This time around we’ll be looking at another of the many ways to make use of layers for your photo editing. We’ll teach you how to add realistic-looking snow to your photos. Adding textures to photos is very popular, but you need to learn the right approach if you want your results to look believable. Fortunately it’s not complicated—you can do it using layers in Zoner Photo Studio X. 

What do you do when you want to gorgeously document the look of your shot location, but the weather just isn’t there? One thing you can do is to replace the sky during post-production. This is a creative technique where you take advantage of work with layers. You’ll need both your original photograph and one with a more interesting sky. Ideally they both should have been shot at the same focal length. And what do you do after that?

You can use blending modes both in your work with layers and in your work with editing effects in ZPS. When you’re working with layers, you’ll find the controls for blending modes in the right panel under the Layers line, above the list of layers. During edits themselves, you’ll always find the blending mode controls (“Blending Options”) by the specific adjustment you’re applying (e.g. Curves, Grayscale, Blur, etc.). ZPS offers you over 20 different choices of blending mode. The best way to get to know them is by trying them out.

This Christmas, make it easier for the kids in your family to hand out the gifts. Create your own tags with both names and photos. Then even the youngest children, who haven’t learned to read yet, will have the joy of handing out the gifts and finding their own.

Natural-looking skin is the foundation of a good color portrait. The problem here is that differing light sources in one picture and light reflections off of grass or clothing can cause unnatural color spots. Fortunately you can repair skin color on your PC.

Sometimes you need to place one photo inside another and make the result look as realistic as possible. And there’s a very simple way to do that. You can use it for example when you’re making invitations... or when you just want to play around a little. So take a look at how to put one photo inside another and create your own photo montage or photo collage.

Low depth of field. It’s the biggest downside of closeup and macro photography. But it has a solution: the technique called focus stacking. It lets you increase your depth of field without reducing the quality of your photos. Take a look at how to take advantage of this technique.

A truly compelling picture won’t have any distractions that might steal attention from its subject. But sometimes you just can’t avoid having distractions in the shot. Fortunately you can get rid of them easily with retouching. And you’ve got several ways to do it.

Taking a person from one photo and putting them in another. And thus placing them in a different situation. That’s one more thing you can do with advanced editing tools Work with layers and selections will help you to merge two photos into one like this. Take a look at how to do this kind of merging of one image into another.

Layer work often requires you to do complicated editing. Adjustment Layers are here to make it simple. Unlike ordinary layers, they don’t contain picture data—instead, they influence the image parameters of the layers below them.