In this tutorial, I will show you how easy it is to design this very eye-catching, Laser Particle abstract effect in Photoshop. This is a beginner level tutorial and steps are really simple, have a try!

I made this tutorial fin order to show you how you can use dynamic brush settings, motion blur filter and cloud filter to create great looking effect, which can be used widely in all sorts of occasion to spice up your design :)

Here is a preview of the final effect:

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OK let’s get started!

Step 1

Firstly let’s make a really simple Photoshop Brush to use later on in the tutorial. Create a new document sized 70px *25px (actually the dimension is not important here, as long as you keep the width roughly 3 times to the height and make it a rectangle shape).

Press Shift + F5 to fill the background layer with any color you like:

and go to Edit > Define Brush to create a custom Photoshop brushset:

Press “Ok” to proceed, you will see the new brushset appearing in the brush list:

Step 2

Now let’s create a new document (size doesn’t matter here) in Photoshop, fill the background layer with Black color. Create a new layer called “on top of the background layer (always a good practice because if something goes wrong you can simply delete this layer) and, let’s now apply some brush dynamics to the brush we just created.

Brush Tip Shape (Make sure to reduce the brush size to a smaller one around 20px)

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

And use this dynamic brush to paint some patterns of the new layer, as shown below:

Step 3

Hit Ctrl + T then right-click on this layer, choose “perspective” and alter the shape of this layer into the one shown below:

This step can be a bit tricky, you might want to try a few times ( to get the right feeling. Ultimately what you want is a kind of splashing/exploding effect. I adjusted a few times myself and this is what I have after the adjustmet:

Use a soft brush eraser to erase the left edge of the dynamic shape, so it blending into the background, therefore creating more depth:

Step 4

Duplicate this “Particle” layer once, apply the following motion blur setting to the duplicated layer:

Make sure the Angle of the motion blur match the angle of the previous particle layer.

Here is the effect you should have after applying the motion blur filter:

Reduce the opacity of the duplcated layer to around 80%, you will have the following effect:

Step 5

To tune-up the effect a bit, we use the cloud filter to add a bit of smoke around the laser particle. To do this, create a new layer called “smoke effect”,  use the Lasso Tool with 30-40px feather to draw a selection around the particle, go to Filter > Render > Cloud and fill some cloud inside the selection:

Hit Ctrl + L and apply the following levels adjustment to this layer:

Resize this layer to a very small size, change its blending mode to “Screen”, positon it to the location as shown below:

Make a few duplication of it and scatter them around the particle, you will have the following effect:

Add some color over it by creating a new layer on top of all previous layer, set the blending mode to either “color dodge” or “overlay”, paint some colour over it: (Hint: use color balance adjustment layer for more control)

Step 6

To finishing up the image, we can flatten the layers, then apply the following “Smart Sharpen” Filter on the flattened layer – this will make the image look more crisp:

and you will have the following effect:

That’s it for this tutorial! Here is a final image I made afterwards:

You can apply this effect to tons of occasions – photo retouch, web headers/footers, manipulations, etc. Just to add extra flavour to your design :)

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful! Until next time, have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this really great-looking, abstract style text effect by using custom brushset (which we will be making one of our own) with dynamics, plus adding artistic effect with Photoshop filters. Have a try!

This is an intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be a bit tricky :)

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

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive :) Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized  1400px * 650px, fill the background layer with the following gradients:

Step 2

Create a new layer on top of the background called “light top”, grab a big soft round brush with a white color, do a single click on the top centre region of the canvas:

Create another create called “light bottom” and use a similar brush as mentioned above, do a single click on the centre of the canvas, resize and perspective it with free transform tool (Ctrl + T) to produce more depth for it:

Here is the effect so far:

Step 3

Type some texts on top of all previous layers we created. You can use any font you like but I preferred a big, bold font (download it here):

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

Drop Shadow

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay

Stroke

Here is the effect so far:

Optional: to add a bit more depth to the text, make a duplicate this text layer, drop the opacity of the duplicated layer to around 20% and move it to the left of the original text layer a bit:

Step 4

Now let’s start make a simple brushset. Create a new document with a size of 200px * 200px, leave the background layer as white, and grab the polygon tool and draw a shape as shown below (use the distort option from the free-transform tool to adjust the shape):

The Polygon Tool:

Polygon Tool Settings:

Draw the shape:

Tip: use the trim tool to get rid of the extra height and width of the canvas.

Important: after drawing the shape, make sure you rastersize this shape layer. and make the background layer tranparent.

Once you finish the aboves, go to Edit > DefineBrush Preset:

In the box popped up, type a name for this brushset and hit “OK”, you will see the newly created brush appearing in the brush list:

Step 5

Select this newly created brush, apply the following brush dynamics to it:

Shape dynamics

Scattering

And tick the “Airbrushing” and “Smoothing” options.

Create a new layer underneath the orginal text layer, draw some random patterns as shown below with this dynamic brush, as shown below: (try adjusting the brush size)

Step 6

Now let’s spice up the effect a bit by adding some cloud over the text. So create a new layer called  “cloud”, render some cloud inside it with the cloud filter (set foreground color to a dark grey, and black background colour).

Before you render the cloud, you have to make a selection with the Lasso Tool around the text (with around 20px feather settting), then render the cloud inside the seletion.

You will have the following effect:

Change the blending mode of this cloud layer to “Screen”, you will have the following effect:

You can also duplicate, resize this cloud layer and move those duplicated layer around for more effects, as show below:

Resize

Duplicate

Step 7

To produce even more depth for the text, here is a quick way to do it: create a new layer just above the original text layer, set the blending mode of this layer to “Vivid Light”, grab a soft brush to paint some color onto it:

Add a black and white adjustment layer on top of all layers, adjust the settings accordingly, until you see there is a shadow appearing on the bottom of the text:

Here is the effect you’re aiming to achieve: (you can see now because we have a shadow under the text, the overall effect looks deeper and more attractive)

Add another color layer on top of the black and white adjustment layer, set the blending mode to “color” and paint some color on it, you will have the following effect:

Step 8

Now we’re on the best part of this tut – apply the filter effects! Firstly we flatten the image, then duplicate the background layer once and apply the following Reduce Noise filter to the duplicated layer:

and you will see the text look much clearer and the overall image looks sharper:

Duplicate this sharpened layer once, and apply the following motion blur settings to it:

You will have the following effect:

Change the blending mode of this motion blur layer to “Hard Light” and erase the portion shown blow with a big soft brush (we don’t want the whole text to be blurred)

Step 9

Go back to the sharpened text layer and make another duplication of it, drag it to the top and apply the reticulation filter to it (Filter > Sketch > Reticulation):

You will see the following effect:

Change the blending mode to “color dodge” and erase the edge of the layer off, you will have the following effect:

Optional: go to site5 such as qbrushes.net and find some grungy brushsets, and create a new layer with the blending mode set to “overlay”, paint on it with your choice of grungy brush.

Here is my effect so far:

Step 10

We’re almost done! To add some final touches, we can create a new layer on top of all other layers, render some cloud inside it and set the blending mode to “soft light”, you will have the following effect:

I also added a colour balance adjustment layer on top of all layer to finish the effect off:

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

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! Just one last word: always try out different layer blending modes and see what effect that bring you! Sometimes you will be surprised to see some real cool effects :)

I hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational!

Until next time, have a nice day!

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)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive :) Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

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!

Find out how to make great wall posters and ship them to family and friends.

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this really cool, shining girl poster by using the powerful photoshop brush engine, plus previously mentioned cloud warpping and some basic photo retouch techniques. Have a try!

Along the way, we will go through some photo retouch techniques, make a brush then tweak with the Photoshop brush engine, also we will use the cloud filter to create some awesome lighting effect.

This is an intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be a bit tricky, if you get stuck, just drop a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

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

Alternative Version:

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive :) Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

Ok let’s get started!

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

Rainbow Girl

Step 1

Create a new document sized  800px * 1200px and fill the background layer with Black colour. Load the Rainbow Girl image into Photoshop and cut the girl out by using whatever selection method you like to use. (I used Channel Mask technique here, if you’re interested, here is a tutorial for it)

Copy and paste the girl image onto our document, as shown below:

Name this layer as “girl”.

Step 2

Now we’re into the interesting part of retouching. As you may have noticed, we have some facial impection here as shown below:

To clean them up, simply grab the Spot Healing Brush Tool and the Healing Brush Tool, apply the following settings:

Spot Healing Brush Tool

Healing Brush Tool

With the Spot Healing Brush Tool, simply do a single click on the black spot you like to get rid of. If you found it’s not quite working, you the healing brush tool to sample a good piece of skin, then heal the black spot with it.

Here is my effect after the clean up:

Step 3

Now we can smooth her skin a bit. To do this, simply duplicate the girl layer, go to Filter > Blur > Surface Blur and apply the following settings:

Because we only want her face and the should skin to be blurred, so we can hide the rest of the layer by adding a layer mask to it, as shown below:

Reduce the layer opacity of this duplicated layer to around 50%.

And here is the effect so far, you can see now we have a much better girl image:

Step 4

Let’s add some lighting effect on the image. Create a new layer called light on top of the “girl copy” layer and grab a soft white brush, paint over the area as shown below:

Set the blendng mode of this light layer to “Overlay”, drop the opacity to around 50%. Add the following two adjustment layers on top of the light layer:

Curves

Brightness and Contrast

And here is the effect so far:

Step 5

Now let’s make a simple custom brush, which we will then use to create the background of this image.

Create a new document (size doesn’t matter here) and fill the background with Black. Grab the Rectangular Tool as shown below:

Create a new layer on top of the background layer, draw a rectangular shape on the canvas, then right-click it and choose “Stroke Path”, choose the option “Pencil” (Make sure you set the pencil size to be 1px, with a light grey colour)

And here is the effect after you stroke the path:

Now we want to get rid of the part outside the square. To do so, go to Image > Trim and apply the following settings:

You will see the black part outside the square is now gone. Now hide the background layer, go to Edit > Define Brush Preset and save the brushset as “square”:

And you will see the brush appears in the brush panel:

Step 6

Let apply this brushset to our image. Create a new layer named “square brush texture” under the original girl layer, click on the brush we just made, apply the following brush dynamic to it:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Tick “Smoothing” option.

And paint away with this brushset on the texture layer around the girl edge, adjust the brush size for variations:

Optionally, you can cancel the dynamics and just use the original brush, for different effect:

Step 7

Now we can add some cloud on top of the shapes texture layer. Create a new layer on top of the square shape texture layer called “cloud”, use the Lasso Tool with a 20px feather, draw a selection and render some cloud inside it, change the blending mode of this layer to “Colour Dodge”:

Duplicate the cloud layer once and drag it onto the feet position, so to create some highlight on her feet: (Resize it a bit with the free transform tool)

Now duplicate the cloud layer a few more times and change the blending mode of those layers to “Normal”. On each duplcated layer, hit Ctrl + T and right-click to choose the “Warp” option, warp the cloud to different shapes around the girl’s body:

This step is entirely up to you want kind of the shapes you like, here is my effect:

And here is the effect so far:

Step 8

Ok we’re almost there! Now let’s do some final adjustment for the image. On top of all previous layers, add a Black and White adjustment layer on the top:

Change the blending mode of this black and white layer to “Overlay”, apply the following layer mask to it:

You can see by adding the mask, we created some depth to the image:

Duplicate this black and white layer twice, maintain the blending mode as “Overlay”. Add aonther Vibrance adjustment layer on top of the duplicated layer:

Create a new layer on top of every other layer and set the blending mode of it to “color”, grab a big soft brush with colour of your choice and simply paint on desired area. You will have the following effect:

Step 9

OK we can do some fine-tuning of the final image by adding some light strips. To do this, simply flatten the image, duplicate the background layer once, and apply the following motion blur setting to the duplicated layer:

Change the blending mode of this motion blur layer to “Screen”. Here we don’t really want to the whole image to be covered by blur, so we add a layer mask to the motion blur layer to hide a portion of it:

And here is the effect so far:

Optional: you can duplicate this motion blur layer a few times and try out different blending mode. The result will amaze you :)

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

Alternative version: (I added some abstract brushset on the girl feet)

Further Reading

Just an interesting article I found on the net about Photoshop Brush Engine, great for beginners:

An Introduction to Photoshop Brush Engine

That’s for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it 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 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)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive :) Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

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)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive :) Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

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!

“An action is a series of tasks that you play back on a single file or a batch of files—menu commands, palette options, tool actions, and so on. For example, you can create an action that changes the size of an image, applies a filter to the image for a particular effect, and then saves the file in the desired format.” – From Photoshop Help File.

The above says it all: By using Photoshop Actions, you can greatly improve your productivity and efficiency, especially if you would like to apply the same effect over and over again. I use it all the time

In this post, I have included 10 Highly Useful Articles (Intro + Roundups) that Talk About Photoshop Action, which I have in my personal collection for you to go through. Get ready for some actions!

An Intro to Actions and Photoshop Automation

Without actions you would have to walk through the process 30 times, taking hours or days to complete the task. If you had an Action script, you could be done in as little as 30 minutes, maybe sooner! Simply starting the action, typing your text, and hitting play again will create your effect.

- photoshopcafe.com

Using Photoshop Actions to automate tasks in Photoshop

Photoshop users often overlook Photoshop actions because of the misconception that this feature is difficult to master. But if you take a closer look at Photoshop actions, you will realize that they are easy to use and can in fact help you save time and increase productivity by automating things for you.

- bestdesignoptions.com

Complete Guide to Using Actions in Photoshop

Whenever you perform a repetitive task in Photoshop, you can save yourself time and effort by using actions. Helen Bradley’s quick-start guide explains what a Photoshop action is, how to find and play an action, and how to record your own.

- peachpit.com

Learn How To Automate Photoshop With Actions at Photoshop Essentials.com

In this series of Adobe Photoshop tutorials, we’re going to look at everything you need to know to get up and running with Photoshop Actions!

- photoshopessentials.com

Photoshop action to improve your photos instantly

With this Photoshop action you can quickly improve your photos without any hassle. Even If you’re guru at Photoshop, often you don’t have enough time to implement all your thorough knowledge and Photoshop tricks just to make some photos for your friends look more attractive and professional.

- garmahis.com

The Ultimate Collection Of Useful Photoshop Actions

Saving repetitive tasks as Photoshop actions can save you a lot of time, allowing you to automate your work and improve workflow efficiency. A Photoshop action is a recording of a sequence of commands and operations that you can save and access later on.

- smashingmagazine.com

400+ Time Saving Photoshop Actions

We have collected a handful of great (and free) downloadable PS Actions in this article and also included a nice tutorial on creating your own Actions.

- designreviver.com

Photoshop actions: 124+ Free Photoshop Actions to Boost Your Designs

An action is a series of tasks that you play back on a single file or a batch of files – menu commands, palette options, tool actions, and so on. You can create an action that changes the size of an image, applies a filter to the image for a particular effect, and then saves the file in the desired format. Nice, isn’t it !

- visual-blast.com

14 sites give away free photoshop actions

If you are graphics designer and need new type of action for your work then here is the list of download link of site which providing free photoshop action for you.

- piyadas-world.com

The ultimate photoshop resource list part 3: actions

An action is a series of tasks that you play back on a single file or a batch of files – menu commands, palette options, tool actions, and so on. You can create an action that changes the size of an image, applies a filter to the image for a particular effect, and then saves the file in the desired format.

- fuelyourcreativity.com

Ok that’s it for the list! Hope you find those article useful and get start using Photoshop Action! Trust me, it will make your life much easier :)

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this cool, ancient-style typography using dry soil texture and floral brushset in Photoshop. I will also share with you the technique I learnt for creating some really cool light strips for your image.

Along the way, we will be using  a lot of layer blending technqiues, musking, image adjustment tools and adjustment layers, plus the gradient tool and blur tool. This is an intermediate tutorial so beginners may find it a bit tricky. Well, never hurt to have a try!

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

PSD File Download

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Let’s get started!

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

Font

Dry Soil

Floral Brushes

Cloud Brushes

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1000 * 800 px with white background. Create a new layer called “radial gradient” and grab the Gradient Tool (G) and select the radial gradient fill option, fill this layer as shown below:

Step 2

On top of the “Radial Gradient” layer, use the font we have just downloaded, type some text onto it. ( I only typed a letter “A” however you may type whatever text you want)

Apply the following layer blending option to this layer:

Drop Shadow

Inner Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Color Overlay

Gradient Overlay

And you will have the following effect:

Step 3

Load the selection of the text layer by holding down the Ctrl key and left-click the layer thumbnail image on the layer palette:

Hit Ctrl + Alt + R and bring up the Refine Edge Tool, apply the following settings:

Load the “Dry Soil” texture into Photoshop and drag the selection of the text layer (To do this, select the Rectangular Marquee Tool, move your mouse over the selection, left-click and hold to drag):

Copy and paste the selection back to our document, you will have the following effect:

Name this newly-created layer as “dry soil texture” and change its blending mode to “Hard Light” and you will have the following effect:

Step 4

On top of the “dry soil texture” layer, add the following adjustment layers with the respective settings (make sure you tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option for all adjustment layers)

Curves

Levels

Color Balance

Bright and Contrast

Black and white

And you will have the following effect:

Step 5

Now I would like to show you an interesting method to add  light stripes to the text. Create a new layer on top of all previous layers, grab the rectangular marquee tool to draw a selection as below:

Then grab a big soft brush with white colour (I used 800px) and do a few clicks in the following postition, while maintaining the selection:

Then resize, rotate the selection until it reaches the effect as shown below:

Name this layer as “light strips” and duplicate it  a couple of times, move the duplicated layers as shown below:

Merge the duplicated layers and again make several duplication of the merged layer, move them around to the desired position:

When you’re happy with the position, merge all those light strips layers and use the Eraser Tool with a soft round brush to erase the bit where covers the text:

Step 6

To add some more decoration to the text, we can use the two brushsets we downloaded and simply do some painting :)

Create a new layer just above the “Radial Light” layer, use the Cloud Brushes to paint some clouds on the bottom part of the canvas:

Create another layer on top of the cloud layer, use the Floral Brushes to add some nice floral swirls around the text:

Step 7

To add some final touches, add two more adjustment layers on top of all other layers: (Don’t tick “use previous layer as clipping mask” this time)

Curves

Use the following vector musk on Curves Adjusment layer:

Levels

Use the following vector musk on Levels Adjusment layer:

Colour Balance

Use the following vector musk on Color Balance Adjusment layer:

And 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 some radial blur, adjusted contrast) – click to enlarge:

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 process I used to create this  Pop Art Style Poster with urban city background in Photoshop by using a combination of Photoshop Filter effects. Again this effect is discovered by accident and I thought I can share it with you guys :)

Along the way, we will be using a lot of filter effects,  masking technique, layer blending options, a number of selection techniques including the use of edge refining and magic wand. The steps are quite simple for this tutorial, however the end result looks good in my opinion.  Have a try!

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

Black and White version:

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive :) Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Firstly let’s download this wonderful model image and load it into Photoshop. Duplicate the background layer once and go to Filter > Artistic > Cutout and apply the following settings:

Name this duplicated layer as “cut out” and change the blending mode of it to “Hard Light”. Then make another duplication of this “cut out” layer and you will have the following effect:

Now you will see the the bottom part of the photo is completely black, which is not very nice in my opinion. To reveal the original image, we can add a vector mask to each “cut out” layer and grab a big soft eraser to erase the portion as shown below:

And you will see the original texture come back:

Step 2

Go back to the background layer and make another duplication of it. Drag the duplicated layer on top of all previous layer and go to Filter > Sketch > Chrome and apply the following settings:

Name this duplicated layer as “chrome” and change the layer blending mode to “soft light”. Then duplicate the “chrome” once more and you will have the following effect:

Step 3

Now we can add a light source (I chose from the top right) for this image so later on we can have some dynamic light effect. To do this, go back to the background layer and duplicate it once more. Drag the duplicate layer above all other layers, go to Filter > Noise > Median and apply the following settings:

Rename this layer as “Median” and add a vector mask to it, grab a big soft eraser and erase the portion as shown below:

And you will have the folloiwng effect so far:

Step 4

Now we can add a urban city background to the image. Download a copy of this city image and load it into Photoshop. Drag the entire image onto our canvas and resize until it covers the whole canvas.

On this newly created layer, apply the following adjustments:

Black and White

Then apply the following filters:

Halftone Pattern

Box Blur

Name this layer as “city” and you will have the following effect as a result:

Step 5

Go back to the background layer, grab the Magic Wand tool and make a selection of the white area:

Hit Ctrl + Alt + R and bring up the Refine Edge tool, apply the following settings:

Hit Ctrl + Shift + I and inverse the selection, go back to the “city” layer and go to Edit > Clear and you will have see the model image pop out:

Step 6

Duplicate the “city” layer once and on the duplicated layer, go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur and apply the following settings:

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

Make a duplicate of this duplicate layer, and change the layer blending mode to “color burn”. You will have the following effect:

Step 7

Now the upper portion of the image seems a bit empty and we can add a bit of cloud texture to it. So download a copy of this cloud brushset and simply create a new layer and paint some cloud over it:

Hint: to create a light source on the cloud, simply paint over the same position a few times. (In this case, it’s top right corner)

Step 8

To finalise the image, add two new adjustment layers as shown below:

Colour Balance

Shadow

Midtones

Curves

And you will have the following 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 ) – Click to enlarge:

Black and White version:

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 design a soft and fluffy text effect in Photoshop without using any third party images.

Along the way, we will be using techniques such as gradient fill, various layer blending options, dynamic brush settings and filter effect. I combine this soft text effect with a solid stone wall texture at the end of this tutorial, thought it would be interesting to see! It’s a simple tutorial, have a go!

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

Black and White version:

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document in Photoshop, size doesn’t really matter in the tutorial (I chose 1200 x 800 px). Fill the background layer with Black colour.

Now let’s create some background lighting. To do this, simply grab the Gradient Tool (G) and choose the Radial Gradient option, Fill the background layer as shown below:

Step 2

On the background layer, type some texts on it. You may choose any font you like, I used this font for this tutorial.

For this tutorial, I seperate each letter into different layers so I will have more freedom playing with each of them:

I place the letters as shown below (you can of course alter the position of text yourselves):

Rasterise the text and merge the layers together when you’re happy with the text position. Name the merged layer as “Text”.

Step 3

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

Drop Shadow

Bevel and Emboss

Contour

Gradient Overlay

Stroke

And you will have this effect so far:

Step 4

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

Then press M key to select the Rectangular Marquee Tool, right-click on the selection and choose “Make work path”:

Set tolerance to 1.0 pixel:

And you will see now the selection become a work path:

Step 5

Create a new layer called “fluffy effect”. Now let’s make a dynamic brush to create some fluffy effect!

Grab the following brush and set its size to 70px:

Then apply the following brush dynamics to it:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

Don’t forget to tick “Smoothing” option as well.

Now Press “P” key to select the Pen Tool, right-click on the work path and choose “Stroke Path” then choose the “Brush” option. You will have the following effect:

Press “ESC” key to cancel the path.

Step 6

To add a bit more texture effect onto text, you can duplicate “fluffy effect” layer once, and go to Filter > Sketch > Reticulation and apply the following settings:

Add the following Bevel and Emboss setting to the duplicated layer:

Change the layer blending option of the duplicated layer to “Overlay”, and the effect will look like this:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! Of course you can futher enhance this text effect by applying some more texture effect, or simply add some background effect to it.

Here is my final image for this tutorial (I combine it with an abstract image I created a while ago with rocky texture on it, just interested to see what would the end result be like)

You can click the image to enlarge.

Black and White version:

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 a daylight city image into a epic warzone scene in Photoshop. The inspiration of this tutorial came from a random war image I came across while reading a magazine.

Together, we will explore a variety of Photoshop techniques such as image adjustment option, a number of filter effect and some basic selection skills. This is an intermediate tutorial and some steps could be a bit tricky, but why not just have a go? ;)

Meanwhile, I would like to take this opportunity to raise the attention to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal, as you may have already known. If you would like to make a donation, you can do so throught the Australian Redcross Website.

Here is a preview of before and after images:

Before

After (Click to enlarge)

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Download a copy of this city image from stockvault.net and load it into Photoshop. Once loaded, duplicate the background layer once and name the duplicated layer as “Black and White”.

On the “Background Copy” layer,  hit Ctrl + Alt + Shift + B and bring up the Black and White image adjustment tool (If you’re using an earlier version than CS3, you can use Channel Mixer instead, just make sure you tick the “monochrome” option down the bottom).

Apply the following Black and White image adjustments:

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

Step 2

Duplicate the “Black and White” layer once and name the duplicated layer “Curves”, hit Ctrl + M and bring up the Curves Image Adjustments, apply the following image adjustments:

Keep the blending option of this layer as “Multiply” and you will see the image darkens further:

Step 3

Now let’s add some particles on the image. Duplicate the “Curves” layer three times. On the “Curves Copy” layer, go to Filter > Distort > Glass and apply the following settings:

Change the layer blending option to “Screen” and reduce the layer opacity to 70% and you will have the following effect:

Then on “Curves Copy 2″ layer, go to Filter > Brush Strokes > Spatter and apply the following settings:

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

Step 4

Grab the Lasso Tool and set its feather to 40px. Make a selection on the Sky area and the high rises as shown below:

While maintaining the selection, hit Ctrl + J and make a layer via copy. Name this newly created layer as “Smoke” and go to Filter > Render > Cloud and render some cloud:

Duplicate the “Somke” layer once. On the duplicated layer, go to Filter > Render > Difference Cloud. Apply this filter a few times and change the layer blending option of this layer to “color burn”.

You will see an effect similar to the following image:

Step 5

On the the duplicated “Smoke” layer, hit Ctrl + B and apply the following Colour Balance:

To reduct the noise a bit on the smoke, we can apply the following medium (Filter > Noise > Medium) settings:

You can see the noise has been reduced:

Step 6

Now we can add some fire effect to the image. Download a copy of this fire image from cgtexture.com and load it into Photoshop.

Drag the entire image on our document and name newly-created layer “fire”. Set the layer blending option to “Screen”.

Grab the Eraser Tool (E) with a big brush, erase the black part of the fire image and leave just the fire:

Then use the Clone Stamp Tool (S) with different size of brushes, flow and opacity, clone this fire until it reaches desired burning effect:

Step 7

To add a bit more dynamics to the image, I duplicate the background layer once more and put it just below the “Curves” layer in Step 2, then apply the following Radial Blur Settings:

Desaturate the layer and change its blending option to “Screen” and you will have the following effect:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! You can of course continue enhancing the image by adding some more effects, such as filter, texture or just have a play with its hue and saturation!

Below is my final image for this tutorial: (Click to enlarge, I added a planet of the sky, adjusting the hue and saturation of image)

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 design a really cool, abstract style flaming bird in Photoshop. This bird is created purely based on brush and filter effects in Photoshop, without the use of any third party images!

Along the way, we will learn how to load customized brushes, the use the various filters effect and image adjustments tools. Some techniques used in the tutorial could be a bit tricky. Have a try and see how your image turns out :)

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

An alternative version with shining effect:

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document in Photoshop with a size of your choice. I chose 1200  x 800 px because that’s size fit my monitor the best.

Firstly we tackle the bird’s wing. We need a customized brush to draw the fundation of the wing. Donwload a copy of this brushset from qbrushes.com and load it into Photoshop. If you’re a beginner in Photoshop and not sure how to do so, here is a handy tutorial showing how to load brushes into Photoshop.

Fill the background layer with Black Colour and create a new layer called “wing”. Use the following brush and make a single click on the “wing” layer:

Step 2

Still on “wing” layer, go to Filter > Distort > Twirl and apply the following settings:

Then go to Filter > Distort > Shear and apply the following settings:

The image will now look like this:

Step 3

Still on “layer”, hit Ctrl + T and bring the free transform tool, right-click and choose “Warp”. Transform the image as shown below:

This step requires a bit of practice and patience if you’re new to Photoshop. If you’re not successful for the first time, don’t give up :)

After warping the image, go to Filter > Liquidify and use a small brush to apply a few liquidify effect around the edge of the wing to make it more realistic:

Step 4

Duplicate the “wing” layer once. On the duplicate layer, go to Filter > Distort > Ripple and apply the following settings:

Apply this filter a couple of times, then change the layer blending option to “Exclusion”. The effect so far will look like this:

Step 5

Create a new layer called “cloud” on top of all other layers. Go back to the original “wing” layer and load its selection by holding down your Ctrl key and left-click on the thumbnail of the text layer in the layer palette.

Expand the selection by 15px and set a 20px feather to it, your selection will now look like this:

Set the foreground colour to white and background colour to black,  load the selection of the orginal “wing” layer, render some cloud inside it by going to Filter > Render > Cloud.

Then go to Filter > Render > Difference Cloud and render difference cloud. You image will look similar to this:

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

Step 6

To add a bit of motion into the image, we can duplicate the original wing layer once more and put the duplicated layer just above it, go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and apply the following settings:

This is the effect after apply motion blur:

Step 7

To add a bit colour and ligthing contrast to the image, we can again duplicate the original “wing” layer, and apply the following Black and White adjustments to the duplicated layer:

After apply the Black and White adjustments, hit Ctrl + J and duplicate this layer about 5 times (This will add more contrast to the image).

The effect will now look like this:

Step 8

Now we can simply group all previous layers together, duplicate the group and flip the duplicated group honrizontally.

The effect is shown as below: (I also adjusted the angle a bit)

Then I again duplicate the group layer twice more, resize them in the middle and this formed the below image of the fire bird:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! I further adjusted a colour and curve of the image a bit and here is the final image: (click to enlarge)

An alternative version with shining effect:

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 demonstrate the processes I used to design this snowy rock text effect in Photoshop. The inspiration of this design came from a snowy mountain photo I saw the other day, and I thought I could create a similar text effect which might look interesting!

Along the way, we will use various layer blending options, some selection techniques, a number of filter effects and brush dynamics. It’s a simple tutorial suitable for Photoshop beginners. Have a try :)

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

Here is alternative version which I added a bit of cloud and colour onto it:

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 800 x 800 px, fill the background layer with Black Colour.

Let’s create some lighting effect for the background to work with. Use the Gradient Tool (G) tool and select the Radial Gradient options, Fill the background layer as shown below:

Step 2

Download a copy of this font from dafont.com and type some texts onto the background layer. Resize (if necessary) and position it in the centre of the canvas:

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

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Outer Glow

Inner Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay

Here is the effect so far:

Step 3

Donwload a copy of this rock image from cgtextures.com and load it into Photoshop.  Then go back to our document and load the selection of the our text layer (holding down your Ctrl key and left-click on the thumbnail of the text layer in the layer palette):

Then drag the selection onto the rock image we just loaded:

Copy and paste the selection back to our text document and name the newly created layer “rock texture”.  You will see the following effect:

Step 4

Duplicate the “rock texture” layer once.  Hide the duplicated layer for now.

Go back to  the original rock texture layer, apply the following Black and White adjustment options:

Change the blending option of this layer to “Screen”.

Unhide the “rock texture copy” layer, change its blending option to “overlay”. The effect now should look like this:

Step 5

Pfrom the previous step, we can see the white part of the text looks like snow, but it is not realistic enough in my opinion and we can add some more texture to make it look better!

To do this, download a copy of this snow image from cgtextures.com and load it into Photoshop. Then Go back to our text document and use the same method described in Step 3 to load the text selection. This time we go one step further with the text selection: select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), hold down the Alt key and at the same time draw a rectangular selection for the lower part of the text. (We would like to preserve this part of the rock texture and leave the upper part for the snowy effect)

The selection will now look like this:

Hit Alt + Ctrl + D and assign a 10px feather to the selection. Drag this selection onto the snow image we just loaded, copy and paste some snow back to our text document:

If you feel there isn’t enough snow on the text, you can use the Clone Stamp Tool (S) with a small soft brush to clone some more: (Tip: load the selection of the text again, and clone inside the selection so the snow won’t go beyond the text border)

Name this layer as “snow texture” and apply the following Curves adjustment settings:

The effect so far will look like this:

Step 6

To add a bit more dynamic to the text effect, we can simply create a new layer called “falling snow”, grab a 3px soft round brush with the following brush dynamics:

Also Tick the “Smoothing” option.

On the “falling snow”, use this brush to paint around the text layer as shown below:

To add a bit of softness to the falling snow, we can duplicate the “falling snow” layer once and apply the following Gaussian Blur settings:

The effect will now look like this:

Ok that’s pretty much it for this tutorial. I added some more rocky texture down the bottom, also did minor adjustment for hue and saturation and alter the angle of the text.

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

Here is alternative version which I added a bit of cloud and colour onto it:

You can of course further enhance this text effect by applying some more filter effects, or combining it with some background texture, that’s totally up to you :)

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 a single piece of plain paper into a dark, mysterious hard rock mountain scene in Photoshop. I discovered this interesting effect by accident and thought I could share it with you guys :)

Along the way I will be using various image adjustment tools, a bunch of filters, layer blending options and some basic selection techniques. Have a try!

Below is a before and after preview:

Before

After

Alternative version

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Download a copy of this paper image from CG Texture and load it into Photoshop.

Duplicate the Background Layer Once, hit Ctrl + M and apply the following Curve Adjustment to the duplicated layer:

Apply applying Curve Adjustments, go to Image > Adjustment > Channel Mixer and apply the following settings:

The effect will now look like this:

Step 2

Now we are onto making some rocky feeling for the image. Duplicate the “Background Copy” layer once, go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharpen Mask and apply the following settings:

Then change the blending mode of this layer to “overlay”. Your image should look like this now:

Optionally, if you feel like to get rid of some noise on the image, you can duplicate this layer once more and set the blending mode to “Soft Light”, then go to Filter > Noise > Despeckle and apply this filter a couple of times.

You can also use the Blur Tool (R Key) with a big soft brush to brush over this layer after applying despeckle filter.

Combining Despeckle and Blur Tool will make your image look more smooth:

You can the image has turned from a piece of paper into a rock mountain scene.

Step 3

Duplicate the “Backgourd Copy 2″ once and apply the Surface Blur filter with the following settings:

Apply the Surface Blur Settings 2-3 times on the duplicated layer, then change the layer blending mode to “Soft Light” and you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Duplicate the “Background Copy 2″ layer once more and drag it on top of all other layers, go to Filter > Artistic > Smudge Stick and apply the following settings. Through this we will be able to bring in more lighting contrast into image while giving the image a more stone-like feeling.

You image will now look like this:

Step 5

Create a new layer called “Darken Area” on top of all other layers, set its blending mode to “Multiple”.

Set the Foreground Colour to Black and grab a big soft round brush (300px, 0% hardness, flow and opacity to 80%), paint over the area you would like to make it a bit darker then the others.

I chose to paint over the edges of the image. The effect is shown below:

Step 6

Now we can see the mountain sort of turning into a maze, and I thought I could make an exit sign for it. Create a new layer and call it “exit”, use the Lasso Tool with a 40px feather to drew a selection anywhere you want on the image, I chose this spot:

Fill the selection with Black Colour and render some cloud:

Then go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare and apply the following settings:

After applying the Lens Flare, duplicate this layer a couple of times to make it brighter:

Then merge those duplicated layer together and use the Liquify Filter to make it look like this:

Step 7

Now to add more effect to the image, we can create a new layer call “Cloud”, again use the Lasso Tool with a 40px feather, draw a few large selection around the image (Hold down Shift Key to drea multiple selection at once).

Fill the selection with Black and render some cloud inside it, then drop the layer opacity down to about 80%.

Your image will now look like this:

Step 8

We can add a bit of colour onto image. To do this, we can simply create a new layer on top of the existing ones and set its blending mode to “Color”, then use a big soft brush with colour of your choice and paint over it.

Here is my image after adding colours:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! I also added some snow particle effect, which is rendered by using this star brush and applying motion blur.

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

Alternative version

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

Thanks very much and have a nice day!

In this post, I will introduce a list of 10 highly useful, must-read articles for Photoshop Beginners, which I think will be a great help to those who just started Photoshoping. If you’re an advanced designer, you may still find those articles useful just by revising them and find more design inspirations.

I remembered when I first started playing Photoshop back in the old days, it was really difficult for me to find info such as tutorial, inspiration and resources, especially for beginners who don’t have much experience in it. That’s why I did this little roundup for you and hopefully that will benefit you right at the beginning of your design career :) Well, those articles helped me a lot, at least!

Ok enough talk, here goes the list:

35 Basic Tutorials to Get You Started with Photoshop

18 Exceptionally Useful Photoshop Shortcuts

12 Common Photoshop Mistakes and Malpractice

Simple and Effective Photographic Results for Beginners

Top 50 Free Photoshop Brushes Resource Sites

Top 25 Free Stock Image Resource Sites

101+ Places To Get Design Inspiration

40 Promotional Sites Where To Submit Your Design Related Links

60 Most Wanted Photoshop Tutorials, Brushes, .PSDs and Resources

20 of the best Free Photoshop Plugins and Filters

I hope you will those articles helpful! Let me know what you think of them.

Thank you very much and have a nice day :)

In this tutorial, I will show you the processes I took to draw a realistic planet by applying waterstream texture in Photoshop. I’m sure you have seen heaps of planet drawing tutorials around, but you can still use this tutorial as a supplement to others :)

Along the way, we will be going through the use gradient tool, clipping mask, image adjustment tools, various filters and some selection techniques.

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

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

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

Create a new layer called “planet”, use the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M Key) to draw a circle. (Hold Down Shift Key while dragging the mouse to draw a perfect circle)

See image below for the position of the circle:

Step 2

Still on the “planet” layer, DO NOT deselect the selection, Use the Gradient Tool (G Key) andset the foreground colour to “#ffffff” and the background colour to “#282828″.

Fill the selection as shown below:

For more lighting contrast, use the Curve Image Adjustment Tool with the setting similar to this: (the setting maybe slightly different for each person, but the general idea is to increase the light from the top right corner)

Here is the effect you will want to achieve after the Curve Adjustment:

Step 3

Now we will apply some waterstream texture for our planet . Downloaded a copy of this image and load it into Photoshop, select the following portion of this image:

Copy and paste the selection to our document, resize it to the roughly size of the planet:

Name this layer as “water texture” and right-click the layer, select “create clipping mask”. Change the blending mode to “Overlay”.

Here is the effect so far:

Step 4

On the “water texture” layer, apply the following Black and White Adjustment Settings:

Then duplicate the “water texture” layer, go to Filter > Distort > Ocean Ripple and apply the following settings:

go to Filter > Distort > Glass and apply the following setting:

go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply the following settings:

Here is the effect after applying those filters:

Step 5

Create a New layer on top of the “water texture copy” layer and name it “cloud”. User the Elliptical Selection Tool with a 50px feather, draw a circle around the planet:

Go to Filter > Render > Cloud and render some cloud:

Step 6

Still on the “cloud” layer, apply the following Curve Adjustments:

Then apply the following Level Adjustment Settings:

Then Change the layer blending option to “overlay” with an opacity of 70%. Your image will now look like this:

Step 7

We will now add some motions to the cloud. Duplicate the “cloud” layer once, then go to Filter > Distort > Pinch and apply the following settings on the duplicated layer:

After pinching the cloud, apply the following level adjustments:

And your should have the following effect:

Step 8

Now we go back to the “Cloud”, grab a big soft brush and reduce to opacity and flow to 30%, choose a colour you like and simply brush over the layer:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! The rest is left upon you own creativity. You can add some lighting effect and render some lens flare to create more dynamic light.

Below is my final image for this tutorial:

As usual, if you have any question, 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!