Hands On 8: Advanced Layers

In this project, you ll try out some of the advanced layer techniques by making layer masks, clipping masks, and a drop shadow, and applying matting to clean up edge pixels. You ll also use layer comps to display three versions of a document.

Getting Started

In the HO8 folder on the Photoshop CS Savvy CD, open the file hotel_flamingo_start.psd . Save the image to your disk. To view the beginning and completed versions of the Hotel Flamingo image, see Figure H8.1 (which is also presented as Figure C57 in the color section) and Figure H8.2 (Figure C58 in the color section).

Figure H8.1: The beginning image (left) with its Layers palette (right)

Figure H8.2: The finished Hotel Flamingo image

Discard your preferences file before beginning this Hands On exercise. The Modifying Photoshop s Settings section in Chapter 5, Setting Up Photoshop, details how to temporarily reset your preferences to Photoshop defaults. You can restore your customized personal settings when you re done.