Tutorial - What is a "layer" in Photoshop?

I've been asked about what Layers are in Photoshop so decided to post a little tutorial! For you pro's, it's as simple as pie! But for the beginners a layer may seem like climbing a huge mountain! So I've put together a few simple screen shots to try to define what a layer is. Once you have this down, you can start making your own graphics, invitations and digital scrapbook pages!

This tutorial was done in Photoshop Elements 6.0. But layers are pretty much the same in most programs so you could get the idea of how they work from this tutorial and adapt it to your program.

Layers are just that...layers. Imagine one paper on top of one another one... in layers. Well digital elements and papers need to be layered as well. In this first screen shot, I have opened a new background. I have a paper layer and an element layer. The paper layer is in the back.


If I want to bring the paper layer to the front, I need to grab it and drag it above the element layer.


Now the paper is the top layer and the element is the bottom layer. Easy! You can continue this for all your layers to build your scrapbook page, graphic or any digital masterpiece!