Layer Styles in Photoshop

Layer Styles in Photoshop

Layer Styles are the effects and options you apply to a particular layer. This tutorial discusses the concept of Layer Styles and how to utilize them in your Photoshop documents.

Effects can be added to individual layers in Photoshop that automatically change as a layer is modified. The combination of effects on any given layer is called its Layer Style. We’ll teach you how to use and make your own layer styles in this tutorial.

What are Layer Styles?

Layer styles are special effects that can be quickly and easily applied to individual layers in Photoshop to drastically change the appearance of something in very little time. They can be preset, customized, or even saved and used for later.

One of the useful properties of Layer Styles are there relationship to the layer contents. Since the style is actually a separate entity that is just linked to the layer, it will continually update itself as a layers contents are edited or moved. Furthermore, the effects can easily be adjusted after applying them, making them non-destructive in nature.

Some shapes and text with and without layer styles applied.

Using Layer Style Presets

Photoshop comes packed with a good number of Layer Style Presets, all which are accessible through the Styles Palette (Window > Styles). To apply a Layer Style, select the Layer you’d like to work with in your document from the Layers Palette, and then select the Layer Style which you would like to apply.

A Text Layer Before and After a Layer Style Preset is applied to it.

After applying a Layer Style, the effects in the layer can be seen, adjusted, disabled or re enabled from the Layers Palette. Layers with effects applied to them will have a small round icon with an ‘f‘ in it. To expand or collapse the effects applied to a layer, click the arrow to the right of this icon.

When a layers effects have been expanded, you can quickly disable specific effects within the layer style by clicking the eye icon next to the effect. Just like a layer, these effects can become visible again by clicking the blank area (where the eye would reside) when an effect is disabled.

Making Quick Changes

You can make quick changes to a layers style by double clicking the ‘f‘ icon to pull up the Layer Style Options. From here, you can completely customize your layers style.

Creating your own Effects and Styles

To add your own layer effects, and create your own styles, go to Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options, or Right Click your Layer, and select Blending Options. This will bring up the Layer Style Options.

A. Style Presets – List of the Style Presets.

B. Effects – The various effects that can be used in a layer style. It’s important to note that by clicking on the name of any of the effects will enable that effect, and display the options for the individual effect.

C. Options / Settings – When the name for an effect is checked, it’s options will be shown here. When Blending Options is selected, settings such as Opacity, Fill, and other advanced options will be displayed.

D. Layer Style Preview – A preview of the Layer Style.

Effects (B) can be enabled by checking them, and likewise, disabled by unchecking them. To edit an effect, you need to click the name (rather than checkbox). The effects settings will be displayed in the Options area (C), where they can be easily adjusted. To apply a set of effects and options, simply press OK.

Layer Effects

Styles can be built with the following effects:

Drop Shadow – Creates a shadow behind the layers contents.

Inner Shadow – Creates a shadow on top of the layers contents.

Outer Glow - Creates a glow behind the layers contents. Cannot be distanced like the drop shadow.

Inner Glow – Creates a glow on top of the layers contents. Again, cannot be distanced like the inner shadow.

Bevel and Emboss - Used to create unique highlight and shadow effects on a layers contents.

Satin - Gives the layer contents a satin-like, glossy appearance.

Color Overlay - Fills the layer contents with a solid color.

Gradient Overlay - Fills the layer contents with a gradient.

Pattern Overlay - Fills the layer contents with a pattern.

Stroke - Creates an outline on layer contents using a solid color, gradient, or pattern.

Give it a Try!

Let’s try it out to make sure we've got a clear understanding of all this. We’re going to test our abilities by creating a basic layer style for some text. Go ahead and create a new document in Photoshop, and use the Type Tool to add some large, black text.

Right Click the text layer, and Select Blending Options.

First we’re going to add a Drop Shadow. Check the Drop Shadow Effect, and click on it to bring up it’s options. Set things up as shown in the diagram below:

As you’re making adjustments, you should be able to see changes being made in your actual document. Keeping an eye on your document while adding effects will allow you to better determine how to adjust settings.

You should be familiar with most of these sliders and types of settings from our Palettes Tutorial you may have read. The Angle setting may be a new one to you, but it’s very simple to work. You can either enter in a numeric value, or adjust the angle with your mouse by clicking on the wheel. Doing so will change the angle of your shadow.

Now let’s add a Bevel and Emboss. We’re going to create a bevel that is subtle, so that it doesn’t draw too much attention, but at the same time pops our text a bit. Again, mimic the settings shown in the diagram shown below.

Nothing really new here. You may want to experiment as I suggested earlier to have a better understanding of the different settings here, but most of them are pretty self-explanatory.

Now let’s add a Gradient Overlay.

By default, the Gradient Overlay will probably use a Foreground to Background gradient, which is not exactly what we are looking for (unless we’ve setup the Foreground and Background Colors in Photoshop specifically for this step). That’s OK though, because we can easily adjust the gradient from here.

Click on the gradient shown in the Gradient Picker (Black fading to White in the above diagram). This will bring up the Gradient Editor. From the Gradient Editor, you may choose a gradient preset, or create a new custom gradient of your own. Towards the bottom of the editor is the current gradient, with Opacity Stops (Determine how opaque the gradient is at a specific point) and Color Stops (Determine what colors are used in the Gradient). We can add, delete, and modify stops by clicking anywhere above or below the gradient, or by clicking on the stops themselves.

We only want to modify the current color stops. Double Click the first color stop, and apply the color #50a2e7, and then apply the color #75cefc to the right most stop. Click OK to Apply the Gradient.

Click OK to apply the layer style you've created.

Congratulations! You’re now skilled in the art of layer effects and styles!

Photoshop’s Painting Tools

Photoshop’s Painting Tools

Photoshop’s Painting tools allow you to draw and fill in objects with colors and color gradients. This tutorial showcases Photoshop’s painting capabilities.

In Photoshop, the painting tools are used to paint strokes, and fill areas with color or with colors that blend together. Knowing how to use the paint tools is a must for any artist who wishes to use Photoshop.

The Brush Tool
In order to use the brush tool to its full extent, it’s important to understand what exactly a brush is in Adobe Photoshop. A brush uses brush presets that are predefined (or user defined). A brush preset is any brush tip with defined characteristics (such as size and shape).

Think of brushes in Photoshop as a large collection of different paintbrushes, each with a different shaped tip. Imagine when you press the tip of one of these paintbrushes against a canvas, the shape of the tip is imprinted immediately. It’s a rough explanation, but it gets the basic idea across.

Brushes in Photoshop have plenty of other characteristics which make them entirely unlike a real world paint brush. By manipulating these attributes, we can create entirely new brushes that act in unique ways. You could create a brush that changes in shape and size as you are painting, a brush that scatters itself in random directions, and even a brush that becomes more and less transparent while creating strokes. The possibilities are literally endless.

Let’s Create a Quick Brush for demonstration purposes.

Create a new document, 200px by 200px with a white background. Select the Brush tool, and in the options bar select the first brush preset from the brush preset picker (activated by clicking on the small down arrow next to the current brush).

Go ahead and give this brush preset a whirl in your active image area. Select a foreground color you’d like to paint with, point your cursor to where you’d like to start painting, hold down the mouse button, and create a stroke.

Modifying Brushes

This brush preset creates a 1px hard stroke. We can modify some of the characteristics of this brush to create something entirely different.

To modify a brush preset, you’re going to need to access the Brush Palette. To open the brush palette, go to Window > Brushes. Here’s a quick overview of the palette.

A. Brush Settings – Various settings for the selected brush tip.
B. Brush Stroke Preview – A preview of the current brush stroke will look when used.

C. Selected Brush Tip – The currently selected brush tip.

D. Brush Tip Shapes – A list of all brush tip shapes available.

E. Brush Options – Options for modifying the currently selected brush tip. Changes will not be permanent unless a new brush preset is saved.

From the Brush Tip Shape settings, a user can select a brush tip shape from a list of available shapes (predefined or user defined).

By clicking any of the various brush settings on the left, a panel of options will be displayed that can adjusted to your own preference.

In the Brush Tip Shape area, set the diameter of your brush to 20px. By changing the diameter, you affect the size of the brush.

Now go to Shape Dynamics and set the size jitter option to 100%. By changing shape dynamics, you’re adjusting how a brush mark changes during a stroke.

Finally, go to Scattering, and set scatter to 300% with a count of 1. Scattering will affect placement and number of brush marks.

Try painting with your brush now, and you ought to see a huge difference from when you first started! Modifying brushes is really that simple!

If you’re interested in learning more about brushes, then i'll upload my tutorial on it.

Eraser Tool

We’re not going to go into too much detail with the eraser tool, simply because you should already have a pretty good understanding of how it works. How so?

Well, like many other tools in Photoshop, the Eraser Tool uses brushes which effect the size, shape, and hardness of the tool. Essentially, the eraser tool is controlled in the exact same way as the brush tool, only it erases rather than paints.

Watch Out! If you’re erasing directly on the “Background” layer, you’ll leave the currently selected background color wherever you erase. Always be sure to set your background color before erasing from the Background layer.

Paint Bucket Tool

The Paint Bucket Tool is used for filling areas with solid colors. It can be used to fill selections with a selected foreground color, or fill areas that are similar in color to the part of an image that is clicked. To use the paint bucket tool, select a foreground color you’d like to paint with, and click anywhere in the active image area you’d like to fill.

Gradient Tool

The Gradient Tool is very similar to the paint bucket tool, in that it fills entire areas or selections with colors. However, rather than filling an area with a solid color, the Gradient Tool creates a series of colors than blend into one another.

When the gradient tool is selected, a preset gradient can be selected from the gradient picker in the options bar. A gradient can then be created in the active image area by clicking and holding the mouse button, and dragging in the direction you’d like the gradient to go. Release where you’d like the gradient to stop.

There are 5 different gradient styles which can be selected to create different effects. You can set them from the Options Bar.