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Hey, everyone! Howard Pinsky here back with another Photoshop tutorial! If you caught
my recent vlogs, you're probably aware that I'm now living in Los Angeles, where we just
got a ton of rain. Well, for most parts of the country it would just be considered a
bit of rain, but California definitely needed it.
To go along with the theme of lovely weather, let me show you a pretty simple way of adding
raindrops to your images, to make it seem as though you're looking through a wet window.
The girl in this photo looks like she's thoroughly enjoying being out in the rain, so we'll keep
her out there, while we keep ourselves dry behind a window. Let's begin by creating the
brush that will allow us to paint in the rain drops.
Grab your Brush Tool, shortcut B, and choose a standard hard brush from the Brush Picker,
with the size set to around 70 pixels. Depending on the size of your image, the size of your
brush may need to be adjusted to get the perfect raindrop size.
Now in order to customize the brush, let's open up the Brush panel, which can be found
under the Window menu.
In the Brush Tip Shape section, the only option you'll need to change is Spacing. To ensure
that the raindrops are not all clumped together, increase the spacing to 1000%.
Next, hop into Shape Dynamics, and set the Size Jitter to around 75%. This will randomize
the size of the raindrops as you're painting, so that the drop are not all the same size.
All the other values can remain at 0%.
Finally, turn on Scattering to allow the raindrops to scatter across the document when you're
painting them in. Make sure Both Axes is on, and set the Scatter value to 1000%. If you'd
like more drops as you're painting, you can turn up the Count a touch.
Perfect. The brush is now ready to go! Make sure to create a new layer so that you're
not painting directly on the background image. As you start brushing on your document, you'll
notice that the raindrops are scattering nicely around the image. Keep brushing until you're
happy with the amount of rain that will be present on the window. I'm going to fill the
image with a nice amount of drops.
Now you may be noticing, as the raindrops are being added, that they're all very round.
Of course, this isn't how they would look in real life. To randomize the drops even
more, let's add a few filters, but before doing so, you'll want to convert the layer
into a Smart Object. This will allow you to edit those filters even after they've been
added.
The first filter to be added, will be a Wave distortion, located under the Filter > Distort
menu. For the values, number of generators will be set to 2, the Wavelengths will be
10 and 200, and the Amplitudes will be 5 and 30. Everything else can stay as is.
When the Wave is applied, the once round raindrops will start to appear, well, not so round.
Finally, to rough up the edges a touch, a Ripple filter can be added, again, under the
Filter > Distort menu. For these settings, the amount will be -55%, and the Size set
to Large.
Perfect. So now that the shape of the raindrops is looking better, it's time to give it an
updated look, which will be done using Layer Styles. Double-click on the raindrop layer
to open up your Layer Styles, and the first setting you'll want to change is the Fill.
To allow the styles to be seen, and to allow the raindrops to be transparent, set the Fill
to 0%. Make sure you don't adjust the Opacity, as that will effect the Layer Styles, as well.
The first Style that will be added, will be a Bevel and Emboss to give our raindrops the
depth they need to start looking like raindrops. Start by increasing the Depth to 200%, and
the Size to 25 pixels. If you're working with larger or smaller raindrops, these values
may need tweaking.
Down below under Shading, turn off Use Global Light, then set the Angle and Altitude both
to 60. Of course, if you want the light to be coming from a different direction, you
can adjust the Angle accordingly.
Now to give our drops a bit of shine, set the Gloss Contour to Cone - Inverted, set
the Highlight Mode's Opacity to 100%, then change the Shadow Mode to Soft Light, with
an Opacity of 100%, as well.
The raindrops now have a bit of depth, but they're still a bit too dark. Let's add an
Inner Shadow, which will actually act as a highlight. Start by switching the Blend Mode
to Soft Light, with the color set to a pure white, and the Opacity set to 100%. Next,
turn off Global Light, and set the Angle to -120 degrees, the distance to 20 and the Size
to 25. Finally, set the Contour of the shadow to Cone.
That's starting to look a bit better. To finish off the Layer Styles, a Drop Shadow can be
added to give the drops a little bit more depth. Set the Blend Mode to Soft Light, the
color to black, and the Opacity to 100%. Next, turn off Global Light, set the Angle to 60
degrees, the distance to 2, and the size to 6.
Perfect! That will do it for the Layer Styles, but the overall image still doesn't look complete.
If you were to be focusing on raindrops on a window, the background would certainly be
blurred out. Let's make that happen! Select your background image from the Layers Panel,
and before you do anything, convert the layer into a Smart Object. Again, this will allow
you to edit any filters you may add along the way.
As we're looking to blur out the background, Gaussian Blur, found under the Filter > Blur
menu, is our best bet. The amount of blur is up to you, but for this example, 25 pixels
should work well. Right away, that brings the focus to the raindrops in the foreground,
but there's still more we can do.
With the background image still active, duplicate it. This can quickly be done with Command/Ctrl
+ J. You'll see why it's duplicated in a moment. On this layer, we're going to add a slight
frosted texture to the nonexistent window. Within the Filter Gallery, there's a nice
Glass distortion which will work well. Head up to the Filter menu, then open the Filter
Gallery.
Once launched, expand the Distort category, and choose Glass. For the settings, set the
Distortion at 15, Smoothness at 2, Texture to Frosted, and the Scaling to 100%. Of course,
you can tweak these settings to your liking.
Once the filter is applied, your window will now have a frosted look to it. So why was
this filter applied to a duplicated layer, you may be asking? Having the frosted texture
on a separate layer will allow you to mask out portions of it to make it look like the
moisture was rubbed away.
Instead of using the Layer Mask for the filters, you'll want to apply one to the overall layer.
Press the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of your Layers Panel.
Now, grab your Brush Tool, and find a nice rough brush, like the Round Bristle Brush.
Then with the foreground color set to Black, paint in the area that you want to hide. At
first, you may not be able to see through, which you can correct by adding an Adjustment
Layer right above the previous layer. For example, you can add an Exposure Adjustment
Layer, then increase the Gamma slider, which will create a nice contrast between the two
layers.
And that will just about do it! If you want to give your images a rainy look, you now
know how it can be done!
Thanks for watching everyone! If you enjoyed this tutorial, make sure to give it a thumbs
up, subscribe to receive future content, and if you want to support my work, head over
to Patreon.com/HowardPinsky to set up a small monthly contribution. Take care!