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Organize Your Layers

Lesson 100 from: Adobe Photoshop: The Complete Guide Bootcamp

Ben Willmore

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Lesson Info

100. Organize Your Layers

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Introduction To Adobe Photoshop

04:05
2

Bridge vs. Lightroom

06:39
3

Tour of Photoshop Interface

18:21
4

Overview of Bridge Workspace

07:42
5

Overview of Lightroom Workspace

11:21
6

Lightroom Preferences - Saving Documents

08:19
7

How To Use Camera Raw in Adobe Photoshop 2020

05:10
8

Overview of Basic Adjustment Sliders

13:09
9

Developing Raw Images

30:33
10

Editing with the Effects and HLS Tabs

09:12
11

How to Save Images

03:37
12

Using the Transform Tool

04:48
13

Making Selections in Adobe Photoshop 2020

06:03
14

Selection Tools

05:55
15

Combining Selection Tools

07:37
16

Using Automated Selection Tools

17:34
17

Quick Mask Mode

05:07
18

Select Menu Essentials

21:28
19

Using Layers in Adobe Photoshop 2020

13:00
20

Align Active Layers

07:29
21

Creating a New Layer

06:15
22

Creating a Clipping Mask

03:02
23

Using Effects on Layers

11:24
24

Using Adjustment Layers

16:44
25

Using the Shape Tool

04:39
26

Create a Layer Mask Using the Selection Tool

04:39
27

Masking Multiple Images Together

15:15
28

Using Layer Masks to Remove People

10:50
29

Using Layer Masks to Replace Sky

10:04
30

Adding Texture to Images

09:11
31

Layering to Create Realistic Depth

05:35
32

Adjustment Layers in Adobe Photoshop 2020

05:29
33

Optimizing Grayscale with Levels

10:59
34

Adjusting Levels with a Histogram

03:37
35

Understanding Curves

06:18
36

Editing an Image Using Curves

18:41
37

Editing with Shadows/Highlights Adjustment

07:19
38

Dodge and Burn Using Quick Mask Mode

07:14
39

Editing with Blending Modes

08:04
40

Color Theory

05:59
41

Curves for Color

16:52
42

Hue and Saturation Adjustments

08:59
43

Isolating Colors Using Hue/Saturation Adjustment

13:33
44

Match Colors Using Numbers

16:59
45

Adjusting Skin Tones

05:25
46

Retouching Essentials In Adobe Camera Raw

10:52
47

Retouching with the Spot Healing Brush

07:53
48

Retouching with the Clone Stamp

06:51
49

Retouching with the Healing Brush

04:34
50

Retouching Using Multiple Retouching Tools

13:07
51

Extending an Edge with Content Aware

03:42
52

Clone Between Documents

13:19
53

Crop Tool

10:07
54

Frame Tool

02:59
55

Eye Dropper and Color Sampler Tools

08:14
56

Paint Brush Tools

13:33
57

History Brush Tool

06:27
58

Eraser and Gradient Tools

03:06
59

Brush Flow and Opacity Settings

04:17
60

Blur and Shape Tools

11:06
61

Dissolve Mode

09:24
62

Multiply Mode

15:29
63

Screen Mode

14:08
64

Hard Light Mode

14:54
65

Hue, Saturation, and Color Modes

11:31
66

Smart Filters

11:32
67

High Pass Filter

13:40
68

Blur Filter

05:59
69

Filter Gallery

07:42
70

Adaptive Wide Angle Filter

04:43
71

Combing Filters and Features

04:45
72

Select and Mask

20:04
73

Manually Select and Mask

08:08
74

Creating a Clean Background

21:19
75

Changing the Background

13:34
76

Smart Object Overview

08:37
77

Nested Smart Objects

09:55
78

Scale and Warp Smart Objects

09:08
79

Replace Contents

06:55
80

Raw Smart Objects

10:20
81

Multiple Instances of a Smart Object

12:59
82

Creating a Mockup Using Smart Objects

05:42
83

Panoramas

13:15
84

HDR

11:20
85

Focus Stacking

04:02
86

Time-lapse

11:18
87

Light Painting Composite

08:05
88

Remove Moire Patterns

06:11
89

Remove Similar Objects At Once

09:52
90

Remove Objects Across an Entire Image

05:46
91

Replace a Repeating Pattern

06:50
92

Clone from Multiple Areas Using the Clone Source Panel

10:27
93

Remove an Object with a Complex Background

07:49
94

Frequency Separation to Remove Staining and Blemishes

12:27
95

Warping

11:03
96

Liquify

14:02
97

Puppet Warp

12:52
98

Displacement Map

10:36
99

Polar Coordinates

07:19
100

Organize Your Layers

11:02
101

Layer Styles: Bevel and Emboss

02:59
102

Layer Style: Knockout Deep

12:34
103

Blending Options: Blend if

13:18
104

Blending Options: Colorize Black and White Image

06:27
105

Layer Comps

08:30
106

Black-Only Shadows

06:07
107

Create a Content Aware Fill Action

08:46
108

Create a Desaturate Edges Action

07:42
109

Create an Antique Color Action

13:52
110

Create a Contour Map Action

10:20
111

Faux Sunset Action

07:20
112

Photo Credit Action

05:54
113

Create Sharable Actions

07:31
114

Common Troubleshooting Issues Part 1

10:23
115

Common Troubleshooting Issues Part 2

07:57
116

Image Compatibility with Lightroom

03:29
117

Scratch Disk Is Full

06:02
118

Preview Thumbnail

02:10

Lesson Info

Organize Your Layers

this time, let's take a look at advanced layers. There's so much you can do with layers. And earlier we had a separate lesson on Layer essentials. Now we're going to dive a little deeper and let's start off with how to organize your layers. Here's a complex Photoshopped document that I created decades ago. This was the back cover for a brochure that was sent out for a seminar tour that I did. Now I've blurred a lot of the pictures that are here, and that's because they were stock photos that I don't have the rights to give to you guys. And if you purchase the course, then you get this document to play with and I couldn't have those pictures. And so therefore, that's why it looks just a little bit different. But let's take a look in the layers panel. What takes to make this document? If I simply start scrolling through my layers, you can see that there's a whole lot of them. And if you look at the pictures and layers panel a lot of them, it's hard to tell exactly where something he's us...

ed within a document, and I'm not even halfway done going through my layers panel, and I could see this image has already been simplified because in one piece there, but it just keeps going and going and going. So if you create a complex document and you open it up months later and try to work with it, it could be tough to figure out what's happening in various areas. So let's figure out how we might organize these layers. So I'm gonna start turning off layers kind of one at a time in seeing which portion of the image defects so that top most layer looks to me to be a bolt that's near the upper right corner of the document. Turn off the layer below it. It's another bolt and I can see just by the layer names. There's a total of four of them. Then I see a type player that made the text disappear and then a little bar. All right. Those seem to logically belong together because they make up the top bar in this document. So I'm gonna turn their eyeballs back on and with the bottom. Most of those layers selected, Ah, hold shift and I'll click on the top layer to get all of those layers and then I'll go to the bottom of my layers panel and I'm gonna click on the folder icon. It's not actually known as a folder. It's known as creating a group. Ah, but if I click there now, those layers look like they almost got merged into one. But in reality, they're contained within this folder, and if I click on the little arrow next to it, I can expand it to see the layers that are contained within. Now, when you have a folder which is officially known as a group, then you got to think about the way the move tool is gonna work to reposition layers. If I have an individual layer highlighted active in my layers panel, then when I go in, click it within my image in drag. I'm gonna move one layer this layer right here, choose, undo. If I want to move more than one layer at a time, I can select more than one layer. In this case, I'll select both this layer in the layer above it. Then I would be moving both of those layers. But when you use folders, if the folder itself is active. It's as if all the layers contained within it are active in, therefore with just the name of that group active. When I click and drag, everything within that group moves. And so, therefore, if organized, my document in a logical fashion, those could really help me out. So let's look at some of the other layers here. I have some texts, and I see it on the right side of the picture near the top. Then I have the photo that is above the text, and I have the white background that's supposed to make it look like a Polaroid. Then I have a shadow layer. Have the photo that would be to the left of it the little base of yet. And that makes another logical grouping, which would be those two images that are supposed to be kind of a before and after image. So with the bottom most layer of that selected, I'll hold shift to get the top one, and I'll click on the folder icon. So now, if I used my move tool when that folder is active, you see those two moving together, and then I could continue doing that for the rest of the document and just grabbing each logical grouping in putting them into a folder. Well, I've already done that. I'm gonna close this document in switch to another one. I already have open here, and that one has extensively used the folder icon, just known as a group. And let's take a look at how the images now structured. So now I have one group, which is for the top bar, just as we had before. And then I have a separate one that is for all of the Polaroids that air here in the middle and then finally have another one for the whole backdrop. But you can put a folder inside of a folder, and so I further organized this image where if I opened some of these here is one called Digital Mastery logo, and that's because the logo you see here at the bottom wasn't just one piece. It moves around us if it's one piece when that group is active. But within it is the text for the word digital taxed for the word mastery and the colorful base layer that's there as well. And if I go up here to the PLO rides those have been organized into Here are Polaroids that originally featured a picture of cars which are there here's ones that had a house and so on. So each grouping is in there. Then, if you want, you can get much more detailed, and it really depends. And how many people are gonna be accessing this document in needing to truly understand how it's made? Or how often are you going to need to do the same to figure out how many of thes groups you might want to use? But if I open this up here, the one called Khar Polaroids, which are these two are then divided up into the individual red car that was here in the yellow car that was there. And I don't think they go any more than that. Yeah, but you can see that you can put a folder inside of a folder. You just select multiple layers that were inside of an existing group and click that folder icon to create another. Now that also effects how another feature and Futter shop works. If I'm in the move tool, there's an option near the top of my screen called Auto select, and I mentioned in the lesson that was about layers that I prefer to have that turned off. And therefore, when I click within my image to drag, it does it never changes which layer is active without me purposely trying to do so and that I end up using auto select manually in the way you can do that is when you're on the move tool, you can hold down the command key that's control on Windows and click on something. And if you do, it's the equivalent. Having auto Select turned on just for the moment of time that you command, click on your image control clicking and windows in their four. I can target a layer, and it's nice. Could it expands all the groups down to where you can see that particular layer? But you should be aware that there is an option up here right next to the auto Select Check box is a choice called layer or group. If this is set to group, then when I command click on my image or you have Auto Select turned on manually. Then when I come over here and I command click instead of getting an individual layer selected, it's going to select the top most group that contains that layer, and therefore I could move this shoes undo. Or if I come down here and target one of these Polaroids, it's gonna grab the top most group. And that one contains all the Polaroids. And what that means is that sometimes you can use too many of those folders if you want to be able to very quickly target and move things. And in this case, I think having this many is a bit excessive. And so what I might do here is I might expand a few of these and get it so I can see the individual Polaroid groupings, and I can select them. If I hold down the command key control on Windows and click within my layers panel. I could select the deeper individual Polaroids and then dragged them up in my layers panel so that they're no longer in those sub folders, and I can grab that base sub folder and throw it away, and it looks like I didn't get all of them out of there. Looks like there was still one in there. Probably those Yeah, grab those and drag him out and then throw that away. So I think this is around the right level of organization because now when I have Auto Select set to group, I can come in here and grab these individual polarize and move them around, which is what I might want to do when working with this layout. If you see all those pink numbers and guides those air called smart guides and if they bother you because they're rather excessive in this particular document, feel free to go to the View menu and here under show. There's a choice called Smart Guides, and you could turn that off and now those pink lines wouldn't show up. But at this level, I think it's just right for me where I can adjust my layout as needed. And if I needed to move more than one Polaroid at a time and whenever you're using auto select. If you hold down the shift key, you could make more than one active. So, for instance, if I make this one active and then usually I click over here and separately get that one. If I hold shift when I click now, I'm getting both, or I hold shift and I grabbed. This is well in this is well, so I could easily really manage things and grab many different layers. I just have to keep in mind with Auto Select. Is it set to grab an individual layer, or is it select to grab a group? And if it is grabbing a group, it's always gonna grab what you might call the ultimate parent of whatever later you're clicking on. So if it goes back and finds the, um, you know, the kind of base level group that that layer is contained within, you can always hold, shift and click on additional areas and therefore select additional groups, so you'll see me switching between group and layer, depending on the document and what I really needing to do.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Lessons 1 - 6 - Handbook 1: Introduction to Adobe Photoshop
Lessons 7 - 12 - Handbook 2: How to Use Camera Raw
Lessons 13 - 18 - Handbook 3: Making Selections
Lessons 19 - 24 - Handbook 4: Using Layers
Lessons 25 - 30 - Handbook 5: Using Layer Masks
Lessons 31 - 38 - Handbook 6: Using Adjustment Layers
Lessons 39 - 44 - Handbook 7: Color Theory
Lessons 45 - 51 - Handbook 8: Retouching Essentials
Lessons 52 - 59 - Handbook 9: Tools Panel
Lessons 60 - 64 - Handbook 10: Layer Blending Modes
Lessons 65 - 70 - Handbook 11: How to Use Filters
Lessons 71 - 74 - Handbook 12: Advanced Masks
Lessons 75 - 81 - Handbook 13: Using Smart Objects
Lessons 82 - 86 - Handbook 14: Photography for Photoshop
Lessons 87 - 93 - Handbook 15: Advanced Photo Retouching
Lessons 94 - 98 - Handbook 16: Warp, Blend, Liquify
Lessons 99 - 105 - Handbook 17: Advanced Layers
Lessons 106 - 112 - Handbook 18: Actions
Lessons 113 - 117 - Handbook 19: Troubleshooting Issues
Practice Images 1: Introduction to Adobe Photoshop
Practice Images 2: How to Use Camera Raw
Practice Images 3: Making Selections
Practice Images 4: Using Layers
Practice Images 5: Using Layer Masks
Practice Images 6: Using Adjustment Layers
Practice Images 7: Color Theory
Practice Images 8: Retouching Essentials
Practice Images 9: Tools Panel
Practice Images 10: Layer Blending Modes
Practice Images 11: How to Use Filters
Practice Images 12: Advanced Masks
Practice Images 13: Using Smart Objects
Practice Images 14: Photography for Photoshop
Practice Images 15: Advanced Photo Retouching
Practice Images 16: Warp, Blend, Liquify
Practice Images 17: Advanced Layers
Practice Images 18: Actions
Practice Images 19: Troubleshooting Issues

Ratings and Reviews

Noel Ice
 

I am an avid reader of photoshop books, and an avid watcher of photoshop tutorials. I have attended (internet) several hundred of presentations. In the course of this endeavor, I have found my own favorite photoshop websites and instructors. Creative Live is probably the bargain out there as well as among the top three internet course sites. I have to say with great enthusiasm that the best Photoshop instructor is Ben Willmore. There are many great ones, but truly, he is the best I have come across, and, as indicated above, I have watched literally 100s of tutorials on Photoshop. I have seen all of Ben's courses, I think, and among them, this one is the best by far, and that is saying a lot, because that makes this course the best course on Photoshop to be found anywhere. I am going back and watching it twice. Not only is it comprehensive, but Ben is so familiar with his subject that he is able to explain it like no other. This is crème de la crème of Photoshop classes. I have been wanting to write this review for some time because I have been so thoroughly impressed with everything about this class!

ford smith
 

Highly recommended if you want to take your Photoshop skills to the next level. Ben Willmore is clear, concise, and professional. He also has a good speaking voice that is not distracting but also keeps you engaged. Lastly, I would recommend that as you become more advanced, increasing the speed of the video (one of the options given on the menu)...especially if you've gone through the course once before and maybe want to watch it again. The double speed is very efficient as you become more advanced in Photoshop. Thanks for the help Ben!

a Creativelive Student
 

Wow. I cannot communicate the value of this course!! The true value in this course is how the instructor identifies workflows you'll need before you'll ever realize it, repeats important information without it becoming annoying, and explains the "why" behind the techniques so well that even if you forget the exact method, you can figure it out via the principles learned. Excellent value, excellent material, excellent instructor!!!

Student Work

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