Matt Kloskowski
The Layers Book Team
CREATIVE DIRECTORFelix Nelson
ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR
Jessica Maldonado
TECHNICAL EDITORS
Kim Doty
Cindy Snyder
TRAFFIC DIRECTOR
Kim Gabriel
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Dave Damstra
COVER PHOTOS COURTESY OF
iStockphoto.com
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| Layers The Complete Guide to Photoshops Most Powerful Feature |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matt Kloskowski is a Photoshop Guy whose books, videos, and classeshave simplified the way thousands of people work on digital photos
and images. Author of several best-selling books on Photoshop, Matt
teaches Photoshop and digital photography techniques to tens of
thousands of people around the world each year. He co-hosts the
top-rated videocast Photoshop User TV, as well as D-Town TV—the
photography videocast that’s broken the mold when it comes to teaching
photography. He’s built a massive library of videos that appear
in DVDs and online training courses, and has written articles for Photoshop
User magazine. You’ll find Matt teaching for the Kelby Training
Live seminar tour, as well as at the world’s premier Photoshop event,
the Photoshop World Conference & Expo. Matt lives in Tampa, Florida,
and works at the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Of course, there are many people behind the scenes that helped make this book happen. One of my favorite parts of writing a book is that I get to thank them publicly in front of the thousands and thousands of people who read it. So here goes:
To my wife, Diana: No matter what the day brings, you always have a smile on your face when I come home. I could never thank you enough for juggling our lives and being such a great mom to our kids.
To my oldest son, Ryan: Your inquisitive personality amazes me and I love the little talks that we have. Thanks for being such a patient subject when I’m testing out photo gear and, most of all, thanks for kicking my butt at Modern Warfare 2 on the Xbox 360. There’s nothing like a dad coming home to a chopper gunner attack on him.
To my youngest son, Justin: I have no doubt that you’ll be the class clown one day. No matter what I have on my mind, you always find a way to make me smile. That was just what I needed when working on this book.
To my mom and dad for giving me such a great start in life and always encouraging me to go for what I want. To Ed, Kerry, Kristine, and Scott (my brothers and sisters) for supporting me and always giving me someone to look up to.
Thanks to Scott Kelby for having become a mentor and just all-around great friend. You’ll never know how much that one lunch at Ruby Tuesday’s helped me when writing this book. Thanks man! To the folks that make this book look like the awesome book that you see: Felix Nelson, Jessica Maldonado, and Dave Damstra.
I owe a huge thank you to Nicole Procunier for making the cover image of this book totally rock, and for helping me out with many of the graphics and projects in the tutorials.
To my two favorite editors in the world: Cindy Snyder and Kim Doty. Thanks for making me look so good. To Paul Wilder, our in-house IT guru, for making sure I have a great computer and the software I need, when I need it.
To Dave Moser, the business powerhouse behind Kelby Media Group. Your militaristic, yet insightful, comments throughout the day help me way more than you know. Thanks for continuing to push me to be better each day.
To Dave Cross, Corey Barker, and RC Concepcion for putting up with me asking them, “Hey guys, what do you think of this?” questions for a month while writing this book. You guys rock! To all my friends at Peachpit Press: Ted Waitt, Scott Cowlin, Gary-Paul Prince, and Sara Jane Todd. It’s because you guys are so good at what you do that I’m able to continue doing what I love to do. To you, the readers. Without you, well…there would be no book. Thanks for your constant support in emails, phone calls, and introductions when I’m out on the road teaching. You guys make it all worth it.
Thank you.
— Matt Kloskowski
Introduction
You know what? I can’t stand introductions. Weird coming from an author, right? It’s like some
committee got together and said that you’ve got to have an introduction in your book. Oh,
and please make it long. Really long! In fact, make it so long that it will ensure no one reads
introductions. And the vicious cycle begins. That said, I understand the concept of an
It’s for the author to introduce you to the content of the book and give you an idea of how best to
get the most out of the book you just purchased. I’m going to do that, but I’m going to do it with
a very short list (I love lists, by the way). Here goes:
1. If you want to follow along with the images used in the book, then feel free to download
them at www.kelbytraining.com/books/layerscs5. You’ll notice that most are watermarked,
especially the photos don’t belong to me. I’ve used two great online resources for stock photos,
Fotolia and iStockphoto, because I wanted to include a variety of projects and I don’t happen
to photograph all of those type of subjects. For example, in Chapter 1, I think the basketball
sports poster is a great way to use layers, but I don’t shoot basketball, so I used stock photos.
And you can guarantee that I didn’t use photos of anyone I know for the retouching chapter,
so I’ve used stock photos for many of those tutorials, as well.
2. I’ve included four online videos to go along with the book: one on layer basics, one on selection basics, one on brush basics, and a tutorial on the making of the cover. We use brushes and selections throughout the book, so I wanted to make sure you’re up to speed with the basics of what you’ll need.
3. What’s new in this version of the book? For starters, I’ve added an entire chapter on advanced layer techniques, blending, and compositing. Overall though, layers haven’t really changed much since I wrote the first version of this book more than three years ago. But Photoshop has had two major releases since then, and it was time to bring the book up to date. So, I have included all new graphics, examples, and even some new techniques that are more current
for today’s Photoshop user. That said, if you bought the first version of this book and you’re
looking for a completely new book, please don’t buy this one (if you’re flipping through it in a
bookstore. If you’ve already bought it online, most online booksellers allow returns, so return
it now before you feel the need to write a nasty review on Amazon.com :-).
4. Feel free to read the book in any order you want. I organized the book into the logical way
that I teach layers when I teach it to a live class. I started with the easier stuff and moved on to
the more advanced stuff in later chapters. So jump in wherever you want. Hey, it’s your book.
You bought it, right? You’re smart enough to realize that if you jumped right to Chapter 6 and
are lost, that the best thing to do may be to backtrack to Chapter 1. Chapter 10, however,
assumes you’ve read the rest of the book.
committee got together and said that you’ve got to have an introduction in your book. Oh,
and please make it long. Really long! In fact, make it so long that it will ensure no one reads
introductions. And the vicious cycle begins. That said, I understand the concept of an
It’s for the author to introduce you to the content of the book and give you an idea of how best to
get the most out of the book you just purchased. I’m going to do that, but I’m going to do it with
a very short list (I love lists, by the way). Here goes:
1. If you want to follow along with the images used in the book, then feel free to download
them at www.kelbytraining.com/books/layerscs5. You’ll notice that most are watermarked,
especially the photos don’t belong to me. I’ve used two great online resources for stock photos,
Fotolia and iStockphoto, because I wanted to include a variety of projects and I don’t happen
to photograph all of those type of subjects. For example, in Chapter 1, I think the basketball
sports poster is a great way to use layers, but I don’t shoot basketball, so I used stock photos.
And you can guarantee that I didn’t use photos of anyone I know for the retouching chapter,
so I’ve used stock photos for many of those tutorials, as well.
2. I’ve included four online videos to go along with the book: one on layer basics, one on selection basics, one on brush basics, and a tutorial on the making of the cover. We use brushes and selections throughout the book, so I wanted to make sure you’re up to speed with the basics of what you’ll need.
3. What’s new in this version of the book? For starters, I’ve added an entire chapter on advanced layer techniques, blending, and compositing. Overall though, layers haven’t really changed much since I wrote the first version of this book more than three years ago. But Photoshop has had two major releases since then, and it was time to bring the book up to date. So, I have included all new graphics, examples, and even some new techniques that are more current
for today’s Photoshop user. That said, if you bought the first version of this book and you’re
looking for a completely new book, please don’t buy this one (if you’re flipping through it in a
bookstore. If you’ve already bought it online, most online booksellers allow returns, so return
it now before you feel the need to write a nasty review on Amazon.com :-).
4. Feel free to read the book in any order you want. I organized the book into the logical way
that I teach layers when I teach it to a live class. I started with the easier stuff and moved on to
the more advanced stuff in later chapters. So jump in wherever you want. Hey, it’s your book.
You bought it, right? You’re smart enough to realize that if you jumped right to Chapter 6 and
are lost, that the best thing to do may be to backtrack to Chapter 1. Chapter 10, however,
assumes you’ve read the rest of the book.
5. There’s a little bonus at the end of each chapter. As an author, it’s one of the ways that we
wreak havoc on our editors, and we take a small amount of pleasure in that. After all, you can’t
just fill the book with tutorials, right? You’ve got to throw some tips in, and throw them in at
the last minute after all of the chapters are already turned in. My thoughts exactly. So, at the
end of each chapter, there’s a page of some common “How Do I…” questions. They’re all
related to things that you read in the chapter. I’ve taken the most common questions and put
them into one place, so you don’t have to poke around the whole chapter to find them.
That’s it. That’s my introduction. Easy. Simple. Short. Sweet.
Getting longer now that I keep adding to it at the end. But, still shorter than most. Now, get to it and enjoy the book. —Matt K.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE: LAYER BASICS
Layer Basics ......................................................................................................2
Using Multiple Layers.......................................................................................8
Everything Else About Layers........................................................................15
How Do I….....................................................................................................28
CHAPTER TWO: BLENDING LAYERS
The Three Blend Modes You Need Most ......................................................32
A Closer Look at Blend Modes......................................................................40
Layer Blend Modes for Photographers.........................................................47
How Do I….....................................................................................................54
CHAPTER THREE: ADJUSTMENT LAYERS
Adjustment Layer Basics ................................................................................58
Making Selective Adjustments ......................................................................62
Super Flexible Adjustments...........................................................................66
Some More Adjustment Layer Ideas.............................................................70
Fix One Photo—Fix ’Em All! ..........................................................................75
The Adjustment Layer Blend Mode Trick ......................................................79
How Do I….....................................................................................................82
CHAPTER FOUR: LAYER MASKS
Layer Mask Basics ..........................................................................................86
The Only Layer Mask “Gotcha” .....................................................................92
A Deeper Look Into Layer Masks ..................................................................95
Using Layer Masks Automatically................................................................103
Combining Multiple Images.........................................................................107
Making One Layer Fit Into Another ............................................................113
How Do I…...................................................................................................119
CHAPTER FIVE: TYPE AND SHAPE LAYERS
Creating Type Layers....................................................................................122
All About Shape Layers................................................................................133
How Do I…...................................................................................................143
CHAPTER SIX: ENHANCING PHOTOS WITH LAYERS
Combining Multiple Exposures ...................................................................146
Painting with Light .......................................................................................149
Dodging and Burning Done Right...............................................................152
Psuedo-HDR Effect ......................................................................................156
Replacing a Sky ............................................................................................160
Auto-Aligning Layers for Group Photos......................................................163
Enhancing Depth of Field ............................................................................166
Selective Sharpening....................................................................................168
Boosting Specific Colors ..............................................................................171
Creating Soft Focus......................................................................................173
How Do I…...................................................................................................176
CHAPTER SEVEN: RETOUCHING WITH LAYERS
The Layered Trick to Removing Wrinkles and Blemishes............................180
Smoothing and Enhancing Skin ...................................................................184
Making Eyes and Teeth Whiter....................................................................189
Removing Distractions .................................................................................194
Content-Aware Fill: It’s Cloning and Healing Combined!...........................198
How Do I…...................................................................................................202
CHAPTER EIGHT: LAYER STYLES
Layer Style Basics .........................................................................................206
Creating a Watermark..................................................................................213
Creating Reusable Photo Effects.................................................................215
Some More Layer Style Ideas ......................................................................220
How Do I…...................................................................................................225
CHAPTER NINE: SMART LAYERS
Five Reasons Why Smart Objects Rock!......................................................228
Designing Templates with Smart Objects...................................................234
Double Processing Your Photos ..................................................................242
How Do I…...................................................................................................247
CHAPTER TEN: ADVANCED LAYER BLENDING AND COMPOSITING
Replacing a Person’s Background................................................................250
Advanced Layer Blending ............................................................................258
Wrapping Graphics on Uneven Surfaces.....................................................263
Using Layers for Lighting and Shadows ......................................................268
Creating the Main Cover Image ..................................................................278
How Do I Learn More from Matt? ...............................................................287
INDEX...........................................................................................................290
Screenshot
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Product details
Price
|
|
|---|---|
Pages
| 313 p |
File Size
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44,581 KB |
File Type
|
PDF format |
ISBN-10
ISBN-13 | 0-321-74958-8 978-0-321-74958-1 |
Copyright
| 2011 by Kelby Corporate Management, Inc |
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