Photoshop CS2 Tutorials and Photoshop CS3 Tutorials- Creating a Glass Ball in a Digital Photograph

Today I was looking through some digital images and Photoshop CS2 tutorials/Photoshop CS3 tutorials that were submitted by various artists out there and I was intrigued by an image I saw that was a standard digital photograph except for the fact that it had a glass ball in the image.

The ball was reflecting all of the surfaces just as you would expect it to in real life. First I thought it was using some sort of 3D rendering software, but after some investigation I came across a tutorial.

I also used some other techniques to create similar effects in a book which I swear by called: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers,The (Voices That Matter)

Tutorial goal:
In this tutorial you will learn how to create a glass ball in photoshop using some simple tools and techniques. Any version of photoshop can be used. I will be using CS2. You will need a simple source picture from any good image bank on the internet.

Step 1

The first step is to find yourself a good source picture.Step 2

Open your source file in photoshop and create a new layer. (ctrl shift N). Take the Elliptical Marquee tool (M) and make a selection. TIP: Hold down shift key whilst making your selection to make a perfect circle. Once you have made your selection, take your paint bucket tool (G). Change the foreground colour to D6D3C0 and fill the selection.Step 3

Next to add some layer styles… Click on your layer styles icon in your layers palette. (The little ‘f’ and scroll to inner shadow). Set the colour to white (it will probably be black to start with), set the blend mode to linear dodge, the opacity from around 40-45%, the angle to around -54 degrees, the distance to 50px and the size to 68px.Step 4

In this step we will start by creating a new layer. (ctrl shift N). Next we will create a clipping mask by right clicking on the top layer and scroll to ‘create clipping mask’. Now change the background colour in your tool bar to 65645F. We now have our colours to create a gradient. Select the gradient tool by right clicking the paint bucket tool and selecting gradient tool. In the top tool bar, make sure the linear gradient is selected - that is the first in the horizontal list of gradients. Next make sure reverse, dither and transparency are selected. Start your gradient directly in the middle of your ball and pull to the bottom right. Stop just before the ball starts changing colour from where you added the inner glow.Step 5

We now want to change our foreground and background colours back to white. You can do this by pressing D. Make sure white is the foreground colour. Go back to your gradient tool and instead of the linear gradient, we will now select the next one in line - the radial gradient. this is directly on the right. On the layer we are currently working on, create a layer mask by clicking the layer mask icon at the bottom of your layer pallet. (it looks like a rectangle with a circle in it). Create your gradient by starting in the middle again, this time drag it right to the edge of the shape.Step 6

OK, lets duplicate layer 1 by pressing ctrl J. Drag Layer 1 copy to the top of your layers pallet. If you are using CS2 will will need to re-do your clipping mask in layer 2 and layer 1. select the top layer (layer 1 copy). We need to change and add some blending options so double click on the little f in this layer and select inner shadow. Make sure black is selected and set the blending mode to overlay. Deselect ‘use global light’, set the opacity to 100, the angle anywhere from 100-110, the distance to 20px and the size to 100px. Next, open the layer styles options again and click on inner glow. Make sure the blend mode it set to normal. Change the opacity anywhere from 10%-20% (you will know what looks best for your image), change the choke to 45, the size to 114 and the range to 100.Step 7

Create another new layer, then grab your brush tool (make sure the foreground is white), set the hardness to 0% and the brush size to around 190px. Click once in the center of your circle, then go to filter/blur/gaussian blur and set the radius from around 20-30.
Step 8

Create another new layer and with your brush tool still selected change the hardness to 100% and the brush size to around 55px.
Step 9

Add a Gaussian Blur to the new dot with a radius of around 2.5. Next bring up your blending options and click on outer glow and change the size to 30px. Now to the fun stuff. Change your layer 1 copy fill to around 30%.
Step 10

Now we click on our background layer and make an new layer (ctrl shift N). ctrl click on your layer 1 (the ball shape), but make sure your newest layer is active (it should be layer 5). Make sure you have a black foreground and a white background (D). Select your gradient tool with the radial gradient (the one we used last time) and make sure reverse is selected. Draw a line with the gradient from the top of the selection to the bottom- right through the middle.
Step 11

With layer 5 still selected, hit ctrl T on your keyboard taking you to free transform. You will notice a box around the shape with handles. Take the middle handle at the top and drag it down to the bottom until you get this: (then hit enter to save the transform and ctrl D to deselect the shape)Step 12

Clearly, the shadow is in the wrong spot, so we have to change it. hit V on your keyboard which will select your move tool. Move the shape to the right until it looks like its in the right spot. Now we want to change the opacity to 50% and add a gaussian blur with a radius of 3.0.Step 13

OK, now ctrl click on layer one, making a selection around the ball, but make sure your layer 5 is selected. Go to filter,distort,spherize and set to 100 and hit ok. Now, with the selection still active, click on your background layer and hit ctrl F. (This will apply your last filter again - obviously spherize).
Et Voila, a glass ball!! Hope the tut was detailed enough and you achieved a good result.. Try it with different backgrounds!
I was very impressed at how easy this tutorial was to follow and complete! It is worth checking out since it is a great addition to anyone’s digital photography.

Result

Love to hear how it works for you!

Edward

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