Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows: The Missing Manual

Managing Layers

The Layers panel lets you manipulate your layers in all kinds of ways, but first you need to understand a few more of the panel's cryptic icons. Some of the things you can do with layers may seem obscure when you first read about them, but once you actually use layers, you'll quickly see why many of these options exist. The next few sections explain how to manipulate layers in several different ways: hide them, group them together, change the way you see them, and combine them.

Making Layers Invisible

You can turn the visibility of layers off and on at will. This feature is tremendously useful. If the image you're working on has a busy background, for example, it's hard to see what you're doing when working on a particular layer. Making the Background layer invisible can really help you focus on the layer you're interested in. To turn off visibility, in the Layers panel, click the eye icon to hide the layer. Click the eye once more to make the layer visible again.

Tip

If you have a bunch of hidden layers and decide you don't want them anymore, click the Layers panel's little four-line square in the upper right, and choose Delete Hidden Layers to get rid of them all at once.

Adjusting Opacity

Your choices for layer visibility aren't limited to on and off. You can create immensely cool effects by adjusting the opacity of layers. In other words, you can make a layer partially transparent so that what's underneath it shows through.

To adjust a layer's opacity, click the layer ...