In response to this obvious need, onOne has distilled the essence of Photoshop layer editing and management into Perfect Layers for a fraction of the cost. In fact, Perfect Layers is free for existing customers of the onOne Plug-in Suite and can be purchased separately as well.

Perfect Layers is designed especially for users who don't own an expensive external layer-based imaging editor such as Photoshop (or don't wish to climb the steep learning curve such advanced editors require). Perfect Layers is easily mastered.

In my examples at left I show how to blend three different images into one using Perfect Layers' masking features, in this case working off a "flying" theme.

My base image (top) is of a plane fuselage against a plain blue sky that just begs for clouds. I imported one of my cloud stock photos (center) and used the MaskingBug Tool on its layer to reveal the plane while maintaining most of the clouds. I then performed some minor touchup to the mask in the plane area by using the Masking Brush Tool to remove any stray clouds.

The next screenshot shows an additional cloud layer placed in the stack between the others. The Transform tool allowed me to move this layer's bottom edge flush with the top of the plane and rotate it slightly to match. Further editing with the Masking Brush on this layer blended the orange clouds in with the white ones. The final result is shown at bottom, saved as a layered .PSD file which supports additional editing if desired.