Section 5.2. Layer Abbreviations in Filenames

5.2. Layer Abbreviations in Filenames

Keep track of which layer you stopped on by adding an abbreviation to the filename. Table 5-2 shows the abbreviations I give to the filename to show how far along the layer workflow an image has processed. You could save a version of the image with each of these filenames, but that's overkill in my opinion. The idea here is that when you have to stop working to do something else, you know where you left off when you come back to the file.

Table 5-2. Suggested abbreviations for layer names

Layer	Add to filename
Background	bkg
Spot Retouching	spot
Burn and Dodge	BrnDj
Levels	lvl
Curves	crv
Targeted Curves	tgt crv
Color Balance	clr bal
Regional Color Balance	tgt clr bal
Advanced Retouching	adv ret
Transformation	xfrm
Compositing	comp
Effects	fx
Destructive editing	destr ed
Effects Sharpening	fx shrpn

You can perform different tasks within each of these layer categories. However, doing so doesn't often create as many layers as you might thinkyou won't do everything possible in Photoshop to every image you process.