Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature

Designing with Layer Styles

YOU CAN CREATE SOME REALLY EYE-CATCHING DESIGNS WITH A FEW SIMPLE LAYER STYLES

The beauty of layer styles is their simplicity. They’re easy to add, easy to save, and easy to change (if you ever need to). Plus, they’re built right into Photoshop. Effects that used to be a total pain in the neck to add to an image are now just a click away. Drop shadows, strokes, glows, bevels...the whole nine yards. I’m tellin’ ya, if you haven’t messed around with layer styles for design purposes yet, then you owe it to yourself to read this tutorial, and the rest of the chapter.

Step 1: Open a Photo to Apply an Effect to

Open a photo to apply a layer style design effect to. I’ve found they work great on people and sports photos. ...