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Achieve quick print art results using Photoshop blending mode in layers. This can be used in your scrapbooks or just printed out for a an artistic print result. To get the result here follow these very simple steps. It should not take you more than 10 minutes if you are familiar with Photoshop.
- Cut out around a photo and ctrl+J to copy the selection into a new layer.
- Hide or delete the original layer.
- Duplicate the new layer twice to stack up over the new layer.
- On the first copy of the layer which is directly over the bottom layer, invert colours using ctrl+I and change the blending mode to colour.
- On the second copy that now sits on the top of the stack, change the lending mode to hard light.
- Use a transparent gradient colour to jazz the result up if you want.
Drop Shadow is one of the many features available in a Layer Style Panel. To access and have fun with this feature
- Double click on the selected layer to get to the Layer Style window
- On the left hand side of the window you see the Styles, Blending Options.
- The first one on top is Drop Shadow. Tick it to get the default shadow.
- To get the Drop Shadow Panel, highlight it by clicking on the Drop Shadow text.
- In Structure panel, you get the choice of Blending Mode, Opacity and to change the Colour of the Shadow.
- To change the Angle and Distance, just put your mouse over the shadow and control is completely yours. No need to fiddle with Angle and Distance in the Structure panel.
- Size and Spread will do what exactly they say they do, they resize and spread the shadow.
- In the Quality panel you can either select a pre-defined quality by clicking on the arrow next to Contour, or double click on any Contour to open the Contour Editor.
- Dragging the Noise to the right in the Quality Panel, will increase the noise of the shadow.
Play and have fun with the Drop Shadow.
Understanding Photoshop Layers and how to use them to create what we want is an essential part of enjoying our graphical design experience and in my case having lots of fun with Photoshop.
This short help explains the use of Grouping layers and how to achieve it.
On the layers tab, you may have tens of layers stacking on top of each other. Sometimes some of these layers are relevant together and achieve a certain result for you. Once you decided these layers, you may want to file them away in a folder like manner. Grouping gives you this exact ability.
To create a new group and adding layers to it
- Multi-select all the layers you want to group together by holding the control key (Windows) down and clicking on the desired layers
- Drag the selected layers in to the folder icon on the button of the layers palette.
Group layers names are automatically created and default to Group 1, Group 2, etc. To rename a layer group, right click on the group name and go to Group Properties.
You can also create sun-groups for existing layer groups in the same manner and in this way you organise your groups into smaller groups if required.