How do you create a new layer from what is visible on screen? I usually save a copy then flatten and go from there.
I was watching a video on workflow and the guy just made a layer of all visible. He didn't explain how, and I can't find it in the books I have.
Without being at my home monitor to actually look at CS2 I can't accurately the steps very well. If no one has jumped in and answered your post by this evening I'll walk you through it as best I can when I get home. There are a couple of books you might want to invest in that'll help a bunch as well - Tim Grey's Photoshop CS2 Work Flow, and John Shaw's Ebook on Digital Workflow. Of the two, Tim Grey's is much more detailed and complete, but Shaw's book is ok if you don't mind a lot of misspelled words, grammatical errors, and only being available in Ebook version.
you could go to the Layers Palette and click on the little arrow at the top right and select Merge Visible. This merges all the visible stuff to the background layer. You could then duplicate that. The problem is that this flattens out the visible layers and you no longer have those individual layers to work with.
If you need to keep those layers intact, try this:
Do the Merge Visible as above and then click on the Background Layer
Go to Select >All (CTRL-A) and then go to Edit>Copy.
Now step back in History to before you did the Merge Visible and then choose Edit>Paste
this will paste in the "merged visible" layer and all your other layers are still there to use.
Click on top layer> Shift/Click on bottom layer(background), all layers should be active(high lighted)> Select all and copy all using the steps explained by Rod> Create a new layer> Paste and you are done.
If I understand the question right, you want to create a new layer at the top of your layers pallete that contains a merged copy of all visible layers. To do this:
1. Select Layer: New>Layer. This will create an empty layer at the top of your layers palette.
2. In your layers palette, left-click on the top right arrow, this will open a menu. Slide your mouse down to Merge Visible option.
3. Now, BEFORE releasing your left mouse button, press and hold the Alt key.
4. Release the mouse button and the top layer will become a merged copy of all visible layers.
This takes much longer to explain than to actually do it.
Discussion
8 repliesI was watching a video on workflow and the guy just made a layer of all visible. He didn't explain how, and I can't find it in the books I have.
Thanks
David Shaw
If you need to keep those layers intact, try this:
Do the Merge Visible as above and then click on the Background Layer
Go to Select >All (CTRL-A) and then go to Edit>Copy.
Now step back in History to before you did the Merge Visible and then choose Edit>Paste
this will paste in the "merged visible" layer and all your other layers are still there to use.
Click on top layer> Shift/Click on bottom layer(background), all layers should be active(high lighted)> Select all and copy all using the steps explained by Rod> Create a new layer> Paste and you are done.
Cheers
1. Select Layer: New>Layer. This will create an empty layer at the top of your layers palette.
2. In your layers palette, left-click on the top right arrow, this will open a menu. Slide your mouse down to Merge Visible option.
3. Now, BEFORE releasing your left mouse button, press and hold the Alt key.
4. Release the mouse button and the top layer will become a merged copy of all visible layers.
This takes much longer to explain than to actually do it.
Ed
Thanks
David
1 Create a new layer and then select it.
2 use Shift, Command, Option, E (or the PC equivalent) it will merge visible to the selected new layer. . .