Photoshop experts, help!

I can't figure this out. I want to non-destructively edit images. I'm told to put the edits on a different layer. Thing is, whenever I add a new layer, nothing is on it, so I can't select or use the spot healer or other things. The adjustment layers seem to be just about color adjustment.

How do I set up an adjustment layer that will let me do anything? Is there such a thing? If not, how do I use, say, the healing brush on a layer OTHER than the background layer or a duplicate of the background layer?

I'm not an expert, but I've used it a lot.

I don't understand what you mean when you say you "want to non-destructively edit images."

How does one edit something without changing it? Can you be more specific about what you are trying to do? Then maybe I can figure out how to do it.

The instructor and the text use the terms destructive and non-destructive editing. Destructive editing is changing the original image. Non-destructive editing is putting each change on a different layer so that you can remove that change later, if you want, without disturbing anything else, and the original (which is always the background layer) remains untouched.

She encourages non-destructive editing because she says it's more time-efficient when you have to go back and change specific things due to the client not liking what you submitted.

Okay, I understand now. Here's how I'd do it.

1. Start with a layer that has the original image.
   
2. Duplicate that layer and put the new one over the first.
   
3. Lock the new layer to the old so that when one moves, they both move.
   
4. Make your edits to the topmost layer.
   
5. For successive edits, duplicate the topmost layer and repeat steps 2,3, and 4.
   
6. When you want to back away from an edit, delete the topmost layer.
   

There might be a better way, but this way works.

Ok, Al, thanks, I will try that! Will probably be back with more questions.

Try this:

1. Paste in background image and resize to either fill the area or leave a border (doesn't need to be white -- I use a background colour that blends in with the background image).

2. Add layers of text and images that can be resized and moved around at will (not locked down).

3. If layers overlap, use Layer --> Arrange --> Bring to front, Send to back ...

4. Save the image in photoshop format.

This image is your template and can be changed anytime.

If you want to lock down layers, make a copy of the template and lock down the layers on the copy leaving the template unchanged.

Now, you can save this as a jpeg image for your clients.

Shelagh wrote:

4. Save the image in photoshop format.
This image is your template and can be changed anytime.

You cannot, however, undo previous image edits when you reload the photoshop file in a new session. They become permanent upon save.

If you save the file without locking anything down, when you reload, you can edit text layers, move them around, change fonts and font colour. You can re-size image layers, edit them and make copies of them as new files. Psd files are saved exactly as you left them.

Quote :

Paste in background image and resize to either fill the area or leave a border (doesn't need to be white -- I use a background colour that blends in with the background image).

You lost me here -am not that advanced yet.

1. Start by clicking New...

2. Choose size of file.

3. Select background colour. (you can do this before you click "New" and then select the background colour option when you set the width and height.)

4. Open an image file that you want to use as background.

5. Select part of the image you want to use as background. If using all of it, click (hold down mouse) and drag it across.

6. Resize the background to fill the area as much or as little as you want.

Shelagh wrote:

If you save the file without locking anything down, when you reload, you can edit text layers, move them around, change fonts and font colour. You can re-size image layers, edit them and make copies of them as new files. Psd files are saved exactly as you left them.

Right. But what you cannot do is undo an image edit made with, for example, the Burn tool.

One of the problems is the ambiguous way that Photoshop uses the term "image." It is used interchangeably to refer to the complete composition (as in the Image menu) and individual graphical images added as layers, which is the way everybody else uses the term.

I think that ambiguity is what is causing our misunderstanding of LC's question.

She refers to the "spot healer" and I think she is referring to the "healing brush tool," which you use, among other uses, to "heal" blemishes in a photograph. When you use the tool and then save the photoshop file, the history of those changes is erased, and you cannot undo them in a subsequent session.

Given all that, I don't believe your solution addresses LC's specific problem.

You are quite right, Al, my suggestions were alternatives. If you keep adding layers the way you suggested, you can peel off those layers. I was suggesting a simpler way of keeping the basic layers as a template and generating any number of copies. Instead of having a stack of layers:



You have a number of jpeg images generated from a template:

Yes, I meant the healing brush tool. I'm also having trouble with the pen, the option where you click two points and a line forms between them. Why is it that I can get it to do that beautifully sometimes, and other times it won't work at all?

Shelagh, thx for the explanation, even if it wasn't what I immediately needed, I'll go through the steps you outlined, as it's all new, useful stuff to me.

I've not used the pen and those tools much. I find Photoshop's graphical image editing tools to be below par although others get stunning results with them.

I edit graphical images in other programs and import the images into Photoshop through the clipboard.

Al, what are those other programs you use? Illustrator?

I use Paint Shop Pro. For simple edits I use Windows Paint.

'Nother question...

I know that if I shift/click in the layer panel, all layers get selected. But how do I select just a few of them, so that I can move the graphics on them together without disturbing the rest of the piece?

1. Go to the Layers pane.
   
2. Select one of the layers in the group you want to control.
   
3. To the left of the layer selection is a little paintbrush icon.
   
4. That icon is blank in all the other layers.
   
5. Click the blank icon in another layer.
   
6. It gets what looks like a paperclip icon.
   
7. You have now clipped the two layers together.
   
8. When you move one of them, they both move, and so on.
   
9. Click other layers' icons to have them join the group.
   
10. Click again to clear the clip.
    

My terminology might not be correct vis a vis the paperclip.

Do you mean the layers panel? Here's a screenshot. I don't see a paintbrush, but there's a lock. Same thing? Or am I looking in the wrong place? This is CS5, btw.

Yes, that's the place. The square framed icon to the left of each layer name is the one I'm speaking of. I have Photoshop 7.0. On that, the leftmost icon has an eyeball icon. If you click it to clear the icon, it makes the icon not visible. Play with it and see what happens.

The eyeball on this version just means the layer is visible. When you click it, the eyeball is removed and the layer is invisible. Oh well, I'll keep fiddling with it.

That's the same way mine works. Click to the right of the eyeball and see what happens. Use the Move tool after you do that.