Now that you’ve been introduced to the tools for working with gradients in Photoshop, let’s take a look at how you can use them along with layer masks to combine image layers for a four-color print graphic. This example shows how I used layer masks and gradients to blend image layers into a city nightlife montage to be used in a four-color travel guide or brochure.
1. I opened my background image a night shot of Times Square in New York City.
2. I opened a second image, and imported it via dragand-drop with the Move tool. After it is imported, the image appears on its own layer above the Background layer (or base layer). I proceeded to use the Move tool to position the dancing couple on the left side of the image window. Finally, I renamed the layer dancers. The two images in this particular example happened to be of the same resolution and of a similar size, but in many cases combining images this way may require that you resize one of the images. When resizing is necessary, remember that images can only be scaled down and not scaled up, or else resolution will be lost.
3. I added a layer mask to the imported image layer by clicking the Layer Mask button at the bottom of the Layers palette.
4. On my keyboard, I pressed the letter G to access the Gradient tool. In the Options palette, I selected the Foreground To Background preset from the Gradient Picker. I pressed D to reset the application default colors to white foreground and black background and then pressed X to reverse them, making black the foreground and white the background. I then went to the document window and drew a line from about an inch above the bottom-right corner of the image window to just above the wine glass that the dancing woman is holding in the photo.
5. The transparent gradient is immediately applied to the layer mask, which creates the see-through effect to the New York City image layer below.
6. To take it one step further, I changed the blend mode of the dancers layer to Lighter Color in order to create more of an advanced blending effect. This allowed the city lights in the layer underneath to poke through the image of the dancing couple.
1. I opened my background image a night shot of Times Square in New York City.
2. I opened a second image, and imported it via dragand-drop with the Move tool. After it is imported, the image appears on its own layer above the Background layer (or base layer). I proceeded to use the Move tool to position the dancing couple on the left side of the image window. Finally, I renamed the layer dancers. The two images in this particular example happened to be of the same resolution and of a similar size, but in many cases combining images this way may require that you resize one of the images. When resizing is necessary, remember that images can only be scaled down and not scaled up, or else resolution will be lost.
3. I added a layer mask to the imported image layer by clicking the Layer Mask button at the bottom of the Layers palette.
4. On my keyboard, I pressed the letter G to access the Gradient tool. In the Options palette, I selected the Foreground To Background preset from the Gradient Picker. I pressed D to reset the application default colors to white foreground and black background and then pressed X to reverse them, making black the foreground and white the background. I then went to the document window and drew a line from about an inch above the bottom-right corner of the image window to just above the wine glass that the dancing woman is holding in the photo.
5. The transparent gradient is immediately applied to the layer mask, which creates the see-through effect to the New York City image layer below.
6. To take it one step further, I changed the blend mode of the dancers layer to Lighter Color in order to create more of an advanced blending effect. This allowed the city lights in the layer underneath to poke through the image of the dancing couple.
Gradient Blending with Layer Masks
![Gradient Blending with Layer Masks]()
Reviewed by Pepen2710
on
9:49:00 PM
Rating:
No comments:
Post a Comment