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Writing, Writing Tips

Fire (PHSH Effect #35)

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Important: This is the 5th last article of 2025. I’ll be taking the last half of December and first half of January off from posting. I’ll be back January 19th, 2026 with the first article of the new year!

The time is here for the end of this PHSH Effect trilogy – just in time for Halloween! (Almost like that was planned…)

Since this is the last tutorial in this mini series of effects, you’ll want to make sure you’ve completed the first two so you have the appropriate base to work on today.

Step 1

The simplest way to add fire into a Photoshop picture, is to get some free images of fire from a royalty free site, and drag them into your current project. It’s a good idea to get a few different images, so the amount of flames, size, etc. is a little varied. Yes, we can (and will) be manipulating the images to fit them into our project, but it’s always easier to start with a picture that’s closer to the end result.

Alternatively, you can also always just screenshot the images above, crop and save them to your computer. (I recommend keeping a folder of stock images around, so you won’t have to go searching for them every time you want to create something)

Once you have the fire stock images you want to use, drag some into your current project so we can start getting to work. If you’d like, you can also rename their Layers to something identifying, like ‘Flame’ or ‘Fire’.

I also went ahead and moved all the previous tutorial burn/ember effects into their own folder, so we can start the project more ‘clean’.

Once the flames are actually in the project, hide all but one of the flame layers, and then re-size it to fit the part of the image you want it to be on. Also, change it’s Layer Mode to Screen. This will make it see-through, so we’ll be able to see the rest of our image through it.

My first flame picture has a reflection on the bottom, so I also had to Erase that from the image, before changing it’s Layer Mode to Screen. Since I was already erasing things, I also erased part of the background, since it stuck out a lot from where the flame was. You can do this too, if the flame pictures you’re using are similar, or, if they are already just the flame, feel free to skip this.

The flame picture I started with

The flame picture after I erased the reflection and partial background

 

Step 2

Next, we’re going to go up to the top menu, and click on Images – Adjustments – Curves, and then drag the bottom anchor inwards on the graph that pops up.

Sliding this anchor over will darken the blacks of the image so it helps to remove the background, without needing to spend time erasing around the fire.

This method might change the colour of your flames, as you see above. It’s also faster to use with things that have soft wisps like fire, smoke, etc. instead of the Quick Select/Erase Background method I usually use, because of all the soft edges. Erasing around a selection usually makes hard edges, which is why you go back over them with a softer Eraser, but that isn’t as effective, not only because it takes more time, but the Eraser is only one shape, and if you over-erase, it can give the image a faker feel.

Or it would, if the image you were overlaying the flame onto had a black background. As you can see above, mine does not, so I’ll have to go in with my Eraser tool and erase more of the black background, so it’s even closer to the flames.

I also haven’t completely re-sized the flame to fit my image yet. That’s because it’s easier to erase when the image is still big. Now that I’m done erasing the background, I’ll be zooming into my building and re-sizing my flame, to place it where I want to get ready for the next step.

 

Step 3

Now that we’ve got the flame background-less, we’re going to be Warping it so it looks like it’s actually coming off part of the subject. I didn’t really need to warp my flames on my building, since I chose a relatively square building with lots of straight lines.

But, since this is a tutorial, I’m going to show you how to do this part on a curved object, instead.

I did not add the embers or burns to the chess piece, because I was able to keep in on a dark background, and the Warping part for the flame is the important part, anyway. I did however, erase some of the left part of the flame, to get it a closer fit to the top of the chess piece.

So to use your Warping tool, you’ll want to right-click on one of the squares of box around the flame (the same ones that come up when you go to re-size it) and then pick Warp from the drop down menu that appears.

From here, click Warp, and you should notice the box is now a grid over the whole flame. Carefully, take one of the corners and drag it around, so it looks like the flame is wrapped around the curve of the object.

You’ll want to be careful not to over-warp here, as that can make the flame look fake, or, if you really over-do it, you’ll end up stretching the flame picture and it’ll just look distorted and weird, like bad pixel art.

An example of over-warping

 

Step 4

Once you’re happy with the warp job, we’re going to use our Smudge tool and again, carefully, drag the bottom edges of the flame, so it’s wrapped a little more around the curve/object. Make sure the Smudge tool is set to less than 100% Strength for this. Remember: you can always smudge more later, but it’s harder to undo a too-hard smudge. (Yes, even with the CTRL + Z/Undo options)

I personally used 50% Strength, and left the Hardness of the brush 100%, but feel free to play around with these values to get the best result for your image.

 

Step 5

After that, you just need to repeat these same steps on everywhere else you want to add flames to your image.

If needed, you can also go in with a soft Eraser to clean up any edges or weird bits on your flames. Then, once you’re happy with all the contouring/warping, you’re done! Don’t forget to Save the PHSH file and picture version of your new work.

As I said in the first tutorial of this mini-series, this effect will work on basically any picture, so you can light basically anything on fire!

Obviously some pictures will come out cooler than others. But, there’s never been a better time to explore, especially with Halloween only a few days away!

Like this tutorial? Check out more here!

Writing, Writing Tips

Embers (PHSH Effect #34)

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Happy October, everyone!

Are you in the spooky spirit yet? Not to worry if you’re not, today’s tutorial will get you there!

Like I said in the previous tutorial, the effect I’ll be showing you this week will be building on that one, so if you haven’t checked it out, now would be the time to do so.

I’ll even wait!

…

You back? Okay, cool!

Then let’s get started on this week’s tutorial: Embers.

This tutorial only has 4 steps but it is time consuming! We’re going to be painting in the embers by hand, so, fair warning. Also, I’ll apologize now for any (inevitable) frustration.

The finished product should be worth it, though!

Step 1

This week, we’re actually going to start in last week’s tutorial document, not a blank one. So, go ahead and open up your Photoshop file version of last week’s Burn effect. (It will be the .psd file, not the .jpeg or .png)

Or, if you prefer, you can create a new project and name it Embers, then drag and drop in your picture file of the Burn effect. Just keep in mind if you do this method, you won’t be able to change, add-on or alter the burn pattern, since it’ll be part of the image. If you end up wanting to tweak it, you’ll have to go through all the Burn tutorial steps a second time.

If you’re wondering: no, you’re not crazy. This is a different burn pattern from what I showed last week. If I haven’t mentioned already, I always do the effects at least twice: once when I’m experimenting/playing around, and the second time is a ‘live’ version I do when I write out the tutorials. (This is the one all the screenshots come from)

It’s the same picture and over-all concept, but if you ever notice the patterning doesn’t exactly match the tutorial pictures, this would be why. Also, despite my initials, I am in fact, not a robot, so I can’t replicate the patterning/brush strokes to look 100% the same between the versions. (Depending on the effect)

 

Step 2

On a New Layer, go to the Blending Options menu (right-click on the layer) and turn on and fill in the following values:

Inner Shadow:
Structure
Blend Mode: Normal (Make the colour a Light Orange, I used #ff8d03)
Opacity: 100%
Angle: 30 (Check the Use Global Light box)
Distance: 0px
Choke: 0%
Size: 3px

Quality
Contour: Make it the top-right to bottom-left straight diagonal White and Black option (the one that looks like this / )
Anti-Alias: Make sure is un-checked
Noise: 0%

Outer Glow:
Structure
Blend Mode: Screen
Opacity: 100%
Noise: 0%
Colour: Make sure the Solid square is selected (not the Gradient) and set it to a Red-ish Orange (#fe7801)

Elements
Technique: Softer
Spread: 0%
Size: 18px

Quality
Contour: Make it the same as Inner Shadow
Range: 50%
Jitter: 0%

Drop Shadow:
Structure
Blend Mode: Colour Dodge (Set the colour to Red, #fe0000)
Opacity: 100%
Angle: 30 (Check Use Global Light)
Distance: 0px
Spread: 0px
Size: 18px

Quality
Contour: Make it the same as the Outer Glow
Noise: 0%

If you have a check box at the bottom that says Layer Knocks Out Drop Shadow, make sure it is check-marked.

If you’d like to preview the effects, you can do so by going over to your Brush tool and selecting one of the ‘grungy’ brushes from the list, and then – while using a colour of Pale Yellow (#f8ec92) – make some brush strokes on the image.

The ‘grunge’ brush options – I don’t know why they’re called that, but in my PHSH quest, it usually just refers to the charcoal, chalk and pastel brush options

Or, you can set a Solid Colour background to preview the effect, like I did below:

It may take some experimenting for you to figure out which brush you like best for the effect. I personally, ended up choosing a Charcoal brush. I also wanted to show you how using the brush differently will change the effect:

The furthest right pattern is what happens when I just clicked the brush once before moving to a different spot. (In my head, I call this ‘stamping’ because of the one-and-done method, but I’m not sure if it has a different name) The brush I chose also randomly changes directions, that’s why some of the pattern is horizontal and some are vertical.

The second in from the right is the same stamping method, but I did the brush strokes closer together.

The almost-solid yellow line is what happens when you use the brush normally. (Click and drag the brush in a direction you want, I made the line not-straight myself)

And lastly, the furthest left pattern is what happens when you combine the stamping and normal methods. For this one, I clicked and dragged in very short distances/spurts before moving on to the next part.

I want to emphasize here that there is no objectively ‘wrong’ brush to use. If you think it looks good and it works for your image, use it! There are a lot of different brushes you can experiment with, but I will say, as with the ash/burn effect, the ‘grunge’ brushes might work better than the plain round ones.

As I said above, I ended up using my Charcoal brush, but here is the effect with some different brushes:


Chalk Brush (I have multiples of these in different pixel sizes and slightly different patterns)


Star 26 Brush


Grass Brush (Apparently I have one of those?)


Sponge Brush Projection Brush


Soft Fur Brush (I’m pretty sure this is the brush I use when I make snow)


I have a range of brushes that are just called Spatter with the pixel size, this is a mix of the brushes in various sizes

and finally, here is what it looks like when using the plain Round brushes:

 

Step 3

Now that we’ve got the style and brush set up, it’s time to add the embers to your image!

To do this, select the appropriate brush Size and Hardness and start painting them in along some of the edges of the burn pattern. Try to think about how fire behaves – in most cases, fire takes the fastest path upwards, so if you chose a building, for example, you’ll want to add embers trailing up toward the roof. I’d also recommend zooming in (CTRL +) to your picture so you have better control over the placement of the embers.

If you’re not super impressed with how it’s looking at this stage, don’t worry. Most effects don’t look that great when you’re zoomed in. To check the actual progress, I recommend zooming out (CTRL – ) so you can see how the embers are looking in the picture as a whole.

If you’re still not happy with them even when zoomed out, you can use the Eraser tool to erase any parts that aren’t looking quite right so you can re-do them. (This is why it’s important we added the embers effect to their own Layer)

Depending on what brush and stroke technique you’re using, this part could take a while, so go slow and try not to get frustrated.

Also keep in mind, you can vary the Size and Hardness of your brush to help keep the embers from looking too monotone.

I actually re-did my ember trails a bunch of times because I just couldn’t get it to look ‘right’. One thing that helped me, was painting in the ember effect and then going back in with my Eraser tool to dirty up the lines and add a tapper to some of the trails.

 

Step 4

Once you’re happy with all your embers, to give it an even more realistic look, change the brush size and shape to one that is close to that snow one I showed above, then paint around the outside of some of the trails. This will make it look like some of the embers are floating off.

I did my floating embers on a different layer so I could easily erase and replace any I didn’t like without having to re-do the ember trails.

This also leads me to a very helpful tool when working with PHSH Effects: If you need to apply the same effect to a different layer, you can do so quickly by holding down the ALT key on your keyboard, then clicking on the FX symbol in the Layers Panel and dragging it to the layer you want to apply the effect to.

You’ll know if you did it correctly if all the Effect Text under the layer and the FX symbol transfers to the new layer.

And that’s it!

Because I didn’t do my char/burn layer super dark, I had to do my ember trails more subtly, so it looks like the building is just starting to catch fire, opposed to being in the middle of burning. I also took out the floating embers, because realistically, I don’t think there would be enough embers to have some floating up around the trails I made.

This means, my finished project, looks like this:

Which is the image I used on social media.

But, don’t worry – up next, I’m going to show you how to add flames to your burning image, so you’ll get to see a much cooler/less subtle version of the embers, just in time for Halloween!

Like this tutorial? Check out more here!

Writing, Writing Tips

Burning (PHSH Effect #33)

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I know I’ve already showed you guys a way to Burn things in Photoshop, but, that was with the Burn tool, which is objectively the ‘easy’ way to add that effect to your pictures.

But, you guys have come a long way since the first few tutorials, and with Halloween coming up, I thought now would be a great time to introduce you to the more complicated way to burn your pictures. This way I’m going to show you allows you to be more precise in your burning, which can be extremely helpful if you’re trying to edit a more detailed photo.

Step 1

As always, we’ll want to start with a brand new PHSH document and an image. I didn’t want to complicate things too much for the purposes of the tutorial, so I chose a simple building.

You can, of course, choose whatever kind of picture you’d like: the image above, a different kind of building, an ex’s face, a car, animal, etc. Whatever floats your boat! This effect should work with any kind of picture.

Once you’ve selected the picture you want to use, we’re going to need to make a Group. To do this, go down to the Layers panel and select the Group icon.

Next, we’re going to need to make a selection of the subject of the image. There’s a couple different ways to do this, so I will say to do whichever one you’re most comfortable with. For me, this means using the Quick Select tool and dragging it around the picture until everything I want is inside the dotted lines. For my specific picture, that’s just going to be the front of the building.

Now, we’re going to add a Layer Mask to the Group. To do this, go down to the bottom of the Layers Panel, and then click on the square that has a black circle in the middle of it. (This is the Layer Mask button)

The Layer Mask should only take on the shape of what you’ve selected. If it doesn’t, deselect (or hit CTRL + Z to Undo the last action) and try selecting the area and creating the Layer Mask again.

If you’re also not sure whether or not you’ve successfully created a Layer Mask because the thumbnail didn’t come up, you can go up to the top menu and then select Layer, then scroll down to Layer Mask and click the Reveal All option. This should make the thumbnail show up in the Layers panel, if it wasn’t already.

Step 2

Once that’s done, we’re going to start adding the ‘burn’ to the picture, which means we’re going to be playing around with the colours.

Before we do this, I’d recommend making a copy of your picture as-is, just in case you mess up/don’t like how things turn out/get confused and need a reminder of what the original looked like.

First thing we’re going to do, is go to Adjustments (which should be sitting on top of your Layers Panel) and add a Black and White Gradient Map and set it to 90% Opacity. The Gradient Map should be the last button in the last row, and looks like a gradual black to white square.

If, like me, your Gradient Map turned your Layer Mask the wrong colour, don’t panic! It applied the last/current colour in your Colour Swatches. (The ones showing in the swatches on the left-hand side at the very bottom of the Tool menu)

All you have to do to change this, is click the drop-down arrow next to the gradient that showed up in the Properties box, and then click a black to white gradient from the list.

Then, we’re going to add a Brightness/Contrast Adjustment (the sun looking icon in the Adjustments panel) and set the Brightness to -50 and the Contrast to 50.

Then we’re going to add a Curves adjustment (the 3rd icon in the Adjustment panel, that looks like an ‘s’ on a graph). The Curves adjustment values you change will depend on the initial colours of your picture, so if at the end things don’t look quite right, you can come back to this panel and re-adjust the values to see if it helps.

And finally, we’re going to add another Brightness/Contrast adjustment with the values of:

Brightness: -40

Contrast: 100

Once those are done, the picture should look like a higher contrasted black and white of the original.

Step 3

Create a new Group and name it something appropriate like Burn, Soot, Ash, Char, etc. And drop the first Group we made inside it.

Next, add a Layer Mask to the new group and fill it with Black. You might be able to do this by simply pressing CTRL + I on your keyboard. If not, you can Invert the colours by right-clicking and selecting the Invert Colour option.

Step 4

Now comes the fun part! We’re going to use any kind of Brush you want, and use it to brush the Layer Mask over any/every area of the picture you want to appear ashy/charred/burned. Make sure your brush colour is set to White, otherwise it won’t work.

You might find it helpful to separate the different areas of char into their own Groups. As long as you keep them all under the umbrella Char group, the brushing will work to uncover the black and white. Breaking them into different groups can be helpful if you uncover part of the mask where you didn’t want it and go to Erase. If it’s close to another area, you’ll end up erasing that part, as well, whereas if it’s in it’s own group, other parts won’t be affected.

Step 5 (Optional)

If you chose a picture with a smooth surface, (like a person’s skin) you can make the burn look more realistic by adding some texture to it!

To add texture, you can use any picture of a plain textured surface you may have, or, go to Filter – Texture and then click on the texture you’d like to add.

If using the picture method:

Place and re-size the textured image to fit the confines of your picture. You’ll also want to add it to whichever Group corresponds to the area you’re texturing. (Just so things don’t get confusing)

Once you’ve got it in the correct position, you’ll want to make it black and white. To do this, go up to Image – Adjustments – Black and White.

Next, you’re going to adjust the image’s Brightness and Contrast. The exact values will depend on the colours of your own image, but I’d recommend starting with a Brightness of -93 and Contrast of 100.

You’re also going to want to change the texture Layer from Normal to Overlay, so you can see the part of the image it’s over better. You’ll want to use Overlay here instead of Screen, because Overlay often darkens images, and Screen tends to lighten them. If however, they look the same to you, or if for some reason they are inverted (Screen makes the texture darker) use whichever one you prefer.

Lastly, you’ll need to repeat the texture overlay for every part of the image you darkened with the brush.

If you picked a picture that had a lot of texture already, like I did, you can go ahead and save your project once you’re happy with the results from Step 4.

And that’s it!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and if you’re looking at your finished image and feeling like something is ‘missing’, don’t worry – the next tutorial I show you will be an effect that builds on this one.

Like this tutorial? Check out more here!

Writing, Writing Tips

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!

Writing, Writing Tips

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!

Writing, Writing Tips

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!

Writing, Writing Tips

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!

Writing, Writing Tips

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!

Writing, Writing Tips

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

Writing, Writing Tips

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!