Photoshop CS3 layers Bible

In this book we’re going to take you on an adventure through the world of Photoshop layers, with the aim of giving you a thorough grounding in all of Photoshop’s layer features. We’ll also intro- duce you to a wealth of useful layer-based tips and techniques that we’ve picked up over the years. Our aim is to make this book useful to you, whether you’re a Photoshop novice or a seasoned veteran of this powerful program.

Doyle Meek The book you need to succeed! Get the most out of Photoshop Layers with this in-depth guide Creative professionals know how to tap Photoshop CS3’s Layers to achieve spectacular results, and now you can learn their secrets in this comprehensive book. How do you combine layers and masks? What’s the best way to work with Web images? From the newest CS3 features to successful layering strategies, you’ll discover the professional techniques and hands- on examples you need to succeed. Shelving Category: COMPUTERS/Computer Graphics/ Design Reader Level: Beginning to Advanced $39.99 USA $47.99 Canada ISBN 978-0-470-08211-9 www.wiley.com/compbooks CD-ROM Included! • Over ninety stock photos for your use • Photoshop files and source images from the book Includes CD-ROM What’s on the CD-ROM? The CD includes over 90 stock images, plus Photoshop files and source images for most of the book’s examples and figures. See the CD Appendix for details and complete system requirements. Matt Doyle is cofounder of ELATED, a company dedicated to helping people build better Web sites. He has been professionally involved with system administration, software development, and Web site building since 1993. Simon Meek is cofounder of ELATED. He has been a professional designer since 1996, specializing primarily in online work. Spine: 1.584" Matt Doyle and Simon Meek S Photoshop ® CS3 Lay ers Photoshop ® CS3 Layers Unlock your creativity with Layer Masks Composite images for spectacular results Create impressive effects with blend modes Master photo retouching using adjustment layers Create logos using layer styles and shape layers Control transparency using layer masks • Create composites that make an impact • Add depth and dimension with layer blend modes • Retouch with layers and get unlimited Undos • Work with Smart Objects and organize your workflow • Create great-looking, quick-loading Web images Photoshop ® CS3 Layers Bible 01_082119 ffirs.qxp 9/24/07 9:08 PM Page i 01_082119 ffirs.qxp 9/24/07 9:08 PM Page ii Photoshop ® CS3 Layers Bible Matt Doyle and Simon Meek 01_082119 ffirs.qxp 9/24/07 9:08 PM Page iii Photoshop ® CS3 Layers Bible Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 978-0-470-08211-9 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572- 4355, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2007936465 Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley and Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Photoshop is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. 01_082119 ffirs.qxp 9/24/07 9:08 PM Page iv About the Authors Matt Doyle. Born and bred in England, Matt discovered the joys of computing from an early age, thanks to his mom’s prudent decision to invest in a rusty old build-it-yourself computer with a whopping 4K of RAM. Since then, he’s never looked back, gaining a B.Sc. in Computer Science and moving into the IT industry. After working at various companies in such disparate roles as IT manager, C programmer, software tester, Web designer, and Web developer, Matt decided it was time to start his own business. In 1997 he teamed up with Simon to form ELATED, a company dedicated to building better websites for people, while also helping them build better websites for themselves. Although ostensibly a developer for much of his career, Matt finds playing with software to be much more fun than writing it, and he loves exploring the innermost depths of any application he can get his mitts on. As such, he has slyly been expanding his Photoshop knowledge over the years to near-encyclopedic levels. In 2002, deciding he’d had enough of the freezing English weather, he retreated to the sunny shores of Sydney’s Northern Beaches in Australia with his wife, Cat, where they now live with their baby son, Isaac. Simon Meek. Simon was raised in a tiny village in Bedfordshire, England. Having emerged from the depths of the countryside, he completed a degree in Agricultural Economics (Matt Doyle typed his thesis), and then played guitar for most of his early twenties. Obviously this is fertile ground for a career in the design industry. In search of an actual income, Simon moved into design work in preference to getting a proper job, and has been a professional designer since 1996. Mostly specializing in online work, he has been using Photoshop since version 2.5, and fondly remembers such advances as editable type and, of course, layers. He also dabbles in music, photography, and scriptwriting. For the record, he still feels playing gui- tar is more fun than Photoshop, though it’s a pretty close thing. He now lives in Brighton, on the south coast of England, with his wife, Mo, two cats (who often crop up in this book), and his beautiful wee boy, Jack. 01_082119 ffirs.qxp 9/24/07 9:08 PM Page v Credits Senior Acquisitions Editor Kim Spilker Project Editor Beth Taylor Technical Editor Rob Barnes Copy Editor Kim Heusel Editorial Manager Robyn Siesky Business Manager Amy Knies Senior Marketing Manager Sandy Smith Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Richard Swadley Vice President and Executive Publisher Bob Ipsen Vice President and Publisher Barry Pruett Project Coordinator Adrienne Martinez Graphics and Production Specialists Brooke Graczyk Joyce Haughey Jennifer Mayberry Ronald Terry Quality Control Technicians Laura Albert John Greenough Todd Lothery Media Development Project Manager I Laura Moss-Hollister Media Development Assistant Producer Josh Frank Proofreading and Indexing C.M. Jones Infodex Indexing Services Inc. To Cat and Mo, for their understanding, and to Isaac and Jack, for the inspiration. 01_082119 ffirs.qxp 9/24/07 9:08 PM Page vi W elcome to the Photoshop CS3 Layers Bible. Since its inception in 1988, Photoshop has evolved in leaps and bounds to become the king of photo editing applications that it is today. Each new release has brought with it tons of useful new features, from vector paths in version 2 through to the wonderful Spot Healing Brush tool and Vanishing Point filter in CS2. Arguably one of the most important milestones in Photoshop’s history was the addition of layers in version 3, way back in 1994. For the first time, designers could create and manipulate graphic ele- ments independently within the same image, opening up a world of creative possibilities. Since version 3, the reign of Photoshop’s Layers palette has been consolidated through the addition of a powerful range of layer features. For example, we now have adjustment layers, for applying re- editable photo adjustments; fill layers, for creating powerful fill effects; layer styles, for adding dynamic effects to layers; type layers, for adding re-editable text to images; and shape layers, for creating filled vector shapes. CS3 adds even more layer-based fun in the form of Smart Filters that let you apply “live” Photoshop filters to your images. In fact, it’s probably safe to say that most of your work in Photoshop these days revolves around the Layers palette, one way or another. In this book we’re going to take you on an adventure through the world of Photoshop layers, with the aim of giving you a thorough grounding in all of Photoshop’s layer features. We’ll also intro- duce you to a wealth of useful layer-based tips and techniques that we’ve picked up over the years. Our aim is to make this book useful to you, whether you’re a Photoshop novice or a seasoned vet- eran of this powerful program. Layers are a big topic, as you can probably tell just from the weight of this book. To make the book a little more digestible, and your reading experience more enjoyable, we’ve carved it up into four distinct parts. Part I deals with the fundamentals of layers — what they are, how they work, and how you can work with them. Part II delves into the more specialized layer types that we touched on above; we take an in-depth look at type layers, shape layers, adjustment layers, and fill layers. Part III looks at the wonderful features Adobe has embellished layers with over the years, including blending modes, Smart Objects, masks, layer styles, and layer comps. Finally, Part IV takes a more practical, hands-on approach to Photoshop layers. In this part, we look at some useful strategies for working with layered Photoshop documents, and we explore how Photoshop layers interact with other applications such as the CS3 suite, Lightroom, and QuarkXpress. We then share a range of useful techniques and workflows for using Photoshop in a wide range of contexts, from Web designing and making a montage through to photo manipulation and creating posters and flyers. vii 02_082119 fpref.qxp 9/24/07 9:09 PM Page vii 02_082119 fpref.qxp 9/24/07 9:09 PM Page viii This book wouldn’t have been possible without the help and support of many people at Wiley Publishing. We’d like to thank Kim Spilker for her help in getting the book off the ground and for putting her faith in us. We’d also like to thank Beth Taylor, the project editor, as well as Kim Heusel, the copy editor, and Rob Barnes, the technical editor, for working so hard to improve the book and keep it on track. ix 03_082119 fbetw.qxp 9/24/07 9:09 PM Page ix [...]... 10 Type layers 11 Shape layers 12 Fill layers 13 Adjustment layers 14 Using Layers in Photoshop 15 New Layer Features in Photoshop CS3 16 The new interface 16 Smart Filters 18 New adjustment layers 19 Auto-Align Layers and Auto-Blend Layers 20 Putting Theory into Practice ... Introducing Layers 3 Understanding the Layers Concept 4 Layers and Photoshop 4 Introducing the Layers Palette 5 Layers in the document window 7 The anatomy of a layer 7 Understanding Layer Transparency 8 Types of Layers 9 The Background layer 10 Normal layers 10 Type layers ... 34 Selecting layers with the Move tool 34 Managing Layers 36 Duplicating layers 36 Merging layers together 39 Converting the Background layer 41 Moving the content of layers 42 Aligning layer content 44 Evenly distributing layer content 46 Changing the order of layers 47 Renaming layers and changing... Introducing Layers Chapter 2 Managing and Organizing Layers Chapter 3 Resizing and Transforming Layers 06_082119 pt01.qxp 9/24/07 9:10 PM Page 2 07_082119 ch01.qxp 9/24/07 9:11 PM Page 3 Introducing Layers I f you’ve used Photoshop for any length of time, you’ve no doubt used layers; they’re such a key feature of the software In fact, if you’re doing anything other than simple photo retouching, layers are... affect that layer FIGURE 1.1 Layers are like sheets of acetate — each layer is independent of the others Stoneheng e Layers and Photoshop Before layers were introduced in version 3 of Photoshop, every change you made to your image was effectively applied to a single layer You can imagine how difficult this made things for Photoshop designers! All changes were pretty much permanent Photoshop didn’t even have... layer-based action in Photoshop hinges around the Layers palette, as shown in Figure 1.2, so take a quick look at its features If this palette is not currently visible, you can enable it by choosing Window ➪ Layers or pressing F7 FIGURE 1.2 The Layers palette in Photoshop Blending Mode Opacity control Fill control Active layer Inactive layers Background layer Delete Layer icon Link Add Create New Layers Layer... background layer is at the bottom Figure 1.3 shows how layers in the Layers palette relate to their contents in the document window The Layers palette shows the layers for the currently selected document If you have several documents open at once, you see the Layers palette change as you flip between the document windows FIGURE 1.3 How layers appear in the Layers palette and in the document window The anatomy... 1 Chapter 1: Introducing Layers 3 Chapter 2: Managing and Organizing Layers 29 Chapter 3: Resizing and Transforming Layers 77 Part II: Exploring Special Layer Types 107 Chapter 4: Creating Text with Type Layers 109 Chapter 5: Working with Shape Layers 169 Chapter 6: Exploring Adjustment and Fill Layers 203 Part III:... 256 Creating Filled Areas with Fill Layers 259 Adding a fill layer 260 Creating blocks of color with Solid Color fill layers 261 Making gradients with Gradient fill layers 261 Filling with a pattern using Pattern fill layers 273 Masking Adjustment and Fill Layers 274 Using Blending Modes with Adjustment and Fill Layers 276 Summary ... Playing with the layers 27 Summary 28 xiii 04_082119 ftoc.qxp 9/24/07 9:10 PM Page xiv Contents Chapter 2: Managing and Organizing Layers 29 Creating Layers 30 Creating a layer from a selection 31 Other ways to create layers 32 Selecting Layers 32 Selecting a single layer 33 Selecting multiple layers . layers 10 Type layers 11 Shape layers 12 Fill layers 13 Adjustment layers 14 Using Layers in Photoshop 15 New Layer Features in Photoshop CS3 16 The new. work. Spine: 1.584" Matt Doyle and Simon Meek S Photoshop ® CS3 Lay ers Photoshop ® CS3 Layers Unlock your creativity with Layer Masks Composite