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Above, you see a “before” and “after” picture demonstrating a realistic water reflection being added into a normal photo of a tree. The following step-by-step tutorial will teach you how to easily add a realistic water reflection. You can do this to any photograph, but it works best when there is not water in it to begin with. I learned how to do this amazing effect from the tutorial that you can find on this website.
Realistic water reflection tutorial:
1.) Open up the photo you will be using in Photoshop
2.) Duplicate the Background Layer by right-clicking on the Background Layer in the layer palette
3.) Add more space to the bottom of the photo:
1. Go to the image menu and choose canvas size
2. Enter 100 for height and set width to 0 (can set them however you want)
3. Set measurement to percent
4. Check the relative option box
5. Click inside the square in the middle of the top row
6. Click OK
4.) Flip the top layer vertically:
1. Select Layer 1
2. Go to the edit menu and choose transform then flip vertical
5.) Drag the flipped image to the bottom of the document:
1. Select the move tool, click inside the document, and drag the flipped image down to bottom until it’s lined up with the bottom of the photo above it (hold down “shift” while dragging)
6.) Add a new blank layer by clicking on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette
7.) Fill in the new layer with white:
1. Press “D” on your keyboard then Ctrl + Backspace
8.) Apply the Halftone Pattern filter to create black and white horizontal lines:
1. Click the filter menu, select sketch, and then halftone pattern
2. Set the pattern type option to line
3. Set contrast to 50, size to 7, or whatever you want
4. Click OK
9.) Apply the Gaussian Blur filter to the lines:
1. Go to the Filter menu, select blur, and then Gaussian blur
2. Set radius to 4 pixels, or whatever you like
3. Click OK
10.) Duplicate the Lines Layer as a new document:
1. Select the Lines Layer and right-click to select duplicate layer
2. Set document type to new
3. Click OK
11.) Save the new document and close out of it:
1. Select yes when you are asked to save it and save it as water-ripples as a Photoshop PSD file
12.) Delete the Lines Layer:
1. Click on the Lines Layer and drag it into the trashcan at the bottom of the layers palette
13.) Merge two layers onto a new layer:
1. Select Layer 1 and push Shift + Ctrl + Alt + E
14.) Use the displace filter to create water ripples:
1. Go to the filter menu then distort and choose displace
2. Set the horizontal scale option to 4 and the vertical scale to 0
3. Make sure the stretch to fit and repeat edge pixels boxes are checked
4. Click OK and open your water-ripples PSD file
15.) Hide the ripples on top with a layer mask:
1. Push Ctrl + Click on Layer 1 to place a selection around the flipped image
2. Select Layer 2 and click on the layer mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette
16.) Apply the Gaussian blur filter to the layer mask:
1. Click on the layer mask thumbnail in the layers palette and select mask
2. Go to the filter menu and select blur and then Gaussian blur
3. Click OK
17.) Colorize the water with a hue/saturation adjustment layer:
1. Push the Alt key, then the new adjustment layer icon in the layers palette and then hue/saturation
2. Select “use previous layer to create clipping mask” box
3. Click OK
` 4. Select the colorize box on the hue/saturation options
5. Set the Hue to 183, saturation to 26 and lightness to -17, depending on what you want
6. Click OK
18.) Lower the opacity of the hue/saturation layer:
1. Set the opacity option in the top right-hand corner of the layers palette to 57%, or whatever you want
19.) Flatten image:
1. Go to the layer menu and select flatten image
20.) Save your flattened image as a JPEG file
1. Go to the file menu and select save as and set the document type as JPEG
21.) Close the image
