- Select and show the Moon layer. Click the
Moon layer and turn on its. The moon
hovers bright and enormous over the ho-
rizon, as pictured in Figure 5-52. How
did it get so big? Because it’s actually the
dread Dinosaur Planet in disguise! (Don’t
be frightened; this is just an exercise.) - Set the blend mode to Screen. Assuming
a selection tool is active, you can press
Shift+Alt+S (or Shift-Option-S). As I men-
tioned, Screen drops out the blacks and
preserves the light colors. In this case, how-
ever, it adds brightness all over the place,
even in the black areas (see Figure 5-53).
PeaRl Of WISDOm
Well, not quite. Admittedly, the area behind the moon
is quite dark, but it isn’t altogether black. And unless
it’s absolutely pitch black, Screen makes it brighter.
That means you’ll have to drop out the dark colors
manually using luminance blending.- Double-click the Moon thumbnail in the
Layers panel. Or right-click the Moon
layer and choose Blending Options. Ei-
ther way, Photoshop greets you with the
Blending Options panel of the Layer Style
dialog box, which contains a vast array of
parametric effect options. - Drag the black This Layer slider triangle.
Confirm that the Preview check box is turned
on. Then turn your attention to the two
slider bars near the bottom of the dialog box:- The first slider bar, This Layer, lets you
drop out the darkest or lightest colors
in the active layer. - The second slider, Underlying Layer,
causes the darkest or lightest colors
from the composite view of all lay-
ers below to shine through the active
layer. (The option name should really
be plural, but I’m nitpicking.)
- The first slider bar, This Layer, lets you
Figure 5-52.
Figure 5-53.
162 Lesson 5: Working with Layers