PSD Tutorial: How To Photo Manipulate Frosty Ice & Concrete Textures
In this tutorial, I'll be elaborating on a Photo Manipulation by Holly Eldon. She entered our Winter Graphic Design Contest with this digital art example, and she thankfully let us demonstrate the tutorial here. We'll be showing you how to use frost and ice textures to overlay a concrete background, with items trapped underneath it; most notably someone's hand. In this example, the most clever technique is where a scanner is used to scan somebody else’s hand, which creates an effect where it seems the hand is pressed up against the ice. This chilling tutorial will bring you into the Christmas mood.
If you don't have Adobe Photoshop, or you would like to upgrade to the new CS5.5 Version, take a look at the Adobe Special Offers from the online Adobe Store. If you're new to Photoshop, we have some beginner tutorials and basic tips coming very soon for some of the lesser established designers.
If you don't have Adobe Photoshop, or you would like to upgrade to the new CS5.5 Version, take a look at the Adobe Special Offers from the online Adobe Store. If you're new to Photoshop, we have some beginner tutorials and basic tips coming very soon for some of the lesser established designers.
Download Photoshop (PSD) File
Download Hand Photo
Download Hand Bag Stock Photo
Download Concrete Road Texture
Download Cracked Ice Texture
Download Stock Hand Bag Items
Download Frosty Ice Texture Photoshop Brush
Photoshop Tutorial Step 1: Forming The Concrete & Ice Texture
1.1. Paste in the Concrete Road Texture and the 1st/2nd Cracked Ice Texture, then Scale all of them to document size.
1.2. Alter the Blending Mode of the Cracked Ice Texture's to Soft Light and reduce the Opacities of both to 60%.
1.3. Add a Layer » Layer Style » Inner Shadow with 250px Size and 50% Opacity to the Concrete Road Texture.
1.4. With Brightness/Contrast, make the Contrast +100 on the Cracked Ice Textures and +50 on the Concrete Road Texture.
1.5. Repeat the Contrast step on the Ice Textures only, and we should have something more dynamic.
1.6. Next, Create A New Layer above the Concrete Road Texture, and use one of the borders within the Photoshop Ice Brush set.
1.7. And then, use the other Photoshop Ice Brushes with a Blending Mode of Soft Light. Make sure the Ice is coloured white.
1.2. Alter the Blending Mode of the Cracked Ice Texture's to Soft Light and reduce the Opacities of both to 60%.
1.3. Add a Layer » Layer Style » Inner Shadow with 250px Size and 50% Opacity to the Concrete Road Texture.
1.4. With Brightness/Contrast, make the Contrast +100 on the Cracked Ice Textures and +50 on the Concrete Road Texture.
1.5. Repeat the Contrast step on the Ice Textures only, and we should have something more dynamic.
1.6. Next, Create A New Layer above the Concrete Road Texture, and use one of the borders within the Photoshop Ice Brush set.
1.7. And then, use the other Photoshop Ice Brushes with a Blending Mode of Soft Light. Make sure the Ice is coloured white.
Photoshop Tutorial Step 2: Manipulating The Hand Bag Stock Photo
2.1. Paste in (Ctrl + V) the Handbag Photo and use the Magic Wand Tool (W) to erase any whitespace.
2.2. Add a Layer » Layer Style » Inner Shadow with 75% Opacity, 0px Distance, 0% Choke and 10px Size.
2.3. Add a Layer » Layer Style » Drop Shadow with 75% Opacity, 20px Distance, 0% Spread and 30px Size.
2.4. Now Create A New Layer again, and use another Icy Frost Photoshop Brush with the Blending Mode at Soft Light.
2.5. And then after that, Create A Clipping Mask of the Ice over the Hand Bag Photo.
2.6. Duplicate (Ctrl + J) this layer and lower the Opacity to 50%.
2.2. Add a Layer » Layer Style » Inner Shadow with 75% Opacity, 0px Distance, 0% Choke and 10px Size.
2.3. Add a Layer » Layer Style » Drop Shadow with 75% Opacity, 20px Distance, 0% Spread and 30px Size.
2.4. Now Create A New Layer again, and use another Icy Frost Photoshop Brush with the Blending Mode at Soft Light.
2.5. And then after that, Create A Clipping Mask of the Ice over the Hand Bag Photo.
2.6. Duplicate (Ctrl + J) this layer and lower the Opacity to 50%.
Photoshop Tutorial Step 3: Manipulating The Cold-As-Ice Hand Photo
3.1. Paste in (Ctrl + V) the Hand Photo directly above the concrete layer in the document.
3.2. With the eraser tool, or the magic wand tool, remove any whitespace in the Hand Photo.
3.3. By using the Image » Adjustments » Brightness/Contrast effects, make the Contrast +50 on the Hand Photo.
3.4. And then with Color Balance (Ctrl + B), make the Color Levels -20, 10 & 10 respectively.
3.5. Make the Saturation -10, and duplicate the layer styles onto this layer, except make the distance on the Drop Shadow 10px.
3.6. Duplicate the ice texture you clip masked over the Hand Bag and do the same with the Hand Photo.
3.2. With the eraser tool, or the magic wand tool, remove any whitespace in the Hand Photo.
3.3. By using the Image » Adjustments » Brightness/Contrast effects, make the Contrast +50 on the Hand Photo.
3.4. And then with Color Balance (Ctrl + B), make the Color Levels -20, 10 & 10 respectively.
3.5. Make the Saturation -10, and duplicate the layer styles onto this layer, except make the distance on the Drop Shadow 10px.
3.6. Duplicate the ice texture you clip masked over the Hand Bag and do the same with the Hand Photo.
Photoshop Tutorial Step 4: Finalising The Iced-Up Design
4.1. In this section, we'll mainly be repeating the same steps, but with more items of Stock Photography.
4.2. Paste (Ctrl + V) in the other items and apply the same frosty ice effects to the newly added layers.
4.3. With Image » Adjustments, make the Brightness +50, Contrast -50, and the Saturation -40.
4.4. Now add the final layer styles and that's it, I think we're done. Try customizing it with different Stock Photos.
4.2. Paste (Ctrl + V) in the other items and apply the same frosty ice effects to the newly added layers.
4.3. With Image » Adjustments, make the Brightness +50, Contrast -50, and the Saturation -40.
4.4. Now add the final layer styles and that's it, I think we're done. Try customizing it with different Stock Photos.
