In the Studio: Adding Depth
I’ve been asked how to do this many times.
I’m sure there are many ways to do this too.
But… I’m going to share with you my method for adding shadows over tape for a realistic look to your taped down elements.
I use Photoshop CS on a mac and will include possible workarounds for PSE!
It’s easy… really… you’ll see!
Step 1
Position your tapes over the element you’re like to tape down.
I’m using tapes from Attic Treasures [recolored to march]
over Slide Frames No4 [coming soon]
Step 2
Create a new layer above the tapes.
Make the element you are taping down [for me this is the slide frame] an active selection [command + click on the layer thumbnail in the layer palette]
Then fill with a color.
[It doesn’t matter what color you choose because opacity will be set to zero in next step ;)]
Step 3
Set the opacity of the layer to 0%
Go to Layer>Layer Style>Bevel Emboss
Here are the settings I used:
Now the trick is to have that bevel effect over the TAPE ONLY and not over the entire element. There’s a couple of ways you can do this depending on your application.
Option A
Put the style layer into a folder by grouping it.
While on the folder thumbnail, make the tapes an active selection
by command+clicking on each tape layer.
Go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection
This will confine the bevel effect to the tapes!
Option B
Rasterize the style layer.
Make the tapes an active selection by command+clicking on each tape layer.
Go to Select>Inverse
Go to Edit>Delete
This will confine the bevel effect to the tapes!
Simple as that!
I also used this technique on this page with tape over a paintbrush!
Hope it inspires you!
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