Use Photoshop’s layer styles to simulate drops of sweat

[Doug Nelson]

Photoshop’s layer styles are usually very effective and intuitive to use, but if you use them in some unintuitive ways they can be even more effective. [details]

[singlo]

Thanks very much for the execellent tutorial.

Drop Shadow: Opacity 14%, Angle 79º, Distance 11px, Spread 4%, Size 17px, Contour “Cone”

Inner Shadow: Opacity 15%, Angle 79º, Distance 21px, Size 21px

Inner Glow: Blend Mode Multiply, Opacity 23%, Color Black, Size 17px

Bevel and Emboss: Depth 71%, Size 54px, Angle 79º, Highlight Mode Normal, Opacity 100%, Shadow Mode Lighten, Color White, Opacity 90%

I can't get this droplet effect working even I put into identical numbers like yours. I get a solid grey droplet with light blue outline How sensitive are these input numbers (distance, size) to the size of the working image and the size of droplet??? Does the angle option relate to the direction of lighting? If I use a high resolution image, do i have to change the distance/size settings.I use my own image not much bigger than yours but different droplet size, so I wonder what I have done wrong Do I uncheck "contour" and "texture" boxes in the Bevel and Emboss options????

I find the CS2 layer style preview window a bit confusing, it is difficult see the effects of each components listed above, i.e. I don't see the actual shape of the droplet in the style preview but a rectangular shape. Thanks in advance.

[Doug Nelson]

Most of the numbers aren't that critical, but it sounds like you have either the layer blending mode or one of the internal blending modes set incorrectly.

[singlo]

I only get it worked by messing around with very different numbers, angle and blending mode with this one (beautiful photo by Sarah Silver). The tear drop looks a bit jelly to me....Should get the shape of the specular highlight on the tear drop close to the round reflection of the beauty dish, never mind

[tell]

Thank you Doug for sharing this handy tutorial. I must say, when l configured the layer style dialog box to Dougs spec's l did get a similar outcome with Singlo. I found just by changing the bevel emboss depth to 1000, size to 7 and soften 3 ,achieved the desired result. Perhaps Singlo this might work for you. In fact playing with the bevel and emboss structure, primarily depth size and soften while watching the changes take place on your subject, you might find a very different set of numbers to suit. Dont forget to lower the opacity of the perspiration layer to around 40 . Thanks again Doug for this wonderful tutorial that l would never have worked out on my own... Tell.