Discover how adjustment and fill layers let you make color and tonal changes without permanently altering your original image pixels in Adobe Photoshop.
What are adjustment and fill layers?
Adjustment and fill layers are powerful tools in Photoshop that allow you to make changes to your images while preserving the original pixel data. Unlike direct adjustments that permanently alter your image, these special layers store modification instructions separately from the image content.
Adjustment layers
An adjustment layer applies color and tonal adjustments to your image without permanently changing pixel values. For example, rather than making a Levels or Curves adjustment directly to your image, you can create a Levels or Curves adjustment layer. The color and tonal adjustments are stored in the adjustment layer and apply to all the layers below it.
Fill layers
Fill layers let you add solid colors, gradients, or patterns to your composition. Unlike adjustment layers, fill layers don't affect the appearance of layers underneath them.
Types of adjustment layers
Photoshop offers several types of adjustment layers, each designed for specific editing tasks:
- Levels and Curves - For adjusting tonal range and color balance.
- Hue/Saturation - For modifying color intensity and overall color.
- Black & White - For converting color images to monochrome with control over how colors translate to grayscale.
- Brightness/Contrast - For simple lighting adjustments.
- Color Balance - For adjusting color mixtures in shadows, midtones, and highlights.
- Selective Color - For fine-tuning specific color ranges.
Types of fill layers
Fill layers come in three varieties:
- Solid Color - Fills the layer with a single color you select using the Color Picker.
- Gradient - Creates a gradual blend between multiple colors in various patterns (linear, radial, etc.)
- Pattern - Fills the layer with a repeating pattern from the Photoshop pattern libraries.
