Photoshop CS Bible [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Modifying and Saving Effects

After you apply a layer effect, Photoshop stamps the layer with a florin symbol (f), as shown in Figure 14-29. A triangular toggle switch lets you collapse the effects to permit more room for layers in the palette. From that point on, you can edit an effect by double-clicking its name in the Layers palette. Or double-click the florin symbol to display the Blending Options panel of the Layer Style dialog box.

Figure 14-29: The florin symbol indicates that one or more layer effects have been applied to the layer. Use the toggle to hide and show the list of effects.

Disabling effects

To temporarily disable all effects applied to a layer, choose Layer Layer Style Hide All Effects. Or better yet, just click the eyeball in front of the word "Effects" in the Layers palette. Click the eyeball spot again to show the effects. You can likewise hide and show individual effects — without permanently disabling them — by clicking eyeballs. Photoshop even goes so far as to save hidden effects. This makes it easy to bring an effect back to life later without re-entering settings.

To permanently delete an effect, drag it and drop it onto the trash icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. To delete all effects, drag the word "Effects" to the trash.

Duplicating effects

After you apply an effect to a layer, the effect becomes an element that you can copy and apply to other layers. Select the layer with the effects you want to duplicate and choose Layer Layer Style Copy Layer Style. Or right-click (Control-click on the Mac) the layer name in the Layers palette and choose Copy Layer Style from the shortcut menu. Then select another layer, right-click (Win) or Control-click (Mac) it, and choose Paste Layer Style. To paste a copied effect onto multiple layers at a time, link them together (as explained in the section "Linking layers" in Chapter 12) and choose the Paste Layer Style to Linked command.

Scattering effects to the four winds

When you apply an effect, Photoshop is actually doing all the manual layer work for you in the background. This means if Photoshop doesn't seem to be generating the precise effect you want, you can take over and edit the layers to your satisfaction. Choose Layer Layer Style Create Layers to resolve the automated effect into a series of layers and clipping masks. In some cases, a warning appears telling you that one or more attributes of an effect cannot be represented with layers. Go ahead and give it a try; you can always undo. If you like what you see, inspect it and edit at will.

Effects and blending options

If you like layer effects as much as I do — and by the way, I really, really like layer effects — there's no doubt you'll eventually find yourself experiencing a curious phenomenon. After you've gone and heaped on a bunch of different effects, particularly Color, Gradient, and Pattern Overlays, your layer may no longer respond to blend modes. For example, previous chapter.)

Figure 14-30: Here I applied the Overlay and Hard Light blend modes to the 7 and S layers, respectively, with the Blend Interior Effects as Group option turned off (left) and on (right).

Two layers, two blend modes . . . and yet nothing happens, as the left-hand image in Figure 14-30 illustrates. It looks like both layers are still set to Normal mode, with 100-percent Opacity. Why? Well, both layers contain opaque interior effects, Pattern Overlay being the primary culprit. But there's an easy workaround here: I just double-clicked each layer and turned on the Blend Interior Effects as Group check box in the Blending Options panel. As shown in the right-hand image in Figure 14-30, I'm now getting the interaction between layers that I was looking for. And by the way, such blending options can happily be saved along with styles, as I explain in the next section.

Color Plate 14-1 shows a similar scenario, with the added benefit of full color. Note that after piling on the layer effects in the first four examples, I threw in some blend modes and activated Blend Interior Effects as Group to arrive at the pixel-melding masterpiece shown at the bottom of the color plate. It's pretty amazing, I think, that you can start with a couple of plain old black and white layers and transform them into richly colored and sculpted objects using layer effects. Oh, yeah — just for the record — I really, really, really like layer effects.

Saving effects as styles

Photoshop lets you save layer effects and blending options for later use by creating layer styles, which show up as items in the Styles palette. There are three ways to create a style:

Click the New Style icon. When working in the Layer Style dialog box, click the New Style icon to display the options shown at the bottom of previous chapter.

Figure 14-31: Click in the Styles palette (top) to display the New Style dialog box (bottom).

Click in the Styles palette. Choose Window Styles to view the Styles palette. Then move your cursor inside the palette and click with the paint bucket, as in the top example in Figure 14-31. Photoshop shows you the New Style dialog box. Set the options as described previously.

Drag-and-drop a layer. Start with both the Layers and Styles palettes open. Now drag any layer, active or not, and drop it in the Styles palette. Again, Photoshop shows you the New Style dialog box.

After you press Enter or Return, Photoshop saves the style as a new preset. As with any preset, you can apply it to future images during future Photoshop sessions. Just click a style to apply it to the active layer, or drag the style and drop it on any layer name (active or not) in the Layers palette. And don't forget, Photoshop ships with scads of preset styles that you can explore at your leisure. Load a set of styles from the Styles palette menu, apply one to your favorite layer, and take a look at how it's put together in the Layer Style dialog box. It's a great way to get a feel for the amazing variety of effects that are possible in Photoshop.