APE Helpers- Keeping You From Going Bannanas From Photoshop Elements

Blending The Planet

Overview: The Layer Styles in the Styles and Effects toolbox gives you more ways to alter an image. Like filters, these range from the subtle to the drastic. We can use one of these options to give a shadow to our moon.

1. Open the file you saved at the end of the last tutorial. If you did not save the file, click here and save the file to your "My Documents" folder. Now, open Planet2.psd in A.P.E.

2. In the Styles and Effects palette, click Layer Styles. In Layer Styles, you will be defaulted to Bevels.

3. We don’t need Bevels right now, since they give an image a stamped effect. Instead, click on the Bevels dropdown menu. Here, you can choose other Layer Styles to apply. Choose Inner Shadows.

4. Inner Shadows, like the name implies, let’s you apply a shadow that faces the inside of an image, instead of casting a shadow. This is useful to us because we can use it to create a “dark side” of the Planet of the A.P.E.’s, where it will be night. Click High. This gives a nice shadow effect across the left rim of the planet.

5. Save the image as Planet3.psd in your "My Documents" folder. We'll use this file in the next tutorial.

Congratulations! With layer styles, you can apply a wide variety of new effects to your images. Try them out and find what you like; the drop shadows are a great touch on text effects. In the next tutorial, we'll be using styles, like the bevel.

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