{"id":53685,"date":"2024-07-09T14:34:36","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T21:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/?p=53685"},"modified":"2024-07-16T18:42:50","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T01:42:50","slug":"tutorial-tuesday-photoshop-elements-235","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/2024\/07\/tutorial-tuesday-photoshop-elements-235\/","title":{"rendered":"Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Creating and Shadowing Transparent Elements<\/strong><\/p>\n

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PDF Version : https:\/\/bit.ly\/4cJAs3t<\/a><\/p>\n

Let me tell you a secret. I really don’t like hexagons. Like REALLY. Possibly because of my husband’s obsession with board wargames, which are played on a hex-grid map, are horrendously expensive, eat up huge chunks of storage space in our house and enormous chunks of his time and attention. Maybe. But all that being said, I decided I would take a run at this month’s Surprise Challenge<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/span>, hosted by Magical Scraps Galore<\/strong><\/span>, which requires the use of hexagons. They had to be there, but they didn’t have to be the focal point, right? So I decided I’d use a glass honeycomb created from a paper mat I found in the GingerBread Ladies<\/strong>‘ collab Everyday<\/span><\/span> Happiness<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>[Yes, I got the kit’s name wrong on the screenshot. Oy!]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Zoomed in, it’s easy to see it’s actually paper.<\/p>\n

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These next few steps turned out to be unnecessary. Feel free to jump 3 steps ahead! There is a purpose for applying Styles<\/strong> in this way, as in when you want to add a Glass<\/strong>, Acrylic<\/strong> or Epoxy Style<\/strong> but preserve the colour or other detail of your original layer. Anyhoo… this is the process I used for this technique, so it stays in. I made a Copy Layer<\/strong>: right-click>Duplicate Layer…<\/strong> OR<\/span> CTRL\/CMD>J<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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If you opted for the right-click<\/strong> route, this Option Box<\/strong> pops up. Just click Ok<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Then I turned off the Visibility<\/strong> for the original layer.<\/p>\n

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How many of you out there aren’t aware of how to add and find commercial Styles<\/strong> (and Brushes<\/strong>) to your electronic devices? Do we need a tut on it?<\/p>\n

To access the Styles<\/strong> you have installed on your device, click on the Styles button<\/strong> at the bottom of the Layers Panel<\/strong>. It opens the Styles menu<\/strong>. Scroll through until you find the Style set<\/strong> you want to use. I’m using Glass Styles<\/strong><\/span> from Karen Schulz<\/strong><\/span>. Click HERE<\/strong><\/a><\/span> to see them in the store.<\/p>\n

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I wish I could still show you the labels that show when you hover the cursor over these. I chose the “glass-11<\/strong>” version, one that has a fairly shallow Bevel<\/strong> and no shadow. This is an important factor. An integrated Drop Shadow<\/strong> will cause the transparent parts to turn gray everywhere – see the thumbnails in the Styles<\/strong> menu in the screenshot – and I don’t want that!<\/p>\n

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There! The honeycomb is transparent and has a slight weight to it. Against the transparent background, it’s hard to see, but not for long.<\/p>\n

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Even transparent objects will cast a shadow, so I’m going to add one to my glass mat using my usual custom shadow technique. Some of you will already have tried it and know how it works, so I won’t be offended if you scroll on by. I start by adding a new blank layer UNDERNEATH the Glass Layer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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The blank layer is highlighted as being the active layer. That’s what you want. Now, CTRL\/CMD>click<\/strong> on the Glass<\/strong> mat’s Layer Thumbnail<\/strong>. That will Select<\/strong> the edges of the mat, but won’t change the active layer. You can see the marching ants in the screenshot, which helps make the glass visible too.<\/p>\n

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With your Foreground Color<\/strong> set to black<\/strong><\/span> (hex code 000000) use the Paint Bucket <\/strong>(keyboard shortcut CTRL\/CMD>K<\/strong>) to Fill<\/strong> the Selection<\/strong>. It’s ugly but not permanently so.<\/p>\n

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To get rid of the marching ants, you can click Select>Deselect<\/strong> or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL\/CMD>D<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Now I’ve decided that my light source is in the upper left of the image, so I’ve used the arrow keys to Nudge<\/strong> the Shadow Layer<\/strong> down and to the right a bit. Keep in mind how much your object is raised off the page when determining how much to move your Shadow Layer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Next, to soften up the edges of the Shadow<\/strong>. Click Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur…<\/strong><\/p>\n

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In this screenshot, you can see the glass much more easily. I moved the slider to the right until I liked the effect – it shows up on the canvas in real time. The Radius<\/strong> is 5.6 Pixels<\/strong>. Of course, it’s much too dark, but the finished product won’t be.<\/p>\n

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I next changed the Blend Mode<\/strong> to Linear Burn<\/strong>. This is to allow the colour of whatever goes underneath this mat to show through. If I left it set to Normal<\/strong>, it’ would show as black\/gray against the paper.<\/p>\n

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Then I dropped the Opacity<\/strong> to 40%<\/strong>. Make sure to keep these steps in order: change Blend mode first, then the Opacity<\/strong>, otherwise it’ll mess up your hot keys. I think it looks about right. Sort of. If this was a solid object, it would be done.<\/p>\n

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But it’s GLASS. So I reSelect<\/strong>ed the edges of the Glass Layer<\/strong> (ignore the active layer in the screenshot because it’s going to change). CTRL\/CMD>click<\/strong> on the Glass Layer thumbnail<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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With the SHADOW<\/span> Layer<\/strong> active, click Edit>Cut<\/strong> OR<\/span> CTRL\/CMD>X<\/strong>. That will remove the Shadow<\/strong> lying underneath the Glass<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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There! You can see the Shadow<\/strong>, the Glass<\/strong> is easily seen and it looks realistic. This Shadow technique<\/strong> will work nicely for acrylic, epoxy and vellum too.<\/p>\n

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And with paper behind it, it looks spectacular!<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Creating and Shadowing Transparent Elements PDF Version : https:\/\/bit.ly\/4cJAs3t Let me tell you a secret. I really don’t like hexagons. Like REALLY. Possibly because of my husband’s obsession with board wargames, which are played on a hex-grid map, are horrendously expensive, eat up huge chunks of storage space in our house and enormous chunks of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[229,102,284,92,62],"tags":[373],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-20 07:10:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"private","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53685"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53685"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53769,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53685\/revisions\/53769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}