Hwy Cafe Crew, it’s Colin Smith here from Photoshop Cafe and today, I am going to show
you how to add a water splash to a photo to really make a splash, okay you know, but when
it comes to a photograph and getting people’s attention, nothing does it like a big, huge
water splash or multitude of water splashes.
For example, have a look at this cover here that I did for an article in Photoshop USA
magazine recently.
And you can see how the water splashes really adds the drama in the life to this photograph.
So, I am going to reproduce this right now using some photos that I have grabbed from
Adobe Stock.
Now, by the way, Adobe Stock is a great place to get photos and textures and brushes and
different things like that.
In fact, we are going to be using it today.
If you want to try it out, grab 10 free images from the link underneath.
Here we have got a girl and I just kind of cut her out on the background here and we
are going to add some water splash.
I am also going to show you how to clean up that selection, get rid of that black fringing
in a second.
That’s a bonus tip.
So the first thing we want to do though is look at the water splashes.
How are we going to do water splashes.
What we want to do is we just want to search for splash.
Notice how I just type that right there, inside the Library there and we can see all these
different splashes come up.
So these are different photographs of splashes.
Now, I am going to do a tutorial next week where I am going to show you how to extract
semi-transparent things like water and smoke.
Until then, what we are going to do today is we are going to use a brush.
So what we have done is we found some water here and I can click to download it.
You will notice a little check mark appears and that means I have previously licensed
it.
And what I want to do is just show you how this works.
So, we will just double click to open this water here and then to make it a brush all
we need to do is just make a selection around that water that we want to make a brush out
of, let’s grab this one here and then I am just going to hit Ctrl L for Levels.
Now what I want to do is I just want to really darken down the darks and lighten up the lights
and just kind of move around so that we get a good, clearly defined subject and that’s
looking pretty good.
So I am going to click OK and all we need to do here is just we need to simply go to
Edit, Define Brush Preset.
And we are just going to call it splash.
Click OK.
And now, you can see there’s the brush, see that?
That’s the preset.
Just turn off the selection and if I click anywhere with this, you can see that now I
am able to paint with this water splash.
Now, the other two, I have already turned into brushes.
So let’s have a look at how we can use these brushes now inside of Photoshop.
So let’s go to our shot and notice one of the things, notice there’s a black outline
around there, see that black outline?
I am going to show you a little tip for getting rid of that.
All we simply need to do is select the layer, notice there’s no mask, it is just a cut
out area and then we are going to go in to Layer.
Under Layer, you will see an Option saying Matting and I can remove a black or white
matte.
I am going to remove a black matte and notice how immediately, we get a nice, clean edge.
Now, just remember, you can’t do that if you are selected on a mask.
You have to actually have it cut out and then you can do that matting.
So it is useful in a situation like that.
Alright, so now that we have a clean background, let’s add some water.
So we are going to create a layer on top and what I am going to do is, I am going to just
call this ‘Splash’.
And we know that we have just created a water splash, we just saw that brush previously.
Now what I am going to do is I am going to choose the X key to make sure I am using white
as my foreground color.
Now I am going to grab the B for the Brush tool.
And notice, there’s our splash there, that’s our brush.
Now it’s a little large.
So I am just going to hit the left bracket key and make it smaller and notice, we can
see what it looks like right there.
So if we wanted to put as little splash like maybe, around the knee, I could just click
there and apply that splash around the knee.
Now I can move this around and do some different things with it.
Now that’s not bad there but I might want to mask it.
So, we are going to grab a mask there and I am just going to grab B and then we are
just going to grab our regular brush and now we can just kind of fine tune this.
So let me just zoom in a little bit.
And we can just paint this away.
Notice, what I am doing is I am using a black brush, if I want a softer edge, pull the hardness
all the way down here and I can just kind of sort of paint that in a little bit, so
we can get more splash that’s coming out of where she would be hitting on the ground.
Now if I really wanted to make this look more realistic, watery stuff I can do a reflection
her, you can do all these kinds of things but what I want to focus on today is these
splashes and then you have seen these also, where they apply color and do different kinds
of things for these but let’s just make it a water splash.
So we are going to zoom out, that’s just hitting Ctrl 0, we want to add a few more.
So I am going to create a new layer and we are going to grab the B for brush and let’s
go down to some of the other ones that I have grabbed earlier on.
So let’s find one of these, I am thinking you know, this one here, it looks pretty neat
as it is a dynamic looking brush.
So let me just click around there, that’s going to look quite nice.
So I am just going to click there and notice now we have got more of a splash just kind
of coming up.
Now if we want to put it behind her just by dragging it down to the latest panel and notice
that now we have got that kind of splash, we can reposition it where it is coming up
behind her.
And that’s looking pretty cool.
I am liking that a lot.
So just remember that when you when you are working with these water splashes, there are
different things we can do like this, we can reposition them, we can resize them, we can
cut pieces of and really that is the key.
Let me create a new layer now.
And then we are going to grab another one.
The key to making this really work is to just start manipulating these splashes in different
ways.
So here’s one there and right now, I am not sure how that’d work and you know what,
I am looking for something to wrap.
See how it wrapped around her body?
If we go to about there, we get this kind of wrap around effect, see that?
And maybe there.
So we can apply that, let’s drag it above her and see what it looks like.
So see how we got that kind of wrap around effect that we can do there.
Now you want to kind of mask it out a little bit.
Let’s bring it to about there, it kind of looks good.
And let’s create a mask, grab the brush, go back to our regular brush here to just
to kind of mask this out.
And I don’t want any of these in front of her, I just want kind of get it behind.
So we can kind of do that and maybe that’s a little much there, you can kind of just
play around there and get that water to just kind of lap around, maybe one behind the arm
there.
There you go and you get the general idea.
So we are starting to do that, maybe you want to do a little bit more, let’s add a little
bit more fun in here.
So let’s go and here we are going to grab the brushes again.
B key.
And you know we have got different types here, what’s this one here lo0ok like?
Okay, this one is just a simple splash.
Which looks good.
Notice I just applied it there and what I am going to do0 is hit Ctrl T for free transform
and I am just going to flip this one around and just move it and I am going to scale this
down, I am holding the Shift key to constrain it and notice we can go up here if you just
want to have a little bit there, maybe some coming off behind her hands and through her
hands.
Notice we can do this kind of thing right there.
Then if you didn’t want that, then you just kind of wanted it behind that, we can drag
that underneath and maybe you’d make it smaller.
See how I am just manipulating this and just kind of getting it where I want it.
Now I could just copy this, I am holding the Alt key or the Option key and drag it out
on here and then if I wanted to create you know, little splashes coming out over here,
we can do this, maybe down there, more splashes coming out from behind her leg, hit the Alt
or the Option key once again, duplicate it and that’s what I am doing.
I am just moving this one around and reusing this just to kind of get some splashes going
in some of these different areas.
I am going to reproduce it there as well.
And we are starting to get little more interesting around here, creating this cool effect.
Now there’s other things that we can do to this.
Let me grab the brush and we can go down here look for some bubbles kind of going on here.
You know it would be just kind of fun just to create splashes coming off like that.
See that?
They are little bit big, let’s make them smaller.
So we have got some splashes coming out of there and there, definitely some coming off
the hair.
And another thing you can do too, you can rotate this using the brush.
So if we go into the brush panel here under the brush settings, we can actually go here
and we can change the direction.
I am just moving that around.
And now see how we are getting some slightly different things going on with these bubbles
over here.
Now let’s change the angle to there and then what we are doing in we are literally
getting this water splash off the hair using the same splash that by changing the direction,
it looks like we have got more kind of water going on there.
So anyway guys, I am curious, have you ever used brushes before like this?
Answer me in the comments and have you ever like just taken a photograph, you can turn
it to brush and you can re-use it.
So right now I am showing what this would work with a number of different things.
So anyway when you play around with this kind of brushes, you can make some really interesting
compositions.
Now these compositions are based on your own photographs.
You can submit them to Adobe Stock, get them in front of millions of people and make some
extra revenue.
If you want to become a contributor, look at the link underneath, where you can join
up and become a contributor on Adobe Stock and also if you want to grab some images to
play around with, there’s a link too that will give you 10 free images.
So anyway guys, smash that like button into dust and let me know in the comments, are
you excited about the semi-transparent selections that we are going to be doing next week, it
is going to be a fun tutorial and until then, I will see you, at the Cafe.