Home Photoshop Photo Editing Shark in a Bottle

Shark in a Bottle

Added: Oct 11, 2011 Level: Beginner Software: Photoshop

I've been quite often asked about the tools and techniques I used in this design. More precisely, how I created the water splashes effect. So I decided to write a tutorial to answer these questions all at once, and show you how to apply these techniques in absolutely different environment.

Below is the final illustration:

Step 1

First, let's get rid of the white background. Open our bottle image.

Figure 1.1

Double click the Background layer to convert it into a regular layer. Change the layer name to Bottle. Make a path using a Pen Tool (make sure you have a Paths mode selected in the top toolbar). Then, press Ctrl+Enter to make a selection. Invert selection (Ctrl+Shift+I) and press Delete. Now go to Image > Image Rotation > 90 CW, and move the bottle a little bit down.

Press Ctrl+G to create a new group of layers and name it Bottle.

Figure 1.2

Step 2

Now we need to mask some parts of the bottle to make it look more like a transparent glass. I have to warn you in advance, it might be a little bit boring process to some of you guys, but we still have to do it ;)

In order to create our mask we need to copy the highlights and some of the lowlights from the original bottle. Let's copy the highlights first.

Create a new layer Ctrl+Shift+Alt+N, move it underneath the Bottle layer, and fill it with black. Name it Background. Now, duplicate the original Bottle layer (Ctrl+J) and change the name to Highlights. Hide the Bottle layer.

Figure 2.1

Switch to the Channels palette, and duplicate the Blue channel by dragging it to the Create New Channel icon at the bottom of the palette. Name the new layer Highlights Mask. Press Ctrl+M to bring up the Curves dialog, and adjust the curve as on the image below, then press Ok. This adjustment will help us to select all the brightest areas on the bottle.

Figure 2.2 a

Figure 2.2 b

Now, let's apply a little amount of Gaussian blur to the Highlights Mask alpha-channel. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set blur radius to 2 pixels. Press Ok.

Figure 2.3

We need to adjust the Highlights Mask a bit. Switch back to the Layers palette, and make the Highlights layer active. Let's load a selection first. Go to Select > Load Selection. Select Highlights Mask as a Channel and press Ok. Then click the Add Layer Mask icon. This will add a mask to our Highlights layer, so we can adjust visibility of certain parts of the bottle without damaging the actual pixels.

Select a layer mask by clicking its thumbnail. Grab the Brush Tool and by switching between black and white and varying level of Opacity draw over the mask. You need to achieve the result similar to the image below (Fig. 2.4 a), and your Highlights layer should now look like Fig. 2.4 b.

Figure 2.4 a

Figure 2.4 b

Let's bring in some more of the dark details from our original bottle image. This is going to be fairly easy to do. Make a Bottle layer visible again and set its Blending Mode to Multiply. Lower Opacity level to 70%. Don't worry if you see no difference, that's just because our background color is black. Let's fill our Background layer with white. Set white as your foreground color and press Alt+Backspace.

Figure 2.5

We're almost done with the bottle. But before we proceed with its contents, let's change our background from white to something more interesting.

Step 3

Create a new group of layers and name is Background. Move the Background layer inside this group and fill it with #e9edf0. Add about 2% of noise (Filter > Noise > Add Noise).

Figure 3.1

Then, create a new layer on top of the Background layer. Set the foreground color to #afb7bc, and using the Gradient Tool fill the top part of the canvas with this color, as shown on the image below. Press Ctrl+F, to add the same amount of noise.

Figure 3.2

Use Rectangular Marquee Tool to make a selection as shown on the image below.

Figure 3.3

Create a new layer. Set the foreground color to #9ba4aa and fill the selection with the Gradient Tool. Then, use a soft eraser to erase top part of the gradient. Press Ctrl+F, lower the Opacity to 75%, and set the Blending Mode to Multiply.

Figure 3.4

Don't worry if the bottle still looks like it floats in the air. We're going to add a shadow on a later stage and that will fix it in no time.

Step 4

Now it's time to start on the bottle contents. Create a new group on top of our background layers and name it Contents. Inside this group create a new layer called Water. Load a selection of the original bottle by Ctrl+clicking its thumbnail. Make sure the Water group is active and click the Add Layer Mask icon.

Figure 4.1

Open the first splash image.

Figure 4.2

Let's remove the white background. Switch to the Channels tab and duplicate the Red channel. Press Ctrl+M and adjust the curve as on the image below.

Figure 4.3

Grab the Brush Tool and draw over the splash highlights to include them in our selection. Also, use white color to mask out the bubbles. You should get the mask similar to the image below

Figure 4.4

Ctrl+click the Alpha-channel thumbnail to load a selection. Switch back to the Layers tab and delete the background.

Figure 4.5

Now repeat the same steps for the other splash.

Figure 4.6

Figure 4.7

Create a new Photoshop document with the size big enough to fit both splashes in it.

Figure 4.8

Move the splashes around (rotate if needed) so they form one continuous splash.

Figure 4.9

Merge splashes by selecting both layers and pressing Ctrl+E. Paste the merged splash into the Water group of the main document. Scale the splash down and add a new layer on top of it. Set the Blending mode to Color and press Ctrl+Alt+G to create a clipping mask. Fill the new layer with light blue color (#377c9f).

Figure 4.10

Set a mid-blue color (#0d73a8) as you foreground color. Using the Pen Tool create a shape as shown on the image below (make sure the shape is located right underneath the splash layer).

Figure 4.11

Double click this layer to bring up a Layer Style dialog. Then activate the Gradient Overlay parameter and set its Blending mode to Overlay.

Figure 4.12

Create a new layer in the Bottle group, just on top of the Highlights layer. Set its Blending mode to Color. Then Ctrl+click the Bottle layer thumbnail to load a selection. Click the Add Layer Mask icon to add a mask to the newly created layer. Now, using a soft brush, draw with the mid-blue color over the areas shown below.

Figure 4.13

Your bottle should now look like this:

Figure 4.14

Step 5

Now let's add the shark. Open the shark image in Photoshop. Use the Pen Tool to create a selection and remove the background as we did earlier.

Figure 5.1

Create a new group on top of the Water group and name it Shark. Paste the shark into it. Press Ctrl+T and resize shark as on the image below.

Figure 5.2

Ctrl+click the splash layer thumbnail to load the selection. Invert it by pressing Ctrl+Shift+I and click the Add Layer Mask icon (make sure the shark layer is active).

Figure 5.3

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue Saturation and add a new adjustment layer. Set Hue to -7, Saturation to +50 and leave Lightness as is (it should be 0).

Figure 5.4

Figure 5.5

Now let's add another adjustment layer, this time Curves (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves). Adjust the curve as on the image below.

Figure 5.6

Figure 5.7

Make the Curves layer mask active by clicking its thumbnail. Use a soft brush to draw over the top part of the shark to lighten it.

Figure 5.8

Create a new layer and set its Blending mode to Color. Press Ctrl+Alt+G to group it with previous layers. Set the foreground color to darker blue (#0f476b) and using the Brush Tool draw over the bottom part of the shark.

Figure 5.9

Now, let's lighten the top part of the shark a bit more. Create a new Curves adjustment layer with the parameters shown below.

Figure 5.10

Make the Curves layer mask active. Invert it by pressing Ctrl+I, and draw over the very top part of the shark with white using a soft Brush Tool.

Figure 5.11

We're done with the shark, so now let's enhance our underwater environment a bit.

Step 6

Create a new layer underneath the shark. Dab a relatively large spot of light blue color using a soft Brush Tool. Set the layer Blending mode to Color Dodge and lower the Opacity to 40%.

Figure 6.1

Now let's add some rays of light. Create a new layer on top of the shark, name it Rays. Load a selection of the original bottle by Ctrl+clicking its thumbnail, and click the Add Layer Mask icon. Fill the Rays layer with a gradient using the Gradient Tool and the parameters shown below.

Figure 6.2

Figure 6.3

Desaturate the rays and invert the colors by pressing Ctrl+I. Set the layer Blending mode to Overlay and lower the Opacity to 40%.

Figure 6.4

Grab the Eraser Tool and erase some rays at the top and some at the bottom.

Figure 6.5

Step 7

Let's add the shadow now. Create a new group right underneath the Contents group and name it Shadow.

Create a new layer and set its Blending mode to Multiply. Set the foreground color to #48545b and using a soft Brush Tool and varying opacity draw a shadow as shown on the image below.

Figure 7.1

Now let's add the reflection from the water in the bottle. Create a new layer on top of the shadow layer and set its Blending mode to Color. Take a soft Brush Tool and by varying color from mid to light blue draw a reflection.

Figure 7.2

Our final step will be adding a reflection from the whole bottle. Click the eye icons next to the Background and the Shadow groups to temporarily hide them.

Figure 7.3

Press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E to copy all visible layers on the new one. Go to Edit > Transform and select Flip Vertical. Move the reflection down. Make the hidden groups visible again.