This page features the Inner Bevel, but the settings shown are the same
as those for the Outer Bevel, Emboss, Pillow Emboss, and Stroke Emboss.
The individual pages for those effects will reference this page, rather
than repeating all the information.
The inner bevel consists of a a highlight
layer, and a shadow layer above the layer to which the effect is applied.
They are grouped with, and thus clipped by, that layer’s contents. The
blend mode for the shadow layer is Multiply, and the highlight layer is
Screen. Both are at 75 % opacity. Seen alone against the background,
the effect, extracted from the image at the bottom of the page, looks
like this.
The Bevel and Emboss dialog box has a lot of variables that can be tinkered
with.
I’ll start from the top and work my way down. First, here is a reference
illustration showing the example red circle with only default settings
applied. All examples that follow feature only one variable being changed.
All others will have remained at the default settings.
- Style - You know what that one is. Choose Inner Bevel, Outer Bevel, Emboss, Pillow Emboss, or Stroke Emboss from this menu.
- Technique - Smooth, which is the default setting blurs the
bevel edges slightly and is probably the best, with Chisel Hard, shown
below, giving a much coarser, more abrupt edge to the bevel.
Chisel Soft is an intermediate choice, between the other two. See below.
- Depth - This value is set as a ratio of whatever you have entered
in the Size box. In the example below, the Depth setting was increased
to 350 %.
- Direction - Click either the Up or Down radio button to make
the effect appear to be pushed up or down. It usually just makes it
look as if it is lit differently. Below, I have switched the effect
from Up to Down.
- Size - Alters the extent of the effect. Use this in combination
with the Depth setting. The two work together. The example below shows
the Size setting increased to 15, but the Depth left at its default
setting. This doesn’t look good. Change the Depth, too, to make this
look like a button, and not a red cookie.
- Soften - An additional blur option for dealing with any unwanted artifacts that may have appeared when applying the effect. This works in addition to, and regardless of, the setting in Techniques (of Soften, Chisel Hard, or Chisel Soft).
- Angle - Drag on the little dot inside the circle to change
the direction from which the object is lit, and thus the direction in
which the highlights and shadows are applied. The Angle circle in the
Bevel and Emboss dialog box has a different style than that of any of
the ones in the other effects. It uses a dot instead of a line within
the circle so that you are able to change the altitude of the illumination,
as well as the direction.
In the example below, I have changed the Angle to be 90° and the Altitude to be 84° which means the virtual sun would have been almost directly overhead (the dot was dragged almost to the center of the circle). Notice the pronounced highlight, and lack of any shadow. You can type values into the text boxes if you prefer.
- Use Global Light - Unless you have a specific reason not to do so, always keep this box checked. It ensures that all effects applied to the same image use the same lighting direction. It’s unlikely that you will want objects to appear to be lit by different suns. An exception might be if you are creating an interior scene with multiple artificial light sources. In that case, uncheck this box to allow effects to be applied from varied angles.
- Gloss Contour - Varies the tones within the effect to simulate
an uneven gloss reflection. This can either make a big improvement,
or dramatically change how your Bevel and Emboss effect looks. See the
Contour page for more details on this
feature. Here is an example using the Ring contour from the Gloss Contour
pop-up palette.
- Highlight Mode and Opacity - You can vary the blend mode, and opacity for the shadow, independent of the blend and opacity of the rest of the effect.
- Shadow Mode and Opacity - Ditto for the shadows. Stick with the default settings for realistic effects. Tinker with the blend modes for surreal effects.
Below is an example showing the Inner Bevel applied to an image using
the default settings.
And, here is the Layers palette after the effect was deconstructed by
choosing Layer > Layer Style > Create Layers.
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