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Web Photo Button

Photoshop Tutorial

Summary:
A lot of times, it is useful to have a photograph within your buttons to give a clearer picture of where the button will take the user. If you have a photograph of money, for example, then it tells the user that the button is a financial section. In this tutorial, we'll learn how to create a nice photo button for your websites and graphic projects.

Step-By-Step Instructions:
1. Create New RGB document. Click on the swatch of the main fill and choose red color. Press to fill document with red. Use Elliptical Marquee (Shift+M) and draw a circle, while holding down Shift:

2. Open the photograph that you are planning to use on the button. Press (Ctrl+A) to select the whole photograph, then (Ctrl+C) to copy. Return to the document with red circle.

3. Go to Edit>Paste Into to paste the picture inside the selected circle. Don't worry about placement and size of the photo - we'll work on it in later steps:

4. Press Ctrl key and click in palette Layers on mask icon (it's located next to the layer's name) to select the area outside of the circle (as shown on image):

5. Click on the icon "Create a New Layer" on the bottom of the Layers palette to create a new layer. Press (Alt+Backspace) to fill the selected area with red fill. Press Ctrl+J to create a copy of this layer. As a result you'll have two identical layers located directly above each other:

6. On the bottom of Layers palette click on the icon Effects and choose Bevel and Emboss from drop down menu. Set Depth to 291 and Size and Soften to 14. In Shading set Angle to 135°, Altitude -37°, increase Opacity for highlights to 100% and for shadows - decrease to 40% as shown on the picture:

7. After applying this effect to the layer, your circle will look like 3d round button, with shadows and highlights applied. Press-and-hold and click on top layer to select the button:

8. Go to Select>Modify>Contract. Enter value 12 in popup dialog to contract the selection by 12 pixels (if you are working with high resolutions, for example 300ppi, set value to 44 pixels):

9. Press (Shift+M) until you have selected Rectangular Marquee tool. Hold down and draw a rectangular selection - about ž from the circle. Release ALT key and you'll have a selection as shown on the image:

10. Return to Layers palette and click on the layer located directly underneath the round button we have just worked with. Press the Backspace key, than (Ctrl+D) to deselect. You can't see the photo yet but click on the top layer and decrease Fill to 0% - and photo will appear in the top circle area:

11. Select the top layer in Layers palette. Click on icon "Add a layer style" on the bottom of palette and choose Drop Shadow from drop-down menu. Increase Opacity to 100%, uncheck Use Global Light, set 90°, and increase Distance value to 14 and Size to 18.

12. Click OK and you'll see a soft black shadow underneath your button. Select the layer with photograph and press to select Transform tool. Use it to modify location and size of your photograph:

13. Now we need to add text and other effects: