S T E P 17: In the Layers panel, click
on the Leaves layer group folder,
and then click on the Add a Layer
Style icon (fx) at bottom of Layers
panel and choose Gradient Overlay.
Click on the Gradient thumbnail to
open the Gradient Editor; select the
Black, White preset in the Basics
set; and click OK to close the
Gradient Editor. Click on Reverse
so the gradient goes from white to
black. Change the Style to Radial,
set the Angle to 155°, and adjust
the Scale to the max 150%. Next,
change the Blend Mode to Linear
Burn and lower the Opacity to
around 90%. Once set, you can
click directly on the image and
manually reposition the gradient.
Simply place the hotspot of the
gradient over the focal point of your
image, which is the subject’s face
in this image. Click OK when done.
You can see how much of a dif-
ference that one layer style makes.
The image is so much more dramatic,
and since it’s a layer style, it’s a
nondestructive effect that can be
modified at any time.STEP 18: With the lighting set, let’s
add some depth of field using blurs.
Go into the leaves layer group and
click on the layer containing the
most extreme foreground elements.
In this case it’s the layer with the
three leaves.
You have several options to blur
the layers, but here we want these
leaves to have a sense of motion
also, so go under the Filter menu, to
Blur, and choose Motion Blur. Set the
Angle to –74° to get a more downward
motion and the Distance to around
25 Pixels. Click OK. Remember this
is a smart object layer, so the filter
will be applied as a smart filter, which
means you can go back and adjust
the settings nondestructively. PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS
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