Adjustment layers let you change colors, contrast, tone, and more without touching a single original pixel. Stack them, tweak them, or discard them entirely — the photo underneath stays intact. This tutorial covers three distinct ways to apply them: across the full image, within a specific selection, and clipped to a single layer.
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Practical Tips
These techniques work across different photo types and editing goals — keep them in mind as you build your own workflow.
- Add adjustment layers globally first, then refine by scope — start with whole-image adjustments before narrowing down to selections or clipping masks.
- Make a selection before adding an adjustment layer to automatically confine the effect to that area, with no manual masking needed afterward.
- Use a clipping mask to limit an adjustment layer to a single layer beneath it — useful when compositing elements like objects or cutouts onto a background.
- Toggle any adjustment layer's visibility with the Eye icon to compare before and after without losing your settings.
- Stack multiple adjustment layers freely — each remains independently editable at any point, so nothing is permanent until you choose to flatten.
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