How to Make Dents on a DIV in Photoshop

To use Photoshop to make dents on an image file in a webpage's DIV element, you can use the program's masking and gradient tools to simulate the way light plays over real dents. The more prone the object you want to dent is to denting, the more realistic your dented DIV image will appear. To better see how real dents are illuminated, you can use Photoshop's Levels command to increase the contrast of photos of dents. This command exaggerates subtle changes in shading so you can see that shading more easily.

Instructions

1. • 1
     Open WordPad or another text editor. Click "File" and then "Open." Navigate to and double-click the webpage whose DIV element links to an image file to which you want to apply a dent. The text editor will load the webpage's code.
   • 2
     Click your editor's "Find" command and type "DIV" in the Find dialog box to search for it. Jot down the name of the image file once you've found the DIV whose image you want to dent.
   • 3
     Open Photoshop, then click "File" and "Open." Navigate to and double-click the file name you jotted down when viewing the webpage's source code. Photoshop will load the image.
   • 4
     Click the "Background" item in the Layers panel, then click "Edit" and "Fill." Click "OK" to fill the background with black. This color will provide the dent's shading.
   • 5
     Right-click the topmost layer in the Layers panel, which holds your DIV image. Click "Add layer mask" to add a layer mask, which is a layer that hides the masked layer and reveals underlying layers when you paint black onto it. The lighter the paint you apply to the mask, the more the masked layer reveals itself. This behavior enables you to quickly but realistically simulate the shading of real-world dents.
   • 6
     Click the "Tools" panel icon shaped like a five-sided polygon with sharp points to run the Polygonal Lasso tool. Drag the mouse over the image region you want to dent to define a rough oval shape with jagged edges.
   • 7
     Click the "Tools" panel icon shaped like a rectangle with several shades of gray to run the Gradient Fill tool. Click just above the dent shape you drew, then drag to below that shape and release the mouse. The dent will appear. Its darker part is from the black background, while its lighter part comes from the original image.
   • 8
     Press "Ctrl" and "S" on your keyboard simultaneously to save the image. Open your Web browser to the page whose DIV image you just dented. The page will display the dented image.