Part III: Selections, Layers, and Channels 298 The Layer Menu and the Layers Panel Menu As with any panel, tool, or dialog box in Photoshop, knowing the menu options available while working with layers is what gives you the power and versatility to make the Photoshop creations you’ve envisioned. I’ve listed the menus here as a reference; they’ll be much easier for you to understand after you’ve read this chapter and worked at least a little bit with layers, but be sure to come back to them, because I guarantee you’ll find options you forgot about. When it comes to layers, two menus do all the work: the Layer menu, found in the menu bar above the document window, and a compact version in the Layers panel menu, found in the top- right corner of the Layers panel. These menus have some identical options, but some options are found in one menu and not the other. I start with the Layer menu, because it has the most options, and then move on to the options that are found only on the Layers panel menu. The Layer menu The Layer menu, as shown in Figure 10.4, has these options for working with layers: l New: l Layer: Creates a new blank layer in the Layers panel. l Background from layer: Turns the current layer into a locked background layer. l Group: Creates a group in the Layers panel. l Group from Layers: Creates a group in the Layers panel and adds all selected layers to that group. l Layer via Copy: Creates a new layer containing the last item copied into the clip- board. l Layer via Cut: Creates a new layer containing the last item cut. l Duplicate Layer: Creates an exact copy of the layer that is selected. l Delete: l Layer: Deletes the currently selected layer. l Hidden Layers: Deletes any layers that have the visibility icon turned off. l Layer Properties: Displays the name and associated color of the currently selected layer. l Layer Style: Adds a new layer style to the currently selected layer. Layer styles can be anything from drop shadows to inner glows and are covered later in this chapter; I also discuss several of the Photoshop effects throughout the book. l Smart Filter: Allows you to make changes to any Smart Filters attached to the selected layer. Smart Filters are covered later in this chapter and used throughout the book. l New Fill Layer: Adds a fill to a layer. This fill can be a color, gradient, or pattern. 16_584743-ch10.indd 29816_584743-ch10.indd 298 5/3/10 10:25 AM5/3/10 10:25 AM Chapter 10: All about Layers 299 FIGURE 10.4 The Layer menu l New Adjustment Layer: An adjustment layer is an image enhancement that is placed as a non-destructive layer over your image. These adjustments range from levels to hue and saturation adjustments. Fill and Adjustment layers are covered in more depth later in this chapter. l Layer Content Options: Opens the settings of a selected Smart Filter, Fill layer, or Adjustment layer so you can change them. l Layer Mask: Creates a new pixel mask on the selected layer. 16_584743-ch10.indd 29916_584743-ch10.indd 299 5/3/10 10:25 AM5/3/10 10:25 AM Part III: Selections, Layers, and Channels 300 l Vector Mask: Creates a new vector mask on the selected layer. l Create Clipping Mask: Creates a clipping mask using the layer below the selected one. Masks are covered in greater detail later in this chapter. l Smart Objects: This option has a submenu of multiple options for creating and using Smart Objects. Smart Objects are discussed in detail later in this chapter. l Video Layers: Provides options here for working with video layers. They are covered when we discuss working with video in Chapter 26. l Type: Provides options having to do with layers containing text. They are covered in Chapter 17. l Rasterize: Creates a raster image from the vector objects listed in the Rasterize submenu. As discussed in Chapter 3, a vector object is based on a set of values that describe lines. A raster image is one that is made up of pixels. l New Layer Based Slice: Creates a slice that conforms to the proportions of the selected layer. l Group Layers: Groups the selected layers. l Ungroup Layers: Ungroups the selected layers. l Hide Layers: Turns off the visibility of selected layers. l Arrange: Changes the position of the selected layer(s) in the Layers panel relative to the option chosen. For instance, you can bring the selected layer to the front, which places it at the top of the Layers panel. l Align: Aligns the objects on the selected layers based on the parameters found in the Align submenu. For instance, you can center all the selected layers with each other so they cre- ate a symmetrical row. l Distribute: Moves each layer the exact same distance from one another based on the parameters in the Distribute submenu. To use this option, at least three layers must be selected and none of the layers can be locked. l Lock all Layers in Group: Locks all the layers in the group with the selected layer. l Link Layers: Links two or more selected layers. When layers are linked, moving, resizing, or otherwise transforming one also affects the other layer, just as if you had both layers selected in the layers panel. l Select Linked Layers: Selects all the layers that are linked. l Merge Down: Merges the selected layer(s) with the layer directly beneath it. l Merge Visible: Merges all layers with the visibility icon turned on. l Flatten Image: Merges all the layers into a single background layer. l Matting: l Color Decontaminate: Reduces a color fringe or halo around the edges of a selection by reducing the saturation of any color on the edges that isn’t found in other areas of the selection. 16_584743-ch10.indd 30016_584743-ch10.indd 300 5/3/10 10:25 AM5/3/10 10:25 AM Chapter 10: All about Layers 301 l Defringe: Removes halos from selections by replacing aberrant color with pixels far- ther into the selection. l Remove Black or White matte: Removes halos around images whose edges have been anti-aliased and that have been cut out of a black or white background. The anti-aliasing caused the edges of these images to blend with the background, creating a halo. The Layers panel menu The Layers panel menu, shown in Figure 10.5, has the most common options found the Layer menu. A few of the options do basically the same thing as options found in the Layer menu but go under a different name. Some of the options have to do strictly with the Layers panel, so they are found only in the Layers panel menu. FIGURE 10.5 The Layers panel menu These additional options are found only in the Layers panel menu: l Convert to Smart Object: This option converts the selected layer into a Smart Object for use with Smart Filters. This option is found in the Layer menu under the Smart Objects option. It is discussed later in this chapter, as well as in areas of the book where filters are discussed. 16_584743-ch10.indd 30116_584743-ch10.indd 301 5/3/10 10:25 AM5/3/10 10:25 AM Part III: Selections, Layers, and Channels 302 l Edit Contents: The contents of a Smart Object are effectively kept in a different file to protect them from changes. This option allows you to make changes to the original file. l Blending Options: This option opens the Layer Style menu where you can create a Blending option for the selected layer. This is not as easy or straightforward as simply using the Blending options drop-down menu found on the Layers panel itself. Blending options are covered later in this chapter. l Edit Adjustment: This option opens the Adjustments panel for a selected Adjustment layer and allows you to edit the settings. l Animation Options: Additional options for the Layers panel deal with animation. These options can be shown automatically when an animation is being created, or they can be turned on or off. These options are discussed in Chapter 26. l Panel Options: This option allows you to change how your Layers panel appears and how layers are shown. Figure 10.6 shows the options that are available. FIGURE 10.6 Use the Layers panel options to change the way the Layers panel looks and displays lay- ers and effects. l Close: This option closes the Layer panel. l Close Tab Group: This option reduces the entire tab group containing the Layers panel to an icon. 16_584743-ch10.indd 30216_584743-ch10.indd 302 5/3/10 10:25 AM5/3/10 10:25 AM Chapter 10: All about Layers 303 The Layers Panel The Layers panel is arguably the most used panel in Photoshop. It is so popular that it appears in every panel preset. Whether you are a photographer using Photoshop to enhance your photo- graphs or working with 3D objects, the Layers panel is a vital part of what you are doing in Photoshop. The panel is found in the lower-right corner of the Photoshop workspace, but as you learned in Chapter 2, you can move it to any position you would like. It works out well at the bottom, though, because the Layers panel has a tendency to grow. You’ll see what I mean very soon. A quick look at the Layers panel, shown in Figure 10.7, shows several icons, settings, and drop- down menus. They are covered throughout this chapter. FIGURE 10.7 The Layers panel Opacity and Fill settings The Opacity and Fill drop-down menus both allow you to change the opacity of a selected layer, but in different ways. The opacity setting is just that, a representation of the opacity of the selected layer. The higher the percent that is displayed, the more opaque the selected layer is. As the per- centage goes down, the layer becomes more transparent. The Fill setting also adjusts opacity, but only the opacity of the fill. A normal image layer disap- pears just as easily with a Fill adjustment as an Opacity adjustment, but an object or text layer reacts very differently. Figure 10.8 demonstrates how adjusting the fill opacity on a shape layer reduces just the fill, while the outline (or stroke) remains, along with any styles that have been applied. On the Web Site Try different Layers panel setting by downloading Figure 10-8 from the Web site. n 16_584743-ch10.indd 30316_584743-ch10.indd 303 5/3/10 10:25 AM5/3/10 10:25 AM Part III: Selections, Layers, and Channels 304 FIGURE 10.8 Reducing the fill opacity leaves the outline of the shape. You can adjust both the Opacity and the Fill settings in three ways. The first is to highlight the per- centage that is shown and type a new percentage. If you know exactly what percentage to use, this is probably the fastest method. Second, you can click the down arrow to open the drop-down slider and use it to adjust the setting. The third, and by far the easiest, method is to use the scrub- ber. Click and drag over the setting name (Opacity or Fill) and a two-sided arrow appears. Drag left to decrease the setting and right to increase it. Lock settings The Layers panel has four different lock settings, as shown in Figure 10.9. Locking different aspects of your layers means that those aspects can’t be changed. Each lock works on a different aspect of your layer, giving you a wide range of versatility. Select the layer you want to lock, and then decide which lock you want to use. The first option is Lock Transparent pixels. Click this icon, and all the transparent pixels in your image are locked. You can add fills, make color corrections, or add styles or filters to the rest of the image, but the transparent pixels remain pristine. The second option is Lock Image Pixels. This protects the image pixels from the paint tools. The third option is Lock Position. This locks the position of the objects in the layer, keeping them static inside the document. You can still change other things about the layer, adjusting the color or adding a filter, for instance. The last option is Lock All. This keeps your layer visible but protects it from any accidental changes. A background layer is automatically locked. 16_584743-ch10.indd 30416_584743-ch10.indd 304 5/3/10 10:25 AM5/3/10 10:25 AM Chapter 10: All about Layers 305 FIGURE 10.9 The Layers panel has different types of lock settings that allow you to protect your layers. Lock Transparent Pixels Lock Image Pixels Lock Position Lock All Blending modes Blending modes create amazing special effects by changing the way layers affect each other. At the beginning of this chapter, I asked you to imagine that layers were like transparencies stacked on top of one another. Using Blending modes is an example of how using digital technology has taken this idea one step further. Imagine that your transparencies are made of gel rather than plastic, and that rather than sitting on top of one another, they can blend with each other. Then imagine that you can determine which areas of the images on your transparencies would blend and how. Last but not least, imagine that you finish blending them, and you hate the result, but you find that you can pull them apart and start all over with your original images. But blending modes do more than blend two images together. They can be used on any layer that is added to your Layers panel. You can use them to change the way a layer style is applied, to blend a pattern into an image, or even to change an adjustment layer into a special effect. The drop-down menu at the top of the Layers panel shown in Figure 10.10 shows the different blending modes you can use to choose how the selected layer affects the layers under it. The blending modes are divided into six general categories, explained in the following sections. 16_584743-ch10.indd 30516_584743-ch10.indd 305 5/3/10 10:25 AM5/3/10 10:25 AM . working with 3D objects, the Layers panel is a vital part of what you are doing in Photoshop. The panel is found in the lower-right corner of the Photoshop workspace, but as you learned in Chapter. Layers panel is arguably the most used panel in Photoshop. It is so popular that it appears in every panel preset. Whether you are a photographer using Photoshop to enhance your photo- graphs or. Part III: Selections, Layers, and Channels 298 The Layer Menu and the Layers Panel Menu As with any panel, tool, or dialog box in Photoshop, knowing the menu options