Shadow, have you ever used the Image > Adjust tools? Curves, Levels, Hue/Saturation, Brightness/Contrast and the like? When you use those tools, you affect the layer you're on somewhat permanently.

However, if you use adjustment layers, you do all the adjusting on a layer above what you want to affect, and later, you can readjust it or delete the adjustment entirely. OR, you can create a mask on the adjustment layer so that only parts of the image are affected by the adjustment.

To use adjustment layers, go to your layers palette and look for the adjustment layers icon, which is a circle that's half-black and half-white. Click on that, and you will get a menu like the one you'd get hitting Image > Adjust. If you select one of the options, you will get the familiar dialogue box with all the settings and everything, and voila, it's just as if you used the Image > Adjust -- the only differences being that you can group the adjustment layer with one layer and you can make a mask to adjust only a portion of the image. It keeps your original pure and untouched. :)

Message edited on: 11/20/2004 00:59