› › COLUMN> PHOTOSHOP USER>^ APRIL 2020[ 104 ]
If you have a Photoshop question that you’d like Dave Cross
to answer in the pages of Photoshop User magazine, send it
to [email protected].Light. This is like having a “master” light source so that
any new instance of these layer styles will have the same
angle of light. When you move one shadow, the shadow
on the other layer also moves because it’s being affected
by that “master” light angle. If you want to be able to
control the shadow angles independently on each layer,
uncheck Use Global Light and you’ll be able to control
the angle of light on each layer on a layer-by-layer basis.Q: I have some flames on a black background
that I want to blend into another photo.
Changing the blend mode to Screen worked
okay, but the flames weren’t vibrant. What
other options do I have?
A: One potential solution is the Blend If sliders. In the Lay-
ers panel, double-click to the right of the flame layer’s
name and you’ll bring up the Layer Style dialog, display-
ing the Blending Options. At the bottom, you’ll see the
Blend If sliders. Drag the left-hand This Layer slider to the
right just a bit and you should see the black disappear.
It usually helps to hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key
and click on the slider to split it into two halves—this
helps create a smoother transition between the pixels
that are transparent and those that remain opaque.
This function is considered a layer style, so you can
continue to edit the settings by double-clicking on
the symbol that appears beside the layer name. Also,
as shown in this example, you can always add a layer
mask to help edit the effect. nFlames: ©Adobe Stock/Lyudmila Polichenko