Create an Atmospheric Under-Water Text Effect

Step 1

Create a new document (600X600px).

Paste in this great concrete texture.

Step 2

We want a near black background, but with a subtle texture.

To achieve this, go to blending options for your texture layer and apply a black color overlay.

Step 3

Create a new layer called ‘radial gradient’ and drag out a white-transparent radial gradient from the center of your canvas.

Then change this layer’s blend mode to ‘overlay’ and reduce it’s opacity to 50%. This should create a subtle lighting effect over your texture:

Step 4

Use your text tool to type out a large letter ‘P’ in the center of your canvas.

I used ChunkFive, 372pt, white for my text:

Step 5

We will only be using this letter as an outline, so we don’t want it too imposing/obvious.

I reduce it’s opacity to 10% just to use as a guide for my main piece:

Step 6

Now I want to start adding water to my composition.

I prefer to arrange all of my water images before I start applying them, so I’m careful to extract all relevant images and organize them correctly before I start adding them to my final piece.

I’ll show you how to extract water properly using the color-range option:

Paste this image of a water drop into a new document.

Then go to image>adjustments>desaturate to grayscale your photo.

Then go to image>adjustments>levels and apply the settings shown below in order to really bring out the contrast between your black background and water:

Step 7

Now it’s time to extract the water!

Go to select>color range. The default setting should be to select ‘sampled colors’ and the fuzziness setting should also be fine as it is. You can see these settings below:

Then press OK, and copy/paste your selection back into your original document.

I like to duplicate my water layer, and then merge the duplicate down with the original. This simply gives it more impact and makes it a little bolder:

Step 8

Now repeat this technique to extract the following photos:

water photo 2.

water photo 3.

water photo 4.

water photo 5.

water photo 6.

Once you have successfully extracted each photo of water, paste your result into your original document, labeling each ‘water 1′ water 2′ etc… Remember with each to duplicate/merge down in order to make the water really stand out.

The great thing about doing things this way is that you now have all the water you need for your composition in a clear, organized set of layers. All you need to do is copy one of these images when you wish to use it on your composition, and hide the visibility of the original layer.

Step 9

Now we want to use all of these extracted images of water to outline our letter P.

The images below show how I build up my outline. To fit all the images in, simply resize them, erase them where needed, and perhaps most importantly use your warp tool (edit>transform>warp) to fit the water to the letter correctly:

Step 10

Now select your original letter P layer. Reduce it’s opacity from 10% to 6%. Then go to filter>blur>gaussian blur and apply a 15px gaussian blur. This should create a very subtle definition for your letter, rather than removing it completely.

Step 11

Now create a top adjustment layer (gradient map). Create a gradient ranging from 0971a2 to 3aa4d6.

Finally, reduce this adjustment layer’s opacity to 50% and change it’s blend mode to ‘overlay’. This should give a nice underwater effect:

And We’re Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome: