(updated, with Video) In this tutorial, I will show you how to create ice texture and icicles hanging off of the ice. You can choose any shape you like to make the ice but I will simply use the letters ICE as an example. (If you need help creating a different shape other than lettering try my tutorial on Pen/Path tool)

We are going to apply some layer effect to the object to give it a translucent texture. Check bevel and Emboss and give it some depth. If you are not sure how much to give you can always come back later and change it.

Next check the Satin, give it enough distance and size so that your object has a translucent look. Add color to correspond to the color of your original object.

If you didn't assigned a color to your original object you can do that in Color Overlay option.

I want to exaggerate the back light effect by checking Inner Glow, change the color of the glow to your liking, it does not need to match the base color. Before you finish, make sure you have enough variation in tone such as the highlights and shadows, you don't want the tone to be too even.

Duplicate the text layer and create an extra blank layer. Select both the duplicated text layer and blank layer and combine the two layer by going to the menu Layer - Merge Layer or Ctrl+E/CMD+E. This will rasterize the effects that was apply to the text. You now have the original unrasterized text plus an rasterized text layer.

With the layer rasterized, double click on it again and give it a gradient effect, use a pattern similar to what I have and give it a 30% opacity. Than rasterize it again using using the same method as the last step. Gradient Overlay effect is located below all the other effect option, that means it will also be render after all the other effect, that is why we have to do it separately so that the effect appears over the rest of the effect.

Now that the translucent effect is done we want to add some reflection. Make sure the original text effect is still there along with a newly duplicated layer.

To apply Chrome effect to the rasterized layer, (click on the photo to see the whole capture) go to Filter - Sketch -  Chrome, adjust Smoothness and Detail to get a balanced chrome texture. If you are unable to get a good balance, you will have to go back and adjust your layer effects, make sure your object has enough variation in tone from the highlights and shadow that Satin, Emboss and Inner glow creates, make a duplicate and rasterize it again to apply the Chrome filter.

Give the Chrome layer an Overlay Blending Mode (Click here if you want to read more about Blending Mode) . This will apply the Chrome filtered effect over the original text (we made a duplicate of the original text before we applied the Chrome effect)

Optional : you can duplicate the layer and flip it over to create a reflection on the ground, to make it fade out, apply a mask to this layer and use gradient on the mask as shown in my photo (click on the photo to see the entire capture)

The last step is to create the icicles dripping off the text. Go to menu Select - Color Range, and click on the brightest area of the text, you can see a preview of what you've selected. You've now selected all the bright area, you can also do other shades such as the darkest area or mid-tone, but I find highlighted area to look the best.

With the Color Range selection still on, create a new layer and fill the selection with white.

Now use free transform to turn it vertically counterclockwise, negative 90 degree(see full image for example)

Go to filter - stylized - wind, use Blast method and from the left, assuming you've turn it counterclockwise on the last step, if not make sure the wind is coming from the *top.

Now rotate the icicle right side up, and align it with the text.

This is what your final image would end up looking like. You can give some depth and reflection to the icicles with the same method. I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and give it a try, feel free to post your results down at the comment below or ask any questions.

crop and align a photo in Photoshop

To start, activate the crop tool with short cut C or select crop on the tool bar, draw a crop mark around the photo, don't worry about aligning it right now. (click here to learn more about crop tools)

On the tool bar, the very last item says Perspective, check that box.

Now if you drag the corner of the crop mark, you will notice you will be able to draw each corner freely without being restricted to a rectangle. Drag all the corner to the corner of the magazine.

When you are done dragging all the corners of the crop mark to the corner of the magazine, either hit the Entire key or double click inside the crop mark. Your image should now be perfectly aligned and in the right perspective.

Lastly, you might want to adjust the color since your camera might not translate the color accurately, I will use the LAB color technique to adjust it.  Go to menu and under Image - Mode - LAB to change the color space, click here to learn more about LAB mode Here are the setting I used.

and here is the final image, fairly close to a scanned image if you do not own a scanner wouldn't you agree?

Similiarly if you want to rotate an image, you can change the crop mark by rotating it instead of the photo itself. Here is a vertical image, I want to make it in to a square image while rotating it 45 degree angle. I start by drawing a square crop, hold shift and drag.

Expand the crop mark beyond the file itself and rotate the crop mark 45 degrees.

The final image takes on the space that the crop made but right side up.

if you have questions about this tutorial please posted it in the comment section, and see more tutorial on Tools here

Everyone is just dying to learn how to draw a ceramic tea cup complete with semi reflective surface, liquid texture and steam coming out of it, now you get to see how it can be done! If you are not one of the people I just described, no worries, you can still stick around and take note and use the ideas here and apply it to some other less exciting subjects.

First step, turn on Grid under View menu to help you draw a perfect symmetric cup, I use oval marquee to draw the top part and Pen tool for the bottom part in a separate layer. Check out my Pen tutorial if you are not sure how to use it.

Double click on the layer icon to open the Layer effect menu and apply Bevel and Satin - For Bevel I use 144% on Depth, 70 for Size, and 16 for Soften. I also adjusted the position of the global light to the right. For Satin I use 70%Opacity and change the shape of the curve. Play around with the settings and also the curve shape to get the result you desire.

For the oval shape, which I will use as the rim and also the interior of the cup, I applied inner bevel to give the rim a thickness and gradient for the shadow and highlight. I selected the lower half of the oval with marquee tool and gave it a slight blur to to soften the transition between the rim and the body.

Now select both the rim and body layer and drag it to the new layer icon to duplicate them, with the duplicates still selected, merge them by going to menu Layers - Merge Layer. Apply Chrome filter in the Filter Gallery. Give the Chrome layer a 20% opacity and change blending mode to Multiply (click here to see what blending modes are)

Draw another oval for the liquid and fill the color of your choice in a brand new layer, delete or mask out the area that are not suppose to be visible. Open layer effect by double clicking the layer icon and apply gradient like I did.

To draw the steam, get a new layer and paint with a soft brush and delete half of it like the first picture so that it has a hard edge and fades into nothing.

Duplicate this layer and rearrange it so they have different sizes.

Originally I used white as the color but I inverse the color so that when I go into Filter - Liquify, I can see the paint easier. Use the circular twril brush and play around with the shape of the steam. After you are done apply Filter-Gaussian blur to it to make it softer and fix it up with smear tool and erase unwanted area.

With some color adjustment and painting in a few high light manually you get this following picture. If you've decided to follow my tutorial, please show me what you got! And if you have any question or comments feel free to posted below. Thanks!

Think of Photoshop layers as stacking pieces of transparent papers one on top of another to create the final image. In addition to your “normal” layers there are also special layers that can interact with the layers below. This is useful to create photo montage, light adjustment, color corrections and anything else you can think of, but first you will need to understand how they work.

Blending modes are separated in 5 different categories,

Darkening (use to darken or fix overexposed photos)

Lighting (use to lighten or fix underexposed photos)

Contrasting (is a combination of both Darkening and Lighting sets)

Comparing (use to align and compare photos)

Coloring (use to fix hue and saturation)

The first two modes are not categorized - 

Normal blending is selected by default, it does not have any special feature and should work just as expected.

Dissolve mode will only work where there are semi transparent pixels, all semi transparent pixels are turn into solid pixel noise, the density of the noise is depending how the level of transparency. The following sample shows the word "Dissolve" with blurred applied(semi transparent edge) two different times. The sample on the top is on a Normal blending layer and the bottom sample is in Dissolve blending layer.

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The first set of the blending mode deals with “DARK” pixels. It is helpful to correct and darken any parts of your photos.

Darken – Compares the Darken layer to the base layer and keeps the darker pixels of the two. In the sample below, since the plants in the foreground are the only things that are darker than the Base layer, only the flowers are kept and the rest of the pixels become transparent. If you shoot your subject against a bright background, you can quickly lay it on top of a different background.

Multiply – Combine the blending layer with the base layer by “multiplying” the color information which gives you a darker final image. This is great for fixing overexposed photos and the most commonly used mode of this set. Duplicate the layer and set the top layer to Multiply and you will end up with a darker, better exposed photo assuming you used a photo that was overexposed such as the example below.

Color Burn – The blending layer uses the brightness information to increase the contrast of the base layer, the darker the pixel the higher the contrast. The sample shows three shades of gray, the darker the gray shade, the darker and higher contrast the final image becomes. White does not affect the image. You can use paint brush and paint over a small section with different shades of gray to achieve the feel you want.

Linear Burn – The blending layer uses the brightness information to increase the darkness of the base layer, the darker the blending layer the darker the result. The sample shows three shades of gray, the darker the gray the darker the final image becomes, the contrast remains the same. White does not affect the image. You can use paint brush and paint over a small section with different shades of gray to achieve the feel you want.

Darker Color -

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The following sets will help brighten and fix underexposed photos. It has the exact opposite function as the last set.

Lighten – This is opposite of Darken, it compares the Lighten layer to the bottom visible layers and keep the lighter pixel. Darker colors are omitted.

Screen – This is opposite of Multiply, it multiplies the inverse information to create a lighter final image. It is perfect fixing underexposed photos and the most used mode of the brighten sets. The sample below shows the blending layer and base layer is the exact same photo while blending layer is set to Screen, the final image is brighter and better exposed.

Color Dodge – The blending layer uses the brightness information to brighten and increase the contrast of the base layer, the brighter the pixel the higher the contrast . The sample shows three shades of gray, the lighter the gray the brighter and higher contrast the result becomes. Black do not affect the image.

Linear Dodge (Add) – The blending layer uses the brightness information to increase the brightness of the base layer, the lighter the blending layer, the brighter the result. The sample shows three shades of gray, the lighter the gray the lighter the final result, contrast appears to decrease. Black do not affect the image.

Lighter Color

Continue to part Two of this tutorial...

This is part of my tutorial set. Please visit the TUTORIAL PAGE for a list of all the tutorials.

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