First in line is the Drop Shadow effect, probably the most used one out of all.
I use it quite a bit my self. The Shadow effect along with the Glow effect contain
most of the same general options.
Hightlight/Shadow:
Full control of Mode, Color, and Opacity of these 2 areas.
Style:
Under the style menu we have several different choices of effects:
Outer Bevel
Inner Bevel
Emboss
Pillow Emboss
Angle: Determines the lighting angle at witch the effect is applied to the layer.
all the layers containing Effects. Uncheck this if you want that angle to
be dependent on this layer only.
Depth: A higher value results in a more accentuated bevel.
Spread: A higher value increases the spread of the diffuse.
Up/Down: This is where you choose if you want your bevel to
look popped up or pushed down.
Bevel & Emboss Style Samples
Outer Bevel
Blue text having the same blue on the layer background.
Highlight Mode: Screen
Highlight Opacity: 100
Shadow Mode: Multiply
Shadow Opacity: 100
Style: Outer Bevel
Angle: 120
Depth: 100
Spread: 4
Up/Down: Up
Bevel & Drop Shadow
Photoshop allows us to do Multiple Effects at once. For example, when we apply
a Bevel to a type layer, we can also give it a Drop Shadow. This is easy to do.
Once you have applied a style, then select another style ( like a glow ),
Now you have 2 effects going at once. You can apply all the Effects if you want to.