Welcome to this foruma nd the fun wasteful times you will have with photoshop(lonely, so lonely, i'm mr lonely). Fist off(its a lie) just let me say nice work on your first sig. Seeing other peoples work is a big help. Layer masks are a great way to help manage photos. Filters are for the most part crap. They realy dont need to be used. You can never have to many layers. if i wanted to go insane i would make every brush stroke a new layer but that would be insane.. and yet on the other hand having alot of layers gives you so many more options and helps to add depth and complexity to your signatureZ. Godd luck and keep on roXering. END TRANSMISSION