Shortcuts

You'll be doing a lot of switching between layers, and this can get a bit tedious. Therefore, I'll show you some quick shortcuts. First, you can Command-click (Mac) or Ctrl-click (Windows) anywhere in the image window when using the Move tool to activate the layer directly below your cursor. Then you can find out which layer you're working on by glancing at the Layers palette.

You won't always need the layer below your cursor, so instead of Command-clicking (Mac) or Ctrl-clicking (Windows), try Control-clicking (Mac) or right-clicking (Windows). This will bring up a menu of all the layers that contain pixels directly below your cursor; you just choose the name of the layer you want to work on and Photoshop will switch to that layer.

Remember that you can get to the Move tool temporarily at any time by holding down the Command key (Mac) or Ctrl key (Windows). Therefore, if you hold down Command and Control (Mac) or Ctrl and right-click (Windows) at the same time, no matter what tool you are using, Photoshop will present you with the pop-up menu.