- [Instructor] Adjustment layers are a powerful way
to make non-destructive edits
like changing color or tonal values in an image
or to a portion of an image.
So in a perfect world,
if we have access to original raw files,
then we should probably make these types of adjustments
in Camera Raw, or in Lightroom Classic's develop module,
or in the edit stack in Lightroom
in order to maintain the highest quality possible.
But there are definitely times
when we either don't have access to the raw file
or maybe the area that we need to select
is much easier to select in Photoshop
than it is in those other programs.
So let's see how we can take advantage
of using adjustment layers.
We can add them by either choosing the layer menu
and then selecting new adjustment layer,
or at the bottom of the layers panel,
I can click on the adjustment layer icon
and then add an adjustment layer.
I'll start with hue and saturation,
and we can see all of the different options
in the properties panel.
Some of the adjustment layers
have presets that we can select from,
so we can try these out.
And of course, none of the changes are permanent,
so we can try as many of these as we want to,
and we're not hurting the original image.
If you find one that you like
but you want to make modifications to it,
we can just change the sliders and customize it
in order to make it our own.
If we like these settings
and we think we're going to use them again,
we can use the fly out menu
and choose to save this as a preset.
I'll call it JK sepia, and then save that.
And now it'll appear in that preset list.
Now, if we look at the layers panel,
we see that the hue saturation adjustment layer
is its own layer.
So we could always toggle the visibility of the layer,
make it visible again.
We could throw away the layer if we don't want it.
Or we can make edits to it at any time.
We can also change the opacity of the layer
as well as change the blend mode.
For now I'll leave it to normal at 100%.
Course, we're not limited to just one adjustment layer.
I'll go ahead and add
a second brightness and contrast adjustment layer.
And let's just brighten this up a bit,
as well as add more contrast.
And we can see to the right of the adjustment icon
is a layer mask.
And these masks work like any other layer mask in Photoshop.
If I tap the B key to select the paintbrush
and I select a large brush
and decrease the opacity, maybe to 30%,
then I can start painting with black in that mask,
and it will hide the adjustment that I just made.
So here I'm hiding the brightness and contrast
that I just added around the edges of my image.
When I'm finished,
if I save this as a layered Photoshop file or a TIF file
and then I reopen it later, I can always come in
and edit any of these adjustment layers.
For now I'll go ahead and decrease the opacity to 50%.
And if we hold the option key on Mac
or the alt key on Windows,
and I click on the eye icon next to the background,
we can see a before and then after.
So you can see how easy it is to add adjustment layers
in order to make flexible,
non-destructive edits to your images.