(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.

Clone stamp is not just for cloning objects in photos, you can also “erase” them. Blemishes and wrinkles can be magically erased from your model’s faces as well as that annoying person who somehow made it in to your photo.

To start, select the clone stamp on your tool bar or press S on keyboard.

You will first need to pick a spot where you want Photoshop to copy/sample the information from than start painting over the area where you want the cloning to happen.

First hold Alt/Option to set a sampling point, this is the location you want to clone, than start painting as you would with a regular brush. Instead of solid paint coming out of the brush it is a identical spot where you first set your sampling point.

This is similar to using a lasso or any other selecting method and copy and pasting it to a different location.

The first 5 settings are the same as Brush tool, please read my post on brush settings

Brush – you can use any brush and brush dynamic for the Clone Stamp. Read my article on how to use Brush here.

Mode – the colors can be manipulated using any of the blending mode, although I do not advise using this. You will gain better control if you paint onto a blank layer than using the blending mode on the layer instead.

Opacity – Lets you choose the transparency of your stamp.

Flow – The value is how fast the paint will be applied, for best result use soft edged brush. You will see the paint builds up as the brush overlap previous paint.

Airbrush – this option will only work with brush with soft edge, it will gradually accumulate into a bigger blob if you hold your mouse in one area for too long similar to an airbrush.

Aligned – Once you start painting after you’ve set your reference point, the cloning will continue where you last left off every time you release your mouse until you set another anchor point. If aligned is off than once you release your mouse and tries to paint again, it will use the original reference point.

Example –

- Current layer, Clone tool will only be cloning whatever that is on the active layer.

- Current & Below, Clone tool will only clone whatever that is on the active layer plus whatever is visible under the active layer.

- All Layer, Clone tool will take all visible layer into account.

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Include Adjustment Layer, this icon become available when you have an active adjustment layer turned on and Sample is set to anything other than Current Layer. When it is on, it will ignore all adjustment layer, and when it is off than what you see is what you will get.

Use the key “[“ and “]” on your keyboard to increase or decrease the size of your brush.

Best way to use clone tool is to paint it on a blank layer with the Sample set to Current & Below or All layer, that way you are not destroying the original.

There are many ways to "erase" an object in a photo rather than Clone stamp, what else can you use to achieve the same result?

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

Brush property can be use for any other tool that requires painting on the effects or selection such as painting dodge and burn effects or painting quick mask selection.

Selecting Brush – Photoshop is shipped with many predefined brushes, you can find them under the brush selection menu. Select the set you want and you will be asked to Replace or Append. Replace will hide the current brushes and replace it with the new set. Append will add the brush on to your current selection.

Under this menu you can also select different viewing mode, try them out and see what fits your taste best.

Select Brush by clicking on the brush icon on your tool box or use the shortcut B

You can use paint in different blending mode but I recommend doing it on a blank layer and using the layer blending mode so that you will get a chance to change it later.

Opacity can be changed by typing in a number, sliding the slider or pressing the number keys. A lower number will make your paint transparent. The example below shows 100% opacity than 50 and 25 percent.

Flow is how fast and how transparent the paint is released as you drag your mouse across. You will see a very obvious spacing if you are using a brush with hard edge, a small Flow percentage works best with a soft edge brush. It gives a more realistic paint brush effect than using the Opacity setting. The example shows 30% flow using soft edge and hard edge brush.

Airbrush will only be visible on soft edged brushes. It simulates airbrush painting, as you hold your mouse in the same location the paint will build up into a bigger blob. The example below shows two different location where I stopped my brush and the paints builds up into thicker paint.

You can also set physical dynamics on your brush to simulate real world brush or creating custom randomized effects. Play with the settings under Brush Dynamics with the shortcut F5 or pressing the Dynamic icon.

I will discuss brush dynamics and creating your custom brush in a separate entry.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial, please leave a comment below for feedback.

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

If you need to get the exact color from a specific location on your photo you can extract that information using the eye dropper tool.

There are two version of the eyedropper, one is call eyedropper and the other one is color sample tool. They can both be activated by selecting the icon on tool bar or with shortcut key I, and use the Shift+I to cycle through them two.

Sample Size- Point Sample means that it will extract the color information from exactly one pixel, this is the most accurate way to select a color. However, the color in a photograph is rarely exactly the same, if you were to take a picture of a green wall and zoom in on it, you will notice slight variation of the green. Click on the drop down menu and slight one of the higher number sample average, it will get you the average of the nearby pixel.

Color sample tool is similar except the information are posted on the Info panel so that you can read the color information of that particular spot. You can select up to 4 spots and you can delete it by right clicking of each of the spot and select delete. As you are adjusting the color, the info panel will update the color information as well.

As you can see that when I adjusted the color of the photo the Info panel updated as well.

Temporary eyedropper – You can activate eyedropper temporary while you are in a mode that requires you to choose color such as Brush and Paint Bucket tool by holding Alt\Option.

What other tips on eyedropper do you know of and what other uses are there for eyedropper? Please share with us in the comments below!

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

Dodging and Burning can help you brighten and darken small or big areas of your photo instantly. I advise using this only for small touch ups as it is directly applied onto your photo so it is difficult to reverse the effect.

Before you start, you should duplicate your photo so that you can start over if you mess up.

Click on the Dodge tool from the tool menu or shortcut key O

Shift+O to cycle between the tool, each tool has it's own individual setting

Holding Alt/Option will temporary switch to the Burn tool if you are on Dodge tool and vice versa but the temporary tool will inherited the settings of the current tool.

Range will determined what tones to affect first.

Highlights will affect the lightest tones first.

Midtones will affect everything the same

Shadow will affect darkest area first

In the sample above I circle the area where I will be applying the dodge tool and in each of the mode, as you can see dodge works well in Highlights mode, but in Shadows and Midtones mode the result are unpleasant.

Burn tool is the opposite of dodge tool, Shadows mode gives the best result in darkening the shadow and darkening the highlights.

Exposure is the strength of the tool, the higher the strength the more dramatic the result.

the tools work best on black and white image as it could distort the colors, try working on it under the LAB mode and paint only on the lightnesschannel. Go to menu and go to Image-Mode-LAB Color than in the Channels pallet select the Lightness channel, you can turn the other channel back on without effecting them by clicking on their "eye" icon.

You can get the same effect by painting on a blank layer that is set to Overlay or SoftLight. Anything that is painted white will give you a dodge effect and black will have burn effect.

Before the blending mode is applied, I painted some white and Black on a blank layer.

I applied the overlay blending mode on the blank layer I just painted on.

The softlight blending mode is applied to this one.

This will give you better control as you are not directly changing the photo which mean you can simply delete the layer if you make a mistake. You can have more than one layer if you need and if effects everything below this layer.

Do you have more tips and tricks regarding the Dodge and Burn tool? If so please leave it in the comment below.

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