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More Photoshop Effects with Clouds  - or

Photoshop Clouds and Difference Clouds Filters - Making Lightning

category: graphics, digital photography and image editing

Photoshop's Clouds filter creates a fill of random haze between the foreground and background colors using Perlin-based fractal noise resembling natural clouds. The Difference Clouds Filter creates a cumulative effect exactly like duplicating the Clouds results layer and applying the difference blend mode. OK, we read Photoshop Effects with Clouds, but what else can we do with these filters?

Using the same image with the blobs of noise in the sky, and referring to Photoshop Effects with Clouds, we'll make a new sky, this time with a gradient that is shades of gray. Create a Levels Adjustment Layer below the sky layer, and move the center input slider to the right to make the sky very dark because we are going to make it storm; also, on a Hue and Saturation Adjustment Layer, reduce the saturation in the blues and greens of the mountains. Now, continuing to follow along as before, we'll make clouds with body, but this time, since the clouds are storm clouds, fill them with black instead of white. Also, since the whole sky is filled with clouds, the ones at the top of the image are further away than the ones at the sky line, so choose Edit, Transform, and Scale to widen the clouds layer beyond the canvas, and then Edit, Transform, and Perspective to pinch the top of the cloud layer a little. Copy the layer mask that you used to create the sky into both cloud layers and your storm is ready for a bolt of lightning.

Lightning? Yes, let's make some lightning with the Clouds and Difference Clouds Filters. Create a Layer on top of the stack. Choose Filter, Render, and Clouds to create clouds, and then choose Filter, Render, and Difference Clouds to re-create the clouds with the effect of the difference Blend Mode. Now, press Ctrl+I to invert the layer, giving you white lines between black cloud areas. The white lines will be lightning. Run Levels on the lightning layer, moving both the blacks and whites input sliders toward the middle, turning the clouds all black and the lightning all white. To get rid of the black cloud areas, click the Layer Styles Icon and choose Blending Options, then slide the This Layer left hand slider toward the right. Look good? Yeah, but there's a lot of it. OK, add a layer mask to the lightning layer, and paint away the unwanted strands with black, scale it just like you did the sky, with Edit, Transform, and Scale, set the Blend Mode to Linear Dodge, and place it with the Move Tool anywhere you want. I chose the in your face placement because it's a small image and I wanted you to get a good look at the potential.

He said on 08.17.05 @ 04:31 PM CST