You might have similar effects on the web as such effects becoming very trendy recently. Doubtlessly you didn’t know how these designs are done, do they use patterns? Textures? How many layers do they work with? No need to guess and wonder, because now you are going to:

Make a new canvas, we used here #373d40 for backgrounds. Using white color as your primarily color, and Baskerville Old font, type the word you want to render…

Once you are done, duplicate the layer and make it temporarily invisible (click on the eye in layers panel). Get back to the second layer copy, which you have on visible mode and go to Layer >> Layer Style >> Blending Options

Apply the following settings for Inner Shadow, Outer Glow, Satin and Stroke…

Pay attention to the contour you choose, it has to be Rounded Steps otherwise you will get a different result. This Countour comes pre-installed in All Recent Adobe Photoshop versions.

Finally apply a light outside stroke on the text, to give it a nice outlining.  We did 2px but if your text is very big you may want to add a thicker line, or, on the contrary, if you are making a small logo, use 1 pixel outlining.

This is what you should get by now..

Remember the copy of the text layer you made invisible a few minutes ago? Time to get it back to the surface. Make it visible, Rasterize the layer (right click on the layer’s panel >> Rasterize layer), and press CTRL + T to transform the layer, then enlarge it.

Place it under the pinkish text layer, and go to Filter >> Pixelate >> Mosaic..

Apply the following pixelated blur effect using 12 square.

Now, to the most important part. Set BOTH layers’ opacity settings to Overlay. This means the pixelated background and the pinkish text will both have Overlay as their Blending Options. This could be done directly in the Layers Panel on the side select the layer you want and set it to “Overlay”. That’s all, your text is ready and you can see the final result below. I would say that this text effect is both candy-sweet and techno-cyber-cold, while the combination turns to be original. It can be great for web design websites and portfolios.

Usage Restrictions:

Feel free to use this tutorial for any commercial or non commercial project, as long as you don’t directly resell this tutorial, or the exact  images used we used here for demonstration.

Although we post a lot of tutorials that teach you how to turn your ordinary photos into professional shots, many of us still get stuck and end up playing actions. It only takes seconds and the result is often very impressive.

With so many ideas and experience I have, I decided it would be a shame if I won’t release a set of actions to help the readers of PSwish.com and LoreleiWebDesign.com, so here is my first release, PSWISH 3 Action (pro). Please note that this action is for personal use one, and cannot be resold or redistributed on other websites.

Instruction:

• The action will work best with LIGHT photos. Any area that is slightly dark will turn black.
• The final result’s color scheme of the photo is determent by your Background and Foreground colors set before you played the action. Play with different variations to see what works best for you. If the results turn to be too dark or too reddish, set both foreground and background colors to lighter hues. Alternatively, hide the dark clouds layer when the action is finished playing (which makes the shot significantly lighter yet keeps the professional touch the action applied).

I use CS3 so I had no chance to test it on CS2 or lower, if anyone does, please drop a comment below so that other users will know if it’s suitable for other versions or not.

What you can do with this Photoshop Action?

This is idea for retouching photos with dull colors, or those that turned to be too light and as a result — uselessly boring. It will help you to turn any ordinary shot into a professional, “old school” photo with very strong contrast, slightly cold colors and grainy texture that is pulled from photo itself, and applied without using any additional grain effect. Like I said, if the result turns to be nearly black, this means your colors were too dark, because if you hide the clouds layer (should be one before last) — you will get good results but without this beautiful dramatic dark grain.

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This tutorial was originally posted on loreleiweb.com but due to technical reasons moved. The tutorial remains a copyright property of Lorelei (me!)

This tutorial’s purpose is to make an imitation of real painting, made using semi dry brushes.

The final result will be this:

so, lets get started… Make a new canvas, 450*450.

White your colours are set to black and white, go to Filter >> Render >> Clouds and apply the clouds effect (once)

Using the marquee tool, select half of the canvas (or a bit more than half, as this will be out “sky”) and add a lot of Contrast (Image >> Adjustments >> Brightness / Contrast) as shown on the picture below.

While the upper part of the canvas is still selected, go to Image >> Adjustments >> Hue / Saturation and set the following settings to colorize the “sky” and make it bluish. Don’t forget to check the “colorize” box when applying the settings.

After finishing the color process, press Shft + Ctrl + I to inverse the selection.

Now that the lower half of the canvas is selected, go to Filter >> Blur >> Motion Blur and apply the following horizontal blur…

Create a new layer. While half the canvas is still selected, fill it with white (means you will only have white inside the selection).

Go to Filters >> Noise >> Add noise, and apply these “noisy” settings:

Go to Filter >> Blur >> Motion blur and again apply the horizontal blur, only this time upon the noise effect. We are trying to paint the calm water, we need lots of tiny waves and this would be the easiest way to make them)

Set the opacity of the blurred noise layer to about 50%.

This is what you got so far…

Flatten the image.

Select (manually), using the marquee tool, the lower part of the canvas (“water”)

Go to Filter >> Artistic >> Cutout and apply these settings for the cutout effect.

Remember, we are making a painting, it should look as it it was made using a brush!

Now (while your “water” is still selected) go again to Image >> Adjustments >> Hue / Saturation, check the “colorize” box and make the water a bit greenish…

Create a new layer. Using the round brush (with sharp edge), go over the horizon line that separates water from the sky, as shown below:

Select the eraser tool and remove everything that was below the water line, see pic below:

Make a new layer again, select a sharp round brush of a huge size (about 200px) and make a stamp on a place where you intend to make your full moon.

Go to Layer>> Layer Styles >> Outer Glow and apply glow using the white color…

In your layers panel, select the background canvas (where we have the sky and water) and apply this lightening effect from the center of the “moon”, but not on the moon’s layer!

Choose a picture of a girl, or your own which you want to use. For this purpose we used a photo taken from Liam’s Stock free resource.

Crop the picture from the background, so that only the main figure will remain.

Press CRTL + A to select the figure, CRTL + C to copy it and then, when u move back to our painting canvas, press CTRL + V to paste it onto our painting.

While the layer with the girl is selected, go to Filter >> Artistic >> Cutout and apply these settings, that will imitate brush painting.

So far you got a blurred version of it…

Flatten the image yet again (don’t skip this part).

Now that the entire canvas has turned to one layer, go to Filter >> Texturize >> and apply this light canvas texture.

Now for the final touch… Select the “Burn” tool and go with a small soft-edge brush over the horizon line, and darken the “water” on the edge, so that it will look as if it fades into the black “mountains” we made before.

That’s it, you are done! If you have any questions, please post below, as well as the examples of ur work.. cheers!