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Technique 22: Working with Adjustment Layers
Save Time By
Applying adjustment layers
Adjusting the adjustments
Using Photoshop cs, you can change the color and tone of an image for correction purposes (a photograph might be underexposed) or to create a special effect. Typically, you turn to the Image> Adjustments menu to find the command that makes the change you want: Levels, Hue/Saturation, or Color Balance just to name a few (actually, Photoshop has more than a dozen adjustment commands; I discuss many in detail in Part V).But, while the adjustment commands accessed on the Image menu work just fine, they affect only the active layer and they permanently change the layer’s pixels. What happens if you have a complex image containing eight layers and you want to correct six of them at once? Well, you can merge the layers together, but that ruins any further individual layer editing. So that solution is certainly out of the question. You could also apply the adjustment commands to each layer one at a time, but that is tedious, time consuming, and also permanently changes the layers’ pixels — definitely out of the question. As you’re starting to pull your hair out, you exclaim, “But, Photoshop has everything so there must be an answer!”Indeed there is and it’s a great one, too. The answer is to use adjustment layers.Adjustment layers use the same commands found on the Image> Adjustments menu, but they work as layer-based corrections. This gives you an amazing amount of flexibility. Here are a few of the pluses inherent in adjustment layers:
Layer-based corrections are not permanent unlike the commands on the Image>Adjustment menu. They blend only with the pixels on the layers below; they don’t permanently change pixels. If you decide you need to change the adjustment later, you can. If you decide you don’t want to use the adjustment layer, you can either hide it by clicking the eye icon on the Layers palette or delete it altogether.
The number of layers affected by the adjustment layer depends upon where the adjustment layer is located in the stacking order in the Layers palette. Every layer under an adjustment layer is modified. Any layers above the adjustment layer are not modified. You can move the adjustment layer up and down the stacking order to affect more or fewer layers.
Because these corrections are layer-based, you also have the option of selecting a blending mode and opacity. While you can use Edit>Fade to employ a blending mode and opacity when using the commands on the Image>Adjustments menu, the Fade command is available only immediately after using the adjustment command. Conversely, the Blend drop-down list and Opacity slider are always available to the adjustment layer in the Layers palette.
Quite a list, huh? I almost never use the commands on the Image>Adjustments menu; instead, I usually opt for an adjustment layer. This technique shows you how to add the power of adjustment layers to your projects. Open an image and give them a try. After you discover the full potential of adjustment layers, I guarantee you won’t turn back.
