layers in PSE10

Dagwood56

No longer a newbie, moving up!
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Can others edit my Photos
Photos NOT OK to edit
I was told about dust spots in my photos. I know I need to get my camera sensor cleaned. For right now however I'd like to clean up the photos I have already taken. I have sight problems and find it hard to see the spots, I have removed those I saw, but was told there were others. I searched tutorials online as to how to bring out the spots that are hard to see. Most said the same thing, adjust the levels or curves to bring them out. With pse10 however there doesn't seem to be a way to go back once spots are removed and undo the levels adjustment. I found one video explaining how to use adjustment layers.

I have never been able to grasp how to use layers. I understand their function , I just don't get how to use them if that makes sense. The information goes into my head an gets all jumbled and makes no sense - much like math problems for me. The video I found gave the following instructions:

Create an adjustment layer, create a curves or levels layer. Adjust levels or curves until you see the spots. Make a copy of the background layer, remove the spots. and you're done!Turn off curves or levels layer. And that was it. He didn't say how to save anything. I saved the copy layer, but when I opened it, the spots were still there. What did I do wrong?

I should also mention I do not shoot RAW, and I only have PSE10
 
Layers.. I have limited knowledge but I see it then as sheets of transparency that you can elect to see or not the eye symbol on the left is how to turn on or off I save in two ways 1 st I save as layers in tiff and the I save as a single layer using the flatten image if I can hel more please let me know if I don’t know how then I will say so .. to see the marks have you tried viewing the image at 100% or higher I reg use 300% when I am merging pics to make a panarama hope this helps
 
Layers.. I have limited knowledge but I see it then as sheets of transparency that you can elect to see or not the eye symbol on the left is how to turn on or off I save in two ways 1 st I save as layers in tiff and the I save as a single layer using the flatten image if I can hel more please let me know if I don’t know how then I will say so .. to see the marks have you tried viewing the image at 100% or higher I reg use 300% when I am merging pics to make a panarama hope this helps

Yes I have even gone to 300% and can't see them. This is something Id' really like to take care fo myself, which is why i felt the levels adjust layer would help. I saw tons of spots then, but as I said, something went wrong with saving as when I opened the image afterward the spots were still there. I'll keep trying.:1251:
 
Hi Carol,
Please talk me through how you saved
Also
When you have done layers did you turn off the layers below the one you edited? Others wise yos you will still see the bits you have taken so much time to edit out. PS pos 10 is a good program I use pse 9 for most of my work
Q. Do you know about saving in tiff when working in pse.
Here if I can help
 
Hi Carol,
Please talk me through how you saved
Also
When you have done layers did you turn off the layers below the one you edited? Others wise yos you will still see the bits you have taken so much time to edit out. PS pos 10 is a good program I use pse 9 for most of my work
Q. Do you know about saving in tiff when working in pse.
Here if I can help

Umm, I'm not sure I remember exactly. I just saved the copy layer I think and it saved as PSd or something, it was just a blue icon in picture folder. I opened it, then saved as jpeg like usual. As far as your other question about turning layers off - I have no idea what I did. The video said turn off the levels layer, so I did do that, but thats all I can recall before saving the copy layer. Layers is like Greek to me no matter how many books I look at, or videos I watch...sorry. I've never saved as anything but jpeg. I guess largely because every place says to post or send files as jpeg. My editing skills are limited to the typical minimal edits like contrast, brightness, color cropping etc. I know how to clone and use a few of the other tools too, but I've never understood layers no matter how hard I tried. :BangHead:
 
Ok I will leave you to play.. I spent quite a few evenings just getting as far as I have and that’s only because I do large panaramas and have to Aline each pic manually...my pse9 can not cope with trying to photomerg 20 images lol
 
Layers can be super confusing. Might there be a night class near you where you'd have an instructor to teach the program and answer questions? At any rate, take heart; you are one person trying to learn something that took probably dozens of people to create. Keep trying - you'll get it. :encouragement:
 
Layers can be super confusing. Might there be a night class near you where you'd have an instructor to teach the program and answer questions? At any rate, take heart; you are one person trying to learn something that took probably dozens of people to create. Keep trying - you'll get it. :encouragement:

I've engaged the help of my husband, not that its helped a lot. He as dumbfounded by it all as I am.He's ordered a couple books on layers, PSE9, but i don't think there is a lot of difference between 9 & 10. In the meantime - it's keep trying. :lol:
 
Are any of the books by Scott Kelby? I really like his style of writing and teaching.
 
Are any of the books by Scott Kelby? I really like his style of writing and teaching.

I'm not sure, but I don;t think so. I actually forgot about Scott Kelby, till you mentioned him. I'll take a look at his site and youtube videos. Thanks for reminding me.
 
I only have 7 and don't do layers! lol

I'd think about shooting in Raw, I find it works better than to try to edit a JPEG that the camera already edited. And I don't do lots of editing, mostly adjust brightness and contrast. I'm a longtime film photographer and I think we had to learn how to frame and compose and get proper exposures or it would have been too much wasting of film.

I was thinking, what about considering different backgrounds that are more medium or dark in tone? For the time being anyway. The white background is what shows light gray spots that I had to enlarge and take off my glasses (bifocals) to see up close enough to notice anyway. You might need to think about how to camoflage them (says the person who has had to work around a big spot on the sensor and frame accordingly to crop that side later! lol).

I'd also think about cropping and try shooting tighter and see what you get. Like the one that was light subtle pastels and curved waves (can't think of the title) - that could maybe still work with less background. I remember the one too of a vase with a cobalt blue base that was what got me thinking about that - I think the balance in that composition would be better without so much white background (probably because the deeper color didn't have anything to balance it in the frame).

I'm glad you're back on. I did some local hockey and know a photographer who did too, then got away from it because he's had umpteen eye surgeries etc. But he's gotten back into it, and while I can see some issues he's having with backfocusing, still, he's shooting hockey and getting some nice shots. Maybe not as many keepers and probably more challenging, but he's doing it. (And my situation was having had a stroke, so running around hockey rinks with a cane I am not! lol but can at least enjoy shooting from the cheap seats and discovered a crop sensor is a wonderful thing.)

Hang in there and sorry I can't help with layers, but people can bounce around ideas and maybe you can figure out what works best for you.
 
I only have 7 and don't do layers! lol

I'd think about shooting in Raw, I find it works better than to try to edit a JPEG that the camera already edited. And I don't do lots of editing, mostly adjust brightness and contrast. I'm a longtime film photographer and I think we had to learn how to frame and compose and get proper exposures or it would have been too much wasting of film.

I was thinking, what about considering different backgrounds that are more medium or dark in tone? For the time being anyway. The white background is what shows light gray spots that I had to enlarge and take off my glasses (bifocals) to see up close enough to notice anyway. You might need to think about how to camoflage them (says the person who has had to work around a big spot on the sensor and frame accordingly to crop that side later! lol).

I'd also think about cropping and try shooting tighter and see what you get. Like the one that was light subtle pastels and curved waves (can't think of the title) - that could maybe still work with less background. I remember the one too of a vase with a cobalt blue base that was what got me thinking about that - I think the balance in that composition would be better without so much white background (probably because the deeper color didn't have anything to balance it in the frame).

I'm glad you're back on. I did some local hockey and know a photographer who did too, then got away from it because he's had umpteen eye surgeries etc. But he's gotten back into it, and while I can see some issues he's having with backfocusing, still, he's shooting hockey and getting some nice shots. Maybe not as many keepers and probably more challenging, but he's doing it. (And my situation was having had a stroke, so running around hockey rinks with a cane I am not! lol but can at least enjoy shooting from the cheap seats and discovered a crop sensor is a wonderful thing.)

Hang in there and sorry I can't help with layers, but people can bounce around ideas and maybe you can figure out what works best for you.

Thanks for the suggestions. I actually think the layers and levels adjustment will really help with my existing photos, we [husband is trying to help me] just can't figure out how to delete the levels layer when done and properly save the layer with changes. Numerous tries and nothing has worked yet. :BangHead:, :lol:

On the plus side, we did locate a camera center not too far away that cleans sensors on site within 48 hours. Price not too bad, but we still need to wait for our tax refund to get it done so it will be awhile. This morning I figured out how to unpublish my website temporarily until I can get the photos all cleaned up. I'm thankful I can continue to take photos. It helps doing ICM work. The editing however has really become difficult when its for more than basic editing. I'm constantly telling my husband "I need to borrow your eyes for a minute" with reading things and now with this. Quite frustrating, but I have no plans on giving up anytime soon. lol.
 
I got it!!!! I figured it out! lol Now to get to work on all the photos. Thank you Original Katomi for the mention of saving as Tiff, that was one of the problems - I was trying to save as jpeg.
 

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