This week’s topic comes to you directly from a question that was posted in the A5 Forum.  We are always interested to know what you would like to learn and what kind of tips you would like to see.  Post your ideas in this forum thread: What Do You Want.  Your question just might be the next one answered in this column!

LindaBelle asked for information on how to use a transparency gradient in Photoshop and today I am going to show you one way to do this.

Start with a solid white layer as your background and place a photo or other image on top of the background.

With your photo layer highlighted, click on the “add layer mask” icon at the bottom of the layers palette.  This will attach a mask to your image.

Click on the layer mask to make it active.  Now, select the gradient tool from your toolbar and apply a black/white gradient.  If you click on the image of the gradient at the top of your screen, the gradient menu will pop up.  You will see that the gradient is solid black on the left hand side and solid white on the right hand side.  This means that the starting point of your gradient will be black and the end point will be white.

After clicking ‘OK’ on this menu, a small cross-hair will appear on your screen.  Click the cross-hair at the point on your page where you want the layer mask to be black (completely hiding your photo) and drag the cross-hair to the point on your page where you want the layer mask to be white (where your photo will be fully visible).  Here is my result:

Next, open a background paper.  I am using a paper from the A5 Collab Starry, Starry Night.

Insert this paper between your white background layer and your masked photo layer to obtain the effect of your photo fading into the background paper.

Finally, experiment!  This seems to be the key in Photoshop, you may be surprised with the results.  If you create a layout using this technique, we would love to see it in the A5 gallery!!