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Out of This World Photoshop Tip!

 

Here is a cool little tip that I got from Scott Kelby a couple weeks ago. I feel I have to share this because it’s one of those tips that is so very simple and so very intuitive that you will kick yourself for not knowing this one already. Some of you may and that’s cool. Anyway, to unlock the Background layer in Photoshop you would have had to go into the Layers panel and choose New Layer from Background or just double-click it and rename it if desired. Well did you know that you can simply grab the padlock icon on the layer and simply drag it to the trash. Voila!!! Layer is now unlocked!! Is that not cool?

18 Comments

  1. Christian said on — November 30, 2009 @ 12:14 pm

    Great tip! Thanks!

  2. Houston Brown said on — November 30, 2009 @ 12:16 pm

    . . . or Holding the Alt/Option key and double clicking just changes it to “Layer 0 “

  3. Sushovan said on — November 30, 2009 @ 12:54 pm

    Amazing! Brilliant! Thank you!

  4. Stan Preston said on — November 30, 2009 @ 12:56 pm

    Like Corey didn’t know that one already? He’s a genius just playing kowtow to the higher authority. I can see it now,
    Hey Corey I got a li’l trick for you.
    Really? What’s that?
    I know how to unlock a background by dragging the padlock icon to the trash. WOW! Holy! Is that not cool? (Thinking to himself – Duh you really think I didn’t know this already Scott?) Thanks Scott gotta share this with the folks! ;-)

  5. Linda Feeney said on — November 30, 2009 @ 2:10 pm

    Corey… Sorry this is off topic, but I just had to post a comment about your 3-D butterfly tutorial over on the NAPP site. It is killer! Those who do not belong to NAPP are definitely missing some good tips.

  6. Puna said on — November 30, 2009 @ 6:46 pm

    I never knew! Thanks!

  7. daniel said on — December 1, 2009 @ 8:14 pm

    So nice!

  8. ano said on — December 8, 2009 @ 10:42 pm

    wow!!! great tip! did you help invent the photoshop? putang ina grabe ang lupet!! parang 1+1 lang…did you know that ctrl+ alt + del can close it..Amazing!

  9. Royce Bair - free stock photos blog said on — December 9, 2009 @ 7:43 pm

    That’s one of the most simple and useful PS tips I’ve ever heard of! Thanks

  10. manuel said on — December 15, 2009 @ 1:26 pm

    awesome!!! jejejeje, tks!

  11. Ganeshkumar said on — December 18, 2009 @ 2:49 am

    damn!!! how the hell did we not know this!!?!?? :O :O :O freakin man! thanks for sharing!

  12. krishnaaaaaaaaaaa said on — December 18, 2009 @ 7:56 am

    Haiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
    i want a adobe photoshop software

  13. Jenn said on — December 18, 2009 @ 8:18 pm

    Great tip! Thanks for passing it on.

  14. psninja said on — December 26, 2009 @ 2:00 pm

    alt+doubleclick gives the same result

  15. chad said on — December 30, 2009 @ 1:41 am

    Yeah, but double click/return is easier than drag/drop. At least just as easy.

  16. chad said on — December 30, 2009 @ 1:43 am

    Nope. I’m right. Double click return is faster. At least with a laptop (I can’t believe I’m even posting anything here much less twice. Sorry. Nice tip.)

  17. Jarquel said on — January 2, 2010 @ 9:38 am

    Wau! Thanks!

  18. Web Design Hippo said on — August 2, 2010 @ 4:06 am

    Such a simple tip, but saves just that extra couple of seconds! Thanks.

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Create A Composite Layer

If you have a multilayer composition and you
want to apply an effect to all the layers at once, don’t flatten the layers–use a composite layer instead. Hide the layers you want excluded, and press Shift-Command-Option-E (PC: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-E). A new layer will be created at the top containing a merged copy of all the visible layers.

Another option is to create a new layer at the top of the stack and make it active. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) each layer you want to include to make those layers active, as well. Press Option-Command-E (PC: Alt-Ctrl-E).
by Colin Smith

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