Photoshop CS6: 10 Time Saving Layer Tips
If you’ve been using Photoshop for some time, then you’ve used layers. Layers are the workhorse of your workflow. With them you do everything from silhouetting images, applying tonal adjustments, making comps, adding fills, and so on and so on.
But with every version of Photoshop, Adobe adds more functionality to layers. In Photoshop CS6, there are several important new features, such as the capability to assign blend modes, fills, or opacity to multiple layers simultaneously.
Another big improvement is hiding or showing layers based on the layer type — for instance, all layers with type or layers with effects applied. Other criteria for filtering layers include name, kind (like shape or adjustment, blend mode, attribute (like locked or linked), and color. This feature is especially useful for those with long layers lists and limited screen real estate.
This next layer upgrade is a small thing, but a big timesaver: you can select layers directly within an image by simply checking a box rather than entering keystrokes.
But these new features are just the beginning of what you can do with layers in Photoshop CS6.
Julieanne Kost, Photoshop and Lightroom Senior Evangelist, shows what’s possible in this video “Top 10 Time Saving Enhancements to Layers in Photoshop CS6.”
This video, by the way, is endorsed by Adobe’s go-to blogger about all things imaging John Nack, who wrote: “Does anyone convey more useful info in less time than Julieanne Kost? This video just taught me things, and I work here, for crying out loud.”
Check it out for yourself. (This video may be slow to load, so please be patient!)
This article was last modified on January 6, 2023
This article was first published on May 21, 2012
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Reeeally nice tips! I would like to know how to isolate a layer in CS6. Can’t find it anywhere!
i like!
Thanks for describing these great enhancements to CS6. Also, the new functionality to Rasterize Layer Style is okay, but I hope the old CS5 ability to Create Layers from a style is still in tact. This really helps to isolate individual effects then fine tune them.
-Terry