- Create a new background layer. For reasons that will become in-
creasingly evident as you work through the steps, you need to keep
the original image around for Photoshop to reference. But as it stands
now, it competes fiercely with the black outlines. To lessen its effect:- Click the Background layer in the Layers panel.
- Next, Alt-click (Option-click) the icon at the bottom of the
Layers panel to make a new layer. Name it “White” in the New
Layer dialog box that appears, and then click OK. - Press Ctrl+D (�-D) to deselect the image.
- Then press the D key again by itself to ensure that your fore-
ground and background colors are set to their default black and
white, respectively. - Next, press Ctrl+Backspace (�-Delete) to fill the entire layer
with white. - Reduce the Opacity value in the Layers panel to 50 percent to
let some of the original image show through, as witnessed in
Figure 4-46.
Although the layer thumbnails in the Layers panel are visually helpful for
remembering what a layer contains, nothing beats adding a descriptive name
to each layer you create. You can either hold down the Alt (Option) key when
you click the button to rename on-the-fly or double-click the name after
the layer is created and rename it then. Either way, it’s a good habit to get into.
Figure 4-46.
120 Lesson 4: Retouch, Heal, and Enhance