Shape Tool

Question

Photoshop Elements 3. I've been working in layouts. I'm very new. First off, what is the arrow shape tool used for??? I was creating a layout. A layer had a rectangle shape (it's a mat for a photo, filled with a salmon color)--I clicked on the rectangle shape tool. It brought up window in upper right hand corner. It showed the color of the background, Styles and the Word "Simplify". It was grayed out. Can I apply from this area? I couldn't figure that out? I ended up going to the Layers, Styles, and Effects Pallette and choosing from that area. Is there a way to keep the mat the same color but apply a style? For instance, if I wanted to keep the color salmon and I chose the style cactus. When I tried cactus it changed to the green or colors within the style pallette.

Answer 1

Terri G,<br /><br />No you don't necessarily have to use a clipping mask.  It depends on what you are doing.<br /><br />Here's one way:<br /><br />Open image.<br /><br />Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer over your image.  (Do this from the layers palette <b>not</b> the from the menu bar).  To make your image black and white, move the Saturation slider to -100 and click okay.<br /><br />Change the Hue/Saturation layer's blend mode to Color blend mode.<br /><br />To add back color, make sure the adjustment layer is active...highlighted in the layers palette.  Use black paint on this layer to reveal the original color of the flower...or whatever.  You can use a paintbrush or any selection tool to select then fill your selection with black.  If you reveal too much of the original image, use white paint to cover it back up.  Hard edge brushes produce a sharp edge whereas soft brushes produce a feather.  Personally, I like to use a hard brush then apply Gaussian blur to the mask to feather the selection.<br /><br />FWIW, the reason I told you not to use Hue/Saturation from the menu is that you don't get an adjustment layer with mask via this route.<br /><br />Masking is a bit like using a stencil.<br /><br />As for the clipping mask, it's a bit like throwing a table cloth over a table.  It only covers were the table exists.<br /><br />Try this:<br /><br />Make a new document.<br /><br />Drag a custom shape...any shape will do.<br /><br />Create a pattern adjustment layer over your shape...any pattern will do.<br /><br />With the pattern layer highlighted, press Control G (or Layer<Group with Previous if you prefer the menu bar).<br /><br />You should see the pattern only where your shape is.<br /><br />Now, add a blank layer at the top of the stack and paint a streak on it.<br /><br />With the layer with paint stroke highlighted press Control G.<br /><br />You should now see your paint stroke confined to where your original shape exists. <br /><br />Now, go back to your shape layer.  Add a paint stroke to it.  (Okay, the simplify request).  You'll see that as you changed the shape the other layers<i> within the clipping group</i> followed suit.  Now, erase some of the shape layer.  Again, note that the other layers <i>within the clipping group</i> follow suit.<br /><br />Terri