When the Layer Styles dialog box opens, the item at the top of the list
of options on the left side of the box is the Blending Options. These
are above and beyond the blending options, Blending Mode, and Opacity,
found in the Layers palette.
Until you alter any of the settings, the
menu item will be titled Blending Options: Default. But if you change
anything, it will change to be Blending Options: Custom.
The settings in the dialog box are as follows,
from top to bottom. First, the entire dialog box. Then the individual
items.
- General Blending - These are the same as the ones in the Layers
palette. If you change them here, they will show the new values in the
palette. These settings affect the entire layer’s contents. Whether or
not interior applied effects are blended with the layer using this blend
mode setting depends on whether the Blend Interior Effects as Group
checkbox is selected.
- Advanced Blending - Everything below this point can only be altered via this dialog box.
- Fill Opacity - This setting alters the opacity of the layer’s
pixels but does not affect any added effects.
Therefore, for example, the layer’s fill can be made to have zero opacity, while leaving the effects fully visible. The example below shows a bevel effect applied with fill opacity set to zero. The black and white background layer was left visible so you could better see the results.
- Channels - You can choose not to blend one or more of the color
channels, by unchecking any of these boxes.
- Knockout - By choosing either Deep, or Shallow rather than
None, you can cause the layer you are blending to punch through all
the way to the background layer, thus showing the background’s
contents for that spot. If there is no background layer, it punches
through to transparency. However, this is dependent on the Fill opacity
(not the general layer opacity), discussed above, being set to zero,
or any intermediate transparency setting sufficient to allow visibility
of the knocked out area. If fill is left at 100 % opacity,
then the knockout won’t show. You can also use a blend mode that
will cause the layer’s fill to become transparent and show the
knockout effect. Please see the full Knockout
page for an extended explanation of the knockout feature’s effects
on grouped layers, and layer sets.
- Blend Interior Effects as a Group - This causes the layer’s
blend mode to affect all effects falling within the nontransparent areas
of the layer. For example, inner glow, inner shadow and any of the color
overlays fall onto the layer’s contents, and so would be affected by
this setting. But the drop shadow, for example, falls outside the contents
of the layer, and so would not be affected by it.
- Blend Clipped Layers as a Group - Causes the blend mode of the bottom layer in the group to be applied to all the layers it’s grouped with when they blend with the rest of the image. When deselected, each layer within the group will retain its individual blend mode when blending with all layers below the group.
- Blend If - You can narrow the areas within the image to which
blending is applied by moving these sliders. When combined with the
option of applying different settings for each of the color channels,
this can be used for advanced color correction, or manipulation. You
can make different settings for each channel. Set one, then choose another
channel from the menu, and make different settings. Each channel will
retain its own settings. Use Gray to set Blend If values for all three
channels at once.
The numbers you see indicate what tones are going to be removed.
Moving the sliders on the Underlying Layer bar, on the other hand, forces those parts of the image left outside the sliders to not be blended, and to be fully visible. Please note that, though the name of the bar is Underlying Layer, it refers to all layers below the layer being blended.
If the layer above is a copy of the layer below, these sliders are redundant, but if not, they can have some useful (and confusing) effects.
In order to keep the transition from blended to not-blended smooth, you can split the sliders and create a gradual transition zone. Press the Alt key, and drag on a corner of one of the little triangles to split the sliders.
Here’s another illustration, to help you understand. All the sliders have
been split to allow for gradual transitions.
With identifying letters added, here’s the same pair of bars.
- From this point to B, any part of the image with these tonal value will no longer be visible.
- From this point, the image areas of these tones will gradually begin to be visible.
- From here, to D, the image is fully visible, and will blend according to the mode set for the (upper) layer unless overridden by the Underlying Layer settings in the bar below as, for example, they partially are between J and K.
- Parts of the image from this luminosity value will begin to fade.
- All image tones brighter than this value will no longer be visible in the image.
- Between this end point and E has been made not visible.
- Between this end point and H, the underlying layer will not blend with the layer above. Image parts with these tonal values will override visibility of the layer above, and will be fully visible in the final image.
- At this point, the blend mode of the layer above starts to affect the underlying layer. Since the slider is split, this is a gradual transition.
- Here is the end of the transition from not blending with the layer above to being fully blended according to the blend mode set in the upper layer.
- Beginning of transition zone from blending to not blending.
- Blending stops. Once again, the underlying layer is not being affected by the blend mode of the layer above and will be visible regardless of the opacity, or blend mode of the overlying layer.
- The end.
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