Photoshop for Beginners - 2024 - Lesson 8 - Layers (Part 2)

[@duncanmackay3711]

I am so pleased that I discovered your channel Terry. Your explanations are very clear and well constructed. I'm just going through all your Photoshop videos chronologically and find them super helpful. I've got to this point so far and just had to leave a comment saying thanks so much. I'm really looking forward to continuing through the rest of them! It's an incredible bit of software and can be quite a daunting process learning how to use it, never mind master it, but with your tuition it's making it a pleasure to learn. Thank you.

[@tv510]

Thank you for such kind words. Enjoy and let me know if you run into any road blocks.

[@tommul6078]

Thank you, Terry, for taking the time to produce these videos :-)

[@tv510]

You are very welcome, thanks for watching.

[@raylynch8419]

Thank you, these lesson are fantastic. Much appreciate you making these videos available.

[@tv510]

Glad you like them! More to come!

[@chrislowry4946]

Best run through of basic photoshop I have encountered. Clearly explained and easy to follow. Thank you!

[@tv510]

Glad it was helpful!

[@alancolledge1936]

HI Terry, I must admit that when you mentioned 27 layers in total, my heart dropped. It is going to be so complicated. In fact all the actions were brilliantly explained, with a logic to every move. Thank you very much for such a good lesson. My 77 year old brain will probably have to view it several times for it to sink in but you have made layers something even I can understand.

[@tv510]

Thanks Alan. I think the main take away is to put all of you edits on separate layers. That way, if you need to go back and make a change to say a boring and dodging layer, you can go straight to it and make the change without going back to start. Everything I do is on a separate layer.

[@juliobarkan9529]

Great image. A lot of work but the end result is fantastic. Great session on grouping layers. Much easier to keep organized and have a better understanding of what was done or needs to be completed. Thanks. Keep em coming.

[@tv510]

Many thanks! Yes, it does make a pretty big file, but its a good work flow practice to keep all your changes on separate layers, that way you can go back and make changes only to area you need to. Next week: Adjustment Layers and Layer Masks. Good stuff.

[@hobo0210]

Loveee it!!! I was always afraid of photoshop so sticked to lightroom but now taking the plunge!! I have got a few questions 1. Is there a reason you did not convert those layers into smart object? 2. Another question, is there a way you save call all these photoshop edits like layers/groups and the fixes you did in layers into a seprate metadata file so that you can reuse them again instead of strating from beginning? I mean when you save it and bring the image back to lightroom(and close photoshop), all your phoroshop edits in that final image are gone but at some point in future if you decide to make more edits to those groups, you can't correct? Does that means you need to start from beginning? Hope you have plans of going into topics like Orton effect etc!!

[@tv510]

Glad it working for you. 1 Smart Objects? - this is a beginner series so I haven't talked about smart objects - but I will. 2. I always save all my Photoshop images back to Lightroom. So there is the original RAW that I started with, when it comes back it's a PSD file. (Photoshop File) When I go to open it again from Lightroom, you will have three choices, Edit a Copy with Lightroom adjustments, edit a Copy, or Edit Original. If you choose edit original, you will open up the image in Photoshop with all the layers in tact and in place and editable. I have a lot of episodes planned. Thanks for the ideas.

[@hobo0210]

@@tv510 Thank you so much Terry for answering my questions!

[@tv510]

Thanks for watching.@@hobo0210

[@mjmdo07]

thank you

[@tv510]

Happy to share some knowledge.

[@PatriciaPearl-t6t]

😂Fun demonstration Terry - I hope you sent an invoice to owner of the boathouse for all the repairs you did! What size memory/ RAM do you need on your macbook to handle all those layers ?

[@tv510]

Ha, that would be something. The computer I am running on is and M1 Mac Pro with 32 gigs of RAM. I haven't had any issues with too many layers yet while working on it. Thanks for watching.

[@PatriciaPearl-t6t]

thanks Terry

[@hanswi336]

What a great series! Thanks for that. By th way: the PC key for control is CTRL 🙂

[@tv510]

Dang, can you tell I work on a MAC? I'll fix that going forward.

[@tc6912]

Thank you. I am relatively new to Photoshop. These quick lessons are very helpful. Not sure I would use so many individual layers, but time will tell. Is combining layers the same as merging layers? I have trouble remembering the shortcuts. Is "combine layers" in the menu system somewhere?

[@tv510]

No combining layers is not in the menu system that I know of. The way to use it is: Create a new layer > hold the Shift- Option (ALT) CMD (CNTL) then press the letter E. This will combine all the layers together into a new layer that has all the layers below it merged into one layer but keeping all those individual layers in tact and editable. This is better than merging layers, because if you want to go back and make changes, you can, if you merge its permanent.

[@peterhardy9754]

Hit Terry to combine all layers can you use click shift and add to scripts

[@tv510]

Hi Peter, I have actually created an action for it, and assigned it to a function key. Since I use this all the time, I wanted to have it handy.

[@kevfrets]

That’s cool! Thanks

[@tv510]

No problem! Thanks for watching.