Photoshop® Elements 8 All-in-One For Dummies®

Chapter 3. Playing with Opacity and Blend Modes

In This Chapter

• Adjusting opacity

• Applying blend modes for effects

• Setting the blend options

In this chapter, we show you how to have a little fun and get those creative juices flowing. This chapter, along with Chapters 1 and 3 in Book VII, gives you a few ways to tweak the layers you've so diligently created. Maybe you want to make one of your layers semitransparent so that you can see the layer beneath it; or you might want to try blending the colors between a couple layers in a way that's slightly offbeat. Look no further.

Take these techniques as far as you want. And remember: There's no substitute for good-old experimentation. Before you jump into these techniques, you should have a handle on the methods of layer creation and management that we explain in Book VI, Chapters 1 and 2.

Adjusting Layer Opacity

By far one of the easiest ways to make your image look interesting is to have one image ghosted over another, as shown in Figure 3-1. Creating this effect is an easy task with the Opacity option in the Layers panel. You adjust the opacity by selecting a layer in the Layers panel. Then either access the slider by clicking the right-pointing arrow or enter a percentage value in the Opacity text box.

The Opacity setting allows you to mix the active layer with the layers below it in varying percentages from 100% (completely opaque) to 0% (completely ...