One of the more overlooked features of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements is the ability to lock your layers! The one place I use this a lot is when coloring in shapes, or chalking edges on elements.
We have two options – Lock and Transparency Lock. You can access these at the top or bottom of your Layers palette. Here’s what it looks like in PSE 8:
Next to the word Lock, there is a little checkerboard, and a padlock.
The padlock is a Layer Lock and will keep you from being able to do ANYthing to the layer. This is useful at times when you don’t want to mistakenly make marks on a layer, or keep from moving something inadvertently. You just click on the padlock, and a padlock shows on the layer in the palette to remind you it’s locked. To unlock, click on the padlock below the palette again to toggle it off. 
The more useful tool is the little checkerboard, or the Transparency Lock. When you click the checkerboard, a lighter colored padlock shows on the layer in the palette. Now, you will not be able to alter the transparent areas of the layer, only the layers with pixels! So you can take a large soft brush and add color like I did to this leaf. The color will show up only on the shape, and not in the transparent area!
Some of you may accomplish this by CTRL-clicking on the layer thumbnail to select the item, then brushing on it. This is not a bad way to do it, but sometimes the ‘marching ants’ keep you from being able to see the edge clearly. I find using the Transparency Lock feature is easier, and gives me a better result!
Give it a whirl, go ‘chalk’ the edges of a journal card, or draw a shape and add some color! And if you use it in a layout, post it in the gallery for everyone to see 
Happy Scrapping!
Jenn
Other posts you will enjoy:
- Quick Tip Tuesday – An Old Dog Learns a New Trick Yup, even I can learn a new Photoshop or Elements trick. Any my lovely wife Jenn taught it to me! While working, I am constantly creating new layers to do more work on. And more often...
- Quick Tip Tuesday: On the Shady Side I tend to be a multi-photo scrapper, which means LOTS of layers! And often most of those layers need the same shadow – same depth, opacity, and direction. And there’s a quick and easy way to...
- Quick Tip Tuesday – Select it ALL! Sometimes you need to select a whole bunch of things on one layer, but how to do it? Take the magic wand and click on each one? Takes time, and what if you miss something? OR...
- Quick Tip Tuesday – Move it, baby! OK, here is the tip you’ve all been waiting for! The life-changing, scrap-inducing, tip of all tips! I’m starting to get a handle on using keyboard shortcuts well. We all have our favorites (CTRL+Z anyone?) and...
- Quick Tip Tuesday Redux – Fill Er’ Up! Every now and then Jenn and I are bringing back really great posts from Jenn’s design blog ScrapKitty Design. Here’s one we use everyday in both Elements and Photoshop: I’m a great believer in using keyboard...
February 24, 2010
PatriciaD
Just a note if you don’t like the marching ants you can hide them but they’re still effective by doing the Ctrl + H for Hide. Cool trick because you’re right those ants are annoying whether they’re at the picnic or on your scrapbook page. Just thought you’d wanna know.