How, why & when do I use Layers (X2)

[Good Guy]

I am a COMPLETE NOVICE.
Please advise how to (click by click) and why I would use the various (eg Raster, Vector, Art Media, Mask, Adjustment Categories, etc) types of layers in PSPPX2.
To date I have carried out all changes on the same layer.
I posted this question on a another user group and:
http://jpkabala.com/paranormal/layers.html
was suggested - it helps, to a point, but I am still not entirely sure about layers.
As previously stated I require click by click instructions/tutorial/guide, please.

[sjj1805]

Working in layers with any imaging program is the same (though obviously "how" will differ from program to program)

Think of a number of pictures.
Let us imagine we have a picture of a beach. That is our background.
Now we have a picture of a small yacht. We can place that picture on top of the picture of the beach. We have now added a layer (the yacht).

Think of a picture of some people sun bathing. We can now place that picture onto the picture of the beach. We have now added another layer (The sun bathers)

You can keep adding more and more of these layers.

Perhaps we now have a picture of a window taken from inside a house. This picture is the same size as the picture of the beach. We can now place that on top of all these other pictures. We can see through the window because it is transparant (you can see through glass) - so now we have a layer with transparancy.

Get it?

To explain the various types of layers would require a book.
You can begin by visiting our forum tutorialsmany of which will lead you to sites devoted to teaching PaintShop Pro.

I have also gathered together several more Tutorial Sites onto one page
Here

[Good Guy]

Thank you for your speedy reply.
I fully understand the concept of layers, but don't know how & when to open layers, which layers to use under which circumstances, how to manipulate layers, etc

[JoeB]

Thank you for your speedy reply.
I fully understand the concept of layers, but don't know how & when to open layers, which layers to use under which circumstances, how to manipulate layers, etc

You don't "open" layers, you create the. And as sj said, you do so when you want to add other elements to an image and move them around. Also, when you open a jpg or most other images they are what is called a Background layer. If you erase parts of that image it will expose the background color from your Materials palette underneath. If you want the erased area to be transparent, you have to use the Layers menu to promote the background layer to a Raster layer, because raster layers allow transprency. Adjustment layers are simply layers on which you do adjustments - i.e., instead of running Hue/Saturation/Lightness on the image itself, you use the HSL Adjustment layer over the image to adjust HSL, then you can go back and change the adjustments. Vector layers are used for vector objects. For example, if you create text as Vector it will automatically put it on a vector layer.

Type the words paint shop pro layers into Google and you'll find lots of stuff. Google is a good way to find almost anything.

Regards,

JoeB

[Good Guy]

Thank you!