Help with using adjustment layers for the first time

joannalhudson

Help! I am just starting to use black and white conversions with and came across a "recipe" that people seem to really like. I've never "imported" someone else's conversion and am a little confused on how it works. I have it downloaded to my desktop and when I open the file (the "recipe") Photoshop pops up with the basic instruction to "Drag each attachment layer to the image you would like to convert. You will be moving all but the layer at the bottom of the palette".

I know this is so elementary for most of you, but keep in mind I am just figuring out Photoshop. How exactlly do I "drag each attachment layer to the imagine"? It's not Layer>Adjustment layer, is it? That seems to start me from scratch...

I'm so confused.

Anyone? :scratch

Richard

Hi Joanna,

This is probably a lot harder to explain than to do, but I'll give it a shot. You need have both the recipe and the image you are converting open in Photoshop, and you should size the windows so that both are visible simultaneously. Then you have to drag each layer from the recipe into your image, starting from the second from the bottom and moving to the top so that they end up in the same order. In order to do this, you need to have the layers palette of the recipe open on your desktop. You do this by clicking on the recipe image to make it active, then go to the menu bar's Window menu and check Layers. You then drag each layer of the recipe from the layers palette by clicking on the layer entry and not releasing the mouse button, then move the mouse till it is within the image you are converting and release the mouse button. This will create a copy of the recipe layer in the image automatically as a new layer. It will also select the converted image, so you will have to click again on the recipe image each time you copy a recipe layer. Do this for every layer in the recipe, then close the recipe image and you are done. You should be left with your original image as the background (bottom) layer and all of the recipe adjustment layers above it in the proper order.

I hope this was understandable. Give it a try and holler if you run into problems. Once you get the hang of it and understand what each adjustment layer does, you can create a Photoshop action that will produce the same result automatically without the need to open the recipe every time. We'll save that lesson for another day.

Regards,

joannalhudson

Got it! Thanks!
Thanks Richard! I followed your advice and it worked out great! I've attached the picture so you can see.

One more question if you don't mind. Would creating a photoshop "action" circumvent the need to me to drag all those layers? Maybe nothing's THAT simple, but it sure would be nice to create such a great affect with the click of the mouse.

I appreciate your help!


Joanna

rsinmadrid wrote:

Hi Joanna,

This is probably a lot harder to explain than to do, but I'll give it a shot. You need have both the recipe and the image you are converting open in Photoshop, and you should size the windows so that both are visible simultaneously. Then you have to drag each layer from the recipe into your image, starting from the second from the bottom and moving to the top so that they end up in the same order. In order to do this, you need to have the layers palette of the recipe open on your desktop. You do this by clicking on the recipe image to make it active, then go to the menu bar's Window menu and check Layers. You then drag each layer of the recipe from the layers palette by clicking on the layer entry and not releasing the mouse button, then move the mouse till it is within the image you are converting and release the mouse button. This will create a copy of the recipe layer in the image automatically as a new layer. It will also select the converted image, so you will have to click again on the recipe image each time you copy a recipe layer. Do this for every layer in the recipe, then close the recipe image and you are done. You should be left with your original image as the background (bottom) layer and all of the recipe adjustment layers above it in the proper order.

I hope this was understandable. Give it a try and holler if you run into problems. Once you get the hang of it and understand what each adjustment layer does, you can create a Photoshop action that will produce the same result automatically without the need to open the recipe every time. We'll save that lesson for another day.

Regards,

joannalhudson

Hmmm
Ok... Now that I look at the picture it seems a little bright on one half of his face.. I think I just need to tweak things a bit.

Thanks again for your help!!

Joanna

joannalhudson wrote:

Thanks Richard! I followed your advice and it worked out great! I've attached the picture so you can see.

One more question if you don't mind. Would creating a photoshop "action" circumvent the need to me to drag all those layers? Maybe nothing's THAT simple, but it sure would be nice to create such a great affect with the click of the mouse.

I appreciate your help!


Joanna

Richard

Hey Joanna,

Cute kid and nice shot. Glad it worked out for you.

Yes, an action would be just a mouse click. It would probably be best if you got to understand what all those adjustment layers are doing first, but if you want, you could create an action based on all that dragging and dropping. Here's what you could try:

Open any pic
Go to the actions menu and select new action.
Give it a name that you will remember.
The program is now recording all your keystrokes.
Open the recipe pic
Do all the dragging and dropping exactly as you did before.
When you are done, close the recipe and click the little stop recording button.

If I'm not forgetting something (unlikely ) you should now be able to open any pic, then select your action from the list of actions and run it. I have an action on my machine to run the Gorman method of BW conversion, btw, and it is really convenient.

If you have trouble with the action, you can speed up the manual process a bit by selecting all of the layers in the recipe palette, then dragging them as a group into the pic window. I should have suggested that in the first place.

Regardless of how you do it, it will help you a lot to understand what each of the layers is doing. That way, you will be able to fine tune the results. No recipe works well on all pics, so control is important.

Good luck.

joannalhudson

You're right. I've been messing around with it for the last hour and some pictures come out too dark, others too light. Now that I'm starting to figure out the layers I'll just spend some time playing around to get a better understanding of things. I appreciate the tips on creating the action/draggin the layers. It will come in handy soon, I am sure.

Many thanks!!

Joanna

rsinmadrid wrote:

Hey Joanna,

Cute kid and nice shot. Glad it worked out for you.

Yes, an action would be just a mouse click. It would probably be best if you got to understand what all those adjustment layers are doing first, but if you want, you could create an action based on all that dragging and dropping. Here's what you could try:

Open any pic
Go to the actions menu and select new action.
Give it a name that you will remember.
The program is now recording all your keystrokes.
Open the recipe pic
Do all the dragging and dropping exactly as you did before.
When you are done, close the recipe and click the little stop recording button.

If I'm not forgetting something (unlikely ) you should now be able to open any pic, then select your action from the list of actions and run it. I have an action on my machine to run the Gorman method of BW conversion, btw, and it is really convenient.

If you have trouble with the action, you can speed up the manual process a bit by selecting all of the layers in the recipe palette, then dragging them as a group into the pic window. I should have suggested that in the first place.

Regardless of how you do it, it will help you a lot to understand what each of the layers is doing. That way, you will be able to fine tune the results. No recipe works well on all pics, so control is important.

Good luck.