Adobe Photoshop Layers

History and Layer Windows

       

The Layer and History windows are easy-to-use methods of quickly editing and accessing parts of your image.

Every action that you take is recorded in the History window; to go back several steps, simply click on the last command you want to keep. The subsequent action will erase your history from that point and start with your latest action.

The Layer window shows all the layers of your image. To select a layer, simply click on its name. You can then change the opacity or double click to go to the Layer Style window.

Layer Style Window

The Layer Style Window is important enough to merit its own section. Of all of the tools you use in Photoshop, this is the most critical to your work.

The Layer Style Window provides you with the options to change opacity, color blending (omitting certain colors and highlighting others), adds glows, makes the layer 3D, and can give it overlaying color or patterns. The difference between Opacity and Fill Opacity is that Fill Opacity preserves the outline of the image while fading the interior.

Blending modes help you smoothly place one image on top of another and combine them. They range in several types:

• Normal- The colors are kept the same.
• Darken, Multiply, Color Burn, Linear Burn - The colors of the layer become progressively darker.
• Lighten, Screen, Color Dodge, Linear Dodge - The colors of the layer become progressively lighter.
• Overlay, Soft Light, Hard Light, Vivid Light, Linear Light, Pin Light - The colors of the layer become either softer (Overlay, Soft Light) or sharper (Hard, Vivid, Linear, Pin Light).
• Difference, Exclusion - The colors of the layer are inversed to varying extents.
• Hue, Saturation, Color, Luminosity - The colors of the layer take on those of the underlying layer.

Sources / For More Information

• Digital Web Magazine - Adobe Photoshop 6.0 by Jesse Nieminem
  http://www.digital-web.com/articles/adobe_photoshop_6/