Ah yes, the command from the LAYER's Palette to Flatten the Layers. Once done, this will leave you with one layer so you can save the image as a JPG or TIFF. It is not mandatory to flatten the layers ~ you could always save the image with the layers intact in PSD format, but be prepared to store a HUGE file! It is certainly worth doing if you need to return to this image with the layers at a later time.

Enjoy your new tool. When you get a chance, try this out using LEVELS, CURVES, CONTRAST, and do one of those funky part B&W and part color images. The layer mask is the perfect tool to use.

The next image in the series is my finished shot, with sharpening applied selectively. That pretty much concludes this tutorial. I did take this image one step further in the last image ~ by using the healing brush around the eyes. I did this on a duplicate layer and then used the opacity slider to fade the effect a bit.

All the best,

jim