This post on Understanding Layers in Photoshop has been submitted by Jodi Friedman of MCP Actions. MCP Actions offers customized one on one photoshop training, photoshop actions, and photo editing for photographers. To see more Photoshop tips and tutorials visit her blog at http://www.mcpactions.com/blog.

One of the most important keys to learning and mastering photoshop is using layers.

Why work on layers at all?

• They do not destroy your original photo.
• You are working on top of or on copies of that photo.
• You will have more control.
• You can use blending modes to change the way layers interact.
• You can change the opacity of any effects.
• You will have or can add layer masks so that you can work selectively on your photo with any adjustments you make.

There are a number of types of layers that I will discuss today.

New Layer:

(SHIFT, CTRL or CMD, and “N”) or under LAYER – NEW LAYER: This will create a blank transparent layer. This is useful when you want to add or change something on a photo and pixels are not needed. For example, adding a border. If you make a new blank layer, and then add a border by doing SELECT – ALL. Then EDIT – STROKE. You can turn the layer on or off by toggling the eye ball, add a layer style such as a bevel or emboss, or change the opacity by working on this type of layer.

Earlier today I had a reader ask me for a recommendation for a book on Photoshop. I decided to poll 10 of my good photographer buddies on their recommendations and they came up with the following Photoshop books:

Photoshop Elements 6

1. The Photoshop Elements 6 Book for Digital Photographers
2. Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: The Missing Manual
3. Photoshop Elements 6 For Dummies

Photoshop CS3

1. The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers
2. Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Photographers
3. Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book

Other Photoshop Books

1. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers
2. Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature
3. Adobe Photoshop Restoration & Retouching

Got another Photoshop book to recommend? Let us know your favorites in comments below.

In this post Peter Carey takes a look at the new Adobe Photoshop Express.

Adobe is entering the online photo storage and editing field with its latest entry Photoshop Express, still in beta testing. The product looks to be a strong offshoot of the popular image editing software many of us rely upon. At the current time the service is free, but what can it do? Let’s take a look.

HOW IT WORKS

First and foremost, Express is an online tool. Current limits for storage stand at 2GB and only JPG files are accepted, noting TIFF and other files tend to be too large. Size limit is 4000×4000 and 10MB. Assuming the average JPG is about 2.5MB, you will be able to store about 800 images online. To me, this seems a bit small but the program is still in beta. If gmail is any indication of storage growth, more space should be available in the future, possibly for a fee if you’re a poweruser.

The screenshot at right is taken from the Test Drive portfolio which anyone can play with. It is located here and will give you a useful demo of what the service has to offer. The look of the site is muted in order to let your photos take center stage. The screen is thankfully clutter free, presenting just the tools needed in an orderly fashion.

You’ll first need to register for the service, which is currently only open to US residents. Once your account is setup and you have chosen your personal sharing URL (e.g. http://something.photoshop.com), you can start uploading and playing with your photos. The service would be just another photosharing site if it wasn’t for the handy tools Adobe is packing into this product.

TOOLS A PLENTY

Photoshop Express first presents the most basic of tools with just a single click of a picture. Referring to the image above, these are

• Edit (more on that powerful option in a moment)
• Rotate
• Email Photo
• Link
• Embed (in a blog, webpage, Facebook or other service)
• Download

These are the quick and easy tasks performed with a click or two of the mouse. The meat and potatoes of the product is located in the first item, Edit Image.

Today we’re going to show a little ‘photoshop comedy’ in the form of a video (it’s the weekend after all).

Photoshop Comedy you ask? Well yes, depending upon your sense of humor I guess.

These two videos are a part of a series of videos called ‘You Suck at Photoshop’ where a it’s photoshopper takes you through a series of simple photoshop tasks – but with a story (a sad love story).

The videos are informative – yet also will give some of you a chuckle (I say ’some’ because humor is of course something that can be debated).

I’m showing you video #3 and #4 in the series – some of the others in the series are a little more ‘blue’ (language mainly). I hope you enjoy them and learn a thing or two about basic photoshopping techniques along the way.

Here’s a pretty quick tutorial (just 52 seconds) on how to whiten the yellow teeth of portrait subjects. Give it a try and head over to our forums to share your results!