Mirror, Cast Shadow,(Motion) Blur, Extrude Layer Styles

Layer styles are useful because of their parametric and their non-destructive natures.
I'd like to suggest new layer styles, of commonly used effects, that would help to automate lenghty tasks.
Mirror would create a reflection of the layer that fades with distance, it is commonly used in the products pictures of a famous computer /music player/phone manufacturer, and is even available as a word art in Powerpoint! Another common name for that effect is "wet floor".
Proposed settings would be to be able to select the direction (bottom by default), the angle of the reflection, the starting point of the reflection (so that the object/layer can appear to be floating in the air above the reflecting surface), the distance/curve of the fade, maybe an option to desaturate, lighten/darken, and/or blur with distance) There could also be an option to increase/decrease the width of the reflection. An additional eye candy would be to be able to distort the shadow with a map, for effects like waves, but we are way over in the cliché mode...
Cast Shadow would be very similar to the mirror effect, and would simulate the shadow casted by a light placed behind the object/layer. It would use most of the controls found on the Mirror layer style, or it would be available when one desaturates the mirror effect.
Motion Blur would create the effect of a displacement of the layer. It should be able to create the lenght of the blur, a start fade (so that the whole object/layer is not blurred, but only part of it). The fade could have two settings: flat or parametric. Flat would blur based on a gradient, while parametric would fade the blur according to a fixed distance to the edges of the layer. It would be very useful to be able to create a path that the blur would follow, but I'm not sure about the best interface: on image, or in a dedicated widget.
Blur would be a simple blurring routine, that would alleviate the need to create smart objects, and use smart filters.
Extrude could be the equivalent of creating step and repeat copies of a layer/object. It would create nudged copies of the layer simulating a third axis.
Controls would be: angle, distance, fade, where the copies become desaturated, blurred, and/or would have lower opacities.
I hope that other users will chime in with proposed refinements, or additional (useful and feasible) layer styles they'd like to see.

I like these Pierre.
Also
Noise - at the moment its possible to use Pattern Overlay and generate patterns to put grain texture and noise into layers. But a layer style with the correct parameters, grain size, blur, intensity, saturation (Saturation applies to the saturation of the noise not the image), would be useful.
This brings me back to  feature request made about a year or so ago, that it woud be possible to sample overall image 'noise'or 'grain' and to apply this to areas. It would use image analysis tecniques, although Im not sure yet what these would be -   to create an 'average' grain structure for the existing image (probably the base layer but this could be redefined). This would mean that any bad retouching (blurring or image softening) could be more easily salvaged, and would also mean that its easy to do much more destructive editing, more freely on an image than before, without the worry of banding on output.
If I think of any others I'll post them

Similar Messages

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                    "blue": 0
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                            "vertical": 71
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    HTH,
         --Mikaeru

  • Layer styles gone rogue?

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  • Real-time filter / layer style plugin

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  • Custom Keyboard Shortcuts Not Working In Layer Style / Blending Options Dialogue Box (Mac OS 10.6.8)

    In the Layer Style / Blending Options dialogue box, my custom Keyboard Shortcuts to zoom in and out of the image is no longer working. Cmd+opt+shift+1 acts as cmd+1 (jumps to Drop Shadow), and cmd+opt+shift+0 acts as cmd+0 (jumps to Stroke). Outside of this box the commands seem to be working fine.
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    Hi,
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  • Where is layer style in Photoshop Elements 6?

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