Photoshop® CS3 Layers Bible

Chapter 12. Exploring Layer Strategies

This chapter, the first in the "Real World" part of the book, takes a wide view of layers in the real world. While it's important to know how layers work and how to manipulate them in Photoshop, it also helps to be aware of wider issues such as document management and working in a team. Essentially, you can view this chapter as a discussion of best practices.

You look at ways to keep your layers organized, and how to create multiple versions of your Photoshop files to help you refine your designs. The chapter also looks at techniques for organizing your Photoshop files on disk, so that you can easily find the files you need when working on a project.

Photoshop provides many features to help you edit your images non-destructively, and this chapter explores some ideas to help you do this. You'll also look at situations where you might want to flatten your Photoshop files to save space.

The chapter also takes a look at using layers in real-world situations. You'll learn some tricks to help you work better in a team, and you'll explore some common workflow situations. Finally, the chapter shows how you can use radically different approaches with your Photoshop layers to achieve similar results.

Organizing Layers for Clarity

Here's a scenario: You create a Photoshop document composed of, say, 50 layers. After you finish, you know your way around it like the back of your hand. The whole thing makes perfect sense to you at that moment, so you don't bother ...