Photoshop Tutorials – The Use of Layers

Adobe Photoshop is unarguably the most widely used image editing application in the world. With its intuitive layout and great feature set, it has carved out a niche for itself over time. Photoshop is used by plenty of people for different purposes, ranging from photographers to web designers. It is a robust application with many features, one of which is the immensely helpful layers function. It is a very powerful feature which allows users to make non-destructive changes to an image, and can be stacked on top of each other to permit extensive modifications to an existing image.

How do layers work?

Layers work like transparent sheets placed on top of an image. In Photoshop, layers can be stacked on top of each other, and changes can be applied to any one layer independent of the others. They can be modified, drawn on, processed and deleted without affecting anything else in the image. The individual layers can be easily accessed from the layer palette, and it is easy to add, move and delete layers.

Practical application of layers

Very basic use of layers include actions such as adding text content to a picture, and stacking pictures together to create collages or montages. Layers are also useful in conjunction with what Adobe calls the masking tool to selectively hide or reveal parts of the image underneath. Users can vary the opacity and control how the layer blends into the layers underneath, and this makes it a very powerful editing too. The entire look and feel of images can be altered significantly by using this combination of layers and masks. It is a powerful editing tool used by both professionals and casual users to create finished and impactful images.

Another very widely used layer function is called the adjustment layer. Adjustment layers are special layers which can be placed on top of an image to make changes of adjustments to various inherent properties of the image. With the use of adjustment layers, users can change characteristic properties like brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, color warmth levels, color depth etc. This has widespread application in basic and advanced photo editing, and can even be used to convert color photos into rich black and white images. Adjustment layers can also be stacked on top of each other to carry out individually exclusive adjustments.

As is apparent, the layers function is an important part of Adobe Photoshop that can be an excellent tool in the hands of a good designer. However one should keep in mind that applying layers does lead to loss of detail, which cannot be undone again.