This is the chapter where you'll move up a notch, from practicing the basics of good image editing to learning the art of creative control over your work output.
That said, for many grappling with the concept of Selections, Layers and Masks, this might seem counterintuitive. Indeed, when I first started to learn Photoshop, it took me months of self-persuasion before I was ready to make an assault on the concept of Layers, such was its perceived complexity. I was lucky in that, at that point, I had always worked in photography—from commercial audio-visual production to printing in a pro lab—so the concepts of dodging, burning in, masking, and exposure were all familiar to me. Even so, I still found Layers somewhat tricky, but after a few weeks of messing about, it became one of my all-time favorite features in this application simply because it opened my eyes to a completely new range of creative possibilities. Hopefully, this chapter will do the same for you...
This chapter begins with one of the simplest ways to nondestructively edit images—using an Adjustment Layer. This will also introduce you to the technique of masking—controlling precisely where in the file the edits work and where they won't. Just learning this one technique should open new doors for you. I will then show you how to use two of the most underrated tools in Elements—the Burn and Dodge Tools. These allow you to simply paint brightness into the highlights, midtones, or shadows, or do the opposite and darken those tonal regions. Then, we will look at the Sponge Brush, which allows you to enhance local color with the swish of the mouse. These are brilliant tools for making significant improvements to any image.
Other techniques that you will learn about in this comprehensive chapter include the following:
- Adjustment Layers
- Adjustment Layer Masking
- Beauty retouching with the Clone Stamp Tool
- The Burn, Dodge, and Sponge Tools
- The Selection tools (Lasso, Magic Wand, Selection Brush Tool, Quick Selection Tool, Refine Selection Brush Tool, Auto Selection Tool, and Refine Selection Edge feature)
- Feathering (softening) selections
- Retouching (removing) large objects
- An introduction to Layers
- Layer Blend Modes
- Pseudo Layer Masks
- Combining pictures – multi-image documents
- Correcting perspective distortion
- Adding text to images
- Text styles and special effects
- Brush, Pencil, and Eraser Tools
- Paint Bucket Tool
- Gradient Tool
- Graphic Elements (Text Graphics, Regular Shape Tool, Custom Shape Tool, and Cookie Cutter Tool)
- Layer masking
On the surface, an Adjustment Layer behaves somewhat like a ghost layer. We use them to make nondestructive tonal changes to regular images. The clue here is in the term nondestructive. Regular editing on JPEG, TIFF, PSD, and PNG files can be destructive, especially if it's done over-enthusiastically, repeatedly, or just not very well. In such cases, the image begins to lose quality, unless it's a RAW file, which is always a copy of the original. I may add that, although this nondestructiveness claim certainly looks impressive on paper, it's actually hard to quantify with real-life examples, when compared with some so-called destructive forms of editing.
Even so, for many photographers, one of the huge advantages of using an Adjustment Layer is that it can also be used as a mask. A mask is a Photoshop feature that can be used to limit the effect of any change, tonal or otherwise, on specific parts of the picture. They are an incredible way to lighten, darken, saturate, or desaturate specific bits of an image, while leaving the rest of the image untouched. What's more, a mask is a relatively simple feature to create.
An Adjustment Layer can be added to any image via the Layers menu at the top of the main window, or via the Layers panel.
When you choose one of these special tone-altering Adjustment Layers, you must decide on what it is you want to achieve with the image. Your choices are, in order: Solid Color, Gradient, Pattern, Levels, Brightness/Contrast, Hue/Saturation, Gradient Map, Photo Filter, Invert, Threshold, or Posterize
Once selected, you'll note that a new layer has appeared on top of the regular photo layer (which is called the Background Layer by default). This is the Adjustment Layer, and whatever tool it's associated with appears on the main screen. So, if it's a Levels Adjustment Layer, the layer appears along with the Levels tool, as shown in the previous screenshot.
In this example, you then make a Levels adjustment, and to close it, click the x at the top right of the tool panel. If you want to do it again, simply click the grey tool icon in the Adjustment Layer to bring Levels back for more editing.
As I mentioned previously, the difference between making a Levels adjustment directly onto the layer and via an Adjustment Layer is very hard to detect visually unless it has been over-edited, in which case you might detect damage to the smoothness of the pixels, but this is unlikely. Where we can really make a significant impact on the editing process is when we modify the layer (mask) so that the Levels effect ends up only being applied to part of the image.