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Chapter 12: Working with Layers
Layers, Layers Everywhere
Chapter 17). Photoshop 5 witnessed the birth of layer effects, which included editable drop shadows, glows, and edge bevels (see Chapter 14). Photoshop 6 permitted you to bundle and color-code layers into logical clusters (this chapter), blend color channels independently of each other (Chapter 13), and even add vector-based lines and shapes (Chapter 14) and object-oriented text (Chapter 15). Photoshop 7 gave you the ability to adjust the fill opacity and allowed for easier renaming of layers, but otherwise maintained the status quo.Photoshop CS dramatically improves the way you work with layers by introducing layer comps, which we'll examine at the end of this chapter. Mind you, there's still room for improvement. For example, one day I hope to see Photoshop integrate parametric effects, in which filters such as Unsharp Mask and Motion Blur are fully editable, interactive, and interchangeable, on the order of Adobe's full-motion editor, After Effects. But in the meantime, Photoshop's layers still provide us with a rewarding amount of freedom and flexibility.
For those of you who are wondering what I'm talking about, permit me to back up for a moment. The first and foremost benefit of layers is that they add versatility. Because each layer in a composition is altogether independent of other layers, you can change your mind at a moment's notice. Consider the top example in Figure 12-1. Here we see a promotional piece I created for my video series, Total Training for Adobe Photoshop, in which I do not actually appear as a lovable robot named roboDeke. I created the top image one morning, utilizing the Layers palette to its fullest extent. Really, just about every element you see in the image is on a separate layer: the background, the motorcycle toy, the chains, each individual bunch of text, and even roboDeke himself. Satisfied with my work, I set it aside and took the rest of the day off.
Figure 12-1: Thanks to the flexibility of layers, you can arrange a bunch of elements one way one moment (top) and quite differently the next (bottom). Layers let you modify a composition without sacrificing quality.
The next morning, I checked out my multilayered masterpiece with fresh eyes, only to find that I felt it needed some improvement. Luckily, I had worked so extensively in layers, I was able to give my work an extensive overhaul, resulting in the true masterpiece you see at the bottom of Figure 12-1. I made innumerable changes, as reflected in the Layers palette shown in the figure: roboDeke has hair, antennae, and a much more substantial goatee, he's been shrunk and repositioned, the finger and arrow are gone from the image, many text elements have been restyled, the background is blurred, and so on. (In fact, there are more than 20 differences between the two images. Can you circle them all?)Layers make it harder to make mistakes, they make it easier to make changes, and they expand your range of options. More than anything else, they permit you to restructure a composition and examine how it was put together after you assemble it. Layers can be very challenging or relatively simple to use. But whatever you do, don't shy away. If a layer might help, there's no reason not to add one. Layers are a big fact of life in Photoshop, and it's important to know how to create, modify, organize, and exploit them to their full potential. And that's what this chapter is all about.
