This is a beginner tutorial. I am using Photoshop CS2, a.k.a. Photoshop 9.0.2. on a PC.

For many users new to Photoshop, the program is a new playground of treats with so many options, they don’t even know where to start once an image is opened! If this sounds like you, then this may be a tutorial for you. One of the basic features of Photoshop is Layers. Here we’ll talk about what they are, how they work, and how you can use them.

Most often when you open Photoshop, your Layers palette is already open. If yours isn’t, from the main Photoshop menu select Window > Layers. This opens your Layers palette. None of the options on the palette are available to you until you open a document, so let’s start a blank document to learn from. Select File > New, and in the window select 500px x 500px at 72 pixels/inch with a transparent background.

In the Photoshop default settings, a transparent background looks like a grey and white checkerboard. On your final image this is transparent, or see-through. There really is no checkerboard pattern at all, it’s as clear as glass. It’s only there so you can tell where the transparency is in your file. If you print it, the checkered part will be no color - it will not print.

Our start:

I think of Layers as clear sheets of plastic, like the ones you see for sale at Disney World - clear acetate comic “cels” with cartoons painted on them. Each Photoshop Layer is a clear sheet that you can see through, or “paint” on. And if you stack them on top of each other, the see-through parts are still see-through, while the painted parts aren’t transparent anymore.

For example, if you put a photo of your dog on one layer, and a blue circle on a layer UNDER that one, the photo of the dog hides the blue circle. But if you put the blue circle layer on top, chances are you’ll see a dog with a blue circle on it. Like this:

Why are layers important?

Layers let you work on one element of an image without disturbing other elements. If you have a photo of a house and want to change the color of the front door without bothering anything else in the photo, you can copy and paste the door of the house onto its own layer and adjust the color there.

Or, let’s say you want to crop yourself out of a photo and put yourself on a solid blue background. You can edit out the background of your photo, leaving your smiley, pretty face, and put a solid blue layer below that layer. (no, that’s not me.)

Adobe says, “In addition, special features such as adjustment layers, fill layers, and layer styles let you create sophisticated effects.”

A new file in Photoshop has a single layer. The number of additional layers is limited only by your computer’s memory.

Understanding the Layers Palette:

To learn how to work with Layers, you need to understand the options available to you on the Layers Palette. The Layers palette lists all layers, groups, and layer effects in your file.

Start by pressing the arrow at the top right of the palette. You’ll get a ‘fly-out’ menu. I’ll explain it here in order of appearance (remember, I’m in CS2):

Dock to palette well: this permanently places (docks) your palette to the well of palettes in the top right of your Photoshop screen.

New Layer: click this to add a new layer above the one you have selected. The keyboard shortcut info is avail here too.

Duplicate Layer: creates a new layer that is a duplicate of the layer your currently have selected.

Delete Layer: Deletes the layer you have selected.

Delete Hidden Layers: Next to each layer is an eye icon. By clicking this eye, you can toggle if that layer is visible in your file or not. This way you can hide things without deleting them permanently. If your file looks great, even though you know there are layers you have created along the way while making your file and they are now hidden, you can use this to delete all hidden layers in your file to reduce the file size.

New Group: Choose this to create a new layer group. Saving your Layers in Layer groups helps you organize your layers. If you have too many layers, your palette may grow too long to view on screen, so you can group related layers together in a folder for easy organization. You can also use Layer groups to apply the same attributes and masks to multiple layers at the same time. (You can also nest groups within other groups.) Once you have created a new group, a folder appears in the layers palette that you can drag other layers in to. This folder is collapsable to create space on the layers palette. It is helpful to name your layer group so you know what is in the folder without having to click on it to expand it to find out.

Here you can see I have a layer group called “elephants” and within that group are 3 layers: gold elephant, purple elephant and red elephant. The Layer group shown here is expanded - meaning you can see which layers are inside it. (You can view its contents). You can click the small grey arrow that is pointing down to the left of the “elephants” folder icon, and the group will contract - hiding its contents.

New Group from Layers: If you have a few layers that you would like to group together, you can highlight those layers (hold the ctrl key while clicking on them), and then use this function to make a group from the selected layers.

Lock all Layers in Group: When selecting this option, you’ll get a pop-up window asking if you want to lock the transparency, image, position or lock all. Lock Transparency means you can now only edit non-transparent parts of the layer. Lock Image is the opposite - you can’t modify the layer’s pixels using painting tools. Lock Position prevents the layer’s pixels from being moved. Lock all will make that layer completely uneditable. If one or 2 of the Lock options is selected, a hollow lock symbol appears on that layer. If Lock All is selected, a dark lock appears on that layer. (As shown above.) When something is locked, it can not be edited until unlocked.

Group into New Smart Object: Select layers and then click here to combine them into one smart object. We’ll discuss Smart Objects in detail in the future.

Edit Contents: Opens the original smart object selected for editing in its native program. If it is an Illustrator file, this will load Illustrator on your machine. If it is a Photoshop file, it will come up as a new file in Photoshop.

Layer Properties: Change the name of a layer or Layer Group, or color-code them for easier layer management.

Blending Options: Opens your Layer Style palette to apply options such as drop shadow, embossing, stroking, etc. We’ll get to each of those in another tutorial.

Create Clipping Mask: First you must understand what a clipping mask is to use this. It’s probably easier for me to show you than to tell you. If you have 2 layers, the transparent pixels of the bottom or base layer mask the content of layers above it.

In this example I have a layer that says “HAIR” and a layer above it of a woman in a beauty shop. You can’t see the word HAIR because it is hidden on the layer under the lady.

Now if I select the top layer, and then click on the small arrow on top right of the layer palette - allowing my menu to be visible, and then click “create clipping mask”, the word HAIR is visble but the letters are filled in by the lady. The non-transparent pixels of th bottom layer are seen in SHAPE but the content seen is from the layer above.

OR, the transparent part of the bottom layer (the space around and between the letters) acts as a cookie cutter and defines the SHAPE of the top layer, while maintaining the previous image of the top layer.

Remember, the grey and white checkerboard is the transparent area. It can’t be seen. If I add an aqua layer behind both of these, and stroke (outline) the text, you can see it even better…

If you decide the best part of the image can’t be seen in the mask (like if I want you to see more hair and less white space here), you can select the topmost layer of the clipping mask (here it is the photo of the girl) and move it around by dragging on your image.

Link Layers: If you link layers together, they will move around together until unlinked. Blending options can still be applied individually to the layers.

Select Linked Layers: This highlights all the linked layers. It comes in handy if you have many linked layers that are no longer right on top of each other on your layers palette.

Merge Down: You can merge 2 adjacent layers or groups by selecting the top one and then choosing Merge Down. All masks and blending options are applied and no longer editable (the layers are now flattened.)

Merge Visible: merges all visible layers and groups in an image into one layer. All masks and blending options are no longer available (the layers are now flattened.)

Flatten Image: Stop right there! Do not pass GO! Do not collect $200. Always use this function with CAUTION. Flattening your image merges all the layers into one locked background layer. All hidden layers are discarded. Any transparent areas that remain will be filled with white. You can no longer edit specific layers or their blending options. I strongly suggest saving as a .psd before you flatten an image, and then save your flattened image with a different name because you never know when you’ll want to go back and edit an image you’ve already spent 3 hours on. (or a client asks you to.) Flattening reduces file size. 

Animation Options: Clicking this allows you to toggle the appearance of animation buttons on the layers palette. They are circled in the image below…

Palette Options: This changes what you view in the Layers Palette. You can remove the layer thumbnail and change its size, you can see the thumbnail within the confines of your document or of the layer itself. If you check the option at the bottom about default layers, then when you add an adjustment layer, a layer mask is included. Having this checked is the default.

Beyond the flyout menu…

Just under the word “Layers” at the top of the layers palette, is a drop down box starting with the word Normal and ending with Luminosity. Here you can adjust the blending mode of your file. To the right of that is the opacity percentage. You can change the opacity of a layer by typing in a new percentage, clicking in the box and using your arrow keys to make the percentage number go up or down, or i fyou hold your mouse over the word “opacity” you’ll see a finger with an arrow under it appear. This is a pop-up slider that you can drag, and you’ll see the percentage amount go up and down as you drag. You cannot change the opacity of a background layer or a locked layer - you must unlock it first.

On the row below these tools are the Layer locking options (defined above) and the fill percentage. Opacity affects any layer styles and blending modes applied to the layer, but Fill affects the pixels of the layer without affecting the opacity of any layer effects that have been applied to the layer.

Below that your layers appear. Here are some of the layer icons defined:

Finally, across the bottom of the Layers palette are a few more icons:
The first (from the left) is supposed to look like the link of a chain and allows you to link/unlink layers. The next one allows you to add a layer style. You can also right-click on a layer and select belnding option to do this. Next is the option to add a layer mask. We’ll define masking in another tutorial. Next you can create a new fill or adjustment layer. Adjustment layers let you manipulate lighting, color and exposure. Fill layers let you adjust colors, patterns and gradients. The next icon looks like a small folder and lets you create a new group. Next is “create a new layer”. You’ll use this little square a lot! Finally, clicking the little trash can lets you delete a layer.

You may notice many of the icon options on the layers palette are also available from the fly-out menu, keyboard shortcuts, or when you right-click a layer. Adobe is great at giving users many options for performing functions because we all use the same programs differently and learn differently. I’m a right-clicker myself!

Which brings me to this: take your 500×500 px image we started with and add a new layer. Then right-click on that layer and you will see many repeated options that I have already defined for you. They are just restructured so you can select a layer and the function you want to do in one step - by simply right-clicking - instead of clicking once to select a layer and moving the mouse to the arrow at the top and clicking again to get the fly-out menu.

I hope this helps you understand layers and their functions a bit more.
Now for a simple exercise:

Here is our HAIR girl from before. You can right click on her, copy her, create a new document in Photoshop and paste her. Then you’ll have the same photo.

See the hot pink kiss mark on her tissue? Let’s add another kiss mark to the tissue…

I used my Elliptical marquee tool to select the kiss area of the tissue. Once it was surrounded by dotted lines (or “dancing ants” as I call them), I hit CTRL-C to copy and CTRL-V to paste. This pasted the kiss on its own layer.

The new kiss had too much tissue wrinkle area to blend in with the current photo, so I used my magic wand tool with the tolerance set to 14 to remove much of the white around the new kiss mark. I placed the new kiss so it slightly overlapped the hand at the bottom left and lowered the opacity of that layer to 70%. Then I used my eraser tool to erase the bit of the kiss that overlapped the hand, so it appeared the new kiss was disappearing under her hand.

For a finishing touch, I used my blur tool with a strength of 60% to blur the edges of the new kiss on the right & top slightly. (Sample all layers was NOT checked.)

Here is my final image:

In a recent design post, I discussed different file types and how to know what type to use for your Photoshop file. If you know you are using your file in a low, resolution, on-screen capacity (for web or email) you should be using Photoshop’s “save for web” feature.

I’ll be explaining Photoshop’s “save for web” feature in detail here.

This is a tutorial for beginner level users of Photoshop. I am using Photoshop CS2, a.k.a. Photoshop 9.0.2.

Assuming you just made a great document in Photoshop and it is unsaved, I would first encourage you to save the file as a .psd so future changes can be made to the layers and blending modes. If you save only as a .jpg or .gif file, you will not be able to edit the layers of the file anymore.

After you save as a .psd, choose File - Save for Web from your menu. The Save for Web window appears. Here is my window, and because I have used it before the default options that appear may not be the same as yours:

Images saved for use on-screen, such as images on the web or perhaps a logo embedded in an email, are typically low resolution and have small dimensions. (If you place a 37-inch wide image on a web site, no one will be able to fit the whole image on their screen at one time — unless their PC is hooked up to a 54 inch flat screen monitor, but that’s not usually the case.) If your image is just slightly too large to view in this window, and that is on purpose, you can use the hand tool on the top left of the Save for Web screen to bring another area into view. Select the Hand tool  (or hold down the spacebar), and drag in the view area to pan over the image.

Notice across the top left of the Save for Web window their are 4 tabs. If you select the optimized tab and the preview of your image is HUGE and would not be appropriate for your usage, you should double check the image size before saving. You also have the option of resizing the image here. In the right-hand middle of the Save for Web window, click the “image size” tab, highlighted below.

Let’s talk about what you see on this tab.

I am being shown (in pixels) the size of my smiley face file.

I have the option to change the size of the file by lowering or raising a percentage or adding and removing pixels. I can keep the proportions locked or I can change the width and height independently of each other.

Next, under Quality, I can choose an interpolation method. Most users skip this because they do not understand it. That’s fine. But Photoshop’s Help will tell you: When an image is resampled, an interpolation method is used to assign color values to any new pixels that Photoshop creates, based on the color values of existing pixels in the image. (Pixels are added or deleted based on a computerized mathematical equation.) In the General Preferences dialog box, you can specify which default interpolation method to use whenever you resample images using the Image Size or transformation commands. The Image Size command also lets you specify an interpolation method other than the default. Bicubic Sharper generally produces better results when you are reducing image size.

Now that your image is sized correctly, you need to decide what file type to save as. That is done above the image size tab in an area that looks like this:

My previous post: .gifs, .tifs, and .jpgs Oh My! Using the correct file types in Photoshop can help with this a bit. Gifs are often used for line art, vector items and text heavy items. JPG is a better choice when you have many colors, gradients or a photograph. WBMP is the standard format for optimizing images for mobile devices, such as cell phones. WBMP supports 1‑bit color, which means that WBMP images contain only black and white pixels (not shades of grey). PNG produces much larger files than JPEG format, however it can preserve up to 256 levels of transparency in an image. I am going to focus on .jpg and .gif files because those are the most commonly used files.

Under the word “Preset” is a drop down box. You can easily switch between .jpg and .gif here and see which file type looks better for your artwork. When checking to see which looks better, start with the highest file settings first to easily tell if you want a .gif or .jpg. In other words, if you select .jpg choose Very High or Maximum from the drop down below that selection. If you select .gif, choose 256 from the drop down to the right that is labeled “Colors”. Then you can compare “apples to apples”, a great looking GIF to a great looking JPG. This is usually enough to help you figure out which file type you want. One will look crisp in the preview window and one will look fuzzy. (If they both look great, look at the bottom left corner of the preview screen as you go back and forth between JPG and GIF, and you can choose the option with the smallest file size because it will load faster.)

The reason I suggest starting with a high file size is because it is estimated that 60-70% of US home internet users are on broadband internet connections. GONE are the days of web pages loading so slowly that your viewers wait 25 seconds for one image to appear.  (Source: Nielsen//NetRatings)

Let’s look at the JPG and GIF screens individually so you can decide on the settings for your saved file.

SAVE AS JPG FOR WEBA: Assuming you have already selected JPG here… B & D - Quality: Determines the level of compression. The higher the Quality setting, the more detail is preserved. A high Quality setting results in a larger file size. You can view the optimized image at several quality settings to determine the best balance of quality and file size. If the image looks just as good at a quality of 60 as it does at 90, the file saved at 60 will load faster.
Optimized: Creates an enhanced .jpg with a slightly smaller file size. The Optimized .jpg format is recommended for maximum file compression; however, some older browsers do not support this feature.
Progressive: The image is displayed progressively online. Viewers see a low-resolution version of the image before it downloads completely. The Progressive option requires use of the Optimized JPEG format. Note: Progressive JPEGs are not supported by some browsers.
Blur: Specifies the amount of blur to apply to the image. This option applies an effect identical to that of the Gaussian Blur filter and allows the file to be compressed more, resulting in a smaller file size. A setting of 0.1 to 0.5 is recommended.
ICC Profile: Preserves the ICC profile of the artwork with the file. Some browsers use ICC profiles for color correction. This option is available only after you saved an image with an ICC profile—it is not available for unsaved images.
Matte: If your file has a transparent background, this specifies a fill color for those pixels. Click the Matte color swatch to select a color in the color picker, or select an option from the Matte menu: Eyedropper (to use the color in the eyedropper sample box), White, Black, or Other (to use the color picker). Pixels that were fully transparent in the original image are filled with the selected color; pixels that were partially transparent in the original image are blended with the selected color.

SAVE AS GIF FOR WEB

A: Assuming you have already selected GIF here…

B: Specifies a method for generating the color lookup table and the number of colors you want in the color lookup table. You can select one of the following color reduction methods:
Perceptual: Creates a custom color table by giving priority to colors for which the human eye has greater sensitivity.
Selective: Creates a color table similar to the Perceptual color table, but favoring broad areas of color and the preservation of WEB colors. This color table usually produces images with the greatest color integrity.

Adaptive: Creates a custom color table by sampling colors from the predominant spectrum in the image. For example, an image with only the colors green and blue produces a color table made primarily of greens and blues. Most images concentrate colors in particular areas of the spectrum.
Restrictive (Web): Also called the web-safe palette. Uses the standard 216‑color color table common to the Windows and Mac OS 8‑bit (256‑color) palettes. This option ensures that no browser dither is applied to colors when the image is displayed using 8‑bit color. Using the web palette can create larger files, and is recommended only when avoiding browser dither is a high priority.
Custom: Uses a color palette that is created or modified by the user. If you open an existing GIF or PNG‑8 file, it will have a custom color palette.

C: Dithering Method and Dither: Dithering refers to the method of simulating colors not available in the color display system of your computer. A higher dithering percentage creates the appearance of more colors and more detail in an image, but can also increase the file size. For optimal compression, use the lowest percentage of dither that provides the color detail you require. Images with primarily solid colors may work well with no dither. Images with gradients may require dithering to prevent color banding. Honestly, I think I have strayed from the default on this 2x in 4 years.

You can select one of the following dithering methods:
Diffusion: The dither effects are diffused across adjacent pixels. Applies a random pattern that is usually less noticeable than Pattern dither.

Pattern: Applies a halftone-like square pattern to simulate any colors not in the color table.
Noise: Applies a random pattern similar to the Diffusion dither method, but without diffusing the pattern across adjacent pixels. No seams appear with the Noise dither method.

E: Lossy: Reduces file size by selectively discarding data. A higher Lossy setting results in more data being discarded. You can often apply a Lossy value of 5–10, and sometimes up to 50, without degrading the image. The Lossy option can reduce file size by 5% to 40%.
Note: You can NOT use the Lossy option with the Interlaced option or with Noise or Pattern Dither algorithms.

F. Transparency and Matte: Determines how transparent pixels in the image are optimized.
To make fully transparent pixels transparent and blend partially transparent pixels with a color, select Transparency and select a matte color.
To fill fully transparent pixels with a color and blend partially transparent pixels with the same color, select a matte color and deselect Transparency.
To select a matte color, click the Matte color swatch and select a color in the color picker. Alternatively, select an option from the Matte menu: Eyedropper (to use the color in the eyedropper sample box), White, Black, or Other (to use the color picker).

G. Interlace: Displays a low-resolution version of the image in a browser while the full image file is downloading. Interlacing can make downloading time seem shorter and can assure viewers that downloading is in progress, however interlacing also increases file size and is not needed in most cases.
H. Web Snap: Specifies a tolerance level for shifting colors to the closest web palette equivalents (and prevent the colors from dithering in a browser). A higher value shifts more colors.
I. Color Table: The maximum number of colors supported by a .gif is 256. As you change the desired number of colors saved with your file on the “Colors” drop down, the swatches of the colors being saved appear in the Color Table. You’ll find that line art with few colors does not need to be saved with 256 colors. You can roll your mouse over a color swatch and see more information about that swatch.

Last but not least is the animation player. This is used to preview the settings of an animated gif.

The final step in saving your image is to click “Save” at the top of the Save for Web dialogue box. Then navigate to where you would like the file saved and click Save again.

If there are additional areas of the Save for Web dialogue box you need assistance with, please comment and I’m happy to help you out.

How should I save my files?

A tutorial for beginner level users of Photoshop.
In this tutorial I am using Photoshop CS2, a.k.a. Photoshop 9.0.2.

What a great question that is… “How should I save my files?” A more important question is “How will I be using my file?” and from there, you will know how to save it.

When saving files in Photoshop, there are many file type options. Here are some quick ways to know when to use different types:

- If your are saving your work for further Photoshop editing, save as a psd. This will maintain all of your Photoshop layers and effects. You may want to get in the habit of saving a psd first, and then the other file type you might need, in case the file needs to be altered in the future.

- If you are saving your file for use on the INTERNET, a GIF is good for line art, such as simple logos and charts, and JPG is better for files with lots of color variants, such as photos. A GIF allows only 256 colors, a jpg allows for thousands. JPG is also widely used by digital cameras. GIF and JPG files do NOT support layers when saved. Photoshop has a “Save for web” function I recommend for web files. If I should blog about that next, let me know.

- If you are saving your file for EMAIL, see above. For both of these options, a low resolution file is needed, not a high resolution file (click to read more on that here).

- If you are saving your work to share with someone who is putting your image files in a different graphics program or can’t seem to open files you send them, use a TIFF (also, TIF). These files were designed to be universally shared. TIF files DO support layers when saved. TIFF is a raster image format supported by virtually all paint, image-editing, and page-layout applications.

- If you have a text heavy document, like a brochure, or a form to fill out, save as a pdf. (But I might ask why you are using Photoshop for this file in the first place.) A pdf has the option to be high resolution, so people can later print it and the clarity will be maintained, or low resolution, for quick proofs or online sharing. PDF files CAN support layers when saved, depending on the settings you use when saving.

- If you need the file to have a transparent background, so you can put it on another background color, save as a gif.

- If you have a massive file to save - either in size or file size, choose Large Document Format (PSB) for documents of any pixel size and any file size. (All Photoshop features are preserved in PSB files.) Currently, PSB files are supported only by Photoshop CS. Photoshop Raw supports documents of any pixel dimension or file size, but does not support layers. TIFF Supports files up to 4 GB in size.

- GIFs can be saved as high resolution. They support RGB, Indexed Color, Grayscale, or Bitmap modes.

- JPGs can be saved as high resolution for print. CMYK, RGB, and grayscale images can be saved as JPGs.

What about PNG?
JPGs use compression — images are compressed to take up less memory space. Compression also leads to loss of quality. The more you compress an image, the more the quality continues to degrade. Every time you open a JPG, make a minor change, and save it, the JPG is compressed yet again. The more you work with a JPG, the worse it gets. This shows up as pixelation, overall fuzziness, random pixels are added. Also, gif creation is patented and a free option was needed. To solve these problems, a new image format was created call PNG (Portable Network Graphics, pronounced “ping.”)

PNG images are supported by web browsers and do allow for transparent backgrounds, however they tend to get fuzzy on internet explorer, which is the most commonly used web browser today, so I don’t save web files as PNGs.

PNGs do not allow for animation. If you need some slight movement, use an animated gif. An Animated gif resaved as a jpg or png will lose its animation. You can use the Save As command in Photoshop to save RGB, Indexed Color, Grayscale, and Bitmap mode images in PNG format.

What’s a BMP?
BMP stands for bitmapped graphics format. Wikipedia explains it as “used internally by the Microsoft Windows and OS/2 graphics subsystem, and used commonly as a simple graphics file format on those platforms… BMP files are usually not compressed, so they are typically much larger than compressed image file formats for the same image. As such, BMPs are generally unsuitable for transferring images on the Internet or other slow or capacity-limited media.”

A commerical printer may ask for an EPS file. Typically, these are created in vector programs, but Photoshop can save as an EPS. Virtually all page-layout, word-processing, and graphics applications accept imported EPS files. DCS format is a version of EPS that lets you save color separations of CMYK or multichannel files.

The Targa (TGA) format supports images of any dimensions with between 1 and 32 bits of color. It is designed for Truevision hardware. HUH? I don’t know either…

Wikipedia has a great chart comparing file types and what they support here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_graphics_file_formats