How to Install and Apply Elements Overlays

Overlays are images designed to sit on top of another image (as a layer) to create a new, enhanced image. Essentially, two images are merged together to make a new, single image. 

To use your overlays, follow these steps:

1. Download your purchase from The Luxe Lens to your desktop.

2. If you see a zipper on your downloaded folder, unzip the folder. If you're using a MAC operating system, you'll likely unzip a folder by double-clicking on it. If you're using a WINDOWS operating system, you'll likely need to right-click on the folder and select extract all. If you do not see a zipper on your downloaded folder, proceed to step 3. 

3. Save your overlays to a familiar place on your computer, like your desktop, My Documents folder, or cloud drive (e.g. gDrive, iCloud, etc.). When you apply your purchased overlays, you'll need to access your overlays from this known location.  

4. Open your image (that will receive the overlay) within Elements by going to File > Open. 

5. Select Expert Mode.

6. Place the overlay on top of your image by going to File > Place. 

7. Manually fit your overlay to fit your image.

8. Apply changes by selecting the check mark icon located on your image. 

9. Select the Layer Tab (lower right side of screen) and change from Normal to Screen (drop-down within layer tab). 

10. Adjust layer opacity

11. Refine with eraser, mask, and soft (black) brush

12. Merge layers

Overlay File Format

Most overlays are formatted as JPEG (JPG) or PNG files. Both formats have both strengths and weaknesses. While many sellers often include both JPG and PNG files, sometimes only one file type is included in a product download because that format offers superior image quality for the image type.