You may have noticed that a few of Elements Layer styles and effects apply a color tint that fades away at the edges of your layer or image. You can fade and blend colors in almost any way imaginable by using gradients, which let you create anything from a multicolored rainbow extravaganza to a single color that fades away into transparency. Figure 13-17 shows a few examples of what you can do with gradients. The only limit is your imagination.
Figure 13-17. Here are three examples of gradients drawn with the Gradient tool. Top: This gradient creates a rainbow effect. Bottom left: If you play with the Gradient Editor (page 465), you can create all sorts of interestizfng effects. Here’s the gradient from the top figure again, only this time it’s applied left to right instead of top to bottom. Its colors are different because the Gradient Editor’s noise option was used (see page 468). Click the Randomize button a couple of times to get this effect. Bottom right: This figure shows the kind of gradient you can create if you want a landscape background for artwork.
You can apply gradients directly to your image using the Gradient tool, or create Gradient Fill layers, which are whole layers filled with—you guessed it—gradients. You can even edit gradients and create new ones using the Gradient Editor. Finally, there’s a special kind of gradient called a gradient map that lets you replace the colors in your image with the colors from a gradient. This section covers the basics of using all these tools and methods.
If you want to apply a gradient to an object in your image, the Gradient tool is the fastest way to go. This tool seems complicated at first, but it’s actually easy to use. Start by activating it in the Tools panel (its icon is a yellow-and-blue rectangle) or by pressing G. Figure 13-18 shows your Options bar choices for this tool.
Figure 13-18. The Gradient tool’s Options bar settings give you lots of choices for customizing how you apply a gradient.
Using the Gradient tool is as easy as dragging: Click where you want the gradient to begin, and then drag to the point where you want it to stop (you’ll see a line connecting the beginning and ending points). When you release your mouse button, the gradient covers the available space.
For example, say you’re using a yellow-to-white gradient. If you click to end the gradient one-third of the way into your photo, the yellow stops transitioning at that point, since you told Elements to stop the gradient there, and the remaining two-thirds of your photo get covered with white. In other words, something put down by the tool covers the entire space—your whole photo, in this case. Clicking stops the color transition—no more yellow beyond that point—but the gradient’s end color fills in everyplace else. (Don’t worry: This is much easier to understand once you try it.) Drag the gradient within a selection to confine it to that area so the entire photo or layer isn’t affected by the gradient’s colors.
Tip
The Gradient tool puts the gradient on the same layer as the image you apply it to, which means that it’s hard to change anything about a gradient after you apply it. If you think you might want to alter a gradient, use a Gradient Fill layer instead.
Some of Elements’ gradients use your Foreground and Background colors, but Elements also offers a number of preset gradients with different color schemes. Click the arrow to the right of the gradient thumbnail in the Options bar to see a panel of different gradients, some of which use your selected colors, and others that have their own color schemes. The gradients are grouped into categories. In the upper-right corner of the gradient thumbnails panel, click the double arrow to see all the gradient categories, and then choose one to see what it contains. (You can work only with the gradients in one category at a time.)
You can download gradients from the Web and add them to your library using the Preset Manager (When You Really Need Photoshop); Stuff from the Internet has suggestions of where to look online. You can also create your own gradients from scratch. Creating and editing gradients is explained later in this chapter, in the section about the Gradient Editor.
To apply a gradient with the Gradient tool, first make a selection if you don’t want to see the gradient applied to your whole image. Then:
Choose the colors you want to use for your gradient.
Click the Foreground and Background color squares to choose colors. (Remember, some gradients ignore these colors and use their own preset colors instead.)
Activate the Gradient tool.
Click its icon in the Tools panel or press G.
Select a gradient.
Go to the Options bar, click the gradient thumbnail, and then choose the one you want. Then make any other necessary changes to the Options bar settings (your options are explained in a moment), like reversing the gradient.
Apply the gradient.
Drag in your image to mark where the gradient should run. If you’re using a linear gradient, you can make it run vertically by dragging up or down, or make it go horizontally by dragging sideways. For Radial, Reflection, and Diamond gradients, try dragging from the center of your image to an edge. If you don’t like the result, press Ctrl+Z/⌘-Z to undo it and try again. Once you like the way the gradient looks, you don’t need to do anything special to accept it; just save your image before you close it.
You can customize gradients in several ways without even using the Gradient Editor. When the Gradient tool is active, the Options bar offers the following settings:
Gradient. Click the arrow to the right of the gradient thumbnail to choose a different gradient.
Edit. Click this button to bring up the Gradient Editor (Editing Gradients).
Gradient types. These five buttons determine the way the colors flow in your gradient. From left to right, your choices are: Linear (in a straight line), Radial (a sunburst effect), Angle (a counterclockwise sweep around the starting point), Reflected (from the center out to each edge in a mirror image), and Diamond. Figure 13-19 shows what each one looks like.
Mode. You can apply a gradient in any blend mode (see Blend Mode).
Opacity. If you want your image to be visible through the gradient, reduce this setting.
Reverse. This setting changes the direction in which Elements applies the colors so that, for example, instead of yellow to blue (from left to right, say), you get blue to yellow instead.
Dither. Turn on this checkbox and Elements uses fewer colors but simulates the full color range using a noise pattern. This can help to prevent banding of your colors, making smoother transitions between them.
Transparency. If you want to fade to transparency anywhere in your gradient, turn on this checkbox. Otherwise, the gradient can’t show transparent regions.
You can also apply a gradient using a special kind of Fill layer (Fill layers). Most of the time, this method is better than using the Gradient tool, especially if you want to be able to make changes to the gradient after you apply it.
To create a Gradient Fill layer, go to Layer→New Fill Layer→Gradient. The New Layer dialog box appears so you can set the layer’s blend mode (Blend Mode) and opacity. Once you click OK, Elements fills the new layer with the currently selected gradient, and the dialog box shown in Figure 13-20 pops up. You can change many of the gradient’s settings here, or choose a different gradient altogether. The dialog box’s settings are much the same as those in the Options bar for the Gradient tool:
Figure 13-20. The Gradient Fill dialog box gives you access to most of the same settings you find in the Options bar for the Gradient tool. The major difference is that with a Fill layer, you set the direction of the gradient by typing in a number for the angle or by changing the direction of the line in the circle as shown here (the cursor is pointing to the line you drag to change the angle). You don’t get a chance to set the direction by dragging directly in your image as you do with the Gradient tool, but while this dialog box is onscreen, you can drag the gradient in your image to change where it transitions.
Gradient. To choose a different gradient, click the arrow next to the thumbnail to see the gradient thumbnails panel. To choose from a different gradient category, click the double arrow in the panel’s upper right, and then choose the category you want.
Style. You have the same choices here as for the Gradient tool (Linear, Diamond, and so on). Choose a different style and Elements previews it in the layer.
Angle. This setting controls the direction the colors will run. To change the direction of the flow, enter a number in degrees or spin the line in the circle by dragging it.
Scale. This setting determines how large your gradient is relative to the layer. One hundred percent means they’re the same size; at 150 percent, the gradient is bigger than your layer, so you see only a portion of the gradient in the layer. (For example, if you had a black-to-white gradient, you might see only shades of gray in your image.) If you turn off the “Align with layer” checkbox (explained in a sec), you can adjust the location of the gradient relative to your image by dragging the gradient.
Reverse. Turn on this checkbox to make colors flow in the opposite direction.
Dither. Use this setting to avoid banding and create smooth color transitions.
Align with layer. This setting keeps the gradient in line with the layer. Turn it off and you can pull the gradient around in your image to place it exactly where you want it. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work; you can usually drag while the dialog box is visible but not after you click OK.
When the gradient looks good, click OK to create the layer. You can edit it later by heading to the Layers panel and double-clicking the layer’s leftmost icon (the one with the gradient on it). That brings up the Gradient Fill dialog box again, so you can change its settings or choose a different gradient.
Elements’ Gradient Editor lets you create gradients that include any colors you like. You can even make ones in which the color fades to transparency, or modify existing gradient presets. Alas, the Gradient Editor isn’t the easiest tool in the world to use. This section tells you the basics you need to get started. Then, as is the case with so many of Elements’ features, playing around with the Gradient Editor is the best way to understand how it works.
You have to activate the Gradient tool to launch the Gradient Editor. After you activate the tool, in the Options bar, click the Edit button to see the Gradient Editor (see Figure 13-21).
Figure 13-21. The powerful and complex Gradient Editor. Here, the blue stop (where the cursor is) was clicked to make it active. (The black triangle above the stop is Elements’ way of telling you it’s the active stop. In Windows, the triangle turns the same color as the stop.) The two tiny diamonds on either side of the active stop mark the midpoints of the transitions between the selected color and its neighbors. You can move these diamonds to change the midpoints.
The Gradient Editor opens showing the current gradient. You can choose a different gradient by picking from the thumbnails at the top of the Gradient Editor window, or by clicking the word “more” in the window’s upper right and choosing a new category from the list. (You’ll learn how to save your custom gradients later in this chapter.)
To get started using the Gradient Editor, first choose your gradient’s type and smoothness settings:
Gradient Type. Your choices are Solid or Noise. Solid gradients are the most common; they let you create transitions between solid blocks of color. Noise gradients, which are covered later in this section, produce bands of color, as you might see in a spectrometer.
Smoothness. This setting controls how even the transitions between colors are.
You do most of your work in the Gradient Editor’s Gradient bar, the long colored bar where Elements displays the current gradient. The little boxes (called stops) and diamonds surrounding the Gradient bar let you control the color and transparency of your gradient.
Note
The directions in this section are for editing regular gradients. Noise gradients work a little differently, as explained on Creating noise gradients.
For now, you only care about the stops below the Gradient bar (the ones above it are explained in the next section). Each one is a color stop; it represents where a particular color falls in the gradient. (You need at least two color stops in a gradient.) If you click a stop, the pointed end turns black or the same color as the stop, letting you know that it’s the active stop. Anything you do at this point will affect the area governed by that stop. You can slide the stops around to change where the colors transition.
The color stops let you customize your gradient in lots of different ways. Using them, you can:
Change where the color transitions. Click a color stop and you see a tiny diamond appear under the bar. (If the stop isn’t at the end of the gradient, you get two diamonds, one on either side of it.)The diamond is the midpoint of the color change. Diamonds always appear between two color stops. You can drag the diamond in either direction to skew the color range between two color stops so that it more heavily represents one color over another. (You know you’ve successfully grabbed the diamond when it turns black or the color of the adjoining stop.) Wherever you place the diamond tells Elements that’s where the color change should be half completed.
Change one of the colors in the gradient. Click any color stop, and then click the Color square at the bottom of the Gradient Editor, in the Stops section, to bring up the Color Picker. Choose a new color, and the gradient automatically reflects your change. You can also pick a new color by moving your cursor over the Gradient bar; the cursor turns into an eyedropper that lets you sample a color. If you click the arrow to the right of the Color square, you can select the current Foreground or Background color. (The User Color option just means the Gradient Editor behaves normally, meaning that moving your cursor over the Gradient bar brings up the eyedropper.)
Add a color to the gradient. Click anywhere just beneath the bar to indicate where you want the new color to appear. Elements adds a new color stop where you clicked. Next, click the Color square at the bottom of the window to bring up the Color Picker so you can choose the color to add. The new color appears in the gradient at the new stop. Repeat as many times as you want, adding a new color each time. To precisely position the new stop, enter numbers (indicating percentage) in the Location box below the Gradient bar. For example, 50 percent positions a stop at the bar’s midpoint. To duplicate an existing color from your gradient, click its stop, and then click below the bar where you want to use that color again.
Remove a color from a gradient. If a gradient is almost what you want but you don’t like one of the colors, you don’t have to live with it. You can remove a color by clicking its stop to make it the active color. Then click the Delete button at the bottom right of the Gradient Editor, or just drag the stop downward off the bar. (The Delete button is grayed out if no color stop is active.)
You can also use the Gradient Editor to adjust the transparency in a gradient. Elements gives you nearly unlimited control over transparency in gradients, and the opacity of any color at any point in the gradient. Adjusting opacity in the Gradient Editor is much like using the color stops to edit the colors, but instead of color stops you use opacity stops.
Note
Transparency is particularly nice in images for Web use, but remember that you need to save in a format that preserves transparency, like GIF, or you lose the transparency. If you save your file as a JPEG, the transparent areas become opaque white. See Image Formats and the Web for more about file formats for the Web.
The opacity stops are the little boxes above the Gradient bar. You can move an opacity stop to wherever you want, and then adjust the transparency using the settings in the Gradient Editor’s Stops section. Click above the Gradient bar wherever you want to add an opacity stop. The more opacity stops in the Gradient bar, the more points where you can adjust your gradient’s opacity.
Here’s how to add an opacity stop and adjust its opacity setting:
Click one of the existing opacity stops.
If the little square on the stop is black, the stop is completely opaque. A white square represents a spot that’s totally transparent. The new stop you’re about to create will have the same opacity as the stop you click in this step, but you can adjust the new stop once you create it. (You can actually skip this step, but it lets you predetermine the opacity of your new stop.)
Add a stop.
Click just above the Gradient bar where you want to add a stop. If you want your stop to be precisely positioned, then you can enter numbers (indicating percentage) in the Location box below the Gradient bar. For example, 50 percent positions a stop at the bar’s midpoint.
Adjust the new stop’s opacity.
Go to the Opacity box below the Gradient bar and either enter a percentage or click the arrow to the right of the number and then move the slider. To get rid of a stop, click it and then click Delete or drag the stop upward, away from the bar.
By adding stops, you can make your gradient fade in and out, as shown in the background of Figure 13-22, which has a simple, vertical blue-to-transparent linear gradient that’s been edited so that it fades in and out a few times.
Elements also lets you create what Adobe calls noise gradients, which aren’t speckled as you might expect if you’re thinking of camera noise. Instead, noise gradients randomly distribute their colors within the range you specify, giving them a banded or spectrometer-like look. The effect is interesting, but noise gradients can be unpredictable. The noisier a gradient is, the more stripes of color you see, and the greater the number of random colors.
With the Gradient tool active, you can create a noise gradient by tweaking one of the sample ones that comes with Elements. First, go to the Options bar and click the down arrow to the right of the gradient’s thumbnail; this opens the gradient thumbnail panel. Next, click the double arrow at the panel’s upper right and then, in the pop-out list of categories, select Noise Samples. Click to select one you like. You can then edit it by clicking the gradient thumbnail in the Options bar to bring up the Gradient Editor.
Tip
If you want to create a noise gradient without basing it on one of Elements Noise Sample presets, you can click the Option bar’s Edit button to bring up the Gradient Editor, and then choose Noise from the Gradient Type menu.
Noise gradients have some special Gradient Editor settings of their own:
Roughness controls how gradually the gradient transitions from color to color (see Figure 13-23 for details). A higher number not only means less smooth transitions, but also more shades of color in the gradient.
Color Model determines which color mode you work in—RGB or HSB. RGB gives you red, green, and blue color sliders, while HSB lets you set hue, saturation, and brightness (see The Eyedropper Tool for more about these settings).
Restrict Colors keeps your colors from getting too saturated.
Add Transparency puts random amounts of transparency into your gradient.
Randomize adds random colors (and transparency, too, if you turned on that checkbox). Keep clicking the Randomize button until you see an effect you like.
After all that work, you probably want to save your gradient so you can use it again. You have two ways to save a gradient from the Gradient Editor:
Click the New button. In the Name box to the left of the New button, type a name for your gradient. Elements adds your gradient to the current category, and adds a thumbnail of your gradient to the gradient thumbnails panel in the currently visible set.
Click Save. The Save dialog box appears and Elements asks you to name the gradient. You’ll save it in a special Gradients folder, which Elements automatically takes you to in the Save dialog box. This method resaves the entire set of presets that’s visible when you create your gradient. When you want to use the gradient again, click the Gradient Editor’s Load button, and then select it from the list of gradients that appears. The new set appears at the bottom of the list of gradient libraries you see when you click the double arrows in the palette’s upper right.