FILE STRUCTURE
Take a look at one of your recent projects. Does it
have layers with names like “layer 2 Copy 4”? At a
quick glance, can you figure out which layer is which,
and the purpose of each layer, adjustment layer, and
mask? One of the best suggestions I can give you is
to treat your document as if you were going to send it
to someone else to work on. Or perhaps even better,
imagine what you’d like to receive from someone
who was sending you a layered file. I’m guessing that
you’d prefer to see named layers and groups in that
Layers panel.
This is an important habit to put into practice: create
an organized, named structure that makes it easy for
you to open an older document and instantly jump in
and edit it, because it’s simple to work with. And if
anything goes amiss and doesn’t work, it’s much easier
to troubleshoot when the purpose of each element in
the Layers panel is very clear.
Another reason for creating a strong structure
in your documents is creativity; it’s easier to experi-
ment with different settings, filters, etc. if you have a
well-structured document that takes advantage of all
the nondestructive elements we talked about earlier,
and those elements are all logically named so they’re
easy to find and use.On the one hand, if you get to the end result you want,
it doesn’t really matter how you achieved it. But in the
long run, developing good work habits and following
the best practices outlined in this article will help with
your efficiency, accuracy, and creativity while working
in Photoshop. Although you could copy a layer style in the Layers panel and then
paste it to other layers, if you need to make changes, you’d have to edit
each layer style on each layer. Instead, put the layers into a group and
then paste the layer style to that group. This way, any layer added into
that group will automatically have that style applied, and any edits you
do to the style will be applied to all the layers in that group. PHOTOSHOP BEST PRACTICESKELBYONE.COM