Franku wrote:
Currently, I use Elements 8 and have interest in upgrading to Elements 12. I certainly am not an expert with Elements 8 and my greatest deficiency is with some of the advanced editing features involving layers. Suffice it to say I am looking for simplicity of applications.
Frank, to "see" what layers may or may not do, try and think of them this way (for now).
Think of the tabletop in your diningroom as the background layer, equal to the photo that you start with. You don't want to scratch up your table-top or original photo, so the first thing you do is to duplicate it (Ctrl + J, on a Mac I believe that would be Command + J, beyond that my knowledge of macs ceases to exist).
It's dinner time and you put a nice table cloth on the table. There's your second layer. Put on that a plate (3rd layer), napkin to protect the plate (4th layer), soup bowl (5th layer), soup in the bowl (6th layer). Oh, you need cutlery, waterglass, wine glass, finger-bowl (are they still used????), napkin beside the plate, etc. You can place each on their own layer, or if they are beside each other they can share a layer.
Now, you look over the table and decide that the napkins under the soup bowl are too stark white, you'd rather use a Christmas print napkin. On the table, you'd have to remove the bowl and replace the napkin, in PSE you could simply put in a new layer at that point with a new napkin, and click on the "eye" to the left of the old napkin to make it hide (not disappear, just hide).
And oops, the knife is placed with the cutting edge towards the outside. If it is on its own layer, you can simply flip the layer (under File, Image, Rotate).
You will find that in some cases you will have to add a layer yourself, or PSE will do it for you. For example, if you add text to an image, PSE will always put that on its own layer. If you drag and drop another image to the one you're working on, PSE will put that on its own layer. If you copy and paste, you'll have to make the layer first.
If you make a selection (Magic wand, marquee tool, etc), it will go on the layer you select in the layers bin.
Once you understand how layers stack up, and discover the different things you can do in layers, it really becomes fun working with them. But do try and take it in easy steps!!!