Photoshop How To

Wouldn't it be great if there were an easier way to auto-select, manage, and identify Layers in Photoshop so that users of all skill levels could take advantage of this powerful post-processing technique? Well, there is, and the new tool is referred to as "Layer Hover Bounds."

This game changing capability is included in the brand new update to Photoshop Beta, and you'll learn exactly how it works in this eye-opening tutorial from the PiXimperfect YouTube channel. You'll see how to get this new feature now so you can begin using it today and be totally up to speed when it's officially released.

Instructor Unmesh Dinda is a globally popular educator, workshop instructor, and our go-to source for explaining how to harness the power of new Photoshop and Lightroom image-editing tools. In this episode it takes him barely seven minutes to demonstrate how Layer Hover Bounds simplifies the task of using Layers to deliver superior results.

Dinda begins by explaining why the current approach to Layers often lets him down in ways you have may noticed yourself. That's why he says, "I've never recommended and never liked, using the existing Auto Select feature with Lightroom's Move tool. As he notes, this common approach seems very convenient, but in real-world applications "it doesn't work that great" and he explains why.

On the contrary, there's much to love about the new Layer Hover Bounds feature. You'll learn how hovering over the canvas highlights all the different Layers. Likewise, hovering over the Layers panel highlights the corresponding Layer on the canvas to save time and get the job done with maximum precision.

Dinda also provides a clear explanation of how all this works so you'll understand what's happening under the hood, including how to enable and disable the feature when it doesn't suit your needs for the task at hand.

Other key points include the manner in which this new capability works with Layer Masks. You'll also learn how to expand Layer groups, and tricks for highlighting these groups. Dinda also explains an easy way to customize Layer Bounds for your specific workflow.

Of course it's rare that any editing tool is absolutely perfect, and such is the case when taking the Layer Hover Bounds approach. Dinda concludes the lesson by describing a problem he's noticed. It's definitely not a dealbreaker and he encourages you to provide feedback to Adobe so that this concern will be resolved before the new capability is officially released.

There's much more to learn about elevating your editing skills on Dinda's YouTube channel, as his five million subscribers are aware, so be sure to pay a visit and explore what's available. We also recommend watching the tutorial we posted from another Photoshop expert, with a basic guide to harnessing the power of Content Aware tools.