A bunch of really neat options are available under the Layer > Layer Style menu. You’ll find the same options under the Layer Style pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers palette (it’s the leftmost icon). To experiment with these options, first create a new, empty layer, and paint on it with any of the painting tools. Then apply one of the effects found in the Layer > Layer Style menu: Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Inner Glow, Outer Glow, Bevel and Emboss, and so on. You can use the default settings for now. After applying an effect, use the Eraser tool to remove some of the paint on that layer. Did you notice that the layer effect updates to reflect the changes you make to the layer? Layer Styles create in one simple step the same results that would usually require multiple layers and a lot of memory.
Once you have at least one Layer Style applied to a layer, you’ll see a black circle with a small “f” inside it in the Layers palette. That’s the only indication that a layer has a Layer Style attached to it. You can click on the triangle that appears next to that symbol to see a list of the Layer Styles that are applied to that layer. If you drag one of the Layer Styles from that list and release your mouse button when it’s on top of another layer, you’ll move that Layer Style to the second layer. Holding Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) when dragging a style will copy the style instead of moving it. Dragging the word “Effects” will move all of the Layer Styles that are attached to that layer. If you’d like to remove one of the Layer Styles, just click on its name in the list and drag it to the Trash icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.
You can even lower the Fill setting at the top of Photoshop’s Layers palette to reduce the opacity of the layer contents (or hold Shift and type a number while the Move tool is active) while keeping the Layer Style at full strength. Not only that, you can choose Layer > Layer Style > Create Layer to have Photoshop create the layers that would usually be needed to create the effect. For example, you might want to choose Create Layer if you want to distort the effect separately from the layer it was attached to. Let’s take a look at what a few of the Layer Styles do to your image.