Friday 3 December 2010

Making Snow in Photoshop

I thought it time I did another tutorial and since we have snow over here in the UK I thought we could make it snow in Photoshop.
So lets go from this.

To this.

Ok first open the image you want to use and create a new layer like so.

Next go to Edit-Fill once you have clicked on Fill it will open this box.

Make sure Black is selected then Ok. You should have a completely Black layer.
Next go to Filter-Noise-Add Noise (as below)

A box will openset the amount as shown and make sure Gaussian is selected the OK.

You should end up with something like this.

Next go to Filter-Blur-Blur more.

Now on the top tool bar go to  Image-Adjustments-levels

When the box opens set amounts as shown then press OK

Now go to the Layers pallet bottom right and change drop down to Screen as shown below.

Now you see snow but we have not finished yet, it's not very realistic is it?
Go to Filter-Blur-Motion Blur

and when the box opens set these amounts. It gives it some movement.

Making Sure that Layer 1 is selected(showing blue) in the layers pallet go to Layer-Duplicate Layer on the top toolbar.

Now you have twice as much snow, but we don't want them all the same size cos snow isn't like that.
So go to 
Edit-Transform-Rotate 180 degrees.

Next go to Filter-Pixelate- Crystallize.

Again a box will open set the cell size to 15 as shown( nice big snow flakes) press Ok

Go to Filter-Blur-Motion Blur as before only set the distance to 16 instead of 8.

Nearly there now.
Go to Layer-Merge Down this will make both snow layers into one layer.

Duplicate Layer 1 again this will brighten the snow you have created.
This may look slightly over the top so lower the opacity in the layers pallet until you have the desired effect.

Finally when you happy flatten layers and your done.

I hope you enjoy trying this and that you like the effect. It takes a while to do but the effect is quite realistic. 





16 comments:

Unknown said...

Cool effect. Thanks for the lesson. Will be giving it a try next time it snows here and we have white on the ground!

S. Etole said...

Thank you for going to all this work to show us how to do this.

Prettypics123 said...

Thank you for that!

Montanagirl said...

That's pretty cool and "snowy" !! There's no end to what one can do in Photoshop.

MadSnapper said...

WOW on the header! make that double wow
thanks for the lesson, this is the only way to make it snow here in south florida. it does really look like it is snowing

Daliana Pacuraru said...

Wow, so interesting...Thank you!
I will use it even if here it will start snowing tonight! ha ha
best regards from Romania!
I wish you a great Sunday!

Chris said...

You are much more better than me to use photoshop. Thanks for the lesson!

Elaine said...

You've created a lovely snowstorm! We can count on snow being on the ground for five months out of the year here and I have lots of opportunity to get snowstorm photos, so I will probably stick with the easy way and wait for a snowy day. You just never know though, and I will file this away. Thanks for lesson!

Unknown said...

This looks like fun, and I love the effect on your photo! Can't wait to try it; thanks for sharing!

What Karen Sees said...

What a great tutorial! Thanks so much!!!!

Genie -- Paris and Beyond said...

Great effect, and I have bookmarked this to try... The snow in Paris this week was just what you were having (on your previous post). I'll have to try to add the "falling snow" to some of my shots.

Bises,
Genie

T. Becque said...

If I did that no one would believe it were true (living in the desert where it never snows)! But thank you. I do like your tutorials.

Unknown said...

Welcome back Kev, this is a good tutorial, i will try this one day.

i've been laying low for awhile, it is just too busy at work at the moment, maybe next year will be better.

Happy Christmas in advance.

btw, very cool banner.

Mersad said...

This is a really great method. I'll just have to find the right image to use it on.

Amelia & Mihai-Stefan CHIRCA said...

Very useful tutorials! Even that I have not Photoshop :( and in this special case I like very much the first picture ;)

Scott Law said...

Wow!!! That is awesome. I enlarged your photo and that snow is VERY authentic looking. Thank you so much for this tutorial. I will be using it!