Photoshop CS4 Studio Techniques- P5 doc

106 Chapter 3 Layers and Curves Layer Styles Choose Layer > Layer Style to access a bunch of really neat options. Some of the same options are available under the Layer Style pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers panel (it’s the leftmost icon). To experiment with these options, create a new, empty layer, and paint on it with any of the painting tools. Then apply one of the effects found in the Layer Style menu: Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Outer Glow, Inner Glow, Bevel and Emboss, and so on (Figures 3.26 to 3.28). You can use the default settings for now. After applying an effect, use the Eraser tool to remove some of the paint on that layer. Did you notice that the layer effect updates to refl ect the changes you make to the layer? In one simple step, layer styles create results that would usually require multiple layers and a lot of memory. Figure 3.27 A text layer is ordinary and flat, sometimes needing a little more punch. Figure 3.28 Adding a drop shadow to a text layer makes the font much clearer and adds to the overall image. When you have at least one layer style applied to a layer, a small fx appears next to the layer’s name in the Layers panel. That’s the only indication that a layer has a layer style attached to it. Click the triangle that appears next to that symbol to see a list of the layer styles that are applied to that layer (Figure 3.29). If you drag one of the layer styles from that list and release the mouse button when the cursor is over another layer, that layer style moves to the Figure 3.26 One of the most popular layer styles is the drop shadow. Figure 3.29 Applied layer styles appear under the fx symbol in the layer. 107 II: Production Essentials selected layer. Holding down Option/Alt when dragging a style copies the style instead of moving it. Dragging the word Effects from the top of the list moves all of the layer styles attached to that layer. To remove a layer style, click its name in the list and drag it to the Trash icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. You can lower the Fill setting at the top of Photoshop’s Layers panel to reduce the opacity of the layer contents while keeping the layer style at full strength (Figure 3.30). Alternatively, hold down Shift and type a number while the Move tool is active. Choose Layer > Layer Style > Create Layer to have Photoshop create the layers that would usu- ally be needed to create the effect. For example, you might want to choose Create Layer if you want to distort the effect separately from the layer to which it was attached. Figures 3.31 to 3.34 show what a few of the layer styles can do to an image. Figure 3.31 Use an emboss layer style to give text a soft- ened effect. Figure 3.32 Settings for beveling and embossing. Figure 3.33 An inner shadow can create an interesting cutout effect. Figure 3.34 Settings for the inner shadow layer style. Figure 3.30 By lowering the Fill value for a layer with effects applied, you can achieve interesting results. 108 Chapter 3 Layers and Curves Adjustment Layers The Adjustment Layer pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers panel (it’s the half-black and half-white circle) allows you to apply adjustments that will affect multiple layers. But CS4 goes one step further with a new Adjustments panel, making the use of this key Photoshop feature even easier. This is the most versatile method for applying adjustments, and it’s such a powerful feature that we’ve devoted an entire chapter to it (Chapter 5, “Adjustment Layers”). Fill Layers The options in the New Fill Layer menu (Layer > New Fill Layer) add solid color, gradient, and pattern content to a layer. This feature is especially useful when combined with vector masks, as described in Chapter 10. If you don’t want a fi ll layer to fi ll your entire document, make a selection before creating the fi ll layer, which will create a layer mask. After a fi ll layer has been created, you can reset your fore- ground and background colors to black/white by press- ing D. Then you can use the Eraser tool to hide the area and the Paintbrush tool to make areas visible again. Solid Color Layer Choosing Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color brings up a dialog that asks you to name the layer you’re creating. After you click OK, it opens the color picker, where you can specify the color that will be used for the solid color layer. When you’ve created one of these layers, you can double-click the leftmost thumbnail of the layer in the Layers panel to edit the color. Gradient Layer Choosing Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient brings up a dialog that asks you to name the layer; this creates a new layer that contains a gradient (Figure 3.35). The gradient is always editable by double-clicking the leftmost thumb- nail in the Layers panel. If the Align with Layer check box is turned on, the start and end points of the gradient are determined by the contents of the selected layer rather than by the document’s overall size. You can change the Figure 3.35 The Gradient Fill dialog is useful for creating a new layer that contains a gradient. 109 II: Production Essentials gradient content by clicking the Gradient selection in the dialog. Pattern Layer Choosing Layer > New Fill Layer > Pattern allows you to create a new layer that contains a repeating pattern (Figure 3.36). Use this type of layer to add a brushed- aluminum look to a background. Then, if you ever decide to change the pattern, it’s as simple as double-clicking the thumbnail in the Layers panel and choosing New Pattern from the drop-down menu. The Blending Mode Menu The Blending Mode menu at the upper left of the Layers panel allows the information on a layer to blend with the underlying image in interesting and useful ways. Using this menu, you can quickly change the color of objects, colorize grayscale images, add refl ections to metallic objects, and much more. This is an advanced feature, so you’ll have to wait until you get to Chapter 9 to fi nd out more about it. Automatic Selections To select everything on a particular layer, just Command/ Ctrl-click the thumbnail image of the layer in the Layers panel. If the layer fi lls the entire screen, it will select all because this trick looks for transparent areas. You can hold down the Shift key to add to a selection that already exists or use the Option/Alt key to take away from the current selection. Layer Via Copy The Layers menu offers a wide variety of options for copy- ing, merging, and manipulating layers. Let’s look at one of these choices. If you select an area of an image and then choose Layer > New > Layer Via Copy, the selected area is moved from the active layer to a new layer in the same position (Figures 3.37 to 3.39). This feature is particularly handy when you want to move just a portion of a layer so that you can place it on top of another layer, or remove a portion of a layer and add layer styles. Very handy, but keep in mind that this won’t work with vector shape or fi ll layers. Figure 3.36 A new fill layer with a pattern makes it easy to repeat a small image throughout a larger document. Figure 3.37 Making a selection is the first step to using the Layer Via Copy option. 110 Chapter 3 Layers and Curves Figure 3.39 Layer Via Copy is also useful for adding various layer styles. Use All Layers When you’re editing on a layer, some of the editing tools might not work as expected. Most of the tools act as if each layer is a separate document; they ignore all layers except the active one—unless the tool has the Use All Layers check box (labeled All Layers in the Paint Bucket tool) turned on in the options bar of the tool you’re using. This check box makes the tools act as if all the layers have been combined into one layer. This possibility can work in your favor or not, depending on what you’re trying to accom- plish (Figures 3.40 and 3.41). Figure 3.40 Using the Paint Bucket tool without the Use All Layers option checked fills the selected layer. Figure 3.41 Using the Paint Bucket tool with the Use All Layers option checked attempts to fill all layers. Figure 3.38 Selecting the Layer Via Copy option moves the selection from one layer into a new layer. 111 II: Production Essentials Layer Shortcuts You’ll be doing a lot of switching between layers, which can get a bit tedious. Here are some quick shortcuts: . Command/Ctrl-click anywhere in the image window when using the Move tool to activate the layer directly below your cursor. To fi nd out which layer is active, glance at the Layers panel. . You won’t always need the layer directly below your cur- sor. Control-clicking/right-clicking brings up a menu of all the layers that contain pixels below your cursor. Choose the name of the layer you want, and Photoshop switches to that layer. . To get the Move tool temporarily at any time, hold down the Command/Ctrl key. If you press Command- Control (Mac) or hold down Ctrl and right-click (Win- dows), no matter what tool you’re using, Photoshop presents the pop-up menu. Grouping Layers Have you ever had a complicated images with dozens of layers? If so, you’re probably familiar with the agony of fumbling through an endless sea of layers to fi nd the right one. You’ll be ecstatic to learn that you can group layers together. A group of layers looks like a folder in the Layers panel. You can view all the layers in the group or just the group name. To group multiple layers, select the layers and then either Shift-click the folder icon at the bottom of the Layers panel or choose Layer > Group Layers. You can also click the folder icon (without holding down any keys) to create an empty folder. You can move any number of layers into the folder by dragging and dropping them onto the folder. The folder will have a small triangle just to its left that allows you to collapse the group down to its name or expand the group to show all the layers it contains (Figures 3.42 and 3.43). You can even drag one folder onto another to create a hierarchy of up to fi ve levels of folders). This approach can greatly simplify the Layers panel, making a document of 100+ layers look as if it’s made of only a few layers. Figure 3.42 A typical project can have a full Layers panel. Figure 3.43 By grouping layers, you can stay organized. 112 Chapter 3 Layers and Curves Option/Alt-clicking the arrow next to a group expands or collapses all the groups and layer style lists within that group. Adding the Command/Ctrl key expands or col- lapses all the groups in the entire document. Groups can also be useful when you want to reorganize the layers in an image. If one of the layers within a group is active, using the Move tool affects only that layer (unless it’s linked to other layers). If the group is active, using the Move tool moves all the layers within that group. Smart Guides When you choose View > Show > Smart Guides, Photoshop displays pink guides to indicate how the active layer aligns with the surrounding layers. These Smart Guides appear only when you’re actively dragging a layer. Smart Guides pay attention to the top, bottom, left, right, and center of each layer, and extend the pink guides across all the layers that are aligned. The layers also snap to these alignment points, making it especially easy to get your layers in align- ment. You can toggle the snapping behavior off or on by choosing View > Snap To > Layers. Smart Guides ignore layer styles that are applied to a layer. In Figure 3.44, the outer ring of each object was created using the Stroke and Bevel & Emboss layer styles, so it wasn’t used when determining where the edge of the layer is located. The Smart Guides also ignore any areas that have an opacity of less than 50%, which also affects any layers that have soft edges, causing the snapping behavior to treat the halfway point of the fadeout as the edge of the layer. To get rid of a group without throw- ing away the layers that are inside it, click the group to make it active, click the Trash icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, and then choose Group Only when prompted. Figure 3.44 Smart Guides help you to align images and graphics as you move them. 113 II: Production Essentials Figure 3.45 Panel options for the Layers panel are found by clicking the side menu button. Figure 3.46 You can choose larger or smaller thumbnails for the Layers panel—or none at all. Hiding Layer Thumbnails If you’ve organized an image into layer groups, but the Layers panel is still a mess, you might want to simplify the way Photoshop displays layers. Choose Panel Options from the side menu of the Layers panel and click None in the Thumbnail Size section of the dialog to turn off the layer thumbnails. Once you’ve done that, the list of layers takes up a lot less space, but you still have the full func- tionality of all of Photoshop’s features (Figures 3.45 and 3.46). This feature also speeds up the screen redraw of the Layers panel. Displaying Layer Bounds If you have many small elements on individual layers, the Layers panel might look like a sea of checkerboard. Photo- shop allows you to crop the layer thumbnails so that they show the contents of a layer while ignoring any empty area surrounding the content. To get to this view, choose Panel Options from the side menu of the Layers panel and turn on the Layer Bounds setting (Figure 3.47). Figure 3.47 Select Layer Bounds in the Thumbnail Contents section to remove transparent areas from your thumbnails. 114 Chapter 3 Layers and Curves Color-Coding Layers If you work within a large group of Photoshop users, it can be useful to assign colors to layers to indicate their current status. Maybe some text needs to be proofed, or the client approved a certain part of the image, or an area needs to be sent off for color correction. All you have to do is Control/right-click the name of a layer and choose Layer Properties. In the resulting dialog, you can color-code a layer or a group (Figure 3.48). Even easier, Control/right- click the Eyeball column to bring up color choices for that layer or group. Figure 3.54 Change the color of a selected layer to help stay organized. Merging Layers When you create a complicated image containing dozens of layers, the project can start hogging memory, which in turn makes it diffi cult to manage all the layers. Every time you create a new layer and add something to it, Photoshop gobbles up more memory. Photoshop not only has to remember what’s on that layer, but what’s below it (even if that information is completely covered by the information on the layers above). Whenever possible, try to simplify your images by merging layers. This action combines the layers into a single layer, which saves memory. The Layer menu and the side menu on the Layers panel provide several ways to merge layers: . Merge Down: Merges the active layer into the layer directly below it. . Merge Visible: Merges all the layers that are currently visible in the main image window. . Merge Layers: Merges all the selected layers. . Merge Group: Merges all the layers that are within the active group. 115 II: Production Essentials . Flatten Image: Merges all visible layers into the Back- ground image, discards hidden layers, and fi lls empty areas with white. If you want to know how much extra memory the layers take as you’re modifying an image, choose Document Sizes from the menu that appears at the bottom center of the document (Figure 3.49). The number on the left should stay relatively constant (unless you scale or crop the image); it indicates how much memory the image would use if all the layers were merged. The number on the right indicates how much memory the image is using with all the layers included. This number changes as you add and modify layers. Keep an eye on it so that you can see how memory-intensive the different layers are. Figure 3.49 View the document’s memory usage at the bottom of the document window. The number on the right might get huge if you’re using a lot of layers; however, keep in mind that by glancing at the left number you’ll know exactly how large the image will be when you fl atten the layers. Layers play such a huge role in Photoshop that to deny yourself any crucial information about them is asking for trouble. With every new release, Adobe likes to pack more and more functions into the Layers panel. So, as time goes on, understanding layers will become even more essential. You should feel comfortable with them before you move on to more advanced areas of Photoshop. The Power of Curves Curves can be used for just about anything; in fact, it’s probably the one adjustment tool you should use all the time. By mastering the Curves dialog, you’ll have more control over your images than you thought possible. We’re not talking about a simple bell curve here, but rather a robust adjustment system that can make ordinary images look extraordinary. Once you’ve merged two layers, it’s awfully hard to get them apart— the only way to do so is to use the History panel. However, even with the History panel, you might lose all the changes you’ve made since you merged the layers. [...]... grayscale ramp shows all of the original gray tones in the image, and running vertically along the side is a grayscale ramp showing what each point on the curve will become after you click OK Figure 3.73 Photoshop CS4 s Curves dialog 122 The “curve” is the diagonal line that runs from lower left to upper right When you first open the Curves dialog, the curve is not curvy As you’ve seen, the curve indicates II:... Layers and Curves The mode of your image determines where you’ll start Photoshop assumes that images in grayscale, CMYK, or LAB mode will be printed, and defaults to using the gradient that represents ink Because your monitor displays everything using red, green, and blue light, images in RGB mode use the gradient that represents light Photoshop doesn’t care which system you use It can easily translate... Adjustments > Curves to reapply the last settings used on an image When you drag, Photoshop displays a set of light gray crosshairs to help you see exactly how the bottom grayscale ramp corresponds to the left ramp If these crosshairs are distracting, turn off the Intersection Line check box in the Curve Display Options Photoshop also leaves a light gray baseline (a copy of the original flat curve), so... numbering systems can be used in the Curves dialog When you change the Show Amount Of radio button setting from Light to Pigment/Ink, Photoshop automatically changes the numbering system from the 0–255 system to percentages If you’re working on an image that’s in RGB mode, Photoshop assumes that you’re going to use the image onscreen instead of printing it Therefore, when you open Curves, it uses Input... working on an image that’s in grayscale or CMYK mode, Photoshop assumes that you’ll be printing the image Therefore, when you open Curves, it uses numbers ranging from 0–100% These numbers represent the amount of ink used to reproduce each level of gray in the image (0% = no ink; 100% = solid ink) When you switch between the two numbering systems, Photoshop also reverses the gradients at the bottom and... concentrate on ink settings throughout this chapter Most users are more comfortable thinking about the effect of ink on an image, rather than the effect of light Ink is the exact opposite of light, so Photoshop can easily translate what you’re attempting to do, even if your image will be displayed using light None of these changes could be made by using Levels or Brightness/Contrast (that is, not without... any image and choose Image > Adjustments > Curves Move your pointer over the image, and then click and drag across the area where you want to exaggerate the detail A circle appears in the Curves dialog Photoshop is simply looking at the bottom gradient to find the shade of gray under your pointer; it then puts a circle on the curve directly above that shade This circle indicates the area of the curve... tool into a normal curve, click the Curve icon (Figure 3.100) Drawing straight lines: You can also draw straight lines with the Pencil tool (Figure 3.101) Just Shift-click across the graph area, and Photoshop will connect the dots to create a straight line Posterizing: By drawing a stair-step shape with the Pencil tool, you can accomplish the same effect as if you had used the Posterize command Input... a correspondence between the original gray tones on the bottom and the new gray tones on the side When the curve is a straight diagonal, all output tones are identical to the input tones Starting with Photoshop CS3, Adobe added a grayed-out histogram display behind the actual curve This feature makes it easier to determine which part of the curve corresponds to specific tonal regions within the image... adjustments available in the Levels, Brightness/Contrast, and Threshold dialogs—and much, much more In fact, you can adjust each of the 256 shades of gray in your image independently (Figure 3.59) Figure 3.59 Photoshop s adjustment hierarchy The Concept of Curves Before we delve deeply into Curves, let’s test your present knowledge of the Curves dialog (The lower your score, the more you should enjoy this section.) . apply adjustments that will affect multiple layers. But CS4 goes one step further with a new Adjustments panel, making the use of this key Photoshop feature even easier. This is the most versatile. manage all the layers. Every time you create a new layer and add something to it, Photoshop gobbles up more memory. Photoshop not only has to remember what’s on that layer, but what’s below it. memory the layers take as you’re modifying an image, choose Document Sizes from the menu that appears at the bottom center of the document (Figure 3.49). The number on the left should stay