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A Digital Scrapbooking Journal - Part Seven

More Digital Scrapbooking Tips and Techniques

Friday, June 15, 2007:“I Don’t Do Layers!”

I can’t believe I ever said that. I had a bit of a rep locally as a pro at photo manipulation. One day a man came into my shop and said he was referred by the teacher of a Photoshop course he was taking.

The teacher thought I might be able to help him with his problem. The gentleman started to explain. He was creating a map of historic sites and had a file with 57 layers …. “Whoa,” I said, “I don’t do layers! Sorry, I can’t help you.”

It was a few months later that I got a crash course in Layers. Now I can’t imagine living – or at least Photoshopping – without them. A friend brought me a file on disk and begged me to help her out. She was writing a small magazine to raise funds for a local charity.

The magazine had to be to the printer in a week. Her graphic designer (who was working gratis) had suddenly moved away. Most of the pages were done but hadn’t been proofed and corrected. Could I help?

I said I’d take a look and see what I could do. I had no idea what an adventure I was embarking on.

When I tried to open my friend’s magazine file, I thought something was wrong with it because it took several minutes to load. When it finally came up, there was one double page of the magazine on screen. Where were the rest of the pages?

Ah-ha! I noticed the open eye on the Layers palette beside the page I was viewing. Close the eye by clicking on it and the page goes away. Pretty soon I was clicking on the other Layers’ eyes to view them. Cool!

I was a bit nervous that I might damage something but the file was so well organized, it went pretty smoothly. Every page was a Group of elements that could be individually edited or moved. The Groups were clearly labeled “Cover”, “Page 25 & 2”, “Page 3 & 24”, etc.

The magazine got to the printer on time and I got a free crash course in Photoshop Layers.

Still it wasn’t until I started digi-scrapping that I realized the versatility and value of Layers.

Digital scrapbooking really pushes Photoshop Layers to the limit. When you save a Photoshop layered file, you preserve the steps that went into the creative process.

You can go back and edit much of your work or even use components for other projects. You can produce multiple page documents, like the magazine I talked about earlier.

When you print, the Layers which are visible – the ones with their eyes open – are the only ones which print.

What I love most about Layers is the design flexibility they give you.

As an example, the vintage pages above were created by scanning the beer ad on one Layer. I digitally curled up one corner so that you can see the publication name and date: The Philadelphia Enquirer Magazine, August 23, 1959.

The curl was created by scanning the back of the ad and cutting out a long triangle containing the publication info; then creating another long triangle for the glow. The glow gives the appearance of light highlighting the topmost surface of the curl.

I cut out another triangle from the back of the beer ad to give the appearance that there is another magazine page behind the ad. The Layers are arranged as follows from bottom to top: beer ad; next page triangle; curled triangle; glow. Finally I gave the curled triangle a drop shadow to complete the 3D look.

As I said earlier, I can’t imagine Photoshopping without Layers anymore.

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