Photoshop Tutorials: Wedding Couple in Wine Glass

Learn Adobe Photoshop with Photoshop Tutorials at Photoshop

Essentials.com
Written By Steve Patterson

In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we're going to look at a classic Photoshop effect for wedding photography,
placing the wedding couple inside a wine glass. This is a very easy Photoshop effect to create, requiring nothing
more than a few basic tools, a layer mask, and a few minutes worth of effort. We'll be finishing off the effect with a
slightly more advanced blending option, but "more advanced" definitely doesn't mean "more difficult", as we'll see.

If you're not into wedding photography, you can use this Photoshop technique to place images inside any glass
object, like a bottle or even an hour glass, and it also works great for placing images inside bubbles which is always
a fun thing to do.

Any recent version of Photoshop will work just fine.

Here's the two images I'll be using in this Photoshop effects tutorial:

Photoshop Tutorials: The wedding couple.

Photoshop Tutorials: The wine glass.

And here's the final result we'll be working towards:

Photoshop Tutorials: The final result.

Let's get started.

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Step 1: Drag A Selection Around The Couple With The Elliptical Marquee Tool

We're going to start things off by working on the photo of the wedding couple. Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool
from Photoshop's Tools palette. By default, it's hiding behind the Rectangular Marquee Tool, so you'll need to click
on the Rectangular Marquee Tool icon and hold your mouse down for a second or two, then select the Elliptical
Marquee Tool from the fly out menu that appears:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool.

Then, with the Elliptical Marquee Tool selected, drag out an elliptical selection around the wedding couple. If you
need to reposition your selection as you drag, simply hold down the Spacebar on your keyboard and then move
your mouse around to reposition it. Release the Spacebar to continue dragging out the selection:

Photoshop Tutorials: Drag out an elliptical selection around the wedding couple.

Step 2: Feather The Selection

Next, we're going to "feather" the selection, which is Photoshop-speak for making the selection edges softer. To do
that, with the selection still active, go up to the Select menu at the top of the screen and choose Feather. When the
dialog box appears, enter a Feather Radius value of about 15-20 pixels. I'm going to set mine to 20 pixels:

Photoshop Tutorials: Add a feather of about 15-20 pixels to the selection to soften the edges.

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box.

Step 3: Drag The Selection Into The Wine Glass Photo

Now that we have our selection around the wedding couple and we've softened the selection edges, we need to drag
the selection into the photo of the wine glass. For that, we need the Move Tool, so select it from the Tools palette or
press V on your keyboard for the shortcut:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select the Move Tool.

Then, with both images open in their own separate document windows, simply click with the Move Tool inside the
photo of the wedding couple and drag the selection into the photo of the wine glass:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click inside the photo of the wedding couple and drag them into the photo of the wine glass.

Don't worry if some of your edges around the couple look like they're cut off, as mine do at the top and on the right.
We'll be fixing that in a moment with our layer mask. Also notice how the edges appear nice and soft (except of
course for the areas that appear cut off), and that's thanks to the feather we applied to the selection.

Once you've dragged the wedding couple into the other photo, you don't need to have their original image open on
your screen anymore, so you can close out of it if you wish.
Step 4: Resize and Reposition The Wedding Couple With Photoshop's Free Transform
Command

We need to move the wedding couple into position in front of the wine glass and we'll most likely need to resize
them as well (I certainly need to with my image), and we can do both of these things using Photoshop's Free
Transform command. Press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) on your keyboard to bring up the Free Transform
box and handles around them. To move the couple into position, simply click anywhere inside the Free Transform
box and drag them into their new location with your mouse.

The only spot you can't click on is that little target icon in the center of the Free Transform box. When I say "can't",
what I mean is, you can certainly click on it if you like, but if you do, you'll move the target instead of moving the
image. So if your goal is to move the image, not the little target icon, click anywhere except for on that target icon.
To resize the couple, hold down Shift+Alt (Win) / Shift+Option (Mac) and drag any of the corner handles.
Holding down Shift constrains the proportions of the image as you drag, and holding down Alt/Option tells
Photoshop to resize from the center of the Free Transform box (technically, it tells Photoshop to resize the image
around that little target icon, which is why you didn't want to move it):

Photoshop Tutorials: Move and resize the couple as needed with Free Transform.

Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're happy with the size and location of the couple to accept the
transformation.
Step 5: Add A Layer Mask To The Wedding Couple Layer

If we look in Photoshop's Layers palette, we can see that we now have two layers. The wine glass image is on the
bottom "Background" layer, and the wedding couple is on "Layer 1" above it. With "Layer 1" selected (the
currently selected layer is highlighted in blue), click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the "Layer Mask" icon at the bottom of Photoshop's Layers palette.

You'll see a layer mask thumbnail appear to the right of the layer preview thumbnail.

Photoshop Tutorials: "Layer 1" now has a layer mask thumbnail to the right of the layer contents preview
thumbnail.

Step 6: Paint With Black Around The Edges Of The Wedding Couple

Now that we have our layer mask, we're going to use it to blend the wedding couple in better with the wine glass,
and we'll do that by painting with black and a soft-edged brush around the edges of the wedding couple image. For
that, we need Photoshop's Brush Tool so select it from the Tools palette. You can also press B to select it with the
keyboard shortcut:
Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the "Layer Mask" icon at the bottom of Photoshop's Layers palette.

We also need black as our Foreground color. If black isn't currently your Foreground color, simply press D on your
keyboard, which will set white as your Foreground color and black as your Background color, and then press X to
swap them. Then with a medium-size, soft-edged brush, simply paint along the edges of the wedding couple image
to reveal the edges of the wine glass underneath them, and continue painting until the image of the couple is
completely contained inside the glass. To resize your brush, use the left and right bracket keys on your keyboard.
Pressing the left bracket key makes the brush smaller and pressing the right bracket key makes it larger. To soften
the edges of the brush, hold down the Shift key and press the left bracket key a few times (holding Shift and
pressing the right bracket key makes the brush edges harder):

Photoshop Tutorials: Paint with black and a medium size, soft-edged brush around the edges of the wedding couple
image to reveal the edges of the wine glass underneath them.

If you make a mistake as you're painting, either press Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac) to undo it or press X on
your keyboard to set your Foreground color to white, paint over your mistake, then press X again to set your
Foreground color back to black and continue painting around the edges.

When you're done, your image should look something like this:
Photoshop Tutorials: The image after containing the wedding couple inside the wine glass.

Step 7: Use The "Blend If" Sliders To Bring Back Some Glass Highlights

The only thing left to do at this point is to bring back some of the highlights in the glass. We can do that easily
using Photoshop's Blend If sliders. Click on the Layer Styles icon at the bottom of the Layers palette, then choose
Blending Options at the top of the list that appears:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the "Layer Styles" icon at the bottom of Photoshop's Layers palette and select
"Blending Options" from the top of the list.
This brings up Photoshop's "Layer Style" dialog box set to the "Blending Options" in the middle column. The
"Blend If" sliders are at the bottom. You'll see two black-to-white gradient bars. We want the bar at the very
bottom. Click on the white slider at the bottom right of the gradient bar and begin dragging it towards the left. As
you drag, you'll notice any white highlights and light reflections in the glass beginning to re-appear. Problem is,
they have very harsh, jagged edges. To soften them, as soon as the highlights begin to reappear, release your mouse
button, hold down your Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key, and then click back on the slider and continue dragging it
towards the left. By holding down Alt/Option, you split the slider in half and you'll now be dragging only the left
half of it. The area in between the two halves becomes a transition area between the wedding couple image and the
glass highlights, giving us nice, soft edges to the highlights. The greater the distance between the two halves, the
greater the transition area and the softer the edges of the highlights:

Photoshop Tutorials: Drag the white slider for the bottom "Blend If" bar towards the left until you begin to see any
highlights or light reflections reappearing in the glass, then release your mouse button, hold down "Alt" (Win) /
"Option" (Mac) and continue dragging the slider to split it in half and create soft, smooth edges for the highlights.

You'll probably need to play with the slider halves a bit, moving each one left and right until you're happy with the
results. When you're done, click OK in the top right corner of the Layer Style dialog box to exit out of it, and you're
done!

Here, after bringing back some of the highlights in the glass with the Blend If sliders, is my final "wedding couple
in the wine glass" result:
Photoshop Tutorials: The final effect.

And there we have it!

Photoshop Effects: Interweaving Photo Strips

Photoshop Effects and Photo Effects at Photoshop Essentials.com
Written By Steve Patterson

In this Photoshop tutorial, we're going to learn how to create an interesting photo effect by taking an image and
turning it into a series of interweaving strips. We'll be using a few layers and layer masks in the tutorial, as well as a
couple of clipping masks and a layer style, and we'll be turning on Photoshop's grid to help us out.

The first time I saw this Photoshop effect, I thought "Wow, there's some really advanced stuff going on there!". But
as with most things in life, after thinking about it for a few minutes, I realized just how simple it really is, as we'll
see!
Here's the photo I'll be using for this tutorial. It's the same image I used in the Ghosting An Image tutorial but it
works great with this effect as well:

Photoshop Effects: The original image.

And here's the same image after turning it into interweaving strips. Notice how the vertical and horizontal strips
seem to alternate between going above and below each other (which is where the "interweaving" part comes from):

Photoshop Effects: The final result.

Let's get started.

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Step 1: Crop The Image Into A Square

The first thing we need to do for this effect is crop the image into a square, although technically you could leave the
image as a 4x6 or whatever size it happens to be, but the effect tends to look best as a square, so let's crop it. We'll
use Photoshop's Crop Tool for this, so select it from the Tools palette:

Photoshop Effects: Select the Crop Tool.

You could also press the letter C to quickly select it with the keyboard shortcut. Then, with the Crop Tool selected,
hold down your Shift key and drag a selection around the person's face. Holding Shift tells Photoshop to constrain
the selection to a perfect square:

Photoshop Effects: Hold down "Shift" and drag a square selection around the person's face.

Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're done dragging out the selection, and Photoshop goes ahead and
crops the image into a square:
Photoshop Effects: The image is now cropped into a square.

Step 2: Duplicate The Background Layer Twice

The next thing we're going to do is create a couple of copies of our image. If we look in the Layers palette, we can
see that we currently have one layer which is named Background and it contains our original image (or at least,
what's left of our original image now that we've cropped it). We need to duplicate the Background layer a couple of
times, so use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac) to duplicate it once and then use the same
keyboard shortcut again to create a second copy. You should see three layers now in your Layers palette. Double-
click directly on the name of the layer on top and rename it "Vertical Strips", then double-click directly on the name
of the layer below it and rename it "Horizontal Strips":
Photoshop Effects: Press "Ctrl+J" (Win) / "Command+J" (Mac) to create two copies of the Background layer, then
rename the top one "Vertical strips" and the bottom one "Horizontal strips".

Step 3: Fill The Background Layer With Black

Press D on your keyboard to reset Photoshop's Foreground and Background colors to their defaults of black as the
Foreground color and white as the Background color (yours may already be set the default colors). Then click on
the original Background layer (the bottom layer) in the Layers palette to select it. We're going to fill it with black,
and with black now as our Foreground color, we can use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Backspace (Win) /
Option+Delete (Mac) which fills the currently selected layer with the current Foreground color (black). Nothing
will seem to have happened to the image, since the two layers above the Background layer are blocking it from
view, but if we look in the Layers palette, we can see that the Background layer's thumbnail is now filled with
black, telling us that the layer itself is filled with black:

Photoshop Effects: Select the Background layer in the Layers palette and press "Alt+Backspace" (Win) /
"Option+Delete" (Mac) to fill it with black.

Step 4: Turn The Top Layer Off For Now

We're going to create our horizontal strips first, but the "Vertical Strips" layer on top is going to block our view so
we need to temporarily turn it off. To do that, click on the layer visibility icon (the "eyeball" icon) to the left of the
"Vertical Strips" layer in the Layers palette. You won't see anything happen to the image itself since the "Vertical
Strips" and "Horizontal Strips" layers are identical at the moment, but when you click the eyeball icon, the eyeball
will disappear, letting you know that the layer is now hidden:
Photoshop Effects: Click on the "eyeball" icon to the left of the "Vertical Strips" layer in the Layers palette to
temporarily turn the layer off.

Step 5: Turn On Photoshop's Grid

We're going to create our vertical and horizontal strips, and to help us out, we'll use Photoshop's grid. Go up to the
View menu at the top of the screen, choose Show, and then choose Grid. You can also use the keyboard shortcut
Ctrl+' (Win) / Command+' (Mac) to easily turn the grid on and off. When your grid appears, if you find that you
can't see it very well because the grid color is blending in with the colors of your image, press Ctrl+K (Win) /
Command+K (Mac) to quickly bring up Photoshop's Preferences. Then, from the drop-down menu at the top,
choose Guides, Grid and Slices. From here, we can change the color of the grid. In the Grid options, click on the
color swatch in the top right corner, which will bring up Photoshop's Color Picker. Select a color for your grid that
you'll be able to see in front of your image and then click OK to exit out of the Color Picker. You can see in the
screenshot below of the Grid options that I've changed my grid color to yellow:

Photoshop Effects: Change the color of the grid in Photoshop's Preferences if needed.

Click OK to exit out of the Preferences dialog box. You should now see your grid in your new color (in my case
yellow) over top of your image:
Photoshop Effects: The grid showing over top of the image.

Step 6: Drag Out A Series Of Horizontal Selections

Let's create our horizontal strips first. Grab your Rectangular Marquee Tool from the Tools palette, or press M on
your keyboard to quickly select it:

Photoshop Effects: Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool.

Now let's use our grid to help us create our horizontal strips. First, make sure the "Horizontal Strips" layer is
selected in the Layers palette (the currently selected layer is highlighted in blue). I'm going to create horizontal
strips that are two grid rows high, with one grid row separating them from each other. Now, I want to make sure
that the woman's eyes are included in the final effect, so I'm going to start by dragging out a selection around the
two grid rows in front of her eyes. By default, my selection will snap to the grid as I'm dragging to make things
easy. If you find that your selection is not snapping to the grid, go up to the View menu at the top of the screen,
choose Snap To, and then choose Grid. You should see a checkmark to the left of the word "Grid".

Here's my selection around the two grid rows in front of her eyes:
Photoshop Effects: Drag out a horizontal selection two grid rows high.

This selection will become one of our horizontal strips. Now let's create the rest of them. Hold down your Shift
key, which will tell Photoshop to add these next selections to our original selection, and drag out more horizontal
selections, keeping each one two grid rows high and leaving one grid row separating each selection. Your image
should look like this when you're done:

Photoshop Effects: Hold down "Shift" and drag out the rest of the horizontal selections, making each one two grid
rows high and leaving one grid row between them.

Step 7: Add A Layer Mask

With our horizontal selections in place, click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a
layer mask to the "Horizontal Strips" layer:
Photoshop Effects: Click on the "Layer Mask" icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

Photoshop adds a mask to the layer and uses the selections we've created to determine which parts of the layer will
remain visible and which parts will become hidden from view. The areas that were inside our horizontal selections
remain visible, while the areas that were in the grid columns that separated our selections disappear, revealing the
black-filled layer underneath:

Photoshop Effects: After adding the layer mask, Photoshop hides the areas between our selections, revealing the
black-filled layer underneath.
I'm going to press Ctrl+'(Win) / Command+' (Mac) to temporarily hide my grid so we can see more clearly what's
happened. We've now created our horizontal strips:

Photoshop Effects: The horizontal strips are now created.

Step 8: Turn The "Vertical Strips" Layer Back On

We're going to do the same thing now to create our vertical strips. First, click on the top "Vertical Strips" layer in
the Layers palette to select it, then click back on its layer visibility icon to bring back the eyeball and turn the layer
itself back on:
Photoshop Effects: Select the "Vertical Strips" layer in the Layers palette and click once again on its layer visibility
icon to turn the layer back on.

Step 9: Drag Out A Series Of Vertical Selections

Just as we did when creating the horizontal strips, let's drag out a series of selections, this time vertical ones. We'll
make the vertical selections two grid columns wide, leaving one grid column between them. Use your Rectangular
Marquee Tool to drag out your first selection, then hold down Shift and drag out the rest of your selections. Your
image should now look like this:

Photoshop Effects: Drag out a series of vertical selections. Make them two grid columns wide and leave one grid
column between each selection to separate them.

Step 10: Add A Layer Mask

With our vertical selections in place, click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:
Photoshop Effects: Add a layer mask to the "Vertical Strips" layer.

Photoshop adds a layer mask to the layer and just as before, it uses our selections to determine which areas of the
layer remain visible and which ones disappear from view. The areas inside our selections remain visible, and the
areas that were inside the grid columns separating our selections disappear revealing both the "Horizontal Strips"
layer and the black-filled layer below:

Photoshop Effects: Only the areas that were inside our vertical selections remain visible.

Once again I'll turn off my grid temporarily with Ctrl+' (Win) / Command+' (Mac) so we can see the image itself
more easily. Your image should now look something like this:
Photoshop Effects: The vertical and horizontal strips are now created.

Step 11: Select All The Strip Intersection Points

We have our vertical and horizontal strips, but all it really looks like at the moment is that we have a bunch of black
squares covering our image. We need to create the illusion that the strips are weaving above and below each other.
To do that, we need to select the areas where the vertical and horizontal strips intersect. Before we do that though,
press Ctrl+' (Win) / Command+' (Mac) to turn off the grid if you haven't already, since we no longer need it. Then,
hold down your Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and click directly on the "Horizontal Strips" layer's layer mask
thumbnail:
Photoshop Effects: Hold down "Ctrl" (Win) / "Command" (Mac) and click directly on the "Horizontal Strips" layer
mask thumbnail.

This will load the horizontal selections back into the image:

Photoshop Effects: The horizontal selections are now loaded once again in the image.

Then hold down Shift+Ctrl+Alt (Win) / Shift+Command+Option (Mac) and click directly on the "Vertical Strips"
layer mask thumbnail:
Photoshop Effects: Hold down "Shift+Ctrl+Alt" (Win) / "Shift+Command+Option" (Mac) and click directly on the
"Vertical Strips" layer mask.

This will do two things: One, it will load the vertical selections back in to the image, and two, it will tell Photoshop
to keep the selection around only the areas where the horizontal and vertical selections intersect. Everything else
becomes deselected:

Photoshop Effects: Only the areas where the horizontal and vertical selections intersect remain selected.

Step 12: Save The Selection

Before we go any further, we need to save this selection. To do that, go up to the Select menu at the top of the
screen and choose Save Selection. When the "Save Selection" dialog box appears, simply click OK in the top right
corner to exit out of it:
Photoshop Effects: Save the selection.

Step 13: Deselect Every Other Square Selection

With your Rectangular Marquee Tool still active, hold down your Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key and drag a
selection around every other square selection. This will deselect the selections you drag around. Continue dragging
around every other square selection to deselect it until only half of the original square selections remain. Your
image should look like this:

Photoshop Effects: Deselect every other square selection until only half of them remain.
Step 14: Copy The Selection To A New Layer

Click on the "Horizontal Strips" layer thumbnail in the Layers palette to select it. Then press Ctrl+J (Win) /
Command+J (Mac) to copy the selected areas to a new layer. You won't see anything happen to the image itself, but
if you look in the Layers palette, you'll see a new layer named "Layer 1" added between the "Horizontal Strips" and
"Vertical Strips" layers which contains our square selected areas:

Photoshop Effects: Press "Ctrl+J" (Win) / "Command+J" (Mac) to copy the selected areas to a new layer.

Step 15: Create A Clipping Mask

With the new layer selected, go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen and choose Create Clipping Mask.
You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+G (Win) / Command+Option+G (Mac). Either way "clips" the
new layer to the layer below it. We can't see any difference in the image itself, but in the Layers palette, we can see
that the new layer is now indented to the right which tells us that it's being clipped by the layer below it:
Photoshop Effects: Hold "Ctrl" (Win) / "Command" (Mac) and click on the "Horizontal Strips" layer's layer mask
thumbnail.

Step 16: Reload The Saved Selection

Let's bring back the selection we saved a moment ago, and we can do that easily using the keyboard shortcut
Ctrl+Alt+4 (Win) / Command+Option+4 (Mac):

Photoshop Effects: Reload the saved selection.

Step 17: Deselect The Opposite Square Selections

With the Rectangular Marquee Tool still selected, once again hold down your Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key and
drag around every other square selection to deselect it. This time though, you want to keep the square selections
you deleted the first time we did this and deselect all the ones you kept, so that when you're done, your image looks
like this:
Photoshop Effects: Hold down "Alt" (Win) / "Option" (Mac) and drag selections around the square selections to
deselect them. Keep the ones you deselected previously and deselect the ones you kept.

Step 18: Copy The Selection To A New Layer

Click on the "Vertical Strips" layer at the top of the Layers palette to select it, then press Ctrl+J (Win) /
Command+J (Mac) to copy the selected areas to a new layer. Again, we won't see anything happen to the image
itself, but the Layers palette shows us a new layer named "Layer 2" above the "Vertical Strips" layer which contains
our selected square areas:

Photoshop Effects: The Layers palette showing the new layer at the top containing our selected square areas.
Step 19: Create A Clipping Mask

Just as we did a moment ago, either go up to the Layer menu and choose Create Clipping Mask or press
Ctrl+Alt+G (Win) / Command+Option+G (Mac) to create a clipping mask. We can now see the new layer
indented to the right telling us that it is being clipped by the "Vertical Strips" layer below it:

Photoshop Effects: The new layer is now being clipped by the "Vertical Strips" layer below it.

Step 20: Add An Outer Glow Layer Style

With the top layer still selected, click on the Layer Styles icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Effects: Click on the "Layer Styles" icon.

Select Outer Glow from the list of Layer Styles that appears:
Photoshop Effects: Select the "Outer Glow" layer style.

This brings up the "Layer Style" dialog box set to the "Outer Glow" options in the middle. We're going to turn our
"glow" into a shadow, and to do that, we need to change the Blend Mode at the top from Multiply. We also don't
want yellow as our shadow color, so click on the color swatch just below the word "Noise", which brings up
Photoshop's Color Picker, and select black as the color. Click OK once you've selected black to exit out of the
Color Picker. Lower the Opacity value to about 60% so the shadow isn't quite as dark and intense. Finally, in the
"Elements" section in the middle of the dialog box, raise the Size value to around 40 pixels:

Photoshop Effects: Change the "Outer Glow" options circled in red above.

You may need to adjust the "Size" value depending on the size and resolution of the image you're using. Click OK
when you're done to exit out of the Layer Style dialog box. Your image should now look something like this. We're
almost done:
Photoshop Effects: The image after applying the layer style to "Layer 2".

Step 21: Copy And Paste The Layer Style Onto "Layer 1"

All that's left to do now is apply the exact same Outer Glow layer style to "Layer 1". Rather than adding another
Outer Glow and having to change all the settings in the options again, we can simply copy our layer style from
"Layer 2" and paste it onto "Layer 1". To do that, go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen, choose Layer
Style, and then choose Copy Layer Style. Then click on "Layer 1" in the Layers palette to select it, go back up to
the Layer menu, choose Layer Style once again, and this time, choose Paste Layer Style.

As soon as you do that, the Outer Glow, along with all the settings we just changed, is pasted onto "Layer 1", and
the "interweaving photo strips" effect is complete:
Photoshop Effects: Copy and paste the Outer Glow layer style from "Layer 2" onto "Layer 1" to complete the
effect.

And there we have it!

Photoshop Rain Effect - Adding Rain To A Photo

Learn Adobe Photoshop with Photoshop Effects at Photoshop
Essentials.com
Written By Steve Patterson

Most of us would prefer to avoid being caught in the rain if possible, especially if we have our cameras with us. But
what if you're one of a large number of people who enjoy taking photos of weather? Even if weather photography
isn't your main interest, there's no denying that rain adds a whole new dimension to your images. So how do you
capture photos of rain without getting your camera all wet?

Easy! Wait till it stops raining, take the picture, then add the rain back in using Photoshop, which is exactly what
we're going to learn how to do in this photo effects tutorial.
Here's the photo I'll be working with for this effect:

Photoshop Rain Effect: The original image.

And here's the same image after adding the rain in Photoshop. It's really coming down out there!

Photoshop Rain Effect: The final result.

Let's get started.

Want a better way to learn? Download this tutorial as an easy to read, ready to print PDF eBook!
Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer

The first thing we need to do for this effect is duplicate our Background layer. With our image open in Photoshop,
we can see in the Layers palette that we currently have one layer, which is named Background. This layer contains
our original image:

Photoshop Rain Effect: The Layers palette in Photoshop showing us the original image on the Background layer.

We need to create a copy of this layer, so let's use the quick keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J
(Mac). Nothing will seem to have happened in the document window, but if we look again in our Layers palette, we
can see that we now have two layers - the original Background layer on the bottom, and a copy of it, which
Photoshop has named "Layer 1", above it:

Photoshop Rain Effect: Duplicate the Background layer by pressing "Ctrl+J" (Win) / "Command+J" (Mac).

Step 2: Add Some Extra Canvas Space Around The Image

The next thing we're going to do is add some extra canvas space around the image. The reason is because we're
going to be using the "Motion Blur" filter on the image, and the Motion Blur filter tends to run into problems when
dealing with edges, so we're going to make things easier on it by giving it a little more space around the edges to
work with. You'll see what I mean later on, but for now, let's add some extra canvas space. Before we do that
though, let's reset our Foreground and Background colors in Photoshop by pressing D on the keyboard. This sets
black as the Foreground color and white as the Background color. We can see this in the color swatches near the
bottom of the Tools palette:
Photoshop Rain Effect: Reset the Foreground and Background colors.

Now let's add our canvas space. For that, we'll use the Crop Tool. Select it from the Tools palette, or simply press
C on your keyboard:

Photoshop Rain Effect: Select the Crop Tool.

Then, with the Crop Tool selected, click and drag a selection around the entire image. If you're working with your
image displaying inside a document window, press F on your keyboard to switch Photoshop to Full Screen Mode
With Menu Bar, which will make things easier. Then just click outside the top left corner of the image and drag
down below the bottom right corner.

When you release your mouse button, you'll see little square handles all around the image. Hold down the Alt
(Win) / Option (Mac) key and drag either the left or right handle outward to add space on both sides of the image.
Holding down Alt or Option tells Photoshop to move the handles on both sides at once, which makes things easier
for us. Add an extra inch or two on the sides. Then do the same thing for the top and bottom. Hold down Alt/Option
and drag either the top or bottom handle to add the same amount of space above and below the image. Don't worry
about adding too much space because we'll be cropping it away later anyway. For now, it's better to add too much
than not enough:
Photoshop Rain Effect: Drag the handles to add more canvas space around the image.

When you're done dragging out the handles, press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac), and Photoshop will fill the extra
space with our current Background color which is white:

Photoshop Rain Effect: Photoshop fills the extra space with the current Background color.
Step 3: Add A New Blank Layer

We need to add a new blank layer to our document at this point, so with the top layer selected in the Layers palette
(you can tell which layer is selected by which one is highlighted in blue), click on the New Layer icon at the
bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Rain Effect: Click on the "New Layer" icon to add a new blank layer.

Photoshop adds a new blank layer for us above our other two layers. Again, nothing appears to have happened to
the image itself, and that's because our new layer is currently blank, but we can see the new layer at the top of the
Layers palette. Photoshop names it "Layer 2":

Photoshop Rain Effect: The new blank layer at the top of the Layers palette.

Step 4: Fill The New Layer With Black

We're going to fill the new layer with black. Since black is currently our Foreground color, we can use the easy
keyboard shortcut Alt+Backspace (Win) / Option+Delete (Mac), which tells Photoshop to fill the layer with our
Foreground color.

The image will now appear filled with solid black, temporarily hiding our photo from view.
Step 5: Add Noise To The Layer

Go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choose Noise, and then choose Add Noise. This brings up
Photoshop's "Add Noise" filter dialog box. Drag the Amount slider to the right to add a lot of noise to your image.
There's no exact value to enter, just add a lot. I'm going to drag my amount to around 150%. Also, make sure the
Monochromatic option at the bottom is checked:

Photoshop Rain Effect: Add noise to the black-filled layer.

Click OK when you're done to apply the noise to the image and exit out of the dialog box.

Step 6: Apply The Gaussian Blur Filter To The Noise

We need to add a small amount of blurring to the noise, so go back up to the Filter menu and this time choose Blur
and then Gaussian Blur. This brings up the "Gaussian Blur" filter dialog box. All we need is a slight amount of
blurring, so enter a value of about 0.5 for the Radius value, then click OK to exit out of the dialog box:
Photoshop Rain Effect: Apply the Gaussian Blur filter to the noise.

Step 7: Add A Levels Adjustment Layer

Remember how I just finished telling you to add a lot of noise to the image? Well, now we have way too much, but
we're going to fix that using Levels. We're going to use an adjustment layer though so that we can go back and
change the settings in Levels any time we want. We also want to make sure that our Levels adjustment layer is only
affecting the noise layer and has no effect on any other layers, so to do that, hold down your Alt (Win) / Option
key and click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Rain Effect: Hold down "Alt" (Win) / "Option" (Mac) and click on the "New Adjustment Layer" icon.

Then drag your mouse up and select Levels from the list of adjustment layers:
Photoshop Rain Effect: Select "Levels" from the list.

Since we held down our Alt/Option key, Photoshop will pop up the New Layer dialog box before adding the
adjustment layer. This is where we tell Photoshop that we only want this Levels adjustment layer to affect the layer
below it, which will be the noise layer. To do that, click inside the checkbox to the left of where it says Use
Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask:

Photoshop Rain Effect: Photoshop's "New Layer" dialog box.

Click OK in the top right corner to exit out of the dialog box, and Photoshop adds the Levels adjustment layer for
us. It also brings up the Levels dialog box, which we'll look at next.

Step 8: Reduce The Amount Of Noise And Increase Its Contrast

We're going to use Levels to both reduce the amount of noise we have and to boost the contrast in the noise that's
left over. With the Levels dialog box open, you'll see a large graph in the top half. This is called a Histogram. We
don't need to get into details about it here, but directly below the histogram, you'll see three sliders - a black one on
the left, a white one on the right, and a gray one in the middle. Click on the black one on the left and begin dragging
it towards the right.

As you do, you'll start to see some of the noise disappearing in the image. Then click on the white one on the right
and begin dragging it towards the left, which will increase the contrast in the noise that's left over:
Photoshop Rain Effect: Remove noise with the black slider on the left and increase the contrast with the slider on
the right.

Don't worry about the gray slider in the middle. It will move on its own as you drag the black and white ones. You
can use the screenshot above as a guide on how far to move the black and white sliders, or simply experiment on
your own until your image looks less like a whole bunch of noise and more like a starry night:

Photoshop Rain Effect: Reduce the amount of noise in the image with the black slider, and increase contrast in the
noise with the white slider.

Click OK in the top right of the Levels dialog box when you're done to exit out of it.
Step 9: Apply The Motion Blur Filter To The Noise

All of this noise that's left over in our image is going to become our rain. It doesn't look much like rain yet, but
we're going to help it out by applying the "Motion Blur" filter, which is going to give our rain some movement and
direction. Before we can apply the filter to the noise though, we first need to select it in the Layers palette, since we
currently have the Levels adjustment layer selected. Click on "Layer 2" to select it:

Photoshop Rain Effect: Select the noise layer in the Layers palette.

Now that we have the correct layer selected, go back up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, select Blur, and
then select Motion Blur, which brings up the "Motion Blur" dialog box. You can set the direction that the rain is
falling by adjusting the Angle option. I'm going to set my angle to about 60°. Then enter a value of about 50 pixels
for the Distance, although you may need to experiment a little with that value depending on the size of your image,
but 50 pixels works well for a standard 4x6 photo:

Photoshop Rain Effect: Set the direction the rain will fall in the "Angle" option, then set the "Distance" to around
50 pixels.
Click OK to exit out of the dialog box.

Step 10: Re-Adjust The Black And White Sliders In Levels As Needed

Depending on how far you dragged your black and white sliders in the Levels dialog box earlier, your noise may
have now disappeared completely in your image after applying the Motion Blur filter. To bring it back, simply re-
adjust the sliders by double-clicking directly on the thumbnail for the Levels adjustment layer in the Layers palette:

Photoshop Rain Effect: Bring back the Levels dialog box by double-clicking on its thumbnail in the Layers palette.

This brings back the Levels dialog box, and since we're using an adjustment layer, we can go back to re-adjust the
sliders as often as we want without damaging our image. You'll probably need to drag the black slider back a little
towards the left in order to bring your noise back into view, and you may want to drag the white slider a bit more to
the left as well to add more contrast:

Photoshop Rain Effect: Drag both the black and white sliders more towards the left to bring the noise back into
view in the image.

Again, you can use the screenshot above as a guide, but you're better off experimenting with the sliders while
keeping an eye on your image. Once you've managed to bring the noise back, click OK to again exit out of the
dialog box. Your image should now look something like this:
Photoshop Rain Effect: The motion blurred noise is now visible in the image.

If you look closely along the top and bottom edges of the image, you'll see that things look a little strange, and that's
because of the problem I mentioned at the beginning of the tutorial with the Motion Blur filter having trouble
around edges. No worries though because we added extra space around the edges, so none of that problem area is
going to affect our photo. In fact, we'll be cropping it away in the very next step.

Step 11: Crop Away The Extra Canvas Space

Now that we've applied our Motion Blur filter, we can crop away the extra canvas space we added earlier. To do
that, right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) directly on the thumbnail for "Layer 1" in the Layers palette:

Photoshop Rain Effect: "Right-click" (Win) / "Control-click" (Mac) on Layer 1's thumbnail in the Layers palette.

Layer 1 is the copy of our Background layer and it contains our original image before we added the extra canvas
space. When you right-click (Win) or Control-click (Mac) on its thumbnail, you'll see a selection appear inside the
document which is the exact size of our original image:
Photoshop Rain Effect: A selection appears inside the document.

All we need to now is go up to the Image menu at the top of the screen and select Crop. Photoshop will crop the
image around the selection, removing the extra canvas space and bringing our image back to the size it was when
we started.

Once you've cropped the image, press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) to remove the selection from the
screen.

Step 12: Change The Blend Mode Of The Noise Layer To "Screen"

We're almost done. The only problem remaining is that the noise layer is still blocking our original image from
view. To blend it in with the image and give us our rain effect, all we need to do is change the noise layer's blend
mode. Select the noise layer ("Layer 2") in the Layers palette. Then go up to the top left corner of the Layers
palette, click on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word "Normal", which is the default blend mode, and
select Screen from the list:
Photoshop Rain Effect: Change the blend mode of the noise layer from "Normal" to "Screen".

As soon as you change the blend mode, the original photo becomes visible in the document and our motion-blurred
noise becomes the rain!

If you want to fine-tune the rain effect, simply double-click once again on the Levels adjustment layer's thumbnail
in the Layers palette to bring back the Levels dialog box and re-adjust the black and white sliders until you're happy
with the rain effect. Click OK when you're done to exit out of it.

Here, once again, is my original image for comparison:

Photoshop Rain Effect: The original image for comparison.

And here is my final rain effect:

Photoshop Rain Effect: The final effect.

And that's how to add rain to a photo in Photoshop and avoid damaging your camera!

Adobe Photoshop Tutorial: Using A Photo As Its Own

Background
Learn Photoshop with Adobe Photoshop Tutorials at Photoshop
Essentials.com
Written By Steve Patterson

In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we're going to learn how to use a photo as its own background, which is a great
effect to use with wedding photography but can also be used with any image. We're going to be creating two copies
of our photo, using one as our main image and the other as the background, which we'll be colorizing, flipping and
fading into more of a watermark-style image.

We'll then take our main photo, reduce it in size, give it a nice border and shadow effect, and finally, move it into
the perfect spot in front of the background. We'll even be sampling some colors from the image to make sure
everything blends in nicely. This is an easy photo effect to create and takes very little time from start to finish.

Here's the image I'll be starting with:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: The original image.

And here's the final effect we're going for:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: The final result.

Let's get started.

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Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer Twice

The first thing we need to do for this photo effect is create a couple of copies of our image. We can see in the
Layers palette that we currently have just one layer, the Background layer, which contains our photo:
Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Photoshop's Layers palette showing the original image on the Background layer.

Let's make a couple of copies of it, and for that, we'll use the handy keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J
(Mac). Use the keyboard shortcut once to create the first copy, then use it again to create a second copy. You should
now have three layers in your Layers palette:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Press "Ctrl+J" (Win) / "Command+J" (Mac) twice to create two copies of the
Background layer.

The main reason why we've created two copies here is to avoid working on our original Background layer, since it
contains our photo's original pixel information and we always want to keep that safe in case we need to go back to
it.

Step 2: Hide The Top Layer

The layer at the top of the Layers palette is going to become our main page, but we're going to work on the layer
below it for now, which is going to become our background. In order to see what we're doing though, we need to
hide the top layer. To do that, click on its layer visibility icon (the icon that looks like an eyeball) on the left of the
layer in the Layers palette:
Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Hide the top layer in the Layers palette by clicking on its layer visibility (eyeball) icon.

Nothing will appear to have happened to your image when you hide the top layer, since all three layers contain the
exact same image, but we'll now be able to see what we're doing when we turn the layer below it into our
background, which we'll do next.

Step 3: Sample A Color From The Image To Use For The Background

Let's create our background. First, click on the middle layer in the Layers palette to select it:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Click on the middle layer in Photoshop's Layers palette to select it.

We need to sample a color from the image which we're going to use to colorize the background. To do that, grab the
Eyedropper Tool from the Tools palette, or press I on your keyboard to quickly select it:
Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Select the Eyedropper Tool.

Then, with the Eyedropper Tool selected, click on an area inside your image which contains the color you want to
use for your background. I'm going to sample a color from the woman's cheek, which should work nicely:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Click inside the image with the Eyedropper Tool to sample a color.

You'll see the color appear as your Foreground color in the Tools palette:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: The sampled color now appears in the Foreground color swatch in the Tools palette.
Step 4: Colorize The Background Using A Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer

Now that we have our sampled color, let's use it to colorize the background. Click on the New Adjustment Layer
icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Click on the "New Adjustment Layer" icon.

Then select Hue/Saturation from the list:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Select "Hue/Saturation" from the list of Adjustment Layers.

This brings up Photoshop's "Hue/Saturation" dialog box. There's no need to fumble around with any sliders here
trying to pick a color because we've already chosen the color we want to use, so all we need to do is select the
Colorize option in the bottom right corner of the dialog box:
Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Click inside the checkbox to the left of the "Colorize" option to select it.

As soon as you select that option, Photoshop goes ahead and colorizes the image using the sampled color:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: The image now colorized using the color sampled from it.

I'm going to boost the saturation of the color by dragging the Saturation slider to the right until the saturation value
is at 50. Then, to give the background a washed-out appearance, I'm going to drag the Lightness slider to the right
to a value of around 75:
Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Increase the "Saturation" to 50 and the "Lightness" to 75.

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box. Here's my image after being colorized and lightened:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: The background is now colorized and appears washed out.

Latest Photoshop Photo Effects Tutorials

Step 5: Flip The Image Horizontally

There's one last thing to do with our background. Let's flip it horizontally so it appears as a mirror image of our
main photo.

To do that, we first need to select the correct layer. At the moment, we have the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer
selected in the Layers palette, so click on "Layer 1" below it which contains our background image.

Then go up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen, choose Transform, and then choose Flip Horizontal.

The photo will flip sideways, giving us our "mirror image" and completing our work on the background:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal to flip the background sideways, creating a
mirror image of the main photo.

Step 6: Turn The Top Layer Back On

We're done with our background, so let's work on our main image, which is on the top layer in the Layers palette.
The layer is currently hidden, so click once again on its layer visibility icon to turn it back on:
Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Click once again on the layer visibility icon of the top layer to turn it back on.

When you click on the icon, the eyeball will re-appear and the original image will appear in the document,
temporarily blocking the background we just worked on from view.

Step 7: Resize The Main Image With Free Transform

We're going to make our main image smaller, and we'll do that using Photoshop's Free Transform command. First,
click on the top layer in the Layers palette to select it. Then use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T (Win) /
Command+T (Mac) to bring up the Free Transform handles around the image. Hold down Shift+Alt (Win) /
Shift+Option (Mac) and drag any of the corner handles inward to reduce the size of the photo. Holding Shift
constrains the proportions of the image as you drag, and holding Alt/Option tells Photoshop to resize the image
from its center. It's a judgment call on your part how small you want to make your image. I'm going to make mine
roughly 60% of its original size:
Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Reduce the size of the original image using "Free Transform".

Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're happy with the new size of your image to accept the
transformation.

Step 8: Add A Stroke To The Main Image

Let's add a thin border around our main image. We'll use a Stroke Layer Style for that. Click on the Layer Styles
icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Click on the "Layer Styles" icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.
Then select Stroke from the bottom of the list of Layer Styles:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Select "Stroke" from the list.

This brings up Photoshop's Layer Style dialog box set to the Stroke options in the middle column. Let's choose a
color for our stroke, again by sampling a color from the image. To do that, click on the color swatch, which by
default appears red:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Click on the color swatch for the Stroke to select a new color.

When you click on the color swatch, Photoshop's "Color Picker" will appear, which is normally where you would
choose a new color, but we're going to ignore it since we want to sample a color directly from the image itself. To
do that, move your mouse over the main image and you'll see your mouse cursor change into the Eyedropper icon.
Then, just as we did before, click on an area inside the image to sample the color. I'm going to sample a shade of
white from the bride's dress:
Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Sample a color from inside the image to use with the Stroke.

When you click inside the image, you'll see the Stroke's color swatch change to the color you just sampled. When
you're happy with the color you've chosen, click OK in the top right corner of the Color Picker to close out of it
(even though we never actually used it).

Once you have your stroke color chosen, go up to the Stroke Size option at the top of the dialog box and set it to
about 4px. You may want to set it a bit higher if you're using a large, high resolution image, but we're not going for
a polaroid look here. We want something a little more elegant, especially if you're doing this with a wedding photo,
so try to keep your stroke fairly thin. Also, set the Position option to Inside:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Keep the Stroke fairly thin by setting its "Size" to about 4 pixels, and change the
"Position" to "Inside".

Don't click OK just yet. We have one more Layer Style to add.

Step 9: Add A Drop Shadow

Let's add a Drop Shadow before closing out of the Layer Style dialog box. Click directly on the words Drop
Shadow on the left of the dialog box:
Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Click directly on the words "Drop Shadow" on the left.

This will bring up the Drop Shadow options in the middle column, where the Stroke options were a moment ago.
By default, Photoshop sets the Drop Shadow color to black, but that's too harsh for this effect, so let's choose a
different color. Just as we did with the Stroke, click on the color swatch:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Click on the Drop Shadow's color swatch in the Layer Style dialog box.

This will again bring up Photoshop's Color Picker, and again I'm going to ignore it because I want to sample a color
directly from the image. I want my Drop Shadow to be roughly the same color as what I used to colorize my
background, but just a little darker (since it's a shadow, after all), so I'm going to sample a color from the man's
face, which is slightly darker than the woman's:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Sample a slightly darker color from what you used to colorize the background for the
Drop Shadow.

As you click inside the image, the Drop Shadow color will change to whichever color you just clicked on, so you
can see a preview of your shadow color as you're clicking. When you're happy with the color, click OK in the Color
Picker to exit out of it. Your color swatch in the Layer Style dialog box will now have changed to the color you
sampled.

With my color chosen, I'm going to lower the Opacity of my Drop Shadow to about 40% so it's not too intense,
and I'm going to change my Angle to about 130°:
Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Lower the opacity of the shadow to around 40% and change the angle to roughly 130°.

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the Layer Style dialog box. Your image should now look something like
this:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: The image after applying the Stroke and Drop Shadow.

Step 10: Reposition The Main Image As Needed

Things are looking good, except for one thing. My main image in front is blocking the man and woman's face in the
background, so the first thing I'm going to do is move the main image. To move it, we need the Move Tool, so
either select it from the Tools palette or press V on your keyboard:
Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Select the Move Tool.

Then, with the top layer still selected, click inside the document and drag the main image into its new location. I'm
simply going to drag mine down a little, so to make sure I'm dragging in a straight line, I'm going to hold down my
Shift key as I click and drag:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Drag the main image to a new position with the Move Tool. Hold "Shift" to drag in a
straight line.

Step 11: Resize And Reposition The Background Image As Needed

Since the couple's faces in the background are still being blocked by the top portion of my main image, I'm going to
finish things off by increasing the size of my background image. Normally you wouldn't want to increase the size of
an image because it tends to make images look soft and dull, but since this image is being used simply as a
background, we can get away with it. Before I can make the background larger though, I first need to select its
layer, so I'm going to click on "Layer 1" in the Layers palette to select it.
If you're currently working with your image in a document window, you're doing to want to press the F key on your
keyboard at this point to switch Photoshop to Full Screen Mode With Menu Bar, otherwise you won't be able to
see what you're doing with the Free Transform handles. Then just as we did before, I'm going to use the keyboard
shortcut Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up the Free Transform handles, this time around the
background image. I'm going to hold down my Shift key to constrain my image porportions, as well as Alt (Win) /
Option (Mac) to resize the image from its center, and I'm going to click on any of the corner handles and drag it
outward to enlarge my background image:

Adobe Photoshop tutorial: Enlarging the background with Free Transform.

I'm also going to reposition my background slightly by simply clicking anywhere inside of it with the Free
Transform handles still active and dragging it into its new position. I'm going to move mine up a little and a little to
the right until my background seems to be balanced nicely with the main image.

When you're happy with the size and location of your background image, press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) to
accept the change and you're done! Here, after making my background a bit larger and moving it slightly so it
balances better with the main image, is my completed effect:
Adobe Photoshop tutorial: The final effect.

And there we have it!

Photoshop Tutorials: Turn A Photo Into A Collage Of

Polaroids
Learn Photoshop with Adobe Photoshop Tutorials at Photoshop
Essentials.com
Written By Steve Patterson

In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we're going to learn how to take a single photograph and turn it into a collage of
polaroids, with each polaroid containing a small section of the overall image. You can use this effect with lots of
different types of images, whether it's a photo of one person or several people. It's great for photos of family or
friends, vacation photos, or even as a creative effect for wedding photography.

This is a very easy photo collage effect to create, and as we'll see later in the tutorial, much of the work is simply
repeating the same few steps over and over again until you're happy with the results.

Here's the image that I'll be working with in this Photoshop tutorial:

Photoshop Tutorials: The original image.

And here's what the image will look like when we're done:
Photoshop Tutorials: The final result.

Let's get started.

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Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer

The first thing we need to do for this effect is duplicate our Background layer. With our image open in Photoshop,
we can see in the Layers palette that we currently have just one layer, the Background layer, which contains our
original image:

Photoshop Tutorials: The Layers palette in Photoshop showing the original Background layer.

To quickly duplicate the layer, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac). Photoshop creates a
copy of the Background layer for us, names it "Layer 1", and places it above our Background layer in the Layers
palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: The Layers palette now showing the copy of our Background layer above the original.

Step 2: Add A New Blank Layer Between The Two Layers

Next, we need to add a new blank layer between our Background layer and the copy of it that we just created.
Currently the copy is selected in the Layers palette (we can tell the layer is selected because it's highlighted in blue).
Normally when we add a new layer, Photoshop places the new layer above the layer that's currently selected, but
we want our new layer below "Layer 1", not above it. To tell Photoshop to place the new layer below "Layer 1",
hold down your Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and then click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the
Layers palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Hold down "Alt" (Win) / "Option" (Mac) and click on the "New Layer" icon at the bottom of
the Layers palette.

Photoshop adds a new blank layer named "Layer 2" between "Layer 1" and the original Background layer:

Photoshop Tutorials: Photoshop adds the new blank layer between the Background layer and "Layer 1".

Step 3: Fill The New Layer With Black

We're going to use black as the background for our effect, so let's reset our Foreground and Background colors if
needed by pressing D on your keyboard. This sets black as your Foreground color and white as your Background
color, as we can see in the Foreground and Background color swatches near the bottom of the Tools palette:
Photoshop Tutorials: Press "D" to reset Photoshop's Foreground and Background colors to black and white if
needed.

Now with black as our Foreground color and the new blank layer selected in the Layers palette, let's fill the new
layer with black using the keyboard shortcut Alt+Backspace (Win) / Option+Delete (Mac). Nothing will appear to
have happened to the image itself, and that's because "Layer 1", which contains a copy of our original image, is
blocking "Layer 2" from view. But if we look at Layer 2's thumbnail in the Layers palette, we can see that we've
filled the layer with black:

Photoshop Tutorials: Layer 2's thumbnail in the Layers palette now shows that the layer is filled with black, even
though we can't see it yet in the image itself.

Step 4: Add A New Blank Layer

With "Layer 2" (the layer we just filled with black) selected, click once again on the New Layer icon at the bottom
of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Add a new blank layer.

Photoshop will add a new blank layer between the black-filled layer and the copy of the original image above it:
Photoshop Tutorials: The new blank layer is added between "Layer 1" and "Layer 2".

Step 5: Drag Out A Rectangular Selection As The Inside Of Your First Polaroid

Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool either from the Tools palette or by pressing M on your keyboard:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool.

Then, with the Rectangular Marquee Tool selected, drag out a selection inside your image which will become the
inside of the first polaroid (the part which contains the photo). I'm going to drag my selection around the baby's
face. It doesn't really matter where you make this selection since you'll be able to move it anywhere you like later:
Photoshop Tutorials: Drag out a selection in the shape of the inside of a polaroid photo.

Step 6: Fill The Selection With Black

We need to fill the selection with black at this point. Technically, it doesn't matter which color we fill the selection
with, but to keep things simple and since black is currently our Foreground color, let's use black. Make sure you
have the new blank layer selected in the Layers palette, and then use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Backspace (Win) /
Option+Delete (Mac) to fill the selection with the Foreground color, which is set to black. Again, nothing seems to
have happened in the document, and that's because the image on "Layer 1" at the top is still blocking everything
else from view, but if we look at the thumbnail for the blank layer in the Layers palette, we can see that the selected
area has indeed been filled with black:

Photoshop Tutorials: The new blank layer's thumbnail in the Layers palette now shows the selected area filled with
black.

Step 7: Create A Clipping Mask From The Filled Selection

We're going to use the selection we just filled with black to create what's called a clipping mask for the layer above
it. What this means is that the layer above it, "Layer 1" which contains the copy of our image, is going to be
"clipped" by our filled selection on the layer below it. In other words, the only part of the image on "Layer 1" that
will remain visible is the part directly above the section filled with black. The rest of the image will become hidden
from view. To create our clipping mask, click on "Layer 1" to select it in the Layers palette. Then go up to the
Layer menu at the top of the screen and select Create Clipping Mask. You can also use the keyboard shortcut
Alt+Ctrl+G (Win) / Option+Command+G (Mac). Either way, Photoshop "clips" the image on "Layer 1", keeping
only the area above the black-filled shape below it visible and hiding the rest of the image, revealing our black
background on "Layer 2" in its place:
Photoshop Tutorials: The image on "Layer 1" is now clipped using the black-filled shape on the layer below it.

If we look in the Layers palette now, we can see that "Layer 1" is indented to the right with a small arrow pointing
downward on the left. This indicates that the layer is being clipped by the layer below it:

Photoshop Tutorials: The Layers palette showing that Layer 1 is now being clipped by the layer below it.

Step 8: Add Another New Blank Layer Above "Layer 2"

We need to add another new layer, and we need it between the black-filled layer ("Layer 2") and the layer
containing our filled selection ("Layer 3"). To do that, click on "Layer 2" to select it and then click once again on
the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:
Photoshop Tutorials: Add another new blank layer directly above the black-filled layer ("Layer 2").

Photoshop adds the new layer between "Layer 2" and "Layer 3" and names it, surprisingly enough, "Layer 4":

Photoshop Tutorials: The new blank layer, "Layer 4", is added between "Layer 2" and "Layer 3".

Step 9: Drag Out Another Rectangular Selection As The Border Of The Polaroid

With your Rectangular Marquee Tool still selected, drag out another rectangular selection, this time around the
outside of the original selection, which will become the white border of the polaroid. Keep in mind that polaroid
photos have some extra space at the bottom of the border, so add some extra space at the bottom of your selection:
Photoshop Tutorials: Drag a selection around the outside of the original selection to create the border of the
polaroid.

Step 10: Fill The Selection With White

Since the border of a polaroid is usually white, let's fill our selection with white. Make sure that you have the new
blank layer, "Layer 4", selected in the Layers palette. Then, since white is currently our Background color, let's use
the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Backspace (Win) / Command+Delete (Mac) to fill the selection with the Background
color (white). Press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) when you're done to deselect the selection. We now have
our first polaroid in our image:

Photoshop Tutorials: Fill the selection with white to create the first polaroid.

Step 11: Add A Drop Shadow Layer Style

We have our first polaroid, and we're going to use it to easily create as many polaroids as we want. But before we
do anything else, let's add a slight drop shadow to it. We won't be able to see the drop shadow just yet, since we're
using a black background, but we will see it once we start piling polaroids on top of each other. To add our drop
shadow, with "Layer 4" selected, click on the Layer Styles icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the "Layer Styles" icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

Select Drop Shadow from the list of layer styles:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select "Drop Shadow".

This brings up Photoshop's "Layer Style" dialog box set to the Drop Shadow options in the middle column. I'm
going to set my shadow Angle to about 120° and then lower the Opacity value at the top all the way down to about
30% so my shadow isn't too intense:

Photoshop Tutorials: Lower the "Opacity" of the drop shadow to 30% and set the "Angle" to around 120°.

Click OK to exit out of the Layer Style dialog box. As I said, we won't be able to see the drop shadow just yet
thanks to our black background, but don't worry. We'll see it soon enough.
Step 12: Rotate The Polaroid

I'm going to rotate my polaroid to add a bit more interest to it. In order to do that, I need to select both layers in my
Layers palette which make up my polaroid. I already have "Layer 4" selected, which makes up the outside of it, but
I also need "Layer 3" selected, which makes up the inside, so with "Layer 4" selected, I'm going to hold down my
Shift key and click on "Layer 3", which will select both layers at once (they'll both appear highlighted in blue):

Photoshop Tutorials: Use the "Shift" key to select both "Layer 3" and "Layer 4" in the Layers palette.

Then with both layers selected, I'm going to bring up Photoshop's Free Transform handles around my polaroid
using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac). To rotate it, all I need to do is drag my mouse
cursor anywhere outside of the Free Transform handles. The mouse cursor will change to a "rotate" cursor with
curved arrows on either end of it. As I drag my mouse, the polaroid will rotate:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click and drag anywhere outside of the Free Transform handles to rotate the polaroid.

You can also move the polaroid to a new location if you wish by clicking inside of it and dragging it around the
screen with your mouse. I'm going to leave mine where it is for now and simply rotate it. As you drag, you'll notice
that the border of the polaroid moves and rotates but the image inside of it does not, and that's because we're not
moving the actual image. It remains fixed in place. The only thing we're moving is the polaroid itself, and this is
what's going to allow us to create our final effect, as we'll see.
When you're happy with the location and angle of the polaroid , press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) to apply the
transformation.

Step 13: Group All Three Layers Which Make Up The Polaroid

We have our first polaroid created and rotated into place. Now we're going to use it to create as many polaroids as
we want. Before we can do that though, we need to group all three layers which make up the polaroid , which are
the top three layers in the Layers palette. "Layer 1" contains the image itself, "Layer 3" contains the inside of the
polaroid , and "Layer 4" contains the outside of it. In order to group them, we need them all selected. We already
have "Layer 3" and "Layer 4" selected, so once again hold down your Shift key and click on "Layer 1" to add it, so
all three layers are selected and highlighted in blue:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select the three top layers in the Layers palette at once.

Then, with all three layer selected, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+G (Win) / Command+G (Mac) to group them.
You'll see all three layers disappear from the Layers palette and be replaced by a layer named "Group 1", which
contains a folder icon to indicate that it's a Layer Group. If you click on the right-pointing triangle to the left of the
folder icon, the group will open and you'll see your three layers inside of it:

Photoshop Tutorials: The three layers which make up the polaroid are now inside a Layer Group.
Step 14: Duplicate The Layer Group

We're going to use this Layer Group to create our second polaroid , and we're going to do that by duplicating the
group. First, click once again on the triangle to the left of the folder in the Layers palette to close the group so your
Layers palette doesn't get too cluttered. Then simply click on the group and drag it down onto the New Layer icon
at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Duplicate the Layer Group by dragging it down onto the "New Layer" icon.

When you release your mouse button, you'll see the copy of the Layer Group appear above the original:

Photoshop Tutorials: The copy of the Layer Group appears above the original.

We now have our second polaroid.

Step 15: Move And Rotate The Second Polaroid With The Free Transform Command

Just as we did with the original, we're going to move and rotate this second polaroid using Free Transform (I didn't
actually move my first one, but you may have, so let's pretend I did as well). First, twirl open the newly created
copy of our Layer Group by clicking on the triangle to the left of its folder icon. Just as before, you'll see all three
layers inside of it which make up the polaroid . We need to select the bottom two layers which make up the inside
and outside of it, so click on one, then hold down Shift and click on the other to select them both:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select the bottom two layers inside the copy of the Layer Group.

Then with both layers selected, press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up the Free Transform handles
around the polaroid . At the moment, it looks like there's only the one polaroid in the image, and that's because both
of them are directly on top of each other. Click inside the polaroid and drag it to move it to a new location, and
you'll see that you do in fact have two. Drag this second one to wherever you like in your document, and then rotate
it just as before, by moving your mouse anywhere outside of the Free Transform handles and dragging your mouse
to rotate it left or right. You'll see that once again, we're only moving the polaroid itself. The image inside of it
remains fixed in place, and now that we've added a second polaroid , we're displaying more of the full size image:

Photoshop Tutorials: Use Free Transform to move and rotate the second polaroid .
You'll also notice that with the second polaroid overlapping the original, we can now see the drop shadow, which
gives the image a bit of depth. When you're happy with the location and angle of your second polaroid , press Enter
(Win) / Return (Mac) to apply the transformation. We now have two polaroids completed:

Photoshop Tutorials: Two polaroids have now been added to the image.

Step 16: Add, Move And Rotate More Polaroids As Needed

At this point, we just repeat the exact same process over and over until we've added enough polaroids to reveal
enough of the original image. First, drag the top-most Layer Group down onto the New Layer icon at the bottom of
the Layers palette. This will create a copy of the last polaroid you made. Then twirl the new Layer Group open by
clicking on the arrow to the left of its folder icon and select the two bottom layers which make up the inside and
outside of the polaroid. Press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up the Free Transform handles, click
inside them and drag the image into a new location to reveal more of the overall image, then move your mouse
outside of the handles and drag to rotate the new polaroid. Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) to accept the
transformation, then repeat the process again until you've added enough polaroids that you're happy with the results.
There's no "right or wrong" placement of the polaroids , so don't be afraid to play around with it, and you can
always go back and move or rotate any of the polaroids at any time by selecting its Layer Group, twirling it open,
selecting the two bottom layers, then using Free Transform to move and/or rotate it again.

I'm going to add, move and rotate more polaroids here with my image, and after creating about 16 polaroids,
moving and rotating each with the Free Transform command, here is my final result:
And there we have it!

Photoshop Water Reflection - Add A Realistic Water

Reflection
Learn Photoshop with Photoshop Effects Tutorials at Photoshop
Essentials.com
Written By Steve Patterson

In this Photoshop photo effects tutorial, we're going to learn how to easily add a realistic water reflection to any
photo. It's a very easy effect to create and you can add it to any photo you like, although it tends to work best with
images that don't already contain water in them.

We'll be using a simple filter and a displacement map to create the water ripple effect, and a Hue/Saturation
adjustment layer to give our water a little color.

Here's the photo that I'll be working with throughout this tutorial:
Photoshop Water Reflection: The original image.

And here's what our image is going to look like after adding the water reflection :
Photoshop Water Reflection: The final result.

Let's get started.

Want a better way to learn? Download this tutorial as an easy to read, ready to print PDF eBook!

Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer

With our image newly opened inside Photoshop, we can see in the Layers palette that we currently have one layer,
the Background layer, which contains our image:
Photoshop Water Reflection: The original image on the Background layer in the Layers palette.

We need to duplicate the Background layer, and we can do that using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) /
Command+J (Mac). Now when I look in my Layers palette now, I can see that I now have two layers - my original
Background layer on the bottom and a new layer, "Layer 1", above it which is my duplicate:

Photoshop Water Reflection: Press "Ctrl+J" (Win) / "Command+J" (Mac) to duplicate the Background layer.

Step 2: Add More Canvas Space To The Bottom Of The Document

We're going to add our water reflection below the image, so let's add some canvas space to the bottom of our
document to make room for our reflection. To do that, go up to the Image menu at the top of the screen and choose
Canvas Size. This will bring up Photoshop's "Canvas Size" dialog box. The easiest thing to do here is to add twice
as much canvas space as what we currently have, but we only want it to appear at the bottom of the document, not
above it or on either side, so we need to tell Photoshop exactly where we want this extra canvas space to go.

First, enter 100 for the Height and set the measurement to percent, as circled in red below. Leave the Width option
set to 0. Then make sure the Relative option is checked, which tells Photoshop to give us 100% more canvas space
than what we already have. Below the "Relative" option is a 3x3 grid of squares. This is where we tell Photoshop
where we want to place our additional canvas space. Click inside the square in the middle of the top row (again as
circled below). This tells Photoshop not to place any of the extra canvas space above the document and instead to
place all of it at the bottom:
Photoshop Water Reflection: Add more canvas space using the "Canvas Size" dialog box.

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box, and Photoshop will add the extra canvas space to the bottom of the image:
Photoshop Water Reflection: The height of the document has now been doubled with the extra canvas space added
to the bottom.

Step 3: Flip The Top Layer Vertically

In order to create our reflection, we need to flip our image upside down, so let's do that.

With the top layer selected in the Layers palette, go up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen, choose
Transform, and then choose Flip Vertical.

Photoshop will flip the image upside down in the document:

Photoshop Water Reflection: Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical to flip the image on the top layer upside down.

Step 4: Drag The Flipped Image To The Bottom Of The Document

We need the flipped image to be at the bottom of the document, so grab your Move Tool from the Tools palette, or
press V on your keyboard for the shortcut:

Photoshop Water Reflection: Select the Move Tool.

Then, with the Move Tool selected, click inside the document and drag the flipped image down to the bottom until
the top of it is lined up with the bottom of the original image above it. Hold down Shift as you drag to make sure
you drag down in a straight line:
Photoshop Water Reflection: Drag the flipped image down below the original.

Step 5: Add A New Blank Layer

Now that we have our flipped image in place, we can begin to create our water ripple effect. First, we need to add a
new blank layer at the top of the Layers palette, so with "Layer 1" still selected, click on the New Layer icon at the
bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Water Reflection: Add a new blank layer to the document.

Step 6: Fill The New Layer With White

We're going to fill our new blank layer with white. If white is not currently your Background color, press D on your
keyboard, which will reset Photoshop's Foreground and Background colors, making black your Foreground color
and white your Background color. Then use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Backspace (Win) / Command+Delete
(Mac) to fill the new layer with the Background color (white). Your document will be filled with solid white.

Photoshop Water Reflection: The entire image is now filled with white.

Step 7: Apply The "Halftone Pattern" Filter To Create Black And White Horizontal Lines

Go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choose Sketch, and then choose Halftone Pattern. This brings up
Photoshop's Filter Gallery (in Photoshop CS and higher) set to the "Halftone Pattern" filter options on the right,
with a large preview of the effect on the left. We're going to use this filter to add a series of black and white
horizontal lines to the image. These lines are going to become our water ripples . The more lines we have, the more
ripples we'll have. First, we want to make sure we're creating lines and not dots or circles, so set the Pattern Type
option to Lines. We control the number of lines by adjusting the Size option. Lower values give us more lines,
since we're lowering the size of each line, and higher values give us fewer but thicker lines. I'm going to set my
Size value to 7, which I think works best for my image. You may want to experiment with this value on your own.
The Contrast option below it determines how sharp the edges of the lines are. Lower values give you softer lines,
white higher values give you hard edge lines. Set this value all the way to 50 to give your lines sharp edges. We're
going to soften them ourselves with the Gaussian Blur filter in a moment:
Photoshop Water Reflection: Adjust the Halftone Pattern filter options to create a series of black and white lines
through the image.

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box, and Photoshop will fill the image from top to bottom with
your black and white lines:

Photoshop Water Reflection: The image is now filled with black and white horizontal lines.

Step 8: Apply The "Gaussian Blur" Filter To The Lines

Before we can use our black and white lines as water ripples , we need to smooth them out and create nice, smooth
transitions between them. To do that, go up to the Filter menu once again, choose Blur, and then choose Gaussian
Blur, which brings up the "Gaussian Blur" dialog box. Keep an eye on your image and drag the slider at the bottom
of the dialog box to increase the Radius value until the lines have a very soft edge to them. I'm using a small image
for this tutorial, so for me, a Radius value of about 4 pixels works well. If you're using a larger, high resolution
image, you'll need to set yours to a higher value:
Adobe Photoshop Tutorials: Use the Gaussian Blur filter to smooth out the edges of the lines.

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box and apply the blur to the lines.

Step 9: Duplicate The Lines Layer As A New Document

We're going to create a brand new document out of our lines layer, which we'll then use as our displacement map
for our water ripples . With the lines layer selected, go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen and select
Duplicate Layer, which brings up the "Duplicate Layer" dialog box. In the "Destination" options, click on the
down-pointing arrow to the right of the Document option and set it to New, which will create a new Photoshop
document out of our layer:

Photoshop Water Reflection: Set the "Document" option in the "Duplicate Layer" dialog box to "New".

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box, and your layer will open up in a new document on the screen.

Step 10: Save The New Document And Close Out Of It

This new document that we've created is going to become our displacement map, but before we can use it, we need
to save it. We're also going to close out of it after we've saved it, since we won't need it open anymore, and the
easiest way to accomplish both of those tasks is to simply close out of the document. When you try to close out of
it, Photoshop will as you if you want to save the document before closing it. Click Yes:
Photoshop Water Reflection: Choose "Yes" when Photoshop asks if you want to save the document before closing
it.

Photoshop will bring up the Save As dialog box. You can name your new document anything you like. I'm going to
name mine "water-ripples". Make sure you save it as a Photoshop .PSD file, since those are the only files that
Photoshop can use as a displacement map. You'll probably want to save the document to your Desktop, since we'll
need to find it again in a moment.

Step 11: Delete The Lines Layer

Now that we've used our black and white lines to create the file we'll be using as our displacement map, we can get
rid of it. To do that, simply click on it and drag it down onto the Trash Bin icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Water Reflection: Click and drag the lines layer ("Layer 2") onto the Trash Bin at the bottom of the
Layers palette to delete it.

Step 12: Merge The Two Layers Onto A New Layer

Before we can add use our displacement map, we need to merge our two image layers onto a new layer above them.
To do that, with "Layer 1" selected, use the keyboard shortcut Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E (Win) /
Shift+Command+Option+E (Mac). Nothing will appear to have happened in the document, but if we look in the
Layers palette, we can see that both layers have been merged onto a new layer at the top:
Photoshop Water Reflection: Both layers are now merged onto a new layer, "Layer 2".

Step 13: Use The "Displace" Filter To Create The Water Ripples

We're ready to create our water ripples using the displacement map we just created. With the new merged layer
selected in the Layers palette, go back up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choose Distort and then
choose Displace .

This brings up Photoshop's "Displace" filter dialog box. This is where we determine the strength of our ripple
effect, and we do that with the Horizontal Scale option at the top. I'm going to set mine to a value of 4, which will
give me a realistic ripple effect. You may want to experiment with this value with your own image. Setting it too
high though will create too much of a horizontal distortion and you'll lose the realism.

We don't need any vertical distortion to create our effect, so set the Vertical Scale option to 0. Also, make sure that
Stretch To Fit and Repeat Edge Pixels are selected:

Photoshop Water Reflection: Go to Filter > Distort > Displace to bring up the Displace dialog box.

Click OK in the top right corner of the dialog box, and Photoshop will ask you which file you want to use as your
displacement map. Choose the file that you just saved a moment ago, which I saved to my Desktop as "water-
ripples.PSD", and then click Open. Photoshop will then apply the displacement map to the entire image, creating
our water ripples :
Photoshop Water Reflection: The image after applying our displacement map with the "Displace" filter.

Step 14: Hide The Ripples On Top With A Layer Mask

Of course, we have a slight problem at the moment. We've added our water ripple effect to the entire image, and we
only wanted it in the bottom half. We can fix that easily though using a layer mask. First, Ctrl-click (Win) /
Command-click (Mac) directly on the thumbnail for "Layer 1" in the Layers palette to place a selection around the
flipped image at the bottom of the document:
Photoshop Water Reflection: "Right-click" (Win) / "Control-click" (Mac) directly on Layer 1's thumbnail in the
Layers palette to place a selection around the flipped image.

You'll see a selection appear around the bottom half of the image in your document. Now, with the merged layer
still selected, click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Water Reflection: Click on the "Layer Mask" icon to add a layer mask to the merged layer at the top of
the Layers palette.

Photoshop will add a layer mask to the merged layer, and because we had a selection around the bottom half of our
document when we added the layer mask, only the bottom half of the merged layer remains visible. The top half
becomes hidden from view, removing the unwanted water ripples from that part of the image:
Photoshop Water Reflection: The ripple effect is now hidden from the top half of the image after applying the layer
mask.

We're almost done. Let's finish things off by adding a hint of color to the water, which we'll do next.

Step 15: Apply The "Gaussian Blur" Filter To The Layer Mask

Before we add our finishing touch by colorizing the water , let's soften the edge of the layer mask a little so there
isn't such a harsh dividing line between the image on top and the water below. We'll use the Gaussian Blur filter for
that, and since we want to apply it to the layer mask, we'll need to first select the mask. We can do that by clicking
on the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette:
Adobe Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette to select the layer mask.

You can tell that the layer mask is now selected by the white highlight box around its thumbnail. We're going to
apply the Gaussian Blur filter to the mask, so go back up to the Filter menu, select Blur once again, and then select
Gaussian Blur. When the dialog box appears, simply click OK to apply the same Radius value we used previously.

Step 16: Colorize The Water With A Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer

Let's finish things off now by adding just a hint of blue to our water, and we'll use a Hue/Saturation adjustment
layer for that. We want the adjustment layer to only affect the bottom half of the image where the water ripples are,
so hold down your Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key, click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the
Layers palette, then select Hue/Saturation from the list of adjustment layers:

Photoshop Water Reflection: Hold down "Alt" (Win) / "Option" (Mac), click on the "New Adjustment Layer" icon,
then drag your mouse to "Hue/Saturation" to select it.
By holding down "Alt/Option", this tells Photoshop to bring up the New Layer dialog box before adding the
adjustment layer. Select the Use Previous Layer To Create Clipping Mask option by clicking inside the
checkbox to the left of it:

Photoshop Water Reflection: Select the "Use Previous Layer To Create Clipping Mask" option in the "New Layer"
dialog box.

This option tells Photoshop that we want the adjustment layer to affect only the layer directly below it in the Layers
palette, and since the layer below it is the layer containing our water ripples , only the water ripples will be
colorized, which is what we want. Click OK to exit out of the dialog box.

This will bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog box. We want to colorize our water, so the first thing we want to do
here is select the Colorize option in the bottom right corner. Then select the color you want your water to be by
dragging the Hue slider at the top. I'm going to drag my slider to the right to a value of about 218, which I think is a
good color for my water :

Photoshop Water Reflection: Use the Hue/Saturation dialog box to colorize the water .

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box , and you'll see that your water on the bottom has now been colorized, but the
color is much too strong at the moment.

Step 17: Lower The Opacity Of The Hue/Saturation Layer

To reduce the intensity of the color we just added to the water , all we need to do is go up to the Opacity option in
the top right corner of the Layers palette and lower the opacity value. I'm going to lower mine all the way down to
about 25%, which adds a much more realistic amount of color to the water :
Photoshop Water Reflection: Lower the opacity of the adjustment layer until the water has only a hint of color to it.

Once you've lowered the opacity of the adjustment layer to reduce the color intensity of the water , you're done!

Here once again is my original image for comparison:

Photoshop Water Reflection: The original image once again.

And here is my final "water reflection" result:

Photoshop Water Reflection: The final effect.

Just for fun, here's another example of the exact same effect applied to a different image. The only thing I changed
here was that I only added half as much canvas space below the original image (I set the "Height" value in the
Canvas Size dialog box to 50% instead of 100%). Everything else was done exactly the same way:
Photoshop Water Reflection: Another example of an image using the same effect.

And there we have it!

Photoshop Tutorials: Bourne Ultimatum Color and

Motion Blur
Learn Adobe Photoshop with Photoshop Tutorials at Photoshop
Essentials.com
Written By Steve Patterson

In this Photoshop tutorial, we're going to look at how to recreate the same color and motion blur effect used in the
movie poster for the biggest action movie of the 2007 summer, the Bourne Ultimatum. We'll be using Photoshop's
Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to colorize the image using a color I've sampled directly from the poster itself.

To create the motion blur, we'll be using Photoshop's classic Motion Blur filter, and we'll be finishing off the effect
with a couple of layer masks to bring back just a hint of the flesh tones from the original image, as well as to
remove the blur effect from the main subject.
To complete this Photoshop tutorial, you'll need a photo of Matt Damon walking towards you looking a little upset
about something and carrying a gun. If you don't happen to have a photo like that (and hopefully you don't), any
photo of someone walking towards you on the street will do.

Here's the image I'll be using for this Photoshop Effects:

Photoshop Tutorials: The original image.

And here's the same image after applying the "Bourne Ultimatum" color and motion blur effect to it:
Photoshop Tutorials: The final result.

Let's get started.

Want a better way to learn? Download this tutorial as an easy to read, ready to print PDF eBook!

Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer

As is often the case with many of our Photoshop tutorials (and also a good habit to get into), the first thing we want
to do in creating this effect is duplicate our Background layer. Photoshop's Layers palette is currently showing us
that we have only one layer, the "Background" layer, which contains our original image:

Photoshop Tutorials: The Layers palette showing the original image on the Background layer.
Let's duplicate the layer using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac). When I look in my
Layers palette now, I can see that Photoshop has copied my Background layer and has named the copy "Layer 1".
The copy is also above the original Background layer:

Photoshop Tutorials: Press "Ctrl+J" (Win) / "Command+J" (Mac) to duplicate the Background layer.

Step 2: Set The Color You Want To Colorize The Image With As Your Foreground Color

We're going to use a "Hue/Saturation" adjustment layer to colorize the image in a moment, but to make things
easier, let's choose the color we're going to use first by setting it as our Foreground color. This way, we won't have
to fumble around with any sliders in the Hue/Saturation dialog box trying to find the color we want. To do that,
click on the Foreground color swatch in the Tools palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the Foreground color swatch near the bottom of the Tools palette.

When you click on it, Photoshop's Color Picker will appear. You're of course free to use whichever color you want
for your effect. I've gone ahead and sampled a color directly from the movie poster, so if you want to use the same
color I'll be using, look on the bottom right side of the Color Picker for the RGB options and enter 48 for the R
value (which stands for Red), 94 for the G value (Green), and 116 for the B value (Blue):
Photoshop Tutorials: Use the Color Picker to choose the color you want to colorize the image with.

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box.

Step 3: Colorize The Image With A Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer

Now that we've selected the color we're going to use to colorize the image, this next step is going to be easy. Click
on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the "New Adjustment Layer" icon.

Then choose Hue/Saturation from the list that appears:

Photoshop Tutorials: Choose "Hue/Saturation" from the list.

This will bring up Photoshop's Hue/Saturation dialog box. Since we've already chosen the color we want to colorize
the image with, all we need to do here is select the Colorize option in the bottom right corner of the dialog box:

Photoshop Tutorials: Check the "Colorize" option.

As soon as you check the option, Photoshop goes ahead and colorizes the image using our chosen Foreground
color:
Photoshop Tutorials: Photoshop colorizes the image with our chosen Foreground color.

Click OK to exit out of the Hue/Saturation dialog box.

Step 4: Select Your Brush Tool

In the movie poster for the "Bourne Ultimatum", the entire image is colorized except for Matt Damon's face and
hands, which have some of his original flesh tone showing through, and we can do the same thing with our image
very easily. First, we need the Brush Tool, so either select it from the Tools palette or press B on your keyboard:

Photoshop Effects: Select the Brush Tool.

Step 5: Set Your Foreground Color To Black

In order to bring back some of the color from the original image, we're going to use our brush to paint with black on
the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer's layer mask. Anywhere we paint with black is going to hide the effects of the
adjustment layer and bring back our original color. In order to paint with black, we need black as our Foreground
color, and we can get that easily by pressing D on the keyboard, which resets Photoshop's Foreground and
Background colors, making black our new Foreground color (white becomes the Background color). We can see
this if we look at the Foreground and Background color swatches in the Tools palette:

Photoshop Effects: Reset the Foreground color to black by pressing "D" on your keyboard.

Step 6: Lower The Opacity Of The Brush To About 30%

We only want to bring back a subtle amount of color, so we need to lower the opacity of our brush before we begin
painting. To do that, with the Brush Tool selected, go up to the Opacity option in the Options Bar at the top of the
screen and lower the opacity of the brush to around 30%:

Photoshop Effects: Lower the opacity of your brush to around 30%.

This way we'll only be bringing back 30% of the original color rather than the full amount.

Step 7: Select The Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer's Layer Mask

As I mentioned, we're going to paint with black on the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer's layer mask, rather than on
the image itself, so let's select the layer mask by clicking on the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette:

Photoshop Effects: Select the layer mask by clicking on its thumbnail in the Layers palette.
You'll know that the layer mask is selected because it will have a white highlight border around the thumbnail, as
we can see in the image above.

Step 8: Paint On The Image To Bring Back Some Of The Skin Tone

We have our Brush Tool with our Foreground color set to black, we've lowered the opacity of the brush to 30%,
and we've selected the layer mask for the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer in the Layers palette. All we need to do
now is paint over any areas where we want to bring back some of the color from the original image. I want to bring
back some color in the skin tones of both people in my image, so I'm going to paint over their faces and hands to
bring back some skin color. To resize my brush as needed, I'll use the left and right bracket keys on my keyboard.
The left bracket key makes the brush smaller and the right bracket key makes it larger. Here' I'm painting over the
guy's face and you can see that his skin tone is showing through:

Photoshop Effects: Paint with black to reveal some of the original skin tone.

If you accidentally paint over an area you didn't mean to paint over, simply press X on your keyboard to switch
your Foreground color to white and paint over the mistake, then press X again to switch back to black and continue
painting.
Photoshop Effects: The image after bringing back some of the skin tones.

At this point, we're done colorizing our image. Next, we're going to add the motion blur effect.

Step 9: Apply The Motion Blur Filter To The Background Copy Layer ("Layer 1")

We're going to add our motion blur effect to the image, and we'll use Photoshop's classic and appropriately named
"Motion Blur" filter to do it. We want to apply the motion blur to the copy of the Background layer that we created
back at the beginning of this tutorial, so click on "Layer 1" in the Layers palette to select it. You'll know it's selected
because it will appear highlighted in blue:
Photoshop Tutorials: Click on "Layer 1" in the Layers palette to select it.

Now that we have the correct layer selected, let's go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choose Blur, and
then choose Motion Blur. This will bring up the Motion Blur filter's dialog box. Set your Angle to around -40°.
Then drag the slider at the bottom to adjust the Distance of the motion blur. The value you set this to is going to
depend a lot on the size of your image. I'm using a small image for this tutorial, and for me, a value of about 35
pixels gives me roughly the same effect used in the Bourne Ultimatum movie poster:

Photoshop Tutorials: Set the "Angle" to -40°, then adjust the blur distance with the slider at the bottom.

If you're using a large, high resolution image, you'll want to set your Distance value higher. Use my image below as
a guide for the blur distance you're aiming for:
Photoshop Tutorials: The image after applying the Motion Blur filter.

Step 10: Add A Layer Mask To The Motion Blur Layer

What I'm going to do next is allow the two people in the image to show through the motion blur effect, and I'm
going to once again use a layer mask for that. With "Layer 1" still selected, I'm going to click on the Layer Mask
icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click the "Layer Mask" icon.

This adds a layer mask to our motion blurred layer, and it also adds a layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette. I
can tell from the white highlight border around the thumbnail that the layer mask is already selected for me:

Photoshop Tutorials: The Layers palette now showing the layer mask thumbnail on "Layer 1".

I can now use this layer mask to hide the motion blur from in front of the two people in my image, which I'll do
next.

Step 11: Paint With Black On The Layer Mask To Hide The Motion Blur

With black still as my Foreground color and the layer mask on "Layer 1" selected, I'm going to use my Brush Tool
again to paint over the areas in the image where I want to hide the motion blur, which in my case is in front of the
two people. I want to use a soft-edged brush for this, so I'm going to hold down my Shift key and press the left
bracket key on my keyboard a few times, which will give me a nice soft edge for my brush. Before I begin
painting, I'm going to go back up to the Options Bar and set the opacity of my brush back up to 100%:

Photoshop Tutorials: Set the opacity of the Brush Tool back to a full 100% in the Options Bar.

Once again, I'm going to resize my brush as needed using the left and right bracket keys, and I'm simply going to
paint with black over the two people in my image, allowing them to show through the motion blur. As I approach
the edges of the people, I'm going to keep my brush just inside the edge to give me a nice blend between the people
and the motion blur around them. If I make a mistake and accidentally paint over an area I didn't mean to, I can
simply press X on my keyboard to switch my Foreground color to white, just as I did when painting on the
Hue/Saturation layer mask, and paint over the mistake. Then I'd press X again to switch back to black and continue
painting away the motion blur:
Photoshop Tutorials: Paint with black over areas to hide the motion blur.

I'm going to continue painting over the guy until I've removed all of the motion blur in front of him, leaving a nice
effect around the edges:

Photoshop Tutorials: The image after painting away the motion blur effect in front of the guy.
And here's my image after painting away the motion blur effect in front of the woman behind him as well:

Photoshop Tutorials: Both people are now showing through the motion blur.

Step 12: Add A New Layer At The Top Of The Layers Palette

At this point, our effect is pretty much complete. We've colorized the image, brought back some of the original skin
tone, added our motion blur, and then painted away the motion blur in front of the two people. Let's finish things
off by adding a little grunge to the image. First, click on the Hue/Saturation layer in the Layers palette to select it so
we can add a new blank layer above it. Then click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:
Photoshop Tutorials: Select the Hue/Saturation layer in the Layers palette, then click on the "New Layer" icon.

Photoshop will add a new blank layer at the top of the Layers palette, and will name it "Layer 2":

Photoshop Tutorials: A new blank layer is added to the top of the Layers palette.

Step 13: Fill The New Layer With White

We need to fill this new layer with white, and since white is currently our Background color, we can use the
keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Backspace (Win) / Command+Delete (Mac), which tells Photoshop to fill the layer with
the Background color. The image will now appear completely filled with white.

I won't bother showing a screenshot, since a white image on a white background wouldn't look very interesting.

Step 14: Apply Photoshop's "Add Noise" Filter To The Layer

Go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choose Noise, and then choose Add Noise. This brings up the
"Add Noise" filter's dialog box. I'm going to use the slider to set my Amount value to around 100% or so, giving
me quite a bit of noise. You may want to set yours even higher if you're using a high resolution image. Also, make
sure that the Gaussian and Monochromatic options are both selected at the bottom of the dialog box:

Photoshop Tutorials: Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise to bring up the Add Noise dialog box.

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box. Your image will now be filled with noise:
Photoshop Tutorials: The image after filling the top layer with noise.

Step 15: Change The Blend Mode Of The Noise Layer To "Color Burn"

Our image is filled completely with noise, which isn't what we want. Let's blend the noise in with the image by first
changing the blend mode of the noise layer. Go up to the blend mode options in the top left corner of the Layers
palette, click on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word "Normal" and change the blend mode to Color
Burn:

Photoshop Tutorials: Change the blend mode of the noise layer to "Color Burn".

Step 16: Lower The Opacity Of The Noise Layer To 10% Or Less

The noise is now blending in with the image but it's much too intense. To fix that and complete our effect, go over
to the Opacity option in the top right of the Layers palette (directly beside the blend mode option) and lower the
opacity of the layer all the way down to 10% or less. I'm going to set mine to 8%, leaving the noise barely visible
but enough to add a little "dirt" to the image:

Photoshop Tutorials: Lower the opacity of the noise layer to 10% or less so the noise is just barely visible.
Once you've blended in your noise with the image, you're done!

Here, for comparison, is my original image once again:

Photoshop Tutorials: The original image once again.

And here is the final "Bourne Ultimatum movie poster" color and motion blur effect:
Photoshop Tutorials: The final effect.

Photoshop Effects: Digital Pixel Effect

Photoshop Effects and Photo Effects at Photoshop Essentials.com
Written By Steve Patterson

In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we're going to look at how to create a "digital pixel" effect, which is often used
in ads that sell anything to do with digital.

We're going to first pixelate our entire image using a very simple filter, and then we'll experiment with a layer
mask, the opacity setting and some layer blend modes to create different variations on our effect.

At the end of the tutorial, we'll even see how something as simple as changing the blend mode of a layer can create
an entirely new effect!

Want a better way to learn? Download this tutorial as an easy to read, ready to print PDF eBook!

Here's the original image I'll be starting with:

Photoshop Effects: The original image.

As I said, we'll be looking at a few different variations on the effect. Here's the first one we'll be working towards:

Photoshop Effects: One of the effects we'll be creating in this tutorial.

Here's the second one:

Photoshop Effects: A variation on the same effect.

And just as an example of how easily we can create what seems like an entirely different effect simply by changing
a layer's blend mode, we'll finish off with this one:

Photoshop Effects: The final variation on the effect.

Let's get started.

Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer

The first thing I need to do for this effect is to duplicate my Background layer. With my image open in Photoshop, I
can see in my Layers palette that I currently have only one layer, the Background layer, which contains my image:

Photoshop Effects: Photoshop's Layers palette showing the Background layer.

I'm going to duplicate that layer using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac), and now I can
see in my Layers palette that I have two layers, with the copy of the Background layer above the original.
Photoshop has named it "Layer 1":

Photoshop Effects: Press "Ctrl+J" (Win) / "Command+J" (Mac) to duplicate the Background layer.

Step 2: Pixelate The Duplicate Layer

Next we need to pixelate the new layer, and we can do that by going up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen,
choosing Pixelate, and then choosing Mosaic. This brings up the "Mosaic" filter's dialog box. Drag the slider bar at
the bottom to change the Cell Size option, which increases or decreases the number and size of pixels that are
created from the image. Dragging to the right creates fewer but larger pixels, while dragging to the left gives you
more but smaller pixels. I'm going to set my Cell Size to about 18:
Photoshop Effects: The "Mosaic" filter in Photoshop. Drag the slider bar at the bottom to increase or decrease the
number and size of pixels.

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box. Here's my image after applying the Mosaic filter:

Photoshop Effects: The image after pixelating it with the Mosaic filter.

Now that we've pixelated the image, there's a few different things we can do with it, and we'll look at them next.
Step 3: Add A Layer Mask

I'm going to add a layer mask to the pixelated layer at this point. To do that, with "Layer 1" selected, I'm going to
click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop tutorial: Click the "Layer Mask" icon.

This adds a layer mask to "Layer 1", and if we look in the Layers palette, we can see that it also adds a layer mask
thumbnail to the right of the layer content thumbnail:

Photoshop tutorial: A layer mask and layer mask thumbnail have been added to "Layer 1".

We can also tell that the layer mask, not the contents of the layer, is currently selected by the white highlight border
appearing around the layer mask thumbnail.

Step 4: Select The Gradient Tool

We're going to use our layer mask to blend the original image on the Background layer and the pixelated image on
"Layer 1" together, and for that we need the Gradient Tool, so either select it from the Tools palette or press G on
your keyboard:
Photoshop tutorial: Select the Gradient Tool.

Step 5: Reset Your Foreground And Background Colors If Needed

We want black as our Foreground color and white as our Background color. Normally those are Photoshop's default
Foreground and Background colors, except when we have a layer mask selected, which we currently do. Whenever
we have a layer mask selected, the default colors get swapped, with white becoming the default Foreground color
and black becoming the default Background color. To quickly set our Foreground and Background colors to black
and white respectively (remembering that we have a layer mask selected), press D on your keyboard to reset them
to their defaults, and then press X to swap them. You'll see in the Tools palette that the Foreground color swatch is
now showing black and the Background color swatch is now showing white:

Photoshop tutorial: Press "D" and then "X" on your keyboard to set black as your Foreground color and white as
your Background color.

Step 6: Select The "Foreground to Background" Gradient

With the Gradient Tool selected and our Foreground and Background colors set to black and white, look up in the
Options Bar at the top of the screen to see which gradient you currently have selected. If the gradient preview area
is showing a black to white gradient, you're all set:

Photoshop tutorial: The gradient preview area showing a black to white gradient.

If it's showing some other gradient, click on the small, down-pointing arrow to the right of the gradient preview
area. The Gradient Picker will appear below it. Select the "Foreground to Background" gradient in the top left
corner, then click anywhere outside of the Gradient Picker to close out of it:
Photoshop tutorial: Click the down-pointing arrow to the right of the gradient preview area and select the gradient
in the top left corner of the Gradient Picker.

Step 7: Drag Out A Black To White Gradient On The Layer Mask

Now that we have our black to white gradient, we can use it to blend the Background layer and the pixelated layer
together, creating our first variation on the effect. I want the transition area of my blend to appear across the guy's
face, so half of his face (and half of the image as well) is pixelated and the other half is not. To accomplish that, I'm
going to click below his right eye and then, holding down my Shift key to make sure I drag in a horizontal line, I'm
going to drag my mouse all the way over to the left edge of his face:

Photoshop tutorial: Drag out a gradient through the area where you want the blend between the two layers to
appear.

The area between where I started and finished my gradient is going to become the transition area between the
pixelated image on "Layer 1" and the original image on the Background layer. When I release my mouse button, I
get my transition effect:
Photoshop tutorial: The first effect.

Let's look at couple more variations on the effect, which we'll do next.

Step 8: Fill The Layer Mask With White

Let's look at another variation on our "digital pixel" effect. First, we need to remove the gradient we added to the
layer mask a moment ago. We could simply press Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac) to undo it, but let's re-fill
the layer mask with white instead. To do that, with the layer mask thumbnail selected in the Layers palette and
white as our current Background color, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Backspace (Win) / Command+Delete
(Mac) to fill the layer mask with the Background color (white). The layer mask thumbnail will once again appear
solid white, and the image will now appear completely pixelated once again:
Photoshop tutorial: Press "Alt+Backspace" (Win) / "Option+Delete" (Mac) to fill the layer mask with white and
reveal the entire pixelated layer in the document window once again.

Step 9: Select The Brush Tool

Select the Brush Tool from the Tools palette, or press B for the keyboard shortcut:

Photoshop tutorial: Select the Brush Tool

Step 10: Paint With Black To Reveal Parts Of The Image

Using a soft-edged brush and with black still as our Foreground color, I'm going to reveal the main part of his face
by simply painting over it with my Brush Tool. Since I'm painting on the layer mask and not on the image itself,
anywhere I paint with black will hide the pixelated layer and reveal the Background layer beneath it. I can resize
my brush on the fly using the left and right bracket keys on my keyboard, and I can set my brush to a soft edge by
holding down the Shift key and pressing the left bracket key a few times:
Photoshop tutorial: Use a soft-edged brush to paint away parts of the pixelated layer, revealing the original image
underneath.

Here's my image after revealing the main areas of his face by painting over them with black, giving the impression
that he is somehow looking through the pixels:

Photoshop tutorial: The main parts of his face now appear as they were in the original photo, while the rest of the
photo remains pixelated.
Step 11: Lower The Opacity Of The Pixelated Layer

I'm going to let the original image partially show through the pixelated image, and I can do that simply by going up
to the Opacity option in the top right corner of the Layers palette and lowering the opacity value. I'm going to
lower it to around 75%:

Photoshop tutorial: Lower the opacity of the pixelated layer to allow the original image to partially show through.

Here's my image after lowering the opacity of the pixelated layer, creating our second variation on the effect:

Photoshop tutorial: The second variation on the "digital pixel" effect.

Step 12: Experiment With Different Blend Modes For The Pixelated Layer For Different
Results

To create even more variations on the effect, experiment with different blend modes for the pixelated layer by
going up to the blend mode options in the top left corner of the Layers palette and selecting different ones from the
list. First, I'm going to set the Opacity of my pixelated layer back to a full 100%. Then, I'll going to change my
blend mode of the layer from "Normal" to Darken:

Photoshop tutorial: Set the Opacity of the pixelated layer back to 100%, then change the blend mode of the
pixelated layer to "Darken".

Here's the effect I get with the pixelated layer set to "Darken":

Photoshop tutorial: The image after changing the blend mode to "Darken".

Let's try the Lighten blend mode, again by changing it in the top left corner of the Layers palette:
Photoshop tutorial: Change the blend mode to "Lighten".

Here's the effect I get with the "Lighten" blend mode:

Photoshop tutorial: The image after changing the blend mode to "Lighten".

Just to show you how much different an effect can look simply by changing layer blend modes, we'll try one more.
I'm going to change my blend mode this time to Hard Mix:
Photoshop tutorial: Change the blend mode to "Hard Mix".

I think you'll agree that the effect now looks completely different, even though all we've done is changed the blend
mode:

Photoshop tutorial: After changing the blend mode to "Hard Mix", we get a completely different looking effect.

And there we have it! That's our look at how to create a simple "digital pixel" effect and a sample of how we can
create different variations on the same effect, and even create entirely new effects, by experimenting with layer
masks and blend modes in Photoshop.
Photoshop Tutorials: Tearing A Photo To Reveal
Another
Learn Photoshop with Adobe Photoshop Tutorials at Photoshop
Essentials.com
Written By Steve Patterson

In this Photoshop Effects tutorial, we're going to look at another movie poster-type of effect. We're going to learn
how to create the illusion that a piece of a photo is torn away to reveal another photo underneath it. I saw this effect
used in a poster for a tv show on the FX Network, and when I realized how easy it would be to do something
similar in Photoshop, well, here we are.

To create the effect, we'll be colorizing one photo and converting the second one to black and white, then adding
some noise, enhancing shadows and highlights, and using a few layer masks to blend it all together.

I'm going to use this same photo from one of our other recent tutorials, Create An Optical Illusion By Filling A
Photo With More Photos, because it works perfectly for the effect we're going for here:

Photoshop Tutorials: The first photo.

I'm also going to be using this photo, or more specifically, the guy from this photo:
Photoshop Tutorials: The second photo.

And here's the final effect we'll be working towards:

Photoshop Tutorials: The final result.

Let's get started.

Want a better way to learn? Download this tutorial as an easy to read, ready to print PDF eBook!

Step 1: Crop The Main Photo Around The Person's Face

I'm going to start by working on the photo of the woman, which is going to be the photo that ends up with a piece
torn out of it, and the first thing I'm going to do is crop the photo so that all I'm left with is the area around her head.
I'll use the Crop Tool for this, so I'll grab my Crop Tool from the Tools palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select the Crop Tool.

I could also press C to quickly access it with the keyboard shortcut. Then I'm simply going to click and drag out a
selection around the woman's head, making sure her face ends up in the center of my selection:
Photoshop Tutorials: Drag out a selection with the Crop Tool.

When I'm happy with my selection, I'll press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) to accept it, and Photoshop will crop the
image for me:
Photoshop Tutorials: The image is now cropped.

Step 2: Duplicate The Background Layer

Next, we need to duplicate the Background layer because we're going to be filling the original Background layer
with black in a moment, so press Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac) to duplicate it. We can now see our duplicate
above the original in the Layers palette, which Photoshop has named "Layer 1":

Photoshop Effects: Press "Ctrl+J" (Win) / "Command+J" (Mac) to duplicate the Background layer.
Step 3: Add More Canvas Space And Fill It With Black

Click on the Background layer in the Layers palette to select it. We're going to add more canvas space to the left
and right of the image, and we're going to use the Crop Tool to do it. But first, press the letter D on your keyboard
to quickly reset your Foreground and Background colors if needed, so black becomes your Foreground color (white
becomes your Background color), and then press X on your keyboard to swap them, so black becomes your
Background color. Select the Crop Tool once again. Then with the Background layer selected in the Layers palette,
drag out a selection with the Crop Tool around the entire image.

When you release your mouse button, you'll see little square handles appear around the image, one in each corner,
and one on the top, bottom, left and right. Hold down Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) and drag out either of the side
handles to add more canvas space. Add an extra inch or so on either side (holding down the Alt/Option key moves
both side handles at once as you drag):

Photoshop Effects: Hold down "Alt" (Win) / "Option" (Mac) to drag out either of the side handles to add more
canvas space.

Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're done, and Photoshop will add your additional canvas space and will
also fill it with black, since black is our Background color:
Photoshop Effects: The canvas space now added on the sides and filled with black.

Step 4: Fill The Entire Background Layer With Black

Photoshop has filled the extra canvas space with black for us, and everything looks fine in our image, but if we look
at our Background layer thumbnail in the Layers palette, we can see that only the extra canvas space has been filled
with black. The photo itself is still there:

Photoshop Effects: The Background layer's thumbnail in the Layers palette still shows the original image. Only the
extra space on the sides has been filled with black.
To fix that and fill the entire Background layer with black, press Alt+Backspace (Win) / Option+Delete (Mac),
which fills the layer with the current background color (black in our case). Again, nothing looks different in the
image itself, but the Background layer thumbnail in the Layers palette is now showing solid black:

Photoshop Effects: The Background layer's thumbnail now shows the entire layer filled with black.

Step 5: Add A Layer Mask On "Layer 1"

Click on "Layer 1" in the Layers palette to select it. Then click on the Add A Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the
Layers palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click the "Add A Layer Mask" icon.

This adds a layer mask to "Layer 1", and it also adds a layer mask thumbnail on the layer in the Layers palette:
Photoshop Tutorials: A layer mask thumbnail has now been added to "Layer 1" in the Layers palette.

The layer mask itself, rather then the contents of the layer, is now selected, and we know that by the white highlight
border around the layer mask thumbnail.

Step 6: Paint With Black On The Mask To Blend The Edges Of The Image In With The
Background

We want the edges around our image to blend in with the black background, and we're going to accomplish that by
painting around the edges with black on our layer mask. We need the Brush Tool to paint with, so either select it
from the Tools palette or press B on your keyboard:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select the Brush Tool.

We want to paint with black, so press X on your keyboard to swap your Foreground and Background colors again,
which makes black your Foreground color. Then, with a large soft-edge brush, paint along the edges of the photo to
blend them in with the background. Because we're painting on the layer mask, not the actual layer, anywhere we
paint with black will hide the image. It looks like we're painting directly on the image itself because we're painting
with black and the background is black, but if the background was a different color, you'd see that we're really just
hiding the image as we paint on the layer mask.

You can change the size of your brush with the left and right bracket keys on your keyboard (the left bracket key
makes the brush smaller and the right one makes it larger), and to make sure your brush has a soft edge, hold down
your Shift key and press the left bracket key a few times (pressing the right bracket key while holding Shift makes
the brush harder). Then paint around the edges to blend them in with the black background.

Here's my image after painting around the edges:

Photoshop Tutorials: The image after painting around the edges with black to blend them in with the background.

Step 7: Colorize The Image

With "Layer 1" still selected, hold down Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) and click on the New Adjustment Layer icon
at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Hold down "Alt" (Win) / "Option" (Mac) and click on the "New Adjustment Layer" icon.

Then select Hue/Saturation from the list that appears:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select "Hue/Saturation" from the list.

By holding down Alt/Option. this tells Photoshop to bring up the New Layer dialog box before adding the
adjustment layer. Click inside the checkbox to the left of the Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask option
to select it. By selecting this option, the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer is going to affect only the layer directly
below it ("Layer 1") and will have no effect on any other layers. This isn't so important at the moment, but it will be
once we drag our second photo into the image. Click OK to exit out of the dialog box, and the "Hue/Saturation"
dialog box will appear.

Select the Colorize option in the bottom right corner of the dialog box, then drag the Hue slider to select the color
for your image, keeping an eye on your image as you drag. I'm going to set my Hue to a value of about 38:

Photoshop Tutorials: Drag the "Hue" slider to set the color you want to colorize your image with, keeping an eye on
your image as you drag.

Click OK when you're happy with the color you've chosen to exit out of the dialog box. Here's my image after
colorizing it:
Photoshop Tutorials: The image after colorizing it with the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.

Step 8: Add Some Dramatic Lighting With A Curves Adjustment Layer

Right now the woman's face looks a little too bright for the effect we're going for. Let's add some dramatic lighting
to her face, using a Curves adjustment layer and the layer mask it comes with. Don't worry if you've never used
Curves before or if it seems too advanced for your current Photoshop skill level.

All I'm going to do is add the adjustment layer. I'm not going to actually do anything with it, other than change its
blend mode, which I'll do in a moment. First, I need to add it though, and I want to add it between "Layer 1" and
my Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, so I'm going to click on "Layer 1" in the Layers palette to select it.

Then, I'm going to click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette once again:
Photoshop Effects: Click on "Layer 1" to select it, then click the "New Adjustment Layer" icon once again.

This time, I'm going to choose "Curves" from the list:

Photoshop Effects: Select the "Curves" adjustment layer.

When the Curves dialog box appears, I'm simply going to click OK to exit out of it, since I don't need to change any
of the settings. All I need to do is change the blend mode of the Curves adjustment layer from "Normal" to
Multiply in the top left corner of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Effects: Change the blend mode of the Curves adjustment layer from "Normal" to "Multiply" to darken
the image.

And that's going to darken my image for me:

Photoshop Effects: The image after adding a Curves adjustment layer above it set to the "Multiply" blend mode.

Her face is a lot darker now, but let's use the layer mask the adjustment layer came with to bring back some of the
original brightness and give us some dramatic lighting. Select your Gradient Tool from the Tools palette, or press
G on your keyboard to quickly select it:

Photoshop Effects: Select the Gradient Tool.

Then, in the Options Bar at the top of the screen, look in the gradient preview thumbnail and make sure you have
the Foreground to Background gradient selected (it will be black on the left and white on the right), and click on
the Reflected Gradient option:

Photoshop Effects: Make sure the "Foreground to Background" (black to white) gradient is selected in the Options
Bar, and click on the "Reflected Gradient" option.
Then, with my Gradient Tool, I'm going to click somewhere in the middle of the woman's nose and drag my mouse
over to the right edge of her face:

Photoshop Effects: The lighting is now more dramatic on her face.

I also want to bring back all of the original brightness in her eyes, so I'm going to switch back to my Brush Tool,
and with black still as my Foreground color, I'm going to use a much smaller brush (again, you can change the size
of the brush on the fly with the left and right bracket keys) and paint over her eyes:

Photoshop Effects: Painting with black over her eyes to bring back the original brightness.

Here's my image after brightening up her eyes:

Photoshop Effects: The image after restoring the brightness in the woman's eyes.

Step 9: Select The Area To "Tear Out" Of The Image With The Lasso Tool

Grab your Lasso Tool from the Tools palette, or press L to quickly select it:

Photoshop Effects: Select the Lasso Tool.

Then drag out a selection around the area you want to "tear out" of the image. I'm going to select an area from the
top of the image to the bottom through the center of the woman's face. Try to make your selection rough and jagged
as you're dragging to create the "torn" look:
Photoshop Effects: Drag a seletion through the image which will become the area that is "torn out" of it.

Step 10: Select The Layer Mask On "Layer 1" And Fill The Selection With Black

We're going to fill our selection with black, and we're going to do that on the layer mask of "Layer 1" so that we
hide the woman's face in the area inside the selection. To do that, first click on the layer mask thumbnail on "Layer
1" in the Layers palette to select it:
Photoshop Effects: Click the layer mask thumbnail on "Layer 1" to select the layer mask.

Then use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Backspace (Win) / Option+Delete (Mac) to fill the selection with black. The
part of the woman's face that was inside the selection is now hidden from view, revealing the black background
behind it:

Photoshop Effects: After filling the selection with black on the layer mask, the area inside the selection is now
hidden from view, revealing the black background behind it.

Press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) to clear the selection.

Step 11: Apply The "Spatter" Filter To Enhance The Jagged Lines

Let's make our torn edges look a little more torn using the "Spatter" filter. Go up to the Filter menu at the top of the
screen, choose Brush Strokes, and then choose Spatter. This brings up the "Filter Gallery" dialog box set to the
"Spatter" options on the right. You may want to experiment with the settings on your own, keeping an eye on the
preview window on the left of the dialog box, but I'm going to set my Spray Radius to 10 and my Smoothness all
the way to 15:
Photoshop Effects: Go to Filter > Brush Strokes > Spatter.

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box. My torn edges through the center of the image now look a bit more torn:
Photoshop Effects: The image after applying the "Spatter" filter to enhance the torn edges effect.

Step 12: Drag The Second Image Into The Document

It's time to add our second image into the document. We want the image to appear behind our main image, which
means we need to be placed on a layer below the main image in the Layers palette, so click on the Background
layer in the Layers palette to select it. The second image will then be placed between the Background layer and
"Layer 1" when we drag it into the document, which is what we're going to do next. With both images open in their
own document window on the screen, grab your Move Tool from the Tools palette or press V on your keyboard to
select it:

Photoshop Effects: Select the Move Tool.

Then, with the Move Tool selected, click anywhere inside the second image and drag it over and into the main
document:
Photoshop Effects: Click inside the second photo and drag it into the main document.

Close out of the second image's document window after you've dragged it into the main document.

If we look in the Layers palette of the main document now, we can see that the second image has been placed on its
own layer between the Background layer and the main image layer ("Layer 1"), and has named the new layer
"Layer 2":

Photoshop Effects: The second image is now on its own layer, named "Layer 2", between the Background layer and
"Layer 1".

Step 13: Resize And Reposition The Image With The Free Transform Command

Press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up Photoshop's Free Transform handles around the second
image and drag any of the corner handles to resize the image as needed. If you can't see the corner handles because
the image extends beyond the viewable area of the document, press Ctrl+0 (Win) / Command+0 (Mac) to fit
everything on the screen. Hold down Shift as you're dragging to constrain the image proportions. Also, click
anywhere inside the image and drag it around the screen with your mouse to move it into position. In my case, I
want the guy in the photo to appear inside the area I just "tore out" of the main photo, so I'm going to make the
image smaller by dragging the corner handles and then I'll click inside the image and move it where I want it:

Photoshop Effects: Move and resize the second image as needed with the Free Transform command.

When you're happy with the size and position of your image, press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) to accept it.

Step 14: Desaturate The Second Image

We want the image that appears behind the main photo to be in black and white, so let's quickly desaturate it using
the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+U (Win) / Command+Shift+U (Mac):
Photoshop Effects: Desaturate the second image.

Step 15: Add A Layer Mask To The Second Image

With "Layer 2" still selected, click on the Add A Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Effects: Click the "Add A Layer Mask" icon.

This adds a layer mask, and a layer mask thumbnail, to "Layer 2":

Photoshop Effects: The layer mask now added to "Layer 2".

Step 16: Paint With Black Around The Edges Of The Second Image

Select the Brush Tool once again, and with black still as your Foreground color, use a large soft-edge brush and
paint around the edges of the second image to hide them, just as we did with the main image.

In my case, I'm going to hide all the edges so that only the are around the guy's face is left showing:
Photoshop Effects: The image after painting away everything except the area around the guy's face in the second
image.

I'm also going to paint along the edge of where the left "tear edge" of the main photo meets the second image,
which will create a nice drop shadow effect on the left side of the guy's face, giving the image some depth. I'm
going to keep the main part of my brush cursor just to the left of the tear edge so that only the soft edge of the brush
is extending onto his face as I paint:
Photoshop Effects: Creating a shadow with the Brush Tool along the left side of the guy's face.

Here's my image after painting the shadow along the left side of his face:

Photoshop Effects: The shadow along the left side of the guy's face adds some depth to the image.
Step 17: Add Some Noise To The Image

Click on the very top layer in the Layers palette, which should be your Hue/Saturation layer, and then click on the
New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a new layer above all the others:

Photoshop Effects: Add a new layer at the top of the Layers palette.

Press Ctrl+Backspace (Win) / Command+Delete (Mac) to fill the new layer with white. Then go up to the Filter
menu at the top of the screen, choose Noise and then choose Add Noise, which brings up the "Add Noise" dialog
box. I'm going to set my Amount to somewhere around 20% to add a little noise to the image, and I'm going to
make sure that Ihave the Gaussian and Monochromatic options at the bottom selected:
Photoshop Effects: Add some noise to the image with the "Add Noise" filter.

Your image will now be filled with black and white noise. Go up to the blend mode option in the top left corner of
the Layers palette and change the blend mode for the layer from "Normal" to Color Burn and lower the Opacity
value down to about 30%:

Photoshop Effects: Change the blend mode of the noise layer to "Color Burn" and lower the opacity to about 30%.

Here's my image at this point. We're almost done:

Photoshop Effects: The image after adding noise.

Step 18: Add Another New Layer And Set Its Blend Mode To "Overlay"

We're almost done! We're just going to add a few more highlights and shadows to the image. Click on the New
Layer at the bottom of the Layers palette once again, and when the new layer appears at the top of the Layers
palette, set its blend mode to Overlay:

Photoshop Effects: Click on the "New Layer" icon once again, then set the blend mode of the new layer to
"Overlay".

Grab your Brush Tool once again, and up in the Options Bar, lower the opacity of the brush down to about 20%:

Photoshop Effects: Lower the opacity of the brush down to about 20% in the Options Bar.

Then with black as your Foreground color, paint along any areas where you want to enhance the shadows in the
image. I want to enhance the shadows along the sides of the woman's face, under her chin, maybe a little around her
eyes, and on the side of her mouth, so I'm simply going to paint over those areas with my brush. Since I've lowered
the opacity of my brush to 20%, I can slowly build up shadows by painting a stroke, releasing my mouse, and then
painting another stroke over the same area as needed. If you make a mistake, simply press Ctrl+Z (Win) /
"Command+Z" (Mac) to undo the brush stroke and continue painting:
Photoshop Effects: Use a soft-edge brush set to black to darken shadows in the image.

Then press X on your keyboard to switch your Foreground color to white and paint on the image to enhance any
highlight areas. I'm going to lower the size of my brush and click a few times in each of her eyes to really brighten
them:

Photoshop Effects: Paint over any areas with white to enhance highlights.

I'm going to paint one or two strokes around her nose and chin as well with a larger brush to enhance those
highlights a little.

When you're happy with the highlights and shadows in your image, you're done!

Here, after enhancing the highlights and shadows, is my final result:

Photoshop Effects: The final result.

Photoshop Tutorials: Add Realistic Water Drops To A

Photo
Learn Adobe Photoshop with Photoshop Tutorials at Photoshop
Essentials.com
Written By Steve Patterson

In this Photoshop photo effects tutorial, we're going to learn how to easily add realistic looking water drops to a
photo, as if someone splashed water all over the image. We're going to be using a few filters and adjustments to
create some random water drop shapes, and then we'll be making them look like water using a few simple layer
styles to add shadows and highlights to them.

To finish things off and add an extra bit of realism, we'll be using a displacement map to distort the image
underneath the water drops. It may sound complicated but it's all very easy, as we'll see.

Here's the original image I'll be working with:

Photoshop Tutorials: The original image.

And here's what the image will look like after adding the water drops:

Photoshop Tutorials: The final result.

Let's get started.

Want a better way to learn? Download this tutorial as an easy to read, ready to print PDF eBook!
Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer

We're going to start off this tutorial in the same way we begin many of our tutorials, by duplicating our Background
layer. With the image open in Photoshop, we can see in the Layers palette that we currently have just one layer, the
Background layer, which contains the original image:

Photoshop Tutorials: The Layers palette in Photoshop showing the image on the Background layer.

We need to duplicate the Background layer, and to do that, we can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) /
Command+J (Mac). If we look back in the Layers palette, we can see that we now have two copies of the image,
with the copy of the Background layer (which Photoshop has named "Layer 1") above the original:

Photoshop Tutorials: Press "Ctrl+J" (Win) / "Command+J" (Mac) to duplicate the Background layer.

Step 2: Add A New Blank Layer Above The Duplicate Layer

Next, we need to add a new blank layer above our newly-created duplicate layer. Let's use the keyboard shortcut for
that as well, which is Shift+Ctrl+Alt+N (Win) / Shift+Command+Option+N (Mac). By adding the Alt/Option
key in there, that tells Photoshop not to bother popping up the dialog box asking us to name the layer and to just go
ahead and add it, giving it the default name of "Layer 2" instead and placing it at the top of the Layers palette:
Photoshop Tutorials: Press "Shift+Ctrl+Alt+N" (Win) / "Shift+Command+Option+N" (Mac) to add a new blank
layer.

Step 3: Fill The New Layer With White

We're going to fill our new layer with white, so press the letter D on your keyboard to quickly reset your
Foreground and Background colors if neccessary, so white becomes your Background color. Then, with "Layer 2"
selected in the Layers palette (the currently selected layer is the one highlighted), press Ctrl+Backspace (Win) /
Command+Delete (Mac) to fill the new layer with the Background color, which in our case is white. Your image
will now be completely filled with white:

Photoshop Tutorials: Press "Ctrl+Backspace" (Win) / "Command+Delete" (Mac) to fill the new layer with white,
which will also fill your image with white.

Step 4: Apply The "Add Noise" Filter

With our layer now filled with white, we need to add some noise to it. Go up to the Filter menu at the top of the
screen, select Noise, and then select Add Noise, which brings up Photoshop's "Add Noise" dialog box. Drag the
Amount slider all the way to the right, and make sure that both the Gaussian and Monochromatic options at the
bottom are selected:

Photoshop Tutorials: Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise to bring up Photoshop's "Add Noise" dialog box.

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box. Your image will now be filled with black noise:

Photoshop Tutorials: The image after adding noise.

Step 5: Apply The "Gaussian Blur" Filter

Go back up to the Filter menu and this time choose Blur and then Gaussian Blur, which brings up the "Gaussian
Blur" filter dialog box. Drag the Radius slider to the right to increase the amount of blurring that's applied to the
noise until all you see is larger clumps of dark and light gray. I'm using a low resolution image for this tutorial, and
for me, a value of about 6 pixels seems to work nicely. For high resolution images, you'll need to set your Radius
value higher to achieve the same effect:

Photoshop Tutorials: Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to bring up Photoshop's "Gaussian Blur" dialog box.

Here's the effect you're trying to achieve:

Photoshop Tutorials: The image after applying the Gaussian Blur filter to the noise.

Click OK to exit out of the Gaussian Blur dialog box.

Step 6: Apply A "Threshold" Image Adjustment

Go up to the Image menu at the top of the screen, choose Adjustments, and then choose Threshold, which brings
up the "Threshold" dialog box. The Threshold adjustment turns everything in the image either black or white, and
we're going to use it to create the basic shapes of our water drops. Click on the slider at the bottom of the Threshold
dialog box and drag it either left or right to decrease or increase the size and number of black areas in the image.
These black areas will become our water drops. Dragging the slider to the right increases the size and number of
black areas, and dragging to the left decreases them:

Photoshop Tutorials: Go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold.

It's completely up to you how many water drops you want in your image. When you're happy with how it looks,
click OK to exit out of the dialog box. Here's my image after applying the Threshold adjustment:

Photoshop Tutorials: The image after applying the Threshold adjustment. All the black areas will become our water
drops.

Step 7: Apply A Slight Gaussian Blur To Smooth The Edges Of The Black Areas

The only problem with the Threshold adjustment is that it tends to leave us with very harsh, jagged edges, and of
course water doesn't have harsh, jagged edges. It has smooth edges, so we need to fix that, and we can fix it easily
by simply re-applying the Gaussian Blur filter. Since Gaussian Blur was the last filter we used, we can access it
quickly with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+F (Win) / Command+Option+F (Mac), which brings up the filter's
dialog box without applying it, giving us a chance to change the settings first. We don't want to use the same
amount of blurring as we applied initially since that's way too much. All we want to do here is smooth out any
rough edges, and for that, we only need a hint of blurring. I'm going to set my Radius value to only 0.8 pixels this
time:
Photoshop Tutorials: Apply the Gaussian Blur filter again but at a much lower setting to smooth out any rough,
jagged edges around the black areas.

Click OK to exit out of the Gaussian Blur dialog box once again.

Step 8: Select All The Black Areas With The Magic Wand

Now that we have the shapes which will become our water drops (the black areas), we can delete all the areas we
no longer need (the white areas). First, let's select the black areas. To do that, we'll use the Magic Wand. Select it
from the Tools palette, or press W on your keyboard to quickly select it:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select the Magic Wand.

Then, with the Magic Wand selected, look up in the Options Bar at the top of the screen and make sure the
Contiguous option is not checked. We want to select all the black areas with a single click, and if this option was
selected, we'd have to go around clicking on each black area individually to add it to the selection. So with
"Contiguous" not checked, simply click on any black area in the image with the Magic Wand and Photoshop will
select all of them at once:
Photoshop Tutorials: Click on any black area with the Magic Wand to select all of them at once.

Step 9: Invert The Selection And Delete The White Areas

Currently we have all of the black areas selected, but what we really want is to have all the white areas selected so
we can delete them. All we need to do is invert our selection, which will select everything that is not currently
selected and deselect everything that is selected. In other words, the white areas will become selected and the black
areas will be deselected. To do that, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+I (Win) / Command+Shift+I (Mac). All
the white areas will now be selected.

Then press Delete on your keyboard to delete all the white areas, leaving only the black shapes. Press Ctrl+D
(Win) / Command+D (Mac) to deselect your selection when you're done:
Photoshop Tutorials: The image after deleting the white areas, leaving only the black shapes which will become our
water drops in a moment.

Step 10: Lower The "Fill" Of The Black Shapes Layer To 0%

In the top left corner of the Layers palette, you'll find two options - "Opacity" and "Fill". Both of these options
control the visibility of a layer, with one important difference. If you were to lower the "Opacity" of a layer down to
0%, you would hide not only the contents of the layer but also any layer styles that were applied to it. The "Fill"
option, on the other hand, would hide only the layer contents. Any layer styles applied to the layer would remain
visible, and that's exactly what we want in order to create our water drops effect. We want to hide the actual black
shapes themselves, but we want the layer styles, which we'll be applying next, to remain visible. So to do that, go
up to the Fill option in the top right corner of the Layers palette and lower it all the way down to 0%:

Photoshop Tutorials: Lower the opacity of the black shapes layer down to 0%.
Your black shapes will disappear from view in your image, but don't worry, they're still there, and we're going to be
applying our layer styles to them next.

Step 11: Add A Drop Shadow Layer Style

Click on the Layer Styles icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click the Layer Styles icon.

Choose Drop Shadow from the list of layer styles that appears:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select "Drop Shadow" from the list.

This brings up the Layer Style dialog box set to the "Drop Shadow" options in the middle column. Lower the
Opacity of the drop shadow down to about 40% and set the Angle to about 120°:
Photoshop Tutorials: Set the options for the Drop Shadow circled in red above.

Don't click OK yet. We have a couple more layer styles to add first.

Step 12: Add A "Inner Shadow" Layer Style

Click directly on the words Inner Shadow on the left of the Layer Style dialog box:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click directly on the words "Inner Shadow" on the left of the Layer Style dialog box.

The options for the "Inner Shadow" layer style appear in the middle column. All we want to do here is change the
Blend Mode from "Multiply" to Overlay by clicking on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word
"Multiply" and selecting "Overlay" from the list:

Photoshop Tutorials: Change the "Blend Mode" of the Inner Shadow layer style to "Overlay".

Again, don't click OK just yet. We have one more layer style to add.
Step 13: Add A "Bevel and Emboss" Layer Style

Finally, click directly on the words Bevel and Emboss on the left of the Layer Style dialog box:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click directly on the words "Bevel and Emboss" on the left of the Layer Style dialog box.

This brings up the "Bevel and Emboss" options in the middle column of the Layer Styles dialog box. Starting from
the top and working our way down, change the Technique to Chisel Hard and then raise the Depth to around
600% (if you find that's too high, finish making the rest of the changes here and then go back and adjust the Depth
amount, keeping an eye on your image as you drag the slider). Increase the Soften amount to around 12 pixels to
give the water a nice smooth look. Then, down near the bottom of the options, increase the Opacity of the
Highlight Mode to a full 100%. Change the Shadow Mode to Color Dodge, and finally, change the color of the
Shadow Mode from black to white by clicking on the color swatch and selecting white in Photoshop's Color Picker:
Photoshop Tutorials: Change the Bevel and Emboss layer style options circled in red above.

When you're done making the changes to the Bevel and Emboss options, click OK to exit out of the Layer Style
dialog box. Your image will now look something like this, with the water drops clearly visible:

Photoshop Tutorials: The image after creating the main water drops effect with layer styles.

Step 14: Erase Any Water Drops You Don't Want

Now that I've created my water drops, I noticed that some of them are blocking the view of the main subject of my
image (the guy on the surfboard). I want to remove those water drops, and I can do that easily by erasing them with
the Eraser Tool. Grab your Eraser Tool from the Tools palette, or press E to quickly select it:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select the Eraser Tool.

Then, with the Eraser Tool selected, simply click and drag your mouse over any water drops you want to erase. I'm
going to erase the ones in front of the surfer:
Photoshop Tutorials: Use the Eraser Tool to remove any unwanted water drops.

Step 15: Create A Displacement Map

The basic effect is complete at this point, but we can still make it look a bit more realistic. If this was real water on
a real photo, the water would be causing the photo underneath it to look a little distorted, so let's add in that extra bit
of realism using a displacement map, which is a scary sounding name for what is really nothing more than a black
and white image that we're going to create.

First, select all the water droplets at once by holding down the Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and clicking on
the water drop layer's thumbnail in the Layers palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Hold down "Ctrl" (Win) / "Command" (Mac) and click on the water drop layer's thumbnail in
the Layers palette.

This will place a selection around all of the water drops. Go up to the Select menu at the top of the screen, choose
Modify, and then choose Border. When the "Border Selection" dialog box appears, enter a value of about 10 pixels
and then click OK:
Photoshop Tutorials: Add a 10 pixel border to the selection.

Then go back up to the Select menu and this time, choose Feather. Enter a Feather Radius value of about 4 pixels
and click OK:

Photoshop Tutorials: Enter a 4 pixel feather to the selection.

When you're done, go back up to the Select menu once again and choose Save Selection. When the "Save
Selection" dialog box appears, just click OK to accept the default options and exit out of it. Also, press Ctrl+D
(Win) / Command+D (Mac) to deselect your selection around the water drops.

Now switch over to your Channels palette, which is grouped in beside the Layers palette, and you'll see your saved
selection at the very bottom in the channel named "Alpha 1". Click on it to select it:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the "Alpha 1" channel, which is your saved selection, to select it.

Then click on the small, right-pointing arrow in the top right corner of the Channels palette and select Duplicate
Channel from the list of options:
Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the right-pointing arrow in the top right corner of the Channels palette and select
"Duplicate Channel".

When the "Duplicate Channel" dialog box appears, set the Document option to New, which is going to create a
new document out of the channel, and then click OK:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the down-pointing arrow for the "Document" option and select "New", then click
OK.

The new document will appear on your screen. This is the document we're going to use for our displacement map.
The only thing we have left to do is save it, so go up to the File menu at the top of the screen and select Save As, or
use the keyboard shortcut Shift+Ctrl+S (Win) / Shift+Command+S (Mac). Either way brings up the "Save As"
dialog box. Name the document whatever you like. I'm going to name mine "water drops", and save the document
to your desktop so you can access it easily, since we'll be needing it in a moment.

Once you've saved the new document, you can close out of it. We don't need to have it open anymore.

Step 16: Apply The "Displace" Filter To The Duplicate Background Layer ("Layer 1")

Switch back to your Layers palette now and click on the duplicate Background layer ("Layer 1") to select it. We're
going to apply the "Displace" filter to this layer, using the displacement map we just created and saved to the
Desktop, which is going to give us our water distortion effect. Go up to the Filter menu, choose Distort, and then
choose Displace, which brings up the "Displace" filter dialog box. Lower both the Horizontal Scale and Vertical
Scale options down to about 8, then make sure Displacement Map is set to Stretch To Fit and Undefined Areas
is set to Repeat Edge Pixels:

Photoshop Tutorials: Go to Filter > Distort > Displace to bring up the Displace filter dialog box.

Click OK to exit out of this dialog box, and a second dialog box will appear asking you to select the displacement
map you want to use. Choose the file you just saved to your desktop, then click Open, and Photoshop will apply the
displacement map to the layer.

Step 17: Delete The Areas On The Layer Which Are Not Under The Water Drops

The only problem is, some of the distortion has been applied to the areas around the outside of the water drops, and
we only want the distortion to appear in areas that are directly under the water drops, so we need to trim away the
areas we don't want, and we can do that by simply deleting the areas we don't want, just like we did back at the
beginning when we deleted all the white areas around the black shapes. With "Layer 1" still selected, hold down
your Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and click once again on the water drops layer's thumbnail to place a
selection around all the water drops:

Photoshop Tutorials: Hold down "Ctrl" (Win) / "Command" (Mac) and click on the water drop layer's thumbnail to
select all the water drops.

Notice that even though we're clicking on the water drops layer's thumbnail, we still have "Layer 1" selected in the
Layers palette, not the water drops layer.
The water drops are now selected:

Photoshop Tutorials: All the water drops are now selected in the image.

Then, with the water drops selected, press Ctrl+Shift+I (Win) / Command+Shift+I (Mac) to invert the selection,
so all the areas around the water drops become selected and the water drops themselves are deselected.

Finally, press the Delete key on your keyboard to delete all the unwanted areas on "Layer 1", leaving only the areas
under the water drops, creating our water distortion effect, as well as our final result:
Photoshop Tutorials: The final "water drops" effect.

And we're done!

Photoshop Fireworks: Adding Fireworks To A Photo

In Photoshop
Learn Photoshop with Photoshop Effects Tutorials at Photoshop
Essentials.com
Written By Steve Patterson

In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we're going to learn how to add fireworks to a photo. What you'll need is a
photo of fireworks and the photo you want to add the fireworks to (preferably a nighttime shot, since fireworks tend
not to look very impressive in the middle of the afternoon).

Blending the two images together is easy. If you can paint with a brush and change a layer blend mode, you have all
the Photoshop skills you need.

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Here's the photo of fireworks I'll be using:

Here's the image I want to add the fireworks to:

And here's what the final image will look like:

Photoshop Fireworks: The final result.

Let's get started.

Step 1: Drag The Fireworks Photo Into The Other Photo

Open both images in Photoshop so that each one is in its own separate document window on the screen. We need to
get the fireworks photo into the other photo, and with both images open in their own document window, all we need
to do is drag the fireworks photo into the other photo's document window. To do that, we need the Move Tool, so
select it from the Tools palette or press the letter V on your keyboard to quickly access it with the keyboard
shortcut:

Photoshop Fireworks: Select the Move tool from the Tools palette, or press "V" for the keyboard shortcut.

Then with the Move Tool selected, click inside the fireworks photo and drag it over into the other photo:
Photoshop Fireworks: Click inside the fireworks photo and drag it into the other photo's document window with the
Move Tool.

When you release the mouse button, the fireworks photo will appear above the second photo in the same document
window, and if we look in the Layers palette, we can see that it's been placed on its own separate layer, with the
fireworks photo on "Layer 1" at the top:

Photoshop Fireworks: Photoshop's Layers palette showing both images now in the same document, each on its own
separate layer. The fireworks photo is on "Layer 1".

You can close out of the document window containing the fireworks photo by itself at this point, since we no longer
need it.

Step 2: Resize And Reposition The Fireworks With Free Transform

Now that we have the fireworks photo in the same document as the photo we want to add the fireworks to, we can
move the fireworks where we want them and resize them if needed, and we can do both of these things at once with
Photoshop's Free Transform command. With "Layer 1" selected in the Layers palette, use the keyboard shortcut
Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up the Free Transform box and handles around the fireworks image.
If you can't see the corner handles because part of your image is outside the viewable area, press Ctrl+0 (Win) /
Command+0 (Mac) to fit everything on the screen. Then, to resize the image, hold down the Shift key, which will
prevent you from accidentally distorting the width or height as you're resizing it, and then click and drag any of the
four corner handles. To move the image around on the screen, simply click on the image and drag it with your
mouse.

I'm going to reduce the size of my fireworks image and move it into the top right corner so the fireworks appear
above the main part of the city:

Photoshop Fireworks: Move and resize the fireworks if needed with the Free Transform command.

Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're done to accept the transformation.

Step 3: Change The Blend Mode Of The Fireworks Layer To "Screen"

To blend the fireworks in with the photo behind it and remove the black background behind the fireworks, all we
need to do is change the blend mode of the fireworks layer to Screen. To do that, go up to the blend mode options
in the top left corner of the Layers palette, click on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word "Normal", and
select "Screen" from the list:

Photoshop Fireworks: Change the blend mode of the fireworks layer to "Screen" to blend them in with the photo
below.
Here's my image after changing the blend mode:

Photoshop Fireworks: The image after changing the blend mode of the fireworks layer to "Screen".

Step 4: Add A Layer Mask

With "Layer 1" still selected, click on the Add A Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Fireworks: Click the "Add A Layer Mask" icon.

This adds a layer mask thumbnail to "Layer 1", and we can see that the layer mask, not the contents of the layer (the
fireworks photo), is selected by the white highlight border around the thumbnail:
Photoshop Fireworks: A layer mask is added to "Layer 1", with the layer mask thumbnail visible in the Layers
palette.

Step 5: Lower The Opacity Of The Fireworks Layer

With the layer mask added, we're going to use it to hide the fireworks in any areas where we don't want them to
appear. Currently, the fireworks in my image are appearing in front of the buildings, and I want them to appear to
be behind the buildings, which means I need to hide any areas of the fireworks that are in front of them. To do that,
all I need to do is paint with black over the buildings, and because I'm painting on the layer mask, not the image
itself, I'll be hiding the fireworks in any areas I paint over. Problem is, the fireworks are making it difficult for me
to see where the buildings actually are, so to solve that problem, I'm simply going to lower the opacity of the
fireworks layer in the top right corner of the Layers palette. I'm going to lower it all the way down to about 25% so
I have no trouble seeing the buildings behind them:

Photoshop Fireworks: Lower the opacity of the fireworks layer so you can see the image behind it.

Step 6: Paint With Black To Hide The Fireworks As Needed

Now that I can see the image easily behind the fireworks, I can paint with black over the buildings. Press the letter
D on your keyboard to reset your Foreground and Background colors. Normally when you do this, you end up with
black as your Foreground color and white as your Background color, but when you have a layer mask selected in
the Layers palette, as we do, and you reset the colors, you actually end up with the exact opposite. White becomes
your Foreground color and black becomes your Background color. We want black as our Foreground color, so to
fix that, simply press X on your keyboard to swap your Foreground and Background colors.

Then, grab your Brush Tool from the Tools palette or press B to access it with the keyboard shortcut:
Photoshop Fireworks: Select the Brush Tool.

Then, using a hard-edged brush and with black as your Foreground color, paint over any areas in the image where
you want to hide the fireworks. You can zoom in on the image to make things easier by holding down
Ctrl+Spacebar (Win) / Command+Spacebar (Mac) and dragging a selection around the area you want to zoom in
on, then hold down the spacebar by itself to access the Hand Tool and drag the image around on the screen as
needed:

Photoshop Fireworks: Paint with black over any areas where you need to hide the fireworks.

If you make a mistake and accidentally paint over an area you didn't mean to paint over, just press X on your
keyboard once again to swap your Foreground and Background colors, which will make white your Foreground
color, and paint over the area to bring back the fireworks. Then press X to set black as your Foreground color again
and continue painting.

When you're done, if you've zoomed in on the image, press Ctrl+0 (Win) / Command+0 (Mac) to quickly zoom
back out. Also, set the opacity of the fireworks layer back to 100%.

Here's my image after painting on the layer mask. The fireworks now appear to be behind the buildings:
Photoshop Fireworks: The fireworks now appear to be behind the buildings..

Step 7: Duplicate The Fireworks Layer To Brighten Them (Optional)

Finally, if you want your fireworks to be even brighter, with "Layer 1" still selected, press Ctrl+J (Win) /
Command+J (Mac) to duplicate the layer:

Photoshop Fireworks: Press "Ctrl+J" (Win) / "Command+J" (Mac) to duplicate the fireworks layer and add more
intensity to them.

If, after duplicating the layer, you find your fireworks are a little too intense, simply lower the opacity of the
duplicated layer. I'm going to lower mine to about 50%:
Photoshop Fireworks: Lower the opacity of the duplicate layer to fine-tune the intensity of the fireworks.

Once you've fine-tuned the brightness of your fireworks, you're done!

Here's my original image once again before adding the fireworks:

Photoshop Fireworks: The original image once again for comparison.

And here, after duplicating my fireworks layer and then lowering the opacity of the duplicate layer to 50%, is my
final result:
Photoshop Fireworks: The final result.

And there we have it!