Photoshop - Shading effects in a layer style

Hey guys,

I'm often using the Lighting Effects Photoshop filter to add shading to layers, to give an object a realistic, 3D look. However this doesn't work for things like shape layers (at least not without rasterizing the layer first). Is there any way I can get a similar effect using layer styles or such, so that the layer is still re-editable?

Thanks!
PyramidAl

Hi mate,

I can think of a couple of ways to do this:

1) Double-click the layer then click Gradient Overlay in the layer styles box. Pick Overlay for the Blend Mode, and click the Gradient bar to change the gradient to black & white (if it's not already). This gives you a nice shading effect. Play with the angle & scale controls to get the look you want. You can also drag the gradient around in the image window.

2) In CS3 & above you can actually apply filters to shape layers, but you first have to convert the shape to a smart object (Filter > Convert for Smart Filters). Now go ahead and add your Lighting Effects filter. To edit the original shape again you need to double click on the smart object layer in the layers palette. Bit of a pain but doable.

z

Thanks zaphod - I didn't know you could do that with Smart Objects! Cool! The gradient thing works well too