Section 10.1. Organizing Your Layers to Apply Effects

10.1. Organizing Your Layers to Apply Effects

Here's the routine you should employ for organizing your layers for applying effects to an image you haven't already been processing. If you have already done considerable processing, use the Cmd/Ctrl-Opt/Alt-E hotkey to create a new unified layer and then apply these steps to that result:

1. Open the image to which you want to add effects.

2. Run the Action called Workflow Layers that you were introduced to the "The Magic Action for Layered Workflow" section in Chapter 5. Temporarily turn off all layers except Spot Retouch and the Background. Then do any cloning, healing, or spot healing needed to touch up the image, making sure to check the Sample All Layers box in the Options bar for those tools. Then turn the other layers back on.

3. If you need to add any composite layers, add them now. You'll usually want to place these layers between the Burn and Dodge layer and the Spot Healing layer so that all the layers above can affect the entire composition. However, your composite item could have its own workflow layers in a Group.

4. Use the Burn and Dodge, Level, and Curves layers as appropriate.

5. Make the Background layer an ordinary layer by renaming it.

6. Select all the layers and press Cmd/Ctrl-Opt/Alt-E. The image you have been working on will appear as a flattened layer at the top of the layer stack. Be sure to create any layers for any of the processes in this chapter on top of and from this combined layer.

The end result will look something like Figure 10-1.

Figure 10-1. Merging all the layers before creating an effect in the Layers palette at left. You should also rename the merged layer for the effect(s) you're going to impose on them.