One of the things that makes Adobe Photoshop outstanding, is the option you have too the usage of layers. When you are creatingan image its very nice to have the option to add a new layer all the time. One layer for the shadow, one for the highlight, one for the texture and so on. To add a new layer you can use the shortcommand CTRL+SHIFT+N, or LAYER/NEW/NEW LAYER.. . But I can tell you this, if you want to save time, then learn the shortcommand. Beacuse when you have had the ps. for awhile, you will notice that you make more and more layers. I can also tell that try to use as many layers as you can. This makes it easier to do a more detailed image. So when you are done with your image containing around 10 layers and you want to save, you will notice someproblems. You can´t save them as .jpg or .gif. These file extensions doesn´t support layers. So what you have to do is that you have to flatten the image. You do this by going up in the menu LAYER/FLATTEN IMAGE.. And now you can save as .jpg or .gif. But if you only want to flatten two layers when you are working with the image, then just check the little box at the left on the layers so a chain appear.Look at the image on the left. And then press CTRL+E. This will flatten the two layers. You can check many chains if you like to flatten many layers. You can press the diffrent layers in the layer list to edit that specificlayer without touching the other layers.The layer that is active is blue.

Blending Modes
On all the layers that you have in the layer list, can have diffrent blending modes. If you push the little arrow in the field where it says normal, then this list that you can see to the left will appear. When you see this at first you might think that thats just too much for me. But it isnt :) . All the blending modes should be used at diffrent times. What I suggest is that when you are doing som work, try the diffrent blending modes and see what you can achieve. Blending modes that I think is really cool is the Overlay and Soft Light. Also the color dodge is awesome when using it right.

Opacity
Some layers that you have used should sometimes appear like you could see through them. Then just use the opacity tool that you can find in the Layer window. Just select the layer you want to change the opacity on. And then dra the arrow ti desired opacity. You will see the opacity in the white box above. Look at the image on the left.