SUPER-FAST LAYER COPIES

To instantly duplicate your current layer, just press Command-J (PC: Control-J). This also works if you want to duplicate just a portion of a layer. First, use the selection tool of your choice and make a selection of the area you want to duplicate. Now press Command-J (PC: Control-J), and that's all folks. Wait, what if you want to cut out the selected area from your current layer and put it up onto its own layer (so rather than just duplicating the selected area, you're cutting from the layer, and putting it onto another)? Then press Shift-Command-J (PC: Shift-Control-J) instead. This works great if you want to take the contents of your Background layer and put them onto it their own separate layer, without deleting the Background layer. Here's how it works: Press Command-A (PC: Control-A) to Select All, then press Shift-Command-J (PC: Shift-Control-J) to cut the background image out and put it on its own layer, above the now blank Background layer.