"Lawrence H Thompson" wrote in message
Truly NEW at this.
Me too. 🙂
When I open a new file(jpg) it automatically
becomes my background. I then create a new layer but when I open a 2nd image to use, it automatically becomes the background in a new palette window. I can open multiple image files and simply get multiple single backgrounds.
What is it exactly that you’re trying to do? For the basic photo cleanup stuff, you should have no trouble editing each photograph you’ve opened. Each time you open a JPEG, that creates a new document, with its own set of layers.
But, anyway, to answer your question:
The "Background" in the layer palette refers to the fact that when the JPEG is opened, the image as loaded in Elements has a single layer, and that layer is the "Background" layer *for that image*. Each image you open will have its own set of layers (which show up in the layer palette when that document’s window is active), and "flat" images like JPEGs will always open with a single "Background" layer.
I won’t go into all of the different characteristics of the "Background" layer (because I don’t know enough about Elements to do so), but one biggie is that it’s always at the bottom of the list. Any layers you add to the image will go above the "Background" layer.
A couple of things to know:
* If for some reason you want to open a second image and incorporate it into the first, all you need to do is right-click (Windows…I assume Mac has some equivalent) on the "Background" layer *name* in the palette (right-clicking on the thumbnail does something different) and choose "Duplicate Layer…" from the menu. That will bring up a dialog box in which you can specify which document to copy the layer to; just select your first image there, and the "Background" layer will be copied to the first image as a regular layer. Of course, this works for any kind of layer. I only write in terms of the "Background" layer because that’s the only layer you’ll see when you first open a JPEG.
* If you find yourself wanting to do something to the "Background" layer that you can’t because of the fact that it’s the background layer, you can convert it to a regular layer. Just select the layer in the layer palette, then choose Layers/New Layer/Background to Layer.
Pete