FUBARgenre: The Genre of Fubar

III. Playing with Overlays

A better and more flexible option than Hue/Saturation/Brightness/Contrast is using Overlays in your Blend settings.

The things you can do with color overlays are countless. But for now, we’ll just cover the basics.

Start by inserting a new layer over your current image layer.

Fill this new layer with color. For this exercise, I chose orange (r=251; g=177; b=1), but you are not restricted to any particular shade. Go crazy with your color selections. The best way to learn is to experiment with different variations.

Go to your Layers palette and click on the drop down tab for Blending Options (with a default value of Normal). Choose Overlay.

It should look like this:

I don’t know about you, but I personally feel that the orange tinge doesn’t look too becoming on Hastang. I think I’d rather go for the bronze tan. What do you think? Hmmm. Why don’t we try this:

Render the top orange layer invisible by clicking on the Eye icon beside the layer. Then create a copy of the bottom layer (the layer containing your default image). There should now be two layers containing the central image. Change the Blending options of the new layer to Overlay. It should look like this:

When that’s done, make your top orange layer visible again. Then, change its Opacity to 41%.

The final product should look like this:

See the magic of simple overlays? Try this neat trick with different photos and different color variations. You can play with pictures of people, objects, places, or whatnot. You’ll discover very soon that you don’t need a high-tech camera or fancy lighting equipment to create professional-looking photos.

Photo courtesy of Hastang. You can view Hastang’s blog here. Photo by Kathy Zialcita.

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