Part One—Basic Layers There are a million different reasons to use layers. You might want to apply fancy filters to a specific area or add text that, days or weeks later, you want to edit. But almost everyone experiences their first giddy, layer-induced thrill when they learn how to use layers to combine objects from different photos into one image. That’s what you’ll learn how to do in this tutorial. Along the way, you’ll find out how to put objects onto different layers and how to combine layers

1. Start by opening table.png (see Figure D-1). Before you get to work, position the Layers palette so you can see it and your image at the same time. (See Chapter 6 for more on how to organize your Elements workspace.) Take a look at the palette and notice that you have only one layer now—the one named Background
2. Now it’s time to start adding layers to your image. Find and open plate.png.
3. Position plate.png so that you can see it and the tablecloth image at the same time.
Drag the image windows to resize them if you need to. 4. Click on plate.png to make it the active window, if it isn’t already. You can tell which window is active by looking at the Layers palette—it shows only the layers for the active window. If you see the tablecloth, you’ve got the wrong image as the active one

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