Advanced layer tricks in Adobe Photoshop CC

Hi there, this work flow video is going to be all about going fast with layers. We've grouped all the layer things together because for some strange reason this is my favorite video to teach people. Especially advanced people, I'm like, "Man, this is some cool work flow stuff." It's not super complex, it's complex enough, but let's imagine it's bigger. 

I've got a few layers here. We're working on an image we had earlier, obviously this can work on any image, but let's say I want to work on this paint drop in the word Super. It's actually SUPE, and R on its own layer, but the Layers panel here is a little confusing, so what I can do is find R. I'm going to hold down my 'Command' key and click on this paint one here. So got the R, and that selected, plus the SUPE. And then say 'Kind', and click on 'Selected'. It's only going to show me the selected layers ahead. Those two layers, I can turn it off by going back to 'Kind', and turn it back on by going to 'Selected'. Just kind of like tidies everything up nicely. And I can work on these three layers. 

To turn it off, actually an easier way is just this little toggle switch here. You can turn this on and off, and it jumps back into what you had selected. It gets better, so let's turn it on, instead of Selected let's go to 'Kind'. And you've got these little icons here, everyone ignores this, right? You've been using Photoshop for years and you've never clicked on him. It just shows you all the layers that have text on it, just makes it super-- Maybe it's just me. Well, not just Type, you can have Type that also have Drop Shadows. Might be Type and Images, you can have more than one on. So that's not that useful anymore, so let's just turn type off, and just the ones that have pixels, or just my Adjustment layers, please, just show me those. Or just my layers - I'm going to turn that off - just the ones that have Smart Objects on it. 

So I can see all those in one big go. Remember to turn it off though when you're finished. Let's look at a couple of the other ones in here. So 'Kind', we can look at names, and you can do a search. If I want to find ones that are called a banana, it'll just show me those layers. I never used that one, you might be working on some epically big layers, and that might be useful for you. This one's quite good, let's say we've got some Drop Shadows going on, I want to find the effects that have Drop Shadows on it, just those layers. So I can select them all and then go and change them, or go in here and turn them off. 

Another one you might do is under here, under Color Mode. You might say, don't click this one here - there's one over here- and say, I want to find all the layers that have Multiply on them, and undo. You might find that useful. Attributes, what colors, are they Smart Objects? Things that are selected. You might look at Artboards. This one doesn't have any Artboard, so this one does. It can get super confusing, so let's turn that off again. So normally you've got this kind of-- it's never that tidy, if you're working in Artboards, this thing's all over the place, you're like, "Actually I'm just working on this file here, just show me the Skillshare Artboard." 

You can just go up to here, turn it on and it's going to only show me the Skillshare one, not any of the other guys. Click on this one, and it's going to show me just the Udemy one. Super helpful, super quick. And I bet you've been ignoring it there. It's turned Kind 'on', Kind is the default one. Just make sure that little switch is off when you're finished. Shoot back up to this original file. 

Another trick is, we've done this throughout the course already, is that, say I've got my Banana layer, and I want to duplicate it, I just drag it into this new layer icon, and it duplicates it. I'm going to undo that. Another way is, with it selected, hold down, the 'Option' key on a Mac, 'Alt' key on a PC, and drag it just using the Move Tool. It just makes a duplicate while you're dragging. 

Another couple of things, as we looked at in the last video, you can change your thumbnails, but if you-- we know that if you right click the word, you get a bunch of options, but if you actually right click the thumbnail you get a different set. And what might be useful in here is you can adjust the thumbnail size, that's fine. But also, can you see, this right here is the circle, that I'm using to crop this girl here. It's like a small part of a really--

It's showing me the entire document. You can right click it and say, "Actually, just show me the Layer Bounds for all the different layers." So that one here is quite a big image, but the banana takes up the full image now, the circle does. They're all just a little easier to see now, rather than them being a small part, like the banana, and this, watch both of them. Go to clip details for the Document Bound. The banana is kind of showing you, in relation to the larger document, same with this. And this image here, up to you. I have to switch back now because I want everyone's to look the same like me, in the tutorial.

Next up is naming your layers. If I'm honest, I never name my layers, because I'm working with myself, and I'm okay that I'm lazy, but I've been working with a client, definitely. One of the last things I do, I don't do while I'm working, but I've got to send them a file, quick smart, I name all my layers. I'm trying to project a level of professionalism that does not get reflected in my layer names, but let's say I've got to go and do it. 

A cool little trick is, banana's there, but let's say I'm going to be case sensitive. Now instead of double clicking these, going here and typing Blueberries, this is a weird little shortcut, I like it. And double clicking them all. What you can do - I'm going to undo - so I'm finished typing banana, just hit 'Tab' on your keyboard, it goes down to the next one, so you never have to lift your Tab again. Banana. This one here, I can leave as Hue & Saturation. I call this one my Mask. So I'm just tabbing down, just, I find a lot easier, 'Blueberries 2' Cool, huh? Just double clicking one of them, and then tab through them all. 

The last one to do with layers is, let's say we've got the Smoothies layer. I like it, it's got a Drop Shadow that I like, but I want to apply that same Drop Shadow to the banana. So what you can do is right click the word 'Smoothies', and you can go to - we looked at this a little bit before - if I go to 'Copy Layer Style', I select on my 'Banana' now, right click it, and you can paste Layer styles. If you're like me, and try and drag them from one to another, doesn't like duplicate them as you drag it, just kind of moves it, so that's handy. 

I hope you found something useful in there. I don't know why I find it most exciting, but I hope you are sitting there at home or at work, going, "Yeah, that one little thing is going to change my life." Might not change your life, but hopefully it will save you a little bit of time. Let's jump into the next kind of work flow video, see you there.