Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers - Martin Evening [143]
Adjustment layers and Adjustments panel
With adjustment layers, an image adjustment can be applied in the form of an editable layer adjustment. Adjustment layers can be added to an image in several ways. You can go to the Layer New Adjustment layer submenu, or you can click on the Add new adjustment layer button in the Layers panel to select an adjustment type. As well as this you can also use the Adjustments panel to add adjustment layers and update the adjustment settings. In the Figure 5.16 example you'll see I again started out with an image with a Background layer. I went to the Adjustments panel and clicked on the Levels adjustment button (circled). This added a new Levels adjustment layer above the Background layer and the Adjustments panel switched to display the Levels adjustment controls, shown here in the panel view below.
Figure 5.16 This shows the Adjustment layer workflow. Go to the Adjustments panel and choose an adjustment type (in this example Levels) and make the adjustment, which will then be added as a new adjustment layer. You can also mouse down on the Add new adjustment layer button in the Layers panel (circled in red) to add a new adjustment layer.
There are several advantages to the Adjustment layer approach, especially with the way the options are now presented in Photoshop. First of all, adjustment layers are not permanent. If you decide to undo an adjustment or readjust the settings, you can do so at any time. Adjustment layers offer the ability to apply multiple image adjustments and/or fills to an image and for the adjustments to remain ‘dynamic’. In other words, an adjustment layer is an image adjustment that can be revised at any time and allows the image adjustment processing to be deferred until the time when an image is flattened. The adjustments you apply can also be masked when you edit the associated layer mask and the mask can also be refined using the Masks panel (which I'll be describing later). Best of all, adjustment layers are no longer restricted to a modal state where you had to double-click the layer first in order to access the adjustment controls. Now that we have an Adjustments panel, you have the potential to quickly access the adjustment layer settings any time you need to. In addition to this you can easily switch between tasks. So, if you click on an adjustment layer to select it, you can paint on the layer mask, adjust the layer opacity and blending options and have full access to the adjustment layer controls throughout.
Adding an adjustment layer procedure
Here's how you would go about adding a new adjustment layer. First, go to the Adjustments panel shown in Figure 5.17 and select an adjustment type by clicking on one of the buttons (you'll see a list of all the buttons over the page and a brief summary of what each one does). Once you have selected an adjustment, the panel switches to display the adjustment controls (which are shaded yellow in Figure 5.18) plus there are additional controls top and bottom for managing the adjustment layers, such as a button to toggle the preview on or off. If you deselect an adjustment layer or click on the ‘Return to list’ button (circled in Figure 5.18), this takes you back to the Adjustments panel list view shown in Figure 5.17, where you can add a new adjustment layer. As you click on adjustment layers in the Layers panel to select them, the Adjustments panel refreshes the controls view to show the controls and settings for that particular layer.
Keeping the focus on the panel fields
One reason why the Adjustments panel wasn't universally liked when it was introduced in CS4 was because you lost the use of