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Layers and layer types

Layers come in a couple of different types. There are the image layers we're all used to from all  those Photoshop manipulations we've seen countless times, but there are also adjustment and/or effects layers used to change the appearance of a photo rather than combining it with another one.

Photoshop is not the only tool for combining image layers. ON1 Photo RAW does it rather well and Skylum Luminar can combine image layers too.

Adjustment/effect layers are the province of non-destructive image editing tools like Capture One Pro, ON1 Photo RAW, Alien Skin Exposure X and others (regular image-editors like Photoshop and Affinity Photo have them too). The underlying image remains unaltered, and the adjustment layer simply changes its appearance. You can add multiple adjustment layers and used masks to control the areas of they affect. You can change the settings for adjustment layers or removing them completely at any time, right up to the point when you export a final, finished image for sharing or printing.

Affinity Photo 2 review

November 29, 2022 by Rod Lawton

Verdict: 4.5 stars Affinity Photo 2 is not a huge leap forward from version 1 for photographers, but more a major refresh and rebranding for Affinity. It remains an extremely powerful professional Photoshop rival at an exceptionally low price. Its tone mapping is superb, its RAW processing can now be applied non-destructively and its central Photo personal is hugely powerful.

Filed Under: Best software, Featured, ReviewsTagged With: Affinity Photo, Develop (RAW files), Focus stacking, HDR, Layers, Panoramas, Tone mapping

Lightroom vs Photoshop: which program should you use and when?

April 15, 2022 by Life after Photoshop

Lightroom vs Photoshop, which is best? It’s not that simple, as anyone who uses them will know, because although there is some crossover (well, a lot of crossover), they have very different roles and very different strengths and weaknesses. One is not better than the other because it depends on what you want to do. […]

Filed Under: Lightroom, PhotoshopTagged With: Adobe, Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), Asset management, Bridge (Adobe), Cataloguing software, DAM (Digital Asset Management), Layers, Lightroom (Adobe), Lightroom Classic (Adobe), Local adjustments, Photography Plan (Adobe), Photoshop (Adobe), Plug-ins, Retouchii, Retouching

The power of adjustment layers and masks

February 14, 2019 by Rod Lawton

Adjustment layers started out in Photoshop as a way of altering the look of an image without actually changing its pixels. It was the start of non-destructive editing. Now, adjustment layers are everywhere, not just in Photoshop, and for me they are the key to successful image enhancements. There’s a second factor, though – layer […]

Filed Under: Exposure X, General, TutorialsTagged With: Adjustment layer, Graduated filters, Layers, Masks, Presets

How to use layers, blend modes and masking tools in Luminar 3/4

March 24, 2018 by Rod Lawton

Luminar layers

This tutorial shows how to use the powerful layers, blend modes and masking tools in Luminar 2018, but actually the same principles can be used in other image-editing programs which support image layers. I’m going to start with a perfectly pleasant lakeside travel shot and give it a more dramatic Game of Thrones look by […]

Filed Under: Luminar, TutorialsTagged With: Layers, Masks

How to add a new sky to a landscape without selections

August 25, 2017 by Rod Lawton

How to add a new sky to a landscape

Very often in landscape photography you get the landscape or the lighting you want, but not the sky. In the perfect world you’d keep going back again and again until everything was perfect. In our not-so-perfect-world, however, it’s sometimes useful to be able to add a new sky later, as the final touch to an […]

Filed Under: UncategorizedTagged With: Blend modes, Layers, Masks

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