Photo 11: Introduction to Digital Imaging
Instructor: Sue Leith, sleith@csus.edu
Layers Exercise
This lesson provides an opportunity to experiment with the Layers and Layer Styles features of Photoshop and use the hue/saturation adjustment in a new, more practical way.
Drag the Composite and Teapot images from the server to your desktop. Open in Photoshop. Close all palettes except History and Layers.
View each layer individually by turning on and off the eye icons. Note that each of the objects is on it’s own layer and is surrounded by transparency (the grid indicates transparency) and that the background is opaque (not transparent).
1. Change your background layer to a regular layer, by double clicking and naming it ‘white’.
2. Name each of the other layers appropriately, for example, towels, candle etc.
3. Position the Composite image and the Teapot image so that both can be seen. Note the view percentage of each in the title bar. If the view percentage for both files is the same, layers moved between the two documents will not change scale from one document to the other. (If the view percentage is not the same use Command + (plus sign) or Command – (minus sign) to make them the same percentage.)
4. Use the move tool to drag the Teapot into the Composite document. (You can either drag the layer from the layers palette, or from the image window.) Close the Teapot image without saving.
5.With the Composite image active, and the new layer your active layer, name it teapot and move it to the top of the stacking order in the Layers palette. Now, still working on the teapot layer, use the move tool to position the teapot in the lower left area of the document. Notice that the image is surrounded by opaque white.
6. Turn off the visibility (eyes) of the other layers. The white area around the teapot can now be seen clearly. Select ALL the white using the selection tool/tools of your choice (Hint – there is one tool you can use that will accomplish this with a single mouse click – can you remember which?)
Now delete all white area and turn the visibility back on for all the layers.
7. Double click on the teapot layer to bring up the layers style dialog box and double-click in the drop shadow box. In the image window (not the layer styles dialog box) drag the shadow down and out from the teapot. Then, back in the Layer Styles dialog box (not the image window) increase the size (using the slider) and lower the opacity (using the slider) to make a subtle shadow. Shadows should almost always be SUBTLE. Click ok. Notice an effects area in your layers palette under the teapot layer has been added – you can tell this by the circle with the (f) in it in the far side of the layer.
8. Making sure the teapot is still your only active layer, go to Layer > Layer Style > Copy Layer Style.
9. Select all other layers except your white layer, by clicking on each while holding down the command key, (or you can click on the top layer, hold down shift and click on the bottom layer to select everything in between). Next, go to > Layer > Layer Style > Paste Layer Style. All the layers should now have a similar drop shadow and you should see the layer effects in the layers palette.
Optional and more challenging
10. Change the color of the towels to any other color you choose, using a hue/saturation layer. Careful, change the color of ONLY the towels, no other layers should have any color change.
11. Save as yourname.layers.psd to the desktop, then drop in the classroom exercises box for your section on the server.