like a layer.
So if I wanted to for example, move the
| | 06:21 | message group, which contains these
three layers all at once, I would first
| | 06:25 | have to click on the message group to
select it, and then with the Move tool
| | 06:29 | selected, I can click and drag, and
all three layers move around together.
| | 06:34 | Another way to select an entire group
is to use the Auto-Select function. I'll
| | 06:38 | show you that here on the background
group. So I'm going to expand that group,
| | 06:43 | it's not part of the technique, but
I want you to be able to see what's
| | 06:46 | happening to the layers inside that group.
| | 06:48 | Then I'll go to the Move tool, I'll
make sure that's selected in the Toolbox,
| | 06:52 | and I'll go up to the Options bar, and
then I'm going to click Auto-Select. I'm
| | 06:57 | also going to change the Layer menu to Group.
| | 07:01 | Now if I come into the image and I
click on this white box, keep your eye on
| | 07:06 | the Layers panel, and you'll see that
background group has been automatically
| | 07:10 | selected. By contrast, if I had left
Auto-Select at Auto-Select layer, and then
| | 07:16 | had clicked on that white
box, watch what happens.
| | 07:19 | Just the rectangle shape layer inside
the background group is selected. So
| | 07:24 | that's an easy and quick way to select
an entire group by enabling Auto-Select,
| | 07:29 | choosing Group from the Auto-Select
menu in the Options bar, and then clicking
| | 07:33 | on any layer in that group
to select the entire group.
| | 07:36 | I am going to go up and uncheck Auto-
Select, which is always a good idea,
| | 07:40 | because this feature that can surprise you
later if you forgot that you have left it on.
| | 07:44 | There are other things that I can do
to an entire group of layers at once. So
| | 07:49 | for example, let's say that I select
the entire logo group here by clicking on
| | 07:54 | it in the Layers panel. I can transform
the entire group as one. So if I go up
| | 08:00 | to the Edit menu and down to Free
Transform, or I press Command+T on a Mac, or
| | 08:06 | Ctrl+T on a PC, I get this bounding box
around the content of the entire logo group.
| | 08:12 | I am going to hold my Shift key to
constrain proportions, and I'm going to
| | 08:16 | click on one of the anchor points of
that entire group and drag, and that will
| | 08:20 | make all of the layers in the group
smaller, and then I'll click the check-mark
| | 08:24 | up in the Options bar to accept that change.
| | 08:27 | Let's say that I'm done with the group,
I want to get rid of the group, but I
| | 08:30 | want to keep the layers that were
inside the group. One way to do that is to go
| | 08:35 | to the group, say the dots group, hold
down the Ctrl key on a Mac and click on
| | 08:39 | that group, that's right-click on the
PC, and from the contextual menu that
| | 08:44 | appears, choose Ungroup Layers.
| | 08:47 | If I chose Delete Group, that would get
rid of the entire group and its layers,
| | 08:51 | but if I choose Ungroup Layers, I now
have all the individual layers still in
| | 08:55 | my file but the dot
group itself has disappeared.
| | 08:59 | If I did want to get rid of entire
group and its layers, one way to do that
| | 09:03 | would be to take that group and drag it
down to the thrash can at the bottom of
| | 09:07 | the Layers panel, and now the entire
group and its contents are gone, and the
| | 09:12 | only way I could get them back would be to undo
or to move up the states in the History panel.
| | 09:18 | If you are working with a file that has
multiple layers like this one, I think
| | 09:22 | you can see the advantages of taking a
minute to organize it into layer groups.
| | 09:26 | Layer groups will keep your Layers
panel organized and manageable, and will
| | 09:31 | help you to get things done on
more than one layer at a time.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Linking layers| 00:00 | There are situations when you want
layers to be attached to one another, but
| | 00:05 | you can't group them into layer groups,
a subject that I covered in an earlier
| | 00:08 | movie in this chapter. The solution in
that case could be to link the layers
| | 00:12 | together using the Link feature.
| | 00:14 | An example is this file where I have
three chocolate layers, the gold chocolate
| | 00:19 | layer, the dark chocolate layer and
the red chocolate layer, each containing
| | 00:23 | one of these three pieces of chocolate.
I want the red chocolate layer to be
| | 00:27 | beneath this green spiral in the design.
So I have to leave this swirl2 shape
| | 00:32 | layer where it is, above the red
chocolate layer but below the other two layers.
| | 00:37 | That means that I can't meet a
prerequisite for putting the three chocolate
| | 00:41 | layers into a layer group because
layers have to be next to one another in the
| | 00:45 | Layers panel if they are going to
be in a group. I do want these three
| | 00:49 | chocolate layers to be attached to one
another, so that they stay in the same
| | 00:52 | relative positions vis-a-vis one
another. So what I can do is to select all
| | 00:58 | three layers and then link them.
| | 01:00 | I will click on the gold chocolate layer,
I'll hold the Command key on a Mac or
| | 01:04 | the Ctrl key on a PC, I'll click on the
dark chocolate layer and I'll keep the
| | 01:08 | Command or Ctrl key pressed down as I
click on the red chocolate layer. Now
| | 01:12 | they are attached temporarily, but
this isn't the kind of permanent solution
| | 01:16 | that I'm looking for in this case. To
get that, I'm going to go down to the
| | 01:20 | Link icon at the bottom of the Layers
panel and click and now you can see that
| | 01:24 | there is a Link icon on each
one of the selected layers.
| | 01:28 | I am going to click off all of the
layers and notice that the Link icon
| | 01:31 | disappears and that's one of the
problems with the Link feature as I'll
| | 01:36 | describe in more detail in a few
minutes, but for now, let's see what happens
| | 01:40 | when these layers are linked together.
| | 01:42 | If I select anyone of the layers, say
the red chocolate layer and then I get
| | 01:46 | the Move tool and I drag, the three
pieces of chocolate move together. So that
| | 01:51 | is a solution in this case and there
are other things that I could do to the
| | 01:55 | three layers other than just move them together.
| | 01:58 | So for example, I could go to the Edit
menu, go down to Transform and I could
| | 02:03 | go over to Scale and then I can
click and drag and all three pieces of
| | 02:09 | chocolate are scaled together even
though only one of their layers is selected
| | 02:13 | here in the Layers panel because the
other two are linked to that layer.
| | 02:17 | I am going to click the check mark in
the Transform Options bar to accept that
| | 02:21 | change. Now let's say that I would like
to affect just two pieces of chocolate
| | 02:26 | and not the third, I can temporarily
unlink one of the pieces of chocolate this way.
| | 02:30 | I'm going to unlink the dark chocolate.
To do that, I'm going to hold down
| | 02:36 | the Shift key as I click on a link on
the dark chocolate layer and that adds
| | 02:41 | this red X on top of the Link symbol.
| | 02:44 | Now, with just one of the other two
layers selected in the Layers panel,
| | 02:49 | I'll perform another Transform function.
I'm going to go up to the Edit menu and
| | 02:53 | down to Transform and this time I'm
going to choose Flip Horizontal and as you
| | 02:58 | can see, the gold chocolate and the red
chocolate have flipped as if they have
| | 03:03 | been turned over horizontally, but
the dark chocolate hasn't because it was
| | 03:08 | temporarily unlinked from the other two.
| | 03:10 | To re-enable that link, I'll put my
mouse over red X and hold the Shift key as
| | 03:15 | I click on the red X and now all three
layers are linked once again. So if I
| | 03:20 | take the Move tool and move, they all
three move together. Let's say that I
| | 03:25 | want to unlink the dark chocolate
layer permanently from the other two. To do
| | 03:29 | that, I'll select the dark chocolate
layer and then I'll go down to the Link
| | 03:33 | icon at the bottom of the Layers
panel and click it and now I only have two
| | 03:38 | layers linked to each other and
that dark chocolate layer is separate.
| | 03:41 | So if I select anyone of the two
remaining linked layers and drag, only those
| | 03:46 | two pieces of chocolate move. Finally,
to unlink all the linked layers that
| | 03:51 | remain, I'll select those linked layers,
there are only two now. So I'm going
| | 03:56 | to hold the Command key on a Mac,
the Ctrl key on a PC to add the gold
| | 04:00 | chocolate layer to this selection and
I'll go down to the Link icon and I'll
| | 04:04 | click there and everything is now unlinked.
| | 04:07 | Then I'll click on this blank portion
of the Layers panel to deselect all the
| | 04:11 | layers. So, linked layers did help in
this situation, but in general, I prefer
| | 04:17 | using layer groups to linked layers
whenever I can. The big reason for that is
| | 04:21 | it's not always easy to see which
layers are linked together and that can cause
| | 04:25 | mistakes. So for example, let's say
that I linked together the two swirl shape
| | 04:31 | layers, this one and this one.
| | 04:36 | I will do that by selecting swirl shape
1, I'll hold down the Command key on a
| | 04:42 | Mac, the Ctrl key on a PC and I'll
select the swirl shape 2 and as I have
| | 04:47 | already shown you, I'll link the two
selected layers together, by clicking the
| | 04:50 | Link icon. As soon as I click off of
those layers onto another layer, the Link
| | 04:55 | icons disappear. So it's impossible to
know that these layers are linked right
| | 04:59 | now and the problem is even worse if I
have lots and lots of layers in the file.
| | 05:04 | For example, if I open this logo group,
into which I have collapsed a lot of
| | 05:09 | layers and I open one of the nested
groups there, the message group and then
| | 05:14 | the dots group. Now, I can't even see
either of those swirl layers and I really
| | 05:18 | have no way to know what's linked
to what. So let's say that I were to
| | 05:23 | Auto-Select one of these swirls by
clicking on the Move tool and in the Move
| | 05:27 | Tool Options bar, selecting Auto-
Select and making sure this menu is set to
| | 05:32 | Layer and then coming in and clicking
on one of the swirls and we'll probably
| | 05:36 | be very surprised that both of the
swirls move together because I can't see
| | 05:40 | right now in the Layers panel
that these two layers are linked.
| | 05:44 | So I suggest that you do use layer
groups whenever you want to join layers
| | 05:48 | together permanently, but do keep in
mind that there is a Link Layer icon and
| | 05:53 | that linking layers can come in handy
when you can't group layers together
| | 05:57 | because of their position in the layer stack.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Labeling layers| 00:00 | Photoshop has a color labeling system
that you can use to further organize your
| | 00:04 | Layers panel. Let's say that I have
lots of layers in the Layers panel and I
| | 00:09 | want to remember which layers are
related to others but I don't want to link
| | 00:13 | them together or put them in groups.
| | 00:14 | In that case, I can just color-code
them. So, for example, here I have two
| | 00:19 | swirl shape layers. The swirl1 shape
layer contains this small swirl over here
| | 00:24 | and the swirl2 shape layer contains
this larger swirl. I'd like to give both of
| | 00:29 | these layers the same color code.
| | 00:31 | In order to do so, I have to select
them one by one. So I'm going to hold down
| | 00:35 | the Ctrl key as I click on the swirl1
shape layer, that's right-click on the PC
| | 00:41 | and from the contextual menu, I'm going
to choose Layer Properties. That opens
| | 00:45 | the Layer Properties dialog box. Here,
from the Color menu, I'm going to choose
| | 00:50 | Red as a Color Label and I'll click OK
and you can see that Red label here on
| | 00:55 | the left side of the swirl1 shape layer.
| | 00:58 | I'll do the same thing on the swirl2
shape layer, but just to show you that you
| | 01:01 | can access these labels from the Layer
menu, this time when I select the layer,
| | 01:07 | I'll go up to the Layer menu at the
top of the screen and down to Layer
| | 01:10 | Properties. I get the same Layer
Properties dialog box where I can go to the
| | 01:15 | Color menu and choose Red and click OK.
| | 01:18 | Now I know visually that those two
layers are related. I also can color-code
| | 01:23 | layer groups. So up here, I have the
message layer group. I'll expand it so you
| | 01:28 | can see that it contains these three
layers. If I click on the message layer
| | 01:33 | group, I'm going to go back up to the
Layer menu and down to, this time, Group
| | 01:39 | Properties rather than Layer Properties.
| | 01:42 | In the Group Properties dialog box,
I'll go to the Color menu and I'm going to
| | 01:46 | choose another color this time, I'll
choose Green and I'd say OK. Notice that
| | 01:51 | is color-coded in Green, not only
the message group, but all three of the
| | 01:55 | layers contained inside the message
group and the group didn't have to be open
| | 01:59 | for this to happen.
| | 02:02 | I could use the same Green or Red
layer on any other layers or groups in the
| | 02:05 | file. So if I want to indicate to
myself that the dots layer is related to the
| | 02:10 | layers in the message group, I'll
click on the dots layer. I'll go up to the
| | 02:14 | Layer panel and I'll come down to
Layer Properties. From the Color menu, I'll
| | 02:19 | choose Green and click OK and now
the dots layer also has a Green label.
| | 02:25 | How do you remove labels? To do that,
I just make sure that I have the
| | 02:28 | color-coded layer selected in the
Layers panel, in this case, the dots layer.
| | 02:33 | Then I'll go up to the Layer menu and
I'll go down to Layer Properties. From
| | 02:39 | the Color menu in the Layer Properties
dialog box, I'm going to choose None.
| | 02:43 | I'll click OK and the color-coded
label is removed from the dots layer. These
| | 02:49 | color labels come in most handy when
you have lots and lots of layers in a file
| | 02:53 | and you want to remind yourself which
layers are related to one another. Then
| | 02:57 | you can use these color-coded labels to
remind yourself of these relationships.
| | 03:01 | But just remember that these are just
visual symbols and they don't have any
| | 03:04 | effect on the layers like
linking them together in any way.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Locking layers| 00:00 | Photoshop has a series of locks
that you can use to lock down various
| | 00:04 | properties of layers in a file. The
Locks are located here at the top of the
| | 00:08 | Layers panel. The first of these is the
complete Lock and it not only protects
| | 00:13 | the layer from being moved, but it also
protects the pixels of a layer from being changed.
| | 00:18 | So, for example, you won't be able to
paint on or fill a layer that contains
| | 00:22 | the complete Lock. To see how it works,
I have the divine layer selected here.
| | 00:27 | The divine layer contains just this
little area here with the divine logo and
| | 00:32 | this white background.
| | 00:34 | I spent a lot of time working on
this and I don't want it to be changed
| | 00:37 | inadvertently as I work on the rest of
the file. So I'm going to lock it down
| | 00:41 | by making sure the layer is selected
and then clicking the complete Lock icon.
| | 00:46 | Now, if I get the Move tool in the
Toolbox and I try to move, I'm told that
| | 00:51 | I can't because this layer is locked.
I'll click OK. If get the Paintbrush and
| | 00:56 | I try to paint on the layer, again I
can't because the layer is locked. If I go
| | 01:02 | to the Edit menu and I try to fill the
layer, no, because the layer is locked.
| | 01:09 | If I go to the Filter menu, I see
that I have no filters available.
| | 01:15 | So this really is a complete Lock that
will protect a finished layer. I'm now
| | 01:20 | going to select the rectangle layer
here. I'd like to be able to move this
| | 01:24 | rectangle, but I do want to protect it
from any color or pixel-based changes.
| | 01:29 | So, I'm going to go to the Image
Lock, which is this one here with the
| | 01:32 | Paintbrush on it. I'll click that lock
with the rectangle layer selected and
| | 01:36 | that adds a partial lock
icon to the rectangle layer.
| | 01:41 | Now, with the Paintbrush selected,
I can't paint on this layer but if I get
| | 01:46 | the Move tool, I can move the layer.
I'll put the layer back in place by pressing
| | 01:52 | Command+Z to undo on the Mac. That's
Ctrl+Z on the PC. I'm going to select
| | 01:58 | another layer, the pool layer here,
which contains this green and white pool in
| | 02:02 | the background, so that I can show you
what happens if I lock down this layer
| | 02:07 | with the Position Lock right here.
| | 02:09 | I'll click that lock and you can see
the partial lock icon on the pool layer.
| | 02:15 | Now, with the Move tool selected, if
I click-and-drag in the image, I can't
| | 02:21 | move the locked pool layer. I'll click OK,
but if I got my Paintbrush, I could
| | 02:27 | paint on that layer because it's only the
position of the layer that's being protected.
| | 02:31 | I'm going to undo that change by
pressing Command+Z on the Mac or Ctrl+Z on the PC.
| | 02:37 | Finally, I'll show you the fourth lock, the
Transparency Lock, by selecting the swirls layer.
| | 02:43 | I'm going to Option-click or Alt-
click on the eye icon to the left of the
| | 02:46 | swirls layer so that you can see
that this layer has some thin swirls
| | 02:51 | surrounded by transparent pixels. What
the Transparency Lock will do is protect
| | 02:57 | the transparent pixels from any change
and that means that if I want to change
| | 03:02 | just the swirls, I can go ahead
and lock down the transparent pixels.
| | 03:06 | This is a really efficient and fast
way to change the color of pixels on a
| | 03:10 | transparent background. To see how it
works, I'll Option-click or Alt-click
| | 03:14 | again on the eye icon to the left of
the swirls layer and with that layer
| | 03:19 | selected, I'll get the
Transparency Lock and click it.
| | 03:22 | There is the partial lock on the
swirls layer. Now, with the Brush tool
| | 03:27 | selected and paint of any color in the
foreground color box, if I come in and
| | 03:31 | start brushing on the transparent
pixels, nothing happens. But if I move my
| | 03:36 | brush over one of the swirls, they do
take this paint because they are not made
| | 03:41 | of transparent pixels.
| | 03:43 | Now, let's see what happens if I
select more than one layer and try to lock
| | 03:47 | multiple layers down. I'd like to
protect all three pieces of chocolate here
| | 03:51 | from being inadvertently moved, so
I'm going to click on the gold chocolate layer.
| | 03:56 | I'll hold down the Command key
on the Mac, the Ctrl key on a PC, as I click
| | 04:00 | on the dark chocolate layer and
still holding the Command or Ctrl key,
| | 04:04 | I'll click on the red chocolate layer.
| | 04:07 | If you look at the Lock icons here,
you can see that they're not available.
| | 04:11 | They are all grayed out. But this
doesn't mean that I'm prevented from applying
| | 04:15 | layer locks to these multiple layers.
There is a way to do it, but it's kind of
| | 04:20 | a hidden way and that is to go up to
the Layer menu and there go down to Lock Layers.
| | 04:27 | That opens this Lock Layers dialog box
that shows all four flavors of Lock.
| | 04:33 | So with these three layers selected in
the Layers panel, I'm going to go ahead
| | 04:38 | and click the Position Lock and I'll
click OK and you can see that each one of
| | 04:43 | those layers now has a partial lock on it.
| | 04:46 | So if I were to select just one of the
layers and select the Move tool on the
| | 04:50 | Toolbox and try to drag, I wouldn't be
able to because that layer is locked and
| | 04:56 | the same is true of the gold chocolate
layer and the dark chocolate layer.
| | 05:02 | Each one has a Position Lock, but I still
could paint or filter or fill any one of
| | 05:08 | those three layers.
| | 05:09 | If I wanted to remove the lock from a
layer, then I would select the layer, say
| | 05:14 | this divine layer, and I can see the
lock that I had applied to this layer
| | 05:17 | highlighted in the lock icons here at
the top of the Layers panel. To remove
| | 05:22 | that lock, I'll just click that icon
and now the lock is gone. With the Move tool,
| | 05:27 | I could move the content of
the divine layer; I could paint on the
| | 05:30 | content or make any changes that
I normally could do to a layer.
| | 05:34 | What if I wanted to remove multiple
locks at once, like the locks on the three
| | 05:38 | chocolate layers. I'll select each one
of those layers by clicking the first
| | 05:42 | chocolate layer and then holding the
Command key on the Mac, the Ctrl key on
| | 05:46 | the PC and clicking the
other two chocolate layers.
| | 05:49 | Again, I'm not able to remove the lock
from here in the Layers panel, but I can
| | 05:54 | if I go up to the Layer menu and go
down to Lock Layers, and there I can
| | 05:59 | uncheck Position to remove the lock.
When I click OK the lock is gone from all
| | 06:04 | three of the selected layers.
| | 06:06 | So that's how you can use the four
different flavors of layer locks to protect
| | 06:11 | different properties of
your layers in Photoshop.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Aligning and Distributing LayersAligning with the Move tool options| 00:00 | Sometimes you'll want to align the
content of multiple layers, one layer with
| | 00:04 | the other. For example, in this file, I
have four pieces of candy; each one is
| | 00:09 | located on a separate layer.
| | 00:11 | I will Option-click or Alt-click the
eye icon to the left of each candy layer,
| | 00:14 | that's Option-click on the Mac or Alt-
click on the PC, so that you can see that
| | 00:19 | each piece of candy is on a separate
layer surrounded by transparent pixels.
| | 00:24 | I'll Option-click or Alt-click the eye
icon on the topmost candy layer to bring
| | 00:28 | the rest of the layers back.
| | 00:30 | It can be difficult to align
irregularly shaped objects like these, and in that
| | 00:35 | case, it's often helpful to make use
of Photoshop's Auto-Align features to do
| | 00:39 | the job for you. The first step in
auto-aligning layer content is to select
| | 00:44 | that content. So I'm going to click on
the candy 4 layer and then I'm going to
| | 00:48 | hold the Shift key as I
click on the candy 1 layer.
| | 00:51 | Notice by the way that these layers
have links, but those links aren't relevant
| | 00:55 | to the content of this exercise,
they're simply linking each candy layer to a
| | 00:59 | corresponding shadow layer to give the
image a little more dimensional look.
| | 01:03 | Now, with the four candy layers selected,
there are two places that I can go to
| | 01:07 | access Auto-Align commands that will help
me to align these candies one with the other.
| | 01:11 | One of those places is in the Layer
menu at the top of the screen. All the way
| | 01:15 | down here in the Align menu, here
you'll see six commands that you can use to
| | 01:21 | align layer content. I find it a bit
awkward to use this Layer menu and so I
| | 01:25 | prefer to use the very same commands, which
appear as options in the Move Tool Options bar.
| | 01:31 | So I'm going to close that menu and
instead, make sure I have the Move tool
| | 01:35 | selected. You can see here a series of
buttons in the Move Tool Options bar.
| | 01:40 | Starting from left to right, the
first six of these buttons are exactly the
| | 01:44 | same as the commands that I just
showed you in the Layer menu. And of these,
| | 01:49 | the first three are going to help me
to align this content across this image.
| | 01:55 | The next three align vertically and
that's not what I want to do in this case.
| | 01:59 | If I were to click on the first of the
icons, these four pieces of candy will
| | 02:03 | jump up to align themselves with the
topmost pixel of the candy that's highest
| | 02:07 | in the image, in other words, this piece.
| | 02:09 | So I'll click and that's what happens
and with the Move tool and these four
| | 02:14 | candy layers selected, I could click-
and-drag to move the four aligned pieces
| | 02:18 | together into the center of the image,
but instead, I'm going to undo to show
| | 02:23 | you what the other icons do here.
| | 02:25 | So I'll press Command+Z on the Mac or
Ctrl+Z on the PC. Now, I'm going to try
| | 02:30 | this third icon, which will align
layer content by the bottommost pixel and
| | 02:35 | sure enough, these three pieces of
candy have jumped down to align themselves
| | 02:39 | with the bottommost pixel of this piece.
| | 02:41 | I'm going to undo one more time by
pressing Command+Z on the Mac or Ctrl+Z on
| | 02:45 | the PC and I'm going to show you what
this middle icon does. This icon aligns
| | 02:51 | the content of the four layers so that
the center point of the content on each
| | 02:56 | layer is aligned with the center
point of the other layers and that's the
| | 03:00 | result that I wanted.
| | 03:00 | So I'm going to leave them like that
and then in an upcoming movie in this
| | 03:04 | chapter, I'll show you how you can
improve this composition by evenly
| | 03:07 | distributing these four pieces of candy.
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| Distributing with the Move tool options| 00:00 | When you're working on a file that has
individual objects on separate layers,
| | 00:04 | one of the things you can do with
those objects is to distribute them either
| | 00:07 | across the image or down the image with an
equal amount of space between each object.
| | 00:12 | That can be hard to gauge manually,
but you can have Photoshop do it for you
| | 00:16 | using its automatic Distribute features.
To use those features, you have to be
| | 00:20 | working with at least three layers as
I'm here with these three candy layers,
| | 00:25 | each of which has a separate piece of
candy surrounded by transparent pixels.
| | 00:29 | The first step here is to position the
two outermost pieces of candy. I'm going
| | 00:33 | to leave the piece of candy on the
first layer where it is. I'm going to hold
| | 00:37 | the Option key on a Mac or the Alt key
on a PC as I click on the eye icon for
| | 00:41 | the candy 1 layer, so you can see where it is.
| | 00:45 | Then I'm going to select the candy 3
layer and I'm going to get the Move tool.
| | 00:51 | I'm going to hold the Shift key to
constrain vertical movement and move
| | 00:55 | horizontally. I'm going to place that piece of
candy where I'd like it to be, say right there.
| | 01:01 | Now, to distribute the other piece of
candy so that there is an even amount of
| | 01:04 | space between it and the other two,
I'm going to add to the selection here in
| | 01:09 | the Layers panel by holding the Shift
key and clicking on the candy 1 layer and
| | 01:13 | that selects all of the layers in
between, in other words, all three of
| | 01:17 | the candy layers are now selected.
| | 01:19 | To get to the automatic Distribute
features, I could either go to the Layer
| | 01:23 | menu at the top of the screen, down to
Distribute and over to a command, but I
| | 01:28 | prefer to use the very same commands
from here in the Move Tool Options bar.
| | 01:33 | So with the Move tool selected, I'm
going to go to the Options bar and
| | 01:36 | theDistribute commands are these six
right here. The first three control
| | 01:41 | distribution of the content vertically, in
other words, from top to bottom of the image.
| | 01:46 | I'd like to go from left to right
horizontally, so I'm going to use one of the
| | 01:50 | next three icons. I'm going to try this
center icon here, which distributes the
| | 01:55 | content of these selected layers so
that their center points are spaced evenly
| | 02:00 | apart horizontally.
| | 02:01 | I'll click that icon and that does
move that second piece of candy in between
| | 02:06 | the three with what appears to be
pretty even spacing. So that's exactly what I
| | 02:10 | wanted and I'm going to accept that result.
| | 02:13 | At this point, I might grab the Move
tool and drag these icons into place so
| | 02:18 | that they're all in the center of the
image or I could have Photoshop do that
| | 02:21 | for me by aligning the three to a
selection of the entire image as I'll show
| | 02:25 | you how to do in a later movie in this chapter.
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| Aligning with Smart Guides| 00:00 | You don't always have to use
Photoshop's Auto-Align features to align the
| | 00:04 | content of layers, you could try to
do it manually using the Move tool and
| | 00:08 | clicking-and-dragging with a layer
selected. When you do that, take advantage
| | 00:12 | of Photoshop's Smart Guides to
help you to align layered content.
| | 00:17 | The first step in using Smart Guides is
to make sure that they are enabled. To
| | 00:20 | do that, go up to the View menu at the
top of the screen and go down to Show,
| | 00:25 | and go down to Smart Guides. If you
don't see a checkmark there, release your
| | 00:30 | mouse on top of Smart Guides.
| | 00:31 | If you do see a checkmark, just move
out of this menu and release your mouse.
| | 00:36 | I've made a translucent orange box
on the box layer here that you can see
| | 00:41 | behind this piece of candy.
| | 00:43 | I'd like to make a couple more of the
same boxes to put behind these other two
| | 00:46 | pieces of candy. So I'm going to take
that box layer and I'm going to drag it
| | 00:51 | down to the Create New Layer icon at the
bottom of the Layers panel. That makes box copy.
| | 00:56 | I'll copy that one too by dragging box
copy down to the Create New Layer icon
| | 01:01 | and releasing. Now I have three copies
of that orange rectangle, one on top of
| | 01:06 | the other behind this piece of candy.
| | 01:08 | What I'd like to do is to move the top
layer over so that's behind this piece
| | 01:13 | of candy. I have the Move tool
selected, I have box copy 2 selected in the
| | 01:18 | Layers panel, so I'll just start
clicking-and-dragging in the image. As I do,
| | 01:23 | notice the pink lines that are
appearing. They are attempting to line up the
| | 01:28 | item that I'm dragging with other
elements on the screen. So right now, you can
| | 01:33 | see that Photoshop is aligning the box
copy 2 content with the top of the box
| | 01:38 | content and the bottom of the box
content, as well as with the center of the
| | 01:43 | piece of chocolate and with the
left side of the word chocolate.
| | 01:46 | I'm going to keep dragging to the right
and since these three horizontal Smart
| | 01:51 | Guides are telling me that I'm
currently lined up with the other boxes, I'm
| | 01:54 | going to hold down the Shift key to
constrain any inadvertent up and down
| | 01:58 | movement and I'll just keep moving
over to the right. I see Smart Guides
| | 02:02 | appearing as I go telling me what
I'm lined up within at the moment.
| | 02:05 | So right now, for example, I'm right in
the center of this piece of chocolate,
| | 02:09 | but I'll go all the way over to the far
right and I'll release my mouse when I
| | 02:14 | start to see a centerline on
that third piece of chocolate.
| | 02:18 | So now, box copy 2 is perfectly
aligned with the original box copies and it's
| | 02:24 | in the center of this piece of
chocolate. I did all that by just
| | 02:27 | clicking-and-dragging with the Move tool,
keeping my eye on the pink Smart Guides.
| | 02:31 | I'll do the same thing with the box
copy layer. I'll select it in the Layers
| | 02:34 | panel and then with the Move tool,
I'll come in and start dragging to the
| | 02:39 | right. When I see those horizontal
Smart Guides, I'll hold down the Shift key
| | 02:43 | to avoid moving up and down in error
and just come all the way over until I'm
| | 02:47 | in the center of that
middle pieces of chocolate.
| | 02:50 | Right there, when I see that vertical
pink line, I release my mouse and then I
| | 02:55 | release the Shift key. So I now have
three copies of that orange box, all
| | 03:00 | perfectly aligned one with the other
and with their pieces of candy. I did all
| | 03:05 | of that using Smart Guides to show me the way.
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| Aligning with Snap| 00:00 | Photoshop has another feature that may
help you when you are trying to align
| | 00:03 | the content of a layer with the
content of other layers by dragging the layer
| | 00:07 | with Move tool, and that
feature is the Snap To feature.
| | 00:11 | The first step in using that feature is
to see whether it's enabled or not. To
| | 00:14 | do that I'm going to go to the View
menu at the top of the screen and there I
| | 00:18 | can see that snap does have a
checkmark next to it, right here, so it is
| | 00:22 | enabled. Next I want to look at the
Snap To menu to see what items are going to
| | 00:27 | work as snap objects. All of
the items are selected now.
| | 00:31 | Guides, Layers and Document Bounds
which means that the items that I'm dragging
| | 00:35 | on the screen are going to try to snap
to the boundary of content on any layers
| | 00:40 | that they encounter and any guides
that they encounter. So I'm going to move
| | 00:44 | out of this menu with all of that
checked and then with box 2 layer selected
| | 00:49 | and the Move tool selected in the tool
box, now I'm going to come in and start
| | 00:53 | dragging box 2. And as I near the box
on the layer below, notice that box 2
| | 00:59 | automatically snaps to that box, as
if there were a magnet between the two
| | 01:03 | pieces of layered content and that's because
Snap To has been set to snap to other layers.
| | 01:09 | I'll move down and that box snaps
right into place up against the box on the
| | 01:15 | other layer. Now I'm going to select
box 1 and that's this box right here and
| | 01:20 | I'll drag that over the same way and
when it gets close to the other layered
| | 01:24 | content, it snaps right in. Now if I
would select all three of those layers by
| | 01:29 | holding the Shift key and clicking on
the box 3 layer, now when I drag in the
| | 01:33 | document, all three of those layers
move together and then looks seamless with
| | 01:37 | one snapped to the other.
| | 01:39 | Remember it that; that's not the only
thing that your layer content is going to
| | 01:42 | snap to. For example, I still have the
option on to Snap To > Document Bounds.
| | 01:47 | So if I were to take all three boxes
and move up toward the boundary of the
| | 01:51 | image at the top, as soon as I get
near to the top all three of those boxes
| | 01:55 | snap to the top. That can be good,
because it can help you align items, but it
| | 02:00 | also can be annoying, because sometimes
you want to place an item very near to
| | 02:04 | another layered item or very near to a
document bound. And you can't do that
| | 02:08 | because as soon as you get within a couple of
pixels, your content snaps to that other item.
| | 02:14 | So if you are having that trouble,
remember that; that's due to Snap To and go
| | 02:18 | into the View menu and down to Snap
and you can uncheck Snap and thereby
| | 02:24 | disable snapping to all items or you
can come into the Snap To menu and just
| | 02:29 | disable the item that's giving you
problem at the moment, say Document Bounds.
| | 02:33 | So the next time you are trying to
align layered content, make sure that Snap
| | 02:37 | To is on and see if it will help you to
align your content to the content of other layers.
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| Aligning to a selection| 00:00 | Photoshop's automatic alignment
commands are used for not only to align
| | 00:04 | individual objects on separate layers,
one to the other as I showed you how do
| | 00:09 | earlier in this chapter, but these
features are also useful to align layered
| | 00:13 | content to the image itself. In other
words, I can take the three pieces of
| | 00:18 | candy here, each of which is on a
separate layer in this file and align those
| | 00:23 | pieces in the center of the entire
image and I can do the same with this design
| | 00:29 | on the background here.
| | 00:30 | First, I'm going to show you what's
on the design layer here by holding the
| | 00:34 | Option key on a Mac or the Alt key on
a PC and clicking the eye icon to the
| | 00:38 | left of the design layer. And you
can see this design on a transparent
| | 00:42 | background, but it's off-setter. I'll
Option-click or Alt-click that eye icon
| | 00:46 | again to bring the other layers back into view.
| | 00:49 | I'll start with this design layer. I'm
going to select it in the Layers panel
| | 00:53 | and then I'm going to go up to the
Select menu at the top of the screen and I'm
| | 00:57 | going to choose Select All. The
shortcut for that is Command+A on the Mac or
| | 01:02 | Ctrl+A on a PC. And that adds this
marching ants selection around the entire image.
| | 01:07 | I'm going to be centering the design
layer to this selection and I'll do that
| | 01:12 | by going to the Layer menu at the top
of the screen and going down to Align
| | 01:16 | Layers To Selection. First, I'll align
the design from top to bottom vertically
| | 01:21 | by choosing Vertical Centers. And as
you can see the design is moved. With the
| | 01:26 | selection of whole image still active
I'll go back to the Layer menu and this
| | 01:30 | time I'll choose Align Layers To
Selection > Horizontal Centers. And that
| | 01:35 | pushes that design into the horizontal
center of the image. So it's now aligned
| | 01:39 | to the center both horizontally and vertically.
| | 01:42 | If I try to do the same thing with
all three of these pieces of candy, it
| | 01:46 | wouldn't work. Let me show you what
would have happened. With that selection of
| | 01:50 | the entire image still active, if I
went up to the candy 1 layer and clicked on
| | 01:54 | it to select it and then held the
Shift key down and clicked on the candy 3
| | 01:58 | layer to select it, and then went up to
the Layer menu and down to Align Layers
| | 02:03 | To Selection > Horizontal Centers,
all three pieces of candy try to align
| | 02:09 | themselves to the center and that
isn't what I wanted. I wanted the three
| | 02:12 | candies as a group to be aligned to the center.
| | 02:14 | So I'm going to undo, by pressing
Command+Z on the Mac, that's Ctrl+Z on the PC
| | 02:20 | and I'm going to put those three
pieces of candy into a group. To do that as
| | 02:25 | you learned in an earlier movie, I'll
go up to the panel menu and I'll choose
| | 02:29 | New Group from Layers. I'll name this
new group, the candy group. And I'll
| | 02:35 | click OK to create the group with all
three of those layers inside. I'll expand
| | 02:40 | the group so that you can see that the
three candy layers are intended to the
| | 02:43 | right underneath the candy group.
| | 02:45 | Now I'm going to be sure that I have
the candy group selected rather than the
| | 02:49 | individual layers in the group and
I'm going to center the candy group as a
| | 02:52 | whole. I still have the selection
active around the entire image, so I can go
| | 02:56 | up to the Layer menu and I can go down
to Align Layers To Selection, and first
| | 03:01 | I'll align to Vertical Center and
all three of the candies move up to the
| | 03:05 | vertical center of the entire image.
Then I'll go back and again to Layer >
| | 03:11 | Align Layers To Selection and I'll
choose Horizontal Centers. And finally, I'll
| | 03:16 | deselect by pressing Command+D on
the Mac or Ctrl+D on the PC. And that's
| | 03:21 | exactly the look I was going for.
| | 03:24 | So please remember that the auto align
features in Photoshop have more than one
| | 03:28 | function. You can use them to align
individual layers to one another or to
| | 03:32 | align layers to a selection that you
can make around the entire image. And in
| | 03:37 | that way you can center
the content of the layers.
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|
|
5. Layer TransparencySetting transparency preferences| 00:00 | At the very beginning of the course,
I made the analogy that layers are like
| | 00:04 | flat panes of glass stacked one on of
the other and where a layer, like a pane
| | 00:09 | of glass, has no content it's
transparent so you can see down through it to
| | 00:13 | the content of the layers below.
| | 00:16 | The transparent pixels on a layer are
represented in Photoshop by a gray and
| | 00:19 | white checkerboard pattern, like the
one that you see on this single layer file
| | 00:23 | which has an image surrounded by
transparent pixels. Sometimes you may find that
| | 00:29 | the gray and white pattern makes it
difficult to see the edge of an image. So
| | 00:33 | for example, if you are working with
a white image, it may be hard to see
| | 00:36 | against the gray and white checkerboard.
| | 00:38 | If you are in that situation, you can
customize the way that transparency is
| | 00:42 | represented by tweaking a Photoshop
preference. To go to the Preferences, on a
| | 00:46 | Mac I'll go here in the menu bar to the
Photoshop menu. On a PC, I'll go to the
| | 00:51 | Edit menu in the menu bar and from
there I'll choose Preferences and then I'll
| | 00:55 | come over to the categories of Preference
and I'm going to choose Transparency & Gamut.
| | 01:01 | That takes me right to the Preference
that controls the way that grid
| | 01:05 | looks in Photoshop. The default is a
medium grid size with this light gray and
| | 01:10 | white pattern, but I can change it. So
I can make the grid size bigger to make
| | 01:14 | it easier to see by going to this menu
and choosing Large and right away I see
| | 01:19 | a preview here in the Preferences
dialog box and also directly in the image.
| | 01:25 | I can also change the colors of the
grid. I'll click on the Grid Colors menu
| | 01:30 | and as you can see, I can choose
between different shades of gray. I can even
| | 01:35 | choose some preset colors and if I want,
I can customize my own colors. To do that,
| | 01:46 | I can click in either one of
these two boxes, each of which represents
| | 01:50 | some of the squares in the pattern.
I'm going to keep the purple that's there
| | 01:54 | in some of the squares, but I'll click
on this white thumbnail and that opens
| | 01:58 | the Color Picker where I can
change from white to some other color.
| | 02:02 | So maybe I'll choose a darker purple
here. I'm doing this by moving to the
| | 02:06 | purple area in the Hue slider and then
clicking anywhere in this large field to
| | 02:11 | select the color purple
that I want and I'll click OK.
| | 02:14 | And then I'll click OK in the
Preferences dialog box. In the opened image that
| | 02:18 | changes the color of the checkerboard.
I see that the thumbnail isn't updating.
| | 02:23 | But if I were to save and then reopen
this file, the thumbnail would update.
| | 02:27 | These modifications to the checkerboard
pattern would apply to any other image
| | 02:31 | that I open that have transparency
in it or even to a new image. So for
| | 02:36 | example, if I go up to the File menu
and I choose to make a new image, and
| | 02:41 | I'll leave everything at its defaults,
except that I'll make sure that the
| | 02:44 | background contains transparent pixels
and then I'll click OK and that creates
| | 02:50 | a brand-new image with a single
transparent layer and it does have the new
| | 02:54 | purple on purple pattern.
| | 02:56 | This one is actually started to bother
me, so I'm going to show you how I can
| | 03:00 | change back to the default gray and
white checkerboard. I'll go up to the
| | 03:04 | Photoshop menu again and on a PC that's
the Edit menu and to Preferences and to
| | 03:09 | Transparency and Gamut. For grid size,
I'm going to go in and choose Medium,
| | 03:14 | which is the default, and for grid
colors I'll come in and choose Light, which
| | 03:19 | is the default, and I'll click OK.
| | 03:22 | And now this open image shows the
default pattern. Although the thumbnail isn't
| | 03:26 | updating right away, if I saved and
closed and reopened the file, I would see
| | 03:30 | the gray pattern in the thumbnail as
well and if I go back to the other open
| | 03:34 | image, this image also has been
updated to the default pattern.
| | 03:38 | So if you are having troubles seeing
an image against the default gray and
| | 03:41 | white checkerboard that represents
transparency or if you just prefer a
| | 03:45 | different color or size in your
transparency grid, go into Photoshop's
| | 03:49 | Preferences to change the way transparency
is represented in your copy of the program.
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| Loading transparency as a selection| 00:00 | When you are working with a layer
that has transparent pixels around the
| | 00:03 | content, you can do some really useful
techniques like quickly load a selection
| | 00:07 | around the content on that layer. Here
is how you do it and I'll also give you
| | 00:11 | some suggestions for when this
technique is particularly useful.
| | 00:14 | One time that it comes in handy is
when you have an object like these carrots
| | 00:19 | and the greens, which are really
detailed and would be difficult to select. I'm
| | 00:23 | going to hold the Option key on a Mac,
or the Alt key in the PC and click the
| | 00:27 | eye icon to left of the heart layer so
that you can see what the greens look
| | 00:32 | like, and as you can see there are lots
of tiny details here on the leaves. But
| | 00:36 | fortunately, you don't have to spend
time selecting the leaves or the carrots,
| | 00:40 | because they are
surrounded by transparent pixels.
| | 00:42 | All you have to do is this, go to the
heart layer and hold down the Command key
| | 00:47 | on a Mac or the Ctrl key on a PC and
click directly on the layer thumbnail and
| | 00:53 | that automatically selects the
content of the layer without including the
| | 00:57 | transparent pixels which by their nature are
going to selected. So that was a real time saver.
| | 01:04 | Why did I bother so selecting the
heart layer? Well, my idea is to create a
| | 01:08 | more realistic shadow for the heart
than I might get with the Drop Shadow layer
| | 01:12 | style. I'm going to go ahead and turn
the other layers back on by holding down
| | 01:16 | the Option key on a Mac or the Alt key
on the PC. Then I'm going to create a
| | 01:20 | new layer beneath the heart layer. To
do that, I'm going to select the heart
| | 01:23 | layer and I'm going to hold down the
Command key on a Mac or the Ctrl key on a
| | 01:28 | PC as I click the Create New Layer icon
at the bottom of the Layers panel. That
| | 01:33 | brings in this new layer, layer 1
underneath the heart layer. I'll double-click
| | 01:38 | the layer name and give it a more
meaningful name, I'll call this layer shadow
| | 01:42 | and then I'll click off the layer naming box.
| | 01:45 | It's important that the selection is
still active. If yours isn't, you can
| | 01:49 | always go up to the Select menu and
choose Reselect. And then with that
| | 01:53 | selection active, and with the shadow
layer selected in the Layers panel, I'm
| | 01:57 | going to fill with black. I'll go up to
the Edit menu and down to Fill and I'll
| | 02:03 | choose Use Black and click OK. Then
it's important to deselect, because I want
| | 02:08 | to blur the content of the shadow layer
and I don't want the blur to be limited
| | 02:12 | by the boundaries of this selection.
| | 02:14 | So I'll press Command+D on my keyboard,
that's Ctrl+D on a PC to deselect and
| | 02:21 | I'm going to take a quick look at
the content of the new shadow layer by
| | 02:25 | holding the Option key on the Mac, the
Alt key on the PC and clicking on the
| | 02:29 | shadow layer eye icon. So you can see
that the selection was filled with back
| | 02:33 | and in some cases, gray where the
selection was soft on this layer. I'll
| | 02:38 | Option-click or Alt-click again
to bring the other layers back.
| | 02:42 | Now to make the shadow peek out from
behind the carrot, I'm going to blur it.
| | 02:46 | I'm going to use a filter to do that,
the Gaussian Blur filter. Before I apply
| | 02:50 | a filter, I usually convert the layer
into a Smart Object so that whatever
| | 02:56 | filter I apply can be
reopened and reedited later.
| | 02:59 | To do that with the shadow layer
selected, I'll go up to the Filter menu and
| | 03:03 | I'll just choose Convert for Smart
Filters and I'll click OK and you can see
| | 03:08 | the Smart Object icon on this layer
indicating that the layer is ready to take
| | 03:13 | a smart re-editable filter.
| | 03:15 | I will go back to the Filter menu and
down to Blur and over to the Gaussian
| | 03:20 | Blur filter. I'm going to make sure
that Preview is checked in the Gaussian
| | 03:24 | Blur dialog box so that I can see a
preview of the Gaussian Blur as I move the
| | 03:30 | control here in that dialog box. I'm
going to drag the Radius control to the
| | 03:34 | right until that shadow is really blurry;
somewhere around 20 pixels and I'll click OK.
| | 03:41 | To make the shadow a little more
realistic, I'm going to reduce the opacity of
| | 03:44 | the shadow layer by going up to the
Opacity slider at the top of the Layers
| | 03:48 | panel, moving my mouse over the
Opacity level and dragging to the left. I'll
| | 03:54 | reduce it somewhere around 80% and then
I also want to get the Move tool in the
| | 03:59 | toolbox and click and drag a little
with the shadow layer selected to offset
| | 04:03 | the shadow a bit from the carrots.
| | 04:06 | So there is my shadow. I'll Option-
click or Alt-click on the shadow layer so
| | 04:10 | you can see it. It's very faint, but
when the other layers are back on, I think
| | 04:14 | it looks more realistic than the result
I'm likely to get with the Drop Shadow
| | 04:18 | layer style and this technique was made
much easier by the fact that I was able
| | 04:22 | to quickly select the content of the
heart layer, because the content of that
| | 04:26 | layer is surrounded by transparent pixels.
| | 04:29 | This one-click technique for selecting
the content of a transparent layer is
| | 04:33 | also useful for creating a stroke or
a frame. For example, here I have a
| | 04:38 | rounded rectangle, this green rounded
rectangle here. I'll Option-click or
| | 04:42 | Alt-click on its eye icon to show
you that it's surrounded by transparent
| | 04:46 | pixels too. What I would like to do is
to add a stroke a little ways away from
| | 04:52 | the rounded rectangle. I don't have to
create a selection and try to get the
| | 04:56 | selection just the same shape as the
rounded rectangle or bother centering the
| | 05:00 | selection or the stroke, I can do this
all in one step. Here is how I would do
| | 05:04 | it making use of the
transparency on the rounded rectangle layer.
| | 05:08 | First, I'll turn all the other
layers back on by Option-clicking or
| | 05:11 | Alt-clicking on the eye icon on the
rounded rectangle and then I'm going to
| | 05:15 | hold down the Command on the Mac, Ctrl
key on the PC, as I click directly on
| | 05:20 | the rounded rectangle layer
thumbnail and that automatically created this
| | 05:24 | selection hugging the content
of the rounded rectangle layer.
| | 05:28 | Now I'm just going to stretch out this
selection boundary by going up to the
| | 05:32 | Select menu and down to Transform
Selection. I can ignore this message, I'll
| | 05:39 | click OK, and then I'm going to move
my mouse over one of the corner anchor
| | 05:42 | points of the selection boundary and
I'll hold down the Shift key to constrain
| | 05:47 | proportions and here is the key, I'm
also going to hold down the Option key on
| | 05:51 | a Mac or the Alt key on the PC and
what that will do is allow me to scale the
| | 05:56 | boundary from the center outwards.
| | 05:58 | So again, on the Mac, I have Option+
Shift+Held Down and on the PC Alt+Shift,
| | 06:03 | and I'm going to click and drag on one
of these corner anchor points and I'll
| | 06:07 | go about this far and release the
mouse and you can see that the selection
| | 06:11 | boundary has stretched out. So it's a
short distance away from the rounded
| | 06:15 | rectangle, but it's still in the same
shape as the rounded rectangle and it's
| | 06:19 | directly centered on the rounded
rectangle. To accept this transform, I'll go
| | 06:24 | up to the Options bar and
I'll click this checkmark.
| | 06:27 | Now I'm going to create a new layer
and I'm going to add a stroke to this
| | 06:30 | selection that lands on that layer.
I'll click on the rounded rectangle layer
| | 06:36 | and then I'll go down to the Create
New Layer icon and make a new layer above
| | 06:40 | the rounded rectangle. I'll call this
new layer 'stroke layer' and then I'll
| | 06:46 | click off the layer editing box and
then to add the stoke, I'll go up to the
| | 06:51 | Edit menu and down to Stroke.
| | 06:53 | I am going to make a stroke that's
about 2 pixels wide. I don't want it to be
| | 06:58 | black. I would like it to be green. So
I'm going to click in the color field
| | 07:01 | here and then I'll move my mouse out of
the Color Picker that opens and over a
| | 07:06 | dark green in the image, and then
I'll click OK and I'll click OK again, to
| | 07:13 | apply the stroke. Then I'll deselect by
pressing Command+D on the Mac or Ctrl+D
| | 07:17 | on the PC and there is my composition.
| | 07:20 | I was able to take advantage of the
fact that the heart and the rounded
| | 07:25 | rectangle were each isolated on a
separate transparent layer which allowed me
| | 07:29 | to quickly select the content
of each one of those layers.
| | 07:32 | If you are lucky enough to have content
isolated on the transparent layer, take
| | 07:36 | advantage of this one-click selection method.
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| Protecting transparency| 00:00 | When you are working with content
on a transparent layer, you can take
| | 00:03 | advantage of the layer's transparency
to quickly and easily change the color of
| | 00:08 | the content of the layer. And the
good news is that you can do this without
| | 00:11 | having to select that content. The key
is to use the Preserve Transparency Lock.
| | 00:17 | In an earlier movie on layer locks, I
showed you how to do something similar,
| | 00:21 | by locking down the transparent pixels
on a layer and painting on that layer
| | 00:25 | with the Brush tool. Using the Fill
command, as I'm going showing you here, is
| | 00:29 | even more efficient. I'm going to
start by trying to recolor this thin green
| | 00:34 | stroke. That stroke is
located here on the stroke layer.
| | 00:38 | I am going to hold the Option key on a
Mac or the Alt key on a PC, as I click
| | 00:42 | on the eye icon on the stroke layer,
so that you can see that that's the only
| | 00:46 | content on this layer. And it's
surrounded by all these transparent pixels.
| | 00:51 | In order to recolor the stroke, I'm
going to go to the Layers panel and select
| | 00:56 | the stroke layer. And then I'm going to
go up to Layer Locks at the top of the
| | 00:59 | Layers panel and click on the
Preserve Transparency Lock. That adds this
| | 01:04 | partial lock icon to the stroke layer.
And when I say partial, I mean that I'm
| | 01:09 | only locking down the transparent
pixels on the layer, I'm not locking down all
| | 01:13 | of the layer properties.
| | 01:15 | Now I'm going to fill by going up to
the Edit menu and down to Fill. In the
| | 01:20 | Fill dialog box, which I'll move over
here, I'm going to use not the foreground
| | 01:25 | color, but rather a color that I'm
going to select from the Color Picker which
| | 01:29 | opens. I'm going for a light yellow
color, so I'll move the Hue slider in the
| | 01:33 | middle to the yellow area and then
I'll come into this large field and I'll
| | 01:38 | click on a light yellow. I'll click OK,
and I'll click OK again in the Fill
| | 01:43 | dialog box. And you can see
that stroke is now pale yellow.
| | 01:47 | I will turn on all the other layers, so
you can see that better, by going back
| | 01:51 | to the Layers panel and holding down
the Option key on the Mac or the Alt key
| | 01:55 | on the PC, and clicking the eye icon
on the stroke layer. And there is the
| | 01:59 | yellow stroke. Quickly and easily
recolored by locking down the transparent
| | 02:04 | pixels on this layer. I would like to do
something similar on this shadow layer.
| | 02:08 | I am going to take a look at what's on
the shadow layer, by holding down the
| | 02:12 | Option key on the Mac, the Alt key on
the PC and clicking in the eye icon on
| | 02:16 | the shadow layer. As you can see
the shadow layer contains only some
| | 02:20 | semi-transparent pixels surrounded by
transparent pixels. I'm going to lock
| | 02:25 | down the transparent pixels, and that
will allow me to partially fill all these
| | 02:29 | semi-transparent pixels. It would be
really difficult to select these and try
| | 02:34 | to fill them otherwise.
| | 02:35 | I will go ahead and turn on all the
other layers by Option-clicking or
| | 02:40 | Alt-clicking the eye icon to the left
of the shadow layer. And I'm going to
| | 02:44 | select the shadow layer, and then I'll
go up to the Lock icons here and I'll
| | 02:49 | click the Preserve Transparency Lock
for this layer and then this layer also
| | 02:54 | has a Partial Lock icon on it.
| | 02:56 | With the shadow layer selected, I'm
going to go up to the Edit menu down to
| | 03:01 | Fill, again I'll use Color and in the
Color Picker I'll use that same yellow.
| | 03:09 | So I'll click OK and I'll click OK
again. And as you can see the dark shadow
| | 03:15 | has filled nicely with yellow. So
that it looks more like a glow now. If I
| | 03:19 | Option-click or Alt-click on the eye
icon on the shadow layer, you can see that
| | 03:24 | faint glow, where there used to be a shadow.
| | 03:27 | And I'll Option-click or Alt-click
again on the shadow layer to bring
| | 03:30 | everything else back. Without the
ability to lock down the transparent pixels
| | 03:34 | on the stroke layer, and then on the
shadow layer, I would have had to spend a
| | 03:37 | lot more time and effort to change the
color of the shadow and the stroke. This
| | 03:42 | is a really useful technique and I
suggest you try to remember it and use it in
| | 03:46 | your own files on content that's on a
separate layer surrounded by transparent pixels.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
6. Type LayersCreating type layers| 00:00 | A type layer is a special kind of layer.
Unlike regular layers, which are made
| | 00:04 | up of pixels, type layers are
essentially vector based and that offers several
| | 00:09 | advantages. If Photoshop type is
printed on a PostScript printer like a
| | 00:13 | professional image setter, the edges
of the type will be crisper and smoother
| | 00:17 | then pixel-based content. And
Photoshop's type layers remain editable, so that
| | 00:22 | you can come back at any time and
change the font, the size the color, the
| | 00:27 | shape and even the content of a type
layer. I have a type layer already in this
| | 00:32 | file. You can see it here in the Layers panel.
| | 00:34 | A type layer is identified by the
letter T on its thumbnail. If I make a new
| | 00:39 | type layer, it will automatically
come into the Layers panel above whatever
| | 00:43 | layer is selected at the moment. In
this case the image layer. To create a new
| | 00:47 | type layer I'm going to go over to the
Toolbox. I'll click on the T icon there
| | 00:52 | and I'll choose the Horizontal Type tool.
| | 00:55 | The Horizontal Type tool and the
Vertical Type tool are the tools you will use
| | 00:58 | most often because they create editable
type layers. These other two tools the
| | 01:02 | Mask tool don't do that. I'll select
the Horizontal Type tool and by the way
| | 01:07 | lots of people will just refer to this
as The Type tool and then I'm going to
| | 01:11 | come into the image and click and you
will notice there is a blinking cursor
| | 01:15 | there and in the Layers panel
there is a brand new type layer.
| | 01:19 | I don't have to bother naming this
layer because it will take its name from the
| | 01:23 | text that I enter in the image. Before
I enter text I like to go up to the Tool
| | 01:28 | Options bar and set some options at
least the initial options for the way that
| | 01:32 | the text will appear. I'll go to the
first field there, which is the Font
| | 01:35 | field, and I'm going to click the arrow
to the right of that field to see this
| | 01:39 | long list of all of the fonts that
are available to me on my computer.
| | 01:44 | Your list may looks slightly different.
I'm going to go down and select Minion
| | 01:48 | Pro and what I like by the way about
this list is that to the right of each one
| | 01:52 | of the font names, there is a sample
that shows you how that font will look. If
| | 01:56 | you don't have Minion Pro on your
computer, you can select another font. I'm
| | 02:00 | going to release my mouse now, and
Minion Pro is now here in the Font field.
| | 02:06 | Next I'll go to the Style field and
I'll click the arrow on that field to show
| | 02:10 | you all the different flavors of
Minion Pro that are available. The choices
| | 02:14 | that you see here depend entirely on
which font you have selected. Many fonts
| | 02:18 | have fewer choices than this and some
have not at all. They will just have a
| | 02:22 | Regular choice. I'll leave this set to
Regular and I'll click in a blank area
| | 02:26 | of the Options bar to close this menu.
| | 02:28 | Next I'm going to go the Font Size field.
If I click the arrow to the right of
| | 02:32 | this field you can see all the various
Font Size Presets. I can choose one of
| | 02:37 | these or if I close the menu by
clicking in a blank area of the Options bar, I
| | 02:42 | can come in select the Font Size there
and just type over it. So I could type
| | 02:47 | 80 points for example.
| | 02:49 | The next field sets the Anti-
aliasing of the text I'm about to enter.
| | 02:53 | Anti-aliasing determines how smooth
the edge of the type will be, when it's
| | 02:58 | viewed on screen. For example, if I
were making text that would in a website or
| | 03:03 | if the file is printed to a non-
PostScript printer, for example a desktop
| | 03:08 | inkjet printer. The default here is
Sharp. And I'll often just leave it at
| | 03:12 | that, but if I think I want my text to
look particularly smooth, I'll change
| | 03:17 | that to Smooth. And if I'm making text
for the web, I'll sometimes change that
| | 03:22 | to None. So that the text doesn't look
too blurry on screen. I'll go ahead and
| | 03:26 | make that Smooth for this line of type.
| | 03:29 | These next icons determine where the
type will start, with reference to the
| | 03:34 | point at which I have clicked. I'll
leave this set to the default Left
| | 03:37 | Alignment. And then I'll go into the
next field, which is the Color field, and
| | 03:41 | I'll click there to open the Color
Picker to choose a color for my text.
| | 03:45 | I am just going to choose just white
here and I'll click OK. And now I'm ready
| | 03:49 | to enter some text. I'm going to type
Yummy and I'll click the Exclamation
| | 03:54 | mark. Notice that the cursor is still
blinking and that there is a line under
| | 03:58 | this type and that indicates
that I'm still in Type Setting mode.
| | 04:02 | So if I spelled something wrong or I
needed to go back and change something for
| | 04:05 | some reason, I could press the Delete
key on my Mac or the Backspace key on the
| | 04:09 | PC and back up and then I could type
some more. But when I'm all done creating
| | 04:15 | type for this type layer, I have to get out of
Type Setting mode and commit what I have done.
| | 04:20 | The most direct way to do that is to
go up to the Type Tool Options bar here
| | 04:24 | and click this check mark. I'm not
going to do that right now, I have a few
| | 04:28 | more things to tell you first. One
thing is to be sure that you don't click the
| | 04:31 | Cancel button instead because that
takes you out of Type Setting mode, but it
| | 04:35 | also would delete the text or any
changes to text that you have made. Another
| | 04:39 | way to commit the text is to choose a
different tool or even to click on a
| | 04:43 | different layer in the Layers panel.
| | 04:45 | One of things that I often want to
do after I have entered text is to
| | 04:49 | reposition it in the image and that
means selecting the Move tool. And when I
| | 04:53 | do select the Move tool that will
commit the text. So if I go back to the
| | 04:57 | Toolbox and I click on the Move tool.
You can see the blinking cursor and the
| | 05:01 | line under the text have disappeared.
And now I can click-and-drag in the image
| | 05:05 | to put the text on this layer wherever I wanted.
| | 05:08 | The kind of type that I just made is
officially known as Point Type. Point Type
| | 05:13 | is use to create either a single line
of type like this one, or several lines
| | 05:17 | of type that are separated by a
keyboard Return. So if you plan to make several
| | 05:21 | lines of type and you want to control where the
type breaks, then you will be using Point Type.
| | 05:25 | There is another kind of type
called Paragraph Type where the lines
| | 05:29 | automatically wrap and you don't
control that. And I'll be showing you how to
| | 05:32 | do that in a separate movie in this
chapter. But for now, I'll show you how to
| | 05:36 | create yet another type layer with
several lines of type where you control
| | 05:40 | where the type breaks.
| | 05:42 | There is big gotcha here. If you have
already got a type layer in an image, you
| | 05:47 | need to be careful not to click
directly into that type layer, when you are
| | 05:50 | trying to make a separate second type
layer. To show you what I mean, if I
| | 05:54 | select the Type tool here and then I
come into the image and I click too close
| | 05:58 | to the word Yummy. I'll be right inside
that type layer and if I type something
| | 06:05 | it will go inside that line of type.
That isn't what I want to do. So I'm going
| | 06:09 | to go up to the Type Tool Options
bar and I'll click the Cancel symbol.
| | 06:13 | Here is how to solve that problem.
Each time that you create a new type layer
| | 06:17 | in an image, hold down the Shift key
and then click in the image. And that will
| | 06:22 | always make a separate type layer.
On the second type layer I'll choose a
| | 06:26 | different font and a different font size.
| | 06:29 | I am going to go up to the Options bar
and this time I'm just going to click in
| | 06:32 | the Font field, and type the font that
I want, which is Georgia. And then I'll
| | 06:37 | hit the Return key that's the Enter key
on a PC, to take me out of that field.
| | 06:42 | Then I'm going to go the Font Size field,
this time I'm going to choose one of
| | 06:46 | the preset font sizes, by clicking the arrow to
the right of that field and choosing 24 point.
| | 06:51 | I will leave all the other options at
their defaults, and I'll start typing.
| | 06:55 | I'm going to type 'Our new chocolates
are' and at this point, I would like to
| | 07:02 | line of type to break. So I'll press
the Return key on a Mac, that's the Enter
| | 07:06 | key on a PC and I can type a second
line on the same type layer. So I'll type,
| | 07:12 | only for the true of heart. And to
commit this type, I'll go up to the Options
| | 07:18 | bar, and I'll click the Check mark.
| | 07:20 | Now if I were to get the Move tool and
move that selected layer, both of the
| | 07:24 | lines would move with me because they
are both on the same layer. You know in
| | 07:28 | some respects type layers are just like
regular layers. I could scale the type
| | 07:32 | layer or rotate it or otherwise
transform it. I could add layer styles to a
| | 07:37 | type layer. I could change the
Opacity of a type layer, at the top of the
| | 07:41 | Layers panel. I could add a
blend mode to a type layer and more.
| | 07:45 | There are a few things that I can't do
to a type layer. For example, I can't
| | 07:49 | use any of the Brush Type tools on the
type layer, which are located right here
| | 07:53 | in the Toolbox. So if I did get the
Brush tool here and I came in where the
| | 07:57 | type layer selected I would see this
symbol, which means that I can't paint.
| | 08:01 | But there is one big difference
between type layers and regular layers, and
| | 08:06 | that is that type layers are re-editable.
As I'll show you how to do in another
| | 08:09 | movie in this chapter. If I want to
preserve my type layers as editable layers,
| | 08:14 | I want to be sure to save this file
in .PSD or Photoshop Document Format.
| | 08:19 | Because if I do save in a format that
doesn't preserve layers, like JPEG, I'll
| | 08:23 | lose the ability to come
back in and edit my type.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Editing type layers| 00:00 | Text remains editable in Photoshop as
long as its layer remains as a special
| | 00:04 | type layer. You can come back to a
type layer at anytime to change the
| | 00:08 | appearance of text, to fix a spelling
error, or to change for the content to
| | 00:12 | different words all together.
| | 00:14 | To edit all of the text on a type layer
you have to do two things. First select
| | 00:19 | the type layer in the Layers panel.
As I'm doing now on this layer, Our new
| | 00:23 | chocolates are only for the true of heart.
Second go to the Toolbox and click on the Type tool.
| | 00:30 | Now any change that I make to the type,
here in the Type Tool Options bar or in
| | 00:35 | the Character panel or the Paragraph
panel, which I'll show in a minute, are
| | 00:39 | going to effect all of the text on
this layer. For example, let's say that I
| | 00:43 | want to change the font of this layer.
I could just come into the Font menu
| | 00:47 | here in the Options bar and choose a
different font. And all of the text on
| | 00:51 | that layer changes. But I want to show
you another technique that I think is
| | 00:54 | really great that allows you to work
interactively to compare the way your text
| | 00:59 | will look with different fonts.
| | 01:00 | I am simply going to click inside the
Font field and then I'm going to click
| | 01:04 | the Down Arrow key on my keyboard to
cycle down through the list of fonts in my
| | 01:09 | Font menu. And notice in the image that,
as I do this, the font is changing. If
| | 01:14 | I press the Up Arrow key it takes me back the
other way. This is a great way to choose a font.
| | 01:19 | I am going to stop here on the Gil Sans
font, but if you are working along with
| | 01:24 | me, you can choose whatever font you
like. I can do the same thing with the
| | 01:27 | Font Style. If I click inside of the
Font Style box here in the Options bar and
| | 01:32 | then I use the Up or Down arrow keys,
I can cycle through the various styles
| | 01:36 | that are available for the font I have selected.
| | 01:39 | In this case, I think I'm going to
leave this at Regular. I can also change the
| | 01:43 | size of all the text on the selected
type layer. I think the best way to do
| | 01:47 | that is interactively too
and here is how I would do it.
| | 01:50 | First with the Type tool selected, I'm
going to go into the image and I'm going
| | 01:54 | to click to the right of the text, and
I'm going to drag across the entire two
| | 01:58 | lines of text. That puts this highlight
on top of the text. I don't like seeing
| | 02:02 | the highlight because it keeps me from
seeing exactly what's going on with the
| | 02:06 | text. So I'll make the highlight
temporarily invisible by holding down the
| | 02:10 | Command key on a Mac, that's the Ctrl key on
a PC, and tapping the H key at the same time.
| | 02:16 | Next I'm going to go up to the Type
Options bar and I'm going to move my cursor
| | 02:20 | over the label on the Font Size field.
The cursor changes to a scrubby slider,
| | 02:25 | and now if I click and drag to the left,
the font size changes along with me.
| | 02:30 | And if I move to the right the font
size gets bigger. So I can visually choose
| | 02:35 | just the size that I want. When I'm
all done editing the text on the type
| | 02:39 | layer, I have to remember to commit the
type and take myself out of Type Setting mode.
| | 02:44 | As I mentioned in another movie in this
chapter there are several ways do that.
| | 02:48 | One way is to click the big check mark
here or to just select another layer or
| | 02:52 | another tool. I'm going to select
another layer. I'll click on the Yummy! layer
| | 02:57 | here so that I can make some changes
to that layer and that is committed the
| | 03:00 | type changes on the Our new chocolates layer.
| | 03:03 | Another thing that I can do to all
the text on the layer is to change its
| | 03:06 | orientation. So right now, I have
horizontal type on the Yummy! layer. I could
| | 03:11 | make that into vertical type with just
one click. I still have the Horizontal
| | 03:15 | Type tool selected, but to make this
type vertical all I have to do is go to
| | 03:19 | the Options bar and click this second
icon, the one with two arrows on it.
| | 03:25 | And when I do the orientation of the
text on the Yummy! layer changes. I'm
| | 03:29 | going to get my Type tool and I'm going
to move that text over here on the left
| | 03:33 | side of the image. And then I'm going
to move these other two lines of type, by
| | 03:37 | going to the Our new chocolates layer,
selecting it in the Layers panel and
| | 03:41 | with the Move tool moving that type as well.
| | 03:45 | So far I have been showing you how to
edit all of the text on a layer, but I
| | 03:49 | can be selective about the text that I
want to change. For example, let's say I
| | 03:53 | want to change the color of a few
words in the Our new chocolates type layer.
| | 03:57 | I'll go back to the Toolbox and I'll
select the Type tool. Then I'll come in
| | 04:01 | just to the right of the type that I
want to change and click and drag over it.
| | 04:06 | I can leave the highlight there or
if I want to I can make it temporarily
| | 04:09 | invisible by pressing Command+H on a Mac,
Ctrl+H on a PC. Now I can use anyone
| | 04:16 | of several methods for changing the
color of text. One way to change the color
| | 04:20 | of text is just to fill with whatever
color is here in the foreground color box
| | 04:24 | and if I wanted to change that color, I
could click on the foreground color box
| | 04:28 | to open the Color Picker. But I'm
just going to use black for now.
| | 04:31 | When I'm filling a type layer, I need
to use the keyboard shortcut for Fill
| | 04:35 | with Foreground Color. On a Mac,
that's to hold the Option key, as I tap the
| | 04:39 | Delete key and on a PC that's to hold
the Alt key as I tap the Backspace key
| | 04:45 | and you can see that those selected words of
text have changed color. They filled with black.
| | 04:50 | If I wanted to keep black as my
foreground color in the Toolbox but use a
| | 04:54 | different color just for the selected
text, I could go up to the Type Tool
| | 04:58 | Options bar and click in the Color
field there and from the Color Picker that
| | 05:02 | opens here, I could choose another
color and click OK. And finally and this is
| | 05:07 | my favorite way to change color. I can
open the Swatches panel. I'm going to go
| | 05:11 | to the Window menu to do that.
Going down to choose Swatches.
| | 05:15 | The Swatches panel offers the
quickest way to change the color of an entire
| | 05:19 | type layer or a selected text on the
type layer. With the type layer selected
| | 05:24 | and Type tool selected, all I have
to do in the Swatches panel is start
| | 05:28 | clicking on different color chips
and in the image the text changes
| | 05:32 | immediately. In this way I can compare colors
and when I get the one that I want I'll stop.
| | 05:38 | Now I do have to commit these changes
and one way to do that is to go up to the
| | 05:42 | Type Options bar and click the check
mark there. You may be wondering why there
| | 05:47 | is now a question mark here in the
Color field in the Type Tool Options bar.
| | 05:51 | All that means is that the selected
layer has more than one color on it.
| | 05:55 | So let's say that I want to change the
word new on this layer. With the Type
| | 05:58 | tool selected, I'll just click to the
right of the word new, select that word
| | 06:03 | and I'll type a different word instead.
I'll type best and then commit that
| | 06:07 | change by clicking the check mark.
| | 06:09 | So as you can see the editability of a
type layer in Photoshop gives you all
| | 06:14 | kinds of flexibility as you are
designing with type. You can change all of the
| | 06:18 | text on a type layer or just some of
the text. You can change the content of
| | 06:22 | the type layer and you can change any
of the type options here in the Type
| | 06:26 | Options bar. But that's not all. There
are two more panels that contain options
| | 06:30 | for type and those are the Character
panel and the Paragraph panel, which I'll
| | 06:34 | show you in upcoming movies in this chapter.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Character panel| 00:00 | Photoshop offers more type properties
than just those found in the Options bar
| | 00:04 | for the Type tool. So for example, if
I come into the Toolbox here and select
| | 00:08 | the Type tool, you can see the
options that I have been covering in earlier
| | 00:12 | movies in this chapter. But there is more.
| | 00:14 | I am going to go the right side of the
Type Tool Options bar. And I'm going to
| | 00:18 | click the last icon there and that
opens a panel group the Character and
| | 00:22 | Paragraph panel group, where there are
even more properties of the type that
| | 00:26 | you can create and edit in Photoshop.
| | 00:28 | By the way my Character and Paragraph
panel group came in at the top of the
| | 00:32 | column on the right. Yours may not if
you haven't used it before, but you can
| | 00:36 | just leave it wherever it comes in. And
another way to open those two panels if
| | 00:40 | you don't happen to have the Type tool
selected is to go to the Window menu and
| | 00:44 | down to the name of the either one
of the panels, Character or Paragraph.
| | 00:47 | I am going to select a type layer in
the Layers panel, Our best chocolates are
| | 00:53 | only. And as you can see if I turn the
eye icon on this layer off and then on,
| | 00:58 | this layer contains these two lines of
type. I can edit all of the text on the
| | 01:03 | selected layer using options in the
Character panel as long as I have got that
| | 01:07 | type layer selected in the Layers panel, and I
have got the Type tool selected in the Toolbox.
| | 01:12 | Some of the fields in the Character
panel are just the same as fields in the
| | 01:15 | Type Options bar. For example, here is
the Font Size field and here it is up
| | 01:20 | here and you can use either one. But
there are some unique fields in the
| | 01:24 | Character panel. One of those is
here. This is the Leading field.
| | 01:29 | If I click the arrow to the left of
the Leading field I can change the amount
| | 01:32 | of space between the lines of type on
this layer. So for example, if I choose
| | 01:36 | 30 point the lines of type will get
closer together, and if I went back in
| | 01:41 | there and chose 60 point,
they would get further apart.
| | 01:44 | I can also change the spacing between
all of the letters on the selected layer,
| | 01:48 | and I'll do that from this field,
which is the Tracking field. I'll click the
| | 01:53 | arrow to the right of the Tracking
field and if I choose a lower number than
| | 01:57 | the one that happens to be currently
selected say 0, all of the letters on that
| | 02:02 | field get closer together. And if I go
in there and I choose a higher number
| | 02:06 | say 25, all of the letters get
further apart. Now in this case, it's almost
| | 02:10 | knock the letters off of the canvas. So I'm
going to back there and put that back at 10.
| | 02:16 | There are some other fields here that
are unique. For example this field will
| | 02:19 | stretch each of the letters in the
selected layer. If I move my mouse over the
| | 02:24 | T icon that represents the label on
this field and I drag to the right you will
| | 02:30 | notice that the letters get stretched
out widthwise. I'm going to undo that by
| | 02:33 | pressing Command+Z on the Mac, Ctrl+Z
on the PC to quickly get back to 100% and
| | 02:39 | similarly if I go to this field and I
move my mouse over its label and I drag
| | 02:44 | to the right all of the letters get taller.
| | 02:48 | I am going to put that back to 100%
and one way to do that is just to select
| | 02:53 | the current percentage and type 100
instead and then press Enter on the
| | 02:57 | Keyboard. At the bottom of the
Character Palette are a series of icons. If I
| | 03:02 | click the first of these all of the
text on the selected layer becomes bold.
| | 03:06 | I'll undo that. And if I select the
next of these all of the text on this layer
| | 03:11 | becomes italics and I'll undo that too.
| | 03:13 | Now this bold and italic are what's
called the faux bold and faux italic and
| | 03:20 | these come in really handy if you are
using a font that doesn't contain its own
| | 03:23 | bold or italic style. Each of the
next icon changes another property of the
| | 03:28 | text on the selected layer.
| | 03:30 | This button makes all of the letters
on the selected uppercase. I'm going to
| | 03:35 | press Command+Z or Ctrl+Z to undo
that and look at the next button, which
| | 03:40 | changes all of the letters to small caps.
I'll undo that too with Command+Z or
| | 03:44 | Ctrl+Z and then there is a
Superscript button. I'll undo that. A Subscript
| | 03:50 | button and I'll undo that. I can click
this button to underline all the text on
| | 03:54 | the layer and I'll undo that and finally
there is Strike through and I'll undo that too.
| | 04:00 | So you see that you have so many
different choices here in the Character panel.
| | 04:04 | Almost as if this were a word
processing program. So those are other character
| | 04:08 | level properties that you can control
as you create or edit type in Photoshop.
| | 04:13 | There are even more options here on
the Paragraph panel which I can access by
| | 04:17 | clicking on its tab and most of these
are more relevant to Paragraph text,
| | 04:21 | which I'll cover in an
upcoming movie in this chapter.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with paragraph type| 00:00 | Most of the type layers that you have
work within Photoshop will be of the
| | 00:03 | Point type variety, which I've already
covered in other movies in this chapter.
| | 00:07 | Point type, like the layer of type
that you already have in this document,
| | 00:11 | usually contains just a single line of
type or a couple of lines of type with
| | 00:15 | a hard return at the end of each line.
| | 00:18 | But once in a while, you may want to
include more text than just a couple of
| | 00:22 | lines in a Photoshop document.
For example, you may be planning to create a
| | 00:26 | brochure in a page layout program
like InDesign and first you just want to
| | 00:30 | mock it up in Photoshop. In that case
you can take advantage of Photoshop's
| | 00:34 | Paragraph Type feature, which
automatically wraps text inside a bounding box.
| | 00:39 | That will make it easier to fit a
lot of text into a particular space.
| | 00:44 | In order to show you Paragraph text,
in addition to the Layers panel,
| | 00:48 | I've opened a couple of additional panel
groups. My Swatches panel group and my
| | 00:53 | Character and Paragraph panel group.
All of these panel groups can be opened
| | 00:57 | from the Window menu at the top of the screen.
| | 01:01 | To create Paragraph Type, just as for
Point Type, I'll use the Type tool here
| | 01:06 | in the toolbox. And as for Point Type,
I'll go up to the Type Options bar and
| | 01:11 | I'll set the Font, and a Font Style, a
Font size, a Font color, and any other
| | 01:16 | properties that I want for my text.
Then I'll come into the image and
| | 01:20 | I'll click and drag and that
create a bounding box like this one.
| | 01:24 | Notice the blinking cursor inside the
bounding box. That means that I can enter
| | 01:29 | text inside the bounding box. If
you're following along what I suggest you do
| | 01:33 | is just start typing something. And keep on
typing until the box is more or less full.
| | 01:40 | Another way to fill this box with text
is to copy text from another document,
| | 01:44 | say a Word document, and paste it here.
I've actually gone ahead and copied
| | 01:48 | some text from a Word document and I'm
going to paste it. So I'm going to undo
| | 01:53 | the type that I was adding here
manually by pressing Command+Z on a keyboard
| | 01:57 | or Ctrl+Z on a PC. And I'm going to
press Command+V on my keyboard, that's
| | 02:02 | Ctrl+V on a PC, to paste in the text
that was in my computer's clipboard.
| | 02:07 | My bounding box has anchor points all
around its edges. And you'll notice that
| | 02:11 | the bottom right of those anchor
points has a small cross in it. That cross
| | 02:16 | means that I've added more text to
this box than will fit and so Photoshop
| | 02:20 | isn't currently displaying all of my
text. I can fix that by moving my mouse
| | 02:24 | over the corner anchor point until it
changes to this Double-pointed arrow.
| | 02:28 | And then I'll just click and drag until
all of my text appears in the box and
| | 02:33 | the box gets bigger. When I enlarge the box,
the lines of type in the box rewrap
| | 02:38 | themselves to fit. And that's the major
difference between Point Type and Paragraph Type.
| | 02:44 | Not only can I enlarge this
bounding box, but I can reshape it too.
| | 02:47 | So if I'd like this paragraph of text
to be wider and shorter than it is, again,
| | 02:52 | I'll move my mouse over any of the
anchor points and drag. So I'm going to drag
| | 02:56 | in this direction. And if I want to
move the entire paragraph of type,
| | 03:01 | I'll move my mouse outside of the bounding
box. It changes to the Move tool cursor,
| | 03:05 | and then I can click and drag and put
this text wherever I want it on the image.
| | 03:09 | When I'm done creating Paragraph Type,
I have to commit my edits just like with
| | 03:14 | Point Type. To do that, I'll go up to
the Type Options bar and I'll click the
| | 03:18 | check box and the bounding box
disappears. When I make Paragraph Type just
| | 03:23 | like with Point Type, Photoshop makes
a new layer here in the Layers panel.
| | 03:27 | Now let's say that I was going ahead
and doing something else in the image,
| | 03:30 | perhaps I was working on the logo layer
here, and I decide that I want to make
| | 03:34 | some edits to the type layer. To edit
all of the Paragraph Type at once,
| | 03:39 | I'll go back and select the Paragraph Type
layer and I'll make sure that I've the
| | 03:43 | Type tool selected in the toolbox. And
now whatever changes I make up here in
| | 03:48 | the Type Options bar or over here in
the Character and Paragraph panels will
| | 03:52 | affect all of the type in this bounding box.
| | 03:55 | So for example, let's say that I want
to make all of the type a little bigger.
| | 03:59 | I'll go up to the Type Options bar and
I'll change to 12 point type. And you
| | 04:04 | can see all of the type change here
in the image. Or if I go over to the
| | 04:08 | Character panel and I click on the
faux Italic button here, all of the
| | 04:13 | type in the bounding box changes to Italic.
| | 04:15 | I don't have to change all of the text
in Paragraph Type. I can change just a
| | 04:19 | couple of words or a couple of letters.
So let's say I want to change the color
| | 04:23 | of the first words in this paragraph.
With the Type tool, I'm going to click
| | 04:27 | inside the paragraph and that
brings back the bounding box. My cursor is
| | 04:32 | blinking here just to the right of the
word dolor, and I'll click and drag over
| | 04:36 | those first three words.
| | 04:37 | The highlight is going to get in the
way of my color change, so I'm going to
| | 04:41 | press the Command key on a Mac, Ctrl
key on a PC as I tab the H key, and that
| | 04:47 | hides the highlight. And then I'm going
to go up to my Swatches panel and
| | 04:50 | I'm going to click on a color, and that
changes the color of just those three
| | 04:54 | selected words. And then I'll commit
those changes by going to the Type Options bar
| | 04:59 | and clicking the check mark.
| | 05:01 | When I'm working with Paragraph Type,
I have even more options than I have with
| | 05:04 | Character Type. And those are the
controls in the Paragraph panel. I'm going to
| | 05:09 | bring the Paragraph panel to the
foreground of the Character and Paragraph
| | 05:12 | panel group by clicking its tab here.
Here I have options for aligning the text
| | 05:17 | within its bounding box. To show
you that I'm going to click inside the text,
| | 05:21 | and then I'm going to up to these
icons here, the first three, and I can
| | 05:25 | center the text in the bounding box,
or I can right align it. And if I go to
| | 05:30 | the next set of icons, I can change
the way the text is justified,
| | 05:34 | Left Justify, Right Justify
or Full Justify, for example.
| | 05:39 | The next two fields here will indent
the text from the border of the bounding box,
| | 05:43 | either from the left border like this,
or from the right border like this.
| | 05:48 | Using the next field, I can indent the
first line of text, and I could use the
| | 05:53 | next field to add some space above
the text and below the text. Because the
| | 05:58 | text automatically wraps inside the
bounding box, I can choose to hyphenate it
| | 06:02 | or not. Right now it's hyphenated.
Watch the text if I uncheck Hyphenate,
| | 06:07 | and you can see hyphens disappear.
| | 06:09 | I think I'm also going to go back and
change the Justify feature here to
| | 06:13 | Left Justify and that makes the type look
better. There's also a panel menu on the
| | 06:17 | Paragraph panel that offers more
options. As just one example, if I go to
| | 06:22 | Hyphenation here and I check
Hyphenation, I can control in detail exactly how
| | 06:28 | Photoshop is going to hyphenate my text.
But I'm going to cancel out of that
| | 06:32 | for now. And then I'll go the check
mark in the Type Options bar and
| | 06:36 | I'll commit my layers changes.
| | 06:38 | So that's how Paragraph Type works
in Photoshop. It's much like a word processor,
| | 06:42 | and as you can see, Paragraph Type
can come in really handy in those
| | 06:46 | rare cases where you need to add
paragraphs full of type to a Photoshop document.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Warping text| 00:00 | Text in a Photoshop composition doesn't
always have to be just plain horizontal
| | 00:04 | or plain vertical. You can distort
the shape of text using the Warp Text
| | 00:09 | feature in Photoshop. To show you that
I'm going to select this type layer in
| | 00:13 | the Layers panel, the Yummy type layer,
which contains this vertical line of
| | 00:17 | text - Yummy. And then I'm going to go
to the toolbox and select the Type tool.
| | 00:22 | I'll choose the Horizontal
Type tool, but either will do.
| | 00:25 | And then I'll go up to the Type Options
bar, and click on the second icon from
| | 00:29 | the right. That opens the Warp Text
dialog box. If I click the Style menu, I
| | 00:35 | see this list of preset Warp Styles. And I
can try out any one of them on this type layer.
| | 00:42 | So for example, I can come down and see
what Wave looks like. It bends the text
| | 00:46 | in both directions. And maybe I'll try
Fisheye, which gives it an interesting
| | 00:51 | look, or maybe Fish. I kind of like the
look of Fish, so I'm going to leave it
| | 00:56 | at that and click OK. I can also
apply the Warp Text feature to horizontal
| | 01:01 | text, as well as to type layers
that have more than one line of text.
| | 01:05 | So for example, I'll select the layer,
Our best chocolates are only for the
| | 01:09 | true of heart, which contains these
two lines of text. And then I'll go up to
| | 01:14 | the Type Options bar, and I'll click
the Warp Text icon again. And this time
| | 01:19 | I'm going to start off
choosing a different preset style.
| | 01:21 | Let's see what Flag looks like? It's
not bad. Maybe Wave. How about Rise? I
| | 01:30 | think I like Rise the best here. So
I'm going to click OK, and then I'm going
| | 01:34 | to get the Move tool, and I'm going to
drag to move the Warp's Text in to place.
| | 01:40 | A couple of nice things about the
Text tool feature are that it remains
| | 01:43 | editable, and that it's customizable.
So let's say that I wanted to tweak
| | 01:48 | something about the style that I just
added to the Our best chocolates layer.
| | 01:52 | With that layer selected, I can go back
and grab the Type tool again, and then
| | 01:57 | go up to the Type Options bar and
reopen the Warp Text dialog box. Here I can
| | 02:02 | choose an entirely renew preset Style
or I can tweak the one that I've already
| | 02:06 | applied using the sliders here.
| | 02:08 | So I can customize the bend of the
Style, the Horizontal Distortion and the
| | 02:16 | Vertical Distortion. There's lots
here to play with, but I'm just going to
| | 02:21 | leave it at that for now. I'll click
OK, and then I'm going to get my Move
| | 02:25 | tool, and I'm going to move that text
over a bit, to get it back on the canvas.
| | 02:30 | So with just a little bit of
creativity and time you can create some really
| | 02:34 | unusual looks for your type
layers in Photoshop using Warp text.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Making type on a path| 00:00 | If you'd like to design with type,
you can combine the power of type layers
| | 00:04 | with vector paths to bend and twist
your type along smooth unique lines.
| | 00:09 | A vector path is smooth, because it's
an outline made up of mathematically
| | 00:14 | defined curves and points rather than
square pixels. In this movie, I would
| | 00:18 | like to show you how to create a vector
path and then to flow text along that path.
| | 00:24 | One way to make a vector path in
Photoshop is to draw it with the Pen tool.
| | 00:28 | I'll show you how to do that by going
over to the toolbox, and selecting the
| | 00:31 | Pen tool right here. Then I'm going
to come into the image and I'm going to
| | 00:35 | click and release the mouse to start the path.
| | 00:38 | What I want to do is to make a nice
flowing path along the bottom of the image
| | 00:43 | here. I'm going to go about a quarter
of the way into the image and I'm going
| | 00:47 | to click, and this time I'm going to
hold on my mouse and I'm going to drag.
| | 00:52 | I'm going to drag in the direction that
I would like this path to go from this
| | 00:56 | point on. So I would like the path to
return up here. So I'll drag up slightly,
| | 01:01 | and you can see that as I do, the
curve behind me is bending down and I have
| | 01:06 | these handles appearing. These handles
determine both the direction in which
| | 01:10 | this curve is bending and how much it bends.
| | 01:13 | I am going to continue this curving
path by moving over to about here and
| | 01:19 | clicking again, and this is another
place where I might like this path to
| | 01:23 | change direction. I'm going to click
and drag in a different direction now,
| | 01:26 | which is down. And I'll drag up this
handle to gently bend the center of the
| | 01:30 | curve up. I'll click just one more
time right over here on the right side of
| | 01:35 | the picture and this time I'm
going to drag up into the right.
| | 01:41 | So I'm done drawing this path. You'll
notice that it's an open path. In other
| | 01:44 | words, it's not a path that comes
around and joins with the first point, like a
| | 01:50 | circle would for example. To close the
drawing of an open path, I have to click
| | 01:54 | outside the path while holding down
the Command key on a Mac, or the Ctrl key
| | 01:59 | on a PC, and now I no longer see
the handles, and the path is finished.
| | 02:03 | Here in the Layers, Channels, and
Paths panel group, I can click on the Paths
| | 02:08 | tab to bring the Paths panel to the
foreground so that you can see that there
| | 02:12 | is a work path here; that represents
the path that I just drew. Now this is
| | 02:16 | only a temporary path, so you want to
be careful not to click down here in the
| | 02:19 | Paths panel and then mistakenly start
another path or you lose the existing work path.
| | 02:24 | So I'm going to go back to the Layers
panel now and onto the next step in this
| | 02:28 | technique, which is to add some text
to this path. To do that, I'm going to
| | 02:33 | select the Type tool in the toolbox.
| | 02:35 | Next, I'll go up to the Type Tool
Options bar. I have already started to create
| | 02:39 | some options for the text that I'm
going to add. I'm going to use this font,
| | 02:43 | the Giddyup Standard font. If you
don't have this font on your computer, you
| | 02:46 | don't like it, you can use another font
by choosing it from the Font menu here.
| | 02:50 | This particular font only has one style,
a Regular Style, so I have no choice
| | 02:54 | to make here in the Style field.
| | 02:56 | I am going to go over to the Font Size
field, and I'm going to change this from
| | 03:01 | 18 point to 14 point by choosing that
from the Font Size menu. And then, I'm
| | 03:06 | going to choose another color for
this type by clicking in the Color field
| | 03:09 | here, and I'm going to choose perhaps
a purple color. So I'll click in the
| | 03:13 | purple area of the Hue slider bar and then
I'll choose my purple from here, and click OK.
| | 03:19 | There is one more option that's
really important here, and that is the
| | 03:23 | Alignment Option. You can choose Left
Align, Center Align, or Right Align as
| | 03:28 | you are adding text to a path. But I'll
tell you that it's way easier to do, if
| | 03:33 | you choose Left Align, otherwise it's
sometimes difficult to see where the text
| | 03:37 | is suppose to start and end. So whenever I
can, I choose the Left Align button up here.
| | 03:43 | Now I'm ready to add some text to this
path. I'm going to move my cursor down
| | 03:46 | into the image, and notice that it's
an I-beam cursor representing the Type
| | 03:50 | tool. If I would to click now and add a
type layer, it would just be a regular
| | 03:55 | horizontal type layer. But I'm going to
move my cursor over the path. I'm just
| | 04:00 | hovering there; I'm not clicking.
Notice that the cursor changes so that it has
| | 04:04 | this diagonal line in it.
| | 04:05 | And that diagonal line means that if I
now click and type, my text will attach
| | 04:10 | itself to this path, and so I'm going
to do just that. I'm clicking and now I
| | 04:15 | have a blinking cursor, which means
that I can enter text. So I'm going to type
| | 04:20 | The Fresh Fruit Company, and as with
point text or paragraph text, I have to
| | 04:29 | commit that type, so I'll go up to the
Type Options bar and click the checkmark.
| | 04:33 | Now take a look at the path and notice
two things. There is an X on the left
| | 04:38 | and a circle on the right. These two
marks represent the beginning point, and
| | 04:42 | the ending point respectively of where
text could appear on this path. I can
| | 04:47 | move the starting point to push the
text over to the right, if I want to. To do
| | 04:52 | that, I'm going to get another tool,
the Black Arrow tool that's underneath the
| | 04:55 | Type tool. The official name is the Path
Selection tool, but I'll just call the Black Arrow tool.
| | 05:01 | So I'm going to come into the image
and I'm going to hover over the starting
| | 05:04 | point that X, and when I do that my
cursor changes so that it has this right
| | 05:09 | facing black arrow on it. And that
means that if I click now and drag, I can
| | 05:14 | push the text to the right.
| | 05:15 | I'll go a little further, and watch
what happens if I go too far, and I push
| | 05:21 | the text in to the ending point there,
some of the text disappears. And as I
| | 05:26 | hold down my mouse, take a look at
that circle that represents the outer
| | 05:29 | boundary of the text, and you'll see
that it contains cross. That means that
| | 05:33 | there is some extra text that just
can't fit in this space. So if that happens
| | 05:38 | to you, the solution is to get the
Black Arrow tool, go to the starting point,
| | 05:43 | and drag in the other direction,
and that text will come back. Well,
| | 05:46 | alternatively you could select all the
text, and just reduce the Font Size to
| | 05:51 | make it smaller. So it would
fit in the truncated space.
| | 05:55 | When you move text along a path like
that, there is one thing to be careful of,
| | 05:59 | it's a gotcha, and that's this. With
the Black Arrow, if I do click and try to
| | 06:04 | push the text over, I want to be
careful not to do this. Not to click and drag
| | 06:09 | down across the path, because if I do
that, I end up flipping the text on the
| | 06:14 | path. And you'll notice that I now
have the endpoint over here, and the
| | 06:17 | beginning point over here. So it's all
upside down, and inside out. That isn't
| | 06:20 | the way that I want it. So I hover over
either marker, and I'll click and drag
| | 06:25 | the other direction across the
path and everything is back to normal.
| | 06:29 | Right now, the type is being displayed
along with its path. But if I where to
| | 06:34 | print this image, the path itself
wouldn't print. If I go back to the Paths
| | 06:38 | panel, and I'll click on its tab you
can see that there is now not only a Work
| | 06:43 | Path representing the path itself, but
there is also a path representing the
| | 06:47 | type that I've attached to the work path.
| | 06:49 | If I click up off both of those in this
blank area of the Paths panel, the path
| | 06:53 | itself will disappear, and this is
what the image would like if I printed it
| | 06:57 | right now. I'll click back on The Fresh
Fruit Company type path again because I
| | 07:01 | want to make some more changes to this
path. Now I'm going to go back to the
| | 07:05 | Layers panel. Because this type is
attached to the path, I can change the way
| | 07:09 | that the type bends by
changing the way the path bends.
| | 07:13 | One way to do that is to go back to
the toolbox, and select the White Arrow
| | 07:17 | tool from behind the Black Arrow tool,
and then I'm going to click anywhere on
| | 07:21 | the path, and that brings up some
anchor points on the path. Here and the one
| | 07:25 | over here, these are the places that I
originally click when I created the path.
| | 07:30 | To change the way the path bends, I'm
going to click on this handle from one of
| | 07:33 | the anchor points, and I'm going to drag,
and I've just made the bend a little
| | 07:38 | bit shallower over there. Or I can go
over to this anchor point, I'll click
| | 07:42 | right on it and that brings up its
handles, and I'll click on one of its
| | 07:45 | handles, and I'll drag to make that path even
shallower, and then I'll click off of the path.
| | 07:52 | If I want to move the entire path with
the type, I can get the Move tool in the
| | 07:56 | toolbox or I could do this with the
Black Arrow tool, and then I can click
| | 08:00 | anywhere in the image and the entire
line of type, and the path move together.
| | 08:04 | I can edit type on a path, just like I
could edit regular point type. So for
| | 08:09 | example, let's say that I wanted to
change the color of all of the text on the
| | 08:12 | path, I'll do it the same way that I
have shown you how to do with point type.
| | 08:16 | I'll make sure that I have that type
layer selected in the Layers panel, I'll
| | 08:20 | go over to the toolbox and I'll click
on the Type tool, and then if I have this
| | 08:23 | Swatches panel open I can change colors
there or I can click on the Color field
| | 08:28 | here in Type Tool Options bar, or
in the Character panel over here.
| | 08:32 | I am going to click on the Color box
here in the Type Tool Options bar, and I'm
| | 08:36 | going to choose another color, maybe
I'll go up and get a bright pink color,
| | 08:42 | and I'll click OK, and that
changes the color of the type.
| | 08:45 | I have opened my Character and
Paragraph panel by clicking this icon on the
| | 08:50 | Type Tool Options bar. And any changes
that I make over here will also now be
| | 08:54 | reflected in all of the type its on
this path. So let's say I want to make the
| | 08:58 | type bigger, I'll just come to this
Font Size field, and I'll click and I'll
| | 09:02 | choose 18 point, and all the text gets bigger.
| | 09:06 | Now the text is too big to fit in
that space, so I've already talked to you
| | 09:09 | about how to change that. I'm going to
go back to the Toolbox, I'm going to get
| | 09:13 | the Black Arrow tool, I'm going to
move over at the starting point, the X on
| | 09:18 | the path, and drag to the right so that
there is more room to bring in that last word.
| | 09:23 | Just like with Point type, when I'm
working with type on a Path, I can change
| | 09:27 | the font, the size, the color or some
other type property of just one or two
| | 09:32 | letters, or one or two words. To do that,
I'm going to go over to the toolbox,
| | 09:37 | and I'm going to select the Type tool,
and then I'm going to come into the
| | 09:40 | image and I'm going to click to the
right of the word Fresh and drag over that
| | 09:45 | word and then to hide that highlight,
I'm going to hold down the Command Key on
| | 09:48 | a Mac, or the Ctrl Key on a PC
as I click the H on my keyboard.
| | 09:53 | Now I'm going to change the color of
just the word Fresh by going up to the
| | 09:57 | Color field in the Type Tool
Options bar, clicking there and choosing a
| | 10:01 | different color, maybe a green; a nice
bright green that we can see and click OK.
| | 10:06 | Then I have to commit that change.
So I'll click the checkmark here in the
| | 10:10 | Type Tool Options bar. And now I'm going to
click on another layer to make the path disappear.
| | 10:15 | So that's how to create a simple, open-
ended path using the Pen tool and attach
| | 10:20 | type to that path. Some people find
drawing with the Pen tool difficult and
| | 10:25 | don't like to make paths to that way.
If you are one of those people, you may
| | 10:28 | prefer to make a path using the Paths option
for any of the shapes that ship with Photoshop.
| | 10:34 | In the next movie I'm going to show
you how to make a circular path that way
| | 10:38 | and then to attach type to the circle.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating type on a circular path| 00:00 | You can flow type in interesting lines
and shapes by creating type on a path.
| | 00:05 | In an earlier movie in this chapter, I
showed you how to draw a path for that
| | 00:09 | purpose using the Pen tool here in the
toolbox and I'm going to go and click on
| | 00:14 | this type layer to show
you the paths that I drew.
| | 00:17 | If drawing a path with the Pen tool
isn't your thing, you'll be happy to know
| | 00:20 | that there is another way to make a
path to which you can attach type in
| | 00:23 | Photoshop, and that's to use any of
the geometric or custom shapes that come
| | 00:28 | with a program. And I don't mean to use
shapes in the traditional way, which is
| | 00:32 | to make shape layers, which I'm going
to cover later in the course, but rather
| | 00:36 | to use these shapes to draw
vector paths. Here is how it's done.
| | 00:41 | First, I'm going to click off this
type layer in the Layers panel. I'll click
| | 00:44 | on the Background layer instead and
then I'm going to go to the toolbox and I'm
| | 00:48 | going to click on the Rectangle Shape
tool. When I click and hold there, I see
| | 00:51 | this fly out menu of various flavors
of shape tool. I'm going to select the
| | 00:55 | third one down, the Ellipse tool,
which draws oval and circular shapes. Then
| | 01:00 | I'm going to go up to the
Ellipse Tool Options bar.
| | 01:03 | Notice that there are three icons on
the left side of this Options bar. By
| | 01:07 | default, the first icon is selected,
and if I leave that selected, then when I
| | 01:12 | drag in the image, I'll be creating a
shape layer, and that isn't what I want
| | 01:15 | to do. I want to make a vector path.
So I need to go to the second of these
| | 01:19 | icons and click on that one, the one
with the Pen icon on it. So that's really
| | 01:24 | important for this technique.
| | 01:25 | The next group of icons here
represents the various Pen tools and flavors of
| | 01:29 | Shape tool, with the Ellipse tool
selected. I'm going to click on the arrow to
| | 01:34 | the right of that group of icons to
open this box, which gives me some options
| | 01:39 | for the selected Ellipse Shape tool.
| | 01:41 | I want to draw a circle rather than
an oval. So I'm going to click on the
| | 01:44 | second button here, which will
constrain my drawing to a circle. I could leave
| | 01:49 | this unconstrained and then hold down
the Shift key as I drag out of path, but
| | 01:53 | I think it's easier to just select
circle here. I'm going to click in the blank
| | 01:57 | area of the Options bar to close
that box. And then to create a perfectly
| | 02:01 | circular path, I'm going to come into
the image and I'm just going to click and
| | 02:05 | drag. And that creates this circular path.
| | 02:11 | If I go over to the Paths panel, and
click on its tab, you can see that there
| | 02:14 | is now Work Path with a thumbnail with
a circular path. I'm going to go back
| | 02:19 | and click on the Layers panel. I'll
make sure I still have my Background layer
| | 02:23 | selected, because I'm going to add a new type
layer and I would like it to come in right here.
| | 02:27 | I go over to the toolbox, and I'll
select the Type tool. Then I'm going to go
| | 02:32 | up to the Type Tool Options bar and
choose the font that I want. I already know
| | 02:36 | the name of that font. I'm going to
use Bank Gothic. If you'd like to use
| | 02:40 | another font, that's fine. I'm going
to leave the Style field set to Regular
| | 02:44 | for this font and I'm going to make
sure that the Type Size is 12 point.
| | 02:49 | As I mentioned in the preceding movie,
whenever I add type to a path, I try to
| | 02:54 | have the Left Alignment icon selected
here. I've found that it makes it easier
| | 02:58 | to find the beginning and endpoints of
the type. I'm going to leave the color
| | 03:02 | of the type at black and I'm
ready to add some text to this path.
| | 03:05 | With the Type tool is still selected
in the toolbox, I'm going to move my
| | 03:09 | cursor into the image, and you could
see that the cursor for the Type tool is
| | 03:13 | an I-beam. If I move that cursor over
the path, it changes. Now it's an I-beam
| | 03:18 | with a diagonal line through the I-beam.
That means that if I click, I'll be
| | 03:22 | attaching the type I'm about to add to
this path. So I'm going to do that.
| | 03:26 | I'm going to click here and in the Layers
panel I now have a new type layer, and I
| | 03:31 | have a blinking cursor
which means I'm ready to type.
| | 03:34 | I am going to type An Apple A Day Keeps
The Doc Away, and that type has gone
| | 03:42 | around my circular path, which is exactly
the way that I wanted it. As when I
| | 03:46 | add regular point type, I have to commit
this type. So I'm going to go up to
| | 03:50 | the Options bar and I'm going
to click the checkmark there.
| | 03:53 | This circular path with its type acts
just like the path that I made in the
| | 03:58 | preceding movie, the open path that
I made with the Pen tool. For example, I
| | 04:02 | can move the text along this path to
reposition it, by selecting the Black
| | 04:06 | Arrow tool in the toolbox and then
moving near to the type. Now I want to stay
| | 04:10 | outside the path and I wait until
I see this dark Black Arrow and then I'll
| | 04:15 | click and drag and I can
move the type along the path.
| | 04:19 | What did I say that I want to be
outside the path? Because if by mistake,
| | 04:23 | I cross that line by clicking and
dragging across the line like this, then the
| | 04:28 | type would flip into the inside of
that path and that isn't what I want it.
| | 04:32 | I want it outside of the path. So I'm g
oing to click and drag across the path the
| | 04:36 | other way to put the type back where
I want it. And if I want to move back down
| | 04:40 | the other way, I'll get that circle,
same circle and I'll drag down. And then
| | 04:44 | I'll accept that change, by going up to the
Type Options bar and clicking the checkmark again.
| | 04:49 | I could change the color of this type,
I could change its font, its size,
| | 04:54 | I could open the Character and Paragraph
panels and make some changes there, just
| | 04:58 | as I did in the preceding movie on
this line of type attach to this path.
| | 05:02 | Working with type on a path can be
challenging, but if you use the shortcut
| | 05:07 | that I have shown you in this movie,
which is to rely on one of the geometric
| | 05:10 | or custom shapes that come with Photoshop
to create a path, I think you'll find
| | 05:15 | it a lot easier to make your own
type flowing along unique paths.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Filling a path with text| 00:00 | You learned earlier in this chapter how
to put type on a path. Now I'm going to
| | 00:04 | show you not how to put type on a path,
but rather how to put type inside a path.
| | 00:09 | By filling a closed path with type,
you can create some interesting word
| | 00:13 | pictures. The first step in this
technique is to create a closed path. To do
| | 00:18 | that I'm going to get the Pen tool and
I'm just going to click anywhere in the
| | 00:22 | image. I'll click for different times
and now I'm ready to close the path.
| | 00:27 | To close the path, I hover right over
the first anchor point and when I see
| | 00:31 | that tiny circle up here. That means
that if I click there, the path will
| | 00:35 | close. Now this isn't the path that I
want to use, but I wanted to explain you
| | 00:39 | what a closed path was as oppose to an
open path that I created with the Pen
| | 00:44 | tool in an earlier movie. If you don't
like drawing with the Pen tool which can
| | 00:48 | be a challenge, you will be happy to
know that there is an easier way to create
| | 00:51 | a closed path that you can fill with
type and that's to use one of the customer
| | 00:55 | shapes that comes with Photoshop.
| | 00:56 | I am going to hit the Escape key on my
keyboard to delete this path and then
| | 01:01 | I'm going to go to the toolbox and I'm
going to select the Shape tool. I happen
| | 01:05 | to already have the Custom Shape
tool selected there. You may have the
| | 01:09 | Rectangle tool, in which case you will
click on the Rectangle tool and choose
| | 01:12 | the Custom Shape tool from the fly out menu.
| | 01:15 | Then I'm going to go up to the Options
bar for the Custom Shape tool. Because I
| | 01:19 | want to draw a vector path rather than
a shape layer, it's important that I not
| | 01:24 | leave this first icon selected, but
rather click on the second icon in this
| | 01:28 | group of three. Then I'm going to
choose the shape that I want to use as my
| | 01:32 | path. I'll go over to the Shape
Picker here in the Option bar and click the
| | 01:37 | arrow to the right of it to see
the default set of available shapes.
| | 01:40 | I am going to select the heart from
this set and then I'm going to click in the
| | 01:44 | blank part of the Options bar to close
that box. Then to create a heart-shaped
| | 01:48 | path in this image, I'm just going to
click in the image, I'm going to hold
| | 01:52 | down the Shift key to constraint the
proportions of the heart so it doesn't get
| | 01:55 | distorted and I'm going to drag.
And that gives me a heart-shaped path.
| | 02:03 | If I go to the Paths panel over here
and click on its tab, I can see my Work
| | 02:07 | Path with the thumbnail that contains
a heart-shaped vector outline. Now I'm
| | 02:12 | going to go back to the Layers panel
and I'm going to add some text to this
| | 02:16 | path. To do that, I'm going to click
on the Type tool and then I'll go up to
| | 02:20 | the Type Tool Options bar. Here, I'm
going to set my Font, which I have already
| | 02:24 | done, the Font Style and the Font size.
If you are following along with me, you
| | 02:28 | don't have to use this particular font
or this particular size, but I suggest
| | 02:33 | that you use a rather fine font and a
small font size. I found that that works
| | 02:37 | best with this technique.
| | 02:39 | I also have the Align icon set to
Left and I have selected White as my font
| | 02:44 | color. Having made those choices, I'm
going to come inside the heart and hover
| | 02:48 | my mouse there. Notice that the
cursor has changed to an I-beam with
| | 02:52 | parenthesis around it and that means
that if I click and type now, my type is
| | 02:56 | going to fill this shape
and I'm going to do that.
| | 02:59 | So I'll click and I found this works
best, if I type very short words. So, I'm
| | 03:05 | going to misspell these words and I'll type 'I
luv u, I luv u' and I'll do that a few more times.
| | 03:21 | Then I'm going to click and drag over
all of the letters that I have typed. I'm
| | 03:24 | going to copy those by pressing Command+
C on my keyboard, that's Ctrl+C on a PC
| | 03:30 | keyboard, and then I'm going to click
to the right of the last letter and press
| | 03:33 | Command+V on my keyboard, that's Ctrl+
V on a PC keyboard, and I'm going to do
| | 03:38 | that several times to type that text
over and over filling up the heart shape.
| | 03:44 | If I put too much type into the shape
than it can hold, I'll see this circular
| | 03:49 | icon at the bottom fill with a cross
and that means that there is some more
| | 03:53 | text here. So if I were to move my
mouse over any of the anchor points here and
| | 03:57 | drag to enlarge that shape, I would
have room for a little more type. So I'm
| | 04:02 | going to paste a few more times with
Command+V and I'll just stop there. As
| | 04:07 | when I enter any kind of type, I have
to commit the type change. So I'll go up
| | 04:11 | to the check mark in the
Options bar and I'll click there.
| | 04:14 | Then to make the vector outline around
this heart disappear, I'm going to click
| | 04:18 | off of that Type layer and there you
can see the word picture that I have made
| | 04:23 | using the heart-shaped vector outline.
The text is in filling all the nooks and
| | 04:27 | crannies of this shape. So I might go
back selecting the type layer again and
| | 04:33 | then going over and clicking on the
Black Arrow tool and choosing the White
| | 04:37 | Arrow tool from behind it.
| | 04:39 | With that tool I can click right on the
vector outline and that brings up these
| | 04:43 | anchor points and these handles and
I can click and drag on any handle to
| | 04:48 | reshape a curve or I can click
directly on any anchor point and I could drag
| | 04:53 | that in or out to change the shape of
the heart and I could tweak things here
| | 04:57 | until I'm satisfied with the way that
the text fills the heart and then I'll
| | 05:01 | click off that layer again.
| | 05:02 | So that's how quick and easy it is to
make a vector path from one of the Custom
| | 05:07 | Shape tools and then to
fill that path with text.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
7. Shape LayersWorking with shape layers| 00:00 | When you want to add a graphic to a
Photoshop composition, creating a shape
| | 00:04 | layer is often the best way to go.
The advantage of a shape layer over a
| | 00:07 | regular pixel based layer for graphics
is that a shape layer defines a shape
| | 00:12 | with the vector-based outline. What
does that mean for you? It means that no
| | 00:16 | matter how big you make a graphic shape,
it won't get soft or pixelated, and it
| | 00:21 | will retain a crisp edge if you
print it on a post-script printer.
| | 00:24 | I am going to give you a look at how
to create and work with shape layers.
| | 00:28 | Concentrating in this movie on shapes
made with the geometric Shape tools. To
| | 00:33 | make a shape layer, I'll go over to
the toolbox, and I'm going to click and
| | 00:37 | hold here on the Shape tool slot.
That brings up a flyout menu with several
| | 00:43 | flavors of Shape tool. The first
five of those are geometric shapes. The
| | 00:48 | Rectangle tool draws of course,
rectangles, and if I hold the Shift key while I
| | 00:52 | draw, it will draw a square. The
rounded Rectangle tool is useful for drawing
| | 00:56 | boxes and backdrops with rounded corners.
The Ellipse tool draws ovals and if I
| | 01:01 | hold the Shift key while drawing
circles, the Polygon tool draws various
| | 01:07 | straight-sided shapes including
triangles and stars, and the Line tool will
| | 01:12 | draw straight lines of different widths,
as well as lines with arrows on the
| | 01:16 | ends. And then the Custom Shape tool,
we are going to address later in the
| | 01:20 | course. This tool draws graphics of
all shapes, even non-geometric ones.
| | 01:25 | I could select one of the tools from here,
like the Ellipse tool, or I can wait
| | 01:30 | to go up to the Options bar for the
Shape tool, and choose the Shape tool that
| | 01:34 | I want from right here.
| | 01:36 | So in this case I'm going to choose the
Rounded Rectangle. Also in the Options
| | 01:40 | bar, I suggest you check these three
icons, the first three icons on the left.
| | 01:45 | When you want to create a shape layer,
it's very important that you have the
| | 01:48 | first of those selected. If I have the
second icon here selected, I would just
| | 01:52 | draw a path rather than a shape layer,
and if I had the third icon selected,
| | 01:56 | and I was working on a pixel-based layer,
Photoshop would create that shape for
| | 02:01 | me, but in pixels on the pixel-
based layer. No matter which tool I have
| | 02:05 | selected, I usually check the arrow
here, which brings up a contextual dialog
| | 02:09 | box that has options related to just that tool.
| | 02:12 | For example, with the rounded rectangle,
I could make a rounded square, or I
| | 02:17 | could choose to draw a fixed size
rounded rectangle, and so on. I'm going to
| | 02:22 | click in a blank area of the Options
bar to close this box, and when I'm using
| | 02:26 | the rounded rectangle, I'll go into
the radius box and usually increase the
| | 02:30 | roundness of the corners from 10
pixels. In this case, maybe I'll choose 30
| | 02:35 | pixels. I also pay attention to the
Style filled, because if there is a style
| | 02:40 | selected from one of those here, then
when I draw my shape, the style will come
| | 02:45 | in directly on the shape automatically applied.
| | 02:47 | I am going to click that arrow to
close that box, and then of course, I'll
| | 02:51 | choose a color. So I'll click in the
color box here to open the color picker,
| | 02:56 | and I'm going to choose the color
directly from the image. With the color
| | 02:59 | picker open, if I do move my mouse
over the image, the mouse changes to an
| | 03:02 | eyedropper and it will sample colors
from the open image. I'll click OK, and
| | 03:08 | blue is now my foreground color and the
color up here in the Shape Tool Options bar.
| | 03:13 | I'm going to take a look at the
Layers panel to see which layer I have
| | 03:16 | selected, because when I make a new
shape, it always makes a new shape layer
| | 03:20 | for me right above whichever layer is
selected at the moment. So I have got the
| | 03:25 | background layer selected, and I'm
ready to come in and draw out a shape.
| | 03:30 | I will draw a rounded rectangle between
the content of the Background layer and
| | 03:34 | the content of the Logo layer, which
is this white text and graphic. Take a
| | 03:40 | look at the Layers panel, and you
will see that the new shape layer has two
| | 03:43 | thumbnails on it. On the left is a
thumbnail that represents the color fill of
| | 03:48 | this layer, and on the right is a
vector mask. The vector mask contains a
| | 03:53 | vector outline, and when I say
vector, I mean made up of mathematical
| | 03:57 | instructions about points and curves
and lines, rather than made up of pixels.
| | 04:02 | The vector mask also has an area
indicated by gray here that's covering part of
| | 04:08 | the color fill. In other words, color
fill is covered all the way around this
| | 04:13 | shape. Then inside the vector outline
is a white area that indicates the part
| | 04:18 | of the color fill that's being
displayed inside the vector outline.
| | 04:21 | Notice that the vector mask is
highlighted right now. When it is, if I look at
| | 04:26 | the image, I can see a vector outline
around the shape. If I don't want to see
| | 04:31 | that in the image, I can go back and
click on the vector mask and the vector
| | 04:35 | outline disappears in the image. The
big thing that a shape layer has that a
| | 04:40 | pixel-based layer doesn't have is the
ability to be scaled up without degrading
| | 04:45 | the content, and while retaining
crisp edges. So for example, if I were to
| | 04:50 | press Command+T on my keyboard, that's
Ctrl+T on the PC, to evoke the Transform
| | 04:56 | command, and then hold down the Shift
key on my keyboard and drag to make that
| | 05:01 | rounded rectangle bigger, and then
press Return or Enter on the keyboard to
| | 05:05 | accept that change, the
shape still has smooth edges.
| | 05:08 | I am going to undo that change by
pressing Command+Z on my keyboard or Ctrl+Z
| | 05:12 | on a PC keyboard. I can modify either
component of a shape layer, its color or
| | 05:18 | its vector outline. To change the
color of a shape, I'll double-click on the
| | 05:23 | color thumbnail here. That opens the
color picker and I can either choose a
| | 05:27 | color from inside the color picker,
or I can move my mouse out of the color
| | 05:31 | picker to change it to an eye-dropper,
and to choose the color from inside the
| | 05:35 | image, and then I'll click OK.
| | 05:37 | To change the vector shape, I'm going
to click on the vector mask and then I'm
| | 05:42 | going to go to the toolbox and I'm
going to select the White Arrow tool, which
| | 05:46 | is right behind the Black Arrow tool.
So with the White Arrow tool selected,
| | 05:51 | I'll move into the image, and I'll
click on the vector outline. Notice the
| | 05:55 | anchor point that now came up around
the vector outline. I can click on any one
| | 05:59 | of the anchor points. That brings up
these small handles. I could use the
| | 06:03 | handles, or I can just click on an
anchor point and drag, and that will change
| | 06:07 | the shape. So I'll drag out to the
left here, and then I'll come over to the
| | 06:11 | other side, and I'll drag out to the
right. So I have subtly changed the shape
| | 06:17 | of this bounding box and when I did that, I
didn't degrade the quality of the image in any way.
| | 06:22 | I am going to go back and click on
the vector mask again to make the anchor
| | 06:26 | points disappear. In some respects a
shape layer is just like a pixel-based
| | 06:31 | layer. So for example, I can lower
the opacity of a shape layer. With the
| | 06:35 | Shape1 layer selected, I'll go up to
the Opacity field at the top of the layers
| | 06:39 | panel, and I'll drag to the left, and
that lowers the opacity of this shape,
| | 06:43 | making it so that I can see through
to the layer below. Similarly, I could
| | 06:48 | change the blend mode of this layer,
although I haven't talked about blend
| | 06:52 | modes yet in the course. What these
blend modes do is control the way that the
| | 06:56 | colors in the selected layer
interact with the colors on layers below.
| | 07:01 | I am going to choose Multiply and I get
a different look to my shape than I had
| | 07:04 | a moment ago. I can also add a layer
effect to a shape layer just like I can do
| | 07:09 | a pixel-based layer by going to the
bottom of the Layers panel and clicking in
| | 07:13 | the fx icon there. And I'll choose
Outer Glow, and then I'll click OK, and
| | 07:19 | there is a yellow outer glow around the shape.
| | 07:22 | So that's a look at how you can create
and work with shape layers in Photoshop
| | 07:26 | CS4. In the next movie, I'm going to
show you how to work with custom shape layers.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating custom shapes| 00:00 | In addition to the geometric shape
tools that create shape layers Photoshop
| | 00:04 | offers another tool that creates shape
layers and that's the Custom Shape tool.
| | 00:09 | The custom shape tool comes with lots
of pictorial graphics that you can use in
| | 00:12 | your images and also presents lots
of possibilities for creating your own
| | 00:16 | graphics. In this movie I'd like to
introduce you to custom shapes and show you
| | 00:21 | how to use the combination features
that come with the shape tools to create
| | 00:25 | your own custom shape. I'll start by
going over to the Toolbox and clicking in
| | 00:29 | the Shape slot and from the flyout menu, s
I'm going to go down and choose Custom
| | 00:34 | Shape tool and I'm going to go up to
the Options bar. In the Options bar is the
| | 00:39 | Shape Picker. I'm going to click the
arrow on the Shape Picker and this shows
| | 00:43 | me a few of the custom shapes that
come with Photoshop. This is the default
| | 00:48 | set, but there are a lot more. Ro see
more I'm going to the arrow on this panel
| | 00:53 | and that opens a menu which has
categories of custom shapes at the bottom. I'm
| | 00:58 | going to click also that I can see
all of the custom shapes that come with
| | 01:01 | Photoshop. And I'll click OK. In the
Shape Picker I'm going to click on the
| | 01:06 | bottom right corner and drag to make
it longer so I can see more shapes at
| | 01:10 | once. You can see that there's
everything from animals to arrows to frames to
| | 01:16 | music and so on. I'm going to scroll
down so that I can choose this generic
| | 01:23 | shape, which I'm going to make into a
picture frame. I'll select that shape and
| | 01:27 | then I'll close the Shape Picker by
clicking in a blank area of the Options
| | 01:30 | bar. I'm going to leave Styles set to
No Style, and then I'm going to click in
| | 01:34 | the color picker to open it and I do
want to get a color. I'll just sample a
| | 01:38 | green from the image and click OK. And
I'm doing this in color because I want
| | 01:44 | you to see that it doesn't matter
what color you choose as your creating a
| | 01:47 | shape. Your actual shapes will always
be black. Now I'm going to move into this
| | 01:52 | white box and I'll hold the Shift key
to constrain proportions, and I'm going
| | 01:56 | to drag. And that gives me this empty
area with a green thick frame. Next to
| | 02:04 | the Shape Picker there are a series of
buttons and these buttons can be used to
| | 02:07 | combine multiple shapes to create a
custom shape. You can use the custom shapes
| | 02:12 | that come with Photoshop as part of
that effort or you could use geometric
| | 02:16 | shapes or you could use a combination.
The first thing I'm going to do is to
| | 02:20 | use another shape to subtract
some area from this thick frame. As a
| | 02:24 | prerequisite to combining the shapes
I must go over to the Layers panel and
| | 02:29 | make sure that that vector mask
thumbnail is selected. If it's not I would
| | 02:33 | click on it. And then I'm going to go
up to the options bar and I'm going to
| | 02:37 | click on this icon right here, the
third from the left, which is the Subtract
| | 02:41 | From icon. Then I'll look in the
Shape Picker for a shape to subtract. I'm
| | 02:47 | going to use the one that's right
next to the large thick frame that I just
| | 02:50 | used. It's a thin frame right here.
I'll select it and then I'll close the
| | 02:55 | Shape Picker. I'm going to come in and
I'll click in the middle of the thick
| | 02:59 | frame between the corners and I'll
click there and I'll drag and I'll try to
| | 03:04 | get this as even as I can by eye.
Otherwise if I held down the Option key on
| | 03:09 | the Mac, the Alt key on a PC, I could
have dragged out this shape from its
| | 03:13 | center. So that looks pretty good. You
can see that second shape actually cut
| | 03:17 | away part of the first shape. And
that's because of the Subtract From
| | 03:22 | combination icon. Now I'm going to try
to add to this combination shape that
| | 03:26 | I'm building. So this time I'll click
the Add To icon right here. And then I'm
| | 03:31 | going to go into the Shape Picker and
I'm going to choose a shape. I'm going to
| | 03:35 | take this leaf right here and then go
up to blank area of the Options bar and
| | 03:39 | click to close that panel. Then I'm
going to come into the image and I'm not
| | 03:44 | holding the Shift key, I'm just
clicking and dragging by eye, hoping not to
| | 03:48 | distort the shape. And I'll release my
mouse. And so that shape has been added
| | 03:53 | to the other two. Now if I look over on
the vector mask, I can sort of see that
| | 03:58 | all of those shapes are involved there.
When I'm going to do now is to save
| | 04:02 | this combination logo as my own custom-
built shape. To do that I have to make
| | 04:07 | sure that that vector mask is selected
in the Layers panel and then I'm going
| | 04:11 | to go out to the Edit menu and down to
Define Custom Shape. I'll call this my
| | 04:17 | new shape, and I'll click OK. Now I'm
going to make that shape layer invisible.
| | 04:24 | It's still there but I need a blank
area to work in here. I'm going to go up to
| | 04:28 | the Shape Picker, and I'm going to go
all the way down to the bottom and look
| | 04:32 | what's there. The brand new custom
shape that I just made. Remember that it was
| | 04:37 | green when I made it. However, like
every shape it's now black. If I select
| | 04:42 | that custom shape here in the Shape
Picker, and then close the Shape Picker by
| | 04:45 | clicking in the Options bar, I can
then choose another color to paint with,
| | 04:49 | using this custom shape. So I'll click
in the color field of the Custom Shape
| | 04:54 | Tool Options bar, and I'll choose
another color from here in the color picker,
| | 04:58 | maybe an aqua, and click OK. Now, I'm
ready to drag out that custom shape, and
| | 05:04 | because it is a shape, I can make it as
big as I want without losing any image
| | 05:09 | quality. I'm going to hold down the
Shift key to constrain proportions, and I'm
| | 05:13 | going to drag, and Photoshop has made a
brand new layer for me using the custom
| | 05:18 | shape that I just built, and in the
image it's drawn that custom shape using
| | 05:23 | the blue that I had selected. In the
Layers panel, if I click on the vector
| | 05:27 | mask there, I can eliminate the
vector outlines here in the image. Now if I
| | 05:32 | want this new custom built shape to
remain as an item in the library of shapes,
| | 05:37 | I have to go back to the Shape Picker,
click the arrow to the right of the
| | 05:40 | Shape Picker. There is my new custom
shape down at the bottom, and I need to go
| | 05:45 | to the arrow on the right side of the
Shape Picker, and choose Save Shapes.
| | 05:49 | This takes me directly to the area
where Photoshop saves and knows to look for
| | 05:53 | shapes. I can call this whatever I want.
I'll call it Jan's test shapes. And
| | 06:01 | then I'll click Save. When I restart
Photoshop, if I then come into the shape
| | 06:06 | picker, I should be able to go to
this menu and see my brand new Jan's test
| | 06:11 | shapes in this menu of shapes, and I
can switch to it, just like I can switch
| | 06:16 | to any one of these menus. So for
example, if I were to choose animals here,
| | 06:21 | and click OK, and then I change my mind
and I wanted to go back to the original
| | 06:24 | shapes, I can click the arrow here and
choose reset shapes, and that would take
| | 06:29 | me all the way back to the original
shapes from which to choose. Then I'll
| | 06:32 | click in the Options bar, and that
makes that menu disappear. So that's a look
| | 06:37 | at custom shapes in Photoshop. They
create shape layers just like geometric
| | 06:42 | shapes do, and I also showed you how
you can use custom shapes along with the
| | 06:46 | combination icons to make your very
own custom shape, and use it in your images.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Making a custom shape from a logo| 00:00 | If you have ever done any design work
for clients, you may have been in this
| | 00:03 | situation. A client comes to you and
gives you a flattened pixel-based or
| | 00:08 | sometimes called bitmap image, and
that's all you have to work with and
| | 00:12 | you know that you need to make that into
a format that will help you a lot to make
| | 00:15 | some large versions of the asset
and some small versions of the asset.
| | 00:19 | In Photoshop, you can make that asset
into a custom shape. Because a custom
| | 00:24 | shape is resolution independent,
you'll be able to use it at any size without
| | 00:28 | worrying about the edges not being
crisp, or the content being blurry or
| | 00:32 | otherwise degraded. So the first step
here with this flattened bitmap image
| | 00:37 | that has one layer in it is to select
just the pink content, because that is
| | 00:42 | the content that I want to be able to
save as a custom shape, and that includes
| | 00:46 | this rasterized line of type down
here. The type has been changed from an
| | 00:50 | editable type layer into regular pixels.
I could use one of several different
| | 00:55 | selection methods to try to select
this content. I think the best way to go
| | 00:59 | about this would be to try to
select the white and then to invert the
| | 01:03 | selection and I'm considering
using the Color Range command for that.
| | 01:07 | I'll give it a try by going up to the
Select menu at the top of the screen and
| | 01:11 | down to Color Range. Here in the Color
Range dialog box, to select the white,
| | 01:16 | I'm going to get this eyedropper, the
one on the left, and then I'll move over
| | 01:20 | into my open document and I'm going to
click on the white and you can see what
| | 01:24 | is being selected for me when I
clicked on that white. Not everything.
| | 01:28 | So I have a couple of choices here.
I could move the Fuzziness slider over,
| | 01:33 | which would increase the range of tones
around the one on which I clicked that
| | 01:37 | would be selected. I could uncheck
Localized Color Clusters, which helps
| | 01:42 | Color Range to focus on a particular area,
but here I want to select all the white.
| | 01:46 | So I don't think I'll need that. I'm
going to uncheck that and that made a big
| | 01:50 | difference right away. By the way,
Localized Color Clusters is a new feature in
| | 01:55 | Photoshop CS4 and it often really comes
in handy here in the Color Range dialog box.
| | 02:00 | But in this case I just didn't
need it. So it looks like I'm done with
| | 02:04 | this selection and I can click OK.
You can see by the marching ants in the
| | 02:08 | document that I have selected the white
background. What I really want to do is
| | 02:12 | to select all the pink content. So I'm
going to go up to the Select menu and
| | 02:16 | I'm going to choose Inverse to invert
that selection, and now all the pink
| | 02:21 | content is selected.
| | 02:22 | I can't make a selection directly
into a custom shape, but what I can do is
| | 02:27 | make the selection into a path and then
make the path into a shape. So to make
| | 02:32 | this selection into a path, I'm going
to go over to the Layers, Channels and
| | 02:36 | Paths group over here, click on
the Paths panel to bring that to the
| | 02:40 | foreground, and then I'm going all the
way to the bottom of the Paths panel,
| | 02:45 | and I'm going to click this icon here
which makes selections into paths.
| | 02:49 | So I'll click there, and I do have a
working path now made from that selection.
| | 02:54 | If you look closely at the image, you can
see that black line which represents a
| | 02:59 | vector path around all of the pink
content. In the Paths panel, you can see
| | 03:04 | this thumbnail containing the vector
outlines that make up this work path.
| | 03:08 | The next step is to go up to the Edit
menu at the top of the screen and there
| | 03:12 | I'll find the Define Custom Shape
command. This command was not available
| | 03:17 | unless and until I had some paths here.
So I'll choose Define Custom Shape.
| | 03:22 | I'll give the shape a name.
I'll call this Kai and I'll click OK.
| | 03:27 | Now I'm going to go back to my Layers panel,
and I'm going to go and select the Custom
| | 03:31 | Shape tool from the Shape tool slot
here in the toolbox. I'll go up to the
| | 03:37 | Shape Picker in the Custom Shape
Options bar. I'll click the arrow to the right
| | 03:42 | of the Shape Picker, and when I come
down to the bottom of all the many shapes
| | 03:45 | that are there, I see my Kai custom
shape that I just created. I'm going to
| | 03:51 | select that custom shape and to test it out
I'm going to make a new blank layer
| | 03:55 | in this file. So I'll go over to the
Layers panel and I'll click the Create
| | 03:59 | New Layer icon here.
| | 04:00 | That brings up this blank Layer 1,
and I'm going to fill that with the
| | 04:04 | foreground color. If your foreground
color is not set to white, then press the
| | 04:09 | D and then the X keys on your keyboard.
That's D and X for default colors and
| | 04:14 | then to switch the foreground and
background colors. Then to fill Layer 1 with
| | 04:18 | white paint, I'm going to hold down
the Option key on a Mac and press the
| | 04:22 | Delete key. That's the Alt key and the
Backspace key on a PC. When I do that,
| | 04:27 | Layer 1 fills with white. I also don't
want to see this path here. So I'm going
| | 04:32 | to go back to the Paths panel and I'm
going to click off the word Path.
| | 04:36 | Then I'll go back to the Layers panel
again and make sure that I have Layer 1
| | 04:40 | selected and I'm going to drag out
my custom shape. I'll have to select a
| | 04:45 | color first. So I'll go up to the Color
picker in the Custom Shape Options bar,
| | 04:50 | click there and perhaps I'll choose
a nice blue color and I'll click OK.
| | 04:55 | And now in this blank image, I'm going
to hold down the Shift key as I click
| | 05:00 | and drag, and I can drag as large
as I want, and there is my logo as an
| | 05:06 | instance of this new custom shape.
| | 05:08 | The edge looks a little raggedy and
that's because I can see the vector
| | 05:12 | outline when this vector mask is
highlighted as it now is. So I'll click on the
| | 05:16 | vector mask and now the edges of the
logo looks smooth. I can use this same
| | 05:21 | custom shape over and over again with
different colors and at different sizes.
| | 05:26 | To make sure that the new custom shape
will be saved and available with this
| | 05:30 | library of shapes, I'm going to do
one last thing, which is go back to the
| | 05:34 | shape picker for the Custom Shape tool,
click the arrow on its right and
| | 05:38 | in the panel I'm going to go to this
arrow on the far right, and from the panel menu,
| | 05:43 | I'm going to choose Save Shapes.
I'm going to call this library of
| | 05:47 | shapes 'Jan's test shapes' again and that will
just save over the last test shapes that I made.
| | 05:55 | I will click Save and I do want to
replace my test shapes. I can still see my
| | 06:00 | Kai custom shape down here at the
bottom of this panel, but if I were to come
| | 06:05 | up to this arrow and I were to reset
the shapes back to the original shapes,
| | 06:10 | I'll click OK. I would no longer
have access to my Kai custom shape, but
| | 06:15 | because I did save the shapes from
the side menu, if I restart Photoshop,
| | 06:20 | I should be able to see my Kai custom
shape. So I'm going to do that. I'll go up
| | 06:25 | to the Photoshop menu and I'll choose
Quick Photoshop, and I'll choose Don't Save.
| | 06:32 | I have just re-launched Photoshop and
now with my custom shapes still selected
| | 06:37 | here in the toolbox, I'm going to go up
to the shape picker, click the arrow to
| | 06:41 | the right of it, and I see my default
set of shapes here. However, now I can go
| | 06:47 | to the panel menu on the right side of
the shape picker, and look, and there
| | 06:51 | down at the bottom I see my library of
Jan's test shapes. I'm going to select that,
| | 06:56 | and yes, I'll replace the current
shapes with those from Jan's test shapes.
| | 07:01 | I'll say OK, and now if I scroll all
the way down to the bottom, I do
| | 07:06 | have that new Kai custom shape and
it's here permanently so that I can use it
| | 07:11 | over and over again. So I hope that
you find that to be a useful workaround
| | 07:15 | the next time that someone gives you
a bitmap image for you to use in your design work.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Making a custom shape from type| 00:00 | If you like to design with type, then
you will appreciate the advantages of
| | 00:04 | being able to convert a type layer to
a shape layer. Why would I want to do that?
| | 00:08 | Well, there are several reasons.
First of all let's take a look at these
| | 00:12 | type layers. The first type layer
here is the Lucinda Rose type layer, I'm
| | 00:16 | going to select it, and let's say that
I would like to try to modify the shape
| | 00:20 | of the letters in this type layer. I
might think that I can do that with one of
| | 00:24 | the Arrow tools, perhaps the Black Arrow
tool or the White Arrow tool. So I'll try them.
| | 00:29 | I'll click on the Black Arrow tool in
the Toolbox, and then I'll go over the
| | 00:33 | text, and I'll try to click on it and
nothing happens. The same is true if I
| | 00:38 | select the White Arrow tool, nothing
happens. So that means that while this
| | 00:44 | content is in a type layer, I cannot
alter the individual letters. However, if
| | 00:50 | I convert it to a shape layer, I'll
be able to do that. Let's see how that
| | 00:53 | works. With the Lucinda Rose type
layer selected, I'm going to go up to the
| | 00:58 | Layer menu and I'm going down to Type
and over to Convert to Shape. I can see
| | 01:04 | now that that type layer has changed to
a shape layer, and I know it's a shape
| | 01:08 | layer because it contains the two
thumbnails that represent a shape layer. The
| | 01:12 | color fill on the left and the vector
mask on the right. So for example, if I
| | 01:16 | wanted to change the color of this text
now, I can just double click the color
| | 01:21 | fill icon, and that would open the
color picker where I could select a color
| | 01:25 | and click OK. But the real reason that
I converted this layer from type to a
| | 01:29 | shape is that I want to be
able to manipulate the letters.
| | 01:32 | So I'm going to try now to select the
Black Arrow tool, and then to come in and
| | 01:39 | click on the 'L' that selects the 'L'
and none of the other letters in this
| | 01:43 | group. So I can take the 'L' and I can
move it wherever I want it, right down
| | 01:48 | here. I can do the same with the 'R'
move it down here, and then if I want I
| | 01:53 | can go and get the White Arrow tool
from the Toolbox, and with that tool if I
| | 01:58 | click on any letter, it's anchor
points open, they are hallow, and that means
| | 02:02 | that I can click on any anchor point
and drag it out, like that, or I could
| | 02:10 | come and click on this dot here, the
dot on the 'I' and drag out some spikes
| | 02:15 | from that, and I'll go over to this 'R',
I'll click on that letter, and I'll
| | 02:20 | drag out from the foot of that letter
as well. So that's just a quick sampling
| | 02:27 | of the ways that I can customize this
text by converting it to a custom shape.
| | 02:31 | In addition, when I convert text to
a custom shape, I have the ability to
| | 02:35 | perform, distort and perspective
transforms on it. For example, this is
| | 02:40 | actually a piece of text, you can see
in the Layers panel that it's on a type
| | 02:44 | layer, and it's the letter Z in a
particular font. If I select that type layer
| | 02:49 | and I select the Type tool, and then I
look in the Type Options bar, I can see
| | 02:54 | that this is a character in the
Wingdings font, which is a symbol font. I'd
| | 02:58 | like to be able to apply some
perspective or distortion to this symbol, and I
| | 03:02 | can't do that while this remains type.
| | 03:05 | So instead, I'll convert this symbol to
a shape, so that I can manipulate it in
| | 03:09 | terms of distorting and changing
perspective. I'll make sure that the Z layer
| | 03:13 | is selected in the Layers panel, and
then I'll go up to the layer menu at the
| | 03:16 | top of the screen, and I'll go down
to Type, and I'll go over to Convert to
| | 03:21 | Shape. So now that font symbol is a
shape, if I click on the vector mask in the
| | 03:26 | Layer panel for the Z layer, I can see
that that font is indeed smooth here,
| | 03:31 | and now if I go up to the Edit menu,
I can go down to Transform, and I can
| | 03:36 | access both the Distort and the
Perspective commands here. So if I choose
| | 03:41 | Perspective for example, and then I
click and I drag, the font symbol moves
| | 03:47 | into Perspective. I'm going to accept
that change by going up to the Options
| | 03:51 | bar and click in the check mark.
| | 03:53 | So if you do want more control over
text that you are creating in Photoshop,
| | 03:57 | consider converting your
type layers to shape layers.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
8. Special Layer TypesConverting a background layer| 00:00 | If you have been using Photoshop for
even a shot while, you have probably run
| | 00:04 | into some of the problem I'm going to
describe to you now. I'd like to help you
| | 00:08 | to debug these problems and to solve
them, and these problems all have to do
| | 00:12 | with the nature of this layer, a
special background layer. It's typical to see
| | 00:17 | a layer like this in a file that comes
in from a digital camera, or a scanner,
| | 00:22 | or perhaps a file that you have
downloaded from a stock agency online. Or
| | 00:26 | maybe, you have even created a special
background layer inadvertently in the
| | 00:30 | file new dialog box.
| | 00:31 | For example, if I'm making a new file
from scratch and I go to File > New, and
| | 00:36 | I leave the background contents field
set to background color, the file that I
| | 00:41 | make will have a background layer. I'm
going to cancel out of the new dialog
| | 00:45 | box, because I want to show you some
of the problems that a background layer
| | 00:49 | can cause. So let's say you do have a
file with a background layer it could be
| | 00:53 | a file with just one layer in it, or
it could be a file with several layers
| | 00:57 | like this, and you have got the lowest
layer selected. If you decide that you
| | 01:01 | want to move the content of this layer,
normally you get the Move tool, and you
| | 01:06 | would expect that if you came into the
image and clicked and dragged, that the
| | 01:11 | content of the selected layer would move. But
when it's a background layer that doesn't happen.
| | 01:16 | Instead, Photoshop tells you that it
can't do that because the layer is locked.
| | 01:21 | I'm going to click OK to dismiss that
and you can see that Photoshop is right.
| | 01:25 | This layer is locked. Because a
special background layer by nature carries a
| | 01:30 | partial layer lock.
| | 01:32 | Another problem you might run into is
that you may want to move this layer in
| | 01:35 | the layers stack. So for example, in
this case, I have the Grapes layer above
| | 01:40 | the background layer. The reason that
you can see the glass on the background
| | 01:43 | layer right now even though the
Grapes layer is above it is that the Grapes
| | 01:46 | layer has the Overlay blending mode on
it. But I'd like to check how this looks
| | 01:51 | with the wineglass above the grapes.
I might like the result better.
| | 01:54 | So I'm going to click on the background
layer, and I'm going to try to drag it
| | 01:58 | above the Grapes layer, I can't, I
just get this Cancel symbol, and when I
| | 02:02 | release my mouse the background layer
stays where it is. Similarly, I can't
| | 02:08 | move any other layer beneath a
background layer. So if I select the Grapes
| | 02:12 | layer and I try to drag it beneath
the background layer I can't. So that's
| | 02:16 | another limitation of a background
layer. I'll select that background layer
| | 02:20 | again and show you one more problem
that you may run into when you have a
| | 02:24 | background layer in a file. Because
this layer is the lowest layer in the
| | 02:28 | Layers panel, you would expect that
beneath it would be transparent pixels,
| | 02:33 | because after all the layer system
is built on the idea of transparency.
| | 02:37 | So in this case, let's say that I
would like these white pixels to appear
| | 02:41 | transparent, so that I can think about
maybe putting another color beneath them
| | 02:45 | on a separate layer. I'm going to go
to the Toolbox and get the Rectangular
| | 02:48 | Marquee tool, and I'm going to come
in and drag a marquee around everything
| | 02:53 | except those white pixels, and then
I'm going to go up to the Select menu and
| | 02:58 | Inverse. And now the white pixels are
selected, and I do have that background
| | 03:03 | layer selected. So I would imagine
that if I go to the Edit menu and down to
| | 03:06 | Cut, I'll see transparency.
| | 03:10 | But now instead I get these red pixels.
Well, where did they come from? They
| | 03:14 | came from the color that I happened
to have at the moment in the background
| | 03:18 | color box here at the bottom of the
Toolbox. Whenever you delete pixels from a
| | 03:23 | background layer either by deleting or
cutting a selection or by using a tool
| | 03:28 | like the Eraser tool, you won't see
transparent pixels as you might expect,
| | 03:32 | instead, you will see whatever color
is in the background color box at the
| | 03:36 | moment. Well, this isn't the result I
wanted, so I'm going to undo by pressing
| | 03:40 | Command+Z on the Mac, Ctrl+Z on a PC
and I'll delete that selection by pressing
| | 03:46 | Command+D on the Mac, Ctrl+D on the PC.
| | 03:49 | So, those are the problems that you
may run into when you have a background
| | 03:52 | layer in a file. The good news is
that nowadays you don't usually need a
| | 03:57 | background layer in a file. The reason
for the background layer is that before
| | 04:01 | there were nondestructive editing
features in Photoshop, you would often find
| | 04:05 | yourself working directly on an
image layer to do something like make an
| | 04:08 | adjustment. People like to protect
their original photos and images that were
| | 04:13 | on the lowest layer, so they would
welcome having the lock there, and they
| | 04:17 | would sometimes make a copy of the
background layer and work on that copy
| | 04:21 | leaving the background layer pristine.
| | 04:23 | But these days there are adjustment
layers, there are Smart Filters and lots of
| | 04:27 | other features that allow you to make
changes to your image without actually
| | 04:31 | touching or harming in anyway the
pixels of an image layer. So I think it's not
| | 04:36 | as important as it used to be to
keep the lowest layer in the Layer panel
| | 04:40 | locked down as a background layer.
| | 04:42 | So in most cases there is no problem
with changing the background layer into a
| | 04:46 | regular layer, and that's the
solution to all the issues that I just showed you.
| | 04:50 | To do that all I need to do is go
over to the Layers panel, double click
| | 04:56 | on the background layer and that opens
the New Layer dialog box. If I'm in a
| | 05:00 | hurry, I can just click OK at this point,
or if I would like to give this layer
| | 05:04 | a more meaningful name as I convert
it into a regular layer, I can type
| | 05:09 | something like wineglass, and I'll
click OK, and now this layer at the bottom
| | 05:13 | of the layer stack is a regular layer.
So if I wanted to I could drag it above
| | 05:18 | the Grapes layer by just clicking and
dragging and releasing my mouse when I
| | 05:21 | see a bold line, I could get the Eraser
tool, and I could erase and I would see
| | 05:26 | transparent pixels beneath. And I
could get the Move tool, and I could drag
| | 05:31 | that wineglass on its layer
wherever I wanted in the image.
| | 05:35 | So the next time you are working and
you run into any of the problems that I
| | 05:38 | just described, take a look at the
lowest layer in the Layers panel, and if it
| | 05:42 | is a background layer make your life
easier by changing it into a regular layer
| | 05:47 | by just double clicking on it.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Introducing Smart Object layers| 00:00 | A Smart Object appears as a layer in
the Layers panel. In some ways, a Smart
| | 00:04 | Object behaves like a regular layer.
For example, I could change its stacking
| | 00:09 | order in the Layers panel or I could
vary its layer opacity among lots of other
| | 00:13 | things. But underneath the hood, a
Smart Object is more than just a layer.
| | 00:18 | It's a whole unique technology that is
generated and continuous to generate new ways
| | 00:22 | of working and recent releases of Photoshop.
| | 00:25 | In this course I'm just going to
introduce you to Smart Object so that you
| | 00:29 | understand what a Smart Object layer
is and a couple of the major techniques
| | 00:33 | that you can perform using smart objects.
| | 00:36 | To get started I'll show you how to
make a Smart Object. One way is to create a
| | 00:41 | Smart Object by converting one or more
layers in an existing file to a Smart
| | 00:46 | Object layer. For example, in this image,
the top five layers here are all part
| | 00:52 | of the stamp that you see in the
document window. I'm going to make those five
| | 00:56 | layers into a Smart Object. To do that
I'll click on the top layer and then I'm
| | 01:01 | going to hold my Shift key and I'm
going to click on the edge layer. I'm not
| | 01:04 | going to include the background in my
Smart Object. Then I'm going to click on
| | 01:08 | any one of those selected layers holding
the Ctrl key on Mac or right-clicking on a PC.
| | 01:14 | To bring up this contextual menu and
from here I'm going to choose Convert to
| | 01:19 | Smart Object. You may be wondering
where those five layers went. They are now
| | 01:23 | embedded inside this file where they
are now protected from changes that I
| | 01:28 | might make to this layer which is the
Smart Object layer and the Smart Object
| | 01:32 | layer is just a composite proxy for those
five embedded layers of original content.
| | 01:38 | The fact that the original content is
embedded inside the file means that I
| | 01:43 | could scale and rescale, I could
rotate, I could warp and I could otherwise
| | 01:48 | transform the Smart Object layer as
many times as I'd like without risking
| | 01:53 | degrading the original embedded image
and that's true even though that content
| | 01:58 | is made up of pixels.
| | 01:59 | That's a big deal because in the past
if I try to scale up and then scale down
| | 02:05 | a pixel-based layer, I really would risk
blurring and pixelating the appearance of the content.
| | 02:11 | To show you that I'll make sure I have
the Smart Object layer selected in the
| | 02:14 | Layers panel. I know this is a Smart
Object layer, because on its thumbnail
| | 02:19 | there is now this Smart Object icon
right here. I'm going to go up to the Edit
| | 02:22 | menu at the top of the screen. From
there I could choose Free Transform, I'm
| | 02:28 | going to go down to the Transform menu
so that you can see the many varieties
| | 02:31 | of transform that are
available for smart objects.
| | 02:35 | In Photoshop CS4 for the first time you
can distort and manipulate perspective
| | 02:41 | of smart objects and that wasn't
available in the last version. I'm going to
| | 02:45 | choose Scale and then I'm going to
go to the bottom right corner of the
| | 02:49 | document window, I'm going to hold
down my Shift key to constrain proportions
| | 02:53 | and I'm going to click and drag
this stamp to make it smaller.
| | 02:57 | When I'm done transforming, I'll go
up to the Options bar and click the
| | 03:00 | checkmark to accept the transform. So
now I theoretically have room on this
| | 03:04 | background to add a lot more stamps.
But let's say that I change my mind and I
| | 03:08 | decide, no, I just want to have one
stamp on this page and I want that to be a
| | 03:13 | full size stamp. Because this is a
Smart Object layer, I can resize that image
| | 03:18 | up with no risk of degrading the image
quality. So, again, I'm going to go to
| | 03:22 | up to the Edit menu and I'm
going to choose Transform > Scale.
| | 03:27 | Again, I'll hold down the Shift key as
I move my mouse over the corner anchor
| | 03:31 | point and drag down into the right.
Now there is only one limitation to that
| | 03:36 | technique and that is that I want to
keep my eye on that Option bar at the top
| | 03:41 | of the screen and make sure that the
Width and Height fields there don't go
| | 03:44 | much over 100%, because I don't want
to scale the image up larger than it was
| | 03:48 | when I started which would cause
Photoshop to make up image information.
| | 03:53 | So I'll just go as close as I can to
100%, a little bit over is okay and I'll
| | 03:58 | release my mouse. Then I'll go up
to the Options bar and I'll click the
| | 04:01 | checkmark to accept that transform.
Transforming a Smart Object is just one
| | 04:07 | thing that I can do to a Smart Object
layer. I could also add a layer effect,
| | 04:11 | or a layer style, or I could add a re-
editable smart filter to a Smart Object layer.
| | 04:16 | Another thing that I can do is to add
a layer mask to a Smart Object. So for
| | 04:20 | example, with the Smart Object layer
selected, I could go down to the bottom of
| | 04:24 | the Layers panel and click the Layer
Mask icon and for the first time in
| | 04:28 | Photoshop CS4, a layer mask on a Smart
Object has this link icon here meaning
| | 04:34 | that the mask is linked to Smart Object.
| | 04:36 | So that if I move the Smart Object,
the mask will go with it. I'm actually
| | 04:40 | going to delete the mask, because I'm
not going to be using it now. I'll be
| | 04:43 | covering layer mask in some depth in
the next chapter. To delete this layer
| | 04:47 | mask, I'm just going to click on it
and drag it down to the Trash icon at the
| | 04:51 | bottom of the Layers panel and I'm
back to a Smart Object layer with no mask.
| | 04:56 | Now, there are some things that I can't
do to a Smart Object layer and I would
| | 05:00 | like you to be aware of those. I
can't do any pixel-based editing on Smart
| | 05:04 | Object layer, and that means that I
can't use any of the tools in this section
| | 05:09 | here of the toolbox. The Healing Brushes,
the Brush tool, the Clone Stamp tool,
| | 05:14 | the History Brushes, the Eraser tools,
the Gradient tool and the Darkroom tools.
| | 05:20 | In addition, I can't make direct
adjustments on a Smart Object layer. Although,
| | 05:25 | I could make an adjustment layer
above a Smart Object layer and clip the
| | 05:28 | adjustment layer to the Smart Object
layer to effect only the Smart Object. But
| | 05:33 | what if I want to make some pixel-based
edits to the content of the Smart Object layer?
| | 05:37 | In that case I need to open up the
Smart Object, make my changes on those
| | 05:42 | original layers that are now embedded
in the file and then save to update the
| | 05:47 | changes in the Smart Object layer.
I'll show you how to do that by going over
| | 05:51 | to the Smart Object layer in the Layers
panel and double-clicking right on its
| | 05:55 | thumbnail. I'm going to say OK at this
message and that opens a second file.
| | 06:02 | Notice in the document window that
there are now two files open. The one I was
| | 06:06 | just working in, stamp.psd, is this
one. It's the one with the Smart Object
| | 06:11 | layer and this file with the .psb
extension contains the five original layers
| | 06:19 | that I included in my Smart Object.
| | 06:21 | So let's say that I want to make some
pixel-based edits to the photograph here.
| | 06:26 | In this PSB file, I would go over to
the figs layer and select it and then I
| | 06:31 | might go into the Toolbox and select
a darkroom tool, say the Sponge tool,
| | 06:36 | which I can use to saturate or
desaturate local area of a photograph. I'll go
| | 06:41 | up to the Options bar for that tool
and I'll make sure that the Mode menu is
| | 06:45 | set to Saturate and then I'm going to
come in and I'm just going to click on
| | 06:49 | this fig to add a little bit of
saturation to the colors there. And to show you
| | 06:55 | before and after, I'm going to press
Command+Z on my keyboard that's how it was
| | 06:59 | and that's how it is with
the extra localize changes.
| | 07:04 | I could also paint here in this image,
I could use the Clone tool to make more
| | 07:07 | figs, I could retouching with
Healing tools or I could make direct image
| | 07:13 | adjustments. When I'm all done, I'm
going to close this file and save it and
| | 07:18 | it's very important to save it in the
exact location it already is. So I don't
| | 07:22 | want to go to the File menu and choose
Save As, but I could choose Save from
| | 07:27 | this menu. I think a more full proof
way to do this is not to use the File >
| | 07:31 | Save menus, but rather to just close
the PSB document by going to the X on its
| | 07:37 | tab and then Photoshop asks whether I
want to save it. So I'll just click Save
| | 07:43 | and that will put it in just the right
place to update my Smart Object back in
| | 07:48 | the PSD document and you can see that
that fig is now more saturated then it
| | 07:52 | was a few minutes ago.
| | 07:54 | So, that's how you do pixel based
edits on a Smart Object. What I have shown
| | 07:58 | you here isn't all there is to the
subject to the smart objects. There is more
| | 08:02 | to learn about smart objects
ranging from the use of smart objects with
| | 08:06 | editable smart filters to using smart
objects with Adobe Camera Raw or with
| | 08:11 | Adobe Illustrator, and unfortunately
that's outside the scope of this course
| | 08:15 | whose focuses on layers, but I do hope
I have given you a sense of what a Smart
| | 08:19 | Object layer is and how to work with it
to do the basics, transforming multiple
| | 08:24 | times and doing pixel type edits.
| | 08:27 | And in the next movie I'm going to show
you another technique, which is how you
| | 08:30 | can use one Smart Object as a
template for other smart objects that will
| | 08:34 | automatically update.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using Smart Objects as templates| 00:00 | In this movie, I'm going to build upon
your introduction to Smart Object layers
| | 00:04 | in the preceding movie to show you a
more sophisticated technique that allows
| | 00:08 | you to use one Smart Object layer as a
template, from which to create lots more
| | 00:14 | Smart Object layers and when you
duplicate Smart Object layers in the way I'm
| | 00:17 | going to show you, if you make a
change to any one of them, all of the others
| | 00:22 | will update automatically.
| | 00:23 | I am starting here with a single image
of a stamp that I've made into a Smart
| | 00:28 | Object layer using the same technique
that I showed you in the preceding movie.
| | 00:32 | So if you want to review that,
you can go and do that now.
| | 00:35 | The next step is to take this big
stamp and resize it so that I can fit
| | 00:40 | multiple stamps on one page. As I
explained in the preceding movie, you have
| | 00:44 | lots of latitude to resize an image
when that image is in a Smart Object layer.
| | 00:49 | With this Smart Object layer selected
in the Layers panel, I'm going to go up
| | 00:53 | to the Edit menu and I'm going to
choose Free Transform and then I'm going to
| | 00:58 | the bottom right corner of this
image. I'll hold down the Shift key to
| | 01:01 | constrain proportions, and I'm going to
drag up into the left to make a smaller stamp.
| | 01:06 | When I'm done, I'll go up to the
Options bar for the Transform feature, and
| | 01:10 | I'll click the check mark to accept
that transform. The next step is to make
| | 01:14 | eight more copies of this stamp. So
that I'll have a total of nine. Three
| | 01:19 | across and three down. The fastest
way to duplicate a layer is to go to the
| | 01:24 | Layers panel, click on the layer and
then use this keyboard shortcut, Command+J
| | 01:29 | on the Mac, Ctrl+J on the PC.
| | 01:31 | I am going to do that one more time, so
that I have three copies all together.
| | 01:37 | Then I'm going to spread these copies
out because one is on top of the other
| | 01:40 | right now. With one of the Copy layers
selected, I'll get my Move tool in the
| | 01:45 | toolbox, I'll come into the image
and I'll hold my Shift key to constrain
| | 01:49 | movement and I'll drag to the right.
I'll do that with this other Copy layer too.
| | 01:55 | Selecting it in the Layers
panel and dragging with the Move tool.
| | 01:59 | I want to position the stamps so
that they do look like they are on a
| | 02:02 | perforated sheet of paper. So I'll
just tweak a little bit by selecting each
| | 02:07 | layer and moving over to the right.
That's close enough for now, and the next
| | 02:15 | thing I'm going to do is to duplicate
all three of these stamps by putting them
| | 02:21 | into a Layer group and duplicating the group.
| | 02:23 | So I'll click on the topmost of these
layers, and I'll click on the third layer
| | 02:27 | holding the Shift key. Then I'll go up
to the panel menu, and from there I'm
| | 02:31 | going to choose New Group from layers.
I'll click OK and that gives me Group 1.
| | 02:38 | With group 1 selected in the Layers
panel, I'm going back to the panel menu and
| | 02:42 | I'm going to choose Duplicate group.
| | 02:45 | Now I get Group 1 Copy. With Group 1
Copy selected, and my Move tool still
| | 02:51 | selected in the toolbox, I'll hold the
Shift key to constrain the direction of
| | 02:55 | movement and I'll drag down. I'll release
my mouse and I'll release the Shift key.
| | 03:03 | I'll do that one more time. With
Group 1 Copy selected in the Layers panel,
| | 03:08 | I'll go to the panel menu and I'll
duplicate the group. I'll click OK, and with
| | 03:13 | Group 1 Copy 2 selected, and the Move
tool still selected in the toolbox, I'll
| | 03:18 | hold the Shift key and drag down.
| | 03:20 | So now I have a page full of stamps.
The important point is that all of these
| | 03:25 | were made by duplicating a Smart Object
layer. The result of that is that if I
| | 03:30 | make a change to one of these stamps,
all of them are going to update.
| | 03:34 | You may remember from the last movie
that if I want to make a pixel based edit
| | 03:38 | to a Smart Object layer, I have to open
the Smart Object. To do that, I'll open
| | 03:43 | one of these layer groups, I'll open the top
one and I'll just click on the top layer there.
| | 03:48 | I am going to turn the eye icon on
and off, so I can see which one this is.
| | 03:52 | It's this one down in the bottom-
right corner. So let's say that I want to
| | 03:55 | tweak the color of the photograph on
this Smart Object layer. I need to open
| | 04:00 | this Smart Object, so I'll do that by
going to USA Copy 8, and double clicking
| | 04:05 | on its thumbnail, and clicking OK. That
opens the second image, the .PSB image
| | 04:13 | where I can see the original five
layers that are embedded in the Smart Object.
| | 04:17 | I am going to click on the Figs layer
which contains the photograph, and then
| | 04:22 | I'm going to go up and make a direct
adjustment on this layer by choosing Image
| | 04:26 | > Adjustments and Variations. This is
one of the few image adjustments that I
| | 04:31 | do directly on a layer. All of the
others, I can do using adjustment layers, a
| | 04:36 | topic I'll talk about later in this chapter.
| | 04:39 | I'll open the Variations dialog box,
and I'm going to move it as far out of the
| | 04:43 | way as I can by dragging it over to the
right. Here in this preview, I can see
| | 04:48 | the colors in the image as it
currently is on the left and on the right
| | 04:52 | Photoshop's Variations suggestion,
which I'm going to accept. I'll accept that
| | 04:57 | by just clicking OK here, and that changes the
colors on the Photo layer in this Smart Object.
| | 05:03 | With that change made, I'm going to
save the Smart Object by clicking the X on
| | 05:08 | its Tab and saying yes, I do want to
save it with these changes. You'll notice
| | 05:14 | that as soon as I did that, the larger
image that contains the duplicates of
| | 05:18 | that Smart Object updated as well and every
single copy of that Smart Object layer updated.
| | 05:24 | So I only have to work on one to see
the results on all. So that's one way that
| | 05:30 | I can make a change that updates all
of these copies. Before I make another
| | 05:34 | change, I want to show you that it's
possible to make a duplicate that is not
| | 05:38 | linked to all the others.
| | 05:39 | I am going to delete the layer that has
USA Copy 8 on it by dragging that layer
| | 05:45 | to the Trash at the bottom of the
Layers panel. I just did that so that I'll
| | 05:49 | have space in the image to create
another duplicate, this time one that's not
| | 05:54 | linked to all the others. To do that,
I'll go into the Layers panel, and I'll
| | 05:58 | select any one of the Smart Object layers.
| | 06:00 | On a Mac, I'm going to Ctrl-click on
the Smart Object layer, on a PC, I would
| | 06:04 | right-click, and I'm going to choose
New Smart Object via Copy to make an
| | 06:09 | unlinked duplicate. So now I have a new
USA Copy 8 and with the Move tool, I'm
| | 06:16 | going to click and drag that stamp into
place here at the bottom-right. So now
| | 06:21 | I'm going to make another kind of
change to the linked duplicates.
| | 06:25 | USA Copy 7 is one of those links to
duplicate. So I'll select it and the change
| | 06:29 | that I want to make this time is to
replace the entire image on each of these
| | 06:33 | stamps. So this is something you might
do if you have multiples of an object
| | 06:38 | maybe of photographs and you wanted to
update them all with a new photograph or
| | 06:43 | in this case a new image for the stamp.
| | 06:45 | On a Mac, I'll Ctrl-click, on a PC,
I'll right-click, on USA Copy 7 in the
| | 06:51 | Layers panel and from the menu, I'm going
to choose a new command, Replace Contents.
| | 06:56 | I am going to move the Place dialog
box over to the right, so that you have a
| | 07:00 | better view of the image. Here I'm
going to navigate to my Desktop and then
| | 07:05 | I'll go to my Exercise Files. I'll
click the arrow to the left of the Exercise
| | 07:09 | Files, and the Arrow to the left of
Chapter 8, and the Arrow to the left of
| | 07:14 | 0803, and I'm going to select fig
replacement.psd, which is another photograph
| | 07:21 | and this photograph happens to be much
larger than those in the current stamps.
| | 07:25 | But that's okay, because it's going to
automatically resize to fit the stamps.
| | 07:30 | I'll just click Place and in just a
second you can see another photograph in 8
| | 07:35 | of these duplicate Smart Objects, with
the exception of the one Smart Object
| | 07:40 | that I made with the new command
which was New Smart Object via Copy.
| | 07:46 | So the next time you plan to use
multiples of an image, try using this
| | 07:51 | technique. Using Smart Objects as
templates like this will save you loads of
| | 07:55 | time and is an efficient and
practical use of Smart Object technology.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Editing nondestructively with adjustment layers| 00:00 | When you're correcting color or
lighting in a photograph or a design or any
| | 00:04 | Photoshop image, adjustment layers are
the absolute hands-down best way to work.
| | 00:09 | Adjustment layers float above image
layers in the Layers panel where they
| | 00:13 | provide instructions about how to
correct images on layers below. The biggest
| | 00:18 | advantage to using adjustment layers
as compared to direct adjustments which
| | 00:22 | you'll find under the Image >
Adjustments menu is that adjustment layers are
| | 00:27 | non-destructive of the image itself.
| | 00:29 | Adjustment layers do their work
without touching or changing or degrading a
| | 00:33 | single pixel in the underlying image layers
and that's called non-destructive editing.
| | 00:38 | Another advantage to using adjustment
layers in Photoshop CS4 is that there is
| | 00:43 | a brand new Adjustments panel in this
version of Photoshop, from which you can
| | 00:47 | apply and manage all your adjustment layers.
And it makes things a lot more efficient.
| | 00:52 | My Adjustments panel is opened right
here, I'd like to show it to you. So why
| | 00:55 | don't you go ahead and open yours
from the Window menu at the top of the
| | 00:59 | screen? I have expanded my Adjustments
panel by clicking this icon right here,
| | 01:03 | and that's made it wider.
| | 01:05 | The Adjustments panel has a series of
icons up here. Each icon represents a
| | 01:09 | different kind of adjustment layer. To
find out what each icon represents, just
| | 01:14 | hover your mouse over one of the icons
and the tool tip will come up telling
| | 01:18 | you the name of that adjustment.
| | 01:19 | This is the Brightness/Contrast
adjustment; this is a Levels adjustment layer
| | 01:23 | that's used to correct color and tone.
The Curves adjustment layer is used for
| | 01:28 | the same purpose but it's
more specific than Levels.
| | 01:31 | Down here is a Black and White
adjustment layer that does a good job of
| | 01:35 | converting color images to black and
white. Over here is the traditional
| | 01:39 | Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and
next to that is a brand new adjustment
| | 01:43 | layer, the Vibrance adjustment layer.
| | 01:46 | To show you how to apply an
adjustment layer, I'm going to click on this
| | 01:49 | Vibrance adjustment icon, and a couple
of things happen. First of all, down in
| | 01:54 | the Layers panel, you can see that
there is a brand new layer, the Vibrance 1
| | 01:58 | layer. I'm going to come back to
show you more about that layer in just a
| | 02:01 | moment. But before that, I'd like
to talk about what happened in the
| | 02:05 | Adjustments panel. You'll notice
that it changed from a list of available
| | 02:08 | adjustments to the controls
for the Vibrance adjustment.
| | 02:13 | It's really convenient to have one
panel where all of this happens. But there
| | 02:17 | is another reason why it's
important to have the controls here in the
| | 02:20 | Adjustments panel. In previous versions of
Photoshop, there was no Adjustments panel.
| | 02:25 | To apply an adjustment layer, you went
down to the Layers panel and clicked on
| | 02:29 | the Black and White Circle icon and
chose an adjustment from this list. By the
| | 02:33 | way, you still can do it this way. But
I think the Adjustments panel method is
| | 02:37 | much preferable, and in previous
versions when you did that, a separate dialog
| | 02:42 | box opened up for each kind of adjustment.
| | 02:45 | A dialog box that contains the controls
for that particular adjustment and the
| | 02:50 | problem was that those dialog boxes
prevented you from doing other work in the
| | 02:55 | program while they were open.
| | 02:57 | That isn't true with the new
Adjustments panel. To show you what I mean, I'm
| | 03:02 | going to go up to the Saturation
Control here in the Adjustments panel, and I'm
| | 03:06 | going to crank it way up, and that
really increases the saturation of all the
| | 03:10 | colors here in the image.
| | 03:13 | One way that I could make this
adjustment more subtle would be to come to the
| | 03:17 | Layers panel to the Opacity field and
reduce the Opacity, and I can do this
| | 03:22 | even though the Vibrance controls are
showing up here in the Adjustments panel,
| | 03:26 | and that's something new in Photoshop
CS4. So I'll do that. I'll reduce the
| | 03:31 | Opacity and that makes that
adjustment a little more mellow.
| | 03:34 | Going back to the Vibrance
Adjustments panel, I wanted to show you the
| | 03:38 | difference between the Saturation
adjustment, which we just saw which is pretty
| | 03:41 | strong and often over-saturates
saturated colors and skin tones, and the more
| | 03:47 | subtle Vibrance adjustment.
| | 03:49 | I'll set the Saturation slider back to
0 by clicking in its field and typing 0.
| | 03:53 | Then I'm going to click on the
Vibrance adjustment slider, and I'm going to
| | 03:57 | drag that one way over to the right.
As you can see, the image doesn't become
| | 04:02 | over-saturated as it did when
I drag the Saturation slider.
| | 04:06 | What the Vibrance adjustment does is
concentrate on colors that aren't as
| | 04:11 | saturated as others in the image, and
it also does a good job of protecting
| | 04:15 | skin tones from over-saturation.
| | 04:17 | Let's say that I moved on from this
adjustment and I had clicked another layer
| | 04:22 | in the image, and I was working on
something else, and then I decided that I
| | 04:26 | wanted to come back in and
change the saturation of the image.
| | 04:30 | One of the benefits of working with an
adjustment layer is that you can do that
| | 04:34 | at anytime. I can always go back to
this Vibrance adjustment layer by clicking
| | 04:38 | on it, and that brings back the
controls for that adjustment, and I can make
| | 04:43 | whatever changes I like.
| | 04:44 | So perhaps I'll pull the Saturation
slider over again. At the bottom of the new
| | 04:49 | Adjustments panel, there are some icons
you should be aware of. This icon right
| | 04:53 | here the Black and White
icon is the Clipping icon.
| | 04:57 | What this does is alter the default
behavior of an adjustment layer, which is
| | 05:01 | to apply the adjustment to all of the
layers below the adjustment layer in the
| | 05:05 | Layers panel. But sometimes you might
want to limit the layers to which an
| | 05:09 | adjustment is applied. So for example
in this case, the Vibrance adjustment is
| | 05:13 | now affecting the content of the
Dessert layer and of the Background layer.
| | 05:18 | To limit the Vibrance adjustment to
just the Dessert layer, all I have to do
| | 05:22 | with the Vibrance layer selected is
click on that Clipping icon. You can see
| | 05:28 | that the saturation is now gone from
the background, and is focusing the
| | 05:33 | viewer's attention on this dessert.
| | 05:35 | That's something that you could do in
prior versions of Photoshop, but it was a
| | 05:39 | lot more difficult and now it's just
one click on the Clipping icon. I can
| | 05:44 | control not only the layers that an
adjustment layer affects as I just showed
| | 05:47 | you, but also the area that an
adjustment layer affects, and to do that, I'm
| | 05:53 | going to use this blank layer mask
that comes with every adjustment layer.
| | 05:57 | I am going to be talking a lot more
about layer masks in the next chapter. But
| | 06:02 | just to show you quickly, while the
layer mask is white, it's revealing the
| | 06:05 | adjustment everywhere on the image.
Let's say that I wanted to hide the
| | 06:09 | adjustment on some portion of the image.
To do that, I go over to the Toolbox
| | 06:14 | and make sure that Black is my foreground color.
| | 06:16 | You can press the X key on your
keyboard to do that, and then I would select a
| | 06:20 | Brush tool and coming to the image
and I'm going to try brushing over those
| | 06:24 | melon balls and notice that as I do,
they are becoming less saturated, because
| | 06:28 | the black paint that I'm adding to
that layer mask is hiding this Vibrance
| | 06:33 | adjustment in just that portion of the image.
| | 06:36 | So as you can see another benefit of
adjustment layers is they give you lots of
| | 06:40 | control over exactly where your
adjustments apply. Down at the bottom of the
| | 06:45 | Adjustments panel, there are a number of
icons that I just want to mention to you.
| | 06:49 | In addition to the Clipping icon,
there is a Visibility icon, which is just
| | 06:53 | like the eye icon on a layer. So
if I click on that with the Vibrance
| | 06:57 | adjustment layer selected, that
makes that adjustment layer temporarily
| | 07:01 | invisible, and that's a toggle that
I can click on again to bring back.
| | 07:04 | If I move to the next icon and click
and hold on it, I can see the last state
| | 07:10 | of my Vibrance adjustment layer. If I
want to return to that last state, I'll
| | 07:15 | click on the Next icon, and
finally there is a Trash can.
| | 07:19 | If I decide that I want to delete the
adjustment layer all together, I can
| | 07:23 | click this Trashcan and click Yes and
I have done away with that adjustment.
| | 07:28 | That took me back to the Adjustments
panel where I could click on another
| | 07:32 | adjustment icon or choose one of these presets.
| | 07:36 | So for example, here is a Cyanotype
preset for the Hue/Saturation adjustment
| | 07:40 | layer. I'll click that and that adds a
Hue/Saturation adjustment layer with the
| | 07:46 | settings Set to colorize with this
particular shade of blue. At the top of this
| | 07:51 | Adjustments panel, there is another
view of those presets and I can choose
| | 07:55 | another one from here, or I can
choose Default to go back to the Default
| | 07:59 | settings for the Hue/Saturation adjustment.
| | 08:02 | I hope you have gotten a sense for
the important benefits that adjustment
| | 08:05 | layers offer. They are not only
completely non-destructive of your image, but
| | 08:10 | they can be re-edited at anytime
or even deleted completely, and each
| | 08:14 | adjustment layer comes with its own
layer mask, and can be applied from the
| | 08:18 | well designed new Adjustments panel.
The benefits of using adjustment layers
| | 08:23 | are just too good for you to pass up.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding color with color fill layers| 00:00 | Sometimes adding color to an image will
change its mood or unify elements that
| | 00:05 | really don't go together very well.
The most flexible way to add color to an
| | 00:09 | image is to use a fill layer. Fill
layers are similar to adjustment layers and
| | 00:14 | that they float above the image layers
and don't directly change or degrade the
| | 00:18 | pixels of the image.
| | 00:20 | To apply a Fill layer, I'm going
to go down to the Create New Fill or
| | 00:24 | Adjustment Layer icon, which is here
at the bottom of the Layers panel. I'll
| | 00:28 | click there and I see a list of all of
the adjustment layers, and this is the
| | 00:32 | place from which you use to apply
adjustment layers in earlier versions of Photoshop.
| | 00:36 | Now there is Adjustments panel for
that purpose, although you can use this
| | 00:40 | menu. Above those are the three kinds
of Fill layer, Pattern, Gradient and
| | 00:45 | Solid Color. So if I want to apply a
Fill layer, this is where I have to come.
| | 00:49 | I'm going to select Solid Color. Notice
that I have the top layer, the dessert
| | 00:53 | layer, selected in the Layers panel.
So when I release my mouse here, in the
| | 00:58 | Layers panel I get a brand-new layer, the
Color Fill layer above the dessert layer.
| | 01:03 | Notice also that the image is
completely filled with black. The reason for that
| | 01:08 | is that at the moment I happen to have
black selected as the foreground color
| | 01:11 | in the toolbox and that's the color
that the Color Fill layer uses, by default.
| | 01:17 | But at the same time, the Color Picker
has opened up, allowing me to choose a
| | 01:21 | different color. I'm going to click on
the Hue button here and I'm going to go
| | 01:26 | in the Hue slider in the middle to the
blue area, and I'll select a bright aqua
| | 01:31 | blue and I'm going to click OK.
| | 01:35 | So now my entire image is filled
with blue, obscuring the desserts on the
| | 01:39 | layers below and that isn't probably
what I want, but there are couple of
| | 01:43 | things I can try to fix this. With the
Color Fill layer selected, I could try
| | 01:48 | to vary the Opacity or the blend mode
of the Color Fill layer. I'll start by
| | 01:52 | lowering the Opacity from the Layer
Opacity field at the top the Layers panel.
| | 01:57 | I'll click on the Opacity
label and I'll drag to the left.
| | 02:01 | So now I can see more of my image but
I don't like that flat color across the
| | 02:06 | entire image. So I'm going to bring
the Opacity up again. I'll leave it maybe
| | 02:10 | at about, I don't know, 80%, and I'm
going to go and try a different blend mode.
| | 02:15 | We haven't talked much about blend
modes yet in this course and I'll be
| | 02:19 | covering them in detail later. But I
did want to mention that when working with
| | 02:23 | a Fill layer, there is one blend mode
that I often find works well. If I click
| | 02:28 | in this menu and I go all the way down to the
bottom, I'm going to select the Color blend mode.
| | 02:33 | What a blend mode does is, take the
colors in the selected layers, in this
| | 02:37 | case, this blue Color Fill layer and
apply a formula that determines how those
| | 02:41 | colors will interact with the colors
on the layers below. What this color
| | 02:45 | formula does is basically create a monotone.
| | 02:49 | In order to compare a before and after,
I'll click the eye icon to the left of
| | 02:53 | Color Fill layer, so it was like this
and now it's like this. It's an entirely
| | 02:58 | different image but I don't think this
looks too bad. So that's one approach,
| | 03:02 | another approach might be to make use
of the layer mask that automatically
| | 03:06 | comes with a Color Fill layer.
| | 03:08 | You'll notice that there are two
thumbnails on this layer. The first thumbnail
| | 03:12 | represents the color of the Color Fill
layer and the second represents a layer
| | 03:16 | mask. I can paint on the layer mask
with black to hide some of this Color Fill.
| | 03:22 | I'm going to give that a try by
clicking here on the mask and then going over
| | 03:27 | to the Paintbrush in the toolbox,
selecting it, and I'll make sure that I have
| | 03:32 | a soft brush and that it's pretty big
and I'll just click-and-drag. That brings
| | 03:36 | back some of the color in the image and I
actually think that doesn't look too bad.
| | 03:41 | Another thing I might do here is to
change the stacking order of the Color Fill
| | 03:45 | layer. Like an adjustment layer, I can
move the Color Fill layer here in the
| | 03:50 | Layers panel. So I'm going to click on
the Color Fill layer and I'm going to
| | 03:53 | drag it beneath the dessert layer,
which contains just the foreground part of
| | 03:57 | this image with transparent pixels
surrounding the dessert. And that gives me
| | 04:03 | an entirely different look.
| | 04:04 | So as you can see, there are lots of
ways to approach color, using a Solid
| | 04:08 | Color Fill layer and the best part
about it is that it is a non-destructive way
| | 04:13 | of coloring an image.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding gradients with gradient layers| 00:00 | There are several ways to add a
gradient to a composition in Photoshop. One way
| | 00:05 | is to create a Gradient Fill layer. A
Gradient Fill layer is very much like a
| | 00:09 | Solid Color Fill layer, which I
covered in an earlier movie in this chapter.
| | 00:14 | A Gradient Fill layer lives on its own
layer in the Layers panel. It carries
| | 00:17 | two thumbnails, a Gradient thumbnail
and a layer mask thumbnail that can be
| | 00:22 | used to limit where the gradient
appears. And importantly, a Gradient Fill
| | 00:26 | layer does not directly change the
pixels on any other layer in a composition.
| | 00:32 | Before I create a Gradient Fill layer,
I do two things. First, I go to the
| | 00:36 | Layers panel and I click on the layer
above which I would like the Gradient
| | 00:39 | Fill layer to come into the image.
Second, I go to the toolbox and I click on
| | 00:45 | the Foreground Color box and I select
a color for my initial gradient because
| | 00:49 | the default gradient is the
foreground color to transparent.
| | 00:54 | I could choose a color from inside the
Color Picker or when I move my cursor
| | 00:58 | out of the Color Picker, it becomes
an Eyedropper tool and I can click on a
| | 01:02 | color in the existing image to sample
that color. And that's a good way to get
| | 01:06 | a color that matches the rest of the
file. I'll click OK and I now have Red as
| | 01:11 | my foreground color in the toolbox. So, now
I'm ready to create a Gradient Fill layer.
| | 01:17 | Just as when I made a Solid Color Fill
layer, I'll go over to the Layers panel
| | 01:21 | and I'll click on the Create New Fill
or Adjustment Layer icon, the icon with
| | 01:26 | the black and white circle. From the
menu, I'm going to choose Gradient. That
| | 01:32 | opens this mini Gradient Fill editor.
It starts creating a gradient in the
| | 01:38 | image. If you look in the Layers
panel, you'll see that gradient is on a
| | 01:42 | separate Gradient Fill layer.
| | 01:45 | I can tweak any of the options here in
the Gradient Fill dialog to customize
| | 01:49 | this gradient. So, for example, I
might click Reverse and that reverses the
| | 01:55 | colors in the gradient. I'll undo that
for now. I can change the Scale or the
| | 02:00 | relative relationship of the colors
in the gradient. In this case, that is
| | 02:04 | changing the relative position of the
reds and the transparent pixels. So I
| | 02:09 | click Scale here and I could
drag up or I could drag down.
| | 02:15 | I can change the angle of the
gradient and here I'm usually pretty careful
| | 02:19 | because a large move in the angle
field will have a large effect on the
| | 02:23 | gradient. I also can change the style
of the gradient. A Linear gradient goes
| | 02:28 | from right to left or top to bottom.
But if I choose Radial Gradient instead,
| | 02:33 | the gradient is drawn from the center outwards.
| | 02:36 | If I'd like to simulate the look of
a glow, I can invert this gradient by
| | 02:41 | choosing Reverse here and then I could
go to the Scale and I could drag up and
| | 02:48 | get a kind of glow like this behind a
foreground image. I'm going to set the
| | 02:52 | Style back to Linear before I go into
the larger Gradient Fill dialog box to
| | 02:57 | show you that there are many more
options for customizing this gradient.
| | 03:01 | To get there, I'm going to click right
inside the Gradient bar, and that opens
| | 03:06 | a larger Gradient Editor. Notice that
there are number of Presets up here. The
| | 03:11 | first is the Foreground Color to the
Background Color and then the Foreground
| | 03:15 | Color to Transparent, Black to White
and then some unusual color combinations
| | 03:20 | here that come with Photoshop.
| | 03:21 | I'll work with this Purple to Orange
for the time being. I can then come in to
| | 03:26 | the bar down at the lower part of the
Gradient Editor and I can drag the stops
| | 03:31 | to change the relationship
between the Purple and the Orange.
| | 03:35 | The Stops underneath the bar represent
color. So, if I click in this stop, you
| | 03:40 | can see that the color is purple and
if I drag that purple color stop to the
| | 03:44 | right, I'm changing the relationship
between purple and orange in the image, or
| | 03:49 | I could drag the orange color stop to the left.
| | 03:52 | And If I want to reverse these colors,
I can switch them here, dragging the
| | 03:56 | orange all the way over to the left
and the purple all the way over to the
| | 04:00 | right. That's the way to switch
colors without having to cancel out of the
| | 04:04 | larger Gradient Editor
to get to the smaller one.
| | 04:07 | I could also try changing the Gradient
Type here and this really changes the
| | 04:11 | look of a gradient. If I choose Noise
instead of Solid, I get all these many
| | 04:16 | lines in the gradient and this can
be quite lovely. I actually like this
| | 04:20 | particular gradient and I might keep it
but there are so many other things to try.
| | 04:25 | I can vary this gradient by going to
the Roughness slider and dragging in
| | 04:29 | either direction and it really is a
matter of hit and miss. I also have
| | 04:33 | sometimes got nice results by going
down to the Options area here and clicking
| | 04:37 | Randomize. I'll just do this many
times until I get a result that I really
| | 04:43 | like. But that's not all, there
are lot more Presets to choose from.
| | 04:49 | I can access those by going up to the
top-right of the Gradient Editor and
| | 04:52 | clicking this arrow right here. At
the bottom of this menu, I see a list of
| | 04:58 | Gradient sets that ship with Photoshop.
So, for example, I could choose Pastels
| | 05:04 | and click OK in order to replace the
current gradients in the Preset area with
| | 05:08 | the Pastels set. And then I could just
try these out one at a time by clicking
| | 05:13 | on them and seeing how they look in the image.
| | 05:16 | Again, I can change the Gradient Type
from Solid to Noise, I can Randomize, I
| | 05:22 | can change the Roughness, or I could
work with these Color Model sliders. I'm
| | 05:29 | still not satisfied, so I'm going to
go back to that arrow and take a look at
| | 05:33 | some other gradients. I think the
simple gradients are very nice. I'll choose
| | 05:37 | those and click OK and from here I'll
click on one of the simple gradients. As
| | 05:42 | you can see, these presets
consist of white to a pastel color.
| | 05:47 | I'm going to click OK there and I'll
click OK again in the small Gradient Fill
| | 05:52 | dialog box. This is the gradient that I
now have in my Gradient Fill layer. The
| | 05:58 | Gradient Fill layer is very much like
a Solid Color Fill layer. It has two
| | 06:02 | icons, on the left is the Gradient
Fill icon and if I wanted to edit the
| | 06:06 | gradient, I would double-click there
to open the Gradient Fill editors again,
| | 06:10 | but I'm going to cancel for now.
| | 06:12 | Then on the right, there is a layer
mask. If I select the layer mask, I can
| | 06:16 | paint on the mask with gray, white or
black to control where this gradient
| | 06:21 | appears in the image, or I could
select an area and fill with black to do the
| | 06:25 | same. Or I could even create a gradient
in the layer mask of the Gradient Fill
| | 06:30 | layer. To do that, I'm going to go over
to the toolbox, I'm going to select the
| | 06:34 | Gradient tool, I'm going to go up to the
Gradient Tool Options bar and click in the Gradient bar.
| | 06:40 | Here I'm going to go to the Presets
arrow and choose Reset Gradients. I'll
| | 06:46 | click OK, and now again I have my
original gradients. I'm going to choose the
| | 06:51 | Black to White gradient and click OK.
Now, in that layer mask, I'm going to
| | 06:56 | click-and-drag from the bottom up to
gradually hide the bottom of that Gradient Fill.
| | 07:02 | So as you can see there is almost an
endless combination of options here and
| | 07:06 | it's worth taking some time
in exploring them on your own.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Applying patterns with pattern layers| 00:00 | Color and texture can be so important
to an image. Sometimes it just takes that
| | 00:05 | special combination to turn an okay
project into a great project. I'll often
| | 00:10 | rely on a combination of one or more of the
fill layers to get just what I'm looking for.
| | 00:15 | So in this case for example, I started
out with a Color Fill background like
| | 00:19 | this and I felt that it was
overwhelming the foreground image. So I added a
| | 00:23 | simple solid Color Fill layer in blue
and I set the blend mode of this solid
| | 00:28 | Color Fill to Color, so that all the
tonality of the stripes would show through.
| | 00:33 | And now I think it just needs that
little extra something, some texture in the
| | 00:36 | stripes in the background. So again,
I'm going to look to one of the fill
| | 00:40 | layers, the last of the three fill
layers which is the Pattern Fill layer. To
| | 00:45 | add a Pattern Fill layer I'm going
to go down to the Create New Fill and
| | 00:49 | Adjustment Layer icon right here at
the bottom of the Layers panel. And I'm
| | 00:53 | going to go up to the top of this
menu and choose Pattern. That opens the
| | 00:58 | Pattern Fill dialog box and applies the
default pattern, which is kind of hard to take.
| | 01:03 | So I'm going to change that as
quickly as I can by going to this menu right
| | 01:07 | here and clicking and then I'm going
to go to another submenu right here at
| | 01:13 | this little arrow. And at the bottom of
this menu I'm going to choose a set of
| | 01:17 | the Artist Surface Patterns. I'll click OK and
now I have that set of patterns to choose from.
| | 01:24 | I am going to come in and choose a
relatively smooth pattern. I'll try this one
| | 01:29 | and I kind of like the way that looks.
It looks like paper and so then I'm
| | 01:33 | going to click inside of a blank area
of the Pattern Fill dialog box. I'm going
| | 01:37 | to leave all of these settings at
their defaults and just click OK.
| | 01:41 | The next thing that I want to do is to
work on the blend mode for this Pattern
| | 01:45 | Fill layer so that I get all of those
blue stripes showing through and just a
| | 01:49 | little texture on this layer. I'm
going to go to the Blend Mode menu and I'll
| | 01:53 | try Multiply. That's too dark. I'll
try Screen. Maybe a little bit light. And
| | 02:00 | I'll try Overlay, which is a
combination of light and dark, and I think that's
| | 02:05 | exactly what I was looking for. And as
an added bonus that Overlay Screen mode
| | 02:11 | has caused all of the pattern on the
white area to blend right in. So I don't
| | 02:15 | even have to bother masking that out.
| | 02:17 | So to show you a before and after,
this is what I have settled on and here is
| | 02:21 | the same thing without the texture. It
just doesn't have that special look. So
| | 02:26 | that's how easy it is to apply a
Pattern Fill layer and as with the solid Color
| | 02:31 | layer and the Gradient Fill layer,
this layer floats above all of the image
| | 02:36 | layers. It doesn't impact them
directly and it comes in with its own layer
| | 02:39 | mask, which I could use if I wanted to
limit where I have applied this pattern.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Introducing video layers| 00:00 | There are two flavors of Photoshop,
regular Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4
| | 00:06 | Extended. In the Extended version
there are some special features for
| | 00:10 | professionals in the fields of video,
3D and some fields of science. But even
| | 00:15 | if you are not a video professional,
you may enjoy working with video layers in
| | 00:19 | Photoshop. So I would like to give you a
brief introduction to this special layer type.
| | 00:23 | There are two ways to make a video
layer in Photoshop. You can make a blank
| | 00:27 | video layer from scratch or you can
just import a video sequence. I'm going to
| | 00:32 | show you how to import a video clip
into Photoshop for editing by going to the
| | 00:36 | File menu and then Open and just
navigating to your video clip. I happened to
| | 00:41 | have one here in the Exercise Files
folder. So I'll just select this video file
| | 00:46 | and then I'll click Open.
| | 00:48 | If you see this prompt about
correcting the movie's pixel aspect ratio,
| | 00:52 | the answer is usually yes. So that the
movie won't look stretched out or distorted
| | 00:57 | when you view it in Photoshop and here
Photoshop is just telling you that the
| | 01:01 | pixel aspect ratio correction that it's
going to apply is for preview purposes only.
| | 01:06 | So I'll say OK.
| | 01:08 | Now in the Layers panel, there is only
one layer in this file but I could add
| | 01:11 | other layers that contain things other
than this video. The single layer that
| | 01:17 | was made from the video clip has a
special icon on the thumbnail indicating
| | 01:21 | that it is a video layer.
| | 01:24 | In order to work with a video layer,
you have to open your Animation Timeline.
| | 01:28 | To do that, I'm going up to the Window
menu at the top of the screen and down
| | 01:32 | to Animation. If you have used previous
versions of Photoshop you're used to seeing
| | 01:38 | different kinds of Animation Timeline.
One that displays frames in an animation,
| | 01:43 | one at a time. You can still access
that kind of timeline if you want by going
| | 01:47 | here to the Animation Timeline and
choosing Convert to Frame Animation. But
| | 01:52 | I would like to show you how to use the
Animation Timeline version of the panel.
| | 01:56 | In the Animation Timeline panel you
can see the single layer that's in this file.
| | 02:00 | If there were more than one
layer you would see those here. New in
| | 02:03 | Photoshop CS4 is the ability to work
with sound in Photoshop. If you would like
| | 02:08 | to hear the sound as you play a video
clip, then go down to this icon here and
| | 02:13 | make sure that it's highlighted. And
you can see that the Sound icon on this
| | 02:17 | layer is currently active because it
has this graphic of the sound waves coming
| | 02:22 | out of this speaker.
| | 02:25 | This is the timeline that represents
the various frames in the video and this
| | 02:29 | is the playhead. As you move the
playhead from one place to another in the
| | 02:32 | video, you can access a particular
frame for editing. To play the video,
| | 02:40 | you can go to this control at the bottom of
the Animation Timeline, the Play button,
| | 02:44 | and just click it and we should
hear the video playing with sound.
| | 02:48 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:00 | To go back to the beginning, I'll
click the double pointed arrow and
| | 03:03 | the playhead goes back to the start of the
video. If you have a lot of patience and time,
| | 03:08 | you can move frame by frame
through a video clip. Editing each frame as
| | 03:14 | if it were a static image in Photoshop.
If you are going to do that I suggest
| | 03:19 | that you go to the panel menu first
and select Enable Timeline Shortcut Keys.
| | 03:25 | That will allow you to use the Right
and Left Arrow keys on your keyboard to
| | 03:28 | move frame by frame through the
animation. Otherwise you will have to go down
| | 03:32 | to this arrow with a line next to it
and click it to move frame by frame
| | 03:36 | through the animation. And the back
arrow with a line next to it will take you
| | 03:39 | back the other way.
| | 03:41 | The other thing that may make your life
easier if you are going to do frame by
| | 03:44 | frame changes is to go to the panel
menu and to turn on Enable Onion Skins,
| | 03:48 | which gives you a partial view of the
frames before and after the one you are
| | 03:52 | working on, so you know what's coming.
| | 03:54 | I am actually not going to do any
frame by frame changes, which by the way are
| | 03:59 | officially known as rotoscoping.
Instead I'm going to show you that you can
| | 04:02 | also apply some changes to the entire
video sequence. Actually, I'm going to
| | 04:07 | turn off my Onion Skinning so it's not
in the way and then I'm going to go up
| | 04:12 | to Layer 1, the video layer that contains all of
the frames of the video that I just showed you.
| | 04:18 | With that layer selected in the Layers
panel, I'm going to convert the layer to
| | 04:22 | a Smart Object. To do that I'll hold
the Ctrl key and click on Layer 1. On a PC
| | 04:27 | I'll right-click on Layer 1 and I'll
choose Convert to Smart Object. Now I can
| | 04:32 | add a Layer Style or an adjustment
layer or scale or otherwise transform the
| | 04:37 | video and the changes I made
would apply to the entire video.
| | 04:42 | One thing I can do is apply Smart
Filters to the entire video. Once I have
| | 04:46 | converted the video to Smart Object.
So to show you that I'm going to go up to
| | 04:50 | the Filter menu at the top of the
screen and I'm going to choose the Artistic
| | 04:55 | category and I'll choose Cutout
and that will open the Filter Gallery.
| | 04:59 | When the Filter Gallery opens, I see
that I have the Cutout filter selected
| | 05:03 | here in the Artistic category and I
can see a preview of it over here.
| | 05:09 | This basically posterizes the image,
breaking it down into just a few colors.
| | 05:13 | I'm going to increase the Number of Levels
of posterization in the options for this
| | 05:17 | Cutout filter by dragging the
slider all the way to the right.
| | 05:21 | And I'm also going to decrease the Edge
Simplicity slider to get more detail in
| | 05:26 | the image and I'll increase Edge
Fidelity all the way. Then I'm going to add
| | 05:32 | another filter by going down to the
Add New Filter icon at the bottom of the
| | 05:36 | Filter Gallery dialog box right here.
I'll click that icon and that gives me a
| | 05:40 | copy of the Cutout filter.
| | 05:42 | But I'm going to select a different
filter instead, Poster Edges, and that adds
| | 05:47 | these black lines around the edges
of the various colors. We are going to
| | 05:51 | reduce the Edge Thickness to 1 and then
I'll say OK. And now I'm going to play
| | 05:56 | the video and all the frames in the video
should display the filters that I just added.
| | 06:01 | (Music plays.)
| | 06:13 | So that's just one example of how you
can edit video right here in Photoshop CS4.
| | 06:19 | When you are done with all your
editing, you go to the File menu,
| | 06:24 | you choose Export and Render Video and
here you can choose the appropriate Export
| | 06:29 | settings for the format in which you
choose to export. After you have chosen
| | 06:34 | both Video and Sound settings, click
Render and Photoshop will create the video for you.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Introducing 3D layers| 00:00 | If you have Photoshop CS4 Extended, you
can take advantage of a special kind of
| | 00:05 | layer, a 3D layer. In this movie, I
would like to introduce you to just a
| | 00:09 | couple of things that you can do with
3D layers. One thing you can do is to
| | 00:13 | start with a two-dimensional Photoshop
composite like the one that you see here
| | 00:17 | and to move that object in 3D space,
which is a great technique if you are
| | 00:22 | trying to make a composite in which
there is a wall or a backdrop and you are
| | 00:27 | not getting the look that you want
using the regular Transform tools.
| | 00:31 | Here is how this works. I have here an
image with a few layers. I'm going to
| | 00:35 | select all of those layers by clicking
on the strawberry layer here with the
| | 00:39 | Shift key held down. And then I'm
going to go up to the 3D menu at the top of
| | 00:43 | the screen and again you won't see
this menu, if you don't have Photoshop CS4
| | 00:47 | Extended. From here I'm going to choose
New 3D Postcard From Layer. That pulled
| | 00:54 | off three of those layers together
into this 3D layer, which has this special
| | 00:58 | symbol on its thumbnail
indicating that it is a 3D layer.
| | 01:02 | Now I can use the special Rotate tools
that are located here in the Toolbox.
| | 01:07 | All of the tools in this menu affect
the 3D object directly rather than the
| | 01:11 | camera in 3D space which are controlled
by the tools in the next slot here. But
| | 01:16 | I'm going to select the 3D Rotate tool
and then I can come in and if I drag to
| | 01:20 | the left I'm turning the object in 3D
space. So that it looks dimensional.
| | 01:26 | I can also turn it this way
and this way however I like.
| | 01:29 | There are some related tools up here in
the Tool Options bar. For example, this
| | 01:33 | tool that looks like a cross is a Slide
tool. It's similar to the Move tool in
| | 01:37 | two-dimensional space. So if I drag
with the Slide tool to the left, the object
| | 01:42 | moves left or right and if I drag up
and down, the object moves vertically.
| | 01:47 | And then there is this Pan tool next to
the Slide tool and with this tool, if I
| | 01:51 | click and drag up the object moves
back in space away from the camera or if I
| | 01:56 | move down the object moves forward in
space. So I can get this object just the
| | 02:01 | way I like it and then if I wanted to I
could add more layers to the file, with
| | 02:05 | some foreground elements
to build out my composition.
| | 02:09 | If I need to get the object back to
home base before I started manipulating it
| | 02:13 | in 3D space, I can always go back to
the Options bar and click this House icon
| | 02:19 | and I'm back where I started. So I'm
going to take this 3D layer and I'm going
| | 02:24 | to revert back to the original 2D
file, so that I can show you another
| | 02:28 | technique which is to take a two-
dimensional image like this and use it as a
| | 02:33 | texture to wrap around a 3D object.
| | 02:36 | So I'm going to go up to the File menu
and choose Revert and I no longer have
| | 02:40 | that 3D layer, I'm back to my original
three layers in the regular Photoshop
| | 02:45 | Composite. Before I show you this I
want to make sure that you understand that
| | 02:49 | Photoshop is not a 3D modeling program.
| | 02:52 | In other words, you wouldn't come here
to create a 3D object, but if you happen
| | 02:56 | to have a 3D object that you have
created in another modeling program or that
| | 03:00 | you have downloaded from the Internet,
you might bring that model into a 2D
| | 03:04 | file that's open in Photoshop like
this one by going up to the 3D menu and
| | 03:08 | choosing New Layer from 3D File
and then navigating to your file.
| | 03:13 | If you don't happen to have an object
like that you can acquaint yourself with
| | 03:17 | 3D in Photoshop by using one of the
primitive objects that come with the
| | 03:21 | program. To access those, I'm going
to go up to the 3D menu and down to New
| | 03:26 | Shape From Layer and here is the
menu of the primitives that come with
| | 03:29 | Photoshop. There is a Cone shape, a
Cube, a Cylinder, a Donut, even a Hat.
| | 03:34 | Before I choose one of these primitives
I'm going to exit out of the menu. I'm
| | 03:38 | going to come into my Layers panel and
I'm going to select all of the layers
| | 03:42 | that I would like to have included in the
texture that I'm going to wrap around that primitive.
| | 03:46 | So I'm going to hold down the Shift key
and click on the strawberry layer here
| | 03:50 | to select all three of these layers.
And then I'll go back up to the 3D menu,
| | 03:55 | New Shape From Layer and I'm going to
choose the Soda Can. In just a moment,
| | 04:00 | Photoshop has taken my composition and wrapped
it around the three-dimensional soda can shape.
| | 04:07 | If I go up to the Options bar and I
select the Rotate tool from this first icon
| | 04:12 | and then I come in and I drag, you can
see that that texture really is wrapped
| | 04:16 | all the way around this can. That's
pretty exciting. It means that you can
| | 04:22 | really style your own three-
dimensional images from just these few simple
| | 04:26 | shapes that come with Photoshop CS4 Extended.
| | 04:30 | Right now this image looks pretty dull,
but I can change that by manipulating
| | 04:35 | the lighting on this 3D object. To do
that I'm going to go to the Window menu
| | 04:38 | at the top of the screen and I'm going
to open the 3D panel. The 3D panel has
| | 04:43 | four tabs at the top. The default is
this Scene tab. I'm going to click on the
| | 04:48 | tab that has a light bulb on it
to access the lighting controls.
| | 04:53 | In the top half of this panel I see a
list of the lights available with this
| | 04:57 | model. I'm going to click on the
Infinite Light 2 and then I'm going to come
| | 05:01 | down to the bottom part of the panel
and here I can change some parameters of
| | 05:06 | that light, like its intensity.
| | 05:08 | So if I click and drag over the
Intensity label, I'll take it up to maybe
| | 05:12 | around 2, you can see that the
appearance of the can changes immediately and
| | 05:17 | again, I'm going to come in with the
Rotate tool and move the can around, so
| | 05:21 | that you can see how the
lighting affects all sides of the can.
| | 05:29 | And I'm going to come and get the
next tool, so that I can rotate back this way.
| | 05:34 | I also could change the color
of the light here. I could change the
| | 05:38 | position of the light from here and
more. But that's not all I can do. I can
| | 05:43 | also go back and edit the
texture and it will update here on the
| | 05:47 | three-dimensional can.
| | 05:49 | To do that I'm going to go back to
the Layers panel and down to the Texture
| | 05:53 | sub-layers under the 3D strawberry
layer. And I'm going to click on the
| | 05:57 | strawberry texture and I'm going to
double-click on the strawberry sub-layer.
| | 06:02 | That opens another file, strawberry.
psb, which contains the three original
| | 06:09 | layers in my Photoshop composition and you
can see them down here in the Layers panel.
| | 06:14 | I can make changes here like I could
change the color of this bubbles layer. By
| | 06:19 | selecting the bubbles layer and adding
a solid color fill layer by clicking the
| | 06:23 | Black and White icon at the bottom of
the Layers panel, choosing Solid Color
| | 06:28 | and in the Color Picker choosing a
color, maybe I'll choose Green and then
| | 06:34 | clicking OK. And as I showed you how to
do in other movies, I'm going to change
| | 06:38 | the layer blend mode of this solid
color layer to Color in order to create a
| | 06:45 | monotone over the original blue background.
| | 06:48 | I can also make a new layer if I want
by clicking the Create New Layer icon at
| | 06:52 | the bottom of the Layers panel and on
that new layer, I might get a Brush tool
| | 06:57 | and some white paint and maybe I'll make a
mark underneath 'strawberry' so it's easier to see.
| | 07:05 | So I can make whatever changes I want
here and when I'm done, I'm going to
| | 07:08 | click the X on the strawberry.psb tab
and I'm going to click Save and back here
| | 07:16 | in the psd file you can see that the texture
has updated with the changes that I just made.
| | 07:23 | So if I get my 3D Rotate tool again and
I come in and rotate this, you can see
| | 07:29 | that white sprig of paint and the
texture has changed to green all the way
| | 07:33 | around. So those are just a couple of
things that you can do with the 3D layer
| | 07:38 | in Photoshop. There is lots more. For
example, if you do bring in your own
| | 07:42 | three-dimensional model, you can
actually paint right on its surface.
| | 07:46 | To learn how to do that and lots more
with 3D layers, when you finish this
| | 07:50 | course you may want to take a look at
another course in the lynda.com Online
| | 07:54 | Training Library called Photoshop CS4
Extended for 3D. I hope you'll enjoy it.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
9. Layer MaskingUnderstanding layer mask basics| 00:00 | Throughout this course, you have
heard me talk about the value of
| | 00:03 | nondestructive editing. In other
words, using Photoshop techniques that
| | 00:07 | preserve your original images and that
give you an out and easy way to go back
| | 00:11 | and reedit the work. Layer masking
is a cornerstone of the nondestructive
| | 00:15 | approach to Photoshop, and if you are
not using layer masks already, I really
| | 00:19 | hope that I inspire you to use them.
| | 00:21 | Technically a layer mask is a
grayscale image that's attached to a layer.
| | 00:25 | And where a layer mask has black paint,
the contents of the layer to which it's
| | 00:29 | attached are temporarily hidden from
view, so that you can see down through the
| | 00:33 | layer to which the mask is attached to
whatever may be on the layers below in
| | 00:37 | the layers stack. So
that's why our mask is black.
| | 00:41 | Where a mask is white, the contents of
the layer to which the mask is attached
| | 00:45 | do show up in the image. As if there
were no mask on the layer at all. So the
| | 00:50 | rule to remember is this.
It's a short one. Black hides, white reveals,
| | 00:55 | when it comes to layer masks.
| | 00:57 | This image offers a simple situation in
which a layer mask would come in handy.
| | 01:01 | This image has just two layers in it.
In the Layers panel, I'm going to turn
| | 01:05 | off the top layer, the floral layer
which contains this blue background and
| | 01:10 | this box of candy. And when I do, you can see
what's on the layer below, a more modern background.
| | 01:16 | So I'll turn on the floral layer again,
and what I would like to do is try out
| | 01:20 | that modern background. Often when I'm
designing an image, I'm just not sure
| | 01:24 | what's going to work and what isn't,
and that's when I like to use layer masks,
| | 01:28 | because layer masks always remain
editable, even after I have saved and closed
| | 01:32 | the file and then reopened it.
| | 01:34 | And so they offer an opportunity to go
back to the way things were if I change
| | 01:38 | my mind about a design decision. So
here what I want to do is hide the blue
| | 01:42 | wrapping paper around this box.
| | 01:45 | The first step is to add a layer mask
to the floral layer. To do that I'll go
| | 01:49 | to the bottom of the Layers panel,
and I'll click the Create New Layer Mask icon,
| | 01:53 | which is the third one from the
left. It looks like a rectangle with a
| | 01:57 | white circle in it. That adds this
new thumbnail to the floral layer.
| | 02:01 | The thumbnail is a layer mask thumbnail,
and by default a layer mask thumbnail
| | 02:06 | comes in white and that means that
it's completely revealing everything on its layer.
| | 02:11 | In other words, all the content
of the floral layer, the blue wrapping paper
| | 02:15 | and the box of candies.
| | 02:17 | If I want to hide any part of this layer,
then I need to add some black pixels
| | 02:21 | to this layer thumbnail. There are
several ways to do that. One way is to just
| | 02:26 | paint on a layer mask with black. So
I'm going to go down to the Toolbox, and
| | 02:30 | check the foreground color box and
I see that it is black right now. If it isn't,
| | 02:35 | you want to press the X key on
your keyboard to switch the background
| | 02:39 | and foreground colors.
| | 02:40 | The only colors that are available in
the toolbox when you have a layer mask
| | 02:43 | active, as I do now, are black, white
or gray, and that's because under the hood,
| | 02:48 | the layer mask itself is a grayscale image.
| | 02:52 | Now I'm going to go up and select the
Brush tool in the Toolbox right here and
| | 02:56 | it's time to come in and start
painting on the layer mask. So I'll go over to
| | 03:00 | the right side and I'll start painting.
Now don't be surprised. I said I was
| | 03:04 | painting with black and yet I see
yellow in the image. Why is that?
| | 03:09 | I'm going to release the mouse and you'll
be able to see the reason over here if you
| | 03:14 | look closely at the layer thumbnails.
The layer thumbnail on the floral layer
| | 03:18 | is black where I just added paint,
and you remember I told you that where a
| | 03:22 | layer mask is black, you can see down
through the layer to which the mask is attached.
| | 03:27 | In other words, down through this
floral layer to the layer below, and
| | 03:31 | the layer below is the modern layer that
has this yellow and light blue design on it.
| | 03:35 | So that you can see that even more
closely, I'm going to bring up the layer mask
| | 03:39 | here in the document window.
| | 03:41 | To do that I'm going to hold down the
Option key on the Mac or the Alt key on a PC,
| | 03:45 | and that lets me see the layer mask
right here in the document window.
| | 03:49 | And again, you can see that there is black
paint here, and that's where I can see
| | 03:52 | down through to the modern layer, and
white paint here, which is revealing the
| | 03:56 | content to the floral layer, and in
between are some pixels of graduating gray.
| | 04:02 | Where layer mask is gray you can
partially see through it to the layers below,
| | 04:06 | and that's a good thing because it
creates a soft transition between the parts
| | 04:11 | of the floral layer that are
hidden and those that are revealed.
| | 04:14 | I would like to see the image in the
document window again. So to do that I'll
| | 04:18 | go over to the layer mask thumbnail,
and I'll Option-click on a Mac or
| | 04:22 | Alt-click on a PC. So I could continue
to paint all around the box and that is
| | 04:27 | one way to use a layer mask to paint
on it directly. But in many cases it's a
| | 04:32 | lot quicker to make a selection and
then to add a layer mask and I'm going to
| | 04:36 | show you how to do that now.
| | 04:37 | To do that I would like to go back to
square one and start with a brand clean mask.
| | 04:41 | I don't have to, but it's going
to give me an opportunity to show you how
| | 04:44 | to make a selection and then add the
mask. And it also gives me the opportunity
| | 04:49 | to show you how to delete a
layer mask if you ever need to.
| | 04:52 | To delete this mask, I'm just going
to click on it and drag it down to the
| | 04:56 | Trash at the bottom of the Layers panel,
and when I get all the way down there
| | 04:59 | I see a highlight around the layer
trash and I'll release my mouse. And then
| | 05:04 | Photoshop asks do I want to apply the
layer mask before I remove it? The answer
| | 05:09 | is I want to Delete, but let
me explain what Apply means.
| | 05:12 | If I do choose Apply, then Photoshop
would permanently bake that layer mask
| | 05:17 | into the image. In other words, in
this case I would actually be deleting the
| | 05:22 | blue parts of the floral layer that I
have painted over with black and that
| | 05:27 | would defeat the purpose of using a
layer mask which is to provide a way of
| | 05:30 | doing nondestructive editing that I
could come back to and change in the future.
| | 05:34 | So I usually don't apply a layer mask
before removing. Although sometimes there
| | 05:38 | is reason too. For example, sometimes
when I'm flattening layers I would like
| | 05:42 | to apply a mask before I flatten all
the other layers. But for now I'm going
| | 05:46 | to click Delete, and that's what I
usually do when I'm deleting a mask.
| | 05:49 | So now the image looks like it did at
the beginning of this lesson. There is no
| | 05:54 | mask on the floral layer. In the next
movie, I'm going to show you a quicker
| | 05:58 | way to add a layer mask to this image
and it's a way that works in many images,
| | 06:03 | and that is to make a selection first,
and then to add a layer mask,
| | 06:07 | and the mask will come in with the
black already added hiding the floral
| | 06:11 | background around this box.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Masking with a selection| 00:00 | A quick way to add a layer mask to an
image is to make a selection first and
| | 00:04 | then add the mask. When you do that,
the layer mask comes in already to go with
| | 00:09 | the non-selected areas already hidden
and filled with black on the layer mask.
| | 00:13 | I'd like to make a selection around
this box so that the floral background is
| | 00:17 | hidden showing the more modern
background on the layer below. The first step is
| | 00:22 | to choose a selection tool to use.
There are lots of selection tools in
| | 00:25 | Photoshop and the trick is figuring
out which one is going to be quickest and
| | 00:29 | easies. Because this box has straight
edges but it's not really a rectangle,
| | 00:34 | I think the best bet is the Polygonal Lasso.
| | 00:36 | So I'm going to move over to the
Toolbox and I'm going to select the Polygonal
| | 00:41 | Lasso from under the Lasso tool. With
this tool, I don't click and drag; I just
| | 00:46 | click on anchor points. So for example,
I'm going to click right at the left
| | 00:50 | corner of the box and then I'm going
to move all the way over to the right
| | 00:54 | corner. And I'm not pressing down on
my mouse or on the trackpad. I'm just
| | 00:58 | moving my hand until I get all the way
to the right corner at which point I'm
| | 01:02 | going to click again. That sets that line.
| | 01:05 | Then I'm moving down to the bottom
again with my mouse not depressed and I'll
| | 01:10 | click at the bottom right corner and
then I'll go all the way over to the
| | 01:14 | bottom left corner and I'll click
there and finally, I'll go back to the
| | 01:18 | beginning. Now here, I can either double
-click when I get close, or I can move
| | 01:22 | right on top of the beginning point and
then I'll see a tiny circle next to the
| | 01:26 | tool icon. If I click,
that will close the selection.
| | 01:30 | Now it's time to add a layer mask.
When I add a layer mask when the selection
| | 01:34 | is active, as this one is, watch what
happens on the mask. I'm going to go to
| | 01:38 | the bottom of the Layers panel and
click the Create New Layer Mask icon and my
| | 01:43 | work is pretty much done for me. The
layer mask has come in with the selected
| | 01:48 | area white and the non-selected area black.
| | 01:51 | So in this case, the box was selected
and so the white part of the layer mask
| | 01:55 | is revealing the box, but the area
around the box, the blue floral paper, was
| | 02:00 | not selected and there the black area
of this mask is hiding that blue paper so
| | 02:06 | that I can see down to the yellow and the
blue background on the modern layer below.
| | 02:10 | At this point, if the mask wasn't
just right and I see that there are a few
| | 02:14 | places where I didn't get it just right
along the edges here, then I could come
| | 02:18 | in and tweak it. I could and I often do
at this point select the Paintbrush and
| | 02:22 | just paint with black along any
further edges like this that I would like to
| | 02:26 | hide. I think in this case, it would
be easier to just select those edges and
| | 02:30 | fill them with black.
| | 02:31 | So I'm going to try that by clicking
here at the top-left corner, moving my
| | 02:36 | hand down without depressing the mouse,
clicking here and then coming around
| | 02:41 | and up, and when I get near the top
of that selection clicking and now I've
| | 02:45 | tried to select just that little thin
blue line on the edge of the box. Notice
| | 02:50 | that in the Layers panel, I still have
the Layer Mask icon selected and that's
| | 02:54 | important because now I'm going to fill
this little selection I just made with
| | 02:58 | black and I want that black to land on
the layer mask, not on the layer itself.
| | 03:03 | To fill with black, I'm going to use
this shortcut, Option+Delete on the Mac.
| | 03:08 | That's Alt+Backspace on the PC. What
that does is fill with whatever color is
| | 03:13 | in the Foreground Color Box. In this
case it happens to be black. That is a
| | 03:17 | shortcut for going to the Edit menu and
choosing Fill and setting the USE menu
| | 03:22 | to Foreground Color.
| | 03:23 | So when I press the Option+Delete or
Alt+Backspace shortcut, I see that I was
| | 03:27 | successful in hiding that little bit
of blue that was hanging along the edge
| | 03:31 | there. So I can now deselect by
pressing Command+D on the keyboard or Ctrl+D on
| | 03:37 | a PC keyboard and I'd say
my mask looks pretty good.
| | 03:40 | There is another place that you can
go to tweak a mask and that is the new
| | 03:44 | Masks panel, where you can feather the
edge of a mask, or you can contract or
| | 03:49 | expand the mask and otherwise fine-
tune it. I'm going to show you how to use
| | 03:53 | the Masks panel in another movie. But
in this movie, I want to mention just a
| | 03:56 | couple more basics. One of those is that you
can use the same mask on more than one layer.
| | 04:01 | To show you that, I'm going to bring
in another image on a separate layer and
| | 04:05 | then add the same layer mask to that
separate layer. I'm going to select the
| | 04:09 | modern layer and then I'm going to go
up to the Arrange Documents menu here in
| | 04:14 | the new Application Bar in Photoshop
CS4. On a PC that's in the menu Bar.
| | 04:18 | I'm going to click and release on that
icon to bring up this menu and then I'm
| | 04:23 | going to click here on the 2-up layout
tab so that I can see both the box I've
| | 04:27 | been working on and this other image,
the ribbon image, that I already had open
| | 04:31 | in the document window in a separate
tab. Then I'm going to get the Move tool
| | 04:35 | in the Toolbox and I'm going to click
on the ribbon and drag it into the box.
| | 04:41 | As soon as I see this gray outline, I
can release my mouse. Sometimes I had to
| | 04:45 | give it another click to
just nudge it into action.
| | 04:48 | Now I'm going to go up to the ribbon
tab and I'm going to click the X there
| | 04:52 | because I have both of the images in
one document. Notice that the ribbon came
| | 04:57 | in on its own layer in between the
floral layer, which I have masked, and the
| | 05:01 | modern layer, which is now beneath the ribbon.
| | 05:03 | So I haven't yet decided if I'm going
to use this ribbon in the composition but
| | 05:08 | I would like to have it here in case I
decide to do that. I'm not going to take
| | 05:11 | the time to delete the white background
now. If I do want to use the ribbon, I
| | 05:15 | can do that then. But what I do want
to do is just hide this ribbon from view
| | 05:19 | using a mask. Rather than make a whole
new mask on the ribbon layer, I can copy
| | 05:24 | the mask from the floral layer.
| | 05:26 | To do that, I'll first go to the
floral layer and click on its layer mask to
| | 05:30 | select it. Then I'm going to hold down
the Option key on a Mac or the Alt key
| | 05:34 | on a PC and I'm going to drag from
the floral layer to the ribbon layer. As
| | 05:38 | soon as I see that black border around
the ribbon layer, I'll release my mouse
| | 05:42 | and I've copied the layer mask from
the floral layer to the ribbon layer. So
| | 05:46 | this second copy of the mask is
now hiding the ribbon in the image.
| | 05:50 | Another thing that you can do with a
layer mask is to add a layer mask to a
| | 05:54 | layer group. I'm going to make a group
of these two layers, the floral and the
| | 05:58 | ribbon layers to show you want I mean.
With the ribbon layer selected, I'm
| | 06:03 | going to hold down the Command key and
click on the floral layer and then I'm
| | 06:06 | going to go up to the panel menu at
the top-right of the Layers panel and
| | 06:10 | choose New Group from
Layers and I'll just click OK.
| | 06:14 | Then if I expanded this group by
clicking the arrow to the left of it, you can
| | 06:18 | see the two layers inside the group. I
can add an additional layer mask on to
| | 06:22 | the group that will affect both the
layers and it's cumulative with what the
| | 06:26 | masks on the individual layers are
doing right now. So sometimes I'll even make
| | 06:31 | a group of a single layer so that I can
get more than one layer mask on that layer.
| | 06:36 | So with the Group 1 selected, I'm going
to go down to the bottom of the Layers
| | 06:39 | panel and I'm going to click the
Create New Layer Mask icon and that adds a
| | 06:44 | white mask on Group 1.
| | 06:45 | So let's just say that I want to
take a bite out of this box. I'll get my
| | 06:49 | Rectangular Marquee tool and I'm going
to come in and just click and drag over
| | 06:53 | corner of the box. It's not going to
be very realistic but I want you to see
| | 06:57 | what happens. Then I'm going to
check that I have black paint here in the
| | 07:02 | Foreground Color Box and I'm going to
fill this selection with black paint on
| | 07:07 | the Group 1 layer mask. To do that,
I'll use the same shortcut I taught you a
| | 07:11 | moment ago, Option+Delete on the Mac,
Alt+Backspace on the PC, and then I'm
| | 07:16 | going to press Command+D on the
Mac or Ctrl+D on the PC to deselect.
| | 07:21 | So as you can see, there is now a black
square on the Group 1 layer mask that's
| | 07:26 | hiding not only part of the floral
mask but also a corresponding part of the
| | 07:30 | ribbon mask and acts cumulatively with
the masks that are already on those layers.
| | 07:35 | So now that you understand how layer
masks work, I think you'll agree that it's
| | 07:40 | a much better idea to use layer masks
to hide content on a layer than it would
| | 07:44 | be to permanently delete or erase
content because this way you can go back at
| | 07:48 | any time to bring hidden content back
into an image. So the next time you're
| | 07:53 | trying to get rid of a background or
some other part of an image that you don't
| | 07:56 | want at the moment, I hope you'll
reach for the layer mask rather than the
| | 08:00 | Eraser tool or Delete command.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Combining images with layer masks| 00:00 | Earlier in this chapter I covered a
couple of ways to add black, white or gray
| | 00:05 | paint to a layer mask and that is to
either paint on a layer mask or to fill a
| | 00:09 | selection on a layer mask. Another way
to use a layer mask is to draw a black
| | 00:14 | to white gradient on the layer mask
and this is the best way to create smooth
| | 00:18 | professional looking blends between
multiple photographs or other content that
| | 00:23 | you are putting together into a composite image.
| | 00:25 | For example, here I have two
photographs that I would like to blend together.
| | 00:29 | I have the model photograph on the lower
layer here and then right above it there
| | 00:34 | is another photograph which I'll make
visible by clicking its eye icon. The way
| | 00:37 | I got this photograph into this image
was simply to open both images at the
| | 00:41 | same time and drag the summer image
into the model image. And there are these
| | 00:46 | other layers of content above. We are
not going to deal with those right now.
| | 00:49 | In order to be able to see through part
of the summer image to the model below,
| | 00:53 | I'm going to add a layer mask to the
summer image. I'll select the summer image
| | 00:57 | in the Layers panel and then go down to
the bottom of the Layers panel and add
| | 01:01 | a layer mask by clicking the Add Layer
Mask icon. It's the third icon from the
| | 01:05 | left. That adds a white layer mask and
as you have already learned on the layer
| | 01:10 | mask white reveals and black hides. So this
mask is revealing everything on the summer layer.
| | 01:15 | I would like to have a layer mask
that has black on the right, white on the
| | 01:20 | left and that gradually transitions
from black to white through a series of
| | 01:24 | grays in between. To do that, I'm
going to select the Gradient tool in the
| | 01:28 | Toolbox. I'll check my Foreground and
Background Colors and make sure that
| | 01:32 | black is the Foreground and white the
Background. And if they are not, I'll
| | 01:35 | press the X on my keyboard to switch them.
| | 01:37 | I will also take a look at the
Gradient bar here on the far left of the
| | 01:41 | Gradient Tool Options bar to make sure
that it's going from black on the left
| | 01:45 | to white on the right. And then I'll
check the next series of icons, which
| | 01:49 | determine the shape of the gradient I'm
about to draw. The default is the first
| | 01:54 | one, Linear Gradient and that's the one
I'm going to select. I'll leave all the
| | 01:57 | other gradient settings at their
defaults. And then I'm going to go into the
| | 02:01 | image and I'm going to click on the
right side of the image and I'm going to
| | 02:05 | drag to the left. It's always a guess
about where to stop, so I'll just try.
| | 02:11 | And if I don't like the result, I can redo it.
| | 02:13 | That's now too bad for a first try. As
you can see some of the model is opaque
| | 02:18 | which was my goal. Some of it's a
little bit too see through but I can fix that
| | 02:22 | and then moving over to the left,
the image of the mountains and the sea
| | 02:26 | gradually fades in with an almost
imperceptible transition between the two images.
| | 02:31 | Let's take a look at the layer mask
and see what it's doing. I'm going to
| | 02:34 | Option or Alt click on the layer mask
thumbnail on the summer layer. So you can
| | 02:38 | see that the shades of black, white,
and gray on this mask correspond to what
| | 02:43 | we just saw in the image. This part
is hiding the summer layer, then we are
| | 02:47 | partially revealing the summer layer,
and over here we can completely see the
| | 02:51 | summer layer through the white part of the mask.
| | 02:53 | I will Option or Alt click again on
that Layer Mask icon to go back to the
| | 02:58 | image and now I'm going to clean up
this image. This is often the case after I
| | 03:03 | do a gradient on a layer mask that
I'll come in with a big soft brush with
| | 03:07 | either black or white to get a few
areas to look little more like I had
| | 03:11 | envisioned. So I go over to the Toolbox
and click on the Brush tool. I'll start
| | 03:15 | by painting with black. In the Brush
picker, I'll make sure that Hardness is
| | 03:21 | set to, I don't know, somewhere
around 20, 25. I don't want the brush much
| | 03:26 | harder because I would like the brush
to have a soft edge that retains the soft
| | 03:30 | transitions between the images.
| | 03:31 | I will click in a blank area of the
Options bar to close that dialog box and
| | 03:36 | then I'm going to come over to the
model and I'm going to paint with black. And
| | 03:40 | you can see as I do that I'm making
her more opaque. That makes it look more
| | 03:44 | saturated and it draws the viewer's
attention to this side of the image, which
| | 03:48 | is what I wanted. Great. And then I'm
going to switch paint and use some white.
| | 03:55 | So I can switch the Foreground and
Background Colors by clicking the double
| | 03:58 | pointed arrow here at the bottom of the
Toolbox or I can just press X on my keyboard.
| | 04:03 | With white paint, I'm going to come in
and go over each one of the candies to
| | 04:07 | make sure that they are very clear.
I'll reduce my brush size and I actually
| | 04:11 | don't need to do too much of this
because of the way that I drew that gradient.
| | 04:15 | I think they look pretty good.
| | 04:16 | So that's about all that we do to clean
up this particular gradient. I'll take
| | 04:21 | anther look at the mask by Option or
Alt-clicking and you can see the areas
| | 04:25 | where I added a little bit of white
there and where I painted on the models
| | 04:28 | face with black. I'll Option or Alt-
click again and I could be done at this
| | 04:33 | point but I want to show you one more
thing and that is that you don't have to
| | 04:37 | use a linear black to white gradient.
You can use a gradient of another shape.
| | 04:41 | I'll often use a Radial Gradient to
bring attention to a particular area.
| | 04:46 | To show you that, I'm going to ask
you to turn off the candies layer by
| | 04:50 | clicking the eye icon to the left of
that layer and turn on the candies copy
| | 04:54 | layer by clicking its eye icon. This
layer contains not only the candies but
| | 04:58 | also this white background. Rather than
go through and try to select the white
| | 05:02 | background perfectly so that the
candies are on a transparent background, so
| | 05:06 | you can see through to the model and
summer layers below. I'm going to use a
| | 05:09 | gradient to care of that all pretty quickly.
| | 05:12 | I will go to the candies copy layer
and select that layer and then I'll add a
| | 05:16 | layer mask by going to the layer mask
thumbnail at the bottom of the Layers
| | 05:19 | panel. With that white layer mask
thumbnail selected, I'm going to go over to
| | 05:23 | the Gradient tool again and up to the
Gradient Tool Options bar and this time
| | 05:29 | I'm going to click on the second icon
from the left, to make a Radial Gradient.
| | 05:33 | I'll double check that, I'm going to
be making a gradient that's white on the
| | 05:36 | left and black on the right and that's
because in the Foreground color box I
| | 05:40 | have white and the Background
color box I have black right now.
| | 05:43 | Sometimes I'll lower the Opacity of the
layer like this so I can just see where
| | 05:47 | I'm going. But I can remember what I
just saw a couple of minutes ago so I'm
| | 05:50 | not going to bother with that. I'm
just going to click in the middle of these
| | 05:53 | candies and I'm going to drag up and
I'll release my mouse slightly over the
| | 05:57 | edge of the image, and that's
the result I get. Not too bad.
| | 06:02 | If I don't like the result, I can just
come in and draw that gradient again. So
| | 06:05 | I'll just click in the middle of the
candies and maybe I'll draw a little bit
| | 06:08 | straighter up and I won't go to the
edge this time. Now to take a look at that
| | 06:12 | gradient, I'm going to go to the Layers
panel and I'll hold down the Option or
| | 06:15 | Alt key as I click on the layer mask
thumbnail and you can see that gradient.
| | 06:20 | The white area of this gradient on the
layer mask is revealing what's on the
| | 06:24 | candies layer. In other words those
candies and its white background. The black
| | 06:29 | areas of this layer mask are hiding
what's on the candies layer so that over
| | 06:33 | here there is no problem seeing
through to the summer and model on the layers
| | 06:36 | below. And the gray areas allow me to
partially see down through the candies copy layer.
| | 06:42 | So I'll Option or Alt-click again on
the layer thumbnail on the candies copy
| | 06:46 | layer and now I'll come in with a
very soft brush and I'll clean this up.
| | 06:52 | I would like to see more of the candies
and so I need to paint with white over
| | 06:55 | those candies. I'll make sure that my
Foreground Color is set to white. I'll
| | 07:00 | move over this top candy and I'll make
my brush bigger by pressing the right
| | 07:04 | bracket key several times on the keyboard.
| | 07:06 | Then I'll just do a few strokes over
that candy adding little white glow around it.
| | 07:12 | I'll make my brush a little smaller
with the left bracket key and I'll hit
| | 07:16 | this candy and this one and this one
here I'll make it even smaller. And I'll
| | 07:21 | make the brush even smaller and go over
to this candy and there is actually one
| | 07:25 | more candy right here that you can
hardly see because it was covered by the
| | 07:29 | black area of the layer mask.
So I painted on that one too.
| | 07:32 | And then to be sure that I can see the
sweet dreams text, I'm going to make my
| | 07:36 | brush much bigger and I'm going to
switch to black paint by pressing the X key
| | 07:41 | on the keyboard. And I'm just going
to make a swipe down there to make sure
| | 07:45 | that there is black on that area of the
layer mask on the candies copy layer to
| | 07:49 | hide the white paint around the candies.
| | 07:52 | And now I'll take one last look at that
layer mask by Option or Alt-clicking on
| | 07:56 | it and you can see that it has black
areas that allow me to see through much of
| | 08:00 | this layer. White areas that reveal
what's on the layer and soft transitional
| | 08:05 | areas all around that Radial Gradient.
I'll Option and Alt-click again on the
| | 08:09 | candies copy layer mask and I'm
pretty pleased with these results.
| | 08:13 | So if you are making something like
this, a collage or a poster or any
| | 08:17 | Photoshop composition that involves
more than one image, this is the technique
| | 08:21 | to rely on. It gives you smooth
professional looking transitions between images
| | 08:26 | and it saves you all the time of trying to
cut things out using one of the Selection tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Hiding adjustments with layer masks| 00:00 | In this chapter so far, we have been
looking at layer masks on pixel-based
| | 00:04 | layers that are used to hide the
pixels on those layers. I want to make sure
| | 00:09 | you understand that Adjustment layer
masks and Fill layer masks which are masks
| | 00:13 | that are created automatically when
you make a layer of that type, work just
| | 00:17 | the same way as layer masks on pixel
based layers. Their job is to hide or
| | 00:22 | reveal different areas of content on
the layers to which they are attached. In
| | 00:26 | other words an Adjustment layer mask
can limit the area that's affected by the
| | 00:31 | adjustment on that layer.
| | 00:32 | To take a closer look at that I
prepared this message, which contains a
| | 00:36 | photograph of a model. That photograph
is located here on the model layer. I'll
| | 00:40 | turn the eye icon off and on that
layer so you can see that photo is isolated
| | 00:45 | on a transparent background.
| | 00:47 | I think that this model needs a little
bit of fill lightness face, and perhaps
| | 00:51 | some fill light on the chocolates as
well, since we have to focus of this
| | 00:54 | poster for chocolates. I'm going to use
an adjustment layer to add that kind of
| | 00:58 | fill light in particular a Brightness/
Contrast adjustment layer. I'll bring
| | 01:02 | this Brightness/Contrast adjustment
layer in just above the model layer, which
| | 01:06 | is currently selected in the Layers panel.
| | 01:08 | I will click the Brightness/Contrast
icon in the Adjustments panel and that
| | 01:13 | creates the new layer right here, and
notice that it does come in with its own
| | 01:17 | mask. That mask is white, which
means that the adjustment will affect the
| | 01:21 | entire image. I'll go up to the
Adjustments panel, which is changed to show me
| | 01:25 | the controls for the Brightness/
Contrast adjustment. I'm going to do something
| | 01:29 | really simple. I'll just take the Brightness
slider and I'll drag it to the right to taste.
| | 01:33 | And what's important as I move this is
I'll be only looking at the model's face
| | 01:37 | and at the chocolates. I'm trying
not to pay attention to the rest of the
| | 01:40 | image, which in fact I think is getting
too light. But that's okay, because I'm
| | 01:44 | going to hide this adjustment
everywhere on the image, except for the model's
| | 01:48 | face and the chocolates.
And here is how it's done.
| | 01:51 | Back in the Layers panel I'll
make sure that the layer mask on the
| | 01:54 | Brightness/Contrast layer is selected,
and I'm going to check that I have black
| | 01:59 | as my Foreground Color in the Toolbox.
And then I'm going to fill that layer
| | 02:02 | mask with black by pressing the
shortcut for filling with the Foreground Color.
| | 02:07 | I have mentioned that one before and I continue
to emphasize that it's a good one to remember.
| | 02:11 | So please press the Option Key and the
Delete Key on a Mac, or the Alt Key and
| | 02:16 | a Backspace Key on a PC, and that
fills the entire layer mask with black and
| | 02:21 | you may have seen that the image got
lighter again when I did that because that
| | 02:24 | whole Brightness/Contrast adjustment is
now hidden, and it's not affecting any
| | 02:29 | part of this image.
| | 02:30 | Now I'm going to paint that back in. In
the sense I'm going to be painting with
| | 02:34 | light. To do that I'll go to the
Toolbox, and I'll get the Brush tool. I'll
| | 02:39 | switch the Foreground and Background
Colors so that white is the Foreground
| | 02:42 | Color. I'll do that by just pressing
the X Key on my keyboard or clicking on
| | 02:46 | this double pointed arrow near my cursor.
| | 02:48 | I want to make sure that I have a soft
brush. So open the Brush picker for you
| | 02:52 | to see, and I'll make that less hard,
maybe we'll make it about 70. And then
| | 02:58 | I'll click on the Options bar to close that.
| | 03:00 | Now I'm going to come into the image
and I'm just going to paint briefly across
| | 03:04 | the model's face and his hand and down
here over the chocolates. If I think I
| | 03:09 | have gone a little bit too far, I can
always go to the Opacity slider at the
| | 03:12 | top of the Layers panel here, and
drag slightly to the left to lower the
| | 03:16 | Opacity of that adjustment.
I'll leave that at about 75%.
| | 03:21 | To see your before and after, I can
go to the eye icon to the left of the
| | 03:25 | Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, turn it off,
this is how it was. And on, this is how it is.
| | 03:31 | You can see in the layer mask for the
Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer that
| | 03:35 | most of the mask is still black, hiding
this adjustment for most of the image.
| | 03:39 | The only place that the adjustment is applying is
where you see the white paint on this thumbnail.
| | 03:43 | I will Option or Alt-click on that
thumbnail so that you can see the mask here
| | 03:48 | in the document window. And then I'll Option or
Alt-click again so that you can see the image.
| | 03:53 | So this mask on the Brightness/
Contrast adjustment layer is working just like
| | 03:57 | the layer masks that you have seen in
preceding movies in this chapter on pixel based layers.
| | 04:03 | Adjustment layer masks, like their
cousins Fill layer masks, allow me to adjust
| | 04:07 | or manipulate the image, and limit the
reach of those changes targeting just
| | 04:11 | the areas that I want to affect.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding a vector mask| 00:00 | So far in this chapter, I have been
concentrating on layer masks, which are
| | 00:03 | pixel based grayscale masks that you use to
hide and reveal different parts of the layer.
| | 00:08 | There is another kind of a mask that
you can use for the same purpose and
| | 00:12 | that's a vector mask. And you even
can use a vector masks and layer masks
| | 00:15 | together on the same layer, as
I'm going to show you in this movie.
| | 00:19 | A vector mask is not made of pixels.
It's made of mathematical instructions
| | 00:23 | about the properties of lines and curves.
And so it can be use to create smooth
| | 00:28 | edged graphics like those you see at
the top of this image. And if you were to
| | 00:32 | print an image like this on a special
postscript printer, then the shapes would
| | 00:36 | print with very smooth and crisp edges.
| | 00:38 | It was relatively simple for me to make
this design, and I tell you that humbly
| | 00:42 | because I'm not a graphic artist
or an illustrator. My skills are in
| | 00:47 | photography and teaching, but it is
relatively simple to work with graphic
| | 00:51 | shapes in Photoshop. So I
would like to show you how.
| | 00:54 | I am going to move over to this tab
here, which is the same image before I
| | 00:59 | added the shapes. Here I have a
number of pixel-based layers. I have a
| | 01:03 | photograph of a boy that fills the
entire image, and I have a scan of a piece
| | 01:08 | of paper to give some texture, and I
also have a layer that's filled with
| | 01:12 | yellow pixels. And these
are all pixel-based layers.
| | 01:15 | I am going to start by adding a vector
mask to the boy layer. To do that, I'll
| | 01:20 | select that layer, and then I'm going
to go down to the Add Mask icon at the
| | 01:24 | bottom of the Layers panel. But I
don't want to just click that icon because
| | 01:27 | that would add a layer mask, and I
want to make a vector mask. So to do that
| | 01:32 | I'm going to hold down the Command key
on the Mac, or the Ctrl Key on a PC as I
| | 01:36 | click the Add Mask icon.
| | 01:38 | I know that the mask that came in is a
vector mask because when it's active,
| | 01:42 | not only is there a boundary around
the mask thumbnail, but also around the
| | 01:46 | image thumbnail. And as with the layer
mask that means that this mask is now
| | 01:50 | revealing everything on the
layer to which it's attached.
| | 01:53 | So we still can see everything on the
boy layer in the image. What I would like
| | 01:58 | to do is basically punch a hole in this
mask in the shape of a circle. So that
| | 02:02 | I can see down through that circle to
the yellow fill and the paper on the
| | 02:07 | layers below, making it kind of a moon shape.
| | 02:10 | I could use the Pen tool and draw an
outline like that. But the Pen tool is
| | 02:14 | kind of challenging and so I'm going to
do it an easier way, making use of one
| | 02:19 | of the geometric Shape tools to draw
a circle. I'm not going to use a Shape
| | 02:23 | tool to make a shape layer as you
learned to do in an earlier chapter but
| | 02:27 | rather to make an outline on a vector
mask on a pixel layer. So that's the
| | 02:32 | difference between what you are
learning now, and what you learned earlier in
| | 02:35 | the chapter on shape layers.
| | 02:37 | So I'll go down to the Shape tool slot
here and I'll click on whichever Shape
| | 02:41 | tool is showing at the moment. And
from the menu that appears, I'm going to
| | 02:45 | choose the Ellipse tool. This is a
Shape tool that draws ovals or circles.
| | 02:49 | To get this tool to draw a circle, I'm
going to go to this long row of icons
| | 02:53 | and click the icon to the right of the
last one and that brings up the Ellipse
| | 02:57 | Options. There I'm going to click Circle,
and then I'll click in the blank area
| | 03:01 | to close that menu.
| | 03:02 | I am also going to double-check that
from these first three icons the middle
| | 03:07 | one is highlighted. If the first one
were highlighted then I would be creating
| | 03:11 | a Shape layer, and that's not what I
want to do. Instead I just want to draw a
| | 03:15 | path and so I have the second icon
highlighted. And that happens automatically
| | 03:19 | by the way whenever a
vector mask is active as mine is.
| | 03:23 | Finally, I'm going to go over to the
four icons on the right which are the
| | 03:27 | icons that determine how the shape
I'm going to make will combine with the
| | 03:31 | vector mask. I'm going to click on
the second from the left of these icons,
| | 03:35 | which is the Subtract from icon,
because I want to subtract from the mask
| | 03:39 | that's currently on this layer.
| | 03:41 | You will see what I mean as soon as I
create this outline by coming into the
| | 03:44 | image, and just clicking and dragging
to make a sort of a moon shape. And then
| | 03:51 | I'm going to get this Black Arrow tool
in the Toolbox, and I'm going to click
| | 03:55 | on that outline to select it. And I'll
click in the middle of that shape and
| | 03:59 | I'm going to drag it down. And as I do,
the hole that I have cut moves with me.
| | 04:04 | So it looked like the moon was moving,
but actually the outline was moving.
| | 04:07 | Now if you look at the boy layer, you
can see what's happened with this vector
| | 04:11 | mask. The white part of the mask is
still revealing what's on the boy layer.
| | 04:16 | But the gray part of the mask is hiding
part of the boy layer, so in that area
| | 04:20 | we can see down to the yellow and the
paper layers below. And then around that
| | 04:24 | gray area is the black outline that
represents the path that I just drew.
| | 04:29 | One of the nice things about working
with a vector mask like this is that I can
| | 04:33 | move the content on the layers below
to get a different look. So I'm going to
| | 04:37 | come into the paper layer down here,
and I'm going to get the Move tool in the
| | 04:41 | Toolbox. And because this is a pixel
based layer, I'll use the Move tool rather
| | 04:46 | than the Black Arrow tool to move the
content of the paper layer because I want
| | 04:50 | to see more of that handwriting; I
think that's really nice texture.
| | 04:53 | By the way, the reason you can see the
paper layer, even though it's below the
| | 04:56 | yellow layer, is because there is a
special blending mode on the yellow layer
| | 05:00 | that allow us to see through it. I
haven't talked yet much about blending
| | 05:03 | modes, I'll be addressing them later.
| | 05:05 | But for now, I have a moon. The next
thing I want to do is show you how you can
| | 05:09 | add a vector mask to a layer that
already has a layer mask on it. And that's
| | 05:13 | this top layer, the one named sky with
layer mask. I'll just call it the sky
| | 05:17 | layer as I'm talking about it.
| | 05:19 | First, let me show you the content of
this layer. I'm going to make only this
| | 05:23 | layer visible, by holding the Option
Key or the Alt Key and clicking in the eye
| | 05:27 | icon to the left of the layer. And as
you can see, its just got this dark sky
| | 05:33 | in it, fading off down at the bottom.
And the reason it's fading off is because
| | 05:38 | of the layer mask on the layer.
| | 05:39 | I will Option or Alt-click on that
layer mask so that you can see it. So where
| | 05:43 | there is gray there, it's causing the
dark portion to fade off. I'll Option or
| | 05:48 | Alt-click again on the layer mask to
bring back the layer, and then I'm going
| | 05:52 | to Option or Alt-click on the eye icon
on the sky layer to bring back all the
| | 05:56 | other layers. And then I'm going to
click again in that eye icon slot to make
| | 06:01 | the sky layer visible.
| | 06:03 | So now it's time to add a vector mask
to the sky layer. I don't have to hold
| | 06:07 | the Command or the Ctrl Key as I do that,
because there is already a layer mask
| | 06:12 | on this layer. And so Photoshop knows
that the only other kind of mask that it
| | 06:15 | could add is a vector mask.
So it will add a vector mask.
| | 06:19 | However, I don't want to just add a
vector mask that's white, that's revealing
| | 06:23 | everything on this layer. I want to
add the opposite, a vector mask that is
| | 06:27 | dark, and it's hiding everything on this layer.
| | 06:30 | So I'm going to hold down a key, but
not the Command or Ctrl Key. Instead on
| | 06:35 | the Mac I'm going to hold the Option
Key, on the PC the Alt Key and click the
| | 06:40 | Add Mask icon. And that will add a
mask that is dark and is therefore hiding
| | 06:46 | everything on the sky layer, the pixels and the
mask right now. And you can see that in the image.
| | 06:52 | It's as if I had turned the sky layer
off completely by clicking its eye icon.
| | 06:56 | So once again, we can see what's going
on in the layers below. Now what I would
| | 07:00 | like to do is to use some of the Shape
tools to reveal some areas of the pixels
| | 07:04 | on the sky layer. Here is how that works.
| | 07:07 | Notice that I have the vector mask
highlighted and the layer mask stays
| | 07:11 | highlighted too. Then I'm going to go
over to the Shape tools in the Toolbox
| | 07:15 | and from the Shape tools menu, I'm
going to choose Custom Shape tool. I'll
| | 07:20 | leave all of the icons as they are,
I'll click the arrow to the right of the
| | 07:23 | Shape picker to open this menu. If you
don't see all these icons that I have,
| | 07:28 | you can go to this arrow on the side of
the Shape picker and choose All to see
| | 07:32 | all of the different shapes
that Photoshop comes with.
| | 07:35 | I am going to go up to the top row here,
and choose the second shape from the
| | 07:39 | right. It's a flying bird; it might be
an eagle, I'll just call it a bird. And
| | 07:43 | then I'm going to click in the blank
area of the Options bar to close that menu.
| | 07:47 | Now I'm going to come into the image,
and I'm going to hold down the Shift Key
| | 07:51 | to constrain the proportion so I don't
distort the bird. And I'm going to click
| | 07:54 | and drag a large bird across the moon, and
release my mouse, and release the Shift Key.
| | 08:01 | This bird is dark blue because what's
happened here is that I have drawn a
| | 08:05 | shape that's revealing the dark blue
pixels on the sky layer. And you can see
| | 08:10 | that over here in the vector mask,
where the mask is gray it's still hiding the
| | 08:15 | sky layer. Where the mask is white,
it's showing this sky layer. And that's why
| | 08:20 | this looks like a bird, because if I
click off, you don't see the outline of
| | 08:24 | the bird, you just see those dark pixels
on the sky layer in the shape of a bird.
| | 08:29 | To add some more birds on the same
vector mask, I want to make sure that the
| | 08:32 | vector mask is selected so I click on
it, and then I'm going to come into the
| | 08:36 | image and I'll hold down the Shift Key
in order to constrain proportions. And
| | 08:40 | I'll drag out some more birds.
| | 08:42 | And what I really like about using
these tools is that I can draw birds of
| | 08:46 | different sizes, and then all will
have nice smooth edges because these are
| | 08:50 | vector shapes. And because these are
just outlines, I can easily move them
| | 08:55 | around or edit them. To move one of
these, I'm just going to come into the
| | 08:58 | Toolbox and get the Black Arrow tool
which is the Path Selection tool, click on
| | 09:03 | one of the shapes like this big bird,
and then drag. And that will move just
| | 09:08 | the selected shape. That's a lot
easier than trying to select an item on a
| | 09:12 | layer and moving just the selected item.
| | 09:15 | I also can change the shape of any of
these birds by selecting another tool,
| | 09:20 | the White Arrow tool that is the Direct
Selection tool. So I might come to this
| | 09:24 | bird and click on its outline, and
I'll get all of these white anchor points.
| | 09:29 | And if I can isolate one, I can click
and drag on it to change the shape.
| | 09:33 | I made its beak longer by clicking
and dragging on one of those points.
| | 09:37 | I am going to add one more shape to
this vector mask, so I'm going to go back
| | 09:41 | to the Custom Shape tool, and then up
to the Shape picker and click the arrow
| | 09:45 | to the right of the Shape picker. And
then from there I'm going to choose this
| | 09:48 | bird, the one next to the eagle, and
this bird I think is a parrot or maybe a
| | 09:53 | crow. But whatever it is it will do for
this design. And then I'll click in the
| | 09:56 | blank area of the
Options bar to close that menu.
| | 09:59 | Before I draw this shape, I want to
make sure that the Add to icon is selected
| | 10:04 | here in this series of four icons. So
I'll click that first icon and now I'll
| | 10:09 | come into the image, and I'll hold the
Shift key down and I'll drag. And that
| | 10:13 | adds this parrot or crow to the image.
It's got its claws in the boys face, so
| | 10:18 | this gives me an opportunity to show
you again how easy it is move a shape by
| | 10:23 | selecting the Black Arrow tool and clicking
and dragging. And I'll move him over here.
| | 10:27 | And there is one more thing I can do
to a shape that I haven't shown you yet,
| | 10:31 | and that is to transform it. Let's do
that. With that shape selected, I'm going
| | 10:36 | up to the Edit menu and I can choose
either Free Transform Path or Transform
| | 10:41 | Path. Notice that this command has
changed from the default of Free Transform
| | 10:45 | because Photoshop knows that I'm now
working with a path, rather than with pixels.
| | 10:50 | So I'll do Free Transform Path, and
then I'll move my mouse over the bounding
| | 10:54 | box over its corner, and I'm going to
click and drag to rotate that bird a
| | 10:59 | little bit. And I'll move him up so he
is sitting on the blanket, and then I'll
| | 11:03 | click the check mark in the
Transform feature Options bar to accept that
| | 11:07 | change. And finally, I'm going to
click on one of these pixel layers so all
| | 11:11 | those outlines go away and
you can see the final design.
| | 11:14 | You know a lot of people think of
Photoshop primarily as a photo editing
| | 11:18 | program or a program for working just
with bitmapped images. But as I have
| | 11:22 | given you a taste up here, there
really is a lot that you can do with the
| | 11:25 | vector drawing features inside
Photoshop like the vector mask. So I hope that
| | 11:30 | you will use these
features to your advantage too.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting masks from the new Masks panel| 00:00 | No discussion of masks in Photoshop CS4
would be complete without a look at the
| | 00:04 | new Masks panel. I'm working here in my
Layers workspace and I have also opened
| | 00:09 | the Masks panel by going to Window at
the top of the screen and choosing Masks.
| | 00:14 | The Masks panel is a new panel in CS4
that puts in one place the key controls
| | 00:19 | related to working with masks. And by
masks I mean not only layer masks but
| | 00:24 | also vector masks and filter masks on
smart object filters. And we'll look at
| | 00:30 | all three of those in this movie.
| | 00:31 | First of all, let's take a look at the
Layers panel to see what we have here.
| | 00:35 | I'm going to Option or Alt-click on
the eye icon to the left of each layer in
| | 00:38 | turn to show you what's on there. The
model layer has not only the model but
| | 00:42 | also this plain white background.
The oranges layer has just oranges.
| | 00:47 | And the frost layer has this
textured background to which I have added a
| | 00:51 | filter, first converting the frost
layer for Smart Filters by going to the
| | 00:55 | Filter menu and choosing Convert for
Smart Filters. And then going into the
| | 01:00 | Filter menus and choosing the Poster
Edges filter from inside the Filter
| | 01:05 | Gallery. And notice that there is a
mask on this Smart Filter layer and that's
| | 01:10 | what we would be able to control
through the Masks panel in just a moment. But
| | 01:14 | for now, I'm going to collapse the
Filters so that we have more room to work here.
| | 01:18 | The first thing I'm going to do is to
add a pixel based layer mask to the model
| | 01:22 | layer. So I'm going to turn the model
layer back on by clicking her eye icon,
| | 01:26 | I'll also turn the oranges layer back
on too, and with the model layer selected
| | 01:31 | I'm going to go up to the Select
menu at the top of the screen and load a
| | 01:34 | selection that I already made
for you so you don't have to do it.
| | 01:38 | In the Load Selection dialog box, I'm
going to go to the Channel menu and I'll
| | 01:42 | choose the model selection and click OK.
So there is the selection that I made
| | 01:47 | and saved with this file
and you are welcome to use it.
| | 01:50 | With the selection active, I'm going to
make a mask. And rather than make that
| | 01:53 | mask from the Add Layer Mask icon at
the bottom of the Layers panel, I'm going
| | 01:57 | to go to the new Masks panel and there
is another way in there to make a new
| | 02:01 | mask. The only two icons that are
active right; are one for creating a layer
| | 02:06 | mask on the left and for creating
vector mask on the right. I'll click the
| | 02:11 | Layer Mask button and a couple of things happen.
| | 02:14 | In the Layers panel, you can see that
there is now a layer mask thumbnail and
| | 02:18 | that it's black and white. And if I
Option or Alt-click on that thumbnail, we
| | 02:22 | can see a bigger view of that
here in the document window.
| | 02:25 | So what happened was, as I taught you
in other movies in this chapter, where
| | 02:29 | there was a selection, the layer
mask was filled with white and that area
| | 02:33 | displays the content of the model
layer. In other words, the model is still
| | 02:36 | visible in the image. But the
surrounding area is black. This is the area that
| | 02:41 | was not selected and this black is
hiding the content of the model layer so
| | 02:46 | that it can't be seen and instead you
can see down through the model layer to
| | 02:51 | the oranges on the layer below.
| | 02:53 | But the beauty of this is we haven't
deleted anything, we are practicing
| | 02:56 | non-destructive editing because we can
always come back in here and paint on
| | 03:00 | this mask with black, white or gray to
change that equation or delete the mask entirely.
| | 03:06 | So I'm now going to Option or Alt-
click back on the Layer Mask icon to bring
| | 03:09 | the image back and then I'm going to
consider whether I need to go back to the
| | 03:13 | Masks panel and tweak any of these
sliders to refine this mask. I actually
| | 03:18 | don't think that I'm going to use the
Feather or Density sliders on this image.
| | 03:21 | I have tried them and they really
don't help. But I do want to show you the
| | 03:24 | Mask Edge button here.
| | 03:26 | If I click that, a dialog opens,
called Refine Mask. If you are all familiar
| | 03:31 | with the Refine Edge dialog box
that's been in Photoshop for a couple of
| | 03:34 | versions, then this dialog box will
look familiar to you. The Refine Edge
| | 03:39 | dialog is used to tweak selections when
they are active. The Refine Mask dialog
| | 03:43 | box is used to fine tune masks. And
basically a mask is just another way to
| | 03:48 | display a selection. So that's why the
sliders and the setup in this box are
| | 03:53 | the same as that for Refine Edge.
| | 03:55 | If you are curious about what all these
sliders do, the best way to learn is to
| | 03:59 | move your mouse over anyone of them
and read the description at the bottom.
| | 04:02 | They really are good descriptions
because they not only explain what the
| | 04:06 | feature does, but they give you a suggestion
in the photo there as to when you might use it.
| | 04:10 | So just as an example, I often use
this Radius slider to fix the edge where
| | 04:15 | there is some fine detail, like a
model's hair that is a little more frizzy
| | 04:20 | than this model's hair, or the leaves
on a tree, or animal fur. And then if I
| | 04:25 | do increase the Radius to soften
that sort of an edge, I'll also move the
| | 04:29 | Contrast slider to just crisp the edge
up a little bit and remove any of the
| | 04:33 | kinds of artifacts that you see in that
little picture of the eyeglasses there
| | 04:36 | at the bottom right.
| | 04:38 | And then there is a Smooth slider for
smoothing out the edge of a mask and a
| | 04:42 | Feather slider for blurring a mask
slightly and then a Contract slider which
| | 04:46 | comes in really handy if you happen to
see any colored pixels at the mask edge
| | 04:50 | that you may have picked up when you
first made the mask or the selection.
| | 04:55 | And down here, are different icons
against which you can preview the masked
| | 04:58 | image so because I know that I'm
going to be showing this woman against a
| | 05:02 | relatively light background, it makes
the most sense to view her against this
| | 05:06 | white preview. But if I knew I was
ultimately going to put her on a dark
| | 05:09 | background, I would click this icon
and I see that actually the selection
| | 05:13 | doesn't look as great against this icon; there
is a little bit of halo over here, for example.
| | 05:17 | So if I were going to put her
against black, I would probably drag this
| | 05:20 | Contract/Expand slider to the left to
cut away some of those edge pixels. But
| | 05:26 | if I put her back on white, I think
she looks better with a little more
| | 05:29 | fullness. So I'm going to pull that
slider back. So that's how that all works.
| | 05:34 | I'm going to close the Refine Mask dialog box.
| | 05:36 | Next, I'm going to add a vector mask
because I cannot only work on layer masks
| | 05:41 | from the Masks panel but also on vector
masks. I'm going to select the oranges
| | 05:46 | layer and then I'm going to go up to
the Masks panel and click the other icon
| | 05:50 | there to add a vector mask. With the
vector mask still selected, I'll go over
| | 05:55 | to the Toolbox and I'll select a Shape
tool. I'm going to choose the Ellipse
| | 05:58 | tool and then I'm going to go up to
the Options bar and make sure that this
| | 06:02 | second icon is selected rather than
the first. So that I'm drawing a path on
| | 06:07 | this vector mask rather than
just be drawing a new shape layer.
| | 06:11 | And then I'm going to go into the
image and I'm going to hold down the Shift
| | 06:14 | key to constrain proportions to a
circle and I'm going to drag a circle around
| | 06:18 | this model's head. Right away, you
can see that the mask takes effect. I'm
| | 06:22 | going to move it into place by
selecting the Black Arrow tool, the Path
| | 06:26 | Selection tool in the Toolbox and
then clicking inside of that circle and
| | 06:30 | dragging, because this is a path that's
the tool I use to move it, not the Move tool.
| | 06:35 | Now let's take a look at this vector
mask. The white part of the vector mask is
| | 06:40 | revealing the content of the oranges
layer so that's why you see the oranges
| | 06:44 | back here. And the dark part of the
mask is hiding the oranges and that's why
| | 06:49 | you can see down through these
areas to the frost on the layer below.
| | 06:53 | Now if this vector outline is in the
way, it's easy to hide it temporarily by
| | 06:57 | holding down the Command key on the Mac,
the Ctrl key on a PC and pressing the
| | 07:01 | H key at the same time.
| | 07:03 | Now what I want to do is use the
controls in the Masks panel to soften the
| | 07:07 | edges of this vector mask and also to
decrease its Density. I'll start with the
| | 07:12 | Density slider. The Density slider
basically makes a mask more or less opaque.
| | 07:17 | So you can see through it more to bring
in some more of the content of the layer.
| | 07:23 | So here if I drag the Density slider to
the left, the gray part of that vector
| | 07:27 | mask is going to become lighter gray and show
more of the orange through it. Let's try it.
| | 07:33 | I will drag Density to the left and
sure enough, as I do, I'm starting to see
| | 07:38 | the orange on that layer peeking
through. I don't want to go that far; maybe
| | 07:41 | I'll go about 55 or so. And then also I
want to feather the edge of this vector
| | 07:47 | mask so there is a nice soft
transition between either side of the vector
| | 07:51 | outline. And that's a big bonus to be
able to soften a vector transition like this.
| | 07:57 | So I'm going to go the Feather slider
and I'm going to drag to the right and as
| | 08:01 | I do, you can see that transition
blurring. And I'll do it just about like this
| | 08:07 | so that orange is making a
nice glow behind the model's head.
| | 08:11 | Now if I would like to see how things
look with that vector mask as compared to
| | 08:15 | without the vector mask, a kind of
before and after, I'll make sure that the
| | 08:18 | oranges layer is selected and then I'm
going to go to the bottom of the Masks
| | 08:22 | panel and I'm going to click the
Visibility icon there and that puts a big red
| | 08:26 | X over that vector mask and shows me
how the image looks without that mask.
| | 08:31 | This is something you could do in
previous versions of Photoshop but you had to
| | 08:35 | know a shortcut to do this. And now
it's right here in the Masks panel.
| | 08:39 | So I'll turn that on again and I can
do the same thing with the layer mask on
| | 08:42 | the model layer by selecting that
layer mask on the model layer and then
| | 08:46 | clicking that eye icon.
And I'll turn that back on.
| | 08:50 | The last thing that I want to do is
move down to the frost layer, which has a
| | 08:54 | Smart Filter on it which I can see if
I click the arrow on the right side of
| | 08:57 | this layer. The wonderful thing about
Smart Filter is, which we are introduced
| | 09:01 | a couple of versions ago in Photoshop,
is that they remain editable. And so
| | 09:05 | that means that at any time if I
don't like this particular filter, I can
| | 09:09 | either drag it down to the Trashcan
or I can double click it to reopen the
| | 09:13 | Filter dialog boxes. But for now,
what I want to show you is how I can work
| | 09:17 | with the layer mask that
comes with every Smart Filter.
| | 09:21 | So let's say that I decided that I like
this effect but I don't want to have it
| | 09:25 | everywhere on this image; I would like
to take it out from the middle a little bit.
| | 09:28 | I'm going to click on that layer
mask that's on the Smart Filter sub-layer
| | 09:33 | here and then I'm going to go to the
Toolbox, get myself a Brush tool. I have
| | 09:38 | black as my Foreground Color, I'll go
into the image and I'm going to make my
| | 09:42 | brush bigger by holding down the right
bracket key. I'm also going to make it
| | 09:46 | soft by holding the Shift key as
I click on the left bracket key.
| | 09:50 | And then with this brush, I'm just
going to start brushing away some of the
| | 09:56 | Filter because I'm covering this area
of the Smart Filters mask with black. And
| | 10:02 | when I'm done, you can see in the Smart
Filter mask where I have brushed with black.
| | 10:06 | Now to see a before and after, with
the mask on the Smart Filters layer
| | 10:11 | selected, I'm going to go up to the
Masks panel and I'm going to click the eye
| | 10:14 | icon there. And that's how it was a
few minutes ago. You can see it's now Xed
| | 10:19 | out what I have done on the mask there,
and that's how it is with the change
| | 10:23 | that I made. I can also see how the
image looks with the Filter is completely
| | 10:26 | turned off, if I go down to that Smart
Filters layer and click on the eye icon.
| | 10:31 | So there is how it is without any
Filters at all. I kind of like the Filters
| | 10:35 | and I like the mask on the Filters.
| | 10:37 | So many of the things that I have shown
you that you can now do from the Masks
| | 10:40 | panel, you could do any way before.
But these functions were scattered around
| | 10:45 | throughout the program. The beauty of
the Masks panel is that it brings all of
| | 10:48 | them together in one place and it
offers a little more functionality too, like
| | 10:52 | the Density and Feather sliders
right on the face of the Masks panel.
| | 10:56 | Once you get used to using the new
Masks panel for all your mask related needs,
| | 11:01 | I think you will realize how nice it
is to have one stop shopping for all the
| | 11:04 | things mask related.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
10. Layer BlendingChoosing a blend mode| 00:00 | Layer blend modes, which are located
here in this menu in the Layers panel, can
| | 00:04 | be used in lots of interesting ways
to control the way colors in one layer
| | 00:08 | interact with the rest
of the colors in an image.
| | 00:10 | There are lots of blend modes and each
one uses a slightly different formula to
| | 00:15 | blend colors between layers.
| | 00:17 | It's really hard to predict exactly
what a particular blend mode is going to do
| | 00:21 | on a particular image. That's because
the result that you get depends on a
| | 00:25 | couple of things, not only the blend
mode you choose, but also the colors in
| | 00:29 | the active layer which I'm going to
call the top layer and the colors on the
| | 00:33 | layers below and that's on a pixel-by-
pixel basis. And as you can imagine,
| | 00:37 | there is lots of variation there. So
again, it's hard to predict exactly what a
| | 00:41 | blend mode will do on that
particular image you are working on. But that
| | 00:45 | doesn't mean that you can't use blend
modes in an efficient and logical way.
| | 00:49 | I think the best approach to blend
modes is to think of them in groups, in
| | 00:52 | categories and to have a general idea
of what each category does, so that will
| | 00:57 | send you toward the right
category in most situations.
| | 01:00 | So in the next movie, I'm going to go
through each category of blend modes with you.
| | 01:03 | But before that, in this movie, I
want to show you something else that you
| | 01:07 | can do to use blend modes even if you
don't want to spend the time or effort to
| | 01:10 | remember the various groups of blend
modes and that solution is to choose your
| | 01:14 | blend modes visually by cycling through
each one on an image. You are going to
| | 01:19 | want to do that in an efficient way and
that's what I'll show you how to do now.
| | 01:22 | So the first step in applying a blend
mode is to select the layer whose blend
| | 01:27 | you want to change. So in this case, I
have selected the cherries layer, which
| | 01:31 | contains the colors that I'm going
to blend with the colors on the other
| | 01:35 | layers. Then this doesn't have to be
the top layer in the layer stack; it could
| | 01:39 | be somewhere lower down in the layer
stack that had multiple layers but the
| | 01:42 | layer that you select will blend
only with colors on layers below.
| | 01:46 | So after that layer is selected, I
could go up to the layer blend mode at the
| | 01:49 | top of the Layers panel, click there
and then go and choose the blend mode and
| | 01:54 | then I could go back and choose another
blend mode and so on. But this is going
| | 01:59 | to get kind of tedious and also, I
don't think I'm going to remember which one
| | 02:03 | did which when I approach at this way.
So I'm going to take that back to Normal
| | 02:06 | and show you what I do to choose a
blend mode which is to cycle through them
| | 02:10 | using a keyboard shortcut and that
keyboard shortcut is to hold the Shift key
| | 02:13 | on the keyboard and tap on the plus key. The
plus key is at the top right of the keyboard.
| | 02:19 | So now I'm going to click plus and keep
your eye on the menu at the top of the
| | 02:24 | Layers panel and you will see a change.
And when I choose a different blend
| | 02:30 | mode, in most cases, you see the image
change in the document window. So that's
| | 02:35 | what this image looks like with the
Darken blend mode and here is how it looks
| | 02:38 | with the Multiply blend mode, the
Color Burn blend mode and so on.
| | 02:42 | And I'll just keep going down this
list until I see one that I really like, I
| | 02:46 | might make a note to myself or if I
want to go back the other way, I'll hold
| | 02:50 | the Shift key and I'll tap the minus
key which is right next to the plus key
| | 02:54 | and that sends me back up the list
until I get to the one that I like.
| | 03:01 | So that's all there is to it. This may
seem like a non-scientific approach but
| | 03:05 | I find that it's one that works for
everybody. A couple of other things to note
| | 03:08 | about blend modes; one is that if you
use this technique, you want to be sure
| | 03:12 | that you have a tool selected that is
not one of the painting tools. In other
| | 03:16 | words, you can have any tool selected
in the toolbox except for those between
| | 03:21 | this line right here above the Healing
Brush and this line beneath the Dodge,
| | 03:25 | Burn, and Sponge tools and the reason is that
all of those tools also have blending modes.
| | 03:30 | So if I were to select the Brush tool
here and I were working with that and
| | 03:34 | then I decided I need to change a
layer blend mode. If I start clicking the
| | 03:38 | plus or the minus keys with the
Shift key held down, keep your eye in the
| | 03:41 | option bar, up here for the Brush tool
and you will notice that that is what
| | 03:45 | changes; the blend mode of the brush
which affects the colors with which the
| | 03:49 | brush will paint But as I do that, you
will see the layer blend mode up here
| | 03:54 | isn't changing at all. So if I do want
to change the layer blend mode, I have
| | 03:58 | to have that tool selected that
is not one of the painting tools.
| | 04:02 | So my solution for that is I just
always choose the Move tool. That's easy to
| | 04:06 | remember. I just press the V key on
my keyboard as a shortcut to get to the
| | 04:10 | Move tool or I come over to the
toolbox and select the Move tool that way and
| | 04:15 | then I press Shift+Plus or Shift+
Minus to cycle through blend modes.
| | 04:19 | And the other thing to know about
blend modes is they won't work on a layer
| | 04:22 | that's locked. So if you do have a
layer with a lock on it, like this, then you
| | 04:27 | have to get the lock off and the way to
toggle the lock off, as I covered in an
| | 04:30 | earlier movie on locking layers, is
to go to the locks here and click the
| | 04:34 | appropriate lock and that toggles the lock off.
| | 04:37 | If you want to change the blend mode of a
background layer, a couple of things to keep in mind.
| | 04:41 | Number one, a background layer is
locked. I'll just create one for you so you
| | 04:46 | can see. I'll select this oranges
base colors layer and I'll go up to the
| | 04:49 | Layers panel and choose New and
Background From Layer; something you are seldom
| | 04:53 | going to do, but this is now a
background layer with all of the limitations of
| | 04:58 | a background layer that I have covered
elsewhere. I can't apply a blend mode
| | 05:01 | here, for two reasons. Because the
layer is locked, the blend modes are grayed
| | 05:05 | out and secondly there are no layers
below with which to blend. So if for some
| | 05:10 | reason I do want to blend the colors of,
say, this orange layer with the colors
| | 05:13 | on other layers in the image, first I
have to double-click the layer and then
| | 05:18 | click OK to change it into a regular
layer and then I'll have to drag it above
| | 05:21 | one or more other layers.
| | 05:24 | And then with that layer selected, I
can use the Shift+Plus or Shift+Minus
| | 05:28 | shortcut to cycle through blend
modes and in most cases, the order of the
| | 05:33 | layers doesn't matter but it does
matter for few of the blend modes as I'll
| | 05:37 | mention in the next movie. And the last
thing to remember about blend modes is
| | 05:41 | that they are always editable. So even
if I save and close this file and come
| | 05:45 | back to it next month, I can always select
this layer again and change its blend mode.
| | 05:50 | So that's the practical approach to
blend modes. Just get in there and cycle
| | 05:53 | through them until you find the one
that works best. If you would like to learn
| | 05:57 | more about categories of blend modes,
then do stay tune for the next movie.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Blend modes by category| 00:00 | There are lots of layer blend modes in
Photoshop. Rather than try to memorize
| | 00:04 | the technical explanation of each one,
I think a better approach is to think of
| | 00:08 | layer blend modes in groups. I would
like to take you through some categories
| | 00:11 | of layer blend modes in this movie and
also call out the key layer blend modes
| | 00:15 | that I think you are likely to use.
| | 00:17 | I am working in one of three images
that I have open. In this image of a truck,
| | 00:21 | I have a logo on this layer, and I
have a truck on the layer below. When I
| | 00:25 | blend the logo into the truck, I would
like to retain some of the detail that I
| | 00:29 | see here in the reflection. I'm going
to click the eye icon next to the logo
| | 00:32 | layer to turn that layer back on, and then
I'm going to go up to the layer blend mode.
| | 00:37 | Notice these lines here and there in
the layer blend mode menu. They show you
| | 00:41 | the beginning and end of various
categories of blend modes. There is not much
| | 00:44 | to say about the first category, the
Normal blend mode is just the way the
| | 00:48 | image always looks, and the Dissolve
blend mode only comes into play where
| | 00:52 | there are partially transparent pixels.
As around the edge of this logo or if I
| | 00:57 | were to lower the opacity of a logo,
you would see the Dissolve effect. It's
| | 01:00 | not used very often.
| | 01:02 | I am going to put that Opacity back to
100% and go back to the menu. The next
| | 01:08 | group here is the Darken group. I call
it the Darken group because no matter
| | 01:11 | which of the five layer blend modes
from this category I use, I always get a
| | 01:16 | darker result than I started with. So,
for example, if I choose Darken, this is
| | 01:20 | the effect I get on this image. It's
really hard to predict what the Darken
| | 01:23 | blend mode will do, because it does its
analysis on a channel-by-channel basis,
| | 01:28 | and mixes colors from various channels.
| | 01:30 | I am going to go on and look through
the other categories in this blend mode by
| | 01:34 | holding down the Shift key on my
keyboard and tapping the plus key. The next
| | 01:38 | one I come to is the Multiply blend mode,
and this is the one of this category
| | 01:42 | that I like the most and use the most.
It works by multiplying colors in the
| | 01:45 | active layer with colors on the other
layers and by doing that, it will give
| | 01:49 | you a darker effect, but it usually retains
detail as it's done up here in the sky and down here.
| | 01:55 | I will hold the Shift key and tap the
plus key again to go through Color Burn,
| | 02:00 | which doesn't do much on this image,
Linear Burn and Darker Color, and then I
| | 02:05 | want to go back up to Multiply which is
my choice for this particular image. So
| | 02:09 | I'm going to hold down the Shift key,
and tap the minus key and it will go all
| | 02:13 | the way back to Multiply.
| | 02:14 | I want to remind you that you don't
have to use color blend modes in isolation.
| | 02:19 | So once you get the blend that you want,
you still might add a filter or a mask
| | 02:23 | or an adjustment. Here, for example,
I have added an adjustment layer above
| | 02:27 | both of the layers that affects the
entire image; a Hue/Saturation adjustment
| | 02:31 | in which I adjusted both the lightness
and the saturation to get a better match
| | 02:35 | between the logo layer and the truck layer.
| | 02:37 | I would like to show you another
blend mode category now and to do that I'm
| | 02:41 | going to switch to another image.
This one here. Here I have an image of
| | 02:46 | bottles on the lower layer and I would
like to blend the contents of a couple
| | 02:50 | other layers with these bottles. I'll
show you that on the left, I have cut out
| | 02:54 | part of an image of olives, and on
the right, I have cut out an image of
| | 02:58 | cherries. Both of those images are sitting
on there like cardboard cutouts right now.
| | 03:03 | What I would like to have happened is
for the cherries and the olives to blend
| | 03:07 | in with the highlights on the bottles
and with the liquid underneath. I'm going
| | 03:10 | to start with the cherries layer. I'll
select it here in the Layers panel and
| | 03:14 | then I'm going to go up to the Layer
Blend Mode menu and go down to the next
| | 03:17 | category of layer blend modes,
which is the Lighten category.
| | 03:21 | All six of these layer blend modes will
result in colors that are lighter than
| | 03:25 | those on the layers that are blended
together. So, for example, keep your eye
| | 03:28 | on the cherries, as I choose the
Lighten blend mode, and you can see that it
| | 03:32 | did get lighter, and it brought in some
of the highlights on the bottle as well
| | 03:36 | as allows us to see the liquid in the bottle.
| | 03:39 | So I think that does a pretty good job.
To run through the other Lighten blend
| | 03:42 | modes, I'll hold the Shift key down
as I tap the plus key and there is the
| | 03:46 | Screen blend mode. This is one that I
often use as well. Like the Multiply
| | 03:50 | blend mode from the Darken category,
the Screen blend mode multiplies the light
| | 03:54 | values in the layers, and so
you get a light result like this.
| | 03:57 | I am going to keep going and see how
the other Lighten blend modes do on this
| | 04:01 | image. This is Color Dodge, which often
gives you intense contrast-y color like
| | 04:06 | this. Linear Dodge is a little less
intense and Lighter Color, which basically
| | 04:12 | compares each pixel and gives you the
lighter of the two. In this particular
| | 04:16 | case I like the Lighten blend mode the best.
| | 04:17 | So I'm going to hold down the Shift key
and tap the minus key several times to
| | 04:22 | go back up to the Lighten blend mode.
And now I'll do the same thing on the
| | 04:26 | olives layer. I'll select that layer. I
know that I want a Lighten blend mode.
| | 04:30 | So I'll go to the layer blend menu and
down to the Lighten category, and that's
| | 04:33 | how the Lighten blend mode looks on
these olives. It's not bad, but I would
| | 04:38 | like to get more highlights.
| | 04:40 | So I'll hold the Shift key and tap the
plus key and there is the Screen blend
| | 04:44 | mode and I do think that the Screen
is better on this side of the bottle,
| | 04:48 | because I see these highlights here, I
see more up here and down here. And then
| | 04:52 | I'll just cycle through the
rest of the Lighten blend modes.
| | 04:57 | So I like Screen the best. So I'll go
back up by holding the Shift key and
| | 05:01 | pressing the minus key. So one of the
lessons to take from this example is that
| | 05:07 | in the same image with different layers,
you may use different blend modes. To
| | 05:11 | show you the rest of the blend mode
categories, I'm going to go another image,
| | 05:14 | this image of the cherries.
| | 05:16 | I have cherries on the top layer. I'll
click the eye icon to show you that on
| | 05:20 | the bottom layer, I have oranges, and I
would like to blend those two together.
| | 05:24 | With the cherries layer selected, I'm
going to go up to the layer blend mode
| | 05:27 | and go to the Contrast category. Each
of the seven layer blend modes in this
| | 05:32 | category varies the contrast of the
image. In other words, the difference
| | 05:35 | between the lights and the darks.
| | 05:37 | I often used Overlay or Soft Light
from this category. Let's take a look at
| | 05:42 | Overlay. Overlay is basically a
combination of the Multiply blend mode from the
| | 05:46 | Darken category, and the Screen blend
mode from the Lighten category. And this
| | 05:50 | is the result that it gives me here.
| | 05:52 | I am going to hold down the Shift key
and click the plus key to see Soft Light
| | 05:56 | which is just a more subtle version of
the Overlay blend mode, and I often use
| | 06:00 | this one. Hard Light is also like the
Overlay blend mode, but gives a more
| | 06:05 | harsh result like this.
| | 06:06 | There is Vivid Light, Linear Light, Pin
Light and Hard Mix, which basically is
| | 06:14 | just a posterizing effect. So I'm
going to cycle back up by holding the Shift
| | 06:18 | key and tapping the minus key
until I get to the version that I like.
| | 06:22 | I think I'll go with Overlay this time.
I'm going to go back to the menu to
| | 06:29 | show you that there are two more
categories. Difference and Exclusion are
| | 06:32 | hardly ever used because the results
are so often extreme. But one thing you
| | 06:36 | can use these for is that if you are
trying to decide if two copies of an image
| | 06:40 | are the same and you place one on a
layer above the other, where there are
| | 06:44 | similar pixels, the Difference blend
mode will show that area as dark, like it
| | 06:48 | is here. And then I'll just quickly
go to Exclusion, which is a more subtle
| | 06:53 | version of Difference.
| | 06:54 | Down here are four blend modes based on
color properties. Hue, which is color,
| | 07:00 | Saturation, which is purity of color,
and Luminosity, which is brightness. What
| | 07:06 | Hue does is take the color from the top
layer and blend it with the saturation
| | 07:11 | and the luminosity from the layer below.
| | 07:13 | So basically you are getting an image
of oranges with the hue of the cherries.
| | 07:18 | Saturation does something similar. It
takes the saturation of the cherries and
| | 07:22 | blends it with luminosity and the
color of the oranges below. So where the
| | 07:26 | cherries are very saturated, you
see orange from the layer below.
| | 07:32 | Luminosity often gives kind of a
black and white effect. It's taking the
| | 07:36 | luminance or brightness values of the
active layer of the cherries and blending
| | 07:40 | those with the hue and saturation on
the underlying oranges layer. Finally,
| | 07:44 | there is Color, which takes the hue
and saturation of the top layer of the
| | 07:48 | cherries and blends based on the
luminance of the underlying layer of the oranges.
| | 07:52 | The Color blend mode can be a handy
way of colorizing an image, and I'm going
| | 07:56 | to come back and show you that later
in this chapter. So if you think of the
| | 07:59 | various layer blend modes in this
menu in term of these groups, I think you
| | 08:03 | will have an easier time of going right
to the group that you want to use, and
| | 08:06 | then you can just cycle through the
layer blend modes in that group using the
| | 08:09 | keyboard shortcut Shift+Plus or Shift+Minus.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Changing a layer group's blend mode| 00:00 | So far in this chapter, we've been
talking about blend modes attached to
| | 00:03 | layers, but what happens to blend
modes when you put layers into a group?
| | 00:07 | In that case, the group takes on its own
blend mode. I'm going to select this
| | 00:12 | group and you can see that the
blend mode of the group is Pass Through.
| | 00:16 | Pass Through is a layer blend mode that
doesn't even appear in the menu unless
| | 00:20 | you have a group selected and what Pass
Through does is tells all the layers in
| | 00:24 | the group to act as if there were no
group, to just go ahead and blend with the
| | 00:29 | layers below like this truck layer
which is not in the group. And it also tells
| | 00:33 | any adjustment layers that are in the
group to go ahead and affect all of the
| | 00:36 | layers below, not just those in the group.
| | 00:39 | So in this case this Hue/Saturation
adjustment is affecting the truck as well
| | 00:43 | as the layers in this group. Let me
show you what's in the group. I have two
| | 00:47 | image layers; one contains half the
logo and the other contains the other half.
| | 00:52 | So I'll put them into a group to
organize them and then I added the
| | 00:55 | Hue/Saturation adjustment layer,
which I'll turn off so you can see that
| | 00:59 | without it the colors just weren't right.
| | 01:01 | So I made that little adjustment to
blend the colors in with the rest of the
| | 01:05 | image. So everything is fine with that
one group set to Pass Through. It's as
| | 01:09 | if there were no group at all in so far
as layer blend modes are concerned. But
| | 01:13 | then I've decided, I wanted another
copy of the logo over here. So I copied the
| | 01:18 | entire group and call that group 2 and
took the Move tool and moved it over.
| | 01:23 | I'll expand that group by clicking its
arrow so you can see what's in it. And
| | 01:27 | as you can see, there is a copy of both
of these logo layers and a copy of the
| | 01:30 | Hue/Saturation layer.
| | 01:31 | I am going to turn it on now so you
can see what this group looks like. I'll
| | 01:36 | click the eye icon next to group 2 and
it's not pretty. What's wrong is that
| | 01:41 | group 2 also has a Pass Through blend
mode, the default blend mode for groups.
| | 01:45 | So all of the layers in group 2 in
addition to all of the layers in group 1 are
| | 01:49 | affecting the truck as if there
were no groups. A big problem is this
| | 01:53 | Hue/Saturation copy layer which has a
layer mask on it and that's causing this
| | 01:58 | big white stripe over here.
| | 01:59 | So to fix this, I'm going to try to
change the way that the layers inside of
| | 02:03 | group 2 are behaving, by changing the
layer blend mode on group 2. With group 2
| | 02:09 | selected, I'll go up to the layer
blend mode menu and I'm going to start by
| | 02:12 | choosing Normal. Right away that fixes
the white stripe problem because if you
| | 02:17 | add a different kind of a blend mode to
a layer group then any adjustment layer
| | 02:21 | that's in that group affects only the
layers in the group and not the layers below.
| | 02:26 | And something else changes when you
change the layer blend mode of a group from
| | 02:29 | Pass Through to a different blend mode.
The layers in that group that have
| | 02:33 | their own layer blend modes, like the
free copy layer and the sh copy layer,
| | 02:38 | both of which have Multiply blend
modes, behave differently. Instead of
| | 02:42 | blending immediately with the truck on
the layer below, Photoshop first takes
| | 02:46 | the blend modes on those layers and
whatever blend mode is on the group itself
| | 02:50 | and blends all of that together and
then blends that composite with layers
| | 02:53 | below in the layer stack like this truck.
| | 02:56 | So I have another problem to deal with
and that is that the Normal blend mode
| | 03:00 | that I added to group 2 isn't really
the right one. The logo doesn't blend in
| | 03:04 | with the truck over here. So I'm
going to go back to group 2, select it and
| | 03:08 | just like I would do for a layer, I'm
going to go through the other blend modes
| | 03:12 | until I find one that works. So for
example, I could try the Darken blend mode
| | 03:17 | that actually doesn't look too bad. I could try
the Multiply blend mode, also not bad and so on.
| | 03:22 | But because those two work, I'm going
to stop there. So the next time that you
| | 03:26 | use layers with layer blend modes in a
group, remember that the group also has
| | 03:31 | a blend mode. By default, that blend
mode is the special Pass Through blend
| | 03:35 | mode but you can change the
blend mode on a layer group.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Correcting overexposure with the Multiply blend mode| 00:00 | Photoshop's layer blend modes are
very useful when you are trying to blend
| | 00:04 | layered images together in a composite
as you have seen in previous movies. But
| | 00:08 | that's not the only use for layer
blend modes. Anybody, who takes digital
| | 00:12 | photographs, will be happy to know that
layer blend modes offer a quick fix for
| | 00:17 | the most common photo problems. In this
movie, I'm going to show you how to use
| | 00:21 | the Multiply layer blend mode to
quickly fix a photo like this one that's too
| | 00:24 | light and in the next couple of movies,
I'll show you techniques for fixing a
| | 00:28 | photo that's too dark and one
that's too flat or lacking in contrast.
| | 00:33 | Whenever I'm doing photo adjustments, I
like to look at a histogram, which is a
| | 00:36 | diagram of the tones and the image. So
I'm going to open my Histogram panel by
| | 00:40 | going up to the Window menu and going
down to Histogram. The Histogram panel
| | 00:45 | comes in, in this inner column by
default. I'm going to move it over on top of
| | 00:49 | the Layers panel by clicking in this
blank area of the Histogram panel group
| | 00:53 | and dragging and releasing my mouse
when I see that blue line above Layers, and
| | 00:58 | that gives me more room
to work in document window.
| | 01:01 | Another thing I'm going to change is I
prefer to see the histogram in black and
| | 01:05 | white rather than color. So I'm going
to go to the panel menu and I'm going to
| | 01:09 | choose first Expanded View and then
I'll go to the Channel menu and from the
| | 01:14 | pop-up menu, I'll choose RGB. But you
don't have to do all that but I think it
| | 01:18 | is easier to understand the histogram
when you are looking at it this way. So
| | 01:22 | the bars in the histogram represent
the tones in this particular image. The
| | 01:27 | right side of the histogram represents
the lightest possible tones and the dark
| | 01:31 | side the darkest possible tones.
| | 01:33 | The height of these bars indicates
the frequency of any particular tone in
| | 01:37 | between in the image. You can see that
the highest bars and the most bars are
| | 01:41 | over on the right and that reflects
what you can see in the image. But this is
| | 01:45 | a very light image. It would probably
look better and more realistic if it had
| | 01:49 | some dark tones also. I don't have to
bother with making a Levels adjustments
| | 01:53 | or a Curves adjustment or anything
fancy in order to darken this photo. The
| | 01:58 | quickest way to do that is by
duplicating this layer and adding a layer
| | 02:02 | blending mode to the duplicate. So to
do that I'm going to go to the Layers
| | 02:06 | panel and I'll make a
duplicate of the Background layer.
| | 02:09 | I could just press the keyboard
shortcut, Command+J on the Mac, Ctrl+J on the
| | 02:13 | PC, but if you prefer to see your
commands then you can Ctrl-click on the Mac
| | 02:18 | or right-click on the PC on the
Background layer. That brings up this
| | 02:23 | contextual menu from which you can
choose Duplicate Layer and click OK. So now,
| | 02:29 | I have not only the original Background
layer but also a Background copy layer.
| | 02:34 | With the Background copy layer
selected, I'm going to go up to the layer
| | 02:37 | blending mode and I'm going to choose
the Multiply layer blend mode, one of my
| | 02:41 | favorites. As soon as I do that, the
image looks darker and look at the histogram.
| | 02:48 | Now, there are more pixels over in the
dark area over here and those that were
| | 02:52 | all bunched up together on the light
end have been strong out so that there is
| | 02:56 | space between them and they are
covering more of the tonal range, and that
| | 03:00 | generally will make a photograph look
better. Now let's say that you would like
| | 03:04 | to have the photograph even darker. No
problem. Just make another copy of the
| | 03:08 | Background copy layer. I'll Ctrl-click
or right-click on that layer and I'll
| | 03:13 | choose Duplicate Layer again and click
OK. And this second copy comes in with
| | 03:18 | that Multiply layer blend mode already attached
to it, so I don't even have to bother to do that.
| | 03:23 | But if you think that this is too dark,
you can go somewhere in between the
| | 03:28 | copy and the second copy by reducing
the Opacity of the second copy. So with
| | 03:33 | Background copy 2 selected in the
Layers panel, I'll move my mouse over the
| | 03:37 | Opacity label and I'll drag to the
left until I like the way it looks. I'm
| | 03:42 | going to take it down to maybe 50%. So
I think that looks better. Also, I would
| | 03:48 | like to reduce the darkness of the woman's hand.
| | 03:51 | So to do that, I can add a layer mask
to this Background copy 2 layer to hide
| | 03:55 | the adjustment that I have made on this
layer from the woman's hand. I covered
| | 03:59 | how to add a layer mask in an earlier
chapter. Basically, I'm going to go down
| | 04:03 | to the bottom of the Layers panel, I'm
going to click on the Add New Layer Mask
| | 04:06 | icon. It comes in white, which means
it's not really doing anything right now;
| | 04:11 | it's revealing the entire Background
copy 2 adjustment here and then I'm going
| | 04:16 | to go over to the Toolbox
and select a Brush tool.
| | 04:19 | Make sure that the foreground color is
set to black and come into the image and
| | 04:23 | just paint over the woman's hand like
this. I'm not going to be too careful.
| | 04:28 | I have a soft brush, so it's not
making too strict line between where I'm
| | 04:33 | painting and the rest of the image.
So I think that looks fine. Now if you
| | 04:38 | would like to see a before and after,
this is how things are now and I'll go up
| | 04:42 | to the File menu and I'll choose
Revert to show you how they were. So I'll
| | 04:47 | press Command+Z or Ctrl+Z to undo that and that's
how it now is and once again, that's how it was.
| | 04:53 | So you can see that this quick fix
really has done wonders. It was simply a
| | 04:58 | matter of making a copy of the image
layer and changing the blend mode. In the
| | 05:02 | next movies, I'll show you how to do
something similar on images that are too
| | 05:06 | dark and that are too flat.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Correcting underexposure with the Screen blend mode| 00:00 | In the preceding movie, I showed you
how to use a layer blend mode to fix a
| | 00:04 | common photo problem, a photo that was
too light. Now, I have the opposite problem.
| | 00:09 | This composition includes a
photograph of an antique bottle. It has a gray
| | 00:13 | label on it and I would like to be
able to see the label better but it is a
| | 00:16 | little bit too dark over here and so I
would like to be able to lighten it. I'm
| | 00:20 | going to use the same technique but
a different blending mode to do that.
| | 00:24 | By the way, I'm working in my Layers
workspace and in the last movie, I opened
| | 00:28 | the Histogram panel. I think it is
generally a good idea to have your Histogram
| | 00:32 | panel opened whenever you are
correcting photos. Although we won't use it
| | 00:35 | directly in this movie.
| | 00:37 | So, the piece that's too dark is on
the bottle layer. If I turn the bottle
| | 00:41 | layer on and off, you will see that
that's where the entire bottle is located.
| | 00:44 | What I want to do is take that bottle
layer and duplicate. I'll press Command+J
| | 00:48 | or Ctrl+J or I'll Ctrl-click on a Mac
or right-click on a PC and I'll choose
| | 00:54 | Duplicate Layer and then I'll choose OK.
| | 00:57 | Now, with that bottle copy layer
selected, I'll go up to the Layer Blend Mode
| | 01:00 | menu and from there I'm going to choose,
not Multiply this time as I did in the
| | 01:05 | last movie but this time Screen and
what Screen will do is almost the opposite
| | 01:10 | of Multiply. It will lighten the
content of this layer, like that.
| | 01:15 | So, I'll turn that eye icon on and off.
That is how it was a second ago; that's
| | 01:19 | how it is now. Well, the label is
definitely lighter and I like the way that
| | 01:23 | looks but I think the bottle is way
too bright now. That's okay. I can easily
| | 01:28 | add a layer mask to the bottle copy
layer to fix that and that mask will hide
| | 01:33 | this adjustment on all of the
parts of the image except the label.
| | 01:37 | So, first I'm going to make a selection
of the label and the fastest way to do
| | 01:41 | that in this case is with
the Quick Selection tool.
| | 01:44 | The Quick Selection tool selects on
the basis of color and tone and it also
| | 01:49 | does a pretty good job of fining the
edges. So, I'm going to come into the
| | 01:52 | label. I'm going to make my brush
smaller by pressing the Left Bracket key on
| | 01:56 | the keyboard. This tool works best with
the small brush and then I'm just going
| | 02:00 | to start moving around the label.
| | 02:11 | Now, if you do that and you select too
much, all you have to do is hold down
| | 02:15 | the Option key on a Mac or the Alt key
on a PC and go back over that little bit
| | 02:19 | of extra that you may have selected
that you don't want, like this and that
| | 02:23 | will be deleted from the selection.
Actually, I want to bring that back in
| | 02:26 | because I do want that part in my
selection. So, I can just click and drag over
| | 02:30 | it again and this is one of the nice things
about this tool that you can go back and forth.
| | 02:34 | So, now that I have my selection, I'm
going to make a mask on the bottle copy
| | 02:38 | layer. I showed you how to make masks
in an earlier chapter. I'm going to go
| | 02:42 | down to the bottom of the Layers panel
and click the Add New Layer Mask icon
| | 02:46 | there, the third from the left. That
creates a layer mask on the bottle copy
| | 02:50 | layer. With the black part of the mask
outside the selection and the white part
| | 02:55 | of the mask inside the selection.
Where the mask is black, it's hiding this
| | 02:59 | adjustment and where it is white,
it's showing this adjustment.
| | 03:02 | So, in other words, the effect of the
bottle copy layer is only taking place on
| | 03:07 | the part of the bottle that's covered
by white, which is the label. Does this
| | 03:11 | remind you how it looked a minute ago?
I'm going to go over that layer mask and
| | 03:14 | hold down the Shift key and click on it.
| | 03:17 | So, that's how things looked with the
screen adjustment but without the mask.
| | 03:20 | I'll Shift-click again on the mask and
that's how things are now and to remind
| | 03:25 | you of how things were without the
bottle copy layer at all. That's where we
| | 03:29 | started and that's where we are.
| | 03:31 | Finally, if you think that the label
is still too light, with the bottle copy
| | 03:36 | layer selected, you can reduce the
opacity of this layer. So, I could come in
| | 03:41 | and just drag the opacity down and
reduce the Screen effect a little bit more.
| | 03:46 | So, this is basically the same
technique that I used on an image that was too
| | 03:50 | light except that now, I'm using the
Screen blending mode to take an image
| | 03:54 | that's too dark and make it lighter
and in the next movie, I'll show you how
| | 03:57 | you can use yet another blend
mode to fix an image that's too flat.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Increasing contrast with the Overlay and Soften blend modes| 00:00 | You can use a layer blend mode to fix
another common photo exposure problem.
| | 00:04 | A photo that is too flat. An image that's
too flat doesn't have enough contrast.
| | 00:09 | In other words, not enough difference
between lights and darks. Generally,
| | 00:13 | an image with a full range of
tonal values is the most pleasing.
| | 00:17 | This photo does have some bright areas
and some dark area but in the part that
| | 00:21 | matters, the girl's face, there is
really is not very much variation in tone.
| | 00:26 | So, the histogram is giving us a good
idea of what's really happening with the
| | 00:30 | important part of the photo. I think I
can improve the look of this photo by
| | 00:34 | adding some contrast using a layer
blending mode and it will be a lot quicker
| | 00:38 | and easier than a full blown photo
adjustment. I'm basically using the same
| | 00:42 | technique that I used in the previous
movies to adjust over- and under-exposure
| | 00:46 | problems, which is to come into the
Layers panel, take the image layer and
| | 00:50 | duplicate it. The shortcut for duplicating
is Command+J on a Mac or Ctrl+J on a PC
| | 00:55 | or I'm going to Ctrl-click on the
Mac or right-click on the PC and choose
| | 01:00 | Duplicate Layer and then I'll click OK.
| | 01:03 | With this background copy layer
selected, I'm going to go to the Layer Blend
| | 01:07 | Mode menu and this time I'm going to go
down to the group of layer blend modes
| | 01:12 | that affect contrast. I'm going to
choose Overlay. You can see the difference
| | 01:17 | right away in the image and you can
also see in the histogram that the tones
| | 01:20 | are now strung out way across the tonal range.
In fact, some are blown out on the right.
| | 01:25 | In other words, there is no detail in
the tones represented by these spikes and
| | 01:28 | that's probably here in her shirt or
in this highlight in her hair. So, this
| | 01:33 | may have gone a little bit too far
and there are a couple of ways to reduce
| | 01:36 | this effect but still
enjoy the increase in contrast.
| | 01:39 | One is to go to the Layer Blend Mode
menu, which is always editable, and change
| | 01:44 | from the Overlay blend mode to its
neighbor the Soft Light blend mode, which is
| | 01:48 | very similar but just gives a more
subtle effect, like that. I think that's a
| | 01:52 | lot better. If this is still too much,
you can always reduce the opacity of
| | 01:57 | this background copy layer. But I
actually like it the way it is. So, I'm going
| | 02:00 | to leave it. So, that's how quick and
easy it is to fix a flat image using
| | 02:04 | either the Overlay or the
Soft Light layer blend modes.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using blend-mode-neutral colors | 00:00 | Many of the layer blend modes have a
color or tone that is neutral or immune to
| | 00:05 | that layer blend mode. So, for example,
if black is a neutral tone as it is for
| | 00:09 | the lightening blend modes, if you set
a layer to that blend mode, any black on
| | 00:14 | that layer will just disappear so
you can see the layer below. As you can
| | 00:18 | imagine that can create some really
interesting effects and I would like to
| | 00:21 | show you a couple here.
| | 00:22 | So, here I have two layers in a file;
the top layer has a white background and
| | 00:26 | then it has some very dark areas. This
black in the bottle and near to dark in
| | 00:32 | some of the wine here and then I'm
going to turn that layer off so you could
| | 00:35 | see that on the background layer, there are
these dark grapes. I'll turn that layer back on.
| | 00:41 | Now watch what happens when I select
the wine layer and then go up to the layer
| | 00:45 | blend mode menu and I start choosing
from the Lighten category. As you can see
| | 00:51 | the dark areas particularly the black
just drops away and I can see down to the
| | 00:56 | layer below and it is a really
interesting effect that looks like I'm pouring
| | 00:59 | grapes straight out of the bottle.
I'm going to try a couple of more blend
| | 01:02 | modes here by holding the
Shift key and the Plus key.
| | 01:06 | Screen has a similar effect except that
I'm starting to see some of the grapes
| | 01:10 | here in the edge of the glass, Dodge
doesn't work like that but Linear Dodge
| | 01:15 | does and lighter color does too. Once I
get out of the Lighten blend modes, I'm
| | 01:22 | not going to have the same effect but
I think it is a really interesting one.
| | 01:25 | If you want to do something like this,
you are looking for an image that has a
| | 01:28 | lot of white and also some dark color
and then a relevant image to put beneath.
| | 01:33 | Another example is this. In this image,
I have some foreground items which I'm
| | 01:38 | going to turn off for the moment by
clicking the eye-icon to the left of that
| | 01:41 | layer group so that you can see that
there is a fireworks layer that's black
| | 01:45 | with white. The same principle holds
as in the wine example. If I set this
| | 01:50 | layer to one of the Lighten blend modes,
the black is going to fall away and
| | 01:54 | I'll have left just these fireworks
which is really a bonus because you can
| | 01:58 | imagine how hard it would be if I
wanted just the fireworks to select them or
| | 02:02 | mask them and this way, I don't have
to bother. All I have to do is this.
| | 02:06 | Select the fireworks layer and then go
up to the layer blend mode menu and down
| | 02:11 | to the Lighten category. I'll try
Lighten first. That looks pretty good. A lot
| | 02:14 | of the black has fallen away, almost
too much so that I can see the model on
| | 02:19 | the layer below. I'm going to press
the Shift key and the Plus key to cycle
| | 02:23 | down through some more of the Lighten
blend modes. Screen looks even better
| | 02:27 | because it leaves more of the white,
Color Dodge leaves too much of the white
| | 02:32 | and so does Linear Dodge and
Lighter Color, not really enough.
| | 02:35 | So, I'm going to go back up to Screen
and then I'll turn on my foreground items
| | 02:42 | and that's how easy it is to make a
composite image that otherwise would have
| | 02:44 | taken a long time to try
to select those fireworks.
| | 02:48 | Now, I see that there are some
fireworks on the model's face and I don't want
| | 02:52 | her to get burnt. So, I'm going to
mask those away by adding a layer mask to
| | 02:56 | the fireworks layer going down to the
bottom of the Layers panel and clicking
| | 03:00 | the Add New Layer Mask icon there.
| | 03:02 | The mask comes in white as usual and
then I'll go over to the toolbox and
| | 03:05 | select the Brush tool, make sure I have
black as my foreground color. I'll come
| | 03:10 | into the model, I'll make sure that I
have a soft brush by holding the Shift
| | 03:14 | key and pressing the Left Bracket key
on the keyboard and I can change the
| | 03:18 | brush size by not pressing the Shift
key but just pressing the Right Bracket
| | 03:22 | key and then I'll just move over the
model's face and remove the fireworks from
| | 03:27 | her and maybe from right around her
face as well. Just to be safe. Good. So,
| | 03:35 | those are just a couple of practical
examples of how you can take advantage of
| | 03:38 | the neutral color property of many of
the layer blending modes in Photoshop.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Tinting with the Color blend mode| 00:00 | One of the blend modes that I use the
most is the Color layer blend mode which
| | 00:04 | is used for not only when I'm
compositing more than one image but also when
| | 00:08 | I just want to change the color of an
image. The Color blend mode allows me to
| | 00:12 | colorize or tint an image. I would
like to show you how to do that in
| | 00:16 | conjunction with the solid color fill
layer, which I covered in an earlier movie.
| | 00:20 | What I would like to do in this image
is to tint just the background, to change
| | 00:24 | it from brown to some other color.
To do that, I'm going to go down to the Add
| | 00:28 | New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon at
the bottom of the Layers panel.
| | 00:31 | It's right down here at the black and
white circle and I'll click that and
| | 00:35 | from the menu that pops up,
I'm going to choose Solid Color.
| | 00:38 | For now, I'm just going to click OK
in the color picker that opens. I could
| | 00:42 | pick a color now but I want to show you
the layer that has been created for me.
| | 00:46 | This is the Color Fill 1 layer and it
came in just above whatever layer was
| | 00:50 | selected at the moment. I happen to
have the background layer selected.
| | 00:53 | If yours came in somewhere else, you
can just click and drag on it and drag it
| | 00:56 | right above the background layer. So,
now I see that it has filled the
| | 01:00 | background with black. That looks
pretty good but it's not what I had in mind.
| | 01:04 | What I would like to do instead is to
just colorize that pool of chocolate
| | 01:08 | that I have in the background layer.
So, I'll go up to the Layer Blend Mode menu
| | 01:12 | and click there and I'm going to
move all the way down to the bottom where
| | 01:17 | it says Color and select the Color blend mode.
| | 01:19 | Right away, I can see the tones in the
original background. Now because I have
| | 01:24 | black as my color, it looks black and
white but I'm happy that I can at least
| | 01:28 | see the pool now with all of the
shading, the white, the dark and the gray.
| | 01:31 | So, now what if I want a color rather
than black and white? Well, I'll just go
| | 01:35 | and reopen the Color Fill layer.
To do that, I'm going to double-click the
| | 01:40 | Color icon on that layer. That opens
the color picker and I can choose a
| | 01:45 | different color, maybe I'll choose a
blue, perhaps a medium blue and one of the
| | 01:50 | things I like about this technique is
that I have a live preview. So, if I say
| | 01:54 | well, I actually wanted something a
little different, I can just click in the
| | 01:58 | color picker until I get the exact
color that I want and then click OK.
| | 02:02 | I do want to point out that the white
parts of the background didn't take the color
| | 02:06 | because white is not sensitive
to the Color blend mode. So, if you are
| | 02:10 | working on a plane white background,
for example, you can't use this technique.
| | 02:14 | But it is quick and easy and one of my
favorite ways of colorizing or tinting an image.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Blending layers with Blend If sliders| 00:00 | Deep inside Photoshop in a place you
may not think to look, there are some
| | 00:04 | Blend If sliders that allow you to
set a tonal range that determines what
| | 00:08 | portions of what layer will appear in a
blended image. You can get some really
| | 00:13 | interesting effects using the Blend If
sliders, so I'd love to show them to you.
| | 00:16 | First let's take a look at this file
and see what's here. There is a group of
| | 00:20 | foreground elements, basically this
man eating chocolate and the text here.
| | 00:24 | They are not going to come into play
in this lesson and then I have some
| | 00:28 | background layers. I have the blue
strips layers which I'll show you by holding
| | 00:31 | down the Option key on a Mac, that's the
Alt key on a PC, and clicking on the eye
| | 00:35 | icon to the left to the blue strips layer.
| | 00:38 | So that's what's on that layer and
then I'm going to show you what's on the
| | 00:41 | next layer underneath that, which is
this rather blurry picture of some chunk
| | 00:45 | chocolate and it has this layer mask on it
that's making the edges appear transparent.
| | 00:51 | Then down here there is a white
background layer but nothing on it and
| | 00:55 | what I would like to do is to manipulate
which parts of the blue stripes layer are
| | 00:59 | visible and which parts of the
chocolate layer are visible and I'd like the
| | 01:04 | results to be kind of irregular. So
that's when the Blend If sliders really come
| | 01:07 | in handy as you will see in a moment.
| | 01:09 | The first step is to select the top
layer that I want to blend and that is the
| | 01:13 | blue strips layer. So, I'll click on
that layer and the next step is to open
| | 01:17 | the place where the Blend If sliders are,
a place you may not guess which is the
| | 01:22 | Layer Style dialog box. We are not
talking about Layer Styles here,
| | 01:26 | we'll be talking about those in the next chapter,
but we do need to go to that dialog box.
| | 01:30 | So, the way I'm going to access that
box is to double click on the thumbnail
| | 01:34 | for the blue stripes layer and that
opens the big Layer Style dialog box. Now,
| | 01:39 | there is a lot here that's not
relevant to the particular technique that I'm
| | 01:42 | showing you now. So, I want you to be
careful that you don't have any these
| | 01:46 | checked or highlighted and instead you
just have blending options default in
| | 01:50 | blue highlighted and that brings up
these options in the middle of the Layer
| | 01:54 | Style Dialog box and the ones we are
interested in are right down here, Blend If.
| | 02:00 | Now, I'm going to push this Layer
Style dialog box off my screen to the right
| | 02:04 | and now we can see the image. So this
is a bit cryptic. What it means is that
| | 02:08 | at first we are going to look just
at the luminance values, not looking in
| | 02:11 | individual channels, and if there are
pixels on this layer which is the stripes
| | 02:17 | layer that are within the range of
brightness values I'm about to set,
| | 02:21 | then we are telling Photoshop to
please drop out the pixels that are within
| | 02:25 | that range. So, in other words, I'm
going to be dropping out some of these
| | 02:28 | white pixels here and letting the
chocolate show through. So now to specify
| | 02:32 | that range. Well, on this scale, 255
on the right represents the brightest
| | 02:36 | possible pixels and the other side of the scale
is zero and represents the darkest possible pixels.
| | 02:41 | So, I'm going to work with the bright
pixels and I could just take this slider
| | 02:46 | and drag it over to the left and if I
do that, watch what happens. Notice the
| | 02:51 | results look pretty rough. I'm getting
all these stippled areas here and it's
| | 02:54 | just not pretty. So, I'm going to drag
that back over to the right and do it a
| | 02:57 | different way. This time I'm going to
hold down the Option key on a Mac,
| | 03:01 | the Alt key on a PC as I click on the
left hand of those two white sliders and
| | 03:06 | split the sliders apart.
| | 03:08 | Now, I'm going to get softer
transitions between the pixels that are being
| | 03:12 | dropped out and the pixels that are left.
Now notice that as I go farther,
| | 03:17 | I'm not just dropping out the white but
also parts of those blue stripes because
| | 03:21 | I'm widening the total range that I'm
telling Photoshop to knock out. Now,
| | 03:25 | I really don't want to go that far.
I think this looks better with more of the
| | 03:28 | blue there. But I do want to knock out a lot of
the white. So, I'll leave it somewhere like that.
| | 03:34 | So, that's one thing that you can do,
you also can say to Photoshop,
| | 03:38 | "Look at the underlying layer, the chocolate
layer and if its total values are between X'
| | 03:43 | 'and Y then please let the
corresponding pixels pop through." So, actually
| | 03:49 | I think I'm going to take the white
slider and put it back at the beginning, so
| | 03:51 | that you can see just what this
underlying slider is doing. I'm going to hold
| | 03:55 | down the Option or Alt key again and
I'm going to click on the rightmost of
| | 03:59 | those two small triangles under the
underlying layer bar and I'll drag to the right.
| | 04:04 | You can see that it's allowing some of
the chocolate to pop through where the
| | 04:08 | values of the pixels on the chocolate
layer fall within this range. How far you
| | 04:13 | go with these sliders and which ones
you drag is just a subjective matter of
| | 04:16 | what you like. Now, I'm going to drag
that slider back to show you something else.
| | 04:20 | Rather than just work with the
gray values, I can choose to work in one
| | 04:25 | of the color channels.
| | 04:26 | So, in this image for example, there is
a lot of blue in the stripes. So let's
| | 04:30 | see what happens if I choose the blue
channel. Now, I'm asking Photoshop to
| | 04:34 | look only at the blue channel and to
look at brightness values there and if
| | 04:38 | those values fall within a
certain range, then to knock them out.
| | 04:42 | So, I'm going to drag that slider and
as you can see not only the white is
| | 04:46 | disappearing but also quite a bit
of the blue stripes and allowing the
| | 04:50 | chocolate to show through behind. So,
those are the kinds of things that you
| | 04:54 | can do with these Blend If sliders
and then if you end up with halos around
| | 04:59 | foreground elements like this you can
always go back and add layer masks to the
| | 05:02 | appropriate layer and clean that up.
| | 05:05 | So, when I'm all done here, if I like
the result, I'll just click OK and I have
| | 05:09 | done some automatic blending here in my
image. Now, the one downside of this is
| | 05:13 | that it's not reversible. Once you
save and close there is no out from this
| | 05:18 | method. So you might want to make a
copy of the layer on which you are going to
| | 05:22 | use the Knock Out sliders so that
you do have a place to go back to if
| | 05:25 | you want to start over.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Auto-blending layers| 00:00 | The Auto Blend feature in Photoshop CS4
is pretty terrific and it allows you to
| | 00:04 | do some interesting things with your
images. One of the things you can do is to
| | 00:08 | blend layered images to make automatic
composites. I'd like to show you how to
| | 00:12 | do that here and I'm going to walk
you through the whole procedure starting
| | 00:16 | before the images are together in a file.
So that you know how to do it from the beginning to end.
| | 00:20 | I am starting with two images, this
photo of some flowers growing in water and
| | 00:25 | this photo of a pool of chocolate. So,
I'd like to have the flowers growing out
| | 00:29 | of the pool chocolate. The first
step is to bring the pool image into the
| | 00:33 | flowers image or vice versa, I'm going
to get the Move tool and I'm going to
| | 00:37 | click on the pool image and I'm going
to drag up to the tab for the flowers
| | 00:41 | image and just wait there for a second until
the document changes in the document window.
| | 00:45 | I am still holding my mouse down and
then I'm going to move over the flowers
| | 00:49 | image and when this bounding box is
over the image, I'm going to release my
| | 00:52 | mouse. If nothing happens, I'll click
and sometimes that gives it just the
| | 00:56 | nudge that it needs to finish that job.
| | 00:59 | So, the first thing I see is that
the chocolate image is wider than the
| | 01:02 | flower's image and I would like to
have them approximately the same size.
| | 01:06 | You do not have to size images before
bringing one into the other. It's a lot
| | 01:10 | easier to do after the images are
combined and you can do it visually, you
| | 01:14 | don't have to do it mathematically,
here's how. I'm going to go up to the Edit
| | 01:18 | menu and I'm going to choose Free
Transform or you could press Command+T on a
| | 01:22 | Mac, Ctrl+T on a PC.
| | 01:24 | Now, this brings up a bounding box
with some anchor points. The anchor points
| | 01:28 | that I want are at the corners because
I want to be able to drag in and hold
| | 01:32 | down the Shift key to constrain
proportions. But I can't reach the anchor
| | 01:36 | points of the corners, just barely
over here and not all on the other side.
| | 01:40 | So, here's the trick when you bring a
large image into a smaller one. To reach
| | 01:45 | these anchor points after you access
the Free Transform command either from the
| | 01:49 | Edit menu or using Command or Ctrl+T
shortcut, then you press a keyboard
| | 01:54 | shortcut, Command+0 on the Mac, that's
Ctrl+0 on a PC, and the document window
| | 02:01 | resizes to just the right size for
you to access those anchor points.
| | 02:06 | So, now, I'm going to hold down the
Shift key and I'm going to go one of these
| | 02:09 | corner anchor points and drag in until
I reach the image and I'll do the same
| | 02:14 | on one of the anchor points on the
other side. And I'm proportionally scaling
| | 02:18 | the image down because I'm holding the
Shift key. And then I'll click the check
| | 02:22 | mark in the Options bar.
| | 02:23 | Now, remember you don't want to be
scaling an image down and then up again
| | 02:27 | because, if you do that several times
you will degrade the image. So, if you
| | 02:31 | think you are going to be changing your
mind about the sizing then you want to
| | 02:34 | convert the chocolate pool layer to a
smart object before you transform it. If
| | 02:39 | you are just going to do
it once it's fine like this.
| | 02:42 | The next step is to go to the Layer
panel where I'm going to name these two
| | 02:45 | layers. I'm naming layer one pool and
it's important that I double click on the
| | 02:51 | Background layer particularly because
I want to make it into a regular layer
| | 02:57 | and that's now a regular
layer which I named flowers.
| | 03:00 | The next step is to make some room for
this blended composite because I'm going
| | 03:04 | to have to move the chocolate down and
I need extra space at the bottom of the
| | 03:08 | flowers. I could do that from the
Image Canvas Size dialog box, but I like to
| | 03:13 | do this visually. So, I can see how
much space I'm leaving. First I'm going to
| | 03:17 | zoom out by holding down the Command
key on a Mac plus the Minus key that's the
| | 03:22 | Ctrl key on a PC and the Minus
key and I'll go back to 50% or so.
| | 03:29 | Then I'm going to get the Crop tool in
the Toolbox and I'm going to come into
| | 03:32 | the image and click and drag across
the entire image that gives me this
| | 03:36 | bounding box and I'm going to click
ion the bottom center anchor point an I
| | 03:40 | going to drag down and I'm going to
drag down even farther than I can see on my
| | 03:44 | desktop and then release my mouse.
| | 03:47 | Then I'm going to go up to the check
mark in the Crop Tool Options bar and
| | 03:50 | click there to accept that crop. So now,
I have plenty of room at the bottom
| | 03:55 | and what I don't use, I can always
delete later. Now, I'm going to drag the
| | 03:59 | pool down, I'll select the pool layer
in the Layers panel and I'll go to the
| | 04:04 | Toolbox and I'll get the Move tool
and then I'll drag straight down.
| | 04:09 | If I wanted to I can hold the Shift
key to constrain that left and right
| | 04:13 | movement. So, I stay vertical, but I
think I can eyeball that pretty well right now.
| | 04:18 | And I'm going to put the chocolate
down into the water a bit. I found that
| | 04:22 | if I get too close to the flowers with
the chocolate, the resulting auto blend
| | 04:26 | has some really psychedelic crazy
looking colors in it and I think that's
| | 04:30 | because there really is such a range
of colors between these two images.
| | 04:33 | So, if that happens to you just move
the images apart a little and try again.
| | 04:37 | So, now I'm ready to select these two
layers and set Photoshop to Auto Blending
| | 04:42 | them. I already have the pool layer
selected. So, I'm going to hold down the
| | 04:46 | Command key on a Mac, that's the Ctrl
key on a PC and click on the flowers
| | 04:50 | layer and then go up to the Edit
menu and down to Auto Blend Layers.
| | 04:57 | In the Auto Blend Layers dialog box, I
want to make sure that panorama is not
| | 05:00 | highlighted because I'm not making a
photographic panorama right now. Instead,
| | 05:05 | I'm just blending some images that
are stacked in the Layers panel so I'll
| | 05:08 | choose Stack Images. I also want to
have seamless tones and colors checked
| | 05:13 | that's important and then I'll click
OK and Photoshop takes just a second and
| | 05:19 | it automatically blended those images for me.
| | 05:21 | You can imagine that that wouldn't be
such an easy task using a layer mask.
| | 05:25 | Because these are rather complex
images at those edges. If you would like to
| | 05:30 | see the layer masks that Photoshop
made on each of these two layers, I'll go
| | 05:34 | over to the Layers panel, I'll hold
the Option key on a Mac, the Alt key on a
| | 05:38 | PC and click on one of those layer
masks and there you can see what it made,
| | 05:42 | there's the other one and they just
match up to give me that nice auto blend.
| | 05:48 | I'll Option or Alt-click
again to go back to the image.
| | 05:50 | Now, it's not perfect. I see there
at some places at the edge that look a
| | 05:54 | little odd, those can be fixed in a
couple of ways. The easiest way is just to
| | 05:58 | redo the Auto Blend. Alternatively, you
could try painting on the layer masks,
| | 06:02 | but it's easier sometimes to just
start from the beginning. So, now I'm going
| | 06:06 | to crop away the bottom here, one way
to do that would be to get the Crop tool.
| | 06:10 | There is another feature I would like
to show you which is the Trim feature
| | 06:14 | under the Image menu, I can go down
to trim and here, I can choose to trim
| | 06:19 | Transparent Pixels and I can say where
they are, I just leave all four of these
| | 06:23 | checked and I'll click OK and that trims away
those pixels and I now have my blended image.
| | 06:29 | So, this isn't the only trick that
Auto Blend can do. There are some other
| | 06:33 | practical things you can do with this
feature. I have covered some of those in
| | 06:36 | another course. So, I'll just refer you
there rather than repeating it all here
| | 06:40 | for you and that is the Photoshop CS4
Essential Training Course. If you go
| | 06:45 | there and you look at chapter 13, you
will find my movies on auto blending the
| | 06:49 | focus of shallow depth of field images to get
one single image with a deep depth of field.
| | 06:54 | You learn how to create photo-merged
panoramas and I'll show you how to combine
| | 06:59 | group photos using the Auto Align
feature with the Auto Blend feature. It's all
| | 07:03 | really exciting stuff and
it's worth taking a look at.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
11. Layer Effects and StylesAdding layer effects| 00:00 | Photoshop comes with a variety of
layer effects that change the appearance of
| | 00:04 | the content of a layer. Layer effects
include Drop Shadow and Bevel and Emboss
| | 00:08 | and Stroke and more.
| | 00:10 | To give you an example of how to add a
layer effect, I'm going to select the
| | 00:14 | butterfly logo layer here in the Layers
panel. I'll let you see what's on that
| | 00:18 | layer by holding down the Option key
on the Mac or the Alt key on the PC and
| | 00:22 | clicking on the eye icon for that
layer, so you can see that this layer
| | 00:26 | contains only the butterfly graphic.
| | 00:28 | I'd like to add a little bit of
dimension to this graphic, so I'm going to add
| | 00:32 | a Bevel and Emboss layer effect. To do
that, I'll go down to the bottom of the
| | 00:36 | Layers panel, where there is a symbol
that reads fx. I'll click that and there
| | 00:41 | I see a menu of all the available layer
effects. I'm going to choose Bevel and Emboss.
| | 00:47 | When I do, this big Layer Style
dialog box opens. We'll be taking a look at
| | 00:51 | that in just a moment, but for now
I'm going to click OK to close this dialog box,
| | 00:55 | so that you can see what happens
when you add a layer effect. First of all,
| | 00:59 | in the Layers panel, you can
see that there is now an fx icon on the
| | 01:03 | butterfly logo layer and
there is also an arrow next to it.
| | 01:06 | When the arrow is facing up, you can
see underneath the butterfly logo layer, a
| | 01:11 | sub-layer that reads Effects and
beneath that, another sub-layer with the name
| | 01:16 | of the layer effect that I just added.
If I added multiple layer effects here,
| | 01:21 | they would all be listed
under the Effects sub-layer.
| | 01:24 | If I need to save room in my Layers panel,
I can always collapse this list of
| | 01:28 | effects by clicking the arrow next to
the fx icon like this, and I would click
| | 01:33 | that again if I wanted to
see the list of effects.
| | 01:35 | One of the interesting things about a
layer effect and I think something that
| | 01:38 | not everybody realizes right off is
that a layer effect applies to all the
| | 01:43 | content on a layer. So, if there were
something else on this butterfly logo layer,
| | 01:47 | it also would have a Bevel and
Emboss on it. You really can't avoid that.
| | 01:51 | There is no way to mask that away.
| | 01:53 | So, to show you that, I'm going to add
some text to this layer and I'm actually
| | 01:57 | going to write the text with the Brush tool.
| | 01:59 | To show you that, I'm going to go over
to the Toolbox and I'm going to select
| | 02:03 | the Eyedropper tool and just click
inside of the butterfly to sample its color,
| | 02:07 | so that becomes the foreground color.
Then I'm going to get the Brush tool and
| | 02:12 | I'm going to come into the image, and
I'm going to actually try to write with
| | 02:16 | my Paintbrush. I'll make a signature
down here. As you could see, when I do
| | 02:22 | this, what I'm writing comes in with
that Bevel and Emboss attached to it.
| | 02:26 | I actually like that effect and it's
something interesting that you can do, but the
| | 02:30 | take-home point is that if you do have
multiple items on the same layer, they are
| | 02:35 | all going to display whatever layer
effect or layer style is on that layer.
| | 02:38 | I just apply this layer effect to a
regular pixel based layer. You can apply a
| | 02:42 | layer effect to other kinds of layers
too like shape layers or type layers. So,
| | 02:46 | for example, here I have a type
layer group and in that group, I have
| | 02:51 | a type layer labeled candies imported.
| | 02:53 | I am going to select that type layer.
The content of the type layer is this
| | 02:58 | pink vertical text and I think it's a
little bit hard to see right now.
| | 03:02 | I'm hoping that if I add a Drop Shadow
layer effect that will make it easier to see.
| | 03:07 | So, I'm going to go down to the fx
icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and
| | 03:11 | I'll choose Drop Shadow, which is a
popular layer effect, and then I'll choose
| | 03:16 | OK in the Layer Style dialog box to
accept the default settings for the Drop
| | 03:20 | Shadow. I think that does make the text
a little more obvious. It's still hard
| | 03:24 | to read and so what I would do is go
back into the Layer Style dialog box and
| | 03:29 | tweak the Drop Shadow until the text
was more clear, and I'll be showing you
| | 03:33 | how to fine-tune a layer
style's options later in the chapter.
| | 03:37 | You can have more than one layer effect
on a layer. If you do add more than one
| | 03:41 | layer effect, then you are creating a
layer style, which is nothing more than a
| | 03:45 | combination of layer effects. To show
you how to make a layer style with more
| | 03:49 | than one effect in it, I'm going to
select the rectangle layer here and I'll
| | 03:54 | turn its eye icon off and then on by
clicking in the visibility field to show
| | 03:58 | you that this layer contains only this
light blue rectangle that's behind the
| | 04:03 | foreground elements in the image.
| | 04:05 | With the rectangle layer selected, I'm
going to go down to the fx icon and this time,
| | 04:09 | I'm going to choose the Stroke
layer effect. Again, the Layer Style
| | 04:13 | dialog box opens. You can see in the
Layer Style dialog box three columns. On
| | 04:19 | the left is a list of all the
available layer effects; in the middle are
| | 04:23 | options for customizing whichever layer
effect is highlighted at the left over
| | 04:27 | on the left; and on the right, there are
couple of buttons including the Preview checkbox.
| | 04:33 | By default, this is checked and I
think it's important to keep it checked, so
| | 04:37 | that you can see in the image a preview
of the layer style that you are adding
| | 04:40 | or customizing at the moment. While I
still have the Layer Style dialog box open,
| | 04:44 | I can add another layer effect.
| | 04:47 | So, let's say I wanted to add a
Gradient inside this rectangle. Then I would
| | 04:51 | come back over to the Styles column
and click the checkbox next to Gradient
| | 04:55 | Overlay. As soon as I do, Photoshop
adds the default Gradient Overlay layer
| | 05:00 | effect, which you could see
previewed here in the image.
| | 05:03 | Now notice that in the middle column
here, I'm still looking at the options not
| | 05:08 | for the Gradient Overlay layer effect,
but for the Stroke layer effect. So,
| | 05:12 | this is one of those gotchas that sometimes
trips people up. So you want to look out for this.
| | 05:17 | What's happening is that as long as I
have highlighted here the Stroke layer effect,
| | 05:22 | this is what I'll see. If I want to
see the Gradient Overlay options,
| | 05:26 | then I have to not only check
Gradient Overlay, I have to click on Gradient
| | 05:30 | Overlay also, and when Gradient
Overlay is highlighted here on the left,
| | 05:34 | then in the middle column, I do see
the Gradient Overlay options.
| | 05:38 | For now, I'm just going to click OK to
close the Layer Style dialog box and in
| | 05:43 | the Layers panel, I now have multiple
effects on the rectangle layer. If I
| | 05:48 | wanted to add another effect to this
layer style that I'm building, I would
| | 05:52 | have to go back into the Layer Style
dialog box and I can do that one of two ways.
| | 05:56 | I could either double-click the
rectangle layer or its thumbnail and that opens
| | 06:01 | the Layer Style dialog box and then here,
I could just put a checkmark next to
| | 06:05 | another layer effect. I'll cancel that.
Or I could go down to the fx menu at
| | 06:11 | the bottom of the Layers panel with
the rectangle layer selected and choose
| | 06:15 | another effect from here and that
would open the Layer Style dialog box with
| | 06:20 | that effect already checked. But
again, I'm going to cancel out of there.
| | 06:24 | Layer effects and layer styles act
like regular layers in some aspects.
| | 06:28 | For example, you can turn the visibility
icon off next to any one of these layer
| | 06:33 | effects by clicking on that icon, and
then in the image, you no longer see the effect.
| | 06:38 | I'll turn that back on, and if
I wanted to turn off all of the effects,
| | 06:43 | I could click the eye icon to the left
of the Effects sub-layer, and they would
| | 06:47 | all disappear from the image temporarily.
| | 06:49 | Now what if I wanted to delete one of
the effects in this layer style, I would
| | 06:54 | just click on that particular effect
and drag it down to the trashcan at the
| | 06:58 | bottom of the Layers panel, and if I
wanted to delete all of the effects in a style,
| | 07:02 | in other words, the entire
layer style, I could click where it says
| | 07:05 | Effects and drag to the trashcan
and the entire layer style is gone.
| | 07:11 | Layer effects and styles are great
ways to change the appearance of graphics
| | 07:14 | and of text. If you are a photographer,
you can use layers styles too.
| | 07:18 | For example, you might make realistic
looking frames and other finishing effect or
| | 07:23 | you might cut out a model like this one
and add a shadow behind her to add some
| | 07:28 | space between the model and the background.
| | 07:31 | There are some big benefits associated
with layer styles. For one thing,
| | 07:34 | they are nondestructive of the original
image. For another, they are almost
| | 07:38 | infinitely customizable, as you'll see
later in this chapter, and they remain
| | 07:42 | editable so you can come back and
customize in it any time, even after you have
| | 07:47 | saved and closed the file.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Customizing a layer style| 00:00 | Every effect in a layer style can be
customized separately in the Layer Styles
| | 00:04 | panel and the product of all of
those options means there are infinite
| | 00:07 | variations on layer styles. Let's take a
look at how to customize a layer style.
| | 00:12 | I am going to go to the Rectangle layer
here in the Layers panel to which I've
| | 00:16 | already added a layer style that has
a couple of effects. To tweak those
| | 00:20 | effects I'm going to reopen the Layer
Style dialog box by double-clicking on
| | 00:24 | the Rectangle layer. In the Layer
Style dialog box, I can see on the left a
| | 00:29 | checkmark next to the two effects that
are currently in this layer style. If I
| | 00:33 | click on either one of those, say the
Gradient Overlay, then the options here
| | 00:37 | in the center of this dialog box change
giving the options for just that layer effect.
| | 00:42 | To give you an idea of the kinds of
options that are available I'd like to take
| | 00:46 | you through some of these, but
remember that the options for each effect are
| | 00:50 | different. Many of the layer effects
do have a Blend Mode menu, which is the
| | 00:55 | same as the Blend Mode menu that we
saw in the Layers panel earlier in the
| | 00:58 | course. I'm going to click on that menu
and from these blend modes I'm going to
| | 01:02 | choose Multiply, which will help to
blend the gradient with the colors on the
| | 01:07 | layer below. For the same reason,
I'll reduce the opacity of this gradient.
| | 01:12 | Right now I'm looking at a linear
gradient that's black to white. Experimenting
| | 01:17 | with the style of the gradient can get
you similar interesting effects. So I'm
| | 01:21 | going to change from the Linear
gradient style to the Radial gradient style to
| | 01:26 | make a Circular gradient. Rather than
have a dark in the middle and light on
| | 01:30 | the outside, I'm going to click Reverse
so that now the light part is acting as
| | 01:35 | a glow behind the model's head. I kind
of like that but I'd like to see what
| | 01:39 | other gradients are available.
| | 01:41 | So I'm going to click right in the
Gradient Bar and that opens the Gradient
| | 01:45 | Editor. In the Gradient Editor I
could choose from lots of different preset
| | 01:48 | gradients here, or I could design my
own gradient down here, or I could load
| | 01:53 | some other presets. I'm going to do
that by going to the arrow on the right
| | 01:57 | side of the Gradient Editor and
choosing one of the preset gradient sets from
| | 02:02 | down here. I'll choose Noise Samples
and I'll click OK and then I'll click on
| | 02:07 | one of these presets to see how it
looks in the image. I kind of like that so
| | 02:12 | I'm going to go with it and click OK and
then I'm back in the Layer Style dialog box.
| | 02:17 | One thing that's really useful when the
Layer Style dialog box is open is that
| | 02:21 | you often can move a style around in
the image by just clicking and dragging in
| | 02:25 | the image. So if I come over here and
I just click and drag, I can actually
| | 02:29 | reposition that Radial gradient. So
I'll put it up here around the model's
| | 02:33 | head. I can also change the scale of
this gradient by dragging the scale
| | 02:38 | slider, so I could make this smaller
or larger if I wanted. That looks about
| | 02:43 | right there and I could manipulate the
angel of the gradient too. So those are
| | 02:51 | all representative of the various kinds of
options that you see with other layer effects.
| | 02:55 | Now let's say I want to customize the
other effect in this layer style, the
| | 02:59 | Outer Glow. I have to go over to the
Styles column and it's really important
| | 03:03 | that I click on Outer Glow. The
checkmark isn't enough. That just indicates
| | 03:07 | Outer Glow is active. This changes
the option. See the Outer Glow options.
| | 03:12 | It's really difficult to see the
Outer Glow right now. It's just this thin
| | 03:15 | hallow of yellow around the rectangle.
I'd actually like to make it more
| | 03:20 | obvious and I'd like to change its
color. So first to make the glow more
| | 03:24 | obvious I'm going to go to the Blend
Mode menu and change the blend mode from
| | 03:28 | Screen to Multiply.
| | 03:29 | I can't see a difference yet but I'll
in a second when I come in and change the
| | 03:33 | color. So I'm going to click in the
yellow filed right here to open the Color
| | 03:37 | Picker and then I'm going to move my
mouse out of the Color Picker and over the
| | 03:42 | image and I'm going to click on a blue
color, maybe one over here. I want this
| | 03:48 | a little bit dark and then I'll click OK.
Finally I'll make the glow bigger by
| | 03:53 | dragging the size slider to the right.
And I like the way it's making the
| | 03:59 | rectangle stand out without being too obvious.
| | 04:02 | There is one more setting here that I
want to draw to your attention. I'm not
| | 04:05 | going to change it but I want to show
it to you which the contour setting. Many
| | 04:10 | of the layer effects have a contour
setting and what this does is change the
| | 04:14 | shape of the effect. So if I were to
click on some of these options, you can
| | 04:18 | see that Outer Glow changing. So this
is something worth exploring on your own
| | 04:22 | when you have time and I'll click
on this blank area to close that.
| | 04:26 | Now I'd like to add one more effect
to this layer style and that is a color
| | 04:30 | overlay that's going to blend the
colors a little better. So I'll go to the
| | 04:34 | Styles column again and I'm going to
check Color Overlay. This particular style
| | 04:39 | always comes in as red to start with.
So don't panic we can change that by
| | 04:44 | clicking on Color Overlay here to
highlight it and that offers up the Color
| | 04:49 | Overlay options including a box here
which I can click to open the Color
| | 04:53 | Picker. Again I'm going to move into the
image and sample a blue and I'll click OK.
| | 05:00 | Now I want to be able to see that
gradient through this blue so I'm going to
| | 05:04 | change the blend mode. So I'm going to
go to the Blend Mode menu and you may
| | 05:08 | remember from the Layers chapter
that if you want a monotone or colorized
| | 05:11 | effect, the blend mode to choose is
Color, which is right down here. So I like
| | 05:17 | the way that that's blending the color
in the gradient with the colors in the
| | 05:20 | area surrounding the rectangle. I'm
going to also lower the opacity of the
| | 05:24 | Color Overlay a bit to allow more
of the gradient to show through.
| | 05:29 | So those are the kinds of ways that
you might customize various effects in a
| | 05:32 | layer style and you really can get
wholly different looks by mixing and
| | 05:36 | matching all of these different options.
When I'm done I'm going to click OK.
| | 05:41 | Before I finish I want to mention that
you can take a layer style, like the one
| | 05:45 | that I just made for the Rectangle
layer and you can copy it on to other layers
| | 05:49 | in the same image. One way to do that
is just to hold down the Option key on a
| | 05:53 | Mac, that's the Alt key on a PC, and
to click on the style and drag it to
| | 05:57 | whatever layer you wanted to apply to.
| | 05:59 | Before I do that I'm going to open
this Candies layer group by clicking the
| | 06:03 | arrow to the left of that group and
then I'm going to come down and Option or
| | 06:07 | Alt click on the Effects sub-layer on
the Rectangle layer and drag up to the
| | 06:12 | Candy layer. When I see this dark
boarder I'll release my mouse. I've copied
| | 06:16 | that entire layer style to the Candy 1
layer and you can see it over here on
| | 06:20 | that piece of candy.
| | 06:22 | Now I can customize this copy of the
layer style without affecting the first one.
| | 06:27 | So, for example, I might just turn
off or even delete the Gradient Overlay
| | 06:32 | and the Color Overlay here
and just leave that Outer Glow.
| | 06:36 | As you can see there are almost
endless combinations or possibilities for
| | 06:39 | customizing layer style, the next time
that you're making a layered image like
| | 06:43 | this one, I suggest that you spend some
time exploring more of the layer style
| | 06:48 | options, so that you can use them to
get unique creative results in your own work.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Saving a layer style| 00:00 | Once you've gone through the trouble of
choosing just the options that you want
| | 00:03 | for a custom layer style, it would be a
shame not to keep all that work, so you
| | 00:07 | could apply the same style to other
layers in this document or in other images.
| | 00:12 | In this movie I'm going to show you how
to save a Custom Build layer style as a
| | 00:16 | reusable style in the Styles panel.
| | 00:18 | You can see that on the Candy 1 layer
I do have a layer style. It's the style
| | 00:23 | that you see here around this piece of
candy, this subtle blue glow. I'd like
| | 00:27 | to save this layer style so I've the
option of applying it to these other
| | 00:30 | pieces of candy in the future or maybe to
some candies in another image that I'm building.
| | 00:35 | All I have to do to save it is to
select the Candy layer in the Layers panel
| | 00:40 | and then go up to the Styles panel and
click this icon right here, which is the
| | 00:44 | Create New Style icon. I'll give it the
style a name. I'll call this Blue Glow
| | 00:49 | and I definitely want to include layer
effects. I don't think I have any layer
| | 00:53 | blending options here, but just in case I do,
it doesn't hurt to check this and I'll click OK.
| | 00:58 | Now you can see that there is a new
style here at the bottom of the Styles
| | 01:02 | panel and that's my Blue Glow. By the
way you can look at styles not only by
| | 01:06 | these thumbnails, but if you'd like
to see their names, you can move to the
| | 01:09 | panel menu and you can choose to see
a large or a small list instead. I'll
| | 01:14 | choose the large list and then I'll go
all the way to the bottom and there is
| | 01:18 | my Blue Glow style.
| | 01:20 | I'll go back to the small thumbnail
view for now. Don't be fool though. The
| | 01:24 | style is here only temporarily, because
if I were to come in to the panel menu
| | 01:28 | and choose either to reset my styles to
the original default set of styles, or
| | 01:33 | if I loaded any of these other style
sets that come with Photoshop, I would
| | 01:37 | loose that new style which is there
only temporarily in the Styles panel.
| | 01:42 | So here's what I need to do. I'm going
to click on Preset Manager here in the
| | 01:46 | panel menu for the Styles panel and
that opens this Preset Manager to the
| | 01:52 | Preset Type Styles. You can see that
form here I can handle a lot of different
| | 01:56 | features in Photoshop, but I'm
going to be managing my styles here.
| | 02:00 | From here I can select one or more of
the icons in this styles set and save it
| | 02:05 | out as a brand new style set. So, of
course, I want to select the style that I
| | 02:09 | made which is the last one here with
the blue glow around it. Then I'm going to
| | 02:13 | hold down the Command key and perhaps
I want these others as well. Maybe I
| | 02:18 | don't want all of them. I'll just take
the ones that are kind of gray. Then I'm
| | 02:22 | going to go over and click Save Set.
I'll give this set a name. I'll call this
| | 02:27 | my Glow set, and I'm just going to
save exactly where Photoshop is telling me
| | 02:31 | to, in the Styles folder, because
that's the place where Photoshop knows to go
| | 02:36 | and look for a style set. So I'll just
click Save at this point and click Done.
| | 02:41 | Now let's say that I was working along
and I decided to reset my styles to the
| | 02:45 | defaults. So I'm going to go to the
Styles panel menu and I'm going to choose
| | 02:49 | Reset Styles and OK. Now notice that
my new style, that Glow style, is gone.
| | 02:56 | But that's okay, because if I were to
restart Photoshop, I would be able to see
| | 03:00 | that whole new set of glow styles in
the panel menu. Currently if I look there
| | 03:06 | I don't see that. I just see the Preset
ones, Buttons and Dotted Strokes and so
| | 03:10 | on, but now I'm going to
restart Photoshop to show you that.
| | 03:14 | So I'm going to quit and restart
Photoshop. Photoshop is open again and I'm
| | 03:19 | going to go over to my Styles panel
and I'm going to click the panel arrow
| | 03:23 | there and sure enough down at the
bottom of this list of style sets is the Glow
| | 03:28 | style set that I just made. So I'll
select that. I'll say OK, and you can see
| | 03:33 | that special set that I made
that includes my Blue Glow style.
| | 03:37 | In the next movie, I'm going to show
you how you can apply a style from the
| | 03:41 | Styles panel to a layer in an image.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Applying a style from the Styles panel| 00:01 | The Styles panel in Photoshop
contains lots of pre-built styles and perhaps
| | 00:06 | some custom styles that you've made
that you can apply to layered content in an
| | 00:10 | image. I'd like to show you how
to apply a style in this movie.
| | 00:13 | I have my Styles panel open up here and
if you don't, you can go to your Window
| | 00:17 | menu and choose Styles to open that
panel. The first thing I'd like to do is to
| | 00:22 | add a style to this text here. So
I'm going to find the text layer in the
| | 00:27 | Layers panel. I'll scroll down until I
see the group of type layers. I'll open
| | 00:32 | that and I'll choose the Delectables type layer.
| | 00:34 | Then I'm going to go up to the Styles
panel. I could apply one of the styles in
| | 00:38 | this default set or if I don't see any
I like here, I can go to the panel menu
| | 00:42 | at the side of the Styles panel and go
down to about this point in the middle
| | 00:47 | where there is a list of other sets of
styles that ship with Photoshop. Since
| | 00:51 | this is text, I'll try the Text
Effects 2 style set. I'll click OK and that
| | 00:57 | style set now replaces the set
that was there, the default style set.
| | 01:02 | So with that Delectables layer
selected in the Layers panel I'm just going to
| | 01:06 | try out one of these styles. I'll try
this blue style right here and I don't
| | 01:11 | think that looks too bad. So I'll
stick with that one. When I click off the
| | 01:15 | Delectables layer, you won't see
that line which is the vector outline
| | 01:19 | underneath this text on a path.
| | 01:21 | The next thing I'd like to do is show
you how I would apply a custom style that
| | 01:26 | created from a layer style earlier in
this chapter and then saved as a brand
| | 01:30 | new custom style in the Styles panel.
If you weren't following along with me
| | 01:34 | that's okay, you can use any style or you
can just sit back and listen to this part.
| | 01:39 | So you'll notice that in the image I
have a blue glow around this first piece
| | 01:43 | of chocolate. That's the style that I
saved as a style in the Styles panel. In
| | 01:48 | order to make that style remain there
even I after closed and reopened the
| | 01:52 | program, I save a brand new style set
that contains my custom blue glow style
| | 01:57 | along with a couple of other styles.
| | 02:00 | So in order to apply the Blue Glow
style that I saved then, I need to bring up
| | 02:04 | that style set. I'll do that by going
to the panel menu on the Styles panel and
| | 02:09 | I'll go all the way down to the bottom
where I see my custom style set which
| | 02:13 | I'd called Glow. So I'll
select that and I'll click OK.
| | 02:17 | Here all the styles in that set
including the one that I made from the style
| | 02:22 | around that first piece of chocolate
this one right here my Blue Glow style.
| | 02:26 | I'd like to apply this to another
piece of chocolate. This one right here. So
| | 02:30 | first I have to figure out which layer
holds that piece of chocolate. The easy
| | 02:34 | way to do that is to use the Auto-
Select layer feature of the Move tool.
| | 02:38 | I covered that earlier but this is a real
practical example of one that comes in handy.
| | 02:42 | I'm going to select the Move tool and
then I'm going up to up to the Options
| | 02:46 | bar for the Move tool and I'll choose
Auto-Select and I'll leave this menu set
| | 02:51 | to Layer. Then I'll just come into the
image and I'll click on that piece of
| | 02:54 | chocolate. Photoshop automatically
goes to the layer that contains that
| | 02:59 | particular piece of
chocolate here in the Layers panel.
| | 03:02 | With that Candy 2 layer selected, to
apply the Blue Glow style, I simply have
| | 03:07 | to go up to the Styles panel and click
on that Blue Glow style. You can see in
| | 03:12 | the Layers panel that the style is now
on that layer and you can also see that
| | 03:16 | subtle blue glow around the piece of chocolate.
| | 03:19 | To save myself time, I could apply
the blue glow to all of these pieces of
| | 03:24 | chocolate at once. I can either come in
and select all of the chocolate layers
| | 03:29 | by clicking on one and Shift clicking
on another, or if I had the foresight to
| | 03:34 | put them all into a layer group as I
did here, I can just select the layer
| | 03:38 | group and then go out and click on the
style. That applies that style to all
| | 03:43 | five pieces of chocolate and you can
see here in the image that each piece of
| | 03:47 | chocolate now has a blue glow around it.
| | 03:50 | So that's how simple it is to apply a
style from the Styles panel. Either a
| | 03:54 | style that comes with Photoshop or a
custom style that you made or a custom
| | 03:58 | style that you created.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Rasterizing layer effects| 00:00 | When you add a layer effect or a layer
style to a layer, it affects everything
| | 00:05 | on that layer; you can't isolate the
effect to display only on some of the
| | 00:08 | content on the layer and not on other
content and normally that works out okay
| | 00:13 | but sometimes it will give you a
strange result when you are using a Drop
| | 00:16 | Shadow layer effect.
| | 00:18 | In order to show you that problem and
suggest the solution, I need to move the
| | 00:21 | furniture around on the screen a
little bit so there is room to open the big
| | 00:25 | layer style dialog box. So I'm going
click in the title bar of this image and
| | 00:29 | I'm going to drag it off the screen a
bit temporarily. And then I'm going to
| | 00:33 | make sure that I have the strawberries
layer selected in the Layers panel and
| | 00:37 | I'm going to go down to the bottom of
the Layers panel and I'm going to click
| | 00:40 | the fx button and add a Drop Shadow.
That opens the Layer Style dialog box. I'm
| | 00:45 | going to move that box over a bit to
the right so that you have a good view at
| | 00:49 | these strawberries.
| | 00:51 | Notice that the shadow on this
strawberry looks fine and the one on this
| | 00:54 | strawberry looks fine, but the shadow
on this strawberry looks odd, and the
| | 00:59 | reason is that the strawberry is
hanging over the edge of the plate and so the
| | 01:03 | shadow isn't really reflecting off of
anything. It's just hanging there in mid
| | 01:07 | air, somewhere between the strawberry
and the red background below. This would
| | 01:11 | look a lot more realistic if the drop
shadow didn't appear along this edge, but
| | 01:16 | I do need the shadow along these edges and
all the strawberries are on the same layer.
| | 01:21 | So what's the solution? The solution
is to rasterize the Drop Shadow layer
| | 01:25 | effect. Let me show you what I mean.
I'm going to click OK here to close the
| | 01:29 | Layer Style dialog box and now notice
that the strawberries layer does have
| | 01:33 | this Drop Shadow on it. So I'm going
to make sure to have the strawberries
| | 01:37 | layer selected, I'm going to go up to
the Layer menu, down to Layer Style and
| | 01:42 | all the way down here to
Create Layer and watch what happens.
| | 01:45 | I will click OK at this warning and in
the Layers panel, I can see that I no
| | 01:50 | longer have a layer effect on the
strawberries layer, it's gone! Instead, there
| | 01:55 | is a brand new pixel based layer called
strawberries Drop Shadow. I'm going to
| | 02:00 | bring the image back on screen by
clicking its title bar and to show you what's
| | 02:05 | on this strawberries Drop Shadow layer,
I'm going to Option-click or Alt-click
| | 02:09 | the eye icon there and you can see
that it is just the shadow of the
| | 02:13 | strawberries and this was created
by Photoshop, I didn't make this.
| | 02:17 | So I'm going to Option-click or Alt-
click again and in the image, you see that
| | 02:20 | I still have the problem that there
is a shadow over here hanging off the
| | 02:24 | plate. But since that shadow is now
just a pixel based layer, I can use a layer
| | 02:28 | mask to hide it from this area and
leave it on this area. I would like that
| | 02:33 | layer mask to be in the
exact shape of this plate.
| | 02:36 | So rather than get a brush and try
to brush that in, I'm going to make a
| | 02:40 | selection of the plate and use that
instead to create a proper layer mask.
| | 02:44 | There is a quick way to select this
plate because it's on its own transparent
| | 02:48 | layer. I'm just going to hold down the
Command key on a Mac or the Ctrl key on
| | 02:52 | a PC and go over to the plate layer and
click directly on the thumbnail on that
| | 02:57 | layer and that's important, I have to
click on the thumbnail not on the layer itself.
| | 03:01 | So, clicking on the thumbnail there
displays a selection around the plate and
| | 03:06 | what I want to do is put a layer mask
on the strawberries Drop Shadow layer. So
| | 03:11 | I'm going to select that layer and
then I'm going down at the bottom of the
| | 03:14 | Layers panel and I'm going to click
the Add Layer Mask icon there and that
| | 03:19 | solves the problem.
| | 03:20 | The layer mask that I have added to
this rasterized or bitmap layer is now
| | 03:25 | hiding the part of the shadow outside
the plate. You can see the black area of
| | 03:29 | this layer mask here around the plate
and if I Option-click or Alt-click on
| | 03:34 | that layer mask, you can see that here
in the image, this area of the shadow is
| | 03:38 | hidden and this area of the shadow is showing.
| | 03:40 | So I'll Option-click or Alt-click again
on that layer mask and you can see that
| | 03:44 | the image looks a lot more natural
this way. So there is a specialized
| | 03:48 | technique that you can use to fix your
Drop Shadow Layer Effects, if you ever
| | 03:52 | run into this situation on your images.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Controlling layer fill opacity| 00:00 | At the top of the Layers panel, there
are two controls, the Opacity control
| | 00:04 | here and the Fill control here, both of
which affect some aspect of the opacity
| | 00:09 | or the transparency of elements on a
layer. But there is a distinction between
| | 00:14 | these two controls that I think is
often misunderstood and so I wanted to try
| | 00:18 | to clarify it for you.
| | 00:19 | To show you that distinction, first
I'm going to make the candies here
| | 00:22 | invisible by clicking their eye icon
so we can see this pink rectangle better
| | 00:27 | and then I'm going to be working with
the pink rectangle, which contains a
| | 00:31 | layer style. The layer style consists
of this blue stroke and the blue outer
| | 00:37 | glow. Let me turn this off for a second
so you can see what the pink rectangle
| | 00:41 | looks like without them and then I'll turn
them on, so you get a sense of what they are.
| | 00:45 | Now let's say that I wanted to reduce
the Opacity of the pink rectangle and the
| | 00:50 | Outer Glow and Stroke effects. If
that's what I want to do, I'm going to go to
| | 00:54 | the Opacity slider and I'm going to
click-and-drag to the left. And as you can see,
| | 00:59 | the opacity of everything is
being reduced as I go to the left, both the
| | 01:04 | pink rectangle and its blue stroke
and the blue glow outside of it. And
| | 01:09 | eventually, if I take Opacity all
the way to 0, you see none of that.
| | 01:13 | Not the image content and not the layer style.
| | 01:15 | I will take that back to 100% and
show you how Fill works by contrast.
| | 01:22 | If I click on Fill and I drag to the left,
now what's getting less opaque is just
| | 01:27 | the pink rectangle. The blue stroke
and that blue glow are remaining at full
| | 01:32 | strength. So the difference between
these two is that the Fill slider affects
| | 01:38 | the opacity only of the image content
and doesn't touch the opacity of whatever
| | 01:42 | layer style is on that layer.
| | 01:44 | So the upshot for the user is don't
just come in and start dragging these two
| | 01:49 | sliders around hoping to get a result
that you like; instead realize that in
| | 01:53 | most cases, the slider that you want to
work with is the Opacity slider.
| | 01:57 | But in a few cases, you may be looking for
a result like this one where you are able
| | 02:01 | to knock out the image content and
leave a shadow or a glow or some other layer
| | 02:06 | style around the perimeter.
| | 02:07 | I think it's actually really great look
but it's not one that you will use all
| | 02:11 | the time. But do experiment with it on
your own images using the Fill slider at
| | 02:15 | the top of the Layers panel.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
12. Clipping LayersClipping multiple layers| 00:00 | A clipping layer is a layer that acts
as a mask for one or more layers above it.
| | 00:04 | Where there is content on the
clipping layer, you can see what's on the
| | 00:07 | clipped layers above and where there
are transparent pixels on the clipping layer,
| | 00:11 | you won't see the clipped layers
above. You might think of a clipping
| | 00:15 | layer as a way to give shape to your content.
| | 00:17 | Here I have a composition with multiple
layers and rather than have it just be
| | 00:21 | rectangular like this, I would like it
to have an uneven edge. So I'm going to
| | 00:26 | use this layer, the paper
layer, as a clipping layer.
| | 00:29 | I am going to hold the Option or Alt
key on the eye icon to the left of the
| | 00:33 | paper layer, so you can see what's on
this layer. There is this piece of paper
| | 00:37 | with its uneven edge surrounded by
transparent pixels and on the layer below
| | 00:42 | that, which I'll turn on
now, is this brown chocolate.
| | 00:46 | Now I would like to turn on an image
that I'm going to clip and that is the
| | 00:50 | image on the model layer. The
photograph on this layer takes up the whole
| | 00:54 | document window right now. To limit
this photograph to just the shape of the paper,
| | 00:58 | I'm going to move my mouse over
the border between the model layer and
| | 01:02 | the paper layer below, hold down the
Option or Alt key and click and that clips
| | 01:07 | the model layer to the paper layer. So
that in the image, the model photograph
| | 01:12 | only appears where there is content
on the paper layer below and not where
| | 01:15 | there are transparent pixels on the
paper layer. In that area I can see down to
| | 01:19 | the chocolate at the bottom of the
layers stack. I'm going to make my Layers
| | 01:22 | panel wider so I can see the
layer names on these other layers.
| | 01:26 | I would like to add the fireworks
copy layer and the candies layer to this
| | 01:30 | stack of clipped layers so that they
are also limited by the shape of the
| | 01:34 | paper. I'm going to make the
fireworks layer visible by clicking in its eye
| | 01:38 | icon spot and I'll also select that
layer, so that you can see that when I
| | 01:43 | first made the collage, I had changed
the blend mode of this layer to Screen
| | 01:47 | and that allows me to see through the
dark parts of the photograph which you
| | 01:51 | can see there on the image thumbnail.
| | 01:54 | I also added a layer mask to this
layer in order to cover up some of the
| | 01:59 | fireworks that were on top of the
model's face and I have shown you all that to
| | 02:03 | make the point that when you use a
clipping layer, you can use it in
| | 02:07 | conjunction with other layer related
features like layer masks and layer
| | 02:11 | blending modes and more.
| | 02:13 | So now to add the fireworks layer to
the stack of clipped layers, I'm going to
| | 02:18 | move my mouse between the fireworks
copy layer and the model layer beneath it.
| | 02:22 | Hold down the Option key, that's the Alt
key on the PC, and when I see the double
| | 02:26 | circle icon, I'll click and now this
layer is also indented and has a crooked
| | 02:31 | arrow on it and in the document window,
I no longer see the fireworks that are
| | 02:36 | over the transparent areas of the
clipping layer. I can do the same with the
| | 02:39 | candies layer, which
also has a layer mask on it.
| | 02:42 | I will make it visible, and you can see
there are some candies over the part of
| | 02:46 | the paper layer that's transparent. But
that will change in a minute when I add
| | 02:51 | the candies layer to this stack of
multiple clipped layers. I'll select the
| | 02:55 | candies layer, I'll move my mouse over
the border between the candies layer and
| | 02:59 | the fireworks copy layer. I'll hold
down the Option key on the Mac, the Alt key
| | 03:03 | on the PC and I'll click on that border and
now the candies are no longer visible over here.
| | 03:09 | One of the nice things about using a
clipping layer is that the clipped layers
| | 03:13 | are independent. So for example, I can
move the candies layer without affecting
| | 03:17 | the paper layer. To do that I'll make
sure I have the Move tool selected in the
| | 03:21 | toolbox and that the candies layer is
selected in the Layers panel and then
| | 03:26 | I'll click-and-drag in the image and
the candies do move, but not any of the
| | 03:30 | other clipped layers or the clipping
layer. And finally I'm just going to turn
| | 03:34 | on this type layer and this one doesn't
need to go into the stack of clipped layers.
| | 03:38 | I'm just going to move it over by selecting
this layer and with the Move tool dragging.
| | 03:43 | So you can create some really interesting
effects by using the content of one layer
| | 03:47 | to clip the content of layers
above it. The advantages of using a
| | 03:51 | clipping layer are that you can use an
actual image as a mask rather than have
| | 03:55 | to create a mask and you can clip more
than one image with the single clipping layer.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Clipping layers to limit adjustments| 00:01 | If you add an adjustment layer to a
composition that has more than one layer in it,
| | 00:04 | that adjustment layer will by
default affect the content of all the layers
| | 00:09 | beneath it in the layers stack.
| | 00:10 | In an earlier movie on adjustment
layers, I showed you that you can limit the
| | 00:13 | impact of an adjustment layer to just
one layer beneath it in the layer stack
| | 00:18 | by clipping the adjustment layer to
that one layer. But what if you want limit
| | 00:21 | the impact of the adjustment layer to more
than one layer, but not the entire image?
| | 00:26 | To show you a solution to that problem.
I have an image opened here that has
| | 00:30 | three layers. I'm going to hold the
Option key. That's the Alt key on the PC.
| | 00:36 | As I click on the eye icon next to
each layer. So you can see what's on it.
| | 00:40 | This is the background layer. I would
like this to remain in color. This is the
| | 00:44 | model layer, one of the layers I
would like to convert to black and white.
| | 00:47 | Notice that the model is here against
transparency and the part of her hands
| | 00:52 | are cut off here and here.
| | 00:57 | This is the poster layer, and it
contains not only this photo of a restaurant
| | 01:01 | and this text, but also the other
parts of the model's hands. It's done this
| | 01:05 | way so that it looks like the modal is
holding the sign. I'm going to Option or
| | 01:09 | Alt-click again on the poster
layer to bring back the other layers.
| | 01:13 | To convert this image to black and white,
I'm going to use an adjustment layer.
| | 01:17 | In Photoshop CS4, I have the new
Adjustments panel from which I can do that.
| | 01:22 | And I open the Adjustments panel from
the Window menu at the top of the screen.
| | 01:25 | If you happen to be on Photoshop CS3,
you can also add a black and white
| | 01:29 | adjustment layer, but you will do it
from the bottom of the Layers panel from
| | 01:33 | this black and white icon. By clicking
there and choosing Black & White. I'm
| | 01:37 | going to do it Photoshop CS4 by going
up to Adjustments panel and clicking the
| | 01:42 | Black & White icon there. So here is
my new Black & White adjustment layer at
| | 01:47 | the top of the layer stack above the
poster layer, which I had selected and
| | 01:51 | everything in the image is being
impacted by this black and white conversion.
| | 01:56 | As you learned in the earlier movie, I
can limit this adjustment to just one
| | 01:59 | layer, by going to the Adjustments
panel and clicking this clipping icon right
| | 02:04 | here, or if you are on Photoshop CS3 by
moving your mouse over the border under
| | 02:09 | the Black & White adjustment layer.
Holding the Option or Alt key until you see
| | 02:12 | this double circle icon and clicking.
Here in CS4, I'm going to click the
| | 02:19 | clipping icon at the bottom of
the Black & White Adjustments panel.
| | 02:22 | You can see in the Layers panel that
basically the poster layer has been made
| | 02:26 | into a clipping layer, for the Black
& White adjustment layer above it. And
| | 02:30 | that means that the Black & White
adjustment layer is impacting only the poster
| | 02:34 | layer. And you can see that in the
image where the poster is black and white as
| | 02:39 | is the front half of the model's hand,
but the rest of the image is still in
| | 02:43 | color. But that looks odd to have half
her hands black and white, and half color.
| | 02:48 | How can I solve this problem? Well the
answer is not to add the model layer to
| | 02:54 | the stack of clipped layers. Watch
what happens if I do that. If I put my
| | 02:58 | cursor over the border between the
poster and model layers, and I hold the
| | 03:02 | Option or Alt key and click. I don't
get the solution that I want. Instead what
| | 03:07 | I'm basically doing here is using the
content of the model layer as a clipping
| | 03:11 | layer for everything above. And so
the poster completely disappears.
| | 03:15 | I am going to press Command+Z to undo
that. That's Ctrl+Z on the PC. And then I
| | 03:22 | want to move back one more step to
unclip the Black & White adjustment layer
| | 03:25 | from the poster layer and to do that
I'm going to press the keyboard shortcut
| | 03:30 | on the Mac, Option+Command+G, on the PC
that's Alt+Ctrl+G, or I could go up to
| | 03:37 | the Edit menu and choose Step Backward.
| | 03:41 | So now I'm back where I started
after I apply the adjustment layer. It's
| | 03:44 | affecting everything on the image. The
solution to my problem is to create a
| | 03:49 | layer group that contains the Black &
White adjustment layer and the two layers
| | 03:53 | that I want to impact. The poster
and the model layers. To do that in the
| | 03:57 | Layers panel, I have the Black & White
adjustment layer selected already, and
| | 04:01 | I'll hold down the Shift key and click on
model layer and that selects the poster layer too.
| | 04:07 | Then I'll go to the panel menu on the
right side of the Layers panel and from
| | 04:12 | here I'm going to choose New Group
from Layers. I'll click OK and now I have
| | 04:18 | this Group 1 in the Layers panel. I'll
click its arrow to expand it. So you can
| | 04:22 | see that it contains the Black & White
adjustment layer, the poster layer, and
| | 04:25 | the model layer. The Black and White
adjustment is still impacting everything
| | 04:29 | beneath it, even the background
layer that is not part of that group.
| | 04:33 | But you may remember, if you listened
to the earlier movie on using blend modes
| | 04:37 | with layer groups, that changing the
blend mode of a group will affect which
| | 04:41 | layers are impacted by an adjustment
layer that happens to be in that group. So
| | 04:45 | there is the solution, with the
Group 1 layer selected here in the layers
| | 04:49 | panel. I'm going to go up to the
Blending Mode menu. With the Group selected
| | 04:53 | the blending mode always is Pass
Through by default, which means that Photoshop
| | 04:57 | is acting as if there were no group
here and that's why the Black & White
| | 05:00 | adjustment is affecting everything.
| | 05:02 | But if I change that from Pass Through
to Normal, I have the solution that I
| | 05:07 | want. That one step has limited the
layers that the Black & White adjustment
| | 05:11 | layer is affecting to adjust the other
layers in group one. With no impact on
| | 05:17 | the bg layer, which is outside of that
group, and in the image you can see the
| | 05:21 | solution I was going for. The model,
her hands, and the poster are all now
| | 05:27 | black and white, and the background
remains color. And if I make a change to
| | 05:31 | that black and white adjustment it will
affect only the model and the poster in her hands.
| | 05:35 | So for example if I click on the black
and white adjustment layer that brings
| | 05:39 | back the controls here in the
Adjustments panel. And using these controls I
| | 05:43 | could adjust the Black & White
conversion or something simple, I can just check
| | 05:48 | Tint and that adds a monotone tint to
all the layers affected by the Black &
| | 05:53 | White adjustment. What I have just
shown you here with the Black and White
| | 05:56 | adjustment layer applies to any of
the adjustment layers. Levels or curves
| | 06:01 | Hue/Saturation, Vibrance, they all
work the same way and this is how you can
| | 06:06 | limit the impact of an adjustment layer to more
than one layer, but not all the layers in an image.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Filling type and shapes with photos| 00:00 | One of the fun things that you can do
with clipping layers is to use a clipping
| | 00:03 | layer to make type or to make a shape
look like it's filled with the photo.
| | 00:08 | I am going to do that with this photo
of grapes. I have another layer here
| | 00:12 | that's just the background for visual
interest. I'll show you that by making
| | 00:15 | the photo layer invisible by clicking
on its eye icon, but it's this photo
| | 00:20 | layer that I'm going to be working with.
| | 00:22 | So the first thing I want to do is to
create some type. I'm going to select the
| | 00:26 | Type tool in the Toolbox and then I'm
going up to the Options bar, and in the
| | 00:30 | Font field, I'm going to choose a
really thick wide font. I'll use Impact; if
| | 00:35 | you have another one that you'd prefer,
you can use that. Then I'll go to the
| | 00:38 | Font Size field and I'm going
to make this type really big.
| | 00:42 | I will make it about 230 points but
that really doesn't matter because the size
| | 00:47 | can easily be changed after the type
comes into the image. I'm going to leave
| | 00:52 | the color of the type at white, but it
doesn't matter what the color is because
| | 00:56 | ultimately the letters will all be
filled with photo. Then I'm going to click
| | 01:00 | in the image and I'm going to type
grapes. And then I'll click the checkmark in
| | 01:05 | the Options bar to accept that type.
| | 01:10 | In the Layers panel, the grapes layer
is above the photo layer. In order to
| | 01:15 | make the grapes look like they are
filled with photo, I have to move that layer
| | 01:19 | behind the photo layer. So I'm going to
click-and-drag on the grapes layer and
| | 01:24 | drag it underneath the photo layer in
the Layers panel. And now I can't see it
| | 01:28 | because it's hidden by the photo.
| | 01:30 | Now I'm going to use the letters on
the type layer to mask the photo. So the
| | 01:36 | type layer will become the clipping
layer, and the photo will be the clipped
| | 01:39 | layer. Here is how it works. I'll move
my cursor over the border between the
| | 01:44 | photo layer and the grapes layer
beneath it. Hold down the Option key on a Mac
| | 01:48 | or the Alt key on a PC and click, and
I have now masked that photo of purple
| | 01:53 | grapes with the type. And don't be
confused by the background; that's just
| | 01:58 | whatever happens to be on this
Background layer. I could turn that off or I
| | 02:02 | could add a solid color there,
it really doesn't matter.
| | 02:05 | Once I have the type and the photo
clipped together, I can move either one. So
| | 02:11 | if I wanted to place the type
elsewhere on this page, I would select the type
| | 02:15 | layer, get the Move tool and drag and
the type is moving, but the photo on the
| | 02:20 | layer behind is staying where it was,
and so I'm seeing different pieces of
| | 02:23 | that photo through the type.
| | 02:26 | I can also move the photo layer. So if
I select the photo layer, I can click
| | 02:30 | and drag it, and now I have actually
pushed it too far, so it's outside of the
| | 02:34 | type. I'll drag it back in, but I
could move that photo down so a different
| | 02:38 | part of the grapes is now
showing through the type.
| | 02:41 | The other thing I can do is add layer
styles to the type. So if I go back to
| | 02:46 | the Grapes type layer and then I go
down to the fx icon at the bottom of the
| | 02:51 | Layers panel. I could choose maybe an
Outer Glow and in this Layer Style dialog
| | 02:56 | box, I could tweak the options for the
Outer Glow, for example making the size
| | 03:01 | bigger. I could add another Layer
Style like an Inner Shadow by clicking the
| | 03:05 | check box next to Inner Shadow, and
I'll just click OK. And now, if I move that
| | 03:10 | type with the Move tool,
the layer styles go with it.
| | 03:17 | The text on the grapes type layer
remains editable, like the text on any type
| | 03:22 | layer. So I could do things like change
the Size of the text, or the Font, or I
| | 03:27 | could change what it says like this.
I'm just going to select the Type tool in
| | 03:31 | the Toolbox and I'm going to click-and-
drag over whichever letters I want to
| | 03:35 | change and then I'll type something else.
So I'll change grapes into wine, and
| | 03:39 | then I'll go to the checkbox in the Type
Tool Options bar and commit that change.
| | 03:44 | So what I just showed you can be done
with the shape layer as well. I'm going
| | 03:48 | to go to the Toolbox and I'm going to
select the Custom Shape tool and then
| | 03:54 | I'll come up to the Options bar and
I'll go to the Shape picker and click the
| | 03:57 | arrow to the right of it.
| | 04:00 | Here I have the default set of pre-
build shapes that come with Photoshop. I'm
| | 04:04 | going to select this one that looks
like a grape leaf right here, but you can
| | 04:07 | choose whichever one you want and
then I'll click in a blank area of the
| | 04:11 | Options bar to close that box. I would like
to shape to come in above the Background layer.
| | 04:16 | So I'm going to go down and click on
the Background layer in the Layers panel
| | 04:19 | and then I'm going into the image where
I'll hold down my Shift key and drag to
| | 04:24 | create a shape. Initially the shape is
filled with whatever color is down here
| | 04:28 | in my Foreground Color Box, but I would
rather have this shape filled with the
| | 04:31 | same grape photo that I used for the type.
| | 04:34 | So I'm going to make a duplicate of
that grape photo by going up to the photo
| | 04:38 | layer, holding the Ctrl key on the
Mac and clicking on that layer or
| | 04:42 | right-clicking on a PC to bring up
this menu from which I'll choose Duplicate
| | 04:47 | Layer, and I'll click OK. Then I'm
going to click on the photo copy layer that
| | 04:52 | I just made and drag it down in the
layer stack until it's just above the Shape
| | 04:57 | 1 layer and I'll release my mouse.
| | 04:59 | I am going to drag this photo back up
so it fills the whole screen by getting
| | 05:03 | my Move tool and clicking and dragging
in the image. Now I can't see the shape
| | 05:08 | because it's on the layer below the
photo copy layer, but I'm going to clip the
| | 05:12 | shape to the photocopy to make it
look like the photo is filling the shape.
| | 05:18 | As with the type layer, I'll move my
mouse over the border between the photo
| | 05:21 | copy layer, and Shape 1 and I'll hold
down the Option key on the Mac or the Alt
| | 05:26 | key on a PC and I'll click. And what I
have done is mask the photo copy layer
| | 05:31 | with the vector outline on Shape 1.
Just like with the type, I can move the
| | 05:35 | photo around by making sure I have the
photo copy layer selected, getting the
| | 05:39 | Move tool and dragging, so I can get
just the right bit of grapes inside that
| | 05:44 | shape or I could move the shape by
selecting the shape and moving it, or I
| | 05:49 | could select both layers and move them together.
| | 05:51 | I also could add a Layer Style to the
shape just like I do it with the type.
| | 05:56 | One way to do that would be to copy
the layer style that I added to the type.
| | 06:00 | So I'm going to go up to the wine type
layer and select it, and then I'm going
| | 06:04 | to hold down the Option key on a Mac
or the Alt key on a PC as I click on the
| | 06:08 | Effects sub-layer and drag down to
the shape layer and when I see the bold
| | 06:13 | lines around the shape layer, I'll
release my mouse, and I have copied the
| | 06:17 | effects that I put on the type layer down
here, so they are on the shape layer too.
| | 06:21 | So using the principles of clipping
one layer to another, you can get some
| | 06:25 | really interesting effects, filling
type and shape layers with photos.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
13. Layer CompsUnderstanding layer comps| 00:00 | Do you often make multiple versions
of an image that you are working on in
| | 00:03 | Photoshop and then save them out as
individual files? Well, there is another
| | 00:07 | way to make and keep variations on an
image and that's to retain all of the
| | 00:11 | variations inside of one
file as a series of layer comps.
| | 00:16 | To show you layer comps, I have put
together three alternative versions of this
| | 00:19 | Products Catalog. All three versions
have been saved inside a single Photoshop
| | 00:24 | file as individual layer comps.
| | 00:27 | To show you the layer comps, I have
opened my Layer Comps panel here. If yours
| | 00:31 | isn't opened, go up to the Window
menu and go down to layer comps.
| | 00:36 | The Layer Comps panel is the panel from
you will create and manage layer comps.
| | 00:40 | Each bar in the panel represents a separate
layer comp or a separate design variation.
| | 00:45 | So for example, right now you are
looking at the gifts design variation and you
| | 00:49 | can see that here in the Image Window.
If I click in this empty space, next to
| | 00:54 | the second layer comp, the document
window switches to show you that variation
| | 00:58 | and the same is true of the third variation.
| | 01:00 | Another way to cycle through layer
comps is to go to the bottom of the Layer
| | 01:03 | Comps panel and click the forward
arrow here or the backward arrow here and
| | 01:09 | that takes you through the comps one by one.
| | 01:11 | All of the content for these three
layer comps is here in the Layers panel.
| | 01:15 | What the layer comps are doing is
just displaying different pieces of this
| | 01:19 | layered content for each of
the three design variations.
| | 01:23 | Keep in mind that layer comps don't
memorize everything that you might do the
| | 01:27 | content of a layer. Layer comps can
keep track of only three general categories
| | 01:31 | of layer properties.
| | 01:33 | One is Layer Visibility, which is the
state of the eye icons on various layers
| | 01:37 | and also whether layer masks and
vector masks are enabled or whether you have
| | 01:42 | Shift-clicked on one of those to
disable it so that there is a big red X in it.
| | 01:46 | Layer comps can also keep track of the
position of content on a layer. In other
| | 01:50 | words, if you have selected a layer
and then taken the Move tool and dragged,
| | 01:54 | layer comps can record where the
content of that layer now sits and finally,
| | 01:58 | layer comps can keep track of the
appearance of the content of layers and by
| | 02:03 | appearance, I mean just a few things,
the Opacity of a layer, the Fill of a
| | 02:08 | layer, the blend mode and layer styles.
| | 02:12 | Now, let's take another look at these
three layer comps and you will see that
| | 02:15 | those three elements, Layer Visibility,
Layer Position and Layer Appearance,
| | 02:20 | are the elements that distinguish each
one of the layer comps in this example.
| | 02:23 | For example, let's look out layer comp
number 1, the gifts layer comp, and you
| | 02:28 | can go there again by clicking in the
space to the left of that layer comp.
| | 02:32 | First with regard to the Visibility of
layers, in addition to the layers that
| | 02:35 | are visible in every layer comp, in
comp number 1, I have got these gift boxes
| | 02:40 | visible and this type headline
that describe the gift boxes.
| | 02:44 | In terms of position of layer content,
in the first layer comp, there is a
| | 02:48 | white box around the number 1 and that
white box will move to other positions
| | 02:52 | in the other layer comps.
| | 02:54 | In terms of Layer Style or appearance
of layers, in layer comp 1, there is a
| | 02:59 | stroke layer style around this red box.
Now I'm going to switch to layer comp 2
| | 03:04 | and keep your eye on those same three elements.
| | 03:06 | I will click in the box to the left of
layer comp 2, the one named pastilles
| | 03:12 | and notice that now, the gift boxes
are no longer visible, instead this image
| | 03:16 | of these chocolate candies is visible
and the headline that announce gift boxes
| | 03:21 | is not visible, instead this headline
about Parisian Pastilles is visible.
| | 03:25 | Notice that the white box has moved
position from where it was over the number
| | 03:29 | one to where it is now over the number
two and notice that there is no Layer
| | 03:34 | Style, no stroke outside of this
red box here in the second layer comp.
| | 03:39 | Now, let's look at the third layer
comp by clicking on that space to the left
| | 03:42 | of layer comp number 3, labeled hot
chocolate and here a different image is
| | 03:48 | visible, a different headline is
visible. The white box has moved position,
| | 03:53 | it's moved over to the right to
surround the number 3 and there is no Layer
| | 03:57 | Style, no stroke on this red box.
| | 03:59 | Now that you understand where I'm
going with all of this and what layer comps
| | 04:03 | are, I would like to walk you through
how to create the layer comps that I made
| | 04:07 | in this file and that's what I'm
going to do in the very next movie.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating layer comps| 00:00 | In the last movie, I introduced you to
the subject of layer comps, explaining
| | 00:04 | what they were and then taking you
through three variations on a product design
| | 00:08 | that I'd created and saved as
layer comps in this single file.
| | 00:12 | In this movie, I would like to walk
you through the process of building those
| | 00:15 | same layer comps so that you know
where I'm headed. The first step in making
| | 00:18 | layer comps is to open the Layer Comps panel
from the Window menu at the top of the screen.
| | 00:24 | This is my Layer Comps panel and this
is what it looks like when there are no
| | 00:27 | layer comps yet. To create the first
variation on this design, as I would with
| | 00:31 | any Photoshop composition, I'll come
into the Layers panel and I'll make
| | 00:35 | visible those layers that I would
like to have in variation number 1.
| | 00:39 | Everything you see here on the
screen is going to appear in all of the
| | 00:42 | variations. In addition, for the first
variation, I'm going to click the arrow
| | 00:46 | to the left of this 1-gifts layer
group, so I can see what's in there.
| | 00:51 | Here I have got an image of boxes
and here I have got a type layer that
| | 00:55 | contains this headline right here. So I
would like to see both of those in the
| | 00:59 | first variation. So I'll make sure
that the eye icon is visible for both of
| | 01:03 | those layers and for their layer group.
| | 01:06 | The next thing I would like to do is
to have a white box around the number 1.
| | 01:10 | So I'm going to make this layer, the
highlight layer, visible. The only thing
| | 01:14 | on the highlight layer is this little
white box right here and it's positioned
| | 01:18 | exactly where I wanted for this layer
comp, so I'm going to leave it where it is.
| | 01:22 | The next thing I'm going to do is to
add a Layer Style around this red box.
| | 01:26 | I have already applied the Layer Style
to the red box layer here in the Layers
| | 01:30 | panel and to make it visible, I'm just
going to click the eye icon to the left
| | 01:34 | of the Stroke layer effect and
it appears here in the image.
| | 01:39 | So that's exactly how I would like
the first variation to look. To get
| | 01:42 | Photoshop to record that as a layer
comp, I'm simply going to go to the Layer
| | 01:46 | Comps panel and I'm going to click this
Create New Layer Comp button, which is
| | 01:51 | right next to the trashcan at the
bottom of the Layer Comps panel.
| | 01:54 | When I do that, the New Layer Comp
dialog box opens and I can give this layer
| | 01:58 | comp a name. I found it's helpful to
keep some relation between the name of the
| | 02:02 | layer comp and the name of the
major layers in the layer comp.
| | 02:06 | So I'm going to call the layer comp the
same as that layer group that contains
| | 02:09 | the box image and the box headline and
that is 1-gifts, but you don't have to
| | 02:15 | do that; you can name your
layer comps anything you want.
| | 02:18 | The next part of this dialog box
lists the three properties of layers that
| | 02:22 | layer comps can record; layer Visibility,
the Position or location of a layer's
| | 02:27 | content in the image, and some
Appearance properties, in particular, Layer
| | 02:32 | Style, Layer Blend Modes, Opacity, and Fill.
| | 02:36 | Because I'm working with all three of
these properties, I'm going to make sure
| | 02:39 | there is a check mark in each of these
boxes. I think this is the best policy.
| | 02:43 | It can't hurt to have these check marks
here, so I always check all three boxes.
| | 02:47 | If I wanted to, I could write myself a
comment here or I could write a comment
| | 02:51 | to the client. This is my favorite
comp or I think this is one you will like,
| | 02:55 | but I'm just going to leave it
blank for now and I'm going to click OK.
| | 02:59 | So I now have one layer comp in the
Layer Comps panel. Now I'm going to make a
| | 03:03 | second variation on this design and
then I'll save that as a second layer comp.
| | 03:07 | For the second variation, I'm going
to come in to the Layers panel and I'm
| | 03:11 | going to turn off the eye icon on the 1
-gifts layer group by clicking here on
| | 03:16 | the icon and the content of that
layer group now disappears from the image.
| | 03:20 | I am actually going to collapse that
layer group because I don't need it and
| | 03:24 | it's just taking up space. Then I'll go
to the second layer group and I'm going
| | 03:28 | to expand that one by clicking the arrow
to the left of the 2-pastilles layer group.
| | 03:33 | In this layer group, I see that I have
two layers; one is this image of a candy
| | 03:37 | dish and the other is this headline,
Lucy's Favorite Parisian Pastilles.
| | 03:41 | I would like all of that to be visible,
so I'll make sure that the eye icons are
| | 03:45 | enabled on the two layers and on their
layer group. By the way, layers don't
| | 03:50 | have to be in layer groups in order
to make layer comps of them, I just put
| | 03:54 | them there to organize them.
| | 03:56 | So for those layers, I have been using
the property of Layer Visibility that
| | 03:59 | layer comps can record. The second
property that layer comps can record is
| | 04:04 | Layer Position and that brings
me to this highlight layer here.
| | 04:08 | First of all, I want to make sure the
highlight layer is showing and it is; its
| | 04:11 | eye icon is enabled and then I'm going
to go into the image and I can see that
| | 04:16 | white box, which is the only content of the
highlight layer, isn't in the place that I wanted.
| | 04:20 | For this design, I would like it
around the number 2. So I'm going to select
| | 04:24 | the Move tool in the Toolbox by
going there and clicking on it.
| | 04:27 | With the Move tool selected, I'm going
to check the Options bar. I don't want
| | 04:31 | Auto-Select, Layer checked, so I'm
going to undo that and then I'm going to go
| | 04:34 | over to the Layers panel and I'm going
to click on the highlight layer to make
| | 04:38 | sure that that's the selected layer.
| | 04:40 | Now, I'm going to come in to the image,
I'm going to hold down the Shift key to
| | 04:44 | constrain movement so that I don't
inadvertently move up and down and I'm just
| | 04:48 | going to drag to the right moving that
little box until it surround the number
| | 04:52 | 2 and then I'll release my mouse
and I'll release the Shift key.
| | 04:56 | So that will be the position of a
highlight layer when I make layer comp number
| | 04:59 | 2. The third quality that a layer
comp can remember is the appearance of a
| | 05:04 | layer, in particular whether
it has a layer style or not.
| | 05:07 | In this layer comp, I'm going to disable
this Stroke Layer Style around the red box.
| | 05:11 | To do that, I'll go into the
Layers panel and I'll just click the eye
| | 05:15 | icon, next to either Effects or next to
Stroke and that Stroke Layer style is gone.
| | 05:21 | So now that I have set up everything
about the second variation, I'll go up to
| | 05:24 | the Layer Comps panel and I'll click
the Create New Layer Comp button again to
| | 05:28 | make layer comp number 2. I'll give
this one the name 2-pastilles and as
| | 05:34 | before, I'll leave all three properties checked
and click OK and there is my second layer comp.
| | 05:40 | I will make my third layer comp and
then I'll come back and cycle through to
| | 05:44 | check them in the Layer Comps panel.
So making the third one is much like
| | 05:47 | making the second one. First, I'm
going to make the layer group, 2-pastilles
| | 05:52 | invisible by clicking its eye icon.
| | 05:55 | Then I'm going to make this layer group,
3-hot chocolate visible by clicking
| | 05:59 | its eye icon and you can see that it
contains, if I open the arrow there, this
| | 06:04 | image of the mug and this headline, Just In Time
Caramel Truffle Hot Chocolate. It sounds good.
| | 06:10 | The next thing I'm going to do is go
to the highlight layer, make sure that
| | 06:13 | it's enabled and that it's selected and
with the Move tool, come into the image
| | 06:18 | and holding the Shift key, drag to
the right to reposition that white box
| | 06:23 | around the number 3 and finally, I'm
going to leave the Layer Style, the Stroke
| | 06:27 | as it is turned off on the red box layer.
| | 06:30 | So now that I have set up the
Visibility, the Position and the Appearance of
| | 06:34 | the layers for this third design, I'll
go up to the Layer Comps panel and I'll
| | 06:38 | click the Create New Layer Comp button
to make layer comp number 3, which I'm
| | 06:42 | going to name 3-hot chocolate and I'll click OK.
| | 06:48 | You can now see the three layer comps
here in the Layer Comps panel. To cycle
| | 06:52 | among them, I'll click the arrow here
at the bottom of the Layer Comps panel
| | 06:56 | and that takes me back to layer comp number 1,
layer comp number 2 and layer comp number 3.
| | 07:03 | At this point, I can save my file,
I'll save it in the PSD format to keep all
| | 07:08 | of these layers with all of their
properties and the next time I open this file
| | 07:12 | or my client opens the file, we'll be
able to quickly go through these design
| | 07:15 | variations all in one Photoshop document.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Editing layer comps| 00:00 | Once you have made layer comps, you may
want to come in and edit some of the content.
| | 00:05 | Maybe you want to make a visible
layer invisible or it may be you want
| | 00:08 | to add a layer style that wasn't
there before, or maybe you want to move
| | 00:11 | something around on the screen.
| | 00:13 | You can do any of those things and
your layer comps will update and remember
| | 00:17 | the changes, but layer comps won't
remember everything that you might do to
| | 00:21 | edit a file. So if I were to come in
here and paint on the layer, that couldn't
| | 00:25 | be recorded in the layer comp.
| | 00:27 | If they were a Smart Object layer in
this file and I opened and tried to edit
| | 00:31 | the Smart Object, that wouldn't be
recorded in a layer comp. And if I tried to
| | 00:35 | scale down or otherwise transform the
content of a layer, that wouldn't be recorded.
| | 00:39 | So I would like to show you what
happens when you try to edit an image that has
| | 00:43 | layer comps in it in a way that the
layer comps will remember and in a way that
| | 00:46 | they won't remember.
| | 00:47 | So what I would like to do is to add a
little bit of color to this Bliss logo
| | 00:52 | and maybe to this paragraph of text
down here but only have that change show in
| | 00:57 | the first of the layer comps,
the one that I have called 1-gifts.
| | 01:01 | To start that, I'm going to first click
in the space to the left of 1-gifts so
| | 01:05 | that I can see what's there and then
I'll make sure that I have 1-gifts
| | 01:08 | highlighted and I'm going to first
make a change that I'm not allowed to make
| | 01:13 | and that is to try to paint on this layer.
| | 01:16 | First, in the Layers panel, I'm going
to select the appropriate layer which is
| | 01:19 | this one, the one called text. I'll
turn that ON and OFF, so you can see that
| | 01:23 | it does contain that text and then I'll
go and get a Brush tool and I'll choose
| | 01:28 | the color by clicking in the Foreground
Color box to open the Color Picker and
| | 01:33 | I'm going to choose a blue and click OK.
| | 01:36 | Now, I'm going to preserve the
transparent pixels around the Bliss logo so that
| | 01:40 | I don't paint on them by clicking the
Lock icon and these are all things that I
| | 01:44 | have shown you how to do in other movies.
| | 01:47 | Now, I'm going to come in with that
brush and paint. And I'm just filling in the
| | 01:52 | content of the Bliss layer there.
I can do some down here as well.
| | 02:00 | So that's good. That's how I want it.
| | 02:01 | Now I need to update that layer comp
and the way you normally update a layer
| | 02:05 | comp is to go to this icon here that
looks like a circle with arrows on it and
| | 02:10 | click and that should update that layer comp.
| | 02:13 | Now, I would expect that this change
should only apply to the 1-gifts layer comp.
| | 02:17 | Let's see. I'm going to click
the arrow here and start cycling through
| | 02:22 | the layer comps and in fact, I see that that
change is there no matter which layer comp I'm on.
| | 02:28 | So that's what happens when you make a
change that layer comps can't record.
| | 02:31 | The change will be there no matter
which design variation you have selected at
| | 02:36 | the moment. So that isn't very helpful.
| | 02:38 | Let me think of another way that I
might be able to change the color and have
| | 02:42 | layer comps record that change. This
time what I'm going to do is I'll try to
| | 02:47 | change everything on the text layer to
pink and this time I'm going to use a
| | 02:52 | layer style because I know that
layer comps can remember layer styles.
| | 02:57 | So in the Layer Comps panel, I'll click
to the left of the 1-gifts layer comp.
| | 03:01 | I'll make sure that it's highlighted
there and then I'm going to go to this
| | 03:05 | text layer. I'll make sure it's
selected and I'm going to go down to the fx
| | 03:09 | icon at the bottom of the Layers
panel and from here, I'll choose the Color
| | 03:14 | Overlay layer effect. That always comes
in as bright red. I would like pink.
| | 03:19 | And so with the Color Overlay effect
highlighted over here on the left side of the
| | 03:23 | Layer Style dialog box, I'll come into
the Color Overlay options in the center
| | 03:27 | of this dialog box and I'll click in
this red color box to open the Color Picker.
| | 03:31 | And then I'm going to go to the
pink areas and I'll select a light pink
| | 03:37 | and I'll click OK and then I'll click OK again.
| | 03:41 | So good. That blue text now has a pink
Color Overlay layer effect on it and you
| | 03:46 | can see that here in the image. In the
Layer Comps dialog box, I want to make
| | 03:50 | sure to update that 1-gifts layer comp.
So with that layer comp selected,
| | 03:56 | I don't have to click in the box to the
left of it to update it. I just have to
| | 03:59 | go down to this double-pointed
arrow and click there and it's updated.
| | 04:05 | Now let's see what happens if I select
any of the other two layer comps.
| | 04:08 | I'll use the arrows here to cycle through
the layer comps and as you can see, layer
| | 04:13 | comp number 2 and layer comp number 3
are still blue, but layer comp number 1
| | 04:18 | is pink. So the challenge is that if
you want to edit just one of your layer comps,
| | 04:23 | you have to think of a way to
do it that can be recorded within the
| | 04:27 | layer comps syste,m like adding a layer style.
| | 04:30 | Now there are some changes that you
might make that will make it looks like you
| | 04:34 | have broken your layer comps and in
particular, those changes are if you delete
| | 04:38 | a layer or if you merge layers,
which in a sense does delete a layer.
| | 04:43 | So for example, down here I have the
chocolate flowers layer. I'll show you
| | 04:47 | what's on that by clicking it on and
off. It's that image of a chocolate pool
| | 04:52 | and the flowers, all on the same layer.
| | 04:54 | I am going to select the chocolate
flowers layer and then holding down the
| | 04:58 | Command key on a Mac or the Ctrl key on
Windows and clicking on the background layer too.
| | 05:04 | Then I'm going to go up to the top of
the Layers panel and click the panel menu
| | 05:08 | icon and in the panel menu, I'm going
to choose Merge Layers to merge these two
| | 05:13 | layers together into one.
| | 05:16 | Now in the Layers panel, both layers
are on this one layer. If I turn it on and
| | 05:20 | off, you can see that. But look what's
happened up in the Layers Comps panel.
| | 05:25 | I have yellow triangles on
each one of my layer comps.
| | 05:28 | If I click on one of those triangles,
I get this message. It tells me that
| | 05:33 | basically, the layer comp may be
broken and that I can't clear this warning flag,
| | 05:38 | if I want to, but Photoshop
isn't guaranteeing what's going to happen.
| | 05:41 | Well, I found that in most cases like
this clearing that yellow warning is fine
| | 05:46 | and everything continues to work. If it
doesn't, you can just delete the layer
| | 05:49 | comp and start over but you will see
if I clear this that yellow warning is gone
| | 05:54 | and I'll do the same on the
other layer comps, clicking on the yellow
| | 05:58 | warning and clicking Clear and there as
well. Now, if I try to cycle through my
| | 06:04 | layer comps, everything works as it
should. So there really wasn't any problem
| | 06:09 | at all with merging or deleting
a layer in this particular case.
| | 06:13 | Now that you understand the power of
layer comps, how to create them and how to
| | 06:17 | edit them, I hope that you will give
them a try in your own work to create
| | 06:21 | variations in a design, all
in one easily accessible file.
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14. Merging and Saving LayersMerging and flattening layers| 00:00 | If you like to use lots of layers as
you are building a Photoshop composition,
| | 00:04 | as I recommend that you do for
flexibility, you will find that your files are
| | 00:08 | taking up lots of memory as you work
on them. You can find out how much by
| | 00:12 | going to the bottom of the document
window, to take a look at the two document
| | 00:16 | size figures there. If you don't see
those figures, then click the arrow to the
| | 00:20 | right about document information area,
choose Show, and go up to Document Sizes.
| | 00:25 | There are two figures here with a
backslash in between. On the right side of
| | 00:29 | the backslash, is the amount of memory
that your file is using with all of the
| | 00:33 | many layers in the file and on the left
side of that line is an estimate of the
| | 00:38 | amount of memory the file would
use if you flattened all the layers.
| | 00:43 | So you can see in this case there is
quite a difference. The layered file is
| | 00:47 | 6.25 megabytes. The flattened file
would be only 775.2 kilobytes. If you feel
| | 00:54 | that your computer is starting to
get sluggish and you want it to be more
| | 00:57 | efficient, what you can do is merge
layers that you are sure that you won't
| | 01:01 | need to keep a separate layers as you
work, and to do that, you'll use one or
| | 01:05 | more of the Merge commands which are
located in the Layers panel menu over
| | 01:10 | here. Let's take a look at those.
| | 01:12 | One way that you might identify
candidates to merge is to take a look at any
| | 01:18 | layer groups that you have created. So
for example, here I have a group called
| | 01:22 | type that contains two type layers. If
I am sure that I don't need to go back
| | 01:27 | in and edit this type, then I can
merge them together. To do that, with the
| | 01:32 | type layer groups selected, I will go
up to the Layers panel menu and I go down
| | 01:36 | to Merge Group or I could press the
shortcut Command+E on a Mac, Ctrl+E on a PC.
| | 01:43 | That merges all of the type layers in
that group into a single pixel-based
| | 01:48 | layer. You do want to be careful when
you have type layers or shape layers
| | 01:52 | among those you are going to merge,
because you will be using the special
| | 01:56 | editability that those layer types offer.
| | 01:59 | Another way to merge layers is to
select those layers that you want to merge
| | 02:03 | together. This is the method that I
use most often. I will click on one layer
| | 02:08 | and if those layers are contiguous in
the Layers panel, I can go down to the
| | 02:12 | bottommost of those layers, hold the Shift key
and click there to select the layers in between.
| | 02:17 | Now I am going to go up to the Layers
panel menu again and notice that instead
| | 02:22 | of Merge Group that command has
morphed into a Merge Layers command, because
| | 02:27 | Photoshop can tell that that's what I
need to do, because Photoshop knows that
| | 02:31 | I now have layers selected rather than
a group. And when I select that choice,
| | 02:38 | the content of all three candy
layers is merged together into one layer.
| | 02:43 | Let's say that as I was working I
decided to make the candies layer group
| | 02:46 | temporarily invisible, so I could
work on something underneath it. So I may
| | 02:51 | have come in and clicked the eye icon
to the left of the candies group and then
| | 02:55 | let's say that I go to the Layers panel
menu and I choose Merge Visible, watch
| | 03:00 | what's going to happen. Photoshop has
merged together all of the layers with
| | 03:06 | the exception of those layers that I
had turned off and with the exception of
| | 03:10 | the background layer which it preservers.
| | 03:13 | The other thing that might happen if
you have made certain layers invisible is
| | 03:18 | that if you go to flatten the entire
image like this, by choosing Flatten Image
| | 03:23 | from the Panel menu, Photoshop will
discard the layers on which the eye icon is
| | 03:28 | turned off. It does give you this
warning, but if you are not sure what this
| | 03:32 | means, and you click OK, you are going
to end up with a merged file that does
| | 03:36 | not include the content
of those invisible layers.
| | 03:40 | So the upshot is that you want to be
careful when you are merging to know what
| | 03:44 | you have selected and what you might
lose when you do a merge, and particularly
| | 03:48 | before you flatten layers, I suggest
you make a copy of the layered Photoshop file
| | 03:52 | and keep that safe and
only then flatten your image.
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| Creating a composite layer| 00:00 | You may not know that it's possible to
make one composite layer that contains
| | 00:04 | the content of all of the visible
layers in your file. That may come in handy
| | 00:09 | if you're working with a multi-layered
file and you get to a point where you
| | 00:12 | want to have one composite layer
and then just make a change to that.
| | 00:17 | It's also handy when you are
sharpening at the end of your workflow.
| | 00:20 | If you prefer not to flatten the file, then
you may want to make a composite of all of
| | 00:24 | the layers in the file, retain those
layers, and just sharpen the composite.
| | 00:28 | Here is how to make a composite of
visible layers. There is no clear command
| | 00:32 | for that so you just have to know.
What you do is you first click on the
| | 00:35 | topmost layer that you want to include
in the composite. Most often that's
| | 00:39 | the top layer and then you double-check
that you've made visible all of the layers
| | 00:44 | that you want to include in the
composite. And finally you are going to hold
| | 00:47 | down the Option key on the Mac, the Alt
key on the PC, go up to the Layers menu
| | 00:53 | and choose Merge Visible.
| | 00:55 | Or if you have large enough hands, you
can hold down Option+Shift+Command+E on
| | 01:00 | the Mac or Alt+Shift+Ctrl+E. But I much
prefer to just hold down the one key on
| | 01:05 | the keyboard and use Merge Visible.
| | 01:08 | And that gives you a single layer
right above the layer that you had selected
| | 01:12 | that contains a composite of all the
layers below. So I show you this result by
| | 01:16 | holding down the Option key on the Mac
or the Alt key on the PC. Clicking the
| | 01:20 | eye icon next to this composite layer
and we can see that even with all of the
| | 01:24 | other layers turned off, that the
entire image is here on this one composite.
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| Saving a file with layers| 00:00 | As you are working on a layered
Photoshop file, I suggest that you save it
| | 00:04 | early on in the process and that you
save it often. And also that you always
| | 00:08 | think about saving a master file that
contains all of your layers including not
| | 00:13 | only pixel-based layers, but
adjustment layers and type layers and shape
| | 00:17 | layers, smart object layers, smart
filters as well as the various proprietary
| | 00:22 | layer-related features that we've
covered in this course, like layer masks and
| | 00:27 | vector masks and layer
styles and save selections.
| | 00:31 | That's the file that you are going to
come back with if you ever need to make
| | 00:34 | changes. So here is how I suggest
that you save it as you are working and
| | 00:38 | certainly as a master file at the end
of the process. You can then make copies
| | 00:42 | of that master file for other purposes
like sending a small email copy of an
| | 00:46 | image or preparing an image for the web, or
resizing an image for particular print sizes.
| | 00:52 | So here is how to save. I am going to
the File menu at the top of the screen
| | 00:56 | and I see that I have both Save and
Save As as choices. I tend to avoid Save
| | 01:01 | because what Save does is
automatically saves over the last version of your
| | 01:06 | file and there are times when
you want to be careful about that.
| | 01:09 | So I choose Save As and that opens the
Save As dialog box. In order to retain
| | 01:14 | all the layers in this file, I need
to do a couple of things. First,
| | 01:18 | I double-check that the Layers
checkbox is checked and second I look at the
| | 01:22 | Format. The best format for saving
all of the layers and all of the other
| | 01:26 | related features is the Photoshop
Format which will put an extension like this
| | 01:31 | at the end of your file .psd.
| | 01:34 | But you should know that that's not the
only format that will save with layers.
| | 01:37 | There are three others. One of those is
the TIFF Format, which is located here
| | 01:43 | in the Format menu. A few years ago,
the TIFF Format did not retain layers, but
| | 01:49 | now you have the option to do that. So
I think the TIFF is the next best option
| | 01:53 | to Photoshop for saving a layered file.
So you might use TIFF if you were in a
| | 01:58 | situation where you didn't think you
would have access to Photoshop again. This
| | 02:01 | would be the next best bet for a layered file.
| | 02:04 | You may not realize that you can also
save PDF or Portable Document Files from
| | 02:09 | Photoshop and the Photoshop flavor a
PDF, does give you the option to retain
| | 02:14 | layers. The only trouble is that older
versions of applications may not be able
| | 02:18 | to read this particular kind of PDF.
| | 02:21 | So I still prefer to use Photoshop
Document Format or TIFF format, and finally
| | 02:26 | the Large Document Format, which gives
a .psb extension on the file, will
| | 02:31 | also save layers. This format is
intended for very large documents. So it
| | 02:37 | doesn't come in to play most of the
time. Although you may have noticed the
| | 02:40 | same format when you were working with smart objects.
| | 02:44 | So the short version is save a master
copy of your file with the layers and all
| | 02:49 | layer-related features all along the
way and particularly at the end. The best
| | 02:53 | choice for the format is Photoshop
Format or TIFF Format and make sure that the
| | 02:59 | Layers checkbox is checked and then
you can |
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