Layer Styles

[Nitewalker]

what are they?
how do I use them?
what are they good for?
are they even worth downloading?

[bblacj]

layers styles i cant believe you dont know what they are Wow you can add drop shadows and inner glows to the layer if you use them they add some grreat effects to a layer I seen some of your work and i would of figured you used them already

[tamlin]

Kind of difficult to answer this in a single post - there's so much you can do with layer styles - but this will give you some idea: Photoshop Layer Styles

As to whether they're worth downloading: well, any style that you can download you could (theoretically) make yourself, but sometimes it's just a lot quicker and easier to grab a pre-made style than to spend hours tweaking settings yourself - after all, it may be very satisfying to make your own pizza from scratch but if you're really hungry you just want to call Domino's.




[PS: Tamlin is not affiliated with Domino's Pizza. Other pizza outlets are available...]

[unleash]

And now we are talking about affiliated, you could also search Google....,

right tamlin

Anyways, layerstyles.....
it depends on what you do with photoshop, if you manipulate photographs I don't think you will need them much. But If you make logo's, websites or other art from scratch...they can be very helpfull.

You can make layerstyles yourself by right-clicking on a layer and select layer style.....there you can tweak al kind of settings to make the layer more realistic, or not depends on your choice. You can add things like inner-/ outer- glow, shadow....

Layerstyles can also be downloaded, in that case someone else has tweaked and changed teh settings until he got something he/ she liked. If you download such a thing and add it to a layer, you can tweak the settings in the menu from above....

Hope this helps a bit, and I think you should check out that site of tamlins they are most of the time very helpfull!!

[Nitewalker]

thanks guys. That site really helped tamlin. but actually, I went ahead and downloaded a couple yesterday at work and played around last night with them. I guess they might be helpful but right now im trying to start focusing on photo retouches so they arent of much use to me. But for graphic design they could come in handy. I did find that the otherworldly Metals pack is pretty cool for doing alien or gothic eye effects, but thats it. Thanks again and hey tamlin... do you work for Pizza Hut?

[tamlin]

Yeah - Layer Styles aren't usually used much in photo retouching, although there is a group of predefined layer styles called Photographic Effects that come with Photoshop. These are mainly colour overlays that allow you to do stuff like one-click photo colour toning. Check them out - you might be able to find a use for them in your photo retouching work.


And no - I don't work for Pizza Hut either!