How To Do The Underwater Effect: Photoshop Tutorial

One of the many uses of Photoshop is composition, or creating a picture from scratch. In this tutorial we will create an underwater environment that can be used on just about any kind of print advertising or website.

Some of the tools we will use include:
• Plastic wrap
• Brushes
• Gradients
• Lighting effects

1. Start with a blank image that is 400 pixels by 400 pixels. Go to File -> New or press Ctrl + N.

2. Grab your Gradient Tool. Make your colors light blue and dark blue. Use a Linear Gradient and starting from the top, drag your mouse to the bottom of the canvas and let go.

3. Create a new layer using the “Create New Layer” button. Grab the Selector Tool and select the entire canvas.

4. Click the “Default Foreground and Background Colors” or press Ctrl D. Using the Paint Bucket Tool, fill the new layer.

5. Go to Filter -> Render -> Clouds

6. Go to Filter -> Artistic -> Plastic Wrap. Use the default settings or feel free to experiment.

7. Go to Edit -> Transform -> Scale. Move the bottom of the selection about 90% of the way to the top. It should look like you squished the image.

8. Grab you Eraser Tool and adjust your settings as we have them below. With your Eraser about half way on the bottom portion of your layer, just drag along in a straight line. Holding down the Shift key will force your Eraser to move in straight lines. You may have to go over the layer again to remove the line between the layers. Just back the Opacity to around 25%.

9. Go to Filter -> Render -> Lighting Effects

10. Use the following settings, the most important of which is to use the Omni setting.

11. Set the layer fill to 50% and change the layer type to Linear Dodge:

12. Right-click the layer and select “Duplicate Layer”

13. On your new layer copy, go to Edit -> Transform -> Flip Vertical.

14. Move the layer to the bottom of the screen with your Mover Tool. Again, hold down the Shift key to make sure that you get the layer lined up properly.

15. Change the layer type to Color Dodge and the Fill to 30%.

16. Last step! Grab your Brush Tool, adjust the settings as seen below, and just run your mouse right down the middle.

Good luck!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 4:55 am and is filed under Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.