Posted on: January, 13 2009 at 9:05 pm
This is a beginners tutorial on how to create a frosted glass effect. Cultured Code used this effect when they launched Things 1.0 for Mac. I know there are several ways to achieve this look, but I''m using the following techniques to keep the original image in a non-destructive way and keep it simple. So lets begin.
Step 1 - Use about any image
You can use any image for this tutorial. I''ve found that darker images work a little better since the frost look is already a lighter effect. This is the image I''m going to use
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Step 2 - Duplicate the layer
Once you have your image open in Photoshop, duplicate the layer. You can do this easily by clicking and dragging the background layer to the ''create new layer'' icon at the bottom of the layer palette
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Step 3 - Set guides and copy section
Now we are going to use guides to set an area we want to apply the frost effect to. If you do not have rulers enabled, please do so in the menu by going to ''View'' -> and check ''Rulers''. You should now see rulers around your image. With your mouse click in the top ruler area ad drag drop into the image. It will bring a guide down where you can place it into the image. Place two guides on the image about 2-3 inches apart. Mine looks like this:
Step 4 - Selections
Now , using the guides, we are going to select a piece of the image where we want to start the effect. Grab the rectangle marquee tool in the tools palette. Make sure you are on the new layer you just created. Select the area inside the guides. If you have snaping turned on Photoshop will help snap your selection to the guides. To enable snapping in the menu go to ''View'' -> and click ''Snap''. With the rectangle marquee tool start from one of the corners and drag it to the opposite diagonal corner to select the entire area inside the guides. When you are done, release the mouse and press Command C (Mac) or Control C (Windows) and copy the selection. Now create a new layer in the layers palette and press Command V (Mac) or Control V (Windows) to paste the selection on the new layer. You probably won''t see anything happen, but you will see your new selection on the new layer just like the below image.
Step 5 - The frost begins
Click on the ''create new layer'' icon in the layers palette. Now, as we did in the last step with the rectangle marquee selection tool, select the area inside the guides. Next, select the paint bucket tool, change the foreground color to white (#FFFFFF) and click inside the selected area to fill it with white. Press Command D (Mac) or Control D (Windows) to get rid of the marquee. Your image should now look like this:
Step 6 - Apply the frosting
Click on the layer title ''Layer 1'' in the layers palette. In the menu go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur. Set the radius to 4 and click OK as noted in the example below.
Now click on ''Layer 2'' in the layers palette. In the adjustments area of the layer palette, set the opacity to 40% like below.
Step 7 - Bring the noise
Now with ''Layer 2'' still selected in the layers palette, in the menu, go to ''Filter'' -> ''Noise'' and choose ''Add Noise''. Set the amount to 10 and click OK. This will polish off the frost look.
Final Result
That's it. I know there are other ways to accomplish this, but this is very easy for beginners. You can use adjustment layers and masks, but I tried not to include too much in this simple tutorial. You can download the PSD file here
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