Step 1: Select The Elliptical Marquee Tool
The first thing we need to do is draw a selection around
the area where the water ripple will appear. Since water ripples are
elliptical, we'll use an elliptical selection tool. Select Photoshop's
Elliptical Marquee Tool from the Tools panel. By default, it's nested behind the
Rectangular Marquee Tool
so click on the Rectangular Marquee Tool's icon and hold your mouse
button down for a second or two until a fly-out menu appears, then
select the Elliptical Marquee Tool from the menu:
Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool.
Step 2: Drag Out An Elliptical Selection
With the Elliptical Marquee Tool selected, drag out an
elliptical selection where you want the first water ripple to appear in
the image. Try to match the shape of the selection to the perspective of
the image so that water ripples closer to you will appear more circular
than ripples further off in the distance:
Draw your first elliptical selection.
Step 3: Make Two Copies Of The Selected Area
With the selection outline in place, press
Ctrl+J (Win) /
Command+J (Mac) on your keyboard
twice to make two copies of the selected area (you can also go up to the
Layer menu, choose
New, and then choose
Layer via Copy
twice, but the keyboard shortcut is much faster). Each copy will be
added to its own layer in the Layers panel. The top layer will be
selected (highlighted in blue):
Two copies of the selected area appear above the Background layer.
Step 4: Turn Off The Top Layer Temporarily
We need to hide the top layer for the moment, so click on its
layer visibility icon
(the eyeball) on the far left of the layer in the Layers panel, which
will temporarily hide the layer from view in the document window:
The eyeball will disappear when you click the icon, letting you know the layer is now hidden.
Step 5: Select The Layer Below It
With the top layer now hidden, click on the layer below it in the Layers panel to select it:
Click on the bottom of the two layers to select it.
Step 6: Load A Selection Around The Layer's Contents
Hold down your
Ctrl (Win) /
Command (Mac) key and click directly on the layer's
preview thumbnail in the Layers panel:
Hold down Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) and click on the layer preview thumbnail.
This places a selection outline around the contents of the
layer in the document, which means the selection outline you drew a
moment ago will reappear. The reason we're loading the selection outline
before choosing the filter, which we'll be doing next, is to limit the
filter's effect to the area inside the selection, otherwise Photoshop
would apply it to the entire image:
The selection outline reappears in the document.
Step 7: Apply The ZigZag Filter
As I mentioned at the beginning of the tutorial, Photoshop
actually ships with a filter built specifically for adding water ripples
to an image, but you'd never guess which one it is just by glancing at
the filter names. The one we want is not Ripple or Ocean Ripple. It's
called ZigZag (yes, that's right, ZigZag). Go up to the
Filter menu in the Menu Bar along the top of the screen, choose
Distort, and then choose
ZigZag down at the bottom of the list:
Go to Filter > Distort > ZigZag.
The ZigZag filter works by distorting the image into the shape of water ripples. At the bottom of the filter's dialog box is a
Style option which controls how Photoshop distorts the image. There's three choices -
Around Center,
Out From Center and
Pond Ripples
(the default setting). Each one gives us a slightly different water
ripple effect, and one will usually produce better results than the
other two depending on the area of the image you've selected. Try each
one and judge the results in the preview window in the upper left of the
dialog box. I'm going to stick with the default Pond Ripples, but a
different choice may work better for you:
Choose the Style option that works best for the area of the image you've selected.
The
Amount slider controls the intensity of the water ripple effect, while the
Ridges
slider changes the number of ridges. Keep an eye on the preview window
in the dialog box to preview the results as you drag the sliders left
and right (the effect isn't actually applied to the image until you
click OK). We're going to be running the ZigZag filter twice, once on
each of the two layers we created. For this initial ripple effect, add
lots of ridges. These will appear around the outer edge of the ripple
when we're done. I'm going to increase my Ridges value to around
12 and I'll increase the intensity of the effect by setting the Amount value to around
70:
Change the appearance of the water ripple with the Amount and Ridges sliders.
Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box and apply the filter to the selection:
The initial water ripple effect.
Step 8: Select The Top Layer And Turn It Back On
Click on the top layer in the Layers panel to select it, then click on its
layer visibility icon to turn the layer back on in the document:
Select and turn on the top layer.
Step 9: Apply The ZigZag Filter Again
We need to apply the ZigZag filter again, this time to the
top layer. Since it was the last filter we used, we can quickly access
its dialog box by pressing
Ctrl+Alt+F (Win) /
Command+Option+F
(Mac). The effect we apply to this top layer will become the center
area of the water ripple, and the center usually has fewer ridges than
the outer edge, which means we'll need a more subtle effect this time.
I'm going to change my
Style option to
Out From Center and I'll lower the
Ridges value to
4. The Out From Center style tends to give a less intense result than the other two styles, so to compensate, I'll increase my
Amount value to
100:
Change the appearance of the water ripples with the Amount and Ridges sliders.
Click OK when you're done to once again exit out of the
ZigZag filter dialog box. The second water ripple appears inside the
selection on the top layer:
The second, more subtle water ripple effect.
Step 10: Make The Selection Outline Smaller With Transform The Selection
Go up to the
Select menu at the top of the screen and choose
Transform Selection:
Go to Select > Transform Selection.
The Transform Selection command works very similar to
Photoshop's Free Transform command except that it affects the selection
outline itself, not the pixels inside the selection outline. Hold down
Shift+Alt (Win) /
Shift+Option
(Mac), click on the handle (the small square) in the top left corner of
the Transform Selection bounding box, then drag the handle in towards
the center of the selection until the selection outline is around 50-60%
of its original size. Holding the Shift key as you drag constrains the
shape of the selection outline, while the Alt / Option key allows us to
resize the selection outline from its center. Press
Enter (Win) /
Return (Mac) when you're done to accept the transformation:
Reduce the selection outline to 50-60% its original size.
Step 11: Invert And Delete The Selection
Go up to the
Select menu at the top of the screen and choose
Inverse, or press
Shift+Ctrl+I (Win) /
Shift+Command+I (Mac) to access the same command with the keyboard shortcut:
Go to Select > Inverse.
This reverses our selection so that the area in the center
of the water ripple is now deselected while everything around it on the
layer
is selected. Press
Backspace (Win) /
Delete
(Mac) on your keyboard to delete everything around the center of the
water ripple, which reveals the more condensed ridges near the outer
edge on the layer below. Press
Ctrl+D (Win) /
Command+D (Mac) to remove the selection outline from the document:
The water ripple effect is now more subtle in the center, with more ridges near the outer edge.
Step 12: Merge The Two Layers Together
With the top layer selected in the Layers panel, go up to the
Layer menu at the top of the screen and choose
Merge Down, or press
Ctrl+E (Win) /
Command+E (Mac) to access the same command with the faster keyboard shortcut:
Go to Layer > Merge Down.
This merges the two water ripple layers onto a single layer:
The two layers have been merged onto a single layer.
Step 13: Apply The Gaussian Blur Filter
The ZigZag filter can sometimes produce harsh, jagged areas
in the water ripple, so let's soften them up a little by applying a
subtle blur effect. Go up to the
Filter menu, choose
Blur, then choose
Gaussian Blur:
Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.
This brings up Photoshop's Gaussian Blur dialog box. We need only a small amount of blurring to soften the edges. A
Radius value of around
0.4 pixels is usually all it takes:
A very small amount of blurring is all we need.
Click OK to exit out of the Gaussian Blur dialog box, and our first water ripple has been added to the image:
The water ripple after softening any harsh areas with Gaussian Blur.
Step 14: Repeat The Steps To Add More Water Ripples As Needed
To add more water ripples to the image, start by clicking on the
Background layer
in the Layers panel to select the original image, then simply repeat
steps 2-13 for each water ripple you need to add. After you've created a
couple of them and the steps become more familiar to you, it takes no
time at all to add more. Be sure to experiment with the different Style
options in the ZigZag dialog box to see which one gives you the best
results each time.
Here, after scattering a few more ripples around the surface of the water, is my final result:
The final water ripples effect.
And there we have it!
