aligning an image on top of another image

[johnsankey]

I'm using Photoshop Elements 2022 (20.0) on an iMac OSX Monterey 12.6.6
I've an aerial photo of an area, and a graphical map of trails made with a GPS. The aerial photo is the background layer; the graphical map is Layer 1 set to 50% opacity. I want to view Layer 1 on top of the Background so that I can rotate and resize Layer 1 to match visible ground features on the Background, then Merge Visible.

I'm blocked at viewing Layer 1 with Background showing through Layer 1. It must be something 'obvious' I'm missing - what?

[hatstead]

It would help if you post the aerial photo & the map so that we can provide hand-on advice. Absent that, here are some suggestions:

1. Make sure that the resolution of both the photo & map are the same value. The rule of thumb for work on the web is 72px/in and for printing in the 240-300 px/in range.

2. In addition to layer opacity determinant values, there is also the option to change the blending mode on layer1. "Normal" is default. In the drop-down click on the next option, and then you can cycle through the rest of the blending modes with the down-arrow key on the keyboard.

3. You might consider enhancing the trails on the map. Open a blank layer at the top of the stack of layers, and with a black, round or square brush,  trace over the trails to make them stand out. Again, you have the options of opacity & blending mode on this layer.

[johnsankey]

Thank you for your suggestions, hatstead. I tried the other blending modes and they didn't seem to change the problem that move/resize/rotate Layer 1 does the same thing to Background, even when not selected, even when the eye is clicked to make it non-visible...

[hatstead]

Sorry, I misunderstood the problem. I thought that the issue was visibility rather than resizing.. Follow Greg's directions.

[johnsankey]

Hatstead, that was indeed the first problem. I'm still (!) trying to find out exactly what I did to make the layers visible as I wished, but once it happened I immediately hit the second problem. My apologies for being so dense; obviously real experts don't hit my problems or they'd have been fixed long ago...

[Greg_S.]

Make sure you have Layer 1 selected and use the Move tool to reposition it. If you need to resize and/or rotate the layer, press Cmd+T and resize handles will appear.  Hover outside the corner handles to rotate the layer. 

[johnsankey]

Thank you, Greg. I did finally get to view layer 1 on top of Background (sadly I'm not sure exactly what worked; I'm trying to find out). I had Layer 1 selected, not Background, but when I tried to move/resize/rotate Layer 1 (I use these all the time) the Background layer moved along with it...

[Greg_S.]

Did you possibly group the layers by hitting Cmd+G instead of Cmd+T (to transform)?

[johnsankey]

Greg, I checked that. No.