How to Create Fresh & Awesome Dew Effect In Photoshop

Today we are going to learn how to make controllable dew effect in Photoshop. The effect works on text as well as pixels. It can help you get that water like transparency effect quickly.

So lets dig in and see how its done.

What are we making

We are going to start with a simple apple image that you can see here. We going to cut it out and add the dew effect over the apple to get final result that you  see below.

Final Result

Click to Enlarge

Getting the background right

We starting with a canvas size of 1500 x 1300 pixels. Fill it with a green with RGB values R:89, G:121, B:35. You should get a dull green color. Add a radial gradient effect to it. Set Blend Mode to Multiply set Opacity to 35%, check the Reverse box and set its Scale value to 147%. You should get something like below.

Add the Apple

Now lets add the apple to it. We have already cut the apple and removed the white background, so all we have to do is simply copy paste it above the background and scale it proportionally so that it fits in. It will look something like below.

Create a new layer and add a little shadow to the apple with a softbrush and move the layer below the apple layer. So now the apple looks grounded.

Now create a new layer, take a big size brush and set its color to white and click on the apple once. You should have something like below.

Now add this new layer to a group and move the entire group folder below the apple layer.

Set the groups Blending Mode to Color Dodge and Opacity to 60%. You will get a nicely back lit apple like this.

Add a bit mode dimension to the apple we add in a little inner glow to it. The settings are as below.

To make things more interesting & lively we are going to add a little more contrast to the entire composition. We do that with a Curve Adjustment layer.

Create a curve like above and you should have a nice high contrast image as below

So now that we done with the base of our composition its time to do the real thing, The Dew Effect.

The Text Effect

First we simply write the text Fresh scale it to proper size and rotate it to30 degrees. Font we are using is Berlin Sans FB Demi, you can find it in the source files zip. You should have something like below.

Then we wrap transform the text and give it a Bulge transform & Bend value 13.5. This makes the text look like wrapping the apple a bit. Wrap transform Button is located at top right in Photoshop CS4.

Next we will make the text layer transparent by making its Fill opacity 0. Remember that Fill opacity of a layer makes only the layer transparent but layer styles still remain visible & the Opacity setting above Fill affects both layer and its layer styles.

Now we add some Bevel and Emboss to the text layer with settings below. Take a note that we are using a custom curve as well in those settings.

Adjust the settings till you get the right results. The final text layer should look something like below.

After that we add some inner and outer glow to it to mimic refracted light and shadow on the text.

To finish we add just a small shadow to it to give it a bit more dimension. And thats is we are done with the text effect.

Adding the Dew

For the dew create a new layer. Now take a hard brush of about 30-50 pixel size depending on how bigger drops you want and change its settings as seen below.

Now simple move the brush over the apple you should get some scattered brush dots on as below. It doesnt have to be exact just random dots as you wish.

Hide the text layer for time being. Now using the wrap transform tool wrap the dots as is they are on the apple surface. At the end you will have something like below.

Now to remove the dots outside the apple simply Crtl + Click the apple layer to make a selection.

Then simply add a Layer Mask to the dots layer. You should get something like below

We are almost done, now simply copy the text layer styles and apply it to the dots layer. We have changed inner glow settings a bit as below.

Now turn on the text layer and remove the dots overlapping the text and you should have your dew and letters ready.

Download Source PSD

Final Words

So today we learned a neat little trick to quickly mimic dew in Photoshop. Let us know how you liked it. Also let us know what else you would like to learn. Feel free to post your queries & suggestions using the comment form below.