Lesson 2: Exploring "Layers"

Layers are the corner stones of working with photo shop. Having different parts of an image on separate layers , allows us to treat each part separately without affecting the rest of the image. Furthermore we can change the order of layers and allow their elements to superimpose, show through or hide behind each other by using opacity , style and blending controls of each layer .

To explore layers open layers palette or window ": Go to photo shop menu bar again. This time, find "windows" on the menu bar and click on it . Find " layers" from the drop-down list and double click on it. A window palette will open that has different rows.( see picture) Each of these rows are a different layer in your photo shop file. To select each row, simply click on it. Once the row ( layer ) is selected it's color will change to blue.
Each of the documents you have downloaded, has a selection of different backgrounds and face parts stored on different layers. Layer palette has a variety of controls and tools but in this lesson we will only learn the visibility option and opacity option.

Hiding and showing layers : By default, only the content of the layer that is on top of a layer stack, is visible in the workspace. In other words if a layer is below some other layers we won't be able to see it's content on our workspace, unless we "hide" the above layers. On each layer there is an eye icon beside each row which controls the visibility of that layer. When the eye icon is off(invisible) , the layer gets invisible and therefore the layer below it becomes visible.(see picture below )

Click on the layer on top of the stack of your layers and explore the visibility option( hiding layers).

The opacity slider, is a tool for changing the opacity of each layer. ( see picture) When we select a layer , we can change its opacity by moving the slider between numbers 100 and zero. The more we move the slider toward zero , the less the opacity of our layer will be. In other words, when we move the slider toward zero, we make the layer transparent and allow the contents of the layer below to show through. Click on the layer on the stack of your layers and explore the opacity slider.

The layer Palette

Spend some time exploring different layers of your palettes to see the images you have for your art work., When you have seen all , go to the next step to start your work.

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