Tag Archives: photoshop

TV Static (PHSH Effect #32)

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It’s funny, because I ended up discovering this effect during my trial and error of working out the Rain tutorial.

I didn’t think I’d end up actually making a tutorial for this effect – since I only know of one application for it – but I figured, maybe someone else out there needs to add creepy/broken-down/horror vibes to their project.

So if that’s you: you’re welcome!

Step 1

Get a picture of a television set and add it to your project.

I personally decided to go with an older looking set because I think it will help make the effect look more real, but you can use any television picture you like.

Once you’ve decided on a picture to use, create a New Layer and then fill the layer with the colour black.

Step 2

Next, go up to the top menu bar and find Filter – Noise – Add Noise from the drop down menu.

You can play with these values later, but for now, we’ll want to keep them to:

Amount of Percent 25%

Distribution Mode: Gaussian

Also make sure the Monochromatic box is checked.

Step 3

Now, we’re going to add the static to the television. There’s a couple different ways to do this, but I’ll show you the fastest way first.

Go to the Layer Opacity and change it so you can see the picture under the Noise layer, but are still somewhat able to see the Noise layer. For me, this was 40%.

Once you’ve done that, go up and use the Rectangle Select tool, then outline a rectangle shape that’s a little bigger than the screen on the television set.

Next, we’re going to right-click on the layer and select Inverse Selection from the drop-down menu. Then, you’re going to use the Eraser tool and start erasing everything outside of the box you created.

This is getting rid of the Noise that’s over the rest of the layer, and will leave us with just the Noise over the screen of the television.

Continue erasing until you’ve got everything outside of the box you created.

Step 4

To deselect the box you’ve created, go back to the Select tool, right-click and then choose the Deselect option from the drop-down that comes up.

We’re going to need to zoom in for this next part, so go ahead and zoom in until the television screen is about the only thing we can see in the document.

Now that we have a better view of what we’ll be doing, the first thing we’ll be doing now is erasing the box to fit the screen of our television better.

If yours is already pretty perfectly fit, with minimal overlap, you can skip this step.

If you need to, don’t forget you can change the size of your Eraser to make it smaller and easier to work with while being zoomed in.

Step 5

Right-click on the Noise layer and select Warp from the drop down menu.

Then, very carefully, drag the edges of the Noise layer until it appears to bend slightly into the curves of the television screen. If you chose something closer to a flat screen/modern television set, you may not need to do this step as drastically, but slightly warping the layer will still help give it an air of realism.

Once you’re happy with the Warping of your Noise layer, hit Enter on the keyboard or try to click the Pointer tool, and then in the dialogue box that pops up, select Apply changes.

Step 6

If needed, you can re-erase the edges of the Noise layer so they match up with the edges of the television screen.

If not, go ahead and you change the Opacity of the Noise layer back to 100%.

If you want a subtler static on the television, you can keep the Opacity lower. Depending on why you’re adding the static, you can even keep it semi-see through, and add a picture to the screen, so it looks like it’s a bad connection, instead of just being completely out.

Once you decide you’re happy with whatever you decide, you can go ahead and save this bad boy because we are done!


Like this tutorial? Check out the rest of the series here!

Chalk Outline (PHSH Effect #31)

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This chalk effect can be used for all kinds of pictures – fake children drawings in summer, blackboard writing, etc. – but the reason I taught myself this effect was because I needed a chalk person outline for my book Crimson Smile’s cover.

Luckily, whether you’re using it for faux murder or something a little more PG, the steps are exactly the same!

Today I’ll be showing you how to do the effect with the murder outline, just because it’s the first way I learned, and I think it’s cooler than the other uses, but rest assured: I’ll show the more everyday use examples at the end of this tutorial.

Step 1

You’ll want to have a background image for this effect, so go through your library of royalty free images, or if you don’t have any saved, check out Pixabay or Pexels to download some. Today, since I’ve decided to keep the murder theme, I’ve chosen a night time road.

I’ve also changed it’s name from the default Layer 1 to Background, just to help keep things straight.

Once you have the Background picture, you’ll also need the person to apply the effect to. The simplest way to do this, is to find a silhouette picture of a person laying down (preferably, with their limbs out) and then outline and erase the inside. (Don’t worry, I’ll show you how to do that)

If you want to do it the long way, pick any picture of a person you want to use, and then manually erase all of them until just an outline of a person is left, and then dye the outline black.

All that’s left to do now is to erase the background of the person image (if your picture has one) and re-size the image to a more appropriate size, so it fits into your background image. You can also rotate the picture if needed.

Step 2

To get my person picture as just an outline, I’m actually going to use the Outer Glow technique, so go ahead and read through that tutorial if you need to. If you don’t, go ahead and skip to Step 3.

For this instance, instead of making the outline ‘glow’, I’m going to keep it a solid colour – I chose red for now, so you can see which part this step is – and keep the Opacity at 100%. I’m also going to change the Spread and Size values.

You can go ahead and play with these until you’re happy with your own outline.

Once you’re happy with the outline, all you need to do is go to the Eraser tool and use the Magic Eraser, then click on the inside of your person, to erase the inside, and just leave the outline.

After this, I also just changed my outline colour from red to black. You guys shouldn’t need to do this, unless you for some reason also made your outlines a bright colour.

Step 3

Okay, now that we’re set up, we can actually begin on the Chalk Effect!

To start, you’ll want to go up to the Filter tab in the top menu, then find Stylize in the drop-down and then click Find Edges.

If it doesn’t look like anything happened, don’t worry! You probably won’t be able to see this step because of the black colour, but it’ll become evident if we did it right during the next few steps.

Step 4

Next, we’re going to find Image in the top menu, and then go down to Adjustments, and click on the Invert option from the drop-down.

Then we’re going to go back up to Image – Adjustments and this time we’re going to click on the Desaturate option.

Step 5

Now we’re going to go back over to the Filter option in the top menu, and then click through to the Filter Gallery.

Welcome back to the Filter Gallery!

As you can see, the last time I was in here was for the Stained Glass tutorial.

Today, though, we’re going to find the Rough Pastels option – which is in the Artistic folder – and then put in these values:

Stroke Length: 0

Stroke Detail: 15

Texture: Canvas

Scaling: 60%

Relief: 13

Light: Bottom

Once you’ve done that, click the Okay button to apply the changes to your person. This will also close the Filter Gallery and bring you back to the main PHSH workspace.

If for some reason, like my Preview box, yours showed nothing, you should also be able to see the effect on your person outline.

Step 6

At this point, as I said, you should be able to see the effect on your person. If you cannot, as I didn’t, you may want to skip the Outer Glow step. This will depend on the picture you use.

The person silhouette I chose for the tutorial, didn’t need the Outer Glow step. But I didn’t realize that until this point in the tutorial.

After my Step 5 didn’t seem to work, I tried it again, without stopping to take the screenshots. This is something that has happened in a couple of past tutorials. Some of these effects require you to do them one right after another, not do one, wait, take a screenshot, switch tabs, save the picture, write down the step in an article, and then click back over.

It’s a tad annoying, but you learn more through trial and error, right?

Anyway, so after trying to do the effect again and it still didn’t work (despite not clicking away), I decided to try again, but this time I omitted the Outer Glow step. This is because I realized the Find Edges step can’t find any edges of the picture if we erase the picture and just leave the Glow outline.

PHSH doesn’t recognize the Glow effect as an outline of the person, so the other effects didn’t work.

Luckily, this was the only fix that was needed!

The below screenshots are the same exact sequence, just without the Glow to make the outline:

This turned the inside of the person white, and outlined them in black

This step as it implies, inverts the black and white of the step above, so now the outline is white

And hey, look at that, we have a preview now!

Okay, now we’re exactly where we should’ve been the first time around.

At this point, now we can safely use the Magic Erasure and erase the black part of our person.

Step 7

We’re pretty much done now, but if you think your chalk outline looks a little too… crispy white, especially against a darker background, you can go to the Blending Mode of the person layer and change it to something like Screen or Overlay. If this still doesn’t look quite right to you, you can also slightly change the Opacity until it fits.

Once you’re happy with the Opacity, you can also slightly Warp the image, if you need to.

This is a little thing that can help give the effect just that little extra push into being believable. You want the chalk to look like it’s actually on the road. You might also find it helpful to zoom in for this step.

But same thing, this comes down to personal preference and what pictures you started with.

Once you’re happy with the way you’ve Warped the picture, you’re done! Don’t forget to save both a PHSH (.psd) file and picture file of the effect.

At this point, you can also start playing around with different looks to explore what else you can do with the chalk effect!

For example, if you combine this effect with the Rain effect and lower the Opacity of the chalk layer to around 20%, it can also give the illusion that the chalk is being washed away.

Or as I said at the top of the tutorial, you can use this effect to make much more than just murder outlines!

Like… blackboard drawings!

Or blackboard writing!

Or….


Like this article? Check out the rest of the PHSH Tutorial series here!

Clouds (PHSH Effect #29)

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A lot of Photoshopping involves just editing multiple pictures together to create your desired final image. Because of this, there’s usually multiple ways to achieve specific effects. Editing multiple images together is usually faster and easier, assuming you can find appropriate stock photos to work from.

But, it’s not nearly as fun.

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There’s a certain magic/slight ego trip you get from adding something to your project that you created from nothing. And you should! It’s super cool to know you have that power. It can also save you time from sifting through a bunch of stock photos, trying to find the right one.

So, how do you create clouds from scratch? Let’s find out!

 

Step 1

As always, you’ll want to start a new project, and it’s helpful if you start with a background image that clouds wouldn’t look out of place in.

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For this tutorial, I chose the following image:

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But, you can start on a plain coloured background, if you don’t want to work on an image. Just make sure you change the background colour from White so that you can actually see the clouds.

 

Step 2

Once you have your background sorted, you’ll want to select the Brush tool.

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After you’ve got the Brush Tool selected, go up to the menu at the top, so we can change some of the Brush attributes.

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In the Brush Menu, we’re going to change the Hardness to 0% and the size to a roughly big one. The exact size will depend on the size of your document. For me, the Size was 55 pixels.

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Once you’ve done that, you’ll want to click on the button beside the Brush Preset Picker. In my version of Photoshop, the button is a folder background with what I’m assuming are paint brushes in a cup over top of it.

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This button is called the Brush Panel button. And, you may have guessed, clicking it will open the Brush Panel.

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We could’ve also changed the Size and Hardness from this panel, but for most Photoshop things, using the Brush Preset Picker is faster.

From this panel, we’re also going to change the Brush’s Spacing to 35%.

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Step 3

Depending on the size of your document and the picture you chose, that might be all you need to change before you start adding clouds to your image!

To add the clouds, now that you’ve got your brush set up, all you need to do is paint them in using your mouse.

To help make them look like they belong, you’ll want to draw the shape of the clouds that go with your image. For the picture I chose, white, fluffy clouds would work, so that’s the type I’ll paint in.

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I’ve also added a New Layer to paint the clouds on, instead of adding them directly onto my background image. This way, if I mess up or don’t like the shape of a cloud, I can easily erase it, without also erasing the sky.

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I’ve also gone ahead and renamed the layer to Clouds. This is optional, but renaming layers to keep them straight is a good habit to form, especially when you work on more complicated effects that have a lot of layers.

Also, don’t forget to make sure this layer is on top of the background layer, otherwise you won’t be able to see the clouds you paint!

Keep adding clouds to your image until you’re happy with it, then save the PHSH file and PNG/JPEG file and boom! You’re done.

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This additional step is 100% optional, as it depends entirely on the type of cloud you’re attempting to create.

 

Step 4

For this step, you’ll want to go back to the Brush Panel, and check-mark and change the following options:

Shape Dynamics:

Size Jitter: 50%

Control: Off

Minimum Diameter: 30%

 

Angle Jitter: 0%

Control: Off

 

Roundness Jitter: 20%

Control: Off

 

Minimum Roundness: 1%

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Scattering:

Both Axes: Check Mark, 120%

Control: Off

 

Count: 10

Count Jitter: 100%

Control: Off

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After you turn on and change these values, you can go ahead and test out your new cloud brush, to see the difference it made.

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Once you finish adjusting the Scattering, you can go ahead and hide/close the Brush Panel again by clicking the double arrow button at the top of the panel.

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Then, you can go ahead and test out the new clouds brush, to see the difference it made. If you like the look of these clouds better, go ahead and erase the Step 3 clouds and repaint them with the Step 4 settings.

Or, if you didn’t notice a difference, or don’t like the way the new clouds look on your image, you can un-check the Shape Dynamics and Scattering settings to revert the brush back to the Step 3 settings and repaint the clouds. Or, if you painted the Step 4 clouds on a different layer, you can go ahead and just delete that layer, keeping your Step 3 clouds.

Or, if you want to get crazy with it, you can paint a mix of both setting’s clouds.

As I said above, it’ll all depend on the image you’re trying to create!

Of course, you can play around with the settings above to find what value changes work best for you.

After you get the hang of painting white, fluffy clouds, feel free to keep experimenting! Change the percentage values, the Size of the brush and even the Hardness! That’s how you’ll learn to create different kinds of clouds, like… long, white clouds.

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Or wispy, barely-there clouds.

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Or cloud writing.

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Or even… different coloured magical clouds!

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Like this tutorial? Check out the rest of the series here!

Sunsets (PHSH Effect #27)

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I was going to say I chose to do a sunset so we could get over our winter blues, but we actually had a pretty mild winter where I am, so not too sure how well that works. Whether or not you also had a mild winter, learning to make a sunset effect in Photoshop can still be fun!

This tutorial is one of the simpler ones, so you’ll have plenty of time to practice, and might pick it up faster than some of the others!

For this tutorial, it’s going to really help you out if you choose an image that’s almost a sunset, anyway. I initially tried this effect myself (as well as some Youtube tutorials) using a picture that had high-noon sun lighting and it just did not work. At all. I’ll show you that disaster at the end of the tutorial, so you can see.

Now normally, I’d consider using a picture that’s already close to what you want to achieve as ‘cheating’ – if you were going to just use the pre-made picture as-is, you might as well go all the way and just find a full sunset picture – but seeing the difference between the high-noon picture and the one I ended up using was so drastic, I’m giving it a pass. (Also because I couldn’t figure out how to make it work on the high-noon picture)

This is the picture I ended up using:

Step 1

After re-sizing your picture to fit your new work document, you’ll want to make a Gradient Layer.

You’re going to have to create your own sunset colour gradient for your image. The specific colours you use will heavily depend on the colours your image already has. If you don’t pick colours that are already somewhat close, it won’t tint the image correctly and will end up looking very fake.

You’ll want to use 4 sunset colours, and then the last colour you’ll need to make light grey.

For my image, these are the colours I used:

1st: Pale Yellow: Colour Code #fffac4

2nd Brighter Yellow: Colour Code #fcf38d

3rd Pale Orange: Colour Code #ffbb5b

4th Brighter Orange: Colour Code #ff8b2e

If you plan on using this effect often, feel free to Save this Gradient by giving it a name and then pressing the New button to add it to your Gradient Presets.

Once you have the correct colours, you’ll want to click on the colour bar to make one of those pointer things show up on the top of the bar, and then change it’s Opacity to 75%. Or, you can just drag the pointer that’s already at the top on the left side (over the pale yellow) over until it’s over the Pale Orange and change that ones Opacity.

You’ll also want to change the Opacity of the pointer that’s over the Grey to about 30%.

Once you’ve changed those Opactities, click the Okay button.

Then once you’re back in the Gradient Fill dialogue box, change the Style to Radial, change the Angle to 130 and change the Scale to between 120-135, depending on what works best with your image. (Mine was 135)

 

Step 2

Now we’re going to change the Brightness of the picture. To do this, go back to the Create New Fill/Adjustment Layer at the bottom of the Layers Panel and select Brightness/Contrast from the menu.

In the Panel that pops up, you’ll either want to slide the Brightness slider down or just replace the value by typing in -26.

After you successfully lower the Brightness, just click on the double arrows at the top right-hand side of the panel to close it.

 

Step 3

Now we’re going to add a filtered look to the whole picture. To do this, we’re going to add 2 Solid Colour Layers.

To make the 1st Colour Layer, go back down to the Create New Fill/Adjustment Layer at the bottom of the Layers Panel and click on Solid Colour.

The first colour we’re going to pick is going to be a darker colour. For my image, I had to choose a shade of Brown (#644503), however in one of the tutorials I saw on Youtube, the person made this colour a pinky Red. This will depend entirely on the image you chose.

If you find it easier, feel free to use the colours I’m using in this tutorial, and then once you’ve gone through all the steps, go back and see if changing the colours will make the image look better/more realistic.

The next colour layer we’re going to add is going to be a bright colour. For my image, I found a bright Orange (#ff7200) worked well. The Youtube tutorial person made this colour a pale yellow.

 

Step 4

Now that we’ve got both the colour layers, it’s time to incorporate them into the image!

Still being on your bright colour layer, change the Opacity to 35% and change the Blend Mode to Soft Light.

Next, go back to your darker colour (Brown) layer and change it’s Opacity to 27%, and then change this one’s Blend Mode to Vivid Light.

 

Step 5

At this point, you should see your image looking sunset-y. If you don’t and you’ve been following the tutorial colours, don’t worry. You might just have to change the colours to suite your own image.

For this step, we’re going to go back to the Gradient layer, and change it’s Blend Mode to Hard Light.

It doesn’t look like my image colour changed because I already had the Gradient layer’s Blend Mode to Hard Light. If it was on Normal (like yours should be), this should be what it looks like:

 

Step 6

Can you believe we’re already at the last step? Yep, it’s true!

The last thing you need to do is drag your darker colour (Brown) layer so it’s sitting underneath the Gradient layer.

To do this, just click on the layer in the Layer’s Menu and then drag it until it’s under the Gradient layer. Once it’s in the right place, take your finger off the mouse button.

Once you’ve got the darker colour under the Gradient, all you need to do is save because this effect is now done! Don’t forget to save both a PHSH file (.psd) and a picture file (.png, .jpeg, etc.), this way you can go back if you need to adjust something and/or to just play around with colours or layers later.

Also, as promised, here are my failed attempts at creating a sunset on a picture with high-noon lighting.

First, the original picture:

And now the first failed attempt. This attempt was the one I did by following a Youtube tutorial.

And this is the failed attempt from after I changed colours to see if that would help.

The 2nd attempt was closer, but no matter how I tweaked the colours – whether making them more red, more orange or more yellow – I just couldn’t make it work with the lighting. No matter what I did, it just kept looking fake/edited. I also had to add the sun to the image, and I feel like that also contributed to the failure of it.

So yeah, in case you didn’t know: just because I make these tutorials doesn’t mean I don’t also still fail at making effects! This is why I always try to remind you guys not to feel bad or get down on yourselves if you try an effect and it doesn’t work. There are many factors that go into making an effect work – the picture you choose, your version of Photoshop, and sometimes I swear just if you’re having a lucky day.

Keep practicing and fiddling around and you should get it eventually!

Also I don’t remember if I’ve ever said, but if you guys ever have questions about any of the effects I share, please feel free to reach out and ask! The whole reason I started this tutorial series was to help people (mainly indie authors) and it wouldn’t be very helpful if you found the tutorial confusing, or come away with more questions than answers.


Like this tutorial? Check out the rest of the series here!

Scars (PHSH Effect #26)

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Important: This is the 4th last article for 2023. I’ll be taking the last half of December and first half of January off from posting.

I’ll be back January 12th, 2024 with the first short story of the new year! (The first article will go up January 15th)


This month, I’ll be showing you guys how to add a scar to a picture. That’s right, I’m bringing you yet another ‘creepy’ tutorial to perfect just in time for Halloween!

As with most other tutorials, this one may seem complicated at first, but once we break it down, it’s actually not too hard to execute. And, like all the other tutorials: it’s fun!

Let’s get started.

Step 1

As always, Step 0 is to open a new PHSH document and to pick a base picture. Because this is a… let’s call it ‘dark’ tutorial, a picture that matches will make the effect look better. Look for something where a person is screaming, in some kind of pain or otherwise terrified.

I for example, found this one.

Feel free to use this same image, or one you find yourself. The steps should be the same, with maybe just a slight tweak of colours depending on the base picture. But don’t worry, we’ll get to that.

Once you find a picture you like, you’ll need to decide where you want the scar to be. On my picture, I’m going to put it on the left side of her forehead. After you decide on the placement, we’ll be drawing the scar.

To do this, first you’ll need to set the Foreground Colour to a faded red. #984A48 will work for the tutorial.

 

Step 2

Once the Foreground Colour is set, create a New Layer, then go over to your Brush Tool. With the Brush Tool selected, go up to the Brush Settings at the top and change Mode to Dissolve.

You’ll also want to change Flow to 50% and leave Opacity at 100%.

Once you’ve changed the Flow, you’ll want to also change the Size of your brush. The size of the brush will be the width of your scar, so make sure you choose one that isn’t too thick or too thin. 6 Pixels should work for today. But once you have the technique down, you can always experiment with different sized brushes to see how the different sized wounds look.

You can leave the Hardness of the brush at 100%. (Or, if it’s not currently set at 100, change it to that)

Now that we’ve got the brush set up, it’s time to make the cut!

Draw a line where you want the scar to appear on your model. Don’t forget that human faces (or bodies) aren’t completely flat, so your scar shape should reflect that.

For example, if you’re drawing the scar on the person’s cheek, the line should follow the curve of the cheek bone.

If you don’t like how your mark comes out, erase it and try again until you’re happy with it. This is why we’re drawing on the New Layer we made and not directly on the model picture.

You can also zoom in on your picture (using the CTRL and + buttons) if needed to help you get the shape you want. (To zoom back out, it’s CTRL – )

 

Step 3

Next, we’re going to draw over the mark again, but with an altered Brush. This time, change your Brush Mode back to Normal, double the brush Size (if you used 6px, make it 12px) make the Opacity 50% and change the Flow to 100%.

You also do not need to trace over the previous line perfectly! Having it a little skewed will help with the end effect. Scars are never perfect, right?

 

Step 4

In the Layer’s Menu, right-click on the scar layer and open Blending Options. Once opened, check-mark Bevel & Emboss to apply the style to the layer.

Once you apply the effect, click on it to open the options. We’ll be changing them to make the scar more life-like.

You’ll also want to apply the Contour and Texture boxes by check-marking the boxes next to them.

Now we’re going to start changing the Bevel & Emboss options. To start, change:

– Style to Inner Bevel

– Technique to Smooth

– Depth to about 285%

– Size to 5px

And Soften to 0px

 

After making these changes, your scar should look like a welt with a nasty line in the middle.

You can also change the Direction and Angle if needed, though 120 should work for a face. You’ll want to change these values depending on the lighting the picture you chose has.

Once you’re happy with how the scar looks, click “Ok” to apply the changes.

 

Step 5

Next we’re going to use the Smudge tool to get rid of any pixelated edges on our darker line.

Set the Strength to 50% and smudge the edges very lightly. We need just enough smudging to get rid of the pixelation. If you smudge it too much, the mark will end up looking more like a smear than a scar.

If needed, you can zoom in closer to help you complete this step.

 

Step 6

After you’re done smudging, make a duplicate of the model layer. The easiest way to do this is to hold down the ALT button on your keyboard while clicking and dragging the model layer in the Layer’s Panel.

If you were zoomed in on the scar to smudge, you can also go ahead and zoom back out now.

Once you’ve made the duplicate, you’re going to Merge the scar layer with it. To do this select both layers (hold down CTRL and then click on each layer) then right-click and select Merge Layers from the drop-down menu.

The option Merge Layers shouldn’t be greyed out if you have both selected. My option is greyed out because my computer is dumb sometimes and won’t show a click drop-down menu when I want it to. The picture above is my options while only having 1 layer selected.

 

Step 7

Now that the layers are merged, go to the Layers Panel and change the Opacity for the layer. You’ll want something fairly sheer so the scar looks faded. Something around 10% should work. For my picture, I made the Opacity 18%.

If you want the scar to look more pronounced, change the opacity to something higher.

Here’s how my scar looked when I changed the Opacity to 30%.

And this is what it looked like at 60%.

As you can see, the higher the Opacity is, the more pronounced the red is but that’s the reason it will start to look fake if it’s too bright.

If you think the dark line in the center of the scar still looks too pixelated, you can go ahead and use the Blur tool on it to smooth it out. Just like with the Smudge tool, you’ll want to do this carefully.

Though it is Halloween, so if you wanted to, you could throw subtly out the window and go in the complete opposite direction.

It all depends on the look you’re trying to achieve.

That’s it for this tutorial! Don’t forget to save your file both as a PHSH file so you can continue to practice and as a picture (JPEG, PNG, etc.) so you can share it with your friends and family.


Like this tutorial? Check out the rest of the series here!

Pointy Teeth (PHSH Effect #22)

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Now you can transform yourself into a vampire – just in time for Halloween! 🧛‍♂️

Step 1

Find yourself a picture that has a nice, clear view of the teeth. I was lucky enough to find one that already has a few pointed teeth on it.

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This is the picture I’ll be using. I’d like to note, your picture doesn’t have to already have pointed teeth, just a clear view of teeth, as this will make it a lot easier to attach the points will be making.

Once you have your picture, go ahead and open PHSH, and start a new project. Then, bring your picture onto it.

 

Step 2

Now that you’re ready to start, make a New Layer, and call it whatever you want. For the purposes of the tutorial, I’ll call this layer Tooth Outline.

On the new layer you just created, use your Brush Tool, and make an outline of what you want the pointed tooth to look like. Do this in a colour that is as close to the tooth colour as you can.

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To get the colour of the tooth, you can click on Colour Swatches in the left-hand side Tool Panel, then when the Colour Picker pops up, click on the part of the tooth you want to use the colour from.

 

Step 3

Once you’re happy with your outline, use the Pen Tool, and trace around the entirety of the tooth. Make sure you get both the pointed part you drew, and the tooth that was already there.

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After making the outline, go to the Paths section (one of the tabs in the Layers Panel), and turn it into a Selection by pressing CTRL while you click on the Work Path layer. You’ll know you’ve successfully Selected the outline when the line turns to a dotted, flashing line.

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Step 4

Now that you have the outline selected, make another New Layer. This layer, we’re going to fill in the rest of the tooth’s colour, so you may want to rename it to something appropriate, like Tooth Colour.

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Renaming your layers isn’t necessary – the effect will still turn out if you don’t name them – but I find it’s easier to keep track of which layer is which when you rename them. If that’s not your thing though, you can go ahead and disregard the renaming part of the steps.

 

Step 5

Once you have the entire tooth filled in, and it matches the colours of the tooth that’s already there, you can go ahead and Deselect the outline. (To do this, you can go to the Rectangular Marquee Tool (the tool directly under the Mouse in the left-hand Tools Panel), and right-click on the selection, then pick Deselect from the drop-down menu that appears.

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After you’ve deselected the outline, make another new layer. This layer is going to be the highlight for the tooth. Go back to your Brush tool, and use a very light white colour, then use that colour and paint a highlight down one side of the tooth.

You may have to change the size of the brush, so the highlight doesn’t look too out-of-place.

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Step 6

Once you’re happy with the highlight you made, you can switch back to the Tooth Colour layer. Next, go up to Filter – Blur – Gaussain Blur, and apply it to the layer.

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You’ll want to use something small, around 0.4 – so that it helps blend the colours, without making the tooth look like it’s fuzzy/blurry.

After you’ve applied that to your layer, go ahead and zoom out, to check out your handiwork from a not super close angle.

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Hopefully, the pointed part of the tooth will look like it’s part of the original.

If not, you may have to go back to the Tooth Colour layer and match more of the original tooth colours to the point.

Or, you may just need more practice!

But, not to worry – this is the last PHSH tutorial for the year, so you’ll have plenty of time to practice before the next one!

This was actually the 2nd tooth I vampire-ized on this picture. I used this one for the tutorial instead of the first, because I felt like this one turned out better.

What do you think?

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Glitter (PHSH Effect #20)

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This article was written 21.11.25, please excuse any reference/joke that’s no longer applicable.


Now that it’s summer and we’re finally getting to go back outside in the nice weather, the timing couldn’t be more perfect to pivot away from the ‘depressing’ rain effect I showed you last time, and show you how to make something much ‘happier’: Glitter!

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Also, Pride is this month, so it seemed extra fitting, albeit a little cliché.

Let’s get started!

Step 1

First step for this effect, is you’ll need to find a Glitter Texture picture, and have a picture you want to add glitter to. For simplicity, I’m going to be doing this tutorial with a picture of an eye, and apply the glitter to look like eye shadow.

That said, you can definitely use this technique to add glitter in more fantasy-based pictures, if needed. (I’ll show you an example at the end of the tutorial)

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this yet or not, but if you haven’t found a good royalty-free website to get pictures from (unfortunately you can’t just use Google-d pictures for book covers), Pixabay and Pexels are great websites.

Once you have both pictures, open a new PHSH project, and place both the glitter, and base picture into it, and resize if necessary. Then, (if needed), drag the glitter layer so it’s on top of the base picture.

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You can also change the glitter layer’s Opacity so you can see the base picture through the layer.

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Step 2

Once you have your pictures set, we’re going to use the Eraser tool to erase parts of the glitter picture we don’t need. Using a pretty big sized brush, and a high percent of Hardness, start erasing the parts of the glitter picture you don’t need.

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In my case, this would be everything except for the part of the picture that’s covering the upper eyelid.

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Step 3

Once you’ve erased everything on the glitter layer you don’t need, you can go ahead and change it’s Opacity back to 100%.

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While still in the Layers panel, go over to the Blend Mode (which is the drop-down menu directly to the left of the Opacity), and change it from Normal to Overlay, or Screen. Use whichever one looks best with the picture you have. In my case, I used Overlay.

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Step 4

Once this is done, go ahead and clean up the edges of the glitter layer, if needed. You can also slightly lower the Opacity if you need to. Depending on your image, I wouldn’t make it too low, though, since you want the glitter to be seen over the picture.

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And there you have it! A simple way to add glitter to most pictures.

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Obviously, this is a pretty simple way to show you how to add glitter to something. However, the steps are almost exactly the same, even if you, for example, wanted to make a vampire/give a person glittery skin.

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For this image, I started with the exact same steps as above, but I ended up lowering the Opacity a little more, and, I also right-clicked on the glitter layer and used the Warp function to give it a slightly ‘bent’ appearance, so it would look more like it was attached to the girl’s skin.

Warping the glitter layer is an optional step. I’ve found it tends to only work with certain images, while on others, you can’t tell at all that it was used.

But go ahead and play around to see what works best for you.

You’ll want to get pretty good at applying glitter to images, because the next tutorial I’m gonna be showing you is an effect that just so happens to pair well with this one:


Like this tutorial? Check out the rest of them here!

Make It Rain! (PHSH Effect #18)

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Welcome to the first Photoshop tutorial of the new year!

I hope you’re well rested and ready to tackle the 5 new effects I’ll be showing you throughout this year.

First of which, will be this cool rain effect!

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Now, obviously, this effect will look best on a photo that looks like it would have rain on it, like in the picture above. That said, you can use this effect on any picture, though it might not look as realistic over a sunny day.

This effect, like many of the others I’ve shown you, isn’t that complicated once you break it down, and, is actually pretty easy.

Let’s get into it!

Step 1.

To start, pick a picture you’d like to make it rain on. It can be any image you want, but, as said above, this effect will look better on certain images than others.

Once you have your picture picked out, create a New Layer (you can do this by using the New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers panel). Next, we’re going to fill the new layer with the colour black. You can do this one of two ways: you can either go up to Edit – Fill, and then select Black and click Okay, or, you can use your Paint Bucket and dump black onto the layer.

Either way, the layer should be completely black.

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You can also rename the new layer to something you’ll remember what it is, like ‘Rain’ – naming your layers is always helpful when working, but especially important the more you start working on more complicated projects.

 

Step 2

Once the layer is filled with black, go up to Filter – Noise – Add Noise. In the dialogue box that comes up, you can fill in the following values:

Amount of Percent: 25%

Distribution Mode: Gaussian

And, make sure the Monochromatic box is checked.

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Once this is done, click Okay to add the Noise. At this point, the black layer should have white speckles all over it – like the ‘fuzz’ that used to show up on an old TV when you went to a channel you didn’t get.

 

Step 3

Now that you’ve added noise, you’ll need to go back to Edit – Transform – Scale. Then, in the Width/Height values that appear in the top menu (on the same line used to change a Brush size/hardness), change the values to either 200/200 or 400/400, depending on the size of your document.

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Alternatively, you can just click and drag the layer’s bottom corner to make it larger, in the exact same way you scale a picture to fit your document/work size. The layer doesn’t have to be specifically that big, just make sure it’s slightly bigger than your work area.

Once you resize, the Noise/dots should (slightly) resemble falling snow.

This is to ensure a more realistic look – because rain is coming down from the sky, if you take a picture when it’s raining, the drops won’t be perfectly lined up with the top/sides of your picture – the rain began way above the scope of your lens. This helps ensure there are ‘half’ raindrops.

 

Step 4.

Now we’ve got our rain the correct size, we’ll need to make our picture/image viewable through it!

To do this, go to the Layers panel, and click on the Blend Mode drop down menu, and select Screen. This should allow you to see your image through the Noise layer.

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If this doesn’t work, make sure your Noise layer is on top of your image layer in the Layers panel. If it’s listed underneath your image, just drag it above, so it’s the first layer in the list.

 

Step 5.

Next, to make those dots look more like falling rain. To do this, go back up to Filter – Blur – Motion Blur.

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The values you input here will depend upon the image you’re using, as well as what you want the final image to look like. If for example, you want it to look like it is heavily raining on your image, you’ll want to go with a more dramatic angle, and a larger distance.

On the other hand, if you want there to be light rain, you can go with a less dramatic angle, and a smaller distance, as I did in the image.

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That said, I’ve noticed a Distance of 75 seems to be the lowest that works while still looking like ‘rain’. Go ahead and play around with both values until you’re happy with what it looks like, though.

Once you’re happy with what your rain looks like, click Okay.

If you really want an image to look stormy, I also recommend using this Noise/Motion Blur effect more than once, with varying Distance/Angle attributes, so it will give the impression of a much heavier rain fall.

 

And that’s it!

If you notice your image has become too bright after applying the Rain, you can go ahead and either try lowering the Rain layer’s Opacity, or, you can go to the Adjustments panel (should be sitting on top of the Layers panel), and click on the Brightness/Contrast option, and change those values until you’re happy with them.

Once you’re totally happy with what your rain looks like, don’t forget to Save both a PHSH file (.psd), and a JPEG, or PNG of your work! Saving a PHSH file will allow you to go back in and make changes if you ever need to, without having to start all over.

And, while this effect isn’t too time consuming, or hard, it still sucks to have to start from scratch when wanting to change a Photoshop project.

Go ahead and practice this effect until you become comfortable with it, because in April, I’ll be keeping with this rainy theme, and showing you how to make Puddles:

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Like this tutorial? Check out the rest of the series here!

Making a GIF (PHSH Effect #16)

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Don’t be scared! Making a GIF is not nearly as complicated as you may think!

Well, okay, that’s not technically true. It can actually get complicated, but that’s completely dependant on what you want to GIF. Don’t worry though, because this is just a tutorial, I’ll be keeping things simple, and you can always practice and work your way up to complicated later.

In the interest in keeping things simple, I’ll just show you how to make the GIF I teased in the last tutorial.

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Also, real quick, ‘GIF’ stands for Graphics Interchange Format. So, the proper pronunciation is to say it with a hard ‘g’ sound, not with a ‘j’ sound. Now that you know what it stands for, I hope you will start saying it correctly, because now you don’t have an excuse. (Unless you say ‘jraphics’, but I’m gonna go ahead and assume you don’t)

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get started!

Step 1.

First things first, set up a new document/work file in Photoshop, and make it whatever dimensions you want. Then, using the Type tool, type some words for us to GIF, and make sure you type them all on different layers. Since I’m showing you the GIF I teased last time, I typed out This is a GIF on 4 separate layers. But it can be any text you want. (Or it can even be a picture, but we’ll get to that later)

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Step 2.

Next, go up to Window (in the top menu with File) and click on Timeline from the drop-down menu.

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Once you click on that, you should see a banner come up on the bottom of the window, this is called the Timeline. There should be 1 ‘frame’ with your layers already in it that popped up as well.

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Step 3.

Now that you have the Timeline open, you have to place each layer onto different frames. This is actually much simpler than it may sound. First step, is to take them off the first frame. To do this, simply go over to your Layers Panel, and hide the layers you don’t want visible in the first frame. (Click on the eye beside the layer to hide it)

The only thing visible in the first frame should be the word This.

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Step 4.

Now we have to make more frames. To do this, click on the Duplicate Frame button in the timeline. It is the button that looks like the New Layers button.

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To make this the 2nd frame, we are going to hide the This layer, and un-hide the is layer. You do this in the exact way you did to hide all the layers, but the hidden layer won’t have an eye next it. That’s okay, just click in the little square, and the eye and layer will appear, making the layer un-hidden.

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Continue to duplicate, and hide/un-hide layers until you have 1 frame for each layer. If you get confused, look at the frames – you should be able to see in the frame preview that there is only 1 word in each frame.

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Step 5.

Now that we have all the frames correct, we can check how the GIF looks. To do this, click on the 1st frame (to start the GIF from the beginning), and then click the Play button in the Timeline. Your frames should then ‘play’, and you can see if you need to fix/change anything.

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Step 6.

If you think your GIF is moving too slowly (or too fast), you can change the speed by clicking on the arrow that’s under the frame, next to the time, and then select the time you think will work best for you. Keep playing with it until you find a speed you need, and to check the speed, just Play the frames again until it looks right for your needs. (For the most part, I’ve found the default of 0.5 seconds to be sufficient)

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Now that you’ve got the timing right, you may want to change the Loop type as well, so that it continuously plays, instead of just playing once. In the Timeframe box, under the frames, there should be a Loop dropdown. Click on the drop-down menu, and select Forever from the list. This will make your GIF play in a continuous loop, well… forever. (If the default is already Forever, you can ignore this step)

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Step 7.

Now that you’ve completed your GIF, it’s time to save. But wait!

You can not save a GIF in the same way you’ve been doing (Flattening then saving as a PNG/JPEG). Well, okay, actually you can save it like that, but then it won’t play.

If you want to save the GIF to actually play, you’ll have to go up to File, then find Save For Web in the drop-down.

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In the dialogue box that comes up, make sure GIF is selected as the format, and leave everything else the default.

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Then, click the Save button on the bottom of the box, and then from there you can give the file a name and save it to wherever you need to, like any other file.

And there you have it! You now know how to make a GIF! I told you it wasn’t that hard. And the cool thing is the steps are exactly the same no matter what you’re doing.

So, say you want to make a picture move. Let’s say you want to make a rocket ship take off.

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The steps are exactly the same, except instead of using text, we’re moving a picture. And, it takes more frames. Also, because it’s just one picture (minus the booster flames), all I’m doing is moving the picture slightly between frames, so it appears to be flying.

Here’s what the PHSH work file looks like:

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Each time I moved the rocket, I placed a Guideline where the nose was, so I’d know how much to move it in the next frame. You can see here that I also changed the play speed twice. In the first few frames, it’s set at 0.2 seconds, and then after the ‘booster’ (flames) comes out the bottom, I changed it to 0.1 second, so it appears like the rocket sped up.

Go ahead and play with this technique – it is one of the more fun ones. You guys have until October to keep yourselves busy with GIF making, after which, I’ll be showing you how to create:

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Changing Eye/Skin Colour (PHSH Effect #15)

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I know, I know, ‘you’re revisiting effects already? Does that mean you’re out of ideas?’ No, no it doesn’t. There’s no need to worry, I just thought I’d revisit this one, because I actually discovered an easier/more effective way to change someone’s eye colour, and this technique can be used to change the colour of more than just eyes! You can also do skin colour, hair, and pretty much whatever else you want!

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For this tutorial, we’ll be using the below black and white picture of an eye, but feel free to use any picture you like. Since you’re just starting, I’d recommending choosing a black and white picture to practice with, but note that this technique does work on pre-coloured pictures as well.

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Step 1:

Okay, by now you should know Step 0 is to always open a new work file, and to place your picture onto the document. After this, go over to the bottom of the Tools Panel on the left-hand side, and click on the button that’s under the Colour Swatches.

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Step 2:

Once you clicked that, go to your Paintbrush, and change the size/hardness of it, then begin to paint over the part of the picture you want to change the colour of. (In this case, it’s the iris) When you begin painting, it may turn red-ish/orange, don’t worry! This happens just to show you the part you’re painting. It won’t stay orange after you’re done this step.

For eyes, I like to try to get the size of the paint brush as close to the size of the iris as I can, so that I can paint with just one click, so the edges aren’t ‘bumpy’. Also, don’t worry about painting over the pupil for this step. We can clean up the paint later.

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Step 3:

Now that you’ve painted over the entire part you want to change, click the button under the Colour Swatches again, and you’ll notice the red goes away, and there should now be a slow-flashing dotted line around your image – this is showing that you’ve selected it.

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Step 4:

Go up to Select – Invert, this will now select the part you painted, instead of the part outside of that. (Don’t ask me why it defaults to selecting everything you didn’t paint, I have no idea)

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Okay, at this point, you can now change the colour by one of two ways:

Way #1:

Step 5:

With the iris still selected, go to the bottom of the Layers Panel, and go to where you’d make a colour a background, and select Solid Colour from the menu.

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Step 6:

After selecting the colour you want, at the top of the Layers Panel, there should be a box next to the Opacity drop-down that says Normal. Click on that to bring down a drop-down menu, and then select either Screen or Overlay from the menu. (Use whichever one makes the colour look the best)

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OR

Way #2:

Step 5:

Now that the part you want to change colours is selected, go to the top of your Layers Panel, and you should see a panel sitting on top with tabs in it, that are labelled Adjustments, Color, and Swatches. Click on the Adjustments tab, and then click on Hue/Saturation from the pictures listed. Hue/Saturation looks like a colour picker, and is beside the thing that looks like scales.

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Step 6:

After clicking Hue/Saturation, a panel should pop out, with different sliders on it. To change the iris colour, you can play with the Hue and Saturation sliders, until you find a colour you like. If you find that the colour is too subtle, (even with the Saturation on full), try checking the Colourize box at the bottom of the panel. This may help.

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(Back to both ways)

Step 7:

Once you have a colour you like, go to your Eraser tool, and erase the pupil, and if there is colour outside the edges/area you want to be coloured, erase that, too. If you used the Solid Colour method, you may get a dialogue box that comes up that says something about rasterizing the layer, or that it won’t be editable anymore, just click ‘okay’.

Once you have the edges/pupil all cleaned up, you’re done and ready to save!

I wouldn’t say this technique is easier than the other one, but this one is a lot more versatile, and as I said above, can be used on more than just eyes. It also makes it look more realistic, in my opinion. Once you’re happy with the pupil, why don’t you try to colourize the skin colour as well?

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Go ahead and play around with this effect, to see how it works best for your needs – the next tutorial will be coming Aug. 30th, so you’ll have plenty of time to master this one!

Next time, I’ll be showing you how to make a GIF! Oh, yes.

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