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Thread: The Power (and ease) of Layers in Photoshop

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    Default The Power (and ease) of Layers in Photoshop

    Several people have expressed an interest in learning more about Layers in Photoshop. I've written a tutorial that some folks may find useful. As it's a bit long to put in a frame here, you can download it as a PDF.

    http://www.dianedmiller.com/00tutori...ers-Basics.pdf

    Hope it's helpful, and as, as with images, C&C always welcome, along with questions.

    (OK -- the picture is just stuck in as a teaser, to get your attention in the forum contents list!)
    Last edited by Doug Brown; 08-27-2017 at 02:26 PM.

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    Hi Diane, The image worked perfectly... just read your tutorial, thanks very much its very interesting..

    DON

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    BPN Member Sandy Witvoet's Avatar
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    Image sure got my attention! Read thru the tutorial... EXCELLENT! I'll be printing it off and hope to practice with it this weekend! SO much better than any of the books. Thanks for taking time to do this and for sharing your expertise with us!
    www.mibirdingnetwork.com .... A place for bird and nature lovers in the Great Lakes area.

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    BPN Member Sandy Witvoet's Avatar
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    Image sure got my attention! Read thru the tutorial... EXCELLENT! I'll be printing it off and hope to practice with it this weekend! SO much better than any of the books. Thanks for taking time to do this and for sharing your expertise with us!
    www.mibirdingnetwork.com .... A place for bird and nature lovers in the Great Lakes area.

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    Thanks! I'm sure some things could be written more clearly so shoot with questions (email is easier) and I'll revise as needed.

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    Thanks! I'm sure some things could be written more clearly so shoot with questions (email is easier) and I'll revise as needed.

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    Diane
    You might also wish to include the power of linking layers. You touch on it very briefly, but its pretty useful if you have created a set of layers that modify (say adjustment layers) and now want to move that object by grabbing and moving it. It you try this, the other modifier layers won't move with it. By linking a group of layers together, when you grab the item and move it, all the layers move in unison. So linking is very useful beyond simply linking to the background layer, and you don't have to link to the background layer.
    Keep up the good work.
    regards
    Don

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    Good thing to add -- trying to stay simple and cover all the bases isn't easy! So much good stuff in PS.

    I just now found your reply while out and about on my iPhone and hope I can remember to add it to the next draft when I'm back at the computer.

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    BPN Member Anette Mossbacher's Avatar
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    I stumbled over this, sure it was the image :)
    Thanks so much for your work with this. Have to agree, much better than in those books you can buy.

    Thank you

    Ciao Anette

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    Thanks, Anette! (Of course, the picture WAS done with layers...)

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    Excellent!!!! Thanks so much for your time and work.

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    You're all welcome! There is so much to know with this stuff and we weren't born knowing it.

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    BPN Member Cheryl Slechta's Avatar
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    Good stuff, Diane! Thanks for taking the time to work on this
    "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly" - The Little Prince

    http://tuscawillaphotographycherylslechta.zenfolio.com/

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    I'm having trouble getting the link here to update to a new version of this tutorial. I am now creating some new tutorials and revising some old ones that are no longer available from their previous source. They will be listed on my web site and downloadable there as PDFs.

    See the link below.

    Last edited by Diane Miller; 11-27-2015 at 06:56 PM.

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    Forum Participant Valerio Tarone's Avatar
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    Diane thank for your article, i had printed it to read it better. I'm completely new to Photoshop as I used Nikon Capture before. So I have tro study.....I read some tutorials about astro photography, if I well understand stacking is used also to reduce noise. Please answer..Valerio

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    Thanks, Valerio! If you have a still subject you can shoot several exposures and stack them to reduce noise. Of course they need to align perfectly, and you set them to a blending mode -- sorry but just now I don't remember which one. (Or you can successively reduce opacity according to a formula that you can find online. (No time to check on it now -- I can get back to you if you can't find it.) I haven't done that in years for regular photography but it is common for astrophotography using more sophisticated methods. The simplest is to stack (and align) in PS, select all layers and convert to smart object. The go to Layer > Smart Objects > Stack Mode > Median. (The astro processing programs do a similar thing way behind the scenes.)

    There is a lot of information online and some of it is good...

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    Forum Participant Valerio Tarone's Avatar
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    Diane,thank you. In any way it's difficult for me do astro or night photography simply because in Italy there are few suitable places. I did one last august, it'sprentable because it's too dark. Deserts are good places..I've got the PScS I don't find 'syncronise' in PSc5 the tutorial says first to do 'syncronize'. cherio,by, happy new year!

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    Forum Participant Valerio Tarone's Avatar
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    Diane a mistake: the photo it isn't presentable because...

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    Re Pane 17 above: There is nothing in this tutorial about synchronizing -- that is in Lightroom.

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