| Joined: | Mon Apr 2nd, 2012 |
| Location: | South Lakeland, UK |
| Posts: | 4066 |
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Any text you add is on a separate layer and can be moved, edited, rotated, reduced in transparency and a multitude of other things.
Layers can also be used for very clever things like sharpening, bluring, darkening etc. Layers are a very powerful tool.
One job I use layers for is to increase the depth ot focus and selective focus. For example, take a Magnolia tree, I try to position the camera so the best blooms are all in the sharp focus zone but one group of blooms may be rather out of it. I always try to use my lenses wide open to minimise distracting artifacts, so I expose the main image then I re-focus on the other group of blooms, expose that image, and take a few more just for good luck.
Back home I pick the best match of the main exposure and the second group of blooms, layer the second group behind the main image, increase the transparency if the main image, align the images as well as I can, then using a soft edged brush erase the main image to reveal the sharp blooms behind. Bring the main image transparency up to 100% and make fine adjustments.
When you are finished you can 'flatten' the image to remove the layers to create a normal single image file.
That's just one example of thousands of things it can do. It can help to deal with high contrast images using a similar technique, instead of using HDR, bracket the exposures and layer the image.
I could go on but I think you get the picture.
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Robert.