Hi, I'm trying to get through a tutorial at thinkdan.com about making 3D rings and am having some trouble. The basic effect is that you create a ring somehow, then Ctrl+click on the ring's layer to highlight it. You go to the channels palette, hit the Save Selection As Channel button, then you click on the Alpha 1 channel. You then do a Gaussian Blur and adjust the curves. All that works fine for me. The next step where you are supposed to do a Lighting Effect is where I'm having problems. The Lighting Effect filter isn't even available. What do I need to highlight or click on to be able to use the Lighting Effects? I can make them available if I am not highlighting my alpha channel, but then of course the lighting doesn't create a 3D look. If anyone can offer any assistance on this I would appreciate it. I'm using photoshop 5.5 and the tutorial is located at:

http://www.thinkdan.com/tutorials/photoshop/ring/

Thanks in advance,
Josh

from what i can gather is the intended course of action: 1> select the layer with the ring (select all channels - switch to the channels tab and click on RGB) 2> filter render-->lighting effects 3> adjust the other light parameters as you want. there'll be a field where you can specify a channel you want the filter to use as a bump map. inthis you would want to load the channel you had tweaked earlier with curves (Alpha 1 i guess) 4> adjust the parameters and apply. experiment to get the effect you desire. 5> post back here if further help is required. :-D

Thanks mpalash. I was able to get it to work after reading your reply. I forgot about the option of choosing Alpha 1 in Lighting Effect so you can use it as a bump map. I still need to make some adjustments before I'm satisfied with how the image looks, but at least it looks 3D now. Thanks again, Josh

anytime man :-D