How to use layers in Photoshop Elements 5

[CambridgeBlue]

Have recently been trying to understand the use of layers and failed miserably!
Anyone point me to an 'idiot proof' guide to help me understand the use of layers in Elements 5?

Peter

[Colin Southern]

Hi Peter,

Unfortunately, I'm a PS, not a PSE user ... best suggestion I can think of though is to invest in one or two of Scott Kelby's PSE books; they're relatively inexpensive, and in return you get a "structured learning experience"

The guy is nuts - but also a good teacher and by all accounts a great guy (and the world's most published technical author).

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Peter,

I would second Colin's recommendation, I absorb info from Scott Kelby's books better than most.

One cheap/free alternative to buying an outdated book is to see if your local council library has it, they are usually a version or two behind current software, which works in your favour.

I remember getting the PSE5 version from my local (Berkshire) library when I bought PSE6 early last year. I never got around to buying it though (although I renewed it a couple of times), mainly because I was given a couple of alternatives, but am strugling to read them as easily as I did SK's.

If I am forced to upgrade to PSE7 because I get a camera not supported by ACR4.3, I will definitely be buying the latest version of the SK book.

Regards,

[crisscross]

I think the principles of layer management are exactly the same in PSE and PS. When I was using PSE4 extensively, what guys told me to do from their version of trial pic using PS (was about PS8 then) worked fine.

You can rummage the web and do pretty well for free; what it say do in PS, just do in PSE.

The principle is simple, its like different versions or parts of your pic on layers of translucent film used stacked up as often done in drawing offices. All pastes go onto a new layer; do anything you may regret on a new layer. Turn on & off = taking a layer of film in and out of the stack (delete=for good), dragging upwards = re-ordering the stack, opacity equivalent to translucency of the film. The danger to avoid is of doing things on or to a different layer to the one that is active (=highlighted), not necessarily the one on top or most visible. Including derivation of a new layer.

[Colin Southern]

If I am forced to upgrade to PSE7 because I get a camera not supported by ACR4.3, I will definitely be buying the latest version of the SK book.

Hi Dave,

I don't know if this works for PSE, but the easy solution with PS is to simply convert the RAW file to the DNG format with Adobe's free converter.