What do layer styles do in photoshop

So before you begin customizing an effect, it's usually a good idea to restore the default settings by clicking the Reset to Default button:. Then you can adjust the settings for the effect to create the look you need. Each layer effect has its own settings unique to that specific effect. So for example, with the Drop Shadow, you can drag the Opacity slider to adjust the shadow's intensity. You can change the Blend Mode of the effect although Multiply usually works best for shadows.

And you can click on the color swatch to choose a different color for the shadow. Black is the default shadow color, but sometimes a different color works better:. The Angle option lets you adjust the direction of the light source, and the shadow will appear in the opposite direction. So if the light is coming from the upper left, the shadow will appear in the lower right.

You can change the angle by clicking and dragging inside the radial dial or by entering a specific value:. The Use Global Light option allows all of the layer effects that require a light source to share the same light source, so that the lighting will appear uniform throughout the overall effect. In most cases, you'll want to leave Use Global Light turned on, which it is by default:. The Distance value controls how far out the shadow extends from the layer's contents.

For example, when applying a drop shadow to a type layer, Distance controls how far out the shadow extends from the letters.

And the Size value controls the overall size of the shadow. And increasing the Spread value fills in the shadow and makes it more opaque:. If you're happy with the settings and this is the only layer effect you need to apply, click OK to accept your settings and close the Layer Style dialog box:.

Create editable blurred text with Drop Shadows! And in the Layers panel, Drop Shadow is now listed as an effect below the layer. To edit a layer effect, double-click on the effect's name:. Photoshop reopens the Layer Style dialog box to the effect's current settings so you can make any changes you need.

Layer effects are entirely non-destructive, so you won't lose image quality no matter how many changes you make. We know that we can add layer effects by clicking the fx icon in the Layers panel. But if the Layer Style dialog box is open, you can add more effects by selecting them from the column along the left:. If some of your layer effects are missing from the list, click the fx button in the bottom left of the dialog box:.

As I mentioned earlier, Photoshop's layer effects can be grouped into three main categories. And we have Stroke , which adds an outline or border around the layer's contents:. Notice the order in which the layer effects are listed. In the most recent versions of Photoshop, layer effects are now listed in the order in which they are applied, from bottom to top.

So a Drop Shadow is always applied first, and then an Outer Glow would be applied above it. Also, Drop Shadow and Outer Glow are the only two layer effects that appear below the layer's contents.

Every other effect appears above the contents. Knowing the stacking order of layer effects may seem trivial, but it can help you understand why your effects are not giving you the results you expected:. In the Stroke settings, I'll once again start by clicking the Reset to Default button to restore the default values:. The Position option lets you align the stroke to either the Inside or Outside edge of the layer's contents.

Or you can Center the stroke along the edge. I'll choose Outside. And the Size option is where we set the width or thickness of the stroke. I'll increase the size to 20px :. Again, I'll leave the Layer Style dialog box open. And here's the effect with the orange stroke and the drop shadow applied to the top text:. How to create Gold Text with layer effects! Along with selecting and editing effects, the Layer Style dialog box also gives us access to the layer's blending options.

Click the Blending Options category above the effects in the left column:. From here, we can access the same Blend Mode , Opacity and Fill settings that are found in the Layers panel. We also have some Advanced Blending options which we'll look at in other tutorials:. A great trick that we can do with blending options is that we can hide the actual contents of a layer and view only the layer effects themselves. You can do this either in the Layer Style dialog box or in the Layers panel.

This time, the text itself disappears but the layer effects remain visible, allowing us to see through the letters to the blue background image behind them. So the Opacity value affects the transparency of both the layer's contents and any layer effects, and the Fill value affects the transparency of just the layer's contents. Check out my Layer Opacity vs Fill tutorial to learn more:. Blend text into clouds with Photoshop's Advanced Blending options!

And in the Layers panel, we see the Stroke and the Drop Shadow listed as effects below the layer. Along with new layer styles, Photoshop CC also includes new gradients and patterns, both of which can be applied as layer effects. But to access all of the gradients and patterns, we first need to visit the Gradients and Patterns panels , which are also new in CC First, switch over to the Patterns panel.

You'll find it nested in with the Color and Swatches panels. Photoshop closes the Layer Style dialog box and adds a couple of things to the Layers panel: a category named Effects and, beneath it, an item named Drop Shadow. To edit the style later on, double-click it in the Layers panel. You can add as many different styles to a layer as you want, all from the Layer Style dialog box. When it comes to drop shadows, the classiest ones are rarely black—instead, they pick up a darker color from the image.

Just click the color swatch labeled here, and Photoshop summons the Color Picker page To snatch a color that already lives in the image, mouse over the image and, when your cursor turns into an eyedropper, click once; your shadow takes on that color.

Once you get the drop shadow just right, click the Make Default button labeled. The next time you need to add a drop shadow, Photoshop will use those same settings.

To copy a style from one layer to another , head over to the Layers panel and Option-drag Alt-drag on a PC the style to the new layer.

Your cursor turns into a double black-and-white arrowhead when you drag, and you see a big, ghosted fx. I have a mask on my layer and Photoshop is showing the styles through the darn mask!

How do I hide those pesky styles? Ah, you seek the elusive style cloak. To summon it, you must boil the stalk of a West Texas tumbleweed, season it with eye of toad, and drink it from the shell of an armadillo three days dead…. Just kidding. Note: the Layer Style must be applied to a layer, not the Background, to turn the background into a layer, double click the word Background. In the example below I want to blend the clouds from the first image into the sky of the second rocky image.

In the Layer Styles dialog, under Blending Options, I moved the black slider for the Underlying Layer to the right to hide the dark foreground values of the cloud image. The values to the left of the split triangle will be completely transparent the values between the split triangle will transition from transparent to opaque, and the values to the right of the second split triangle will be fully opaque.

To bring back the solid rocks in the foreground, I made a copy of the rock layer and moved it above the new sky the clouds layer in the Layers panel. Then, I added a layer mask and painted with black to hide the drab sky and reveal the clouds below, while keeping the rocks solid. However, the Blend if sliders can be tremendously useful when masking detailed objects such as a tree against a sky.

In fact, you can even change the Blend If options to blend individual color channels. In the previous section, we have discussed the Layers in Photoshop. We can style our layers and apply several effects to make our work attractive.

We can apply different types of the effects such as shadows, glows, and bevels that will completely change the appearance of the image's content in a non-destructive way.

Non-destructive means it will not affect the original image content. The layer effects will be linked with the layer content. When we edit or move the layer's content, the same applied effect will be work on the modified content.

For example, if we add a drop shadow to the text and then add new text or edit the text, the shadow will be automatically applied to the updated content.

A layer style is one or more than one effect applied to a layer or layer group. Photoshop also provides some preset styles, or we can create a customized style using the layer style option. The layer effects icon Fx is available at the right of the layer name in the panel.

We can expand the layer style by clicking on it and can view or edit it by applying or removing effects. We can apply several effects on a single-layer style. We can click on the layer style icon fx given right on the layer.

It will show and hide the layer style. When we save a custom style, it will be saved in preset styles and displayed in the Style panel. We can apply this style to a layer or layer group with just a single click.

Applying a layer effect is a straightforward process. Follow the below steps to apply a layer effect:. To apply a layer style, we need a document having layers. If you open an image, you can add different layers such as text, images, styles, etc. When we select a new tool and start drawing something on our image, it will automatically start drawing in a new layer.

Now add effects to the created layer. We can choose any of them. We can also apply effects by clicking on the layer style icon available at the layer. In case it is not displayed, open it by double-clicking in the layer Just next to layer name. Don't double click on the layer name; it will open the renaming the layer option. It will open the style options as follows:.

We can also apply the effects from the above window. Both the ways of applying effects are the same. They will give the same result. Hence we can apply any of the available effects to our layer's content. In the above image, we have applied different effects such as Drop Shadow, Inner Glow, Color Overlay to our text layer.

Similarly, we can add style to any layer. Just like layers, we can display or hide layer effects and styles too.