PHOTOSHOP LAYERS ESSENTIALS AND PANELS

The Layers Panel is where we handle all of our layer- related tasks, from
adding and deleting layers to adding layer masks and adjustments layers, changing layer blend
modes, turning layers on and off the document, renaming layers, grouping layers, and anything
else that has nothing to do with layers. Since it’s one of the most commonly- used panels in all of
Photoshop, Adobe set things up so that the Layers panel opens automatically for us each time we
launch the program.

The Layers Panel In Photoshop

By default, you’ll find the Layers panel in the lower right of the
screen.

The Layers panel is highlighted in the lower right.

If the Layers panel is not appearing on your screen, you can access it (along with any of Photoshop’s other
panels) by going up the Window menu in the Menu Bar along the top of the screen and choosing Layers.
A checkmark to the left of a panel’s name means the panel is currently open somewhere on the screen:

All of Photoshop’s panels can be turned on or off from the Window menu in the Menu Bar.

To start, open an image in the Photoshop to discuss briefly about the Layers panel.

A newly- opened image in Photoshop.

 Even though we have done nothing to the image other than
opening it, the Layers panel is already giving us some
information.

Photoshop’s Layers Panel

The Name Tab

 First of all, how do we know that what we’re looking at is, in fact, the
Layers panel? We know because it says so in the name tab at the top of
the panel:

The name tab tells us were looking at the Layers panel.

As we notice, there are two other tabs to the right of the Layers tab—
Channels and Paths—both of which appear slightly dimmer than the
Layers panel tab:

The Channels and Paths tabs appear to the right of the Layers tab.

These are two other panels that are grouped in with the Layers panel. There’s so many panels in Photoshop that
fitting them all on the screen while still leaving room to work can be a challenge, so Adobe decided to group some
panels together into panel groups to save space.

To switch to a different panel in a group, simply click on the panel’s tab. The tab of the panel that’s currently open in
the group appears highlighted. Don’t let the fact that the Layers panel is grouped in with these two other panels
confuse you, though. The Channels and Paths panels have nothing to do with the Layers panel, other than the fact
that both are also commonly used in Photoshop, so we can safely ignore them while we look specifically at the
Layers panel.

The Layer Row

Each time we open a new image in Photoshop , the image opens in its own document
and is placed on a layer. Photoshop represents layers in the document as rows in the
Layers panel, with each layer getting its own row. Each row gives us various bits of
information about the layer. There is only one layer in the document at the moment so
the Layers panel is displaying a single row. But as we add more layers, additional rows
will appear:

The Layer Name

 Photoshop places the new image on a layer named Background. It’s named Background
because it serves as the background for our document. We can see the name of each
layer displayed in its row. The Background layer is actually a special type of layer in
Photoshop:

The Layers panel displays the name of each layer.

The Preview Thumbnail

To the left of a layer’s name is a thumbnail image known as the layer’s

preview thumbnail because it shows us a small preview of what’s on that
specific layer.

Adding a New Layer

To add a new layer to a document, click the New Layer icon at the
bottom of the Layers panel:

Click the New Layer icon.

A new layer appears in the Layers panel directly above the

Background layer. Photoshop automatically names new layers for us.
In this case, it named the layer “Layer 1”. Notice that we now have
two layer rows in the Layers panel, each representing a different
layer:

A new layer named Layer 1 appears in the Layers panel.

If we look in the new layer’s preview thumbnail, we see a

checkerboard pattern. The checkerboard pattern is Photoshop’s
way of representing transparency. Since there’s nothing else being displayed in the preview thumbnail, this tells us
that at the moment, the new layer is blank:

When we add a new layer to a document, it begins life as a blank slate.

If we click again on the New Layer icon:

Photoshop adds another new layer to the document, this time

naming it “Layer 2”. We now have three layer rows, each
representing one of the three layers in the document:

Three layers, each on its own row in the Layers panel.

Moving Layers

We can move layers above and below each other in the Layers panel
simply by dragging them. Right now, Layer 2 is sitting above Layer 1,
but we can move Layer 2 below Layer 1 by clicking on Layer 2 and, with
your mouse button still held down, dragging the layer downward until
a highlight bar appears between Layer 1 and the Background layer.
This is the spot where the layer will placed:

Release your mouse button when the highlight bar appears. Photoshop drops the layer into its new position:
 Layer 2 now sits between Layer 1 and the Background layer.

The only layer we can’t move n the Layers panel Background layer. Layers panel is the background layer. We also
can’t move other layers below the Background layer. All other layers can be dragged above or below other layers as
needed. Again, we’ll cover the Background layer in much more detail in the next tutorial.

The Active Layer

You may have noticed that when we only have one Background layer in the document, it was highlighted in blue the
Layers panel. Then, when we add Layer 1, Layer 1 became the highlighted layer. And now Layer 2 is the highlighted
layer. And now Layer 2 is the highlighted layer. What’s up with the highlights?

When a layer is highlighted, it means it’s currently the active layer.

Anything we do in the document is done to the contents of active layer.
Each time we add a new layer, Photoshop automatically makes it the
active layer, but we can manually change which layer is the active layer
simply by clicking on the layer we need.

DELETING A LAYER

To delete a layer, simply click on it and, with your mouse button still down,
drag it down onto the Trash Bin icon at the bottom of the layers panel. Release your mouse button when you’re over
the icon.
COPYING A LAYER

We’ve seen how to add a new blank layer to a document , but we can also make
a copy of an existing layer using the Layers panel. To copy a layer, click on it and, with your mouse button held down,
drag it down onto the new layer icon.

Release your mouse button when you’re over the New Layer icon. A copy of
the layer will appear above the original

THE LAYER VISIBILITY ICON

If you want to see the original photo again in the document, you can simply turn the blurred layer off by clicking its
layer visibility icon to the left of the preview thumbnail. When the little eyeball is visible, it means the layer is visible
to the document . Clicking the eyeball will hide the eyeball and hide the layer.

RENAMING A LAYER

As we’ve seen, Photoshop automatically names layers for us as we add them, but the names it gives them, like
“Layer 1” and “Background copy”, are pretty generic and not very helpful. Thankfully Photoshop makes it easy to
rename a layer. Simply double-click directly on a layer’s name in the Layers panel to highlight it.
Then type in a new name. When you’re done, press enter / return on your keyboard to accept the name changes.

ADDING A LAYER MASK

Layer mask are essential for much of our Photoshop work. We won’t get to the details of them here, but to add a
layer mask on a layer, first make sure the layer you want to add it to is selected. Then click the Layer Mask icon at
the bottom of the Layer panel.

The layer mask thumbnail will appear to the right of the layer’s preview thumbnail, letting you know that the mask
has been added. Notice that the thumbnail is filled with white. On a layer mask, whites represents the areas of the
layer that remain visible in the document, while black represents areas that will be hidden. By default, Photoshop
fills new layer masks entirely with white

Notice also that the layer mask thumbnail shows a white boarder around it. This tells us that the mask, not the
actual layer itself, is currently selected and active

With the layer mask added, we can paint on it with a brush to reveal part of the original image below the blur layer.
To do that, select Photoshop’s Brush tool from the Tools pan
With the Foreground color set to black, I’ll paint on the layer mask to hide those parts of the blur layer and reveal
the original mage on the Background layer below it

If we look again at the layer mask thumbnail, we see that it’s no longer filled with solid white. Some areas are still
filled with white, but we can also see the areas where we’ve painted with black.

ADDING FILL OR ADJUSTMENT LAYERS

To the right of the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layer panel is the New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon. It’s the
icon that looks like a circle split diagonally between black and white

Clicking on it open up a list of fill and adjustment layers we can choose from. Just an example, I’ll select a Hue /
Saturation adjustment layer from the list.
A hue/saturation adjustment layer lets us easily change the colors in an image.

Here is an example after colorizing

CHANGING A LAYERS BLEND MODE

Changes how the layer blends in with layer(s) below it. The blend mode is found in the upper left of the Layers panel
directly below the name tab. To select a different blend mode, click on the word “normal” then choose a different
blend mode

By changing the blend mode of the hue/saturation adjustment layer from normal to color, only the colors
themselves in the image are nw affected by the adjustment layer. The brightness values are not affected.
THEOPACITY AND FILL OPTIONS

We can control a layer’s level of transparency from the layers panel using the opacity option directly across from the
blend mode option.

With the opacity lowered slightly, the original colors of the image begin to show through

Directly below the Opacity option is the Fill option. Like opacity ,Fill also controls a layer’s level of transparency. In
most cases, these two options behave exactly the same way, but there is one important difference between them
that has to do with layer styles

GROUPING LAYERS

We can create a new layer group by clicking the New Group icon at the bottom of the layers panel. It’s the icon that
looks like a folder
LAYER STYLES

Layer styles are also called Layer Effects, which is why it says “fx” in the icon. Layer styles gives us easy ways to add
lots of different effects to layers, including shadows, stokes glows, and more. Clicking the Layer style icon opens a list
of effects to choose from

LOCKING LAYERS

The layers panel also gives us a few different ways that we can look certain aspects of a layer. For example, if part of
a layer is transparent, we can lock the transparent pixels so that we’re only affecting the actual contents of the layer,
not the transparent areas. Or we can lock all of the pixels, whether they’re transparent or not, to prevent us from
making any changes at all to the layer. We can also lock the position of the layer so we can’t accidentally move it
around inside the document

There’s four lock options to choose from, each represented by small icon, and they’re located just below the Blend
Mode option. To select any of the lock options, click it’s icon to enable it. Clicking the same lock option can disable
it.
If any of these options are selected, you’ll see a small lock icon appear on the far right of the locked layer, as we can
see on the background layer which locked by default .

THE LAYER SEARCH BAR

A new feature that was first added to Layer panel in Photoshop CS6 is the search bar which you’ll find along the very
top.

The search bar allows us to quickly filter through the layers in a multi-layered document to find a specific layer, view
only certain types of layer, or view only the layers that match certain criteria. To use the search bar, choose a filter
type from the drop-down box on the left. By default, the filter type is set to Kind, which means we’ll be asking
Photoshop to show us only a specific kind of layer.

Depending on which filter type you’ve chosen, you’ll see different options to the right of the filter type box. Clicking
on one of those icons will filter the layer in your document and show you only the layer of that specific kind

For example, we currently have two pixel layers and one adjustment layer in the document. If we wanted to view all
of the pixels layers, we could select the pixel layers icon. This would hide the adjustment layer and leave only the
two pixel layers visible in the Layers panel
CHANGING THE RHUMBNAIL IMAGE SIZE

To fit more layers into the layers panel at once, we can make the preview thumbnails smaller, and we can do that y
clicking again on the layers panel menu icon and choosing panel options

This opens the Layer Panel Options dialog box is the Thumbnail Size option with three sizes to choose from, as well
as an option to turn the previews thumbnails off completely,

Once you’ve chosen a size, click OK to close out of the dialog box. With the preview thumbnails much smaller,
everything fits much better. You can go back and change the thumbnail sizes anytime.