Adobe Photoshop Advanced (2023): Advanced Layers

Name: Adobe Photoshop Advanced (2023): Advanced Layers
Author: Jeff Drylewicz

Learn how to use the Layers panel and layer-blending options to make your work stand out

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 9 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

Hello, welcome to Knowledge City's Advanced Course on Adobe Photoshop. My name is Jeff Drylow, and I'll be teaching you how to place a linked image into a Photoshop layer. So let's go over the process. Right here I've got a new document, and all I'm going to simply do is come up to File, Place, or Place Linked. All right, so I'm going to choose the image I'm going to use here, and I'm going to go with, let's see, I've got it saved down here. I'm going to hit Place, and obviously I've got my bounding box so I could resize it however I want to, or move it around, but I'm okay with this placement, and I'm going to hit Return. So now if I look over here at my layers, I've got this little chain link icon in here, okay? So down here, you know, down here in the layer window. So what that means is that this Misty River file is not really in this document. This is only being linked back to the original document, the original JPEG I have saved as in my folder right now. So what I can do here is I'm just going to save it right now, so we can see what'll happen. Do a regular save as. So let's call it Misty River, and we will call it Linked. All right, so we're going to save it, and let's look at the Finder now for that. All right, so notice that right now it's the PSD, and it's a bit smaller than our embedded file. All right, because just naturally a Linked file is going to be a little bit smaller. So you can see it's 91.2 megabytes as opposed to 97.4. But now let's actually edit this document a little bit. So if I come in here, and let's say I'm going to go to the Adjustment Layers, and let's just do a Hue and Saturation. Let's see what I want here. I'm going to kind of play with this a little bit, saturate a bit more, and just give it almost an otherworldly kind of look, a little bit of different blues in there now, okay? So I've done some changes, I've done some edits, and I've got a Hue and Saturation Adjustment layer. So now the thing with this is I can't just send this off. What I'm going to have to do is I'm going to save this again as a PSD, because if I do want to send this to somebody, I need to make sure I have the original file and the edits done. Okay, so I've got my Misty River Link to we'll just save over it, going to replace that. And so now what I need to do with this, I need to package it. So I'm going to go up to File, and I'm going to come down to Package. So when that comes up, I'm just going to choose, I wanted to stay in this folder, I can make a new folder for it if I wanted to, I'm going to hit Choose, it's packaging my file. And now if I come back to my document here, I mean to my folder, I can find the Misty River Linked folder, can open it up, and there we have the PSD and the original document, the original JPEG that I came from. And so this is what I would send to somebody, say I was going to be doing a collaboration, and I wanted this to go to them. So my collaborator would need to have both the file that included the Hue and Saturation Layer, any adjustments or edits that have been made, and the original JPEG that it came from. Because again, a linked layer is only referring back to the original picture, it is not the original picture that is in here. So I hope this made how to utilize placing a linked layer and link the image into a file and easy to ask. In our next lesson, we'll be learning how and why to place an embedded image. Thanks for watching.

Advanced Provider : Jeff Drylewicz 9 Lessons · 48m in English

Course Description

In this course on Adobe Photoshop 2023, you will learn how to work with paths and channels panels in conjunction with the Layers panel. Over these lessons, you will learn how to utilize blend modes, as well as how to create multiple variations of the same design layout and export them as layer comps. By the end of this course, you will be able to combine and flatten layers, stack photos for full focal range, and create custom shapes.

The topics discussed in this course will provide a robust understanding of everything the Layers panel has to offer beyond simple organization. By effectively using the Fill, Opacity, and Blend modes, you’ll be able to take your work beyond an intermediate understanding. A stronger knowledge of Layer usage will elevate your work to make it stand out to clients and colleagues alike.

What You'll Learn

Place linked and embedded images into a layer
Apply Layer Fill, Opacity, and filters to refine your work
Export multiple design variations as layer comps
Stack layers to focus stack images for full focal range
Blend layers using blend modes and combine or flatten layers
Create custom vector shapes using the Channels and Paths panels

Key Takeaways

The course covers working with the Paths and Channels panels in conjunction with the Layers panel.
Focus stacking multiple images lets you achieve a full focal range across a composition.
Flattening images combines layers to decrease file size.
Effective use of Fill, Opacity, and Blend modes takes your work beyond an intermediate understanding of layers.
Layer comps allow you to create and export multiple variations of the same design layout.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will I learn in this Adobe Photoshop Advanced (2023) course?

You will learn to work with the Paths and Channels panels alongside the Layers panel, utilize blend modes, create and export layer comps, combine and flatten layers, stack photos for full focal range, and create custom shapes.

Who is this course for?

It is for users who want to take their Photoshop work beyond an intermediate understanding by gaining a stronger knowledge of everything the Layers panel offers beyond simple organization.

What skills does this course cover?

The course covers Application Layers, Data Blending, Image Editing, and Pathing.

How is custom shape creation taught in this course?

You will learn how to create custom vector shapes using the Path panel, as covered in the lesson on creating custom shapes.