With adjustment layers the glass is always half full. You’d be crazy not to use them. Especially when you consider that they add almost no weight to the file size. Each adjustment layer is a simple instruction to move a slider, adjust a curve, or change a histogram. Because the adjustments are stored on their own layers, you have total fl...

Let’s take a look at layer mask conventions and terminology, beginning with a couple of housekeeping points: The Background layerthat layer that most Photoshop images start out withdoesn’t support transparency and thus can’t support layer masks. It sounds worse than it is: to add a layer mask to a Background layer, take the ...

Smart Objects are the latest development in the evolution of Photoshop layers. Working with pixel-based media, we are inhibited by the rules of resolution. Photoshop allows us to stretch and scale our images as if they were Silly Putty, but if we take too many liberties, we irrevocably damage our images. Not anymore. Smart Objects let us scale...

Layer styles are effects like drop shadows, bevels, and glows that you can add to a layer with a single click. These effects change with the content of the layer and can be updated at any time. Layer styles fit in with our approach of nondestructive editing because while the effects are attached to a specific layer, they do not actually change ...

Mission Control is the Layers palette, where you can show and hide layers, create new layers, and work with groups of layers. The Layers palette menu contains additional commands and options. Choose Palette Options to change the size of the layer thumbnail as well as how that thumbnail is displayed. If you have lots of layers, you might consid...