Expert: LizaL - 9/18/2004

Question
can you tell me what the global lighting setting is used for when
I make a layer effect.

also the matting command.

thx

Kathryn

Answer
Hi Kathryn,

Global lighting is used so you can show a consistent source of light on your image. It works with Layer Styles, which are applied through that pulldown menu (Layer>Layer Style). In other words, if you have an image that you want to apply several layer styles to, if you keep Global Lighting checked, the source of light on the image will appear at the same place with each Layer Style you use.

The "light source" angle for Global Lighting is coming from the little Angle circle to its left. If you change this value by dragging the line within the circle, or typing a different value in the box, the angle of the light source will change.

You can turn Global Lighting on and off, too, within each Layer Style. Experiment with it if you have an image you'll be using different Layer Styles on and you'll see what I mean.

The Matting command is used mostly when you move or paste a selection within a document -- especially one that's anti-aliased. Moving and pasting can sometimes cause "fringe" pixels around the edge of the selection, which usually don't look too good (many times appearing hazy or creating a "halo" effect).

You use Layer>Matting>Defringe in color images, and you can use Layer>Matting>Remove Black Matte or Remove White Matte when you're pasting a selection against a white or black background. In other words, if you select and cut colored text that's been on a black background, then paste it into a Photoshop document with a white background, Remove Black Matte will take the little edge pixels (which might show up as gray) off the selection.

Hope this helps!

Lisa