Learn how you can stack images or text to create awesome, intricate designs that are easy to edit.
Photoshop layers allow you to work on your design by stacking images on top of other images without changing the qualities of each. This means that you can draw, edit, paste, and repositon all the elements on one layer without disturbing the rest. In Photoshop, this is an incredibly important and useful tool, as it allows us to make complicated compositions that are easy to manipulate later on.
Think of layers like pieces of glass that you can place over each other. On each piece of glass, you can paint a different image, and once you place the glass on top of each other, you're able to see all the different images. If you decide that you want to change one particular image, you can edit it separately and place it back in the pile. Layers work the same exact way where you can separate parts of your design into multiple overlaying parts.
The most important thing to ask yourself when thinking about whether you should add and work on another layer is: do I want to change this part of my image later without changing everything else? Maybe you're working on a digital portrait and you're not sure what color hair you want to add on your subject. Drawing the hair in the other layer will allow you easily manipulate its color properties without changing anything else in the portrait.
1. On your new Photoshop document, navigate to the toolbar on the left of your
screen and select the circle shape tool.
2. You might see a rectangle shape tool
instead, so just hold down your mouse on that tool and you'll see an option to
select the circle.
1. With the circle tool selected, at the bottom of your tool bar, click the
black square in front of the white one.
2.Click on a bright red color like shown
above and then click "OK".
3. Now while holding down your left mouse button, drag
your cursor across the canvas and let go to make a red circle.
1. Next, go to the bottom of your "Layers" window and click on the square sign with
the plus right next to the trashcan. This will create a new layer that's titled
"Layer 1".
2. Now, make another shape using the circle tool, but let's make it blue this
time. Look at the gif above if you're confused at any point.
1. Now that you have your two shapes, click the eyeball symbol next to
either one of those layers. You'll notice that one of your shapes
disappears. The eyeball tool allows you to hide certain layers that
you don't want to see.
2. You can also double click the layer title to
rename it whatever you want. I'm going to rename my blue circle layer
"blue circle".
1. You can also add effects to entire layers by scrolling to the "fx" symbol
at the bottom of the of the layers panel.
2. Let's say you want to change
the entire color of a layer, like the "blue circle" layer. We can click on
"fx" and then select "Color Overlay".
3. We can use the color picker to choose
any new color for our circle. Let's click on green and hit "OK". You can do a
lot of cool things with these effects, so feel free to play around with them!