Lessons

Lesson Info

Adjustment Layers

The first thing we're gonna do with layer masks is create this collage right here. And you can see that this image that I've clicked to activate is really a composite of these two images right here. So what we're gonna do is combine the photos into a single document. We're gonna add a layer mask, and then we're gonna use it because it's our digital masking tape to hide part of the photo so that the effect we get is one photo fading into another photo. I got to call that a hand painted collage because you're you're painting by hand with the brush tool toe hide, part of one image. So that's what we're going to do. First, let's go ahead and pop open these images, and I'm activating several images. Enbridge by holding down the shift key and then I'm pressing command O for open or control. Oh, for open and they all pop open. So let's take a moment to look at our layers panel of this composite image or collage right here. What we have is we have a baseball on the layer at the very bottom of ...

the layer stack and I can also see that the baseball has been scooted over to the right. Okay, because I can see some transparency here on the next layer. I can see we've got the baseball player and he's been scooted a little bit to the left because I can see a little transparent here. Transparency is that check award pattern, which is just photo shots. Way of saying, Hey, there ain't nothin here. This little guy right here is the layer mask. And remember our rhyme that we talked about earlier Black conceals white reveals. So you're masking tape in photo shop is black instead of cream colored or blue. So if this previous thumbnail is a miniature of our document and the layer mask thumbnail is also a miniature of our document, you can tell at a glance what part of the photo is being hidden. And that's the right hand side. That's where the black is black conceals white reveals at the top of our layers stack. Here, we've got an adjustment layer, and we're going to see this adjustment layer put into practice at the end of the day, when we do some finishing touches and creative color effects. Just one of my favorite things to do. So this is an adjustment layer. That's where the black and white is coming from. But it's not a pure black and white because as we click on this layer, look at the opacity. It's been dropped to 71%. That's why we've got this partial black and white. Almost grunge effect going on is if I pumped up the opacity of that layer, it would be a true black and white, but in drop in the opacity of the adjustment layer that I used to create in the black and white. Then I can create yet another look to it. And again, Adjustment layer is just another kind of layer like image layers, shape layers, type players and so on. But an adjustment layer has specific settings and hair into. So if you double click the thumbnail icon in your layers panel here of any adjustment layer, then you see the settings for that particular adjustment. So it's basically the same. Hey, photo shop. I want to make this change that make that change happen in its own layer. That way you can throw it away. If you don't like it, drop its opacity, etcetera. So let's go ahead and reverse. Let's go ahead and rebuild this file. So in this case, I've also given you the original source files so you can start out with one of the other. Doesn't matter which one. Let's say, Let's start with the baseball player. Okay, so what's the first step into creating this collage? We've got to get that baseball into this Photoshopped document on its own layer. So we looked at several waste. Is that earlier Dragging and dropping from one document to the other, but copy and pasting. It's so easy. It's so very easy. So let's go ahead and do that. So I've got both documents open and clicking the tab of the Istock ball. These photos came from Istock photo. So we're gonna select all Commander control. A got are marching ants. Now we're gonna copy to our clipboard, Commander Control. See, now we're gonna come over to our other documents. She's edit Paste Man Control V. There we go. Now we have two photos on individual layers in a single Photoshopped document. Now we're ready to start adjusting the layer stacking order, depending upon what image we want to be on top. So you want to spend a minute thinking about How do I want to make this collage? Don't want the baseball player on top. I want the ball on top what I want to do in our situation. I want the baseball player on top. So if I click and drag to change the layer stacking or over here, photo shops gonna squawk at me because actually squats at me in the form of that, you can't do this icon. Why is that? That's because this background layers locked. The fix is to simply double click it Impress. Return to dismiss The new name Dialog box should give it another name if you want. Now, when we click and drag to move that ball down to the bottom of our layers stack photo shop. Let's this So once you've gotten all the pieces and parts into the same document, then spend the moment thinking about layer stacking order and rearrange them as necessary by clicking and dragging up or down in your layers panel. The next thing we want to do is add a layer mask and we're gonna add it to the top layer. Why the top layer. Well, we need to hide part of it so that we see through it. So what's on the layer underneath? Which is the ball? Okay, if we go back and look at our final, see how we can see through this layer where the layer mask is to what's underneath, which is the ball right here. Let's come back to our other layer or other document in progress. Rather, now let's add a layer mask. A layer mask comes along with every Phil layer in adjustment layer automatically, but they don't automatically get tagged onto image layers. So we need to add one manually. The way you do that is click the circle within the square. Come on, circle within the square icon at the very bottom of your layers panel. Here we go. This guy right here looks like a circle within the square. That one right there and again, if you point your cursor to that icon Ah, little tool tips gonna come up and say what that button does. So add layer mask. So we're going to give that a click and you'll see that white thumbnail appear next to the layer thumbnail. Nothing changed. Why because when you add a layer mask in that way, it's empty. So if masking tape is black and the diesel ground, there's no black here, so everything on that layer is being revealed. Now we can use any tool we want to that will lay down black paint. Easiest to use the brush tool because you can paint it. You could also create a selection and then fill with black. Anything you can do to get black into that mass is gonna hide that part of the image. I think it's easiest to use the brush tool. That's just my opinion. So let's go grab the regular old brush tool, not the spot healing tool, the regular brush tool. If we click and hold down our mouse button on that tool set, we want to make sure that that very 1st 1 is active. Now it's tried up to the options bar, and let's make sure that we have a soft edge brush because we want the transition from one photo to the other to be soft. So we need a soft and brush, not a hard edge brush. So with the brush tool active, click this little downward pointing triangle next to the brush preset picker. This guy right here, Give it a single click and you just want to make sure that one of these guys right here is active. See how this one is soft and fluffy. That one's hard does seem a little bit more, this one soft and fluffy. This has got a hard edge. This illness often fluffy. The only difference between these three soft, fluffy ones is the default brush size. But we're gonna be changing brush size with our keyboard shortcuts, so we really don't care. So just pick any one of these and then click that little triangle again to close up that menu. Now let's come over here to our document and for a really soft transition. You want a very big brush. So I'm gonna hold down my left bracket key and go up in brush size and with my mask active. And I know it's active because it has that extra little bracket around it. See how when I click the layer thumbnail now it has the bracket. You want to make sure that the bracket is around the mass because you don't want to lay down black paint on your photo, so click the mass to activate it. Now, the final thing that we need to do is make sure that we're painting with black Member at the top of the class. This morning we were looking at those foreground and background color chips. The foreground color chip is what the brush tool is gonna pull from, so we need that to be black. Well, a quick peek at my color chips reveals that Oh, no, I've already got black is my background color chip. All I have to do is flip flop those color chips, click the little curved arrow or simply press the X key. Now, if you're color chips or anything other than black and white, you can either click this little button to reset them to black and white or just press D more often times than not. I'm in such a habit. As soon as I get into a layer mask, I pressed D to reset my color chips to the default of black and white without even looking down there. And then I take a peek and then I press tex until black cops on top, and now I'll come over here to the image. And as I paint, we're revealing what's underneath because we're hiding that part of the image. Now I want to scoot my baseball player over to the left, and I want to scoot my baseball over to the right click to activate the layer. Thumbnail. Not the mask, though. In this case, it really wouldn't matter. Go grab the move. Tool The very top left of your, uh, tools panel or press the Wiki V for move. And now we're going to scoot this guy to the lift. Well, what if I don't want to accidentally scooped him up and down? I only want to scoot him to the left present. Hold your shift key, and that will constrain the move. That's interesting. That will constrain the move to perfectly vertical or horizontal. That's a lot of fun. There we go. See how, even if I if I move my mouse up and down, it's not moving, Okay? So just get a position kind of like that. Now we want to click to activate the baseball layer, and now we still have the move to active. Now lips move that to the right. A little bit. So now we may want to go back and find too in the mask. Okay. So we could click the mass to activate it, switch back to the brush tool. Still got all of our settings that we had. And now we continue to find Tune that collage. And everywhere that I am laying down black pain, the content of that layer is being hidden. Now, what if I screw up and I had too much to have to start over? Heck, no. If black conceals and white reveals, all I have to do is flip flop my color chips so that I'm painting with white. And then I can paint back over the area that I accidentally hit. So let's press X now why? It is my foreground color ship. And now I can bring back the areas that perhaps I didn't need to hide to begin with. That is the flexibility of layer masks. Very, very forgiven. So typically, I'll keep again a free hand on the bracket keys to alter brush size. But I'll also keep one finger on the X key to flip fought back and forth because you'll do a lot of that when you're masking, flip flopping back and forth and you'll get very fast at it, you know? So if I accidentally screw up and I can come back in here and let's say I do that and I decide Oh, Dad gum and I want a little bit more of him hidden so X again. Go down and brushed size. Come back over here. See, as I go down and brush size, the transition becomes a little bit harder, not as soft. So you could come in here. It's not do that. You could come in here and be rather precise with your collages as well. You know, get pretty close, but more often than not, I like, keep in mind nice and soft, so I'll use a larger brush so that the transition. It's also faster because you don't have to be as perfect with it now. The last thing that we did was we added a black and white adjustment layer so we can do that real quick. Trot down to the half white, half black circle with the bottle of your layers panel. Choose black and white. That's probably the easiest things to remember. You want black and white. Go down to that half black, half white circle into use black and white, so automatically with an adjustment layer Photoshopped does. The thing gives you all these wonderful up sliders that you can use to fine tune the black and white. The sliders are great because they tell you with the colors on the bar, what's gonna happen depending upon the direction that you drive the slider. So right now, the reds in my image okay, if I drag the slider to the left, I will make them darker. If I drag the slider to the right, I will make them lighter wherever reds appear in the image, saying with yellows, green science, blues and magenta as so, we'll zoom back out. I confined team in the look of my collage very easily with the sliders. It's a great way to drop the color out of your image for a black and white. It's not a true black and white, because if you looked in the channels panel, we would still have all the color channels in there. So if you are a graphic designer going to pre press, there's another step you would have to do to make a true black and white, and that's to change it to gray scale mode. That's a little bit beyond the scope of this particular class. But for most people, this will be just fine. So there's are black and white. I'm just going to collapse this properties panel by clicking this little double triangle to make it go away. And then we're gonna drop the opacity of just the black and white layer. And now we've got nearly the same collage that we started out with. Okay, so I'm gonna blast through that at rocket speed real quickly here. So I'm gonna go up to my window and you choose history and scroll all the way up to my open command. Come back over here to the ball image. I didn't change anything over there, so that's fine. So let's start again. Our first task is to get both images in the same document. OK, select all copy paste command a control. A commander control See, flipped to the other document, Commander control V change layer stacking order unlocked that background layer so Photoshopped doesn't squawk it you by double clicking it, add a layer mask to the top layer by clicking the circle within the square. The very bottom of the layers panel. Grab the regular brush tool from the tools handle. Trot up to the brush preset picker in the options bar. Make sure you've got one of these. Soft edged brush is active. Just give it a click. Come back down to the image there and take a peek at your color chips at the bottom of your tools panel Press D. If there anything other than black and white to reset them to the default black and white press X to flip flop them. Make sure black is on top because black conceals and white reveals. Come over here to your images. Your bracket keys to go up in brush, size or down and brush size and begin to paint. If you need to move the elements around, switched to the move tool. Make sure you're on the layer that you want to affect. Skip this guy over press and hold the shift key. If you want to constrain the move to be horizontal or vertical, click the ball layer. We've still got the move till active with Scoop him over to the right Now Let's go back to our layer mask. So we're doing a live clicking in the layers panel. But that's just to tell Photoshopped what we want to change. So we're back in the mask. We know we're back in the Mass because we've got that extra little bracket around the corners. Switch back to the brush tool with all of our same settings. Continue fine tuning our mask. If we screw up, press the X key so that white is on top paint over the area that you didn't mean to hide to begin with. Last but not least, we're gonna do a little bit of a creative color effect. Trot down to the half black, half white, circle that bottle of your layers panel. Choose black and white, tweak thes ciders if you want, and then drop the opacity of the black and white layer for a slightly colored grungy look. Any questions from the audience on that? Yes. If you wanted the baseball to be smaller, would you use the free transform tool to absolutely great question If we want to resize any element, the collage click to activate that layer in someone free transform, My pressing commander control T. All right, let's get some more from the Internet. Um, you got a lot of good ones here. Let's start with Harb. It's wants to know about the number of Hindus or controls Ease. Has that gone up in CS six? That is their way to alter that great question. It has not changed in several versions of the program. It said a 25 straight from the factory, but you can change it in photo shops preferences on the Mac. You're gonna choose the photo shop menu preferences on a PC, preferences in the edit menu. So Photoshopped preferences. And once that dialogue box opens, you have several different sections here, and that particular one is in performance. So preferences Performance. Actually, it's 20 so you can change it right here. But again, with great power comes great responsibility. Photo shop is having to keep a copy in its brain of everything that you do. However, many numbers that you choose here do not pump that sucker up to 1000. All right, people, step away from the history states. Okay, that's bad. Okay, if you want to bump it up, I'd say you're probably safe somewhere in the 50 or 100 range. If you've got a fast computer with a lot of hard drive space, because it's cashing versions of that document for every state that you want to save, so I usually leave it set Teoh 2 20 But that's how you can change it again. That's Photoshopped Preferences performance on a Mac or Edit Preferences performance on a PC, and it's over here in the history states little section. All right, least I have a question. This might be more advanced in this course, but motive wanted to know what is pay special used for. You can use pay special to pace and item inside an active selection, which can be handy when you do. That photo shop will automatically create a layer mask to hide the thing that you're pasting from the outside of the shape of the selection that you've made. All right, let's close out all these images and now let's take a look at and here again I've given you a slew of other files to play with, so let's just take a pic of this one real fast. So what I did here is a technique that rolling Stone magazine has used every single issue since the magazines Conception for Real. Look at the cover of it and the header. The logo looks like it's behind. Whatever rock star do jour is on the cover. How they do that with a layer mask. This is the exact same technique. So what we've done, I'll just temporarily hide the layer mask by control or right clicking on it and choosing disabled layer mask. You'll see that the text, of course, is sitting on top of the little superheroes. Heads. Get that brush cursor out of the way, but with a layer mask. All I've done is I've created a text layer. Click the little circle within the square icon and with a brush, sets paint with black because black conceals white reveals, I have painstakingly hidden the peace of the letters so that it looks like it's behind the people. So just another use for a layer mask for you. So do experiment with these exercise files. They will him take the class to a whole nother level. Here's another example. This is a little postcard that I have made here, and if we look at our layers panel we've got a solid color feel layer. How do you know that's what it is? Because that's what the layer name is. Okay, solid color fill layer that's got some black in it, which means in that part of that layer content it's being hidden, so that makes a nice little fluffy spot for text. So without that layer, the text would be impossible to read. So dig around in these exercise files because I've gotten some nice little goodies in there for you.