Create a Silky and Smooth Waterfall in Photoshop

I know that pain of not slowing down the shutter speed to capture the moving waterfall. I went to a national park to capture a waterfall and forgot to slow down the shutter speed. I felt so bad, but I am glad that I have Photoshop. I can create a silky and smooth waterfall in Photoshop.

I am going to use a filter and a selection tool to turn a regular waterfall into a silky and smooth waterfall.

Let’s start the tutorial. Before that, let me show you the before and after photo.

After

Final.jpg

Before

Initial.jpg

Let’s begin the tutorial

Step 1 – Select the waterfall roughly

Grab the Polygonal Lasso tool from the tool panel or press Shift + L again and again until it activates.

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Select the waterfall roughly. You don’t need to be accurate.

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Duplicate the layer by pressing Cmd + J / Ctrl + J. This will create a new layer of the waterfall.

Press F7 to open Layer Panel to check the newly created layer.

3.jpg

Step 2 – Blur the Waterfall in Photoshop

Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur.

Choose the Angle and Distance this way.

  • Angle – This is along with the flow of the water. In my case, water is flowing at a 90 degree from the ground. So, I chose 90 degree
  • Distance – This sets the amount of motion blur. More the value, the more the blur. In my case, 179 pixels in giving the correct amount of blur.

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Press OK once done.

Press Cmd + D / Ctrl + D to deselect.

Step 3 – Mask the unwanted parts

Motion blur has created some unwanted area that is filled with water. Have a look at the below image where I have highlighted three areas which look photoshopped. We’re going to

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We’re going to hide these parts using a layer mask.

Press F7 if the layer panel is not opened. You can also open the layer panel from Window > Layers.

Click on the Add Layer Mask to add a layer mask.

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Make black as your foreground color.

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Grab the Brush tool from the tool panel or press Shift + B again and again until it activates.

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Make the Hardness 0%. Choose the size you’re comfortable with. I am going with 100 pixels.

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Brush the area that I highlighted with the blue rectangles.

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Step 4 – Warp the waterfall

Time to warp the waterfall.

Activate the waterfall layer by clicking on it.

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Press Cmd + T / Ctrl + T to activate the Free Transform Tool. After that, click on the below button to activate the warp mode.

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Look at the below GIF to watch how to transform a waterfall.

13.gif

This is how my final waterfall looks.

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This is all, guys.

Here’s the final photo.

Final

Quick Tip: Copy Layer Styles in Photoshop

Welcome to this quick tip where I’ll be showing you how to copy layer styles in Photoshop. Unlike my Photoshop tutorials, this is going to be a short one.

Before we begin, let’s understand what is layer style. I know that some of my readers are very new to Photoshop.

What is Layer Style in Photoshop

A layer style is one or more effects applied to a layer or layer group. You can apply one of the preset styles provided with Photoshop or create a custom style using the Layer Style dialog box. The layer effects icon  appears to the right of the layer’s name in the Layers panel. You can expand the style in the Layers panel to view or edit the effects that compose the style.

-Adobe

Photoshop is referring to this button with  icon.

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Copy Single Layer Style

I have made a Photoshop document for this tutorial. I colored my background with off-orange color, added two identical texts. One of them has a layer style and another has not.

In the below screenshot, I highlighted the layers styles with a blue rectangle. Top Text layer has layer styles and Bottom Text layer has not.

2.jpg

I am going to copy the one layer style which would be Bevel and Emboss from the Top Text.

To do this, hold down Opt/Alt and drag the Bevel and Emboss layer style to the Bottom Text.

Your screen would look like this while dragging.

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Release the Opt/Alt after that.

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Here’s a GIF for you. Make sure that you have held down the Alt/Opt key.

5
Make sure that you have held down the Opt/Alt key

Copy Multiple Layer Styles

There’s no shortcut for this. You need to copy each layer style one by one using the way which I have you shown you above.

Copy All Layer Styles

This is the easiest one. Right click on the layer of which layer styles you want to copy. Click on “Copy Layer Styles”.

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Now, right click on the layer on which you want to paste this.

7.jpg

Here you go.

8.jpg

Copy Layer Styles to a Different Photo

We have been copying and pasting the layer styles in the same photo. What if you need to copy one layer style from one photo and add it to another.

You can also do this. But you can only do this by copying all layer styles and pasting them on another image. You cannot drag and drop a layer style.

Right click on the layer of which layer styles you want to copy. Click on “Copy Layer Styles”.

6.jpg

Now, right click on the layer on which you want to paste this.

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This is all, guys.

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