Real World Example RainbowLogo Text 3d

Layers Options Flyout Merge Layers To Create The New Text Face Layer Creating The Text Shadow And Highlight Layers Darken The Shadow Layer Lighten The Highlight Layer Nudge The Highlight And Shadow Into Positions Lighting Direction Change Not Right Yet A Solution Recipe The Final Tweak The Result

1... Layers Options Flyout

Access the flyout by clicking on the black triangle at the top right corner of the Palette title area as in the sample. The chain icon shows that The layer is Linked to the Style layer.

2...Merge Layers To Create The New Text Face Layer Click on the Merge Linked option from the flyout, which will merge the The and Style into one layer. Relabel the new layer Text Face.

3...Create The Text Shadow And Highlight Layers

Duplicate Text Face twice. Rename the first copy to Shadow. Rename the second copy to Highlight. Click and Drag the Text Face Layer above duplicate layers. Confirm that your test looks like my sample

4...Darken The Shadow Layer Select the Shadow Layer by clicking on it. Darken the layer (Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation...) Check: Colorize option. Hue: -148, Blue. Lightness: -79, Very Dark.

5...Lighten The Highlight Layer Select the Highlight Layer by clicking on it. Lighten the layer (Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation...) Check: Colorize option. Hue: -148, Blue. Lightness: +83, Very Light.

6...Nudge The Highlight and Shadow Into Position Move the Highlight up and to the left by 1 nudge each (Ctrl + the up arrow, Ctrl + the left arrow). Move the Shadow down and to the right by 1 nudge each (Ctrl + the down arrow, Ctrl + the right arrow).

7...Lighting Direction Change

I intentionally changed the lighting direction in the foreground text element. Changing the lighting direction can sometimes help to add to the "illusion of depth".

8...Not Right Yet

What are my options...

Change text color Darken the text shadow. Lighten the text highlight. Darken the spectrum face. Recolorize the spectrum face. Blur the background. And much more...

9...A Solution Recipe

Mute the Spectrum Gradient layer by setting the Opacity value to 91% allowing the the Under Painting to show through a slightly. Make the text Highlight pure white (Image > Adjust > Brightness to value +100).

Make the text Shadow pure black (Image > Adjust > Brightness to value -100). Change the Face color (Image > Adjust > Hue set to value 132 and Light set to value +13) Apply Gaussian Blur to the text highlight (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur...) Check select Preview. Radius set to value .5 pixel, which is only a hint of softness.

10...The Final Tweak Select the Spectrum Gradient layer. Darken and lower the contrast slightly (Image > Mode > Brightness/Contrast...) Brightness set to value -29 Contrast set to value -12 Touch-up the sharpness using the Unsharp Mask (Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask). Amount set to value 70%. Radius set to value 3.2 pixel Threshold value unchanged 0, default

11...The Result Final Comp

Before

The difference is subtle but the Final Comp is better. The obvious change can be easily seen in the top right corner. I found the softness in the top right corner distracting. The soft brightness drew attention unnecessarily. I only sharpened the background layer but the entire image looks sharper in the Final Comp.

Real World Example RainbowFacade Text
Introduction to Web Design with Adobe Photoshop | Table of Contents
Real World Example Visual Illusion