In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this gloomy-looking text effect by using the amazing cloud filter in Photoshop. Have a try :)

The purpose of this tutorial is to show you the use of the cloud filter to create various effect, such as light and shadow, as a result bringing more depth to your text effect.

I personally love the cloud filter and I think it’s so versatile and you can use it to generate amazing effect and spice up your design. The trick is how you apply it and what other options do you use to combine it with (such as selection tools, other filter effects, or layer blending mode).

Here is a preview of the final effect:

Alternative darker version: (I adjust the brightness and contrast of the final effect, and some abstract texture to it)

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Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1400px * 600px (in fact size doesn’t really matter much in this tutorial), fill the background with the following gradients:

Personally I like to start with a gradient background with light grey, as it helps setting the mood for the text effect later on we will be created.

On the canvas, type a letter on the centre with a big bold font (I chose this font) as shown below:

On the text layer, apply the following blending options:

Inner Shadow

Gradient Overlay

Pattern Overlay

and you will have the following effect so far:

Step 2

Duplicate the text layer three times, disable the layer effects for those duplicated layers and put them below the original text layer. Alter the font color a bit and adjust the position of the text to the left and right of the original text layer a bit.

Your result should be looking similar to the following screenshot:

Then on each duplicated layer, add a layer mask respectively and erase a portion of the text with a soft brush on the spots as shown below:

The ulimiate goal of this step is to blend the edge of the text with the surrounding, so we can get ready for the next step.

To further increase the depth of the text, we can make a copy of any one of the duplicated text layer, replace the font color with a dark one, apply the following Gaussian Blur to the text layer: (Make sure this layer is beneath the original text layer)

You will have followin effect:

Step 3

Create a new layer on top of all previous layers called “cloud” and grab the Lasso Tool and draw a selection with 25px feather around the text, as shown below:

Go to Filter > Render > Cloud and render some cloud inside it (with white as foreground colour and dark grey as background colour)

Hint: try experimenting with different feather settings for the Lasso Tool, you will see by changing the feather, the cloud with become either thinner or thicker.

Once you finish with the rendering, resize the cloud and position it as shown below:

Duplcate the cloud layer once and position it to the lower position as shown below:

Change the blending mode of both cloud layer to “Hard Light”, you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Duplicate the cloud once more and name the duplicated layer as “shadow”, put it just above the background layer,  hit Ctrl + I to invert the colour and position it on the bottom of the text.

Change the blending mode of the shadow layer to “Normal” and opacity to 40%, you will have the following effect:

Duplicate the Cloud layer once and put it above all previous layer, rotate it to around 60 degree and apply the following motion blur setting to the duplicated layer:

Name this layer as “Light”.

Change the blending mode of  this light layer to be “overlay”, duplicate it a few times and drag them around the text, and you will have the following effect:

Step 5

OK now we can do some fine tuning to the text by adding a Curves adjustment layer to it:

and add some colour over the text by adding another layer on top of the curves adjustment layer with the “overlay” blending mode. Here is my final effect for this tutorial:

Alternative darker version: (I adjust the brightness and contrast of the final effect, and some abstract texture to it)

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! Hopefully I gave you some ideas about the cloud filter and how you can use it for creating light, shadows and adding more depth to text effect.

Till next time, have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the design processes I used to make this Rather Interesting, Wavy and Curving Abstract Shape Effect in Photoshop.

I was just playing around with the Photoshop the other day and discovered this funny effect by accident, thought it looks good and perhaps can be added to some of the photo effect you’re creating, or use it as some sorts of website background.

Along the way, we will be using the brush tool, filter effects, layer blending and some image adjustments. The steps of this tutorial is extremely simple and will be suitable for a PS beginner. Have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect I have: (click to enlarge)

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To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stock:

Crack Brushset

OK let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1000px * 600px, fill the background layer with black colour. Create a new layer on top of the background and called it “light”, grab a 600px soft round brush with white colour, do a single click on the position shown below:

Then Hit Ctrl + T and free-transform this light layer as shown below:

Reduce the layer opacity of this light layer to around 85%, you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Drag this “light” layer to the centre of our canvas, then go to Filter > Distort > Twirl and apply the following settings:

And you will the following effect:

Duplicate this layer a few times, try using the free-transform tool on different layers to create depth and shape variations. Here is the effect I can after the duplication and free-transformation:

To bring out more lighting contrast, I added the following Curves adjustment layer on top of all previous duplicated layers:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

I then decided to have a try and see if I add some cloud to those shape, what effect that can bring me. So I create a new layer called “Cloud”, use the Lasso Tool with a 25px feather to draw a selection, then go to Filter > Render > Cloud and render the cloud as shown below:

Change the blending mode of this cloud layer to “Soft Light” and you will have the following effect:

Download a copy of this crack brushset and create a new layer called “crack” on top of all layers, change its blending mode to “Overlay”, grab any crack brush from the set and paint on it.

You will have this effect (or similar) so far:

Step 4

Now let’s add some colours to those shapes we created. To do so, simply create a new layer on top of all previous layers, change the new layer’s blending mode to “soft light”, and grab a big soft brush with some colour and paint on it:

To add a bit of extra lighting depth to the image, I simply duplicate the original “cloud” layer and drag the duplicated layer to the top, change its blending mode to “Vivid Light”, and apply the following motion blur settings to it:

Duplicate this motion blur layer a few times and drag each duplicated layer to different position of the canvas. You will have the following effect:

To touch up the image, I finally added this following curves adjustment layer:

with the following mask attached to it:

And this is the final effect I have for this tutorial: (Click to enlarge)

That’s all for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational! Cheers and have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show the processes involved in designing and creating this really cool, Geometric Shaped Typography with Grungy Background in Photoshop. This is a simple tutorial yet the effect looks awesome, have a try!

Along the way, I will also give you some tricks that you can use for creating awesome lighting and smoky effect to spice up your design.

The techniques involved in creating this typo include layer blending, filter effects, image adjustments and custom brushsets. Hope you enjoy it!

Here is a preview of the final effect: (click to enlarge)

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OK let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Font

Brushset

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200 * 1700px, fill the background layer with black colour. Create a new layer on top of it and grab the brushset we just downloaded and paint some grungy texture as shown below:

The trick here is to set your brush flow and opacity to a reletively low level, both around 30% – 40%, and vary the brushset size when you paint. Also don’t stick with one brushset, try mixing different ones together and see what result that brings you.

If you want to skip this step, you can simply download a copy of this background texture here.

Now we want to make a space for our text and create some depth for the image. To do so, on the texture layer, add the following layer mask to it:

To adjust the lighting contrast a bit, we can add a Curves adjustment layer on top of all previous layers:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 2

Use the font we download before, type and position the text as shown below: (Use a dark gray colour as font colour)

Tips: type the texts on seperate layers, use the free transform tool (Ctrl + T) to rotate and fit them together.

Once you’re happy with the position, rasterise and merge those text layers and apply the following layer blending option to the merged layer:

Drop Shadow

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay

and you will have the following effect:

Now we’re in the fun part of this tutorial – Duplicate this merged text layer five times, and set each layer’s opacity as shown below:

Use your up and right arrow key on your keyboard, repeatly type them until each layer seperates from each other and form this effect as shown below:

Step 3

Load the selection of the last text layer (hold ctrl + left-click the thumbnail image of that text layer on the layer pallette), and apply the following refine edge settings:

Maintain the selection, create a new layer called “cloud” and render some cloud in it: (Black and White colour)

Duplicate this cloud layer three times, and drag the last text layer on top of the duplicated cloud layer, you will have the following effect:

Duplicate the cloud layer twice, and drag the two layers on top of text layer, change their blending mode to “overlay” and you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now we can add some colours onto the image to spice it up a bit. To do this, I simply create a new layer called “colour 1″ on top of all previous layers, and grab a big soft round brush and select some colour I like to paint over it:

Change the blending mode of this layer to “overlay”.

I also want to highlight the edge of the grungy background, so I add another layer called “colour 2″ and grab a brown colour brush to paint around the edges:

Set the blending mode of this layer to “colour dodge”.

You can also highlight some part of the text, simply create another layer called “highlight” and grab a white soft round, big size brush and paint over desired area:

Change thie blending mode of this layer to “soft light”.

For final refinement, I added two adjustment layers on top of all previous layers:

Curves

Colour balance

Apply the following mask to the colour balance adjustment layer:

Overall, you will have the following effect:

Ok that’s pretty much it for this tutorial! Of course this doesn’t stop you from enhancing it and put it some your own creativity to it.

I further added some lines and apply some of this brushset around the edge of the text.

Here is my final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tut! Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful and inspirational! Cheers and have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to design this chilling and icy text effect in Photoshop. Yesterday and today are both really hot in my city (suppose to be winter right now here!!), so I though I can make something to cool myself down :)

Along the way, we will be practicing a lot of layer blending technques, applying texture, selection technique, and an interesting method to create snowy/foggy effect.  Have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Alternative version: (click to enlarge)

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Ok let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need to following stocks:

Ice Grunge Brushset

Font

Ice Package

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1000px * 600px, leave the background colour as white, and let’s firstly make a background to work on.

Grab the Ice Grunge Brushset we just downloaded, paint around the edges of the background layer as shown below: (tip: set the opacity and flow of the brush to around 50%, and try to use a variety of brushes in the set so we can have a mixture of patterns)

Optionally, you can apply the Star Brushset for extra effect.

We can now add some cooling effect to the background. To do so, I added two adjustment layers to it:

Colour Balance

Brightness and Contrast

and here is the effect so far:

Step 2

Use the font we just downloaded and type some texts onto the document:

Apply the following layer blending option to this text layer:

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Outer Glow

Inner Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Color Overlay

Gradient Overlay

Pattern Overlay

Stroke

and you will have the following effect:

Step 3

Load any one image from the Ice Package into Photoshop (I chose the ice6_0174 image), select a distinct portion of the image use the Rectangluar Marquee Tool, copy and paste the selection onto our document, rotate it slightly as shown below:

Rename this layer as “Icy Texture right” and change its blending mode to “Screen”, use the ice brushset we download to erase the edge of this layer so only the centre part of the image remains:

Duplicate this “Icy Texture right” layer once and drag the duplicated layer to the left, rename the layer as “”Icy Texture Left”, keep the blending mode as “Screen”, and you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now let’s create some shattered ice around the text.

Load a different image from the ice package into Photoshop (I chose ice6_0176.jpg file) and use the same method as described above, select a portion of the image, copy and paste it onto our document, and put it just beneath text layer:

Use the ice grunge brushset to erase the edge and leave just the bits in the centre. (Tip: repeatly left-click the centre of this image for the shattering effect)

Rename this layer as “Background Ice Texture Right”, Add the following adjustment layers to this layer (make sure to tick “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Black and White

Colour Balance

and you will have the following effect:

Duplicate the above three layers, and drag them to the left, you will have the following effect:

And we can add some extra effect under the text. To do this, grab the Ellipitical Marquee Tool with 20px feather, create a new layer just below the text layer, draw a selection as shown below:

Maintain the selection, again grab the ice brushset we downloaded, paint inside the selection. You will have the following effect:

Step 5

Now we can fine-tune the image a bit. Firstly, we flatten the image (don’t forget to save a copy of the original before flatten it) and duplicate the background layer once, apply the following motion blur settings to the duplicate layer:

Now we come to the interesting part: change the blending mode of this duplicated layer to “Pin Light”, keep the opacity of this layer to 100%, and hit Ctrl + T and resize the duplicate layer as shown below:

Erase the edges of the duplicated layer.

You can see by doing so, we created a nice snowy/foggy to our icy text.

Now we can finalise the image by adding the following adjustment layers:

Curves

Hue/Saturation

Colour Balance

and here is the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Of course you can further enhance the image effect by mixing lighting effect, change hue/saturation settings, etc.

Here is an alternative version I have after I change a few things (Decided to give it a darker/groovy theme): (click to enlarge)

Hope you enjoy it! Drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.

Till next time, have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the method I use to design a simple, yet elegant abstract spectrum lines in Photoshop. You will see how easy it is to achieve this nice effect and you can use it a wide range of occasions including perhaps site header backgrounds, logos, or add extra flavor to your photo manipulations.

This tutorial is suitable for beginners and I included the ways of creating new brush presets and also the use of Pen Tool. You will ample opportunities to practive layer blending, filters and Free Transform Tools. Have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect: (click to enlarge)

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Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create  a new document with black background, for size I chose 980px * 400px however you can change this according to your own preference. Use 72 pixel/inch for resolution since we’re creating an image used for website.

Now let’s make a new brush preset. To do this, firstly select the brush tool with the following brush:

Then apply the following brush dynamics to it:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

Make sure you also select the Airbrush and Smoothing option.

After finishing making this brush, let’s save it as a new brush preset so that we can use it in the future too. To do this, left-click the down tri-angle on the top right and click “new brush preset”:

And Enter the following into the window popup:

Then you will see the brush preset appear in the brush selection window:

Step 2

Create a new layer call “lines”, grab the Pen Tool and draw the following working path:

Hint: hold down Shift key and drag your mouse upwards approximately 45 degree for both archor points.

Then right-click and select the option “Stroke Path”:

Then choose the option “brush” and tick the “Simulate Pressure”:

And you will have the following effect:

Step 3

Still on this “lines” layer, go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and apply the following settings:

Then hit Ctrl + F and apply the motion blur filter again, and you will have the following effect:

Apply the following Gradient Overlay blending option to this layer:

Then duplicate this layer 4 times and merge the duplicated layer together, you will have the following effect:

Rename this layer as “lines” after the merge.

Step 4

Again we duplicate the “lines” layers 3 times, and you will see the colour of the the spectrum become clearer:

Then we merge those duplicated layer together, then use the Free Transform tool to resize it into the following:

Then we can use the Warp Tool (Ctrl + T and right-click select “Warp”), transform it into the following shape:

And here is the effect after warping:

Step 5

Now we can really just use our imagination and simply duplicate this “lines” layer a few times, rotate and resize each duplicated layer until the outcome is desirable:

Here is my effect so far:

Merge the duplicate layer together.

We can also add a bit of glowing effect to the spectrum lines. To do this, simple duplicate the merged layer and apply the following Gaussian Blur settings: (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur)

Change the blending mode the duplicated layer to “Linear light” and you will have the following effect:

To add some final touches, remember we created a new brush preset in Step 1? We can use it to add some nice dots on the abstract line.

Create a new layer called “dots” on top of all other layers, grab that brush preset and simply paint over the lines:

Then Change the layer blending mode to “Overlay” and you will have the following effect:

Duplicate this “dots” layer and change the blending mode of the duplicated layer back to “normal”, then reduce its opacity to 15% and erase some excessive parts.

You will have the following final effect:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! Of course you can further enhance this image by adding some more effect, textures and filters.

Here is my final version for this tutorial: (Added a bit of cloudy effect and sharpen the image )

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful, drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to design this awesome Fantasy style Castle Scene with icy background texture, space and debris brushsets.

Together we will be using a variety of Photoshop techqinues such as layer blending mode, selection methods, filter effects, masking technqiues and image adjustments. Again this is an intermediate tutorial so some of the steps can be a bit tricky, but it doesn’t hurt to have a try!

Here is a preview of my final result for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

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To complete this tutorial, you will need to the following textures:

Castle

Icy Background

And these two brushsets:

Space Brushset

Debris Brushset

Step 1

Firstly let’s prepare our background texture. Load the “Icy Background” texture into Photoshop, duplicate the background layer once and set the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “soft light”.

Go to Layer > New adjustment layer > Curves and apply the following settings:

Set the blending mode the adjustment layer to “Multiply” and you will have the following effect:

Now go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Colour Balance and apply the following settings:

Change the blending mode of the newly created colour balance adjustment layer to “soft light” and you will have the following effect:

You can see now the image has more colour depth and much more eye-catching than the original one.

Step 2

Now let’a add an ancient castle in. Load the “Castle” image into Photoshop, use the Magic Wand tool to select the sky portion of the image: (Hint: hold down “Shift” Key to add onto the existing selection)

Then press Shift + Ctrl + I to do an inverse selection, then grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool and hold down the Alt key and make a selection of the bottom part of the image.

This will substract the bottom part of the selection off , as shown below:

After the substraction, press Ctrl + Alt + R to bring up the Refine Edge Tool, apply the following settings:

After the edge-refinemetn, copy and paste the selection on to our document, resize and position it as shown below:

Name this layer as “Castle” and change its blending mode to “Hard Light”.

Add a vector mask onto this layer, grab the Gradient Tool (G) and set the foreground colour to “Black” and background colour Transparent, apply the following gradient effect on the mask:

And you will see the untidy bit on the left side of the castle disappeared:

Step 3

Duplicate the “Castle” layer once, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply the following settings:

Keep the Blending mode of the duplicated layer as “Hard Light”, however drop the opacity to 70%, and you will have the following effect:

Now go back to the orginal castle layer and make a duplicate of it once more, drag the duplicated layer above all other layers, go Edit > Tranform > Flip Horizontal and flip this layer horizontally once, set the blending mode of this layer to “overlay” and opacity 65%.

You will have the followinge effect: (This add a bit more depth to the image)

Step 4

Now let’s add some mist/fog around the castle and add a bit of distant feeling to it. Create a new layer named “Mist”, grab the Lasso Tool with 50px feather, draw a selection as shown below:

Go to Filter > Render > Cloud and render some cloud  inside it (White as Foreground Colour, Black and background colour),  set the blending mode of this layer to “Screen” with 70% opacity:

Then duplicate the “Mist” layer once, put the duplicated layer below the orginal Mist layer and change its blending mode to “Color Dodge” , you will see now we also have some shining effect for the castle and this make the image more vibrant:

Step 5

Now load the “Debris Brushset” into Photoshop. Create a new layer and grab a brush of your choice from the set, paint over the newly created layer as shown below:

Change the blending mode of this layer to “Soft Light” and drop the opacity to 40%, you will have the following effect:

Then load the “Space Brushset” into Photoshop, create a new layer with “overlay” blending mode on top of every other layer, simply paint over the layer with any brush you like from the set:

Step 6

Now you may feel the left side of the image looks a bit empty. To fill this, I simply duplicate the background layer once more, flip the duplicated layer horizontally once and change its blending mode to “Darker Color”:

Add the followinge vector mask to the duplicated layer to add some lighting dynamics to the image:

You will have the final effect:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! You can of course add some of your own texture or filter effect and see what the end results are!

Here is my final image for this tutorial: (I slightly adjusted the colour balance and add a few Pen Tool lins in the background) – Click to enlarge:

Also if you like to have some extra practices of making those Pen Tool lines, you can take a look at my other post here.

Hope you enjoy this tutorial, drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to make a Grungy-Style Abstract Typography using rusted metal texture in Photoshop. The inspiration of this tutorial came from a grungy metal image I came across on stockvault.net and thought I could have a play with it :)

Together we will explore some layer blending techniques, variuos filter effects, and an interesting method of making the text look 3D. Have a go!

Here is a preview of the final image: (click to enlarge)

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OK let’s get started!

Step 1

Download a copy of this grungy image from stockvault.net and load it into Photoshop. We will use it as the background of this poster.

Rotate the canvas by 90 degree CW by going into Image > Rotate Canvas > 90 degree CW:

We can add a bit of noise on the background image and make it look more grungy. To do this, duplicate the background layer and go to Filter > Noise > Dust & Scratches and apply the following settings:

Change the layer blending option to “Overlay” and you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Duplicate the “Background copy” layer once, go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen and apply the following settings:

Keep the layer blending mode as “overlay” and you will have the following effect:

Step 3

Duplicate the “Background copy 2″ layer once and go to Filter > Stylize > Glowing edge and apply the following settings:

Keep the layer blending option as “overlay” and you will see the following effect:

Then hit Ctrl + Shift + Alt + B and bring up the Black and White adjustment Tool, apply the following settings:

And you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Duplicate the “Background Copy 3″ layer once, change the blending option of the duplicated layer to “Screen” and you have the following effect:

To create a bit of colour depth, we apply the Black and White adjustments to this layer (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + B) with the following settings:

Step 5

Still on the previous layer, grab the Eraser Tool with a big soft round brush, erase the area where covering the yellow/golden part:

Change the layer blending option to “Color” and you will have the following effect:

Go back to the “Background copy 3″ layer, again use the Eraser Tool with a big soft brush to erase the centre portion of the image:

Step 6

Now let’s add some text onto the background texture. Download a copy of this font and type some text onto the canvas:

When you’re happy with the text, rasterize it and change its layer blending mode to “Hard Light”.  Apply the following layer blending options:

Drop Shadow:

Bevel and Emboss:

Texture

Gradient Overlay:

And you will have the following effect:

Duplicate the text layer 7-8 times, keep the blending mode of each layer as “hard light”, and you will have a deeper text effect as a result:

Merge those duplicated layers together and name the merge layer as “Text”.

Step 7

Change the blend mode of the text layer to “Hard light”, duplicate it once again and apply the following Gaussian Blur filter on the duplicated layer:

After applying the Blur filter, duplicate this layer once more. On the duplicated layer, add a White colour overlay blending option as shown below:

Then on this layer, use the Eraser Tool to gently eraser some part of the text, by doing so you can create a uneven lighting effect and make the text look 3D:

Step 8

To a bit of extra flavor to the image, we can add a new layer called “cloud” in between the text and the background texture layer, use the Lasso Tool with 40px feather to make a selection around the text and render some cloud inside:

To make the cloud look a bit uneven, we can simply duplicate the existing cloud layer once and set the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “hard light”.

Here is the effect so far:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! You can of course add some of your own texture or filter effect and see what the end results are!

Here is my final result for this tutorial: (I add a bit of radial blur, and adjusted the colour balance a bit)

Hope you enjoy this tutorial, drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the processes I used to transform an average daylight photo into a realistic lightning storm scene in photoshop.

Along the way, we will take about interesting ways of darken your image and reduce noise non-destructively, and also a simple way of rendering rain effect and making. water splashes. Have a try :)

Here is a before and after preview:

Before

After

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Download a copy of this image and load it into Photoshop.

Because we’re creating a rainy image, so firstly we can make the image a bit darker.

To do this, duplicate the background layer once and change it the blending option of the duplicated layer to “Multiply”. This will darken the whole image and the effect is shown blew:

Step 2

Then we can tackle the sky area and make it darker. Hide the “Background copy” layer for now and Press “L” to select the Lasso Tool.  Draw a selection around the sky area.

Hit Ctrl + J to make a layer via Copy, name the new layer as “sky” and drag it on top of all other layers.

Then hit Ctrl + Alt + Shift + B and bring up the Black and White image adjustment Tool, apply the following settings:

Then hit Ctrl + M to bring up the Curve Adjustment Tool, apply the following settings:

You can also use the Blur/Smudge Tool to patch up the “sky” layer so it blending more seamlessly to the houses and trees below:

Once you’re happy with the result, change the blending option of this “sky” layer to “Multiply”, and the effect will look like this:

Step 3

Now you will notice that we have quite  a few noise on the “Sky” layer, which you may want to get rid of. So to do this, duplicate the “Sky” layer once. On the duplicated layer, go to Filter > Blur > Surface Blur and apply the following settings:

Then change the layer blending of the duplicated layer to “Hard Light” and you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now we will add some lightning effect to image. As you may know the previous image I used for this part was removed due to copyright issue (a lesson learnt). Also thanks to the copyright owner for accepting my apology. Also if you guys are interested, you can check out his work at www.jeffsmithusa.com.

So i used an alternative image from stockvault.net instead. Download a copy of this lightning image and load it into Photoshop. Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select a portion, copy and paste the selection back to our document. Put this layer on top of all other layers and name it “Lightning”:

Then use the Eraser Tool to gently erase the unnecessary portion of the image and leave only the lightning bits:

Step 5

Still on the “lightning” layer, go to Image > Adjustment > Channel Mixer and apply te following settings:

Then change the layer blending option of this lightning layer to “Screen”, duplicate this layer a couple of times and you shoud have the following effect:

Step 6

Still on the “lightning” layer, use the Clone Stamp Tool (S) to clone a few portion from the existing lighning and create some dynamic lightning effect:

Tip: use a big soft brush and adjust the flow and opacity to make lightning more dynamic.

Step 7

Now we can render some rainy effect on the image. Create a new layer called “Rain” on top of all other layers, grab a small White brush (3px) and apply the following brush options:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Once you set the brush, simply paint over the sky area, then apply the following motion blur settings:

After that, change the layer blending option to “Overlay” and you will have the following effect:

Step 8

To add a bit of water splashes on the lake so it look a bit more realistic, we can duplicate the background layer once more and put the duplicated layer just above the background layer, go to Filter > Distort > Ocean Ripple and apply the following settings:

And the effect should look like the following image:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you find it useful and inspirational :)

Here is my final image for this tutorial: (I adjusted the Hue/Saturation of the image a bit) – Click to Enlarge

If you have any questions, just drop me a comment :)

Cheers and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the process I used to design this refreshing, cool-looking natural text effect in Photoshop. I was having a walk in the nearby park and suddenly had this thought coming into my mind :)

Along the way, we will be using techniques such as layer blending options, image adjustments tool and some simple selection tools. You will see how easy it is to transform an average texture image into something unique by using Photoshop. Have a go!

Here is my final result of this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200 x 600 px, fill the background layer with Black colour. Choose a font you like (I used this font from urbanfonts.com) and type some texts onto the background layer.

This will automatically create a new layer on top of the background layer, name it “text” and position it in the centre of the canvas as shown below:

Rasterise the text once you’re satisfy with its size and position.

Step 2

On “text” layer, apply the following Layer Blending options:

Inner Shadow

Outer Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Contour

Please note there is no need for applying the Gradient Overlay.

The effect so far will look like this:

Step 3

Still on the “Text” layer, load the selection of the text by holding down the Ctrl key and left-click the thumbnail image of “Text” layer on the layer palette:

Then go to Select > Modify > Expand and expand the image by 15px, then go to Select > Modify > Feather and apply a 15px feather to the selection.

The selection should now look like this:

Step 4

Download a copy of this grass texture and load it into Photoshop. This image is of my own stock and you can use it wherever you want.

Go back to our own document and drag the selection onto our the grass texture:

Copy and paste the selection back to the our document and name the newly-created layer “Grass”. The effect so far will look like this:

Step 5

Change the layer blending option to “Grass” layer to “Hard Light”, hit Ctrl + L and apply the following level adjustments:

The effect so far will look like this:

Optional: if you would like to add more leaves and grass onto it, you may duplicate this grass layer a couple of times, and keep its blending option to “Hard Light”.

Once you’re happy with the grass texture, grab the Eraser Toll with a soft round brush (set the opacity and flow to 50%), gently erase the area where the text sits beneath so the texts can be revealed and become clearer:

Step 6

Ok now we can add some wooden texture for text so it look a bit more natural.

Download a copy of this wooden texture and load it into Photoshop. Go back to our own document and use the Lasso Tool (40px feather) and draw a selection underneath the text as shown below:

Again we drag the selection onto the wooden texture, copy a random portion and paste back to our text document and name the newly created layer “Wood”. Drag this layer below all previous layer and just above the background layer.

The effect is shown below:

Step 7

On the “Wood” layer, apply the following Black and White image adjustments (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + B) and apply the following settings:

Duplicate the “Wood” layer once and go to Filter > Brush Strokes > Accented Edges, apply the following settings on the duplicated layer:

Change the layer blending option of the duplicated wood layer to “Overlay” and duplicate it a couple of times more, you will see this adds a glowing effect to the wood texture:

Here is the effect so far:

Step 8

To add some depth the text effect, we can do a multi-select of all layers (hold down Shift key and left-click the top and bottom once respectively)

Then hit Ctrl + T and use the free transform tool and distort the text until you reach the effect shown below:

For final touchup, you can create a new layer called “cloud” and again use the Lasso Tool to draw a selection, fill the selection with Black and render some cloud in there:

And apply the following Level Adjustments (Ctrl + L) to the “Cloud” layer:

Then apply the following Curve Adjustments (Ctrl + M) settings:

Then put the “Cloud” layer just above the “Wood Copy 2″ layer, change the blending option to “Screen” and you will have the following resulting effect:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational!

Here is my final image for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

If you have any questions, simply drop me a line below.

Cheers and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to transform an ordinary mountain image into a realistic volcano eruption scene with lava effect in Photoshop.

The techniques I used in this tutorial include various image adjustment tools, a number of filters, layer blending options and some basic selection skills. This is a very simple tutorial with just 4 steps, however you will be amazed with the end result. Have a try :)

Here is a before and after preview:

Before

After (click to enlarge)

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Download a copy of this image and load it into Photoshop. This image is of my own stock and you can use it for any purpose.

Firstly we can make the image a bit darker. To do this, duplicate the background layer once. On the duplicated layer hit Ctrl + M to bring up the Curves Adjustment Tool, apply the following settings:

Then hit Ctrl + L and bring up the Levels Adjustments Tool, apply the following settings:

Change the layer blending mode of this duplicated layer to “Multiply”. Duplicate this layer a few times, by doing so it will further darken the image.

The effect so far will look like this:

Merge the duplicated layer together once you’re satisfy with the result. Name the merged layer as “Darken Colour” and keep its layer blending mode as “Multiply”.

Step 2

Duplicate the “Darken Colour” layer once and name the duplicated layer as “colour overlay”, then go to Image > Adjustment > Channel Mixer and apply the following settings:

Then go to Image > Adjustment > Color Balance and apply the following settings:

Midtones

Shadows

Then hit Ctrl + M and apply the following Curves Adjustments:

After applying those image adjustments, change the layer blending options to “Color” and you should have the following effect:

Step 3

Create a new layer called “Lava” and use the Lasso Tool with a 40px feather to draw a selection as shown below:

Then go to Filter > Render > Cloud and render some cloud inside the selection: (Make sure you set black as background colour and white as foreground colour)

Then go to Filter > Render > Difference Cloud and apply this filter 4-5 times: (Please note your cloud effect would be slightly different from mine)

The use the Levels Adjustment Tool and apply settings similar to the following ones:

Then apply the following Colour Balance Settings:

Midtones

Shadows

To add a bit more fluid effect onto the lava, we can go to Filter > Artistic > Plastic Wrap and apply the following settings:

Change the layer blending mode of this “Lava” layer to “Screen” and you should have the following effect:

Step 4

Download a copy of this fire image (image 3) and load it into Photoshop. Press Ctrl + A to select the whole image, copy and paste the selection to our document.

Name this layer as “Explosion” and put it below the “Lava” layer.

Use the Eraser Tool to get rid of the edges and leave the burning fire bits, resize the layer by hitting the Ctrl + T free transformation Tool and move it on top of the mountain.

See Below screenshot for detailed fire position:

Duplicate the “Explosion” Layer a couple of times, resize and rotate the duplicated layers so to make some dynamic explosion effect: (Use the Levels or Curves Tool where necessary)

Here is the effect so far:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! Although it’s a short one, I hope you find it useful and inspirational!

Below is my final image result: (Click to enlarge)

As usual If you have any questions, just drop me a comment :)

Cheers and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this really cool, abstract style shattered text effect with Broken Glass Texture in Photoshop.

Together, we will explore various layer blending options, image adjustment and some basic selection techniques. I also included a nice link containing a list of “Clean Text” which you might find useful for your design project.

It’s not a complicate tutorial in my opinion, however the effect looks rather cool. Have a go :)

Here is a preview of the final effect: (click to enlarge)

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document size 900 * 700px. Then create a new layer named “Gradient Fill” on top of the background layer. On this layer, we can create some background lighting effect.

On the “Gradient Fill” layer, fill it with #494949 colour, then press “G” key to select the Gradient Tool, use the Radial gradient option and fill the layer with the following colours: (Make sure you select the “Foreground colour to transparent” option as well)

Step 2

Type some texts on top of the “Gradient Fill” layer. This will automatically create a new layer, call it “text”.

As for font choice, I would suggest you use some clean fonts  to maxmise the effect. Here is a nice collection of clean font and you can choose from: Clean font showcase. From the list, I chose this font for the tutorial.

Position the text as shown below:

On the “text” layer, apply the following layer blending options:

Drop shadow

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay

The effect so far will look like this:

Step 3

Now can apply the Broken Glass Texture on the text to create shattered effect.

Download a copy of this Broken Glass Texture image (image 1) from CG Texture. Load it into Photoshop. Go back to our document and load the selection of the text layer (To do this, hold down the Ctrl key and left click the thumbnail image of the text layer in the layer palette).

Drag the selection onto the Broken Glass Texture you’ve just downloaded, copy and paste a portion of the texture back to our document. This will create a new layer on top of the “Text” layer, name it as “Glass Texture”.

Change the layer blending option of this texture layer to “Overlay” and you will have the following effect:

Step 4

On the “Glass Texture” layer, apply the following Black and White adjustments:

Then hit Ctrl + J and duplicate this texture layer 5-6 times and you will have the following effect:

Step 5

Now we have a shattered text, then I thought: umm, perhaps it will be nice to add some water drop on top of it? I guess that will be an interesting effect.

So I downloaded a copy of this image from CG Texture and load it into Photoshop. Go back to our document and load the text selection again, drag it onto the water drop texture, copy and paste a portion of that texture image back onto our text document.

This will again generate a new layer, name it as “Water Drop Texture”.

Change the layer blending option to “Soft Light”, again we duplicate the “Water Drop Layer” 5-6 times, and you will have the following effect:

Step 6

To add a bit of flavour onto the effect, we can create a new layer called “Cloud”, use the Lasso Tool with 40px feather, make a selection around the texture and render some cloud: (Set foreground colour to White, background to Black):

Change the layer blending option of this cloud layer to “Hard Light” and you will have the following effect:

Step 7

Download a copy of this image and load it into Photoshop. Copy and paste the entire image onto our document and place it just a above the background layer, but below all other layers. Name this layer as “Glass Shattering”.

Hide the “Gradient Fill” layer for now.

Duplicate the “Glass Shattering” layer a couple times, and on each duplicated layer, use the Free Transform tool (Ctrl + T) to rotate, resize and distort the texture to make some more shattering effect:

Merge the duplicated layers and apply the following Black and White Adjustments:

You will have the following effect as a result:

Step 8

Now we can add some colour overlay on top of the text. A quick way to do this is to create a new layer on top of all other layers and set the blending mode to “Color Dodge”, then grab a big soft round brush with some colour of your choice, and simply paint over the text.

The result effect will look like this:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! You can apply some more texture onto the text itself, or add some background texture, that’s totally up to you :)

Here is my final image for this tutorial: (Click to Enlarge)

If you have any questions, just drop me a comment :)

Cheers and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the processes I used to transform an avarage day photo into a really nice golden sunset scene in Photoshop. This tutorial is inspired by this magnificant work from the Ubisoft game Fry Cry 2.

Together we will explore techniques such as layer blending, image adjustments, non-destructive photo editing, use of pen tool and various image filters. It’s an easy tutorial, have a go!

Meanwhile, if you would like to find some more info about non-destructive photo editing, I have another post here:

Bring Colour and Light out of Ordinary Image

Or if you would like to find out some basic info about Pen Tool, I have another post here.

Here is a before and after preview of this tutorial:

Before

After

An alternative Version

OK let’s get started!

Step 1

Download a copy of this image and load it into Photoshop. Duplicate the background layer Three Times as shown below:

Change the layer blending option for “Background copy”, “Background copy 2″, “Background copy 3″ accordingly:

“Background copy” – Overlay

“Background copy” – Hard Light

“Background copy” – Color

And you will have the following image:

Step 2

Duplicate the Background once more and drag the duplicated layer on top of all other previous layers, apply the following Surfuce Blur settings to it:

Change the layer blending of this layer to “Screen” – this will add a glowing effect to the image.

Step 3

Now we will seperate the sky bit from rest of the image so that we could edit it without affecting other part of the image.

To do this, hide all previously duplicate layers and go back to the background layer, use the Pen Tool to create a path around the sky portion of the image:

Then right-click and choose Make Selection, choose 0 px feather and this will transform the path into a selection:

Then hit Ctrl + J to make a layer via copy, name it as “Sky” and Drag it above all other layers. (Optional: you can use the Clone Stamp Tool to refine the edges of the sky so it fits better with the landscape.)

Apply the following Channel Mixer image adjustment to the “Sky” layer:

And the effect so far will look like this:

Step 4

Now duplicate the “Sky” layer once, apply the following Gaussian Blur settings to the duplicate layer:

Change the layer blending option to “Overlay” and this will add some extra softness to the cloud:

Duplicate the “Sky” layer once more and drag this dupcliate layer on top of all other layers, load the selection of this layer by holding down Ctrl key + Left-click the thumbnail of this layer within the layer palette, fill it with colour shown below:

Change the layer blending mode to “color” and you will have the following effect:

Step 5

Now we add some colour for the grass and the landscape as well. To do this, create a Gradient Map on top of all layers:

and apply the following settings:

Change the layer blending mode of this adjustment layer to “Soft Light” and opacity to 80%. And you will have the following effect:

Step 6

If you would like to add some more lighting and reduce the amount of the brightness of the sky a bit, you can go back to the origianl “Sky” layer, use the Eraser Tool with a big round brush and 0% hardness, erase to the parts you want:

Here is the effect so far:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! The rest is again left upon your own creativity :)

Below is my final image for this tutorial: (Click to Enlarge)

An alternative version:

If you have any questions, just drop me a comment :)

Cheers and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I used to design this rusty old building with dusky sky in Photoshop. In order to balance the image and make it not too dark, I also added some fresh grass textures on top of it.

Along the way, we will be using lots of layer blending and image adjustment techniques. Also some basic image transformation techniques will be used to create depth, as well as an interesting way to render some dynamic lighting effect.

Here is a preview of the final image for this tutorial:

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1000px * 800px, fill the background layer with Black.

Download the following textures from CG Textures and we will use them later on in this tutorial. It might be a good idea to make a new folder and put those textures into it.

Old Building

Rust

Dusk

Grass

Step 2

Load the “Old Building” image into Photoshop, then use the Move Tool (V) to drag the entire image onto our document, resize it to the centre of the canvas:

Name this layer as “Old House”. Use the Eraser Tool (E) with the following settings, remove the sharp edges of the building:

Step 3

Now we can add a bit of lighting contrast to the old house. I would like the upper side of the image to be brighter than the bottom part of the image.

Still on the “old house” layer, apply the following Curves Adjustments (Ctrl + M):

Then apply the following Levels Adjustment settings (Ctrl + L):

Then apply the following Black and White Adjusments (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + B):

The effect so far will look like this:

Step 4

Now we can give this old house some angle and perspectives so it looks not so boring and still.

I used the Free Transformation Tool (Ctrl + T) and apply Distort, Perspecitve and Scale techniques and make the image looks like this:

By doing so you can also expend the depth of the image so later on you will have greater flexibility to add more stuff onto it.

Step 5

Load the “Rust” image into Photoshop, select the centre portion of the image as shown below:

Copy and paste the selection back to our document, this will automatically create a new layer. Name it as “rust texture” and free transform it until it cover the old building:

Then apply the following Curves Adjustments (Ctrl + M) on this layer:

Then change the layer blending mode to “Soft Light” and you will have the following effect:

Step 6

The is an Optional Step: To further enhance the rusty effect, duplicate the “rust texture” once and go to Filter > Brush Storkes > Dark Stroke and apply the following settings:

Reduce the opacity of the duplicated layer to 60% and you will have the following effect:

Step 7

It still look a bit boring if there is just a building ono the canvas, then I thought: why not add some sky and cloud texture on top of building?

Load the “Dusk” image into Photoshop, select the centre portion of the image as shown below:

Copy and paste the selection to our document and name the layer as “dusk sky” and rotate and position the image as shown below:

Then apply the following Levels Adjustments settings:

And you the effect so far will look like this:

Step 8

We can now add some freshness into the image and it will somehow balance the feel of the image a bit so it won’t look too dark.

Load the “Grass” image into Photoshop. Select a random portion of it as show below:

Copy and paste the selection onto our document and name the layer as “grass texture”. Resize and position it as shown below:

Use the Eraser Tool with a big round brush, set the flow and opacity to 60% and 0% hardness, gently erase the centre portion of the grass texture so it reveal the old house:

I also duplicated the grass layer a couple of times and used the Clone Stamp Tool on the duplicated layer just to increase the density of the grass:

Step 9

To further enhance the lighting contrast and create some dynamic light for the image, we can create a new layer and use the Lasso Tool with a 40px feather, draw a few joint selection and fill them with Black and render some cloud:

Then apply the following Lens Flare Settings:

Then Apply the following Levels Adjustments:

Then change the layer blending of this layer to “soft light” and you will have the following image:

Then you can duplicate the lighting layer a few times and drag it to different positition where you want to add more light:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! The rest is left upon your own creativity :)

Below is my final image for this tutorial: (I added some more lighting effect and used some brushes I downloaded from qbrushes.com)

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful and inspirationa!

If you have any questions, just drop me a comment :)

Cheers and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you how you can apply dynamic colour and lighting effect to highlight your images and give them a shining and metallic effect in Photoshop. I will also introduce some techniques that you could use to hightlight certain objects within the image to make them stand out.

By following this tutorial, you will gain further understanding into image adjustment tools, layer blending modes and various filters. Have a go, it’s simple :)

Here is a before and after preview:

Before:

After:

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Download a copy of this image and load it into Photoshop. This image is of my own stock and you may use it freely for anywhere.

Duplicate the background layer FIVE TIMES and hide the top 4 layers, leaving just the one directly above the background layer visible:

We will focus on the “Background copy” layer first and as the tutorial progresses, we will un-hide other layers and apply filters and adjustments to those layers as well.

Step 2

Firstly we would like to get rid of the crowd on the image so as to make it look less busy. However, you may like to retain the crowd and do stuff with them, that’s totally up to you.

OK so get rid of the crowd, select the “background copy” layer, grab a big, soft, round brush with 50% opacity and flow, gently brush over the crowd until you achieve the following effects:

Then change the blending mode to “Multiply” and you will have the following effect:

Step 3

Now un-hide the “Background copy 2″ layer, go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effect and apply the following settings:

The reason I did this step is that I would like to make the light sort of coming from the sky and create some depth for the image.

Change the blending mode of this layer to “Soft light” and your effect will now look like this:

Step 4

Now un-hide the “Background copy 3″ layer and drag it down below the “Background copy” layer:

Use the Dodge Tool with a 100px soft brush and 70% Exposure in Highlight mode, brush over the edges of the building where necessary to create some dynamic lighting.

Below is the effect after apply Dodge Tool:

Optionally, you can apply the following Brightness and Contrast setting on this layer to enchance the lighting effect:

Step 5

Now un-hide the “Background copy 4″ layer, apply the Black and White Image Adjustment Tool with the following settings:

Change the blending mode of this layer to “Color” and reduce the opacity to 50%, and you will have the following effect:

Step 6

Now we’re going to add some more colour and lighting contrast to the image. Un-hide the “Background copy 5″ layer, hit Ctrl + M and apply the following Curve Settings:

Then Go to Filter > Render > Gaussian Blur and apply the following settings:

Then change the layer blending mode of this layer to “Color Dodge” and reduce the opacity to 55%. The image will now look like this:

Step 7

Now go back to the “Background Copy” layer, use the Eraser Tool with a soft round brush (I used 200px, 30% flow and opacity), gently erase some portions of the dark area down the bottom (where the crowd located).

This creates more lighting dynamics and make it easier to focus on certain objects:

Step 8

We can add some final touches for this image. Create a new layer and fill it with Black colour, go to Filter > Render > Fiber and apply the following settings:

Then apply this Level Adjustment setting to it:

Change the layer blending option to “Screen” and you will have the following image:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! The rest is once again left upon your own imagination. Have a play with layers and filters, see what results they will bring you :)

Here is two other versions with different colour scheme I did for this tutorial:

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it inspirational :)

Thanks very much and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to transform a cloud image into an explosion scene in Photoshop. I was having a play with some cloud photos I took the other day and discovered this effect by accident :)

This effect is easily achieve through some simple layer blendings and image adjustments. Other techniques include selection tool, various filters and free transformation tools.

Here is a preview of my final image for this tutorial:

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 800px * 800px (size doesn’t really matter for this tutorial, you can choose one you feel comfortable with), fill the background with Black colour.

Download a copy of this image (this is my OWN image so don’t worry about copyright, you can use it freely) and load it into Photoshop.

Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (Press the “M” key) to select a portion of the image as shown below:

Copy and paste the selected portion onto our newly created document, resize and position it in the centre of the canvas:

By pasting the selection, a new layer will automatically be generated on top of the background layer. Name this new layer as “flame”.

Step 2

We will now get rid of the square edges of the “explosion” layer. I found a quick way is to use the Eraser Tool with a big, round, soft brush setting (I used 300px round brush, with 0% hardness), and set both the brush opacity and flow to 100%, gently eraser the edges off.

The result is shown below:

Apply the following the Level Adjustments to this layer: (Please note the setting may be slight different for your image, the purpose is to adjust the colour input of the image to make the effect more realistic)

The result so far will look like this:

Still on the same layer, apply the Curve Tool (Ctrl + M) and use the following settings:

And the image should look similar to this one:

Step 3

We will add various effect onto the flame and make it look more realistic.

Now duplicate the “flame” layer Five Times. Hide the top four duplicated layers for now and just leave the “flame copy” layer visible.

On the “flame Copy” layer, apply the followng Hue and Saturation Image Adjustment Settings:

Change the layer blending option to “Soft Light” and you will have the following image:

Step 4

Un-hide the “flame Copy 2″ layer, apply the following Black and White Adjustment to it:

(For those who use CS2 or earlier versions of Photoshop, you may try to the Curve or Level adjustment tool first to alter the colour contrast, then desaturate the layer.)

Change the layer blending mode to “color dodge” and you will have the following result:

Step 5

We can add some particles into the flame so it look a bit more realistic. To do this, un-hide the “flame Copy 3″ layer, go to Filter > Artistic > Film Grain and apply the following settings:

Then change the layer blending option to “Overlay” and drop the opacity of 80%. You will have the following image:

Step 6

We can some highlights and softness to the flame. Un-hide the “flame Copy 4″ layer, apply the Gaussian Blur filter with the following settings:

Change the blending mode to “Screen” and you will have following effect:

Step 7

Now we can give the flame a bit of motion. Un-hide the “flame Copy 5″ layer and apply the following Motion Blur settings:

Use the Move Tool to move this layer slight up a bit and change the layer blending option to “Screen”, drop the opacity to 50%. The result so far will look like this:

Step 8

Now let’s make some explosion effect. Select all layers previously created, hit Ctrl + T to bring up the Free Transformation Tool, distort, perspective, resize the image as shown below:

Here is a zoom-in view:

Step 9

Create a new layer called “Particles”. Use the Lasso Tool with a 20px feather, select some random area outside the explosion:

Fill the selection with Black colour and render some cloud (White as foreground colour, Black as background colour). Then apply the following Level Adjustments:

Change the layer blending option to “Screen” and drop the opacity to around 80%.

Here is the result so far:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! The rest is left upon your own creativity. Have a play with the layers and change the blending modes, or apply some other filters and see what results they will bring you!

Below is the final image (I added some watercolour painting effect to the image)

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful and inspirational! If you have any question, just drop me a line and I will try and get back to you asap.

Thank you very much and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you how to bring colour and light out of an ordinary image through simple layer blending and image adjustments. I also would like to introduce the idea of “non-destructive” photo editing, which I think will be beneficial for you as a designer.

The techniques used in this tutorial includes various image adjustment tools, layer blending options and the surface blur filter.

Here is some helpful tips I would like to share with you guys:

1. The purpose of duplicating layers is to achieve non-destructive editing, which means the original image is not affected and you will have greater flexibility when it comes to retouching your image.
2. Make use of various image adjustment tool (Curve, Level, Black and White, Hue and Saturation), they are the tools to boost your image colour and lighting constrast.
3. Layer blending mode such as “Overlay”, “Soft Light”, “Color” are always useful for bringing out extra light and colour for your image.
4. Use Dodge/Burn Tool to give certain portion of your image additional lighting contrast.
5. Use Surface blur instead of Gaussian blur for image blending.

Some info I found on the web about Non-destructive Photo Editing:

The great advantage of non-destructive editing in Photoshop is that you can easily adjust image effects or adjustments, even weeks or months later. They also allow quick editing and increased flexibility. Everyone who uses Photoshop should know these techniques, because they really make Photoshop so powerful.

- http://www.lunacore.com/photoshop/tutorials/tut013.htm

Here is a preview of the final result:

Step 1

Load a photo of your choice into Photoshop. Alternatively, you can download a copy of this image if you want to follow this tutorial precisely according to each step.

After loading your photo, duplicate the background layer five times:

Then hide the top 4 layers and leave just the “Background copy” layer visible.

Step 2

On the “Background copy” layer, hit Ctrl + M to bring up the Curve Tool and apply the following settings:

Then change the blending mode of this layer to “Overlay” with an opacity of 60%, and you will have the following image:

Step 3

Un-hide the “Background copy 2″ layer and select it, hit Ctrl + Alt + Shift key to bring up the Black and White image adjustment tool and apply the following settings:

(Please note the settings may be different if you use your own photo, but the idea is to put more emphasis toward certain colours in the image and bring them out a bit more)

Change the layer blending mode to “Soft Light” with an opacity of 70%.

The effect so far will look like this:

Step 4

Now we can some more exposure to the image. Un-hide the “Background Copy 3″ layer and select it, go to Image > Adjustments > Exposure and apply the following settings:

Then change the layer blending mode to “Color” and you will have the following effect:

Step 5

Un-hide the “Background copy 4″ layer and select it, go to Image > Mode > Lab Color and change the image mode to LAB.

The go the Channel Palette and select the “lightness” channel:

Then hit Ctrl + L to bring up the level adjustment tool, apply the following settings:

Change the image mode back to RGB mode. When you’re prompted to flatten the image, choose “Don’t Flatten”.

Change to layer blending option to “Soft Light” with an opacity of 50% and you will have the following effect:

Step 6

Now we can add some extra soft light onto the image.

Un-hide “Background layer 5″ and select it, go to Filter > Blur > Surface Blur and apply the following settings:

Change the layer blending mode to “Screen” with an opacity of 60% and you will have the following image:

Step 7

This is an optional step. As you can see after several layer blendings, the mountain on the right has become a black spot without any tree to be seen. We can bring the trees back by using the dodge tool.

Duplicate the background layer once more and put the duplicated layer just above the background layer, but beneath any other layer.

Hit “o” key to select the dodge tool, apply the following settings:

Brush over the mountain until the trees are back.

You can reduce the layer opacity a bit to get a better result, also adjust the brush size for the dodge tool if necessary.

And here is the final effect:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! Remember you can always use the layer blending modes, curve/level tools and blur filter to bring out light and contrast for your image.

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and if you have any questions, just drop me a comment.

Cheers and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will demonstrate the steps I took to make this golden ancient text effect in Photoshop. I always love ancient history and have an interest in reading all sorts of history books.

Along the way, we will be looking into techniques such as layer blending effects, loading and expanding selection and image adjustments.

Below is a preview of the final result:

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1000 x 400 pixel, fill the background layer with Black colour and type some texts onto it. You may use any font you like, I chose this beautiful font from dafont.com.

Position the text as shown below: (You may hit Ctrl + t to bring up the free transformation tool to resize the text a bit)

Step 2

On the text layer, apply the following layer blending options:

Inner Shadow

Outer Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Color Overlay

The effect so far will look like this:

Step 3

Now we’re going to make a selection of the text, which we can use later in the tutorial.

Move your mouse over the text layer, hold down the Ctrl key and left-click on the layer (See below image for the position where you do the left-click):

You will also notice the cursor will change into a hand with a rectangular marquee.

This will load the selection of the text (as shown below): If you are having trouble with this, there is an article on the web you might find useful.

Then go to Select > Modify > Expand (Path shown below)

Apply the following setting:

And the selection of the text should now look a bit wider than before:

Step 4

Now we’re going to add some texture to create some ancient feeling for the text.

Download a copy of this image and load it into photoshop. Go back to our own document and press the “M” key to select the Rectangular Marquee Tool, then move your mouse over the text until the cursor turns into a rectangular marquee shape: (see image below)

Then hold down your left mouse button and drag the entire selection over to the newly loaded texture:

Copy and Paste selected area over to our document – This action will automatically create a new layer, name it as “texture”.

Set the blending mode of this layer to “Overlay” and you should have the following effect so far:

Step 5

Duplicate the “texture” layer three times. Apply changes to layer blending as following:

Change the layer blending mode for “texture copy” layer to “Color Dodge”, with an opacity of 40%

Keey the layer blending mode for “texture copy 2″ layer as “Overlay”, with an opacity of 100%

Change the layer blending mode for “texture copy 3″ layer to “Soft Light”, with an opacity of 90%.

And you should now have the following effect:

Step 6

This is an optional step. I feel like adding some depth into the text, so I duplicate the “texture copy 3″ layer once, then hit Ctrl + Alt + Shift + B to bring up the Black and White adjustment tool and apply the following settings on the duplicted layer:

The effect will now look like this:

OK that’s it for this tutorial! The rest is left upon your own creativity, you can add some more texture, adjust colour balance, etc. Totally up to you :)

Below is my final result for this tutorial: (I added a background texture and further adjusted the colour balance)

PSD File for this Tutorial

Having trouble with this awesome tutorial? You can buy this PSD File for only $2.00! Click the link below and you will be taken to the Paypal checkout page, after payment you will be given a download link automatically.

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful and inspirational!

As usual, if you have any question, just leave me a comment below.

Thanks very much and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to make a grassy and flowery soft drink can in Photoshop. I know it sounds weird but I actually found the inspiration from seeing a soft drink can lying on the lawn in my backyard!

Together we will be exploring various layer blending methods, image adjustment tools and methods of adding colour depth. Have a go!

Here is my final result for this tutorial:

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1000×1600px, leave the resolution to 72 pixel/inch and hit Shift + F5 to fill the background layer with black colour.

Let’s donwload the image below, which will be used as the starting point for this tutorial:

After downloading this image, load it into Photoshop and hit Ctrl + A to select the entire image, copy and paste the entire image to our new document, this will automatically form a new layer, name it as “Soft Drink Can”.

The postion of the can is shown below:

Step 2

On the “Soft Drink Can” layer, use the Eraser Tool with a brush size of 200px and the hardness to 100%, gently erase the white area around the can:

Duplicate the “Soft Drink Can” layer twice and merge them together: (To select multiple layers, hold down the Ctrl Key while selecting)

After selecting the layers, right-click on any of three layers and merge the layers:

So far the effect looks like this:

Step 3

Now we will add some contrast to the image. Hit Ctrl + M to bring up the cuver, apply the following settings:

Then hit Ctrl + L to bring up the Level tool, apply the following settings:

RGB Settings

Red Settings

You will have the following image so far:

Step 4

Download this image from CG Texture and load it into Photoshop, select a portion of the image, copy and paste it on our document. See below for position details:

Name this layer “Grass”, right-click on it and go to “Blending Option”, set the blending mode to “Overlay” and set its opacity to around 85%.

You will have the following image so far:

Step 5

We can now add some of more depth for the grass. To do this, duplicate the “Grass” layer and keep the blending mode of the duplicated layer as “overlay”.

Then Hit Ctrl + Alt + Shift + B to bring up the Black and White image adjustment tool and apply the following settings:

Here is the effect after:

Step 6

The image looks a bit boring just with the grass texture so I decided to add some flower onto it :)

Download this image and load it into Photoshop, use the same method as described in the previous to select a portion of the image, copy and paste it onto our document:

Name this layer as “Flower”, then hit Ctrl + L to bring the Level Adjustment Tool and apply the following settings:

Then right-click on this layer and set it as a clipping mask:

Then use the Eraser Tool to get rid of the flower texture around the top of the can.

You will have the following image so far:

Step 7

This is an optional step if you would like to add some more colour contrast and depth onto the image.

On the “Soft Drink Can” Layer, Hit Ctrl + Alt + Shift + B to bring up the Black and White Tool and apply the following settings:

And you will have the following result:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! I will leave you with some room to expand your own creativity!

Here is my final result for this tutorial: (I used some brushes downloaded from Qbrushes.com and further adjusted the colour contrast of the image)

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful and inspirational!

As usual, if you have any question, just leave me a comment below. Thanks very much and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the processes I used to transform an average forest Photo into a Dark and Crimson Forest Scene, inspired by the Japanese Survival Horror Playstation game “Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly”.

We will explore various layer blending options, an interesting way of rendering light and various image adjustment options.

Here is a preview of the the final result:

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Download this image off the net and use it as a starting point of this tutorial.

Load the image into Photoshop and duplicate the background layer. Set the blending option of the duplicated layer to “Hard Light”.

Step 2

Duplicate the background layer again and put this duplicated layer on top of the one in the previous step.

Hit Ctrl + U to bring the Hue and Saturation Image adjustment tool, apply the following settings:

Change the layer blending option to “Soft Light” and keep all other blending options unchanged.

Here is the effect so far:

Step 3

Create a new Hue and Saturation Adjustment Layer (see below for detailed path)

Apply the following Hue and Saturation Settings:

The effect so far will look like this:

Step 4

This is an optional step. Personally I feel the image is a bit saturated and feel a bit hard. So i decided to add some softness to the image and desaturate it a bit.

To desaturate the image, duplicate the “Background Copy 2″ layer, hit Ctrl + Alt + Shift + B to bring up the Black and White image adjustment tool, apply the following settings:

Still on this layer, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply the following settings:

Here is the image so far:

Step 5

Now we can add some butterflies on the image. Create a new layer called “Butterfly” and load the “Special Effect Brushes” brush preset (see image below for details):

Paint some butterfly on the image as shown below (be aware that your result may look slightly different to mine because the brush dynamics).

Hint: User the Eraser Tool with 50% opacity and flow to erase some parts of the butterfly to create some depth. You may also hit Ctrl + T to bring up the free transformation Tool to adjust the shape of the butterfly a bit.

After painting the butterflies, set the layer blending option of this layer to “Color Dodge”:

Step 6

We can add some extra lighting effect to image. To do this, create a new layer called “lighting”, use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to make a selection. Fill the selection with black colour:

Maintain the current selection, go to Filter > Render > Fiber and apply the following setting:

Hit Crtl + T to bring up Free Transformation Tool, rotate the selection as shown below:

Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and apply the following settings:

After rendering motion blur, change the layer blending option of this layer to “Overlay” and you will have the following image:

Ok let’s it for this tutorial~ You may add some more lighting effect, adjust the colour balance, or test applying some more texture onto it! Always remember not to limit your creativity!

Here is my final image for this tutorial:

If you have any question, simply drop me a line!

Thank you very much and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you a very simple way to achieve this cool shining crystal text effect in Photoshop. I accidentally discover this method when I was playing with the layer blending options and I decide to share this with you guys..

This is a short and simple tutorial and you should have no trouble doing it :). Have a try!

Here are some of the final text effect I made:

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document, size doesn’t really matter but I chose 800×400px because that’s where my comfort zone is. Fill the background layer with Black colour.

Type some texts on the document. You can choose any font you want. I use this font from dafont.com. This should automatically create a new layer on top of the background layer.

Position the text to the centre of the canvas. (See below)

Step 2

On the text layer, apply the following layer blending options:

Inner Shadow

Outer Glow

Bevel and Emboss

The effect so far will look like:

Step 3

Now we can add some more crystal feeling into the text. I found applying some leaves texture overlay turn out to be good. Here is the texture I used for this tutorial:

Download the above image, load it into Photoshop and select a portion of it using the rectangle selection marqee tool. Copy and paste it on our document, then resize it to fix the dimension of the text.

See below image for detailed image overlay position:

Change the layer name of this layer to “texture overlay”.

Step 4

On “texture overlay” layer, hit Ctrl + M to bring up the Curve Tool, apply the following settings:

Then hit Ctrl+Alt+Shift+B to bring up the Black and White Tool, apply the following settings:

Then change the layer blending style of this layer to “overlay”.

The effect so far will look like:

Step 5

We can add some mist onto the text to make it look better. To do this, create a new layer on top of the “texture overlay” layer.

Use the Lasso Tool with a 20px feather to select some areas around the text, fill the selection with black and go to Filter > Render > Cloud (Make sure you have Black as background colour, White as foreground colour) and render some cloud.

After rendering cloud, set the layer blending style of “Screen”.

See below for details:

Then use the Level Tool under Image > Adjustment > Level and apply the following settings:

The effect will now look like this:

Ok, that’s it for this tutorial! The rest is left upon your own creativity!

I also made two alternative version with different colour scheme:

Hope you enjoy this short tutorial and if you have any question, just drop me a comment!

Cheers and have a great day!