Pick a color, Alt-Delete. Just because it’s "locked" doesn’t mean you can’t work on it. You just can’t move it around.
You can pull a Background into the Trash at the bottom of the Layers palette if another layer exists. Or you can duplicate it
That took a while to figure out. I can pick the color, but clicking on Alt-Delete to get the color into the layer makes no sense at all, but it worked. Thanks. He has changed that tutorial quite a bit since I posted this question this morning, but still doesnt explain how he changed the color of that background, and his tutorial doesnt even show a locked layer anymore.
Ive been working with photos for years, but mostly edits are for newspaper print, and layers isnt something Ive worked with much, and have a hard time understanding layers, but Im trying to learn. Most of my post processing is levels, curves, and USM, and Im only just now trying to understand layers, and having a hard time with it.
It makes a certain sense when you get used to it. The thing to understand is Background isn’t a layer, it’s a background. Look at the Help files for an understanding of layers.
Think of Photoshop layers as a stack of dead clear acetate sheets, like those which are used in hand-drawn animation. And the Background is the drawing desk the stack is sitting on.
I worked with AutoCAD for years, and had no problems understanding layers from the get go, and I used layers extensively, but I just cant seem to correlate that to working with photos. I avoided working with layers in photos for years because they made no sense, but Im trying to grasp it. For some reason, I just cant see layers in CS3 like I can see layers in AutoCAD.
Picking a color for a layer by clicking on Alt-Delete really makes no sense, but if I knew where it was in the menu, it might make sense. I have a very hard time following tutorials where the instructor uses keyboard short cuts, and not navigating thru the menu to get to the function. Most functions have the keyboard shortcut next to them, and if I knew how to get there by navigating thru the menu, the keyboard shortcut would then make more sense, and I could see the correlation between the menu and the keyboard shortcut in plain black and white. Thats me. Im sure Im not the only one. So, could someone tell me where that Alt-Delete keyboard shortcut for changing the color of a layer is in the menu so that it might make sense to me?
How much time have you spent looking at the Menus, and the Help Files?
You aren’t going to learn the routines immediately, and it’s incumbent upon each user to practice their own due diligence in order to learn.
If you’re competent with AutoCAD, know that pro-level applications require some time to learn, and that each software company has its own schemes for things you may already be familiar with in the app you know best.
Ive looked thru the menus a lot, but the help files really arent much help to me, and I know Im not alone from posts in other threads on the help in CS3. Seems like the help files tell you what you can do, but not how to do it, and its nearly impossible to find what Im looking for in the help files.
To me, AutoCAD was very easy to learn, but I learned when AutoCAD was running on DOS, and I worked with it 6 to 8 hours a day for months at a time. I was using version 2005 when I retired. A big leap from version 9 that I started with, so I learned as the software matured. Its different with CS3. Ive never used Photoshop till a couple of months ago. Most of my work is for newspaper print, and Ive used Paint Shop Pro for years, well before todays digital cameras, but never worked with layers. I decided to step up to CS3 as PSP has deteriorated since Corel bought it from Jasc. Most of my normal processing was very easy to figure out in CS3, but trying to learn new stuff is a little daunting, but part of the reason I decided to move to CS3 was the support that is out there. Not much support for PSP. Most of the video tutorials Ive seen for CS3 seem to assume that you already know all the keyboard shortcuts, and what they mean, and how they were chosen. I find it really difficult to wade thru that most of the time, and I dont, and probably never will sit down with CS3 for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. Like AutoCAD, there is a whole bunch of CS3 Ill never even touch, but there is a lot Id like to learn, hence a seemingly stupid question from me from time to time.
alt-delete doesn’t pick a colour for the background, it does a fill with whatever you have as your foreground colour.
Here’s why it makes sense (to me at least): Since there can be no transparency on a Background, if you Delete, you delete the foreground color, leaving the background color. Select All and try it. Alt-Delete is the opposite of Delete, so it FILLS with the foreground color.
You could also go to Edit>Fill and get the dialog (Shift-F5), or do Shift-Delete and get the same Fill dialog. Or you could use the Paint Bucket.
The problem with Photoshop is that there are many ways to do any one thing, so having it all be on menus is not practical. This site has the keyboard commands: <
http://morris-photographics.com/photoshop/shortcuts/index.ht ml>
I’m sure many of us would be lost in AutoCAD.
