How to create a Raindrops Bokeh Texture

Create a raindrop bokeh texture with this photoshop tutorial.

[tweetmeme]In photography, bokeh is the blur or the aesthetic quality of the blur in out-of-focus areas of an image. In this photoshop tutorial we will learn how to create a raindrop like bokeh texture in very simple steps.

Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting creating “good” and “bad” bokeh, respectively.

The term comes from the Japanese word boke (暈け or ボケ), which means “blur” or “haze” The English spelling bokeh was popularized in 1997 in Photo Techniques magazine, when Mike Johnston, the editor at the time, commissioned three papers on the topic for the March/April 1997 issue

Lets get started:

Step 1

Create a new Blank Document

Step 2

First we are going to create our brush.

a) Select the Ellipse Tool (U), and create a circle. Use black for the color

b) Go to Layer>Layer Style>Blending Options.

c) Change the Fill Opacity to 50%. (not the Opacity)

d) Select Stroke. Use 8 pixels for the size, Inside Position and color black.

Step 3

a) Select the ellipse and go to Edit>Define Brush.

b) Name your brush .

Step 4 Create the background

a) Create a new Gradient Color, from white to dark blue

b) Paint the background

c) Create a new layer

d) Create a new color, purple or dark pink

e) Select a soft round brush, for this case I´m using 200 pixels (I like to work in high resolution documents) but it really depends on the resolution of your document, and paint some areas

f) Create a new layer and now select a yellow – orange color and paint in the center of your pink spot. Set the blending mode to Soft light at 100%

g) Select the background layer, select Filter > Noise > Add Noise

h) Select Gaussian, monochromatic at 2.45%

Step 5

a) Go to Window>Brushes (F5). In the Brush Engine select our new Brush. The Spacing is very important.

b) Change the value to 100%.

c) Modify the Shape Dynamics, then Scattering and Other dynamics. use the images below for the values.

Step 6

a) Create a New Layer

b) Select a white color a paint with the new brush

c) Aply some gausian blur; Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur with a radius of 3.4 pixels

d) Set the opacity to 48%

e) Create a new layer

f) Paint some more circles tryng to follow the first brushes.

g) Aply gausian blur but this time 1.9 pixels

h) Set the opacity to 70%

i) Create a new layer, and paint some more circles

j) Duplicate this layer and aply motion Blur, Filter > Blur > Motion Blur with a 24 pixels distance.

k) Set the opacity to 100%

Ready!!

Tags: free textures, photoshop tutorials

Thursday, October 28th, 2010 Tutorials

About The Author

Javier Cantero

I'm a graphic/web designer, entrepreneur and the founder of Designer Freelance. I hope we can share lots of information and ideas. You can follow me on Twitter @designerfree