Photoshop Tutorial : Using Solid Colour Layers

By Jennifer | Jun 21 2006 |

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to generate a solid colour layer in Photoshop. This is a special layer which allows you to quickly and easily change the background colour of images with the colour picker.

Colour Fill Layer in Photoshop

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to generate a solid colour layer in Photoshop. This is a useful way to change backgrounds on images. I’m using an image of a purple car which has areas of transparency which lets the yellow background layer show through.

1. In Photoshop, click on the Layer1 layer in the Layers palette to select it.

2. Click on Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer menu.

3. Choose Solid Color from that menu.

This will open the Colour Picker

4. I chose a blue colour and clicked OK.

A new layer called Color Fill 1 has appeared in Layers Palette. This layer has two thumbnails and a link symbol associated with it. The thumbnail on the left is a solid color fill. The white thumbnail on the right is a layer mask. You can see the solid color fill through the mask because the mask is set to white. The reason for using a solid color layer is that it gives you the flexibility to easily change a solid fill.

5. Click on the new Color Fill 1 layer and drag it down below the Layer 0 (the car layer). Now the car is at the top of the stack in the Layers Palette and the background appears blue. Using this new layer it is now extremely easy to change the background colour easily and quickly.

6. In the Layers palette, double-click on the thumbnail on the left side of the Color Fill 1 layer. This will open the Color Picker again. Choose a new colour and notice the live preview of the colour changes to the layer. This is what makes it so good. Click OK when you find a colour you like.