Adobe photoshop elements User Manual

CHAPTER 8

A layer’s opacity determines to what degree it 
obscures or reveals the layer beneath it. A layer 
with 1% opacity appears nearly transparent, while 
one with 100% opacity appears completely 
opaque.

Select the layer in the Layers palette.

In the Layers palette, enter a value for Opacity 

or drag the Opacity pop-up slider.

You use layer blending modes to determine how 
the pixels in a layer or set of layers are blended with 
underlying pixels in the image. By applying modes 
to layers, you can create a variety of special effects.

For a description of each blending mode, 
see “Selecting a blending mode” on page 147. 

Select the layer in the Layers palette.

Choose an option from the Blending Mode 

pop-up menu. 

Some filters (such as the Lighting Effects filter) 
cannot be applied to layers with no pixels. 
Selecting Fill with Neutral Color in the New Layer 
dialog box resolves this problem by first filling the 
layer with a preset, neutral color. The neutral color 
is assigned based on the layer’s blending mode and 
is invisible. If no effect is applied, filling with a 
neutral color has no effect on the remaining layers. 
The Fill with Neutral Color option is not available 
for layers that use the Normal, Dissolve, Hue, 
Saturation, Color, or Luminosity modes. 

In grouped layers, the bottommost layer, 
or base layer, defines the boundaries for the entire 
group. For example, you might have a shape on 
one layer, a photographic image on the overlying 
layer, and some text on the topmost layer. If you 
define all three layers as grouped, the texture and 
the text appear only through the shape on the base 
layer, and take on the opacity of the base layer.