Un-filling For Fun And Profit
Back in Photoshop 7.0, Adobe brought a once-buried command front and center when they added the Fill option to the Layers palette. This isn’t your average everyday fill. No sir, this is a special freaky fill that only works when you’ve applied a layer style to a layer. To see it in action (and immediately understand its power), create some text, and then apply a drop shadow. Lower the regular Opacity of this layer, and you’ll notice that both your type and the shadow fade at the same time. Now raise it back up to 100%. Then lower the Fill amount (in the Layers palette) and you’ll notice that the type fades away, but the drop shadow stays at 100%. Ahhhhh. Makes you stop and think, doesn’t it?