In this section I'm showing you how to use Photoshop to add a non-destructive lighting effect to an image.

Open the photograph that we've used earlier and again, add a new layer and fill it with 50% Gray and set the blending mode of this layer to overlay like we did with the 50% Gray layer in the previous section about Sharpening. No screenshots this time, since you've already seen them earlier in this tutorial.

Go to the menu and select Filter / Render / Lighting Effects...

Use the following settings:

 

The result:

 

Of course you're not restricted to a single light or color and again neither should the blending mode or opacity restrict you to apply additional effects to this lighting layer.

In the following example I've used 3 different colored lights to light a stone floor:

 

But hey, that's not all. We can even add a Lens Flare (Filter / Render / Lens Flare) to a 50% Gray layer that we've set to blending mode Hard Light like in this example:

 

Again, we have avoided to damage the original image.

Layer styles were introduced to create editable effects. Most people think about shapes and text (like my Car Name in Chrome Photoshop tutorial) when you mention layer styles, but the same layer styles can also be applied to photographs.

You can add a layer style to an existing layer by clicking on the Add a layer style iconin the layers palette.

Note: Layer Styles can only be added to layers that are not locked and this includes the background layer. To unlock a background layer, double click on it in the layers palette.

Many of the effect that can be used are also part of what we call Adjustment Layers (more about them in the next section).

The advantage of layer styles is however that we can apply more than one effect, without having the need to create a separate Adjustment layer for each one of them.

Look at this example:

...achieved by adding the following effects to the layer style:

I'm not going into too much detail as what the different settings are, but instead it's important to understand that adding a single layer style can change the looks of an image tremendously and every effect inside this layer style is still editable.

Btw, if you're still interested in the settings then download the the original style here (right click, save target as...). Be aware that I've created this style in Photoshop CS for Windows, so compatibility issues may exist if you use this style on a Mac or a different version of Photoshop.

You can load the style in Photoshop by clicking on the little black arrow in the Styles Palette (A) and then selecting Load Styles... (B) in the menu that slides out:

 

In general you will use layer styles mostly to add effects to shapes and text, but it can also be useful for photographs.

In this example I've added the Color Overlay and Gradient Overlay effects to create a sepia look:

 

But we can even take it a step further by adding a mask to this layer style by clicking on the Add Layer Mask icon:

...and like always, everything is editable, the layer style is editable, the mask is editable and the original is not damaged in any way.

Adjustment layers are really powerful and while layer styles are mostly used for shapes and text, adjustment layers on the other hand are often used to retouch photographs.