88. Create a New Layer from a Selection Before You Begin  70 About Making Selections
91 About Layers and the Layers Palette
See Also  87 Create a New Image from a Selection
90 Copy Data into a Selected Area
One of the powerful features available in the Editor is the ability to create and work with different layers of an image. When you use layers, you can isolate portions of an image and make changes to only that portion. If you create a selection of your family from a larger image taken in front of your house, you can create a new layer with just your family on it. Now you have two layers: your family on one layer and your house plus your family on another. The composite image still shows your family in front of your house because the copy of your family, when initially pasted to the new layer, is in exactly the same location on that layer as it was on the original layerin effect, there are two copies of your family, one directly on top of the other. You can do a lot of things now. You can move the family on the top layer over to one side, and have two families show up in the photo. Because the family is isolated on its own layer, you can adjust the brightness and contrast of just the family; select a blend mode on the top layer that causes the families to blend in such a way that makes the family appear more saturated, darker, or artfully colored; blur the entire bottom layer and make the duplicate family (which remains sharp on its own layer) stand out better against the background; resize the top family and move it to one side so they appear as a miniature with themselves; or you can replace the layer containing your house with an image of the White House. Just that easily, you've taken your family on "vacation" to Washington DC. The tricks begin, however, by first selecting the family and getting that selection on another layer in the same image, and that's what you'll learn to do in this task. (See 91 About Layers and the Layers Palette for more information on working with layers.)  1. | Make Selection
NOTE  | In this task, you use the Layer via Copy command to create a new layer in the current image, with selected data from another layer. To paste selected data from a different image onto a new layer in the current image, use Edit, Paste. |
Open an image in the Editor in Standard Edit mode and save it in Photoshop (*.psd) format. In the Layers palette, choose the layer that contains the data you want to select and make a selection using your favorite selection tools.
| 2. | Create New Layer by Copying
Select Layer, New, Layer via Copy to copy the current selection to a new layer within your image. This new layer appears above the current layer in the Layers palette. The selection appears in the same location on the new layer as it occupied in the original layer.
You can also select Layer, New, Layer via Cut to cut the current selection from its existing layer and paste it in a new layer. If used in this example, the selected baby elephant would be cut from the Background layer and pasted on the new layer. A hole would be left in the Background layer where the baby elephant was originally located, and that hole would be filled with the background color, or transparent pixels (if the background layer has been converted to a regular layer, such as Layer 0).
NOTE | Note that you do not have to use the Edit, Copy command before completing step 2 in order to copy your selection to a new layer in the same image. |
| 3. | View the Result
Make changes to the data on the new layermove it around, resize it, adjust its brightness or contrast, apply filters, effects, layer styles, and so on. When you're satisfied with the result, make any other changes you want and save the PSD file. Resave your final result in JPEG or TIFF format, leaving your PSD image with its layers intact so that you can return at a later time and make different adjustments if you want.
In this example, I used the Magnetic Lasso tool to select the walking baby elephant. I then used the Layer via Copy command to move just the baby elephant onto a new layer all to himself. I wanted to make the photo a bit more interesting by adding another elephant, but to disguise that fact, I resized him slightly and moved him closer to his mother. See 99 Move, Resize, Skew, or Distort a Layer. I had to clone in the missing trunk and leg that was hidden behind the rock on the original elephant. See 125 Repair Minor Tears, Scratches, Spots, and Stains. I still have some more work to do, adding a shadow and a reflection in the water, but even now the effect is pretty convincing.
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