Layer vs Background

In previous versions of PSE the first layer of a new file was tagged background and was locked. In PSE 11 it is now a regular layer. Is that a change in the program or have I missed something in my setup?
Thanks.
Alice

It's still the same. You get a background layer if you open a regular photo, but there are some circumstances where you get a layer 0, like if you make a new file from an object copied from another image, or if you choose transparency as the background option when creating a new file. Background layers can't be transparent. It normally makes absolutely no difference, but if for some reason you want a background layer, go to layer>new>background from layer.

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How do I layer digital backgrounds with photoshop elements 2011? [was:Please Help]

How do I layer digital backgrounds with photoshop elements 2011?

What do you mean by "layer digital backgrounds"? Can you explain a little more about what you're trying to do?

When i create new layer from background the new layer then covers up the background. It previously did not do this.

I am a rookie. This worked on previous pics but I apparently have clicked something I shouldn't have. Thanks for any help.

The problem with Actions is that as a new user, you are not going to know what steps are happening when the Action runs. The action could be deleting the background layer, for instance. Is the action one that came with Photoshop? If you sourced it from somewhere else, can you give us a link?
There is also some ambiguity in the language you use. Not your fault. But when you say 'create new layer from background' to me that probably means you are copying the background layer. If that is not the case, could you give a more detailed description of the steps you are taking?
Do you know how to upload a screen shot? If you are using Windows 7 or 8, you can use the Snipping tool to drag across your image and layer panel. Save the image, and upload to this thread using the little camera icon.

Two annoying bugs... clone layer and background colour

is it just my machine or is there a fix for-
-when i clone a layer the new group jumps position 20, -20. i can reset it to zero, but i am not sure why it moves it.
- whatever colour i change the background to in the preferences has no effect. it remains black. Again, this is not the end of the world, but i just wanted to see if there is anything i could do about it.
cheers!

Clone layers are always offset. Not sure about the background color issue, might try trashing your prefs:
1) Quit Motion.
2) Navigate to User/Library/Preferences.
3) Locate com.apple.motion.plist and delete it.

How to get a layer's background color with AE SDK

Hello,
I am trying to get the color of the background for my current layer but I can't seem to find how to do it.
By background color, I don't mean the application's background color, but the color that shows through if I set the alpha of my pixels to 0.
For example, suppose the composition background is black, I put a green solid on top of it, then put an image on top of the solid and apply my pug-in to the image.
If I set the alpha to zero in my plug-in, the solid's green will show up.
So I want to be able to find out that my background is green.
I already tried using PF_AppGetBgColor() but that returns the application's background color, which is not green in this example.
If you want more details about what I want to do, I have plug-in P1 which sets some pixels to 0-alpha. On top of it I apply another plug-in P2 which reveals 0-alpha pixels by blending them with some color.
What happens now is that the output is the original image's color blended with P2's color (because P1 only modified the pixels' alpha).
What I want is to have the color showing through the transparent pixels of P1 blended with P2's color.
To do that, I would like to be able to set the color of the 0-alpha pixels to the background's color in P1.
Sorry for the long question.
Thanks for your suggestions.

hello nicolas.
if i understood you correctly, what you're trying to get it the image buffer of the composited layers, beneath the layer with your effect.
if that is correct, then i'm afraid it's next to impossible to do.
when AE renders a composition it doesn't do it bottom to top. it tries to do the opposite actually.
why? because if at a certain point the buffer is fully opaque, then it doesn't need to render what's beneath.
further more, checked out layers change the order rendering, and many other things affect the rendering order of the layers.
besides that, there's no API for accessing intermediate comp buffers. just the final result.
the closest you can get to that without turning the world over, is to use AEGP_GetCompBGColor(),
which would prove useless to you as the image doesn't get composited over that color, unless that's the comp being saved to file.
so why did i say "next to impossible"?
you can turn the world around.
you can write an AEGP of type "artisan". (look at the "arti" sample)
these plug-ins render comps (instead of the "advanced3D" renderer)
an artisan does have intermediate comp results, as it is the one doing the rendering.
so now you can have your artisan save the buffer you need, and deliver it to your effect.
i must warn you that doing this is very very very difficult.
another possible solution is to create a duplicate of the comp in which your effect resides,
erase all layers who's image you don't need, and render that duplicated comp using AEGP_GetReceiptWorld().
if you use this method, you have to supervise the original comp, and apply changes to the duplicate.
yes, that too is difficult to do.
you could make a change in strategy, and apply your effect on an adjustment layer instead.
the input for the adjustment layer is the composited buffer of underlying layers.
then you could get the original sources you wish to process using checked out layer params.
the last solution i can think of is using the sampleImage() expression on a hidden param.
this will give you pixel data from any layer in the comp, but not the composite of the underlying layers.
maybe if you tried sampling an adjustment layers post effects... i don't know. you'll have to try.
this method is very slow, and is also limited to time out, so you can't get a large number of pixels.
the expression will simply fail.
i hope it hasn't been all bad news for you.
maybe of you told more about the plug-in you're developing i could come up with a better plan.

Create layer from background

I wanted to know if itis just me or the program.I have a leyer that has a transparent section cut out of it.I need to convert this to a background layer so I can use it in a gif animation
Simple - I thought but when doing the convert - the cut out transparent area goes black.

Let me get this straight. Even although the cut out image is not a background but a layer and IS NOT in the time line, it should save to web gif animation honouring that layer as part transparent through out the animation.Please confirm if this thinkng is correct.Thanks in advance, oh - and thanks for replying.

Layer/scene background??

am new to Flash CS4 and tried to find the option, but no luck yet.
What i want is actually quite simple. I used to use swish before.
There was a simple option to use the scene as background. which means this scene appears as background to all other scenes below this master. quite handy and powerful, since you dont have to edit the menu/logo etc. in each scene anymore.
now i want to achieve similar in cs4. i have a scene (master) with some layers on it (menu's, logo, some text). Now i want this to appear in each other scene i gonna make. So (if i have to edit) i only have to edit those content once in the master scene.
i dont like to duplicate since when i have to edit, i have to edit for each scene, quite annoying and time consuming.
any know a good solution?
tnx

It's not really clear what you have created so far, but what you should do is avoid using scenes and just use one timeline or movieclips instead of scenes. That way you can extend that one background for the length of the timeline so that other content can come and go on top of it in layers above. You could create that background as a movieclip so that it becomes easier to move around as well. That way, if you still use scenes, the background would simply be one movieclip on the bottom layer.

Motions layers - not as background but normal layer ?

All the menus, I can see who is in Encore with "motions" is this layer a background, How do I create a layer, with a "motion", as a normal layer so I can scale my "Motion" and don't as an backgrundslayer..?

And, any Scaling, or other editing of the Motion Background will need to be done in your NLE, like PrPro.
Now, depending on what you want to do, you can create what appears to be a PiP in the Menu, but this is PiP done in the NLE, and includes a still image (that appears to be the Menu's Background). Any animation, say this PiP scaling up, or moving in, will need to be done in the NLE. In this case, you would do an AV file that would be Play First, and then it would Link to the Menu, with whatever you wished for the real Menu Background. Lot's of little tricks, but we'd need to know exactly what you want to happen, or "appear" to happen. Much of what we see in DVD Menus is really an illusion.
Good luck,
Hunt

Put "Background from Layer" in the pop-up menu of the layer

Sometimes you need to convert a layer into a background. There is an option "Background from Layer" in the Layer menu and it is good where it is, but I think it would be good and very intuitive to add it also to the pop-up menu of the layers in the layers palette in the same way that a background layer has the option "Layer from Background..."

In the meantime, I've found it easy to write and action and assign an f-key to it.
With CS6 it's important to keep in mind that if you change your bottom layer to Background AND you've cropped your image using the new crop tool, you will lose the "hidden, but still there" part of your image. When the layer once again becomes "Background" you have, in effect, used the old crop tool and lost your way back to the hidden pixels.
It becomes a decision of what you want for that particular image: a larger file size but a way back to the original or a smaller but final file size with no way back.

Transparent background goes white when toggling 3d layer

Hello,
I have a project file with 2 layers on it. A background layer and a layer with some text on it. Every time I activate 3d view on the text layer, the background goes from transparent to white.
You can see for yourself here, this is my source file:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4241134/transparentbackgroundproblem.aep
In the layer named "TextHere", enable the "3d layer" option and you'll see the background disappear.
It's the most annoying thing, I've scoured the web for an answer and keep coming up short.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.
Best,
Ed

You're using the "Front" Camera by mistake. Switch from "Front" to "Active Camera" in the comp viewer and you'll be good to go.

Composite photo and background layer question

I would appreciate some help with a workflow problem when dealing with a composite, selection and background layer. My normal workflow is to start of in LR4, and if need be do an "edit in, CS6". I am relatively new to CS6, so bear with me.
I have some portraits I want to put different backgrounds on. I am using Matt Kloskowski's Layers book and Composites books written for CS5. I also have Martin Evening's book on CS6 and the workflow for doing a composite is pretty much the same. The catch is that none of them start off in LR with the original photo. They all describe the following basic workflow pattern:
1. Bring up the main photo in CS using "edit in CS6"
2. Change the photo from a background layer to a regular layer
3. Make a selection.
4. Make a layer mask
5. Refine the edge
6. open the background photo you want to place the selection in (steps 4 and 5 are sometimes reversed so you are refining the edge on the new background)
7. copy and paste the original photo onto the new background
8. Refine the edge if not already done
9. Save and exit back to LR with the composite
If I follow this procedure I run into a couple of problems:
1. My backgrounds are in a separate folder on my computer and not cataloged in LR. So, if I open them in photoshop and paste the original photo onto that image, LR will not know that I want to take the new composite back to the original folder along with the protrait. If I go to save the image, CS want to take the composite back to the folder on my computer where I got the background from. I tried playing around and tried renaming the composite similar to the naming convention I use for my photos in LR and then importing it into that folder after I have saved it in the background folder. This had some unintended consequences. First, I had trouble renaming the composite photo. For some reason Windows kept plugging in an old photo file name from one of my photos taken two years ago. After I discovered that I could work around it. But after the first composite finally got into LR, when I tried to do it again, the import button on the left side of my LR went dark and I couldn't import the second composite photo I was working on. This could have been a coincident and unconnected LR glitch, but I have never had that problem before.
So...I was thinking of modifying the workflow to the following:
1. Bring up the main photo in CS using "edit in CS6"
2. Change the photo from a background layer to a regular layer
3. Make a selection.
4. Make a layer mask
5. Refine the edge
6. open the background photo you want to place the selection in
7. copy and paste the new BACKGROUND onto the original photo
8. Move or make the new background layer THE "Background" layer
10. Refine the edge
11. Save and exit back to LR with the composite
I am envisioning this will ensure that my composite will wind up back in LR because it is still keeping track of the original photo which now has gotten the new background, regardless of what the file name of the new background was.
Does any of this make sense? Does any one know a better way of handling this?
Thanks for any help,
Jim

Yes, it makes sense and I think you should go ahead and try it.

Why is my Background Layer unlocked

Using Adobe, PSE 5.0, Windows XP
When I opened a blank file in the Full Editor a Background layer appeared on the Layers Palette with an icon that indicated the layer was Locked.
Next I loaded a JPG into the Full Editor. It appeared in the Palette Bin, and also appeared in the Background Layer's icon.
I Closed the JPG. It disappeared from the Palette Bin and the Background Layer icon.
I created another Layer. So now on the Layers Palette I have Layer 0 - Background - Locked, and Layer 1 - Unlocked . Aagin I load a JPG. It appeared in the icon of the Locked Background Layer instead of the unlocked layer 1. Why does this happen?

The palette just shows the layers in the current image. If you open a photo with a background layer, it shows the locked layer. If you open a photo with regular layers it shows those layers. When you switch another image to be the currently active image, the layers palette changes, too, to show you what is currently the state of the active image.

How to reveal the background layer through a cut-out?

How can I cut out a shape from my PS image to expose the background layer? I will "Save for Web" with a transparent background.
The shape will be a rectangle, and a text layer will later be added to display within the rectangle.
My goal is to use the PS image as part of a Web page, allowing the Web page background to show through the rectangle which surrounds the text.
Hope this explanation makes sense.
thanks!

Sounds like what you want to do is what countless others do - nothing special.
In Photoshop, put what you want to show on a layer (not Background), make it partially transparent (either with an erase operation or hiding parts of it with a mask), make sure no Background layer is showing (you'll see the checkerboard through the transparent parts), and save the work product as a PNG (or possibly a GIF, but PNG offers partial transparency).
You'll also want to save your design as a master PSD of course, so you can edit the master file
This page might give you some food for thought...
http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/temp/TransparencyTest/TransparencyTest2.html
-Noel

Using Background Eraser Tool on a Layer

I have a background layer and then I create a second layer (a blank one). I then try to erase the backround image through the new layer and it doesn't work. What can I do?
Thanks,
Kirsten

I don’t follow.
If you try to hide the background just paint on the new Layer, if you want to actually erase parts of the Background Layer convert it to a regular Layer (Layer > New > Layer from Background or just double-click it).

Why no background layer?

I've read posts on background layers, and I've learned a lot. But I am puzzled at this:
I opened a .png file in PS CS5. It appears as Layer 0 in the layer panel. My impression is that "Layer 0" is the PS default for background layer. However, this does not appear to be a background layer. I can delete it. I can create another layer and juxtapose the two. If I go to Layer>New, I get the Background From Layer but not the Layer from Background option.
I thought the only time PS did not create a background layer is when a transparent background is specified for a new doc.
This is not a problem. It doesn't prevent me from working. But I do want to develop an understanding of how the software works. Any comments would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Doc_Pit

The PNG format offers the possibility of partial transparency.
Photoshop only supports transparency on a true layer, not the background.
Thus, when Photoshop opens a PNG file, it loads the image data into Layer 0 and makes the layer partially transparent wherever transparency exists in the PNG file. It does the same thing even if all the pixels in the PNG are 100% opaque.
-Noel

Layer vs Background

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