Why use a Layer when making photo adjustments?

-

 Why Use a Layer?





Assuming you are using Photoshop, you want to create a better looking image than your camera settings have delivered, you can open this file and make adjustments without harming your photo and losing information captured in your original photo.

Since many use the standard JPG format, a lossy configuration, they find that each time their image is altered, data is lost, meaning that accurate sensor information is gone forever. If your image file is nothing special then you have nothing to worry about. However if you are shooting to sell any of your images, or are particularly fond of your photo then following this brief tutorial will give you an advantage.

Open your JPG image in Photoshop. If you choose Image> Adjustments> then choose an option you'll be changing pixels within the original file. Not a good thing if you make a mistake and then save in original JPG format, because you have now forever altered the photo and lost data. You can of course avoid pixel damage by using a different approach, choosing the use of Layers and saving appropriately.

You can alter your image safely by using Layer> New Adjustment Layer> and perhaps Levels or Curves, for instance. The effect is easy to check by simply clicking on the eye icon next to the background layer. You will see that the effect you have created will show on the background layer.

You now have the choice to Save As (Control/Alt on a PC) create a name and save. Then when closing you will be asked if you want to Save changes to the original Photoshop document before closing, and here you can simply click on 'No'. Choosing the 'no' option allows for the original image to hold all of the original data for future use.

Questions? Comment below & I'll get back to you.



Comments

Rana said…
If you Save As in this fashion, is the result two files - the original and the altered - or is it a single file containing both original and altered information?
March 11, 2009 at 11:05 PM
Outsideshooter said…
Hi Rana, yes when choosing 'Save As' you will be naming it, or it will auto-name, according to your settings in Adobe's Photoshop, then that copy will be the image you have applied changes to. Yet you will see that the original will now be the Background image that you opened and when clicking on the red X to close that image file, the pop up will ask you if you also want to save those Layered changes to that, and here is where you would say Yes or No to that file also. I always choose no because I may want to use this PSD file for another purpose. This is what I refer to as my Master File. Thanks for the question.
March 12, 2009 at 5:02 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

From Dull to Dramatic Photography

-
Image
While this may not be dramatic in a bright happy colorful sense it is so, if in a dark and foreboding way. With this subject I will admit it was easier than if I had chosen an image which was bright and colorful with lots of sunlight, still even then one can cause an ordinary image to appear near HDR without all the added work and in many cases the use of software to produce the tonal mapping needed. Take this original image of a door within an abandoned barn, with the use of flash. From Drop Box As you can see the amount of light hitting this well defines all of the aspects of the term abandoned, the failing paint, the rust on the handle, the cobweb within the latch opening and generally the decadent condition overall. This much light reflects really more than I want in this photo, so rather than lowering the exposure and losing too much information (btw this works well in most well-lit sunjects, i.e. lowering exposure, I am not the best at flash adjustments, so I use PP or post
Read more

Shooting Christmas Can be Fun.......or........

-
Image
Shooting can be a lot of fun. Formal shots seem to take a lot of prep work if one wants to get everything perfect, like making sure nothing in the background conflicts with the subject which is your critical Aunt saying she doesn't like it that Bernie's coat is so ugly hanging on the wall behind me. Or just the usual clutter which can easily invade a nice grouping of the family. It pays to take the time to pick out a bare wall or large window so long as the flash will not bounce back at you. In the other hand if you are going for the candid approach, and want to avoid the background clutter which is unavoidable in most cases, try placing a lens of portrait class, say a Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM Lens for Canon SLR Cameras which when opened wide you'll produce enough bokeh, or background blur to avoid most of the stuff and leave you with a wonderful clear shot of your Aunt who won't be able to critique your photo without using a compliment. What I hear most often from re
Read more

Consciousness Coupled with Photography Art

-
Image
  Ever considered how Art affects our Consciousness? Sit down sometime, maybe now, eyes off your screen(s), awareness on your wall art, and feel the art change your mood. We are capable of launching our consciousness back from the brink of overstimulation and it should gift us with a pleasurable sense. Do not glance, but take it in. This is not meant to be family pictures, but art we have invested in. We chose it, we purchased it for a very special reason.  Much has been written about time on our screens, little about the sense we absorb, ingest and assimilate as we commingle with our wall art. There ought to be a lifting of sorts, an uncommon ground with which we find solace, peace, or energy and spirit, with our art. The very reason the art was hung, is to bring to us a feeling that nothing else in our homes, or offices can.  If you're feeling it, then you should find it more often. Screens are great for learning, and not so great for feeling it. There are too many distractions.
Read more

Do you ever shoot for free?

-
Give your opinion in the Comments section below after signing up. Our readers want to know how you feel. For those of you who'd rather not sign up answer the poll in the column to the right. I've created a typical scenario which I've discussed with many photographers over time who've shared their talent alongside starving artist status. The discussion is almost always the same, ENP (Every New Photographer) seems to feel the need to give freely of their skills in order to gain business. After all how do you get business without giving a little? The discussion usually goes something like this. RCPhotos: So when does one start charging for your photography skills? Do you? ENP: Oh I'm new at this so when a friend asked if I'd take a few shots of their new baby I said sure, no problem. My idea was that they'd see some really good results and maybe pass my name around. RCphotos: How did it go? ENP: Well they said they'd tell everyone they knew but af
Read more

Happy Mother's Day Mom

-
Image
Happy Mother's Day. This is in honor of my Mother, whom most of her friends call Dot. I caught her in the midst of preparing the kitchen for dinner.     I should say that Mom, Dot, is much more than a Mom to me, she is an Angel. She has been my inspiration for positive thinking for a lifetime and continues to inspire me. Why? I can recall when I was very young and was tied to the farm, milking cows, slopping hogs, feeding horses and chickens, gathering eggs, all of this twice a day, that I used to complain about not having enough time to spend with my friends who were all free of these (work duties - ahem) activities, and she'd say, "Well what would the animals do without you?" How could I argue with that? Or when I'd come in with near frozen fingers from winter's chill and she'd have a warm steaming wash towel for my hands. "Here", she'd say, "this will warm you in no time". Why else? She has spent many, many years helping
Read more

Soft Proofing in Photoshop

-
Image
Soft Proofing an image is the most accurate way to achieve the look of how the print will appear on paper. Ever noticed that your print doesn't come out quite as vibrant as it looked in Photoshop? Surely there are a host of reasons outside the scope of this article, but I'll make the assumption you already are familiar with image preparation and color profiling, paper selection and the how of printing basics. Once you have these down the next step is to get your image to the very closest that your camera's image sensor captured. Open your file in Photoshop. Next choose View, Proof Setup, Custom. The window reads Customize Proof Condition. Select Device to Simulate, then proceed to choose the paper profile you will be printing on. There will come associated with the imbedded profiles Photoshop and your printer software has already configured. You may also have added a few for certain papers or profiles from your print shop.  Select the one you wish to print to, for exa
Read more

Not Having Much Fun With Photoshop?

-
I am guilty of this too. I am constantly learning about using tools in PS and learning new ways of using them. Time goes by and we just keep doing the same stuff, or variations over and over to increase our skills. But then we see someone else's work and we are awed by it. I recently saw some digital art from a photograph converted to a near painting and found out that it was done with brushes I don't have. Fortunately the link was included in the post. Jump to the link above or below, and you'll see more brushes that you'll ever use in your lifetime. Well I guess that depends on your age, but it's certainly true for me. If you like a particular set, check back in and share them with us. Also if you like your work, link us to something you've done. Have fun at Get Brushes .com
Read more

Soft Focus your Photos

-
Image
Let's take a photo I shot of our cat Rayden. He's slightly large and rather soft looking anyway but we thought we'd like to see an even softer version. So as you can see the original shows quite a lot of the photo in focus save some to the right rear. Understand that for this purpose I am pushing the results to demonstrate how far one can go to get maximum effect. You won't probably go this far, nor would I. Open your photo in PS, make a background copy, by dragging the background image in the layers pallet down to the create a new layer icon, just to the left of the garbage can, and release. You now see a background copy of your original image. Make sure that copy is still highlighted. Go up to Layer> Layer Mask> Reveal All. Next click on the photo so the mask is not highlighted, but the photo to its left, is highlighted. Then to Filters> Blur> Gaussian Blur and choose a rather high blur so that your brushing out the blur will be obvious. Of course this d
Read more

Photo Use Acronyms Explained

-
Ever wonder what exactly all those acronyms mean? You know the ones we use daily,such as PDF, GIF, JPEG and so on. Well here are a few most of us run across occasionally. * BMP – Windows Bitmap files * DNG – Digital Negative files * EPS – Encapsulated PostScript files * FAX – faxes * FPX – FlashPix files * GIF – Graphics Interchange Format files * HDR – High Dynamic Range Image files * ICNS - Apple Icon Image Files * ICO – Windows icon files * JPEG 2000 – JPEG 2000 files * JPEG – Joint Photographic Experts Group files * OpenEXR – OpenEXR files * PS – Adobe PostScript files (after an automatic conversion to PDF) * PSD – Adobe Photoshop files * PICT – QuickTime image files * PDF – Portable Document Format files * PNG – Portable Network Graphics files * PNTG – MacPaint Bitmap Graphic files * QTIF – QuickTime image files * RAD – Radience Scene Description files * RAW – Raw image files
Read more

Two very special prints at Fort Vancouver NHS a National Park

-
Image
I wanted to profile my 2 latest works at Imagekind. These both are within my Gallery called Fort Vancouver, and are titled 'Oregon White Oak' and 'Icy Fort'. I am building a collection of images from Fort Vancouver but slowly and partly becasue I am very fussy about the images I rate 5 stars, and even fussier about how I process the RAW files once converted to TIF format. Oregon White Oak by Rich Collins This image Oregon White Oak is very special not only to myself, but to the entire Clark County community. And that's partly why I have it for sale in 8x10" matted, at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site Visitor Center in Vancouver, WA. But soon, perhaps within another week or 2 at most, I'll have it for sale and on display, along with Icy Fort, in 20x30" matted size at the Visitor Center. These are such special prints to me and the community that I have built a unique frame for them. Once the frame is finished I'll add a photo of it to t
Read more