Original subtitles

Have you ever seen Harry Potter?

Even if you don't like it from an artist's perspective,

that is a great movie series.

Let's take a look at this clip.

Remember the scene from "Deathly Hallows part two?"

If you have seen the movie,

look at this.

It just looks like one continuous camera move, right?

Just one location, one image, right?

It's all one.

However,

if you look at the breakdown,

this my friend is the first layer.

This was created.

All right?

Let's look at the second layer.

Now the lights were added.

Let's look at the third layer.

See these objects were added.

Now this smoke was added, right?

So in different layers, different elements are being added.

If you look at it closely, then lights were added

around the smoke

and then a little bit of color grading.

And the scene was complete.

Even if you look at this scene,

it looks like a lot of people are running around with monsters and stuff.

So the first layer was this.

A lot of it was not even shown

and that my friend shows how much details these artists go into to

make the scene look absolutely stunning and realistic.

Let's look at the second layer.

Now this was added.

If you have a look around the corner,

there's a green screen right there,

just to ease up replacement of the background.

And then all of these different elements were merged

as you can see from right here.

Even this ghost was captured separately,

the monster, whatever you want to call it, right?

And the face was separate as well.

So different layers,

different elements merged together.

Want to see one more clip?

Have a look.

Look how much details they have already made,

Most of these areas were not even showing the scene,

but for ambience, they do it.

And probably for other scenes, they had created this,

but this is some real in-depth work.

Let's take a look.

On top of that,

this land was created, right?

And the smoke,

this was on a green screen

and it was added later to that image,

to that composite.

So this is just like a composite, right?

This is in fact composite.

Different layers,

different elements.

Right on the first layer

we had the background.

Then we had the land.

On top of that, we had the monsters,

probably a little bit of color grading to merge everything together,

creation of shadows,

different elements.

You're getting where I'm going with this.

Now look at this scene where Harry fights Voldemort.

This scene might look simple, but look closely.

All right?

This is the scene.

If they break it down,

it's going to show you how it's going to work.

All right.

They are just standing.

That it.

There's no lights going on,

nothing.

It this added later.

So this is the stock footage.

On top of that,

Some color grading was added.

Look at it.

Lights for added right here.

On another layer again.

Have a look.

This was another layer,

right?

Another flare was added.

Some more light elements were added

and it just comprises the entire scene.

There are lots of scenes

and VFX breakdowns that you can watch online.

That's going to give you an idea of what layers actually do,

even in video and images as well.

Remember this example from the previous lesson?

This is also made up of a lot of layers.

Let me show you how, in terms of image,

this is depicted.

All right.

So at the very back,

we have the base.

And this is just a gradient

from light pink to dark pink.

That's it.

On top of that, we have a rectangle.

This is on a separate layer.

On top of that, we have the "SALE" text.

On top of that "50% OFF"

And on the very top,

we have our subject.

Now the advantage of having them on separate layers

is that we can adjust them separately.

We can move them.

You can make them bigger or smaller.

We can apply filters.

Everything is separate.

Now, if I select the subject,

I can move it anywhere I want.

I can make it bigger if I want to.

Smaller if I want to, right?

You have a lot of control.

If all of this was on one fixed layer,

you wouldn't have been able to

adjust them separately.

At the moment,

you can adjust even the text.

If you want to give a 75% off,

just you can double click on the "T" of the text layer,

where it says "50% OFF" and just

simply change the number to 75.

That's it.

If this was all one layer,

you wouldn't be able to do that.

So what are layers and why do we create them?

Well, layers are like transparent sheets of paper

one on top of the other.

And these transparent sheets of paper can contain a graphic

or even an adjustment.

Let me show you some real world examples.

So here we have an illustration.

Think of this as a graphic on a transparent sheet of paper.

This is just a layer.

Let's say you want to draw some birds on this birds at the very top.

So instead of drawing directly here,

what if we create another layer,

which is another transparent sheet of paper.

And on top of that, we drop the birds.

Very simple birds.

Now let's see if we want to adjust that.

We can simply move it anywhere we want to,

If we are in Photoshop, we can make it bigger or smaller.

Or if you want to remove it, you can easily

take it away.

Now, if you do it in the same layer,

there is no way we can erase it.

Because if we try to erase this,

those buildings at the back will be erased too.

You see where we are going with this?

Layers are the heart of Photoshop.

Whatever we create

will be based on one or more layers.

Now that we understand how layers work,

let us understand practically how they work in Photoshop,

back in the brilliant world of Photoshop.

And this, my friend is the layers panel.

If you cannot see the layers panel, if it's closed, lost, or anything,

let's just bring it out and close it.

There is no layers panel right now.

No need to panic.

All we have to do is to go to "Window" right there

and just click on "Layers"

That's it.

It's going to come back.

And this is true with any panel in Photoshop,

you can close it and bring it back anytime you like.

Let's say you're not using channels.

You're never using channels.

You can just close it and bring it back whenever you need it.

Let's click on "Layers"

Now you're on the layers panel.

Right.

Now we have opened the image of the beautiful Eiffel tower in Photoshop.

Now have a look.

As soon as we open an image,

a layer is automatically created.

What did we learn?

Anything you create will be based on one or more layers.

You cannot create anything without layers.

It's just there.

It's based on layers.

Whatever you create, it's based on layers.

All right.

So this, my friend is the "Base Layer"

and therefore they call it the "Background Layer"

right now it is locked.

So what does that mean?

If we press "Ctrl + T" or "Command + T"

the transform controls are not showing up.

Even if you choose the move tool and try to move it,

it's not going to move it.

Now, it's going to give you a dialog box,

that says it's a background layer, and you need to convert that

to a normal layer.

Let's cancel that.

Let me show you how to do that anyway.

So this is locked right now,

which can be good, which can be bad,

but to unlock it,

all you have to do is to click on the lock button right there.

Now it's unlocked.

And now it's renamed to "Layer 0" by default.

You can change the name of the layer

very easily by double clicking on the text

right there.

And you can change it to whatever you want.

So I'm just going to name it "Eiffel Tower"

Now let me show you a quick trick.

You know what?

This Eiffel Tower looks like the Leaning Tower of PISA.

You know why?

Because it's a little bent.

It's not actually bent, it's a photographer's fault.

We need to straighten that.

It's not a fault.

It just happens.

We are human.

So press "C" for the crop tool,

now what did we learn in the previous lesson?

Any tool that is selected, the properties of that tool

will be shown at the top.

And one at the properties of the crop do is straightening.

So click on "Straighten",

click on Straighten icon right there,

and just draw a straight line.

Along the line,

which you think should have been straight.

So

This line seems fine and automatically it straightens it.

Hit "Enter"

And there you have.

Now you have the Eiffel tower straight and nice.

Now, if you're new to Photoshop and a little bit curious,

you might ask,

"What's beneath this Eiffel Tower layer?"

Well, the answer is nothing.

If you turn off this layer and the way we turn off layers,

is by clicking on the eye.

It just means when the eye is gone, it's not visible.

It just makes sense, right?

And there is no eye, there is no visibility.

And when there is eye, there is visibility.

All right.

If we turn it off,

look at this checker box in Photoshop.

This checker box in Photoshop just means that there is nothing.

It just simply means that there is nothing.

That's nothingness.

That's how Photoshop shows nothingness.

It cannot show white as nothingness

because then there is something and that is white.

It cannot show black as nothingness

because there is something and that is black.

But checker box is a symbol or a pattern that shows that there is

nothing there.

All right?

Let's turn this layer back on by

clicking on this box right there.

And the eye shows up, which means

the visibility comes back.

Now let's learn the basic functions of the layers panel.

First,

let's learn how to create a layer.

As simple as ABC,

all you have to do

is to click on this icon next to the trashcan.

The design of this icon might be a little different in

previous versions of Photoshop.

But just keep in mind,

This is the icon next to the trashcan.

All right?

Click on the plus.

This creates a brand new layer.

In this layer you can do anything you want.

So if I paint on it,

let's increase the "Flow" to 100,

alright.

I'm painting on it with whatever color I choose.

That's on a separate layer.

We can turn it off and turn it on.

It's not on one layer.

If I had drawn in the Eiffel Tower layer,

you cannot erase it.

If you try to do that,

if you take the "Eraser tool" right there

and try to erase that,

the image will be erased too.

You cannot bring it back,

Let's go back by pressing "Ctrl + Z" or "Command + Z"

or "Undo"

All right,

anyway,

Now, if you do it on a separate layer

and that layer is selected,

and in that layer, if you use the eraser tool,

see?

Only that layer is being affected because it's on a separate layer,

right?

To delete a layer,

you can just drag it to the trashcan

it's deleted.

The other way is let's create a brand new layer

is with the layer selected,

you can press the "Delete" key to delete it.

One other way is simply with the layer selected,

click on the trashcan.

It says "Delete Layer 1"

Yes.

You can also check don't show this dialog box again if you want to.

Just hit "Yes"

And it is deleted.

So let's create a brand new layer by clicking on the new layer button

right there.

And we can name it "White Solid"

We'll talk about adjustment layers later.

So in this case, we're just filling that layer simply.

Anyway, this was for the advanced users.

For the beginners,

you don't have to concentrate on what I just said.

With the White Solid Layer selected, make sure that the foreground color

is white.

So this is the foreground color.

And that one at the back is the background color.

You can set the foreground and the background color to default colors

by pressing "D"

So let's say the foreground color is something strange.

And the background color something strange as well, something random.

And if you want to set it to black and white,

press "D",

it will be set to default.

Then you can press "X"

to toggle between the foreground and the background.

The background will become the foreground and the foreground will become

the background when you press "X".

"X" is for switch.

Now that it's white.

All you have to do is to press "Alt + Backspace" on windows

"Option + Delete" on the Mac

to fill this layer with the foreground color.

So "Alt + Backspace"

"Option + Delete"

It is now filled.

Now let's make this layer a little transparent,

not completely transparent,

a little transparent.

And to do that, just decrease the opacity.

And the word says what it means, right?

If the opacity is 100%,

that layer would be a 100% opaque.

Opaque is the word.

If the opacity is zero,

that layer would be a 100% transparent.

All right.

As you decrease the opacity,

the transparency increases.

Look at this.

It looks beautiful, doesn't it?

So we're going to keep the opacity to about 75%.

We're making a book cover.

Let's create a brand new layer.

Let's create a nice border for this.

So click on the "+"

And in this one,

we can choose the "Rectangle Tool" right there.

Okay?

If you cannot see the extra tools, which are grouped,

just click and hold,

and you will be able to see this too.

Once you select that tool,

just let's create a rectangle

around the border,

just like this.

All right.

Now we want this rectangle to have strokes.

We don't want to fill this rectangle.

We just want borders in this rectangle.

How do we do that?

Just make sure the fill is none.

So at the top,

what did we learn?

For every tool at the top,

we will have the properties of that tool.

So right now the "Rectangle Tool" is selected.

And the properties are at the top.

So we don't want to fill this with any color.

So click on the "Fill" and click on "Cancel" icon.

So this will not be filled with any color,

but we do want stroke, right?

So click on the "Stroke",

what color you want,

let's choose black

and let's increase the thickness of the stroke

from 10 pixels to about 20 pixels.

How does 20 look?

That's nice.

What about 25?

Let's keep it at about 25

To make sure it's in the center,

we need to move it there.

And to move it, we need to use what?

The move tool.

So, first of all, let's

choose the "Move tool",

and then press "Ctrl + A" or "Command + A",

it will make the complete selection of the canvas

because we need to choose the center of what?

So let's select the entire canvas first.

"Ctrl + A" or "Command + A"

once you do that,

you will see these tools at the top will be active.

So make sure that the rectangle layer is selected

and click on this button.

This will center it horizontally.

Click on that,

horizontally it's centered.

If you want to center it vertically,

click on this button.

Now it's centered vertically and horizontally.

To de-select,

press "Ctrl + D" or "Command + D"

"D" for: De-select.

Photoshop is simple guys.

"Ctrl + D" or "Command + D"

Now it is again, too much.

So you can decrease the opacity.

One easy way of decreasing the opacity

or any values

all over Photoshop

is to hover over where it says the "Text Opacity"

or "Fill", or any other property

and click and drag it to the left

or right to increase or decrease it.

For me,

let's set this to about 35%

and now we are ready to type in the text.

So we can create a brand new layer

at the top,

or when you add text, it's automatically going to

create a brand new layer anyway.

So once we create that layer

and let's name this "Title", if you want to,

or the name of the text, whatever you want to.

Choose "T" for the Text tool

and click on in here.

And let's write the title.

You can write anything.

So let's write for me, I'm going to write

lost in Paris.

To change the color of the text,

double click on the "T"

Now the text is selected

at the top,

text tool is selected.

We can change the color of that

single click on that

and change it

to black.

Hit "OK"

You can change the font from the top.

I'm going to choose a font called "Bickham Script Pro 3 Regular"

All right.

Now let's make it bigger.

With the move tool selected,

"Ctrl + T" or "Command + T"

hold the "Alt" key or the "Option" key

drag one of the corners and make it bigger.

Now there's a lot of gap in between, right?

So double click on the "T" to select that.

Open up the character properties right here.

Now gap is at 70.

Let's set it to zero.

Now this looks fine.

Have a look.

Wonderful, isn't it?

And at the bottom, we can add one more text

and create a brand new layer.

Let's name this "subtitle"

and click on "T" again.

And we're going to add one more text at the bottom.

Just make sure subtitle is selected.

Click a little far away,

and let's name this

"Photographs from Paris"

or whatever you want to name it.

Double click on the "T"

and this time we're going to choose a font called "Gilroy Light"

Okay?

With the help of the Move tool, right there,

select that,

press "Ctrl + T" or "Command + T"

let's make it a little

larger and place it just beneath it,

just like this.

You can also use the arrow keys to move it slowly and gradually,

hit "Enter" or return.

And I know we need to just correct the spelling right there.

Okay.

Now there's very less gap in there, right?

So double click on the "T"

to select all of that.

Now I'm going to teach you a shortcut,

which we're going to cover in advanced sections later.

If you hold the "Alt" key

and the right arrow key, it will increase the space between them.

You don't have to go to the properties and change the space.

This is a very nice way of changing the space.

This looks nice to me,

select the Move tool,

and then move it a little bit to the left.

And there you go.

A beautiful book cover.

Wonderful, isn't it?

No, I think the Eiffel Tower photo is a little distracting,

so simply increase the opacity of the white solid.

So choose the white solid.

Let's increase the opacity to about 85.

It's less distracting now.

What if you choose 90?

90 is nice.

There you go.

There have wonderful book cover.

We just quickly did it.

You can take all the time in the world to design it.

And by the way, let me show you a very interesting thing.

You can change the style of different letters.

So let's say we choose the title text,

alright?

And we can actually change the "L" the "S" at the end.

So let's select the "L"

and we can change the "L" to something like this,

and choose the "S" and we can choose the "S" to something like that.

We will cover this in detail later,

but this is an amazing feature in Photoshop

and only available with some fonts.

Like the "Bickham Script Pro"

Now, as you begin to create layers,

it can get a little messy.

For organizing purposes

and to apply a certain effect to an entire group,

you can group a layer.

Right?

So to group a layer, let's say,

you want to group all the text in right there,

the title and the subtitle.

Just select the "Subtitle" layer,

hold the Ctrl or Command

select the "Title" layer.

Now both of these layers are now selected.

One other thing that you can do, let's say you had one more text layer.

So let's type in at the very bottom, the name of the author,

whatever your name is.

So I'm just going to type Unmesh Dinda

and let's make it a little larger.

Try it there,

place it at the center.

And there you go.

Let's make it a little bold.

You want to be a little bold,

so

Little bold

and a little opacity.

Opacity,

let's set to 40%.

All right.

Select the top most layer or the bottom most layer.

If you hold the "Shift" key

and click on the "Title" layer,

every layer in that series will be selected.

So the first layer,

if you hold the "Shift" key

and click on this layer,

every layer in that series will be selected.

But we only want to select the text layers, right?

So select the first text layer, hold the "Shift" key.

And the last one,

all of them are now selected

and then press "Ctrl + G" or "Command + G"

Now the other way is of course, as we discussed before,

select this,

hold the Ctrl or Command,

and you can choose one other layer

and then maybe one other layer, somewhere else, not in series.

You can click on that.

You get the point.

Anyway,

let's select all these 3

and then press "Ctrl + G" or "Command + G"

keep in mind "G" stands for "Group"

And therefore we have "Ctrl + G" or "Command + G"

That means simply command to create a group.

All right.

Now we have a group.

You can name this group,

whatever you want.

So let's name this

"Text"

So this group

has all the text,

right?

Now we can make it larger or smaller collectively.

We can add effects to it collectively.

We can decrease the opacity of this collectively.

So it's a "Collective" group.

You can always ungroup it

by right clicking on it and choose

"Ungroup Layers"

Let's go back by pressing "Ctrl + Z" or "Command + Z"

However you pronounce it.

Now let's say we want to change the color of everything in this group.

It's also very simple.

So let's say we click on the adjustment layer icon,

and then choose "Solid Color"

We are creating an adjustment layer.

We'll learn about that later.

And choose a color.

Let's say we chose something like red

and we hit "OK"

Now the entire image is covered in red.

We only want to cover this group.

So hold the "Alt" key or the "Option" key

and click on the line between these two layers.

See this arrow right there?

This means that this red color is now only being applied to this group.

Have a look.

Everything in that group is now red.

Now you can double click on it here, on the symbol of the adjustment layer

and change the color to whatever you want.

You can change it to blue, green,

whatever you choose.

Let's delete that.

We didn't need it.

There you go.

So that my friend was the idea of grouping layers.

Just a quick little recap.

We learned how to create a layer by simply clicking on the new layer icon.

We learned how to name a layer by double clicking on the text.

If you double click on that, you can rename the layer to whatever you want.

We learned how to unlock a layer by simply clicking on that lock.

We learned how to delete a layer.

We learned how to group a layer and to delete a layer.

You can just simply

click on the layer and press the "Delete" key or drag it

to the trashcan,

or simply click on the "Trashcan" icon.

We learn how to group a layer and most importantly,

hide or unhide layers by clicking on that "Eye" icon.

When the eye shows up,

it is visible because with the eye visibility comes,

when the eye goes away, there is no visibility.

Now let's talk about layer properties.

Let's dig deep into it.

Let's understand what they are.

And the most important layer property is "opacity"

We discussed it a little bit already,

but let me give you one more example to make it

absolutely clear.

So here we have a silhouette of trees, right?

So let's say you want to change the sky.

The sky is already bright.

All we have to do is to use a darkening technique to apply a new sky,

First of all, it's bringing in the new sky in a separate layer.

And to do that simply,

let's go to our finder or Explorer.

And in here, I'm going to use this orange sky.

Let's drag it and drop it into Photoshop.

You can also

use a smaller window,

drag it and drop it over the canvas

in that tree image, right?

Drag it over that.

Now it's going to open up as a separate layer.

That's what we want.

Let's make it a little bigger to adjust it accordingly.

Okay.

This seems to be about right.

Hit "Enter" or "Return"

Now guy in the background is already bright and

all we want to do is darken it

because

these areas, these silhouette areas are already black.

They can't be darkened further.

So instead of having to all of the sky and

then erasing it,

let's just a darken the sky

with this orange sky.

Let's turn it back on.

Let's adjust it

and change the "Blend mode"

Now blend mode

of a particular layer,

determines how the layer interacts with other layers.

It's like a projection.

How a layer is projected.

Is it projected as a normal graphic?

If you choose "Normal", which is the default blend mode

right there,

it will be just like a normal piece of paper.

If you change the blend mode to something else,

it will be projected differently.

So in this case,

we want to apply a darkening blend mode, something which darkens stuff,

and one of those blend modes and we're going to discuss that later

in later tutorials in very in-depth detail.

In fact, we have a dedicated lesson on each and every blend mode.

But for now,

let's choose the blend mode "Multiply"

Multiply is a blend mode, which darkens it.

Have a look at this.

Doesn't that look beautiful?

Now press "Ctrl + T" or "Command + T"

I'm going to stretch it a little bit.

So old the "Shift" key

and

stretch it.

Just like this.

And decrease the "Opacity"

Now,

here is where we are learning how opacity works.

If the opacity is at 100%,

it will be a 100% opaque.

If the opacity is at zero,

transparency would increase to 100%.

So

Opacity at a 100% means it's 100% opaque.

There is no transparency.

Opacity at zero means,

it's 100% transparent.

It's just not there.

And 0% opaque, which is opacity.

So decrease it.

If you decrease it to zero, it's nothing.

If we slowly and gradually increase it,

the transparency goes away slowly and gradually.

So for this image, we're going to keep it at about 85.

And this looks nice to me.

Let's take a look at the before and after.

So this is the before.

Very flat,

plain.

And this my friend,

is the after look, so dramatic, isn't it?

Now that we have understood opacity,

let us understand how Fill works.

Just below Opacity, there is this "Fill" option.

Let's take a look at that.

First of all, here we are in Photoshop,

let's create a brand new document

by going to "File"

"New"

and we can choose any dimension we want.

Let's choose one for print.

And let's say, we're going to choose an "A4" for paper,

click on that and let's create it.

All right.

Now let's create a base.

Let's fill this with something you like,

or let's create a solid color adjustment here

as we learned before.

So click on that adjustment layer icon, and then choose "Solid color"

you're going to choose a bright orange color.

Something like this looks nice.

Hit "OK"

So at the very background,

we have the background layer, which is white and--

Well, we don't need the background layer.

Let's drag it to the "Trashcan"

We have the orange base.

On top of that, let's write something.

Click on "T" for the Text tool

click and then let's type in,

"Shadows"

Okay?

Let's make this a little bigger.

There we go.

Let's bring it

at the center.

Now, if we decrease the opacity,

of course,

the transparency increases

and opacity at zero means, it's 100%

transparent.

Well, if you play with the "Fill",

it does the exact same thing, right?

Well, it looks as if it does the exact same thing,

but there are some differences.

Let's add a shadow effect

to this text.

First of all, let's change the text color to something else

so that you can see the shadow properly.

So we're going to change the color to something like,

something lighter,

which goes with this.

Yeah, that looks nice.

Hit "OK"

Now, double click on the right-hand side of the layer.

Now this is a brand new thing.

We're going to talk about that later in detail,

double-click on the right-hand side of the layer,

or right-click on the layer

and choose "Blending Options"

The "Layer Style" dialog box

will show up.

There's a lot of style that you can add with it,

like "Bevel & Emboss"

If you click on that, there will be an emboss.

Let's uncheck that.

You can add a drop shadow.

So click on drop shadow, right?

Right now it adds a shadow.

You can control the properties by clicking on "Drop Shadow" right there.

You can change the distance.

You can change how much it spreads.

I usually keep it at zero.

We can change the size.

This will control how much blur there is in the shadow.

Okay.

Now you can also change the angle

by using the "Angle" tool right here.

Or you can simply

drag and move the shadow that will change

the distance and the angle automatically.

Okay?

Let's say I like this.

I like the shadow applied this way.

Hit "OK"

Now, if you decrease the opacity,

everything is becoming transparent gradually.

However, if you decrease the fill,

the effect does not go away,

but the text goes away.

See what happened right there.

Now the text is absolutely transparent,

but the layer style,

the drop shadow that we applied is still there.

You can change the background color to anything you want.

So this was orange.

I can change it to yellow, green.

See?

It is transparent, right?

If we again, go to the blending options

by right clicking on this layer

and choosing blending options,

we can move the shadow.

Let's click on the "Drop Shadow"

We can move the shadow.

And as you can see,

the effect is still there,

but the text has gone transparent.

So that's one difference with fill.

There is one more difference.

And let me show you what that is.

This difference is with how blend modes react to opacity and fill.

And some of the blend modes react differently.

So let's say if you want to create a sun

right here, a hidden sun.

So,

click on the new layer button right there,

take the brush.

And just paint in with orange

or yellow

right in there,

We're going to create a sun right there.

It doesn't look realistic, right?

So we need to brighten it.

Select the blend mode,

"Color Dodge",

everything in this blend mode group is about brightening stuff.

So let's choose "Color Dodge"

Now to give it an overexposed effect,

like an area which has lost the details,

you can double click on the right-hand side of the layer.

This will open up the "Layer Style"

This is another way of opening the Layer Style.

Now just uncheck "Transparency Shapes layer"

Now have a look at this.

Hit "OK"

Now have a look.

You can make it smaller.

A little bit.

And it looks interesting.

Now, if you decrease the opacity, it just fades it.

However, if you decrease the fill,

it will control the projection of it.

Let's make it a little larger.

Look at it again.

If we decrease the opacity, it just fades it.

However, if you decrease the fill,

it controls the projection.

So let's say,

this is the projection I want about 64 is good.

And there you go.

Before, after, before, after.

Right?

A bright spot right there.

To create a sun, you can also do certain other things.

Let's create one more layer.

And this time let's sample a yellowish color

right there.

And maybe we want to create something like this

and this time change the blend mode to "Screen"

for a good flare.

So very nice effect.

Okay.

Now, if you want to create some reds,

you can just choose some reds,

something like this.

Maybe this is a good read,

or you can choose a red

from here as well.

Just make the brush a little larger and dab.

Now, some of you might be wondering,

"How am I making the brush larger or smaller?"

All you have to do,

in windows,

you can hold the "Alt" key

and the right mouse button

and drag it to the right to make it larger

and drag it to the left,

to make it smaller, right?

If you take it up,

it's going to make it softer.

If you take it down, it's going to make it harder.

On a Mac,

You would have to hold the "Option" and "Control"

and the mouse button, and then do that.

Okay.

Create a brand new layer

and click on it.

Change the blend mode from "Normal"

to "Screen"

there, we have created something interesting

and you can just drag it if you want to.

That's up to you.

Make it a little bit narrower.

Make it interesting.

And there we have created an interesting sun effect.

Here's the before

here's the after.

Interesting, isn't it?

I think it's too long.

Let's make it a little short.

And there you go.

So you see the difference between fill and opacity.

With certain blend modes and there's this list of 8 special blend modes

with which opacity and fill react differently.

Now it's time for us to discuss one of the most exciting layer property.

And that is blend modes.

We have already discussed it in a bit.

You see,

all of these layer properties,

they work together.

Opacity, blend modes, fill,

and it's not possible to talk about

one property without talking about the others.

And that's why when we were talking about opacity and fill,

we talked about a blend modes a little bit already.

Blend modes control how the layers interact with each other.

How they are projected.

We're going to discuss that in depth later.

But for now,

just know they control how layers interact with each other.

For example,

here we have an image of a lady in forest,

and let's say we want to add some flare, some texture, some

coloring to it.

So let's go to a finder or Explorer.

And I have a bokeh effect image right there,

and I have the smoke image.

So first of all,

let's say you wanted to add that coloring to it.

So let's drag it and drop it over the canvas

and you can rotate it

the way you want it,

just like this or that,

however you want.

And let's make it a little larger,

something like this.

Now you can take the time to learn the science behind

every single blend mode and how they work.

That's essential.

But also

the great thing about blend modes in the later versions of Photoshop

is that when you scroll through them,

it's going to give you a preview

of how the resulting image will look,

if you choose that particular blend mode.

In this case,

"Soft Light" looks interesting, right?

So let's choose that.

Press "Ctrl + T" or "Command + T"

let's flip it a little bit,

Click on it and choose "Flip Horizontal"

we have flipped it just a little bit.

It looks interesting.

I like it.

If you want, you can stretch it too.

Press "Ctrl + T" or "Command + T"

and just stretch it a little bit.

Light looks interesting.

The color looks interesting.

Now let's add some smoke effect to that.

Now,

we're going to choose this and drop it in right there.

You want it from the right side.

So right click on it

and then choose

"Flip Horizontal"

You want to flip it horizontally.

Let's make it larger.

Just like this.

Looks interesting.

Now,

one of the blend mode,

which hides everything, which is black

and shows everything, which is 100% white is "Screen"

Now keep in mind.

Every blend mode has a unique property,

and this is the property of the screen blend mode.

That is, hide everything, which is 100% black

and show everything, which is 100% white.

If something is gray,

it will show it 50%.

You get the point.

It will only brighten stuff.

So change the blend mode from "Normal"

to "Screen" and have a look at this image.

If you want,

you can always decrease the opacity of different layers.

But look at this.

If this doesn't look wonderful,

I don't know what does.

So here's the before.

Here is the after.

Now here's a little tip.

You can also try and rearranging the layers

and see how the effect changes.

So let's say if we take the smoke at the bottom,

see?

If you like this, you can stay at this point.

If you want to double the effect,

select the layer, press "Ctrl + J" or "Command + J"

to double it.

But the doubling is kind of too much.

So decrease the opacity

and slowly and gradually increase it to the point where you like it.

So for me,

we're going to keep it at about 20

or maybe even 15,

just a slight touch of it

and there you have a little bit of match.

Now, layers are just not of one type in Photoshop.

There are several types of layers.

Let's talk about the 4 fundamental types of layers in Photoshop.

And the very first one is a simple

raster layer.

So raster layers are simple layers where everything you do

is burned to pixels.

Whenever you click on the new layer button,

it creates a raster layer for you.

Let me show you how it works.

So let's create a brand new document by going to "File",

"New"

and let's go to "Art & Illustration"

"1000 pixel grid" is fine.

All right, let's create that.

Interesting.

We can change the canvas background by right clicking on the canvas

and then choose probably dark gray.

Now let's fill it with something.

So we can create a solid color adjustment layer.

And the advantage of solid color adjustment layer is that you can

always change the color to whatever you like.

So click on the adjustment layer icon, and then choose

"Solid Color"

And we're going to choose something like a dark blue.

That looks interesting.

Hit "OK"

Now let's delete the background layer.

We don't need that anymore.

Create a layer on top.

This my friend is a raster layer,

Let's take the brush

and let's choose

your favorite brush, whatever brush you like.

And let's write or paint in something.

I'm going to make the brush a little smaller.

You can also use the bracket keys to make the brush smaller or larger,

and let's write something

or draw something.

So I'm going to write here

with white, let's choose the white as the foreground color

press "D" to set them to default.

Do not forget that.

Foreground color and the background color is set to default by pressing "D"

pressing "X"

toggles them.

Alright.

Raster.

Let's write that properly.

Raster.

Interesting.

Now let's say,

the graphic that I made right here,

let's name this "Raster Layer" because that's what it is.

The graphic that we made here, let's say,

it's made up of

50 pixels.

Let's say it's not made up of 50 pixels,

it's way more than that.

But let's say this is 50 pixels.

Now, everything I painted here

is burned to the pixels.

If we make it smaller

by pressing "Ctrl + T" or "Command + T"

Let's say we make it

very small.

Now this is made up of let's say,

5 pixels, because from 50,

you made it smaller.

Now let's say it's made up of 5 pixels.

We're just assuming

for understanding it better.

Now this has details worth 5 pixels.

Not more than that.

When we make it big again,

how are you going to get the details from the rest 45 pixels?

Because we already lost them by making it smaller in the first place.

So now when we make it bigger,

since that was burned to down to the pixels, and we only had

5 pixels to work with,

if we make it off the size of 50 pixels,

Photoshop we'll try to guess the rest of the pixels.

And it's not going to do a good job

because you already lost all the details, which were worth 45 pixels.

So if you make it big again,

it's going to be pixelated,

It's not going to look detailed.

And that's the thing with raster layers.

When you make it smaller,

you're going to lose the pixels because everything

there is in the raster layer is burned to the pixels.

That's the story of raster layers,

but there are several advantages.

You can paint on a raster layer.

You can change it any way you want.

You have complete freedom over it.

Now to counter this, you have smart objects.

So let's go back.

Press "Ctrl + Z" or "Command + Z"

a couple of times to go back to where we were.

Now, this is a layer.

As we discussed before, however,

we can now convert this into a smart object.

And that is the second type of layer.

First one was a simple raster layer.

Second is smart object.

Okay?

Now smart objects are interesting.

If you right click on the layer

and then choose "Convert to Smart Object"

And we're going to discuss that in very detailed later.

Let's understand the basic features of a smart object.

Now, this, my friend is a smart object.

Now smart object retains the pixel information within it.

Even if you make it smaller,

it might be burned down to the existing pixels of the canvas,

but it retains all the details.

Press "Ctrl + T" or "Command + T"

if we make it smaller,

no matter how small we make it,

If we zoom in, you will see

that the details are gone, but

it is retained inside.

If you press "Ctrl + T" or "Command + T" again

and make it larger again,

see?

The details are back.

And that is the advantage of a smart object.

But then why don't we always work in a smart object?

You see, there's a catch.

With smart object, you cannot paint on it.

You don't have complete freedom over it.

If you try to paint on it,

it's going to show that cancellation icon, you cannot do that.

When you try it,

it's going to tell you that you cannot paint on a smart object.

Do you want to convert it to a raster layer again?

If you hit "OK"

it's converted back to a raster layer.

To convert it back to a smart object, right click on it,

and then choose "Convert to Smart Object"

And how can you tell

what's a smart object and what's a simple raster layer?

When you convert a layer to a smart object,

you will see this logo right there.

When it's a raster layer, logo is not there.

So if you rasterize this by right clicking on it

and then choose "Rasterize Layer",

that logo will be gone.

Now this is a raster layer.

If you right click on it,

and then choose "Convert to Smart Object"

this my friend is a smart object.

There you go.

Now, smart object has several other advantages.

Let me show you one more advantage.

When a layer is a smart object,

whatever filters you apply, you can change the values later.

So let's say in this composite,

from the earlier example,

here we have the subject and this is the subject layer.

On this, we can apply certain filters.

So let's click on the filter right there

and then choose "Camera Raw Filter"

And we can do a lot of changes into this.

We can make it a little darker.

We can decrease the exposure a little bit

and we can increase the contrast.

So we did these changes.

Let's make it a little black and white.

So let's decrease the "Saturation",

or you can also make it black and white

by choosing the profile "Monochrome",

right?

Hit "OK"

We did some changes.

Now,

I cannot change the contrast right now.

I cannot change it back to color or increase the color.

I don't have access to those controls again

at all.

I can, of course do undo

by pressing "Ctrl + Z" or "Command + Z"

However,

we cannot change the sliders back again.

We don't have control over it.

It's all burnt to the pixels,

because this is a raster layer.

Let's go back by pressing "Ctrl + Z" or "Command + Z"

If we convert this

into a smart object by right clicking on it

and choosing "Convert to Smart Object"

Now,

the shadow has changed a little bit because

that was applied with the "Multiply" blend mode.

Anyway, to separate the drop shadow,

let me just quickly separate the drop shadow.

You can right click on the "Effects"

I had applied a drop shadow effect earlier and choose "Create Layer"

hit "OK"

That way dropped shadow is now on a separate layer.

So you don't have to worry about that.

So with the subject selected, right click on it

and then choose "Convert to Smart Object"

Now, this is a smart object right?

Now if you go to "Filter" and then "Camera Raw Filter",

and now let's change the profile to "Monochrome"

Let's decrease the "Exposure" "Increase" the contrast, right?

Contrast is 46, keep in mind.

Exposure is minus 0.6

And now if you increase the "Clarity",

make it a little more interesting

hit "OK"

Now we have done all of these settings.

But right now I have access to them.

I can change the sliders anytime.

So if you click on this arrow right there,

camera opens up.

If you double-click on "Camera Raw Filter",

it will open up camera dialogue box back again

with your values intact.

As you can see, the contrast is at 46,

the exposure minus 0.6

You can change these values.

This is completely non destructive.

Nothing is burned down to the pixels

and you have access to all of the controls at any point of time

while creating the composite.

Hit "OK" Once you're satisfied with these values and the changes

both take place.

So what is the second advantage of a smart object?

Whatever filter you apply,

you will be able to change its properties later.

Let's look at another example.

So here in this,

first of all, let's click on the lock to unlock it.

Right click on it, and then choose "Convert to Smart Object"

Let's go to filter and then "Camera Raw Filter"

Let's say, I want to brighten up the shadows.

So let's increase the shadows right here,

simple stuff.

And then we can increase the "Clarity" to make it a little more dramatic

"Texture", a tad bit.

"Dehaze" a little bit, right?

And then let's decrease the highlights to bring details.

And then if you want, you can also increase the "Contrast"

and then increase the "Temperature"

Just random editing here and there.

If you want to change anything,

you can just double click on the camera,

the camera shows up with the exact

same settings that you dialed in.

You can change it to any value.

Let's say you think you decrease the "Highlights" way too much.

You can just bring it back to where it was.

So we can increase it

and keep it at our desired value

and maybe increased the "Whites" instead

hit "OK"

So, and the changes will take place.

Now let's talk about Adjustment layers.

As the name suggests,

adjustment layer simply adjust.

What do they adjust?

The properties of everything that is beneath that layer

or instance.

Right now on top of me,

there is an adjustment layer.

If you take it away,

let's take it away.

This is the original video.

If you bring it back on,

this is an adjustment layer,

which color grades me.

So let's say in this image,

I want to change the color from blue

to red.

So click on the "Adjustment Layer" icon

right there in the layers panel,

or there's also an adjustment panel.

If you go to "Window"

and then click on "Adjustments", there's this adjustment panel

that you can open up right here and from there,

you can also add some

adjustment layers, but I prefer to do it the other way,

by clicking on the "Adjustment Layer" icon,

and then let's choose "Hue/Saturation"

Now this is a "Hue/Saturation" adjustment layer at the top.

Doesn't add any graphic to the image,

but adjust the Hue and the Saturation of everything, which is

beneath it.

Now keep in mind, this is just a projection.

This doesn't change the individual pixels of that layer.

It's not burned down to the pixels.

You can change anything at any point of time.

So let's say if we just decrease the Saturation,

the colors are gone.

However, if you look at the actual layer, it's still there, right?

It just is a projection

of how everything that is beneath it

is interpreted by you.

If you turn this off,

that goes away.

It shows that this is a projection.

So let's turn it on.

Now, whenever you find yourself,

not in the properties of that adjustment layer to

bring in the properties,

just click on that symbol of the adjustment layer,

the properties are going to show up.

Let's reset it by simply clicking on the "Reset" button right there.

We only want to change the blues.

So from the dropdown,

let's choose blues

and we can simply change the Hue to whatever you like.

Now, not all of blue is selected.

We can actually

extend the range

by using this range slider at the bottom.

We're going to discuss Hue/ Saturation very much in detail later.

So don't worry about that.

So we just increased the range.

Now you can change the color to whatever you like.

So for this example, let's choose red.

That one looks interesting.

You can also control the Saturation of how much

red you want on it.

And there you go.

Looks interesting, doesn't it?

You can change it to any color of your choice.

You can also make it

a little brighter.

Like gray, can also make it black.

So let's make it a little darker

and decrease the Saturation to make it

you know, a dark color, black color.

This looks interesting as well.

So these are adjustment layers.

They make adjustments to everything that is beneath it.

Combination of everything that is beneath it.

They do not manipulate the big source of those layers,

but only changes the way you see them.

That's it.

If you turn it off,

all of the changes are gone.

Now, imagine it this way.

Let's say you have a beautiful picture of the landscape.

Now you took a colored gel paper.

It has a little bit transparency.

It's red in color.

You put it over that landscape.

Now the landscape will appear what?

Red.

But it's not actually red.

If you take that color gel paper away,

it's going to bring it back to its original color.

That's what adjustment layers do.

Let's say, if we add one more adjustment layer,

click on the "Adjustment Layer" icon, and then choose

"Brightness Contrast"

And in this, we just increase the contrast

or decrease the contrast.

This my friend is just an adjustment.

We can turn it off,

which means taking away that color gel paper.

We can turn it on,

it's bringing that back.

Again, there's an entire lesson on adjustment layers.

Let's move on to the fourth type of layer,

that is shape layers.

Shape layers are vector layers in a raster canvas.

Now, what did we learn in lesson 1?

Photoshop is a raster graphic editing software.

However, you can import vectors,

but at the end of the day, the canvas is raster.

It's of a defined dimension.

However,

you will have some advantages of over vector shape.

Let me show that to you.

So if you click on in here,

you can find the "Rectangle tool",

the "Ellipse tool",

the "Polygon tool"

all of these are shapes.

So let's choose the "Ellipse tool" and draw an ellipse.

This my friend is a shape layer.

How can we tell?

Look at the symbol right there.

This is the symbol of a shape layer.

We can fill it with whatever we like.

So click on it

and let's fill it with this color or lighter color.

We can add "Stroke" to it.

We learned this before.

We can add black stroke to it.

This isn't like a vector,

but on a raster canvas.

If you zoom in on it,

you will still see pixels.

However,

let's press "Ctrl + T" or "Command + T"

you can make it bigger.

It will not pixelate.

See?

It will not pixelate.

It is only limited

by the number of pixels of the canvas.

That's it.

But it's not pixelating when we make it bigger.

Let's press "Ctrl + T" or "Command + T" again,

let's make it smaller, very small.

And let's bring it

right here.

It's now small.

Let's make it big again.

See?

It's not pixelated.

So that is the advantage or working with shapes in Photoshop.

So that is one of the major properties of working with shapes in Photoshop.

They are like vectors,

but on a raster canvas,

you can change the thickness of the stroke,

the color, we already learned how to do that.

There are lots of shape properties,

so let's delete this.

So if we create,

let's say a rounded rectangle,

We can control.

First of all, let's change a brighter orange color.

We can control the roundness

along the edge,

by simply increasing these values.

See?

You can decrease these values, increase these values,

and they control the roundness around the edge.

We can control them separately.

If you just click on that link button,

all of them will be unlinked.

And now you can control the roundness separately

on different areas and create some interesting shapes.

Now, there are some custom shapes as well.

Let's delete this.

If you click and hold, there are some custom shapes.

If you click on that arrow right there,

again, what did we learn?

Properties of every tool will be at the top.

Once you choose this tool,

the properties are at the top.

There are lots of shapes that you can try.

"Leaf trees",

"Wild Animals"

So let's choose this shape

and let's make a tree.

If you hold the "Shift" key,

it will maintain the proportions.

Let's change the fill to about

green.

And that looks interesting.

Again, this is a vector.

If you make it big,

it feel not pixelate.

But keep in mind, this canvas is a raster canvas.

Look at this.

It's not gunna pixelate.

It's only limited by the pixels of the canvas.

Now keep in mind, you cannot paint on a shape layer as well.

As we learned, it is like a vector

on a raster canvas.

So

Painting is actually a raster activity because we are filling up the pixels.

That's not a nature of vectors

because vectors are not based on pixels.

So if we take the brush and try to paint on it,

it will not let you paint.

It will ask you to convert it into a raster layer

or simply rasterize it, in other words.

If you hit "OK"

that symbol is gone.

Now this is a raster.

Now you can paint on it and do whatever you want.

Erase it, paint on it,

manipulate the pixels.

There you go.

Now let's do an exciting project.

How about we create a realistic reflection

in the eye?

Doesn't that sound interesting?

No, we need to keep in mind to understand

and nail realistic effects,

the best way is to look at images,

which are creating those effects realistically.

Makes sense?

So suppose we were to create reflections of the eye.

The way to do it better is to first study how those reflections are created,

and to study it.

It's pretty simple.

So I just type,

"eye close up"

over at "Pexels.com", which is a great source for free stock photos.

And if you look at the photos closely,

you will see how reflections are created.

Look at every image closely.

Look at this.

The reflections are created by the window, which is again,

a light source.

So what did we learn from this?

Reflections are created by light sources and they are created

all over the eyeball,

not just on a particular area.

You can look at more images to understand that better.

Now let's open an image that we have right here of a human eye.

Let's drag it into Photoshop

and drop it in right there.

Now on top of it,

we want to create a reflection,

but that reflection must have a light source.

So looking for images,

I came across this one.

This is a pretty emotional image as well.

And I would like to add that.

So let's click and drag and drop right there.

Now in this image, the light is coming from the right hand side.

But if you look at the eye, the light is coming from the left hand side.

So we need to flip it.

Right click on it and choose "Flip Horizontally"

This looks to be nice.

Let's make it a little larger.

All right?

Now, one of the things we learned from those examples,

for that, the reflections were a little distorted.

So we need to distort this too.

Press "Ctrl + T" or "Command + T"

Right click on it,

and then choose "Warp"

Now from the warp dropdown at the very top,

choose "Fisheye"

And then you can distort it a little bit as well.

Look at the bulge that we created.

Okay.

Hit "Enter" once you're satisfied,

and then you can make it a little smaller, if you wish to.

"Ctrl + T" or "Command + T"

make it smaller, make sure everything fits in.

Now,

this is a light source.

We want to brighten it

Now, what is the blend mode?

That brightens stuff.

We already learned this.

That is "Screen"

change the blend mode from "Normal"

to "Screen"

Now it's beginning to look interesting.

So,

let's make it this way.

Yeah, that looks amazing, doesn't it?

Hit "Enter" or "Return"

Now, one of the things we're going to learn in the next lesson is about

Masks.

Masks, hide and show different areas of the layers.

Let me give you a little preview of that.

So with the father and child layer selected,

if you click on this button called "Mask",

it's going to create another box right there.

And that is a mask.

Right now the box is completely white.

Make sure that box is selected by clicking on it.

If you take the brush,

if you paint with black and certain areas, let's choose

the "Soft Round" brush.

If you paint with black,

I changed my foreground color to black by pressing "X",

to switch the foreground and the background.

Those areas will be hidden.

If I paint with white,

those areas will show up.

As we paint with black,

have a look.

Those areas are being painted black,

and those areas are being hidden.

So you can use that feature to hide that extra areas.

Here,

here as well,

and

create a nice

gradient.

Something like this.

So very nice reflection.

Looks interesting.

Now you can adjust the size.

Now we don't want to move the mask along with the layer.

At the moment, both are linked.

To break the link, and we're going to discuss that in detail

in the second lesson, don't worry about it.

Click on the link

to unlink the mask and the layer.

Now select the layer.

And then we can take it a little bit to the right

and maybe make it a little smaller.

Just like this.

And there you have a very interesting reflection.

We can come back to the mask and then

paint away these areas

and areas at the bottom as well.

Just like this.

And there you have it.

An interesting reflection

for the eye.

So there you go.

We just discussed the most fundamental and useful things we need to know

about layers in Photoshop.

The next lesson is about Layer Masks.

We showed a little preview right now

and it's going to open up

immense possibilities for you.

So stay tuned for that.

Layer Masks are inevitable.

Whether it's crucial utilitarian applications

or creating beautiful pieces of art and composites

layer masks are something you will need

all the time.

It's impossible to create amazing non-destructive art

without layer masks.

They give you the flexibility to adjust your composite

any way you want

at any time.

So don't miss on that.

It's going to completely change the way you edit photos in Photoshop.

See you in the next lesson.

Until then, stay tuned and make sure that you

keep creating.