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Creative Layout Options: Layer Comps

So this section. We're going to talk about layouts and templates and things like that. Now, to me, layouts mean by definition I think of that as more than one layer laid out in some way. So that's what to me. A layout is, of course, you can always start from scratch every time and say, I'm just gonna create a layout and put things in certain places and that's fine. But you might be working on projects, whether it's album pages or something else, where you're going to do the same kind of thing over and over again. So that's part of what I think of as a template is something's going to save me time by doing that, Leo, you know, ahead of time and then filling in the blanks so speak. And a lot of that can be done, thanks to the world of smart objects. Also gonna talk in this section on something that's been around a photo shop for a long time that I love and I always feel like people miss this and don't use as much as they could. It's been around since probably Photoshopped five, not CS fi...

ve, but five. It's called layer cups, and it's really, really interesting because it allows you to organize, for example, a layout of layers in different ways. In a very simple way. I'm going to start with that because once I've shown that than everything else we can talk about can build on that concept. So here's an example Layout I created. Let's take a moment and look at the little structure of what this thing looks like and you'll see it has, let's see five layers. But if we look really closely, every single one of the layers has that little symbol on the corner. Me smart, smart, smart, smart. So right away, I'm even at this point. I've got a layout, but I'm not stuck with Oh well, I have to live with that because, for example, the background layer is a camera smart objects. So if I decide I really wanted to be different exposure, I can do that and update. And of course, that layer will update, according So that's why everything's done that way so that along with everything else, I can still edit the contents. But from a layout perspective, I've got some layers in there. I think I like the way it looks. But the real world, what happens is you're talking to the client and say we're going to do this, you know, album page or nice big print for you on canvas or something. And this is the layout that I've created for you. And if you're like 99.9% of every other person does this they're like, Oh, I love it. But how about we do this instead? Like, can you take put that photo there and make that photo here? And because people who don't use Photoshopped thinks, think everything in Photoshopped takes five minutes if you ever noticed that but people say what? Can you just do this in photo shots like doesn't quite that fast? So what I want to be able to do is to be able to go into this prepared for that and be able to show them five different variations on this layout. Now, if I didn't use this thing called layer calms, here's what I'd have to dio I'd have to say OK, so here's option number one looks like this often. Number two would be no floral thing, and we take this photo and move it down here and take this photo and move it up there like this. Maybe this one should be over here more. OK, so that's option to and they say, Show me Option one again. And you're like, OK, step backwards Enough times, Hopefully, You know, maybe I can maybe I can't, but a certain point, you don't want to be undoing and redoing all the time. So what I'd really like to do is position everything and then, in effect, record that as option one and then move things around and record. That is option two. And that's what you do with layer comps. So the reason I think a lot of people don't use layer compass when you open the panel, this is what it looks like. It says last documents state. And there's a bunch of buttons across the bottom and people like, uh okay, so a lot of people kind of go on. Oh, that's for because I'm not seeing anything happen. So the way that it works is you. I'm going to say that this first layout you're seeing, that's layout number one, which is everything in my original place. So I click the new button. I said, Let's make a layer, Kump. The first time you ever do this, it'll probably look like this. Where all is going to say is I'm gonna I'd like you to remember the visibility of my layers. Like what? Layers are visible, Nothing else. Personally, I like to say I'd like everything to be remembered. So the first time I turn on all these checked boxes, then they tend to stay on from then on. So I'm going to call this all layers as an example down the bottom here, where it says comment, that's for you. So you can put a comment that says all the layers in their original position or something that makes sense to you. You'll see in a minute where it shows up. But that's optional thing. So I'm just gonna put something so we can see that I've done it. Okay, so I hit. OK, so now I start making a change and we say, Okay, I don't want the floral thing there, and I think I want this photo over here and the one of the groom over there. Let's put that up there, By the way, I should mention I'm using a shortcut because I don't want to keep going back and forth to the layers panel. So when I'm clicking on a layer, I'm holding down command control Key to activate auto select layer. So then, when I click on a layer, I know it's the right one of my click on this one. I know it's the right one. There is an option up here called Auto Select Layer. I personally don't use that because half the time I select layers I don't want by mistake. So this way I'm activating it by holding down Commander Control, saying this layer should be up here. So let's say OK, so that's my second option is moved them around. I go back to the layer calms panel and I click other new layer comp, and I'm gonna call this bride, uh, groom on left left, he said. And no floral thing. I like to use technical terms in my comments. So that was my second choice, and you could see now how there's a little comment underneath there. So then let's do another one. We say, All right, so in this one, I'm going to lower the opacity actually, let's not do that. Let's do this. Let's add an adjustment layer like black and white. So I make the background black and white, and we're gonna put the floral thing on, but lower the opacity. So as they said, not only is that the position of things, it's also things like capacity blend modes, layer styles like bevel on Boss. All that kind of stuff can be part of a layer Kump. So we'll make it 1/3 layer comp and make this new one say black on white background that I will make one last one just so we can Let's take this one and just hide it. Take this black and white and faded out was kind of pale color in the background Layer cups new just bride groom Pale background, something that makes sense to you. Course you could just call them layer comp 12345 But that wouldn't be terribly helpful later on, so I click. OK, now it would save this file as a photo shop document the next time I opened it, that's in there waiting for me. Now if you had a big enough monitor which I don't have here. You could position this so the layer comes. Panel was off to the side and they were looking at their photo. And in fact, if you did it properly enough, you wouldn't have to have the layers panel showing. But I'm going to do it so you can see what's happening. So take a look at the Layers panel Right now, you can see this layer is hidden. There's that black and white adjustment layer. So now if I go to my layer, cops say, Let's go. But here's option number one. So I click on that. It puts everything back, though I waas or Here's option two Option three option for So instead of every time me going hide, hide, move, change of passing, all that kind of stuff. It's doing it for me. So it remembers the visibility, position and appearance. An appearance includes blend if slider blend mode a lot. People when they hear layer style, they think drop shadow or those kind of things under this menu here. But it's anything when you look inside anything in here so that includes blend mode, opacity, blend if sliders. So that means if you are experimenting Let's say, for example, I put a texture over the top of this, and I want to try five different ways of blending in the texture. I could do. Layer cops for just the blend mode blend mode, plus blend if sliders lower opacity all these options that are now just built into the document. I use this all the time when I'm doing one of two things. I'm either showing someone else, and I know they're going to say what else you got, but also just for myself. If I'm experimenting, I want to try different things than this is a really nice way to do it. The only thing that you have to there's a couple things about layer compass that air, the potential Gutches that get people in there like huh? Why didn't that work? I don't have any text on here, but let's say I did, and I had their name in some neat font, and I include that in the layer Kump. If I want to have their name in a different thought, that would mean I'd have to make a different layer, because if you change the content like the color of something or the thought that changed across all layer comp because it still just one layer. So if I wanted to say Ah, smaller floral gizmo on the corner, I'd have to duplicate that and make a 2nd 1 that was smaller and then shore hide one or the other. And that's the first thing that kind of throws people off because they're thinking I can change anything. No, you can change position, visibility and layer style, not content. So if you change the font, if you change the color or anything like that, change the size you need to different ones. And once you get past that, okay, it makes sense. Now. If I want a local, a big logo, small, local, and then just show those accordingly. So that's the first thing. That's kind of ah, a bit of a catch. The other thing is, if you had a layer and you started making layer, confident, realized, I don't need that layer when you delete that layer, every single layer comfortable going to get a little warning symbol. Besides saying hold on a second now you're deleting a layer that I have in my layer comp. It may not be necessary because, you know, he didn't throw it away. But when the time you click that add new layer comp button, it was there. So it's gonna, you know, beep out at you and say Hold on a second so you can choose to ignore that. My suggestion is get to a point where you're pretty sure you have all the layers looking the way you want. If there's unnecessary layers, get rid of them, then start adding layer comes. But what's really fun about this, to me is this adds almost nothing to your file size. There's just a big, basic little recording of instructions and what I used to do, which now seems kind of funny that that was my approach. And I know other people do the same thing because until you know about Layer comes, why wouldn't you? Is if I was doing this, I would have made five different copies of this document and called it layout one Leo to Leo three and then six months there ago. Layout three. No idea what this. So now I have one document made up of smart objects that I can still edit. So even within this I apply a layer comp. If I go back and decide now, I want to adjust that particular layer as in the camera raw. I still can, because I'm not changing anything else with Blair Comp, but it remembers all those things we can record now. I don't want anyone to walk away from this discussion going well. I don't really do this kind of multi layered layout. You could also do this for I want to convert my photograph to a black and white, and I'm not sure how I want to do that. So the other day you talked about creating an action that added, like, say, three or four different ways of creating a black and white adjustment layer to affect your photograph. Well, you could imagine if I had, say, four Adjustment Layer is now. I could make a layer comp going these two, these two Onley, this one all four. So now, at a quick glance, I can compare which one do I like the look up from my black and white photograph. So that's another way to use Layer Constance. Particularly useful for multi layers were moving things around, but it can also just be instead of me going high tide show show. Hi. Hi. Hi, Choco Show And do all this individually manual manipulation of layers. That's what layer comes, come before. Um, if you do need Teoh, I believe Let me just check. I think they're still is. Yes, there still is. So if someone says, can you just send me these different options so I can look at them? You're not going to send them a photo shop file. So under the file scripts menu, there's two different options. One is to turn all those layer comes into a separate JPEG file or the one I would probably send Client turn the jape, the layer cops into a pdf file. So if there were five layer comes to be a five page pdf file where they could look to and go Oh, I like the 3rd 1 So you go. Okay, that's the one will use that. So this was sort of starting from the end result. First, I want you to see this first. So when every other layout I'm showing you that came in the back of your mind, that who I could use layer comfort to help with that now this part. We haven't really done anything, technically, to make it kind of a template yet, although it could be. But first of all, I want to show you that's where Layer confident. Really nice way to help, Visualize, to say What are my options? And how can I very quickly change between Like you said, this had been around for a long time and photo shop. It's just one of those things where most people just never seen it or never really grasped. Why would I use this? And there may be times where you might look it and go, Yeah, that doesn't resonate with me. I'm not going to use it. Then all of a sudden six months ago, there comes that could help me. So that's why I always like to show this in a discussion about creating layouts and things is for exactly that reason. Okay, so any questions on layer cost before we Let's see, Sam Cox just wanted to confirm. Can you just show what more time if you can reorder the layers? Um, well, basically, all I'm doing in here, that layer calms our whatever the current state of your layers panel So if I go in and heightened show and move them, then I clicked. Record at the new layer. Confident. Remember that position? So all I'm doing is I'm clicking on each one of these. Layer comes by the way, can always use these little arrows down the bottom, and that's kind of scrolls through all your layer constant. It's actually doing all the work for me, so photo shop is repositioning and turning layers on off as I'm hiding, she's been using. The different layer comes okay, and we just had another. I know that we always like to have these questions about the possibility that things being added to the software later. But Barham just wanted to know what your thoughts were on Adobe, adding, The layer calms to illustrator in design as the layer comes. Keep me doing working Photoshopped that they feel they could really be doing elsewhere. Yeah, I I would tend to agree. There's a lot of things that I look at. One program, like my favorite example, is scrubby sliders, which are so awesome in photo shop, and they don't exist in illustrator new design. I'm like, Seriously, it's a little slider thing come on. I was actually at Adobe once and was talking toe the people I knew on the Adobe team, I said, Out of curiosity, where did the in design people living like right down there? Can you take scrubby sliders and just give them to them? Say, please use these so I would love that. But who knows what Adobe thinks about that? The one thing I will say for those people that do use illustrator and in design, this is particularly cool. So if you don't use those programs, bear with me for a second. If I create layer comps in a PT PST file, if I import that PSD file into in design from with an in design, I can choose which Layer Compton show having to go back to photo shop to pick a different design from within. In Designer illustrator, I can decide which layer come from Photoshopped. I want actually use in my layout, and that's really cool. So if you're in in design user, that's a good reason to learn how to use layer confidence that you can access them not just in photo shop but also from any design. So yes, I wish they had that to layer. ConStor kind of like the What would you say it the middle child that everyone forgets about? It means number times I should like Is that new? And I'm, like, not really like Oh, I missed that somehow. Yeah, I wish you didn't, cause it's very cool. So Layer comes said it becomes part of the document when you say the documents just there. So, you know, worry about what's gonna happen to my files. Ice is just something that's there pretty easy.