Conquer Club

Also, if you want to make it stand out even more, put an inside glow on the edge of the light colored item, and an inside shadow on the edge of the dark colored item.

Um, ok I guess?

So just out of curiosity, what's the difference between drop shadow and outer glow, if they are the same colour? I don't know about these photoshop things.

In paint.net I mostly use drop shadow or object outline, which both let you choose any colour for the shadow/outline. There's usually little difference in them, but in some situations one is better than the other.

natty_dread wrote:Um, ok I guess?

So just out of curiosity, what's the difference between drop shadow and outer glow, if they are the same colour? I don't know about these photoshop things.

In paint.net I mostly use drop shadow or object outline, which both let you choose any colour for the shadow/outline. There's usually little difference in them, but in some situations one is better than the other.

A drop shadow and outer glow are similar, but not entirely the same. Their transfer modes are pre-set to their own specs. So, each one is quickly adaptable to its purpose. Drop shadow is suited for black or dark colors, while outer glow is suited for white or light colors. Drop shadow also has the added capability of choosing distance, and direction.

The above also applies to inner glow, and inner shadow.

Thanks for the tip.

While you're right about the brightness/darkness of the shadow or glow that you use, you can actually use any colour as a glow or shadow. The real difference between the two is directional...

A glow will extend equally from the edge of your layer (or inside if you're using an inner glow).

A shadow will follow a direction depending on your 'lightsource', and can drop outside your layer, or inside it.

Here are some examples of outer/inner glow/shadow:

MrBenn wrote:While you're right about the brightness/darkness of the shadow or glow that you use, you can actually use any colour as a glow or shadow. The real difference between the two is directional...

A glow will extend equally from the edge of your layer (or inside if you're using an inner glow).

A shadow will follow a direction depending on your 'lightsource', and can drop outside your layer, or inside it.

Here are some examples of outer/inner glow/shadow:

Another difference is that You can do an inner glow on the center, instead of the edge.

Nice to see some examples and definitions of these terms that are so commonly used around here. I would like to note that pork is right, the ones marked correct do stand out, as they appear to float above their background. The ones below almost look like tunnels receding into the page, with darkness or light at the far end.

ender516 wrote:Nice to see some examples and definitions of these terms that are so commonly used around here. I would like to note that pork is right, the ones marked correct do stand out, as they appear to float above their background. The ones below almost look like tunnels receding into the page, with darkness or light at the far end.

Thank you ender, The reason that I made this small tut. is because I see people using outer glow in an effort to make something stand out. This is not always the right choice, as it is more a case of increasing the contrast between the object and the background, that "makes something stand out". So if the object is a lighter shade than the background, then you should use a drop shadow. An outer glow is the way to go if the object is darker than the background. You want to create a sharp edge of contrast.

Also this contrast can be created by not only shadow or glow, but also with texture/pattern, size, color, shape etc. This is the opposite of camouflage. anything that is different from the background will help in this effort.

porkenbeans wrote:The reason that I made this small tut. is because I see people using outer glow in an effort to make something stand out. This is not always the right choice, as it is more a case of increasing the contrast between the object and the background, that "makes something stand out". So if the object is a lighter shade than the background, then you should use a drop shadow. An outer glow is the way to go if the object is darker than the background. You want to create a sharp edge of contrast.

You need to avoid confusing the use of the words glow and shadow; they're a bit like different models of cars. You can have either one in a light or dark colour, and while they may have some similarities they handle differently. This is why I posted the examples of how glow/shadow are different... look at the shape of them

It doesn;t matter which effect you end up using; what is important is the colour you choose!

MrBenn wrote:

porkenbeans wrote:The reason that I made this small tut. is because I see people using outer glow in an effort to make something stand out. This is not always the right choice, as it is more a case of increasing the contrast between the object and the background, that "makes something stand out". So if the object is a lighter shade than the background, then you should use a drop shadow. An outer glow is the way to go if the object is darker than the background. You want to create a sharp edge of contrast.

You need to avoid confusing the use of the words glow and shadow; they're a bit like different models of cars. You can have either one in a light or dark colour, and while they may have some similarities they handle differently. This is why I posted the examples of how glow/shadow are different... look at the shape of them

It doesn;t matter which effect you end up using; what is important is the colour you choose!

Yes, I understand all of that. My point was, how to choose between a light, or dark shade. Where I come from, a shadow denotes a dark shade, while a glow denotes a light shade. Weather you choose to use a dark glow or a light shadow is up to you, but the crux of my advice is correct. Is it not ?

We should really come up with some generic term for all these effects, since people use different software and the effects are named differently...

porkenbeans wrote:

MrBenn wrote:

porkenbeans wrote:The reason that I made this small tut. is because I see people using outer glow in an effort to make something stand out. This is not always the right choice, as it is more a case of increasing the contrast between the object and the background, that "makes something stand out". So if the object is a lighter shade than the background, then you should use a drop shadow. An outer glow is the way to go if the object is darker than the background. You want to create a sharp edge of contrast.

You need to avoid confusing the use of the words glow and shadow; they're a bit like different models of cars. You can have either one in a light or dark colour, and while they may have some similarities they handle differently. This is why I posted the examples of how glow/shadow are different... look at the shape of them

It doesn;t matter which effect you end up using; what is important is the colour you choose!

Yes, I understand all of that. My point was, how to choose between a light, or dark shade. Where I come from, a shadow denotes a dark shade, while a glow denotes a light shade. Weather you choose to use a dark glow or a light shadow is up to you, but the crux of my advice is correct. Is it not ?

Well, you're advising people to use only glow for light and shadow for dark, so no, not really.

natty_dread wrote:We should really come up with some generic term for all these effects, since people use different software and the effects are named differently...

Personally, I believe that Photoshop terms should be the de facto standard

porkenbeans wrote:It doesn;t matter which effect you end up using; what is important is the colour you choose!

Yes, I understand all of that. My point was, how to choose between a light, or dark shade. Where I come from, a shadow denotes a dark shade, while a glow denotes a light shade. Weather you choose to use a dark glow or a light shadow is up to you, but the crux of my advice is correct. Is it not ?[/quote]
The technical term for the effect that extends from the outer edge of your layer is called "glow". If it extends outwards, it's called "outer glow". If it extends inwards, it's called "inner glow".

The shade of the "glow" that you use should be referred to in terms of the colour, brightness, saturation, opacity, etc. By using the terms "glow" and "shadow" instead of "light" and "dark", you have left yourself open to misinterpretation.

Personally, I believe that Photoshop terms should be the de facto standard

What is this "Photoshop" you speak of? Do they sell cameras or something?

MrBenn wrote:

natty_dread wrote:We should really come up with some generic term for all these effects, since people use different software and the effects are named differently...

Personally, I believe that Photoshop terms should be the de facto standard

porkenbeans wrote:It doesn;t matter which effect you end up using; what is important is the colour you choose!

Yes, I understand all of that. My point was, how to choose between a light, or dark shade. Where I come from, a shadow denotes a dark shade, while a glow denotes a light shade. Weather you choose to use a dark glow or a light shadow is up to you, but the crux of my advice is correct. Is it not ?

The technical term for the effect that extends from the outer edge of your layer is called "glow". If it extends outwards, it's called "outer glow". If it extends inwards, it's called "inner glow".

The shade of the "glow" that you use should be referred to in terms of the colour, brightness, saturation, opacity, etc. By using the terms "glow" and "shadow" instead of "light" and "dark", you have left yourself open to misinterpretation.[/quote]I use the old 7.0 so maybe that is the reason for this difference in terms. I do not understand exactly what you are saying. Are you saying that a drop shadow should be called a glow ?

In the 7.0 software, there are "inner glow", "outer glow", "drop shadow" and inner shadow settings. The glow settings are default set, to a very light, pale yellow. while the shadow settings are preset to black. you can change these colors to anything that you want, but are preset for a reason. That is to give you a quick way to make the effect.

Sense the glow settings are preset to light yellow, and the shadow settings are set to black, this tells me that the photoshop terminology denotes shadow as dark, and glow as light. I can get behind that, and it makes perfect sense to me.

edit- I think that you messed up a tag or something Mr B.

Well the photoshop terms can be confusing to me... in paint.net, Glow is a totally different effect, one that affects the colours of the picture... and Drop Shadow can be set to any colour but also either directional or following the edges, and to make this even more confusing, let's throw in Outline and Trail as well

When you guys speak in photoshop terms, it doesn't even make sense to me.

natty_dread wrote:Well the photoshop terms can be confusing to me... in paint.net, Glow is a totally different effect, one that affects the colours of the picture... and Drop Shadow can be set to any colour but also either directional or following the edges, and to make this even more confusing, let's throw in Outline and Trail as well

When you guys speak in photoshop terms, it doesn't even make sense to me.

Outline sounds like a "stroke" to me. Trail ? I can not even guess what that is.

porkenbeans wrote:

natty_dread wrote:Well the photoshop terms can be confusing to me... in paint.net, Glow is a totally different effect, one that affects the colours of the picture... and Drop Shadow can be set to any colour but also either directional or following the edges, and to make this even more confusing, let's throw in Outline and Trail as well

When you guys speak in photoshop terms, it doesn't even make sense to me.

Outline sounds like a "stroke" to me. Trail ? I can not even guess what that is.

I'll show you..



in all except trail you can choose colour. Trail uses the colour of the object.

natty_dread wrote:

porkenbeans wrote:

natty_dread wrote:Well the photoshop terms can be confusing to me... in paint.net, Glow is a totally different effect, one that affects the colours of the picture... and Drop Shadow can be set to any colour but also either directional or following the edges, and to make this even more confusing, let's throw in Outline and Trail as well

When you guys speak in photoshop terms, it doesn't even make sense to me.

Outline sounds like a "stroke" to me. Trail ? I can not even guess what that is.

I'll show you..



in all except trail you can choose colour. Trail uses the colour of the object.

Interesting, it seems that "outline" IS a stroke with a direction option. This allows you the opportunity to create a 3-D (relief) as opposed to a disconnected "drop" shadow. The "trail" is similar to the outline, but it has a gradient (feathered) edge.

Interesting, it seems that "outline" IS a stroke with a direction option. This allows you the opportunity to create a 3-D (relief) as opposed to a disconnected "drop" shadow. The "trail" is similar to the outline, but it has a gradient (feathered) edge.

Well, actually you can adjust the feathering on all of these effects. The difference in Trail is that it uses the colour of the object, like this:



(I made the Trail layer darker so you can tell it apart from the object)

Hey pork, so since the color overlay defualt color is this color, it should only be used as such, amirite?

the.killing.44 wrote:Hey pork, so since the color overlay defualt color is this color, it should only be used as such, amirite?

You do not understand my point 44. Or you do, but are trying to be obnoxious. For a color overlay, my guess for the reason that they choose red, is because it is at the beginning of the spectrum, and they had to pick one color or another. The reason that they picked off-white for glow, and black for shadow is not a mystery to me. And, I do not see why it should be, to you or anyone else.

That is unless you live in a world of White shadows and black glows. Maybe you are from bizzarro world ?

These are only presets that we are talking about here. They are set to these defaults to make it quicker and easier to apply these effects. You are not limited to the preset settings. And, I never said that you were.

Hi, pork,

I only just looked at this post. The point you are making seems to be fine enough but I don't think you should really be telling people what NOT to do in your 'don't do this' part of the post. I have plenty of times used dark glows under dark colours. It isn't always about contrast sometimes a little dark shadow can make a dark object stick out from a dark ground that are of a similar saturation with a slightly darker colour without having to overpower that map with a contrasting colour like you suggest.

Just something I wanted to point out.

gimil wrote:Hi, pork,

I only just looked at this post. The point you are making seems to be fine enough but I don't think you should really be telling people what NOT to do in your 'don't do this' part of the post. I have plenty of times used dark glows under dark colours. It isn't always about contrast sometimes a little dark shadow can make a dark object stick out from a dark ground that are of a similar saturation with a slightly darker colour without having to overpower that map with a contrasting colour like you suggest.

Just something I wanted to point out.

I do not understand just what you mean. Perhaps you could supply an illustration ?

FYI, It is not that I am trying to tell people what "NOT" to do. Just merely trying to help people to understand how to go about using glows or shadows to make something "stand out".

It is not important which one you use, What is important is creating the contrast. THAT IS THE MAIN THING HERE. A light colored object will stand out more if you use a drop shadow. When I say the term "drop shadow", I am referring to a dark color. When I use the term "glow", I am referring to a "light" color. In photoshop these transfer modes are preset in this manner, so as to give you a quick way to add these effects. If however, you want to go in manually and change the color of a "glow" to something dark, that is perfectly kosher. Same thing for changing a shadow to a light color.

The main crux of this tutorial is- How to decide between light or dark, for the effect.

I think he's saying he has used a dark glow on a dark object, and that there are times when you do not want to add that much contrast, but still need to distinguish an object from it's background.

Come to think of it, I think I have also used a dark shadow on a dark object somewhere. It all depends on the application...