Photoshop Tutorials: Layer Blending Combinations

I got some free Premium Tutorials from the excellent PSD Tuts website.

Here’s my result from following this tutorial to make  a “hero unit” (a key image for a blog post, website header or advertisement).

I used some of my own photos from my Baja portfolio to create the background image. (The text is completely arbitrary, unless you can find something in it.)

Here are some interesting things covered in this tutorial:

-Layer>Layer Style>Global Light… will set a universal lighting angle for all layer blending modes

-CS6 offers Smart Filters that apply (non-destructively) to Smart Objects (my CS2 doesn’t have that)

-subtle combinations of blending modes like having both Colour Overlay and Gradient Overlay applied at low opacities

-blocking some applied layer effects with a layer mask

-using vector masks for non-destructive shape-making

-using Layer Mask Hides Effects

-using a black-white Gradient Overlay set to Linear Burn on a colour-filled layer instead of a coloured gradient (the base colour can be changed any time while maintaining the gradient effect)

-a Stroke with Opacity set to 0% will knock out the other added Layer Effects, including Shape colour