How To Use The Ripple Effect In Photoshop For Unique Visuals

How To Use The Ripple Effect In Photoshop For Unique Visuals – In this tutorial, you’ll learn a very clever technique for drawing water ripple effects from scratch in Photoshop. This tutorial is perfect for beginners, give it a try!

With this technique, you don’t need to use any other water ripple image as a texture to add to the original photo. Everything is done through clever use of gradients and filters in Photoshop.

How To Use The Ripple Effect In Photoshop For Unique Visuals

Note that you can click on the screenshot to expand the commands to make them easier to see.

Circular Ripples: Create A Water Effect In Photoshop — Medialoot

Sometimes you need to make ripples and apply it to water reflection. However, finding suitable images is difficult. With Photoshop you can add water ripples to any lake or still water photos and make it look realistic.

First we create the basis for reflection – a texture. For this I use a radial gradient. To make the gradient work more realistically, we use filters. Then create the surface and simulate the behavior as in nature.

After that we apply the texture to the surface of the water and try to make it realistic. Note that this task is created by performing a non-destructive workflow.

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Create Realistic Water Reflection With Ripples In Photoshop

Open the image you want to add water ripples to in Photoshop. File > Open or use the shortcut Cmd/Ctrl + O. Create a new layer (use the icon at the bottom of the Layers panel or use the shortcut Cmd/Ctrl + Opt/Alt + Shift + N). Take the Gradient Tool and insert it. First, change the preset by clicking on the gradient preview in the top bar. There can be any preset, we change it to produce colored noise.

In the dialog that appears, set Gradient Type: Noise. Press the “Random” button until you see a uniform and interesting gradient with a small number of other colors. If other colors interfere too much, try moving the white slider to the left for each channel, for example, red. The color doesn’t matter, the most important thing is that the stripes are interestingly arranged. Set the radial shape of the gradient.

Draw a gradient in the center of the work area so that the full circle is slightly shorter than the work area, without cutting off the edges. Take the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and, starting from the center, make the selection slightly smaller than the circle. Go to Select > Edit > Feather or use the keyboard shortcut Shift + F6.

Apply a feather radius command with a value of 20px on the selection to smooth the border. Duplicate the content to a new layer. I use the Duplicate command shortcut (Cmd / Ctrl + J) or copy / paste it into a new layer. You should get a circle with blurred edges on a transparent background.

How To Draw Water Ripples Effect In Photoshop

Now the resulting base should be transformed into realistic round waves like after the drop. For this we use filters. Go to Filter > Distort > ZigZag and in the window that appears, change the Style to Pond Ripples. Play with the settings to find the right format and scale for your image. I use the settings: Total: 70, Ridges: 10.

Then apply another filter to create the simulation of a shiny surface. Go to Filter > Filter Gallery > Plastic Wrap with appropriate settings. The settings I used in the image below.

Our wrinkles are ready. Now you have to place it or make a pattern in the place where you want to apply it. Use the Free Transform tool (Cmd/Ctrl + T or Edit>Free Transform) or Edit>Transform>Distort/Distort to distort the shape to match the perspective of the image you want to apply. I make lots of dots, spread them over the surface and overlap the layers as happens in nature. For faster duplication I use a little trick – hold Opt / Alt while in Move Tool (V) mode and drag and drop.

Now I duplicate this layer until I create an interesting shape that covers almost all of the water surface. Cross, overlap, resize and flip horizontally to create variation. Start large and develop the composition by adding smaller sizes.

Brand Moodboard: Ripple Effect

You can go back to a previously created workpiece and apply filters with other settings to get a different look with wrinkles. Repetitions are noticeable, remember.

Group all layers (Cmd/Ctrl + G) and duplicate it (Cmd/Ctrl + J). Now, for each layer, apply a black and white adjustment (Image > Adjustments > Black and White or Cmd / Ctrl + Opt / Alt + Shift + B).

Each layer should be white bordered with a black background and wrinkles. Play with the sliders representing the colors of the waves to make each layer more unique and different.

When everything is in place, merge all layers with a texture (Highlight layers > Cmd / Ctrl + E) and duplicate the resulting layer (Cmd / Ctrl + J). Hide the rest of the layers (click the eye icon next to the layer) so that the background is transparent.

Line Engraving Effect In Adobe Photoshop

Save it as a new .psd document (File > Save As or Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + S). This will shape the filter. Show the background layer and duplicate it (Cmd/Ctrl + J), hiding all other layers as well. Apply the Displace filter (Filter > Distort > Displace) using the image settings below. After clicking OK you will be asked to specify the format in a dialog box. Select the file you created. A slight distortion should appear on the spot. If you want to enhance the effect, redo the filter (Filter > Redo Last Filter/Distortion or Cmd/Ctrl + Opt/Alt + F).

After applying the filter, the edges of the document are distorted. To remove it, load the ripple selection from the top layer by holding Cmd/Ctrl and clicking on the layer thumbnail. While the selection is active, hold down Opt/Alt and click the “Add Layer Mask” icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, or go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide Selection.

It cleans everything except the ripples it creates. That’s it. Your wrinkles are ready. You can enhance them by using the blending modes of the original layer. For example, I change the blending mode of the black and white texture layer to “Light” and lower the opacity to 50%. This created a beautiful light on the waves that mimicked the reflection of light.

At each stage, the waves can be refined to make them more realistic. I leave it up to you to get creative. Water shines so brightly and reflects everything around it that it is transparent. While working with such visual effects, don’t forget about their properties in the real world.

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Don’t be afraid to go beyond software, style and genres. But, most importantly – do not hesitate to create and experiment! Thanks for your attention and good luck in your creative projects! Do you have anything to add or ask? Use the comment section below!

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Free Water Ripple Photoshop Brushes 2

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