UNIT 30 & 32 Overlays

Overlays and gradients

First you select the image you want to add an overlay to. Next go to the bottom left corner and select the layer tool next to the delete button. This will add a new layer so that you can add your overlay to it. 

Then click the eye tool next to your background image, and this will help you to temporarily hide your background. Now click on your new layer. and select the gradient tool which is located on your left. It is the 12th tool located under the paint bucket tool. Then you’ll need to select your gradient, and you can use the presets that have already been added or you can click on the current gradient and this will open a pop up menu  which allows you to to select opacity,smoothness and a slider for a unique

gradient. The lower your capacity the more subtle the overlay will look.

For example here I have used the colour turquoise with an opacity of 40% to give my image a weaker effect and as you can see it has given it a subtle look. Another overlay technique is to add another image which is usually colourful or has a vignette to give the image a drastic effect. It does more or less the same as the gradient tool, although the gradient tool you can edit more than an image. 

 As you can see here I have used an image with lots of colour in it as another layer, and this time instead of hiding the background I have just gone straight to editing the images opacity to see the effect of what it will have on the image. You can then proceed to merge the layers in to one image if you are done editing.