Working With Layers In Photoshop - Design Post 11

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Introduction

    Layers play a significant role in Photoshop. Using layers from the Layers Panel you can retouch photos, change the colors, and manipulate the composition. Working With Layers In Photoshop in Photo Effects written by Deb Pieti is the article I read. I found this article in the October 2023rd edition of Photoshop User magazine. Deb's topic of conversation is to restore an old photo using layers and touching on generative fill.

I generated the photo below with Generative Fill. I think it did a decent job.

The Layer’s Panel

    You can find the Layers Panel by going to Windows and selecting Layers. Here you can find the layers list and groups which can help you stay organized.

    To create a group, hold the ctrl/command and select the layers you want. Then press ctrl/command g. A folder will appear and all of the photos you selected will be hidden away in this folder. Another important factor is naming your files. If you have a project that requires multiple selections and layers, it becomes difficult to keep track of everything when you are going back and forth between everything.

Using Generative Fill For Retouching

STEP 1: Open the photo you will be retouching. You will see a little lock on the layer. While this lock is on you cannot edit or move anything on this layer. Usually, users duplicate the layer to work on by dragging the background layer to the folder with a plus sign at the bottom and another layer will appear in the list as “background copy”. The reason this is done is because it will not destroy the previous layer.

STEP 2: In this step, the missing pieces of the background are torn off. Multiple layers will be used along with Generative Fill to replace these pieces. Make sure the Contextual Task Bar is available. You can access it by clicking on Windows and selecting Contextual Task Bar. You can pin the bar to a side by clicking on the three dots and selecting Pin Bar Position.

STEP 3: On the background layer select the Marquee tool. Make a rectangular selection on the left side of the picture going from top to bottom without touching the person in the center of the photo. If you press the space bar while drawing the selection you can reposition the rectangle if necessary. Click Generative Fill in the Contractual Task Bar and then generate.

Go to the Properties panel in Windows. You will see the word Variations with 3 thumbnails. You can select the one that you think fills in the missing photo best. If none of them look like they fit, you can generate three more thumbnails. Rename this layer accordingly.

STEP 4: Repeat step two, but only select the top left corner. Do not select any of the person or the hat in the center of the photo.

STEP 5: Repeat step three, but only select the upper right side. Do not select any of the person or the hat in the center of the photo.

STEP 6: Keep working on the upper right side until it looks like it fits.

STEP 7: Add Generative Fill layers as you need to get the right and left sides to look like a cohesive piece.

STEP 8: Next, you are going to select the upper left portion right next to the hat, but still do not select the person or hat.

STEP 9: Time to restore the left leg. Use Generative Fill to find a good fit for his knee, and then do the same for his leg.

STEP 10: Next, select the small portion above the sailor’s hat and restore it.

STEP 11: Zoom in to the face and make a selection of the portion just to the left of the right eye. Generate as many times as you need to.

STEP 12: A new layer is created every time Generative Fill is used, but you can manually add layers for various techniques.

For this picture, there is a spot on the left edge that still needs to be fixed. Create a new layer above the one generated previously. Select the Spot Healing Brush tool, and paint over the little spot. When you use the Spot Healing Tool it uses pixels around it to fill in the spot selected.

Create a new layer above the previous layer. Use the Spot Heal Brush to fill in a spot next to the sailor’s pant leg. Creating new layers for every retouch will make it easier to retouch the photo if you need to later.

STEP 13: Create a new layer above the previous layer and repeat the steps for the spots between his legs, the chair leg, and to the right of his left leg. Make sure it is completely repaired when you are done.

STEP 14: Now it is time to fill in the forbidden area, the face! Zoom in for comfort. Create a new layer and select the Clone Stamp Tool.

STEP 15: Depress the option key and select the bright side of the nose. Paint on the bright side to sample the pixels. Repeat for the shaded side, and then paint in the forehead over the torn parts.

STEP 16: Create another new layer and use the Clone Stamp Tool to fill in the background around the hat following the edges of the hat. Then use the Clone Stamp Tool to repair the hat.

STEP 17: Convert the image to black and white. Go to layer – New Adjustment Layer - Black & White.

STEP 18: The next thing that needs some attention is the lettering on the hat. In Google, research the ships that sailed during the period that the hat was used in. Try to match the font in Photoshop using Type-Match Font. If you don’t find anything, try to Google it.

STEP 19: Select the Type Tool. Press D then X to fill the Foreground Color with white, and select the proper font you found. Type "USS Wisconsin" on the hat for the sailor (or whatever you need to do for the picture you uploaded). Press ctrl/command to use Free Transform to resize and position the text.

Go to Type - Rasterize Type Layer – Edit -Transform – Warp, and shape the words to fit the hat. Adjust the Opacity and Fill in the layers panel to bring the piece together.

Conclusion

    This article was helpful because we are learning about these tools in my current class, Digital Image Editing. When I read articles such as this one, it goes into detail about simple steps that have already been taught to me. Like I have said before the more that I go over the steps and study the tools in Photoshop the more I understand and can implement these techniques. Sometimes when certain subjects are taught to us, we don’t fully understand what we are doing while trying to implement them. I am starting to understand, and I am proud of myself for the work I am putting out.

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