Wet Look with Photoshop 7 (also Photoshop CS 2)

on Thursday 27 June 2013


This tutorial is to brighten highlights (i.e. lighter areas) and the darken dark portions of an image. You can give what may be called a 'wet look' to an image. You will also learn about some of the Tools in Photoshop in course of this tutorial.

Step 1 : This is an image of Pamela Anderson to which I will give the 'wet look'.



Step 2 : Click the Channels palette. It's location is marked with the red arrow.



Step 3 : The channels - RGB, Red Green and Blue can now be seen.

Step 4 : The Blue Layer has the maximum amount of contrast. Click each of the channels in turn of an image to find which has the maximum contrast. Here Blue has the maximum contrast. Drag the Blue channel to the New Layer icon. This will duplicate the Blue channel.


Step 5 : The Blue channel has been duplicated. You can see that the image has turned to Black and White. Actually the Blue channel only is being displayed.


Step 6 : Now open the Curves dialogue box. To do this go to Image>Adjustments>Curves


Step 7 : This dialogue box opens. Notice the grid and the diagonal line across it. It will be used for increasing or decreasing contrast.


Step 8 : Now drag the right corner of the diagonal line to the left and the left corner to the right as shown. See the change in the image behind. It is dramatic.


Step 9 : Now in the Channels pallete click the RGB channel. This will restore the color image.


Step 10 : Click back on Layers. The image will be seen in color again.


Step 11 : Now the Background has to be duplicated. Drag it down to the New Layer Icon (the icon like a folded paper). This will create the 'Background copy' as shown above.


Step 12 : Now go to Select>all. This will create a line of 'marching ants' all along the edge of the image. That means all of the image has been selected.



Step 13 : Now click the button shown (the half black, half white button.) From the pop up window select Curves.


Step 14 : In the Curves dialogue which opens drag the diagonal upwards. This will cause the image to brighten.


Step 15 : Look at the Layer/Channel/Path palette. The Curves 1 indicates the adjustment you just made with the Curves Tool. It is a Layer Mask. Remember here the image has been lightened.

Now press CTRL+I on your keyboard. This will invert it i.e. here the lightening of the image will be hidden and the original image will be visible again. This is an important step.


Step 16 : Now go again to 'Background copy' layer. Click it to activate it. Now repeat Steps 13 i.e. bring up the Curves pallete. But this time drag the diagonal downwards. This will darken the image. See the image in the background. Also notice that another Layer Mask has been formed. (See the White arrow)

Now one more Press CTRL+I to invert the image.


Step 17 : If you compare the image above to the one at the top of this tutorial there is no difference between the two. This is because all the effects given have been hidden. The inversion of the image in Steps 15 and 16 have hidden all the changes.


Step 18 : Let us have a look at the Layers/Channels/Paths. This is how it now looks like. There is the 'Background' then the 'Background Copy'. Above it are the two Layer Masks created with Curves. One has lightened the image, the other has darkened the image.


Step 19 : Now click the Brushes palette. the arrow indicates where the brushes palette is located. Choose a 'soft' brush. The one chosen by me has been displayed above.


Step 20 : Now make sure that the Foreground color is set to White and Background to Black.
See the red arrow.


Step 20 : Now click the Brush Tool from the flyout. The type of brush has already been chosen in Step 19.

Now select the Layer Mask in the Layers/Channels/Paths palette with which you made the image lighter. Then begin to paint with the foreground set to white. If you go wrong change the foreground to black and paint out the mistake.



Step 21 : I have used the brush to paint the lightest portions of the image. The brush can be seen in the image above. But the white looks a bit too bright. That has to be fixed.


Step 22 : Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur
Step 23 : When the dialogue box opens blur by a few pixels. Drag the slider under 'Radius'. I have set the radius to 0.9 pixels.


Step 24 : I have now chosen the Layer Mask with which I darkened the image and again have begun painting with the foreground color set to white. You can see the differences in tones where the red arrow is pointing. Complete painting.

After that again go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and blur slightly.



This is the finished image. Now compare this with the image at the beginning. The wet. glistening look is apparent. This tutorial is a bit long. I have tried to make it as simple as possible. Please try it out, it's not that difficult.

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