Yes you are a new user. Photoshop is a very powerful application. It is complex and has many feature. It a very useful development tool. Image Processing use many advance methods to manipulate images, Processing is not intuitive it took many years for mathematician and researchers to develop methods and algorithms to filter and process images. You need to learn the basic of Image processing and Digital Images file format capabilities. You need to educate yourself you must learn how things work. Layers and layer type, masking, filtering, adjustment, blending, tools and many other things. There is a huge learning curve when it come to Photoshop. Once you learn the basics learning Photoshop will be easer and you will learn things in a shorter period of time. All things are not intuitive. There are many Tutorials some are video tutorial you can access through Photoshop home workspace. New users like yourself need to use these first thing. Starting off trying to skip the basics like your trying to do will just slow your learning Photoshop down. You can not use Photoshop if you do not understand and know how thing work. Start by learning the basics. Take an online course play with Photoshop. Learn the Basics first.... Do not continue this thread.
You need too learn the basic you need to understand Photoshop terminology.