Ghosting An Image

Photoshop Effects: Ghosting An Image

 

n this Photoshop effects tutorial, we're going to look at a way to give a photo a more "ghostly" appearance.

I'm a fan of horror films, but I admit I'm a bit shallow in that I usually just watch them for the special effects. I'm usually sitting there thinking to myself, "I wonder how they did that". So while playing around in Photoshop one night, I came up with this little technique for taking a living, breathing person and making them appear more like a ghost, which is why I called it"ghosting an image". It's a simple effect with only a few steps involved and they're easy to do.
Of course, as with most photo effects, it helps if you start with the right type of image. A photo of your kids playing at the beach on a summer afternoon may not be the best choice. Then again, you never know till you try it.

Here's the photo I'll be starting with:

The original image.

And here's the "ghosting" effect we're after:

The final effect.

Not what you're looking for? Check out our other Photoshop Effects tutorials!

Step 5: Add A Layer Mask To The "Motion Blur" Layer

Our image already looks a little spooky with the motion blur applied, but now we're going to bring back some of her face, and we're going to do that using a layer mask. With the "motion blur" layer selected, click on the "Add Layer Mask" icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Click on the "Add Layer Mask" icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

This adds a layer mask to the "motion blur" layer:

The layer mask is now added.

Step 6: Paint With Black On The Layer Mask To Reveal Some Of The Face

Grab your Brush tool from the Tools palette, or press B on your keyboard to quickly select it. Then press D on your keyboard to make sure black is selected as your foreground color (Note: If your layer mask was already selected when you pressed "D", your foreground color will actually become white, since white is the default foreground color for a layer mask. If that's the case, simply press X to swap the foreground and background colors, which will set your foreground color to black). Go up to the Options Bar at the top of the screen and lower the opacity of your brush to around 10%:

Lower the opacity of the brush to 10% in the Options Bar.

This will allow you to paint the face back in gradually. Click on the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette to select it if it's not already selected (it will have a highlight border around it if it's selected), and then with a large, soft-edged brush and black as your foreground color, paint over the middle area of the face in short, gradual strokes to bring back some of the eyes, nose and mouth, leaving the rest blurred out. Be sure to stay well within the boundaries of the face so everything blurs out nicely from the center:

The image after masking away some of the blurring effect.

Step 7: Merge All Of The Layers Onto A New Layer

We're going to merge all three layers onto a new layer at this point, and we can do that with the keyboard shortcut Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E (Win) / Shift+Command+Option+E (Mac), which takes all three layers and merges them onto a brand new layer at the top of the Layers palette. Double-click on the name of the layer and rename it to merged:

Merge all three layers onto a new layer at the top of the Layers palette and rename it "merged".

Step 8: Apply The "Diffuse Glow" Filter To The Merged Layer

With the new "merged" layer selected, go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, select Distort, and then select Diffuse Glow. This brings up Photoshop's Filter Gallery (it doesn't actually say Filter Gallery anywhere at the moment but it's the Filter Gallery) set to the Diffuse Glow filter options. You may have to play around with the three options a little depending on the image you're using, but for my image, I've set Graininess to 3, Glow Amount to 10, and Clear Amount also to 10 as circled below:

Photoshop's Filter Gallery set to the "Diffuse Glow" filter options.

Here's my image after applying the "Diffuse Glow" filter:

The image after applying the "Diffuse Glow" filter.

Step 9: Add A Solid Color Fill Layer

All that's left to do now is add a little color, so with the "merged" layer still selected, click on the New Fill Or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Click the New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

Select Solid Color from the top of the list:

Select "Solid Color" from the list.

This will bring up Photoshop's Color Picker. I'm going to choose a green color:

Photoshop's Color Picker.

Click OK once you've chosen a color to exit out of the Color Picker. You're image will now be filled entirely with the solid color, so we'll fix that next.

Step 10: Change The Blend Mode Of The Fill Layer To "Color" And Lower The Opacity

With the Solid Color fill layer selected, go up to the layer blend mode options in the top left of the Layers palette, click on the down-pointing arrow beside the word "Normal" and change the blend mode to Color. This will colorize the image with the color you've chosen (green in my case). The color will most likely be too intense though, so move over to the right to the Opacity option at the top of the Layers palette and lower the opacity to reduce the intensity. I've lowered mine considerably, all the way down to 11% for just a hint of color:

Change the blend mode of the Solid Color fill layer to "Color" and lower the opacity.

And we're done! Here's the original image once again for comparison:
And here is the final "ghosting" effect:

The final result.

 

 

 

 

Ghosting An Image

Photoshop Effects: Ghosting An Image

 

n this Photoshop effects tutorial, we're going to look at a way to give a photo a more "ghostly" appearance.

I'm a fan of horror films, but I admit I'm a bit shallow in that I usually just watch them for the special effects. I'm usually sitting there thinking to myself, "I wonder how they did that". So while playing around in Photoshop one night, I came up with this little technique for taking a living, breathing person and making them appear more like a ghost, which is why I called it"ghosting an image". It's a simple effect with only a few steps involved and they're easy to do.
Of course, as with most photo effects, it helps if you start with the right type of image. A photo of your kids playing at the beach on a summer afternoon may not be the best choice. Then again, you never know till you try it.

Here's the photo I'll be starting with:

The original image.

And here's the "ghosting" effect we're after:

The final effect.

Not what you're looking for? Check out our other Photoshop Effects tutorials!

Step 5: Add A Layer Mask To The "Motion Blur" Layer

Our image already looks a little spooky with the motion blur applied, but now we're going to bring back some of her face, and we're going to do that using a layer mask. With the "motion blur" layer selected, click on the "Add Layer Mask" icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Click on the "Add Layer Mask" icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

This adds a layer mask to the "motion blur" layer:

The layer mask is now added.

Step 6: Paint With Black On The Layer Mask To Reveal Some Of The Face

Grab your Brush tool from the Tools palette, or press B on your keyboard to quickly select it. Then press D on your keyboard to make sure black is selected as your foreground color (Note: If your layer mask was already selected when you pressed "D", your foreground color will actually become white, since white is the default foreground color for a layer mask. If that's the case, simply press X to swap the foreground and background colors, which will set your foreground color to black). Go up to the Options Bar at the top of the screen and lower the opacity of your brush to around 10%:

Lower the opacity of the brush to 10% in the Options Bar.

This will allow you to paint the face back in gradually. Click on the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette to select it if it's not already selected (it will have a highlight border around it if it's selected), and then with a large, soft-edged brush and black as your foreground color, paint over the middle area of the face in short, gradual strokes to bring back some of the eyes, nose and mouth, leaving the rest blurred out. Be sure to stay well within the boundaries of the face so everything blurs out nicely from the center:

The image after masking away some of the blurring effect.

Step 7: Merge All Of The Layers Onto A New Layer

We're going to merge all three layers onto a new layer at this point, and we can do that with the keyboard shortcut Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E (Win) / Shift+Command+Option+E (Mac), which takes all three layers and merges them onto a brand new layer at the top of the Layers palette. Double-click on the name of the layer and rename it to merged:

Merge all three layers onto a new layer at the top of the Layers palette and rename it "merged".

Step 8: Apply The "Diffuse Glow" Filter To The Merged Layer

With the new "merged" layer selected, go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, select Distort, and then select Diffuse Glow. This brings up Photoshop's Filter Gallery (it doesn't actually say Filter Gallery anywhere at the moment but it's the Filter Gallery) set to the Diffuse Glow filter options. You may have to play around with the three options a little depending on the image you're using, but for my image, I've set Graininess to 3, Glow Amount to 10, and Clear Amount also to 10 as circled below:

Photoshop's Filter Gallery set to the "Diffuse Glow" filter options.

Here's my image after applying the "Diffuse Glow" filter:

The image after applying the "Diffuse Glow" filter.

Step 9: Add A Solid Color Fill Layer

All that's left to do now is add a little color, so with the "merged" layer still selected, click on the New Fill Or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Click the New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

Select Solid Color from the top of the list:

Select "Solid Color" from the list.

This will bring up Photoshop's Color Picker. I'm going to choose a green color:

Photoshop's Color Picker.

Click OK once you've chosen a color to exit out of the Color Picker. You're image will now be filled entirely with the solid color, so we'll fix that next.

Step 10: Change The Blend Mode Of The Fill Layer To "Color" And Lower The Opacity

With the Solid Color fill layer selected, go up to the layer blend mode options in the top left of the Layers palette, click on the down-pointing arrow beside the word "Normal" and change the blend mode to Color. This will colorize the image with the color you've chosen (green in my case). The color will most likely be too intense though, so move over to the right to the Opacity option at the top of the Layers palette and lower the opacity to reduce the intensity. I've lowered mine considerably, all the way down to 11% for just a hint of color:

Change the blend mode of the Solid Color fill layer to "Color" and lower the opacity.

And we're done! Here's the original image once again for comparison:
And here is the final "ghosting" effect:

The final result.

 

 

 

 

Watercolor Painting Effect

Easy Watercolor Painting Effect In Photoshop

In this Photoshop effects tutorial, we're going to learn how to easily make a photo look more like a watercolor painting. This photo effect works best on images where maintaining rich colors and strong contrast is more important than keeping any fine details, since you'll be losing a lot of detail with this effect.
Creating the effect is as simple as duplicating some layers, applying a few filters, and using a few different layer blend modes, and the whole thing takes only a couple of minutes from start to finish.

Any recent version of Photoshop will work just fine.

Here's the image I'll be using for this Photoshop tutorial:

The original photo.

And here's how it will look after applying our watercolor painting effect:

The final watercolor painting effect.

Not what you're looking for? Check out our other Photoshop Effects tutorials!

Let's get started!

Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer Three Times

With the image newly opened in Photoshop, if we look in our Layers palette, we can see that we currently have one layer, the Background layer, which contains our image:

The Layers palette in Photoshop showing the image on the Background layer.

We need to create three copies of the Background layer, so use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac) three times to duplicate the Background layer three times. If we look again in our Layers palette, we can see that we now have four layers, with the original Background layer on the bottom and three copies above it:

Press "Ctrl+J" (Win) / "Command+J" (Mac) three times to duplicate the Background layer three times.

Step 2: Turn Off The Top Two Layers

On the far left of each layer in the Layers palette, you'll see a small eyeball icon. This is the Layer Visibility icon, and it determines whether or not the layer is currently visible in the Photoshop document. When the eyeball icon is visible, it means the layer itself is visible. Click on the icon for the top two layers in the Layers palette to temporarily hide them from view inside the document. When you click on the icon, it disappears, letting you know that the layer is no longer visible:

Hide the top two layers in the document by clicking on their Layer Visibility (eyeball) icons. The icons disappear when clicked on.

Step 3: Select "Layer 1"

With the top two layers temporarily hidden from view, click on "Layer 1" in the Layers palette to select it. You'll know which layer is selected because the currently selected layer is highlighted in blue:

Step 9: Turn On The Top Layer And Select It

Just as we did with "Layer 1 copy" a moment ago, click inside the empty square where the eyeball icon used to be on the top layer in the Layers palette ("Layer 1 copy 2") to turn the layer back on and make it visible once again inside the document. Then click anywhere else on the layer to select it so it's highlighted in blue:

Turn the top layer back on by clicking on its Layer Visibility icon in the Layers palette, then click anywhere else to select the layer.

Step 10: Apply The "Median" Filter

With the top layer selected and visible again inside the document, go back up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, this time choose Noise, and then choose Median. The Median filter will remove even more detail from the image, and the nice thing about it is that it does so without blurring the image so edges remain well defined. When the Median Filter's dialog box appears, set the Radius value at the bottom to 12 pixels:

Go to Filter > Noise > Median and set the "Radius" value to "12 pixels".

Click OK when you're done to apply the filter and exit out of the dialog box.

Step 11: Change The Blend Mode Of The Top Layer To "Soft Light"

To complete the effect, with the top layer still selected, go up to the Blend Mode options in the top left of the Layers palette, click again on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word "Normal", and change the layer's blend mode to Soft Light:

Change the blend mode of the top layer to "Soft Light" to complete the effect.

Once you've changed the blend mode to "Soft Light", you're done!
Here's my original image once again for comparison:

The original image once again.

And here, after applying the Median filter to the top layer and changing its blend mode to "Soft Light", is my final "watercolor painting" effect:

The final watercolor painting result.

 

Watercolor Painting Effect

Easy Watercolor Painting Effect In Photoshop

In this Photoshop effects tutorial, we're going to learn how to easily make a photo look more like a watercolor painting. This photo effect works best on images where maintaining rich colors and strong contrast is more important than keeping any fine details, since you'll be losing a lot of detail with this effect.
Creating the effect is as simple as duplicating some layers, applying a few filters, and using a few different layer blend modes, and the whole thing takes only a couple of minutes from start to finish.

Any recent version of Photoshop will work just fine.

Here's the image I'll be using for this Photoshop tutorial:

The original photo.

And here's how it will look after applying our watercolor painting effect:

The final watercolor painting effect.

Not what you're looking for? Check out our other Photoshop Effects tutorials!

Let's get started!

Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer Three Times

With the image newly opened in Photoshop, if we look in our Layers palette, we can see that we currently have one layer, the Background layer, which contains our image:

The Layers palette in Photoshop showing the image on the Background layer.

We need to create three copies of the Background layer, so use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac) three times to duplicate the Background layer three times. If we look again in our Layers palette, we can see that we now have four layers, with the original Background layer on the bottom and three copies above it:

Press "Ctrl+J" (Win) / "Command+J" (Mac) three times to duplicate the Background layer three times.

Step 2: Turn Off The Top Two Layers

On the far left of each layer in the Layers palette, you'll see a small eyeball icon. This is the Layer Visibility icon, and it determines whether or not the layer is currently visible in the Photoshop document. When the eyeball icon is visible, it means the layer itself is visible. Click on the icon for the top two layers in the Layers palette to temporarily hide them from view inside the document. When you click on the icon, it disappears, letting you know that the layer is no longer visible:

Hide the top two layers in the document by clicking on their Layer Visibility (eyeball) icons. The icons disappear when clicked on.

Step 3: Select "Layer 1"

With the top two layers temporarily hidden from view, click on "Layer 1" in the Layers palette to select it. You'll know which layer is selected because the currently selected layer is highlighted in blue:

Step 9: Turn On The Top Layer And Select It

Just as we did with "Layer 1 copy" a moment ago, click inside the empty square where the eyeball icon used to be on the top layer in the Layers palette ("Layer 1 copy 2") to turn the layer back on and make it visible once again inside the document. Then click anywhere else on the layer to select it so it's highlighted in blue:

Turn the top layer back on by clicking on its Layer Visibility icon in the Layers palette, then click anywhere else to select the layer.

Step 10: Apply The "Median" Filter

With the top layer selected and visible again inside the document, go back up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, this time choose Noise, and then choose Median. The Median filter will remove even more detail from the image, and the nice thing about it is that it does so without blurring the image so edges remain well defined. When the Median Filter's dialog box appears, set the Radius value at the bottom to 12 pixels:

Go to Filter > Noise > Median and set the "Radius" value to "12 pixels".

Click OK when you're done to apply the filter and exit out of the dialog box.

Step 11: Change The Blend Mode Of The Top Layer To "Soft Light"

To complete the effect, with the top layer still selected, go up to the Blend Mode options in the top left of the Layers palette, click again on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word "Normal", and change the layer's blend mode to Soft Light:

Change the blend mode of the top layer to "Soft Light" to complete the effect.

Once you've changed the blend mode to "Soft Light", you're done!
Here's my original image once again for comparison:

The original image once again.

And here, after applying the Median filter to the top layer and changing its blend mode to "Soft Light", is my final "watercolor painting" effect:

The final watercolor painting result.