Adobe Photoshop CS6 Top 100 Simplified Tips and Tricks by Lynette Kent

USE A GRADIENT FILL LAYER to improve your image
Adjustment layers give you many options for editing
and re-editing your images. You can give a scenic
photo a more dramatic look or simply increase the
colors in a sky with a Gradient Fill adjustment layer.
The colors you see are often better than what your
camera captures, particularly when you photograph a
sunset or a sunrise. You can easily increase the
intensity of the sky with a Gradient Fill. You can
enhance the existing colors by using a black
foreground color, using a more intense version of the
same color, or even selecting another color to create
a stylized image. You can adjust how much of the
photo to cover with added color. Because you are
using a fill layer, you can go back and increase or
decrease the amount of color after you apply the
Gradient Fill layer. You can even change the color
that you applied to get a different effect or to create a
more dramatic look. This technique is most effective
on a photo with a large sky area and an open horizon.
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4
1 Open an image that has a large
area of sky.
2 Click the Default Colors icon to
set the foreground to black.
Note: You can optionally click to
select a color to use as a gradient
for a creative effect.
3 Click the New Fill or Adjustment
Layer button.
4 Click Gradient.
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5
6
The Gradient Fill dialog box
appears, and a foreground-totransparent
gradient is applied to
the image.
5 Make sure that the angle is set to
90 degrees.
6 Click and drag the dialog box so
you can see more of the image.
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