How to Use Layers in Photoshop Elements 2019 – Part 3 – Fill Layers

Watch the Photoshop Elements 2019 training video tutorial for beginners. Learn how to use Layers and color picker. We will show you how to insert solid color, gradient and pattern background. We will also talk about the foreground and background color.

Welcome back to our course on PSE 2019. In this section, we’re going to take a closer look at Fill Layers. I’m also going to add a few more details about managing colors and using colors in PSE 2019 as part of looking at fill layers.

First of all, I’ll answer the question of what is a fill layer. Then, I’ll cover an example of adding a fill layer to an image. Thirdly, we’ll look at using patterns and gradients in Fill Layers.

First of all, what is the fill layer? A fill layer is one which is wholly or partly filled with a single color or possibly a pattern or a gradient. The fill layers are often used for effect, although they’re also quite often used to disguise things or to highlight things as well.

What I’m going to do is to create a blank image in order to demonstrate fill layers. Go to New, Blank File, I’m going to choose my width and height. I’m going to go with a background of white, click on OK.

Although, I’ve only got a white background here, what I’m going to do is to make a copy of it. I’m going to make the original background invisible.

I’ve already made a rough selection of the sheep that we’ve used a few times. I’m now going to paste that onto the image using the keyboard shortcut Control-V. And there it is!

Notice that having done that, I just have a layer with the sheep on it. It’s otherwise transparent. What I want to do now is to put a fill layer behind the sheep.

A new layer is added above the selected layer. So, I need to select the background copy layer. Go up to the third button along at the top of the Layers panel. Click on Solid Color. Now, I’m going to choose a solid color.

As before, I have this pretty standard color picker for a solid color. Now, I can use the panel here, with the colors on it. Slide to choose a color visually. I can enter a code either in HSB format, RGB format, or I can put the hexadecimal code for the color in there.

What I’m going to do on this occasion is going more towards the sort of red types of color, something like that. That looks pretty horrible! Yeah, that’s fine! Click on OK. What I now have is a fill layer behind the sheep.

If you look at the Layers panel at the tile for this fill layer, you can see what a fill layer looks like, default name, etcetera.

Let’s look now at a couple of other options for fill layers. I’m going to make the color fill layer invisible. I’m going to select the background copy layer. Back up to the button. I’m going to insert a pattern.

There’s a whole gallery of patterns that I can choose from. The rock patterns are currently selected. I have artist surfaces, color paper, and so on.

Let’s go back to rock patterns. Choose a rock pattern, say that one. There are some options you can experiment with. For instance, this has currently scale of 100%. Make it bigger, all the rocks are bigger, etcetera. You can adapt your selection to fit your particular image.

I’m not going to go through all of these now. I’m going to leave you to experiment with these. Let’s go with that option for the moment. Click on OK. Of course, if I make my color fill layer visible again it will now completely obscure the rocks.

If I select the color fill layer, I can reduce its opacity. Then, you can see the rocks start to show through. So, by combining different fill layers you can get a very, very wide range of effects.

Now let me make both of these invisible and let me just show you gradients.

There are many gradients to choose from. Let’s try another one. I can change the style. It’s currently linear, straight across the image. But I could, for instance, come out from the center as radial, maybe increase the scale a little again.

Too much. What about that? That’s fine. Click on OK. Once again, I can combine a number of fill layers of different types to pretty much achieve what seems like an almost infinite range of possibilities.

That’s the end of this section. I’ll see you in the next one.

Adam Lacey

Adam Lacey is an Excel enthusiast and online learning expert. He combines these two passions at Simon Sez IT where he wears a number of different hats. When Adam isn't fretting about site traffic or Pivot Tables, you'll find him on the tennis court or in the kitchen cooking up a storm.