Beginner's Guide to Photoshop Elements: Adding PHOTOS to LAYERS

[@febeleven]

yea, I'm doing something right, but I learned that from you years ago!

[@HTGPhoto]

That's why I am here.

[@anne2309]

Great video George, very helpful in keeping us up to speed with the various different ways we can do things. I’m still getting my head round resolutions/pictures coming in at different sizes and smart objects, but I’m getting there - might be a daft question, but is a smart object the same thing as a vector image? Thanks for all you do to teach us 😊

[@HTGPhoto]

Thanks Anne. And no, a smart object is different from a vector image. A smart object has some protections against some forms of editing, like painting or erasing on that layer. It is also linked to the original image, so if you resize the image it goes back to the original and refigures from there, retaining quality. There are two types of images, one is a raster image and this is your typical photo. It is made up of pixels and if you zoom into a raster image you will see the pixels. A vector image is a mathematical outline with a fill applied. Text is one form of a vector graphic. If you zoom in on text the edges stay sharp. Shapes created in PSE are vector images, but aside from resizing them you can't do anything else with them in PSE without first converting to a raster graphic. When you right click on a text layer in PSE you will see Simplify as one of the options, what that actually means is convert from vector to raster. Drawing programs like Adobe Illustrator work primarily with vector images, Photoshop Elements works with raster images. More powerful programs like Adobe Photoshop can do both. When you hear someone talking about using the Pen tool in PS or working with Paths, that is vector graphics.

[@anne2309]

@@HTGPhoto thank you for clarifying that for me and giving such a detailed reply, your effort is much appreciated. It’s all going in, bit by bit and one day the light bulb will just switch on, certainly keeps my brain active 😁

[@HTGPhoto]

@@anne2309 You're welcome Anne. I don't talk about vector much on this channel but I occasionally mention it in Affinity videos (more of those coming later this summer)

[@lorianderson199]

ok, so once you do that what next to take the subject the only thing pasted in the background image? I don’t get it.

[@HTGPhoto]

Hi Lori, this video is just about how to get a photo into a new layer in PSE. It isn't a project video. I have loads of those here on this channel and my other channel. Here is one example kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYuoq5qlYqmAl7s