Adding water droplets in Photoshop can give many pictures a nice fresh touch. But how do you create that water drop effect? This tutorial shows you step-by-step how to make a realistic water drop in Photoshop. You’ll learn how to create realistic water drop reflections using layer styles and blend modes, and how to configure your water drops Photoshop brush to get the most natural water drop shapes possible!
In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to make a realistic water drop in Photoshop. The method I’m going to be using is quite simple and easy, but it does a great job in creating an efficient water drop effect.
… and btw, at the bottom of this tutorial, you can grab the Photoshop Water Drop Effect for FREE from the Freebie Library.
So let’s get started!
These are the three basic steps you'll need to follow in order to make a realistic water drop in Photoshop:
How to make a realistic water drop in Photoshop
STEP 1: Create a new layer & set your brush color to 50% gray
First of all, open the basic layer onto which you want to put the water droplets.
The next thing we need to do is create a new layer for the water droplets (Layer > New > Layer).
On this layer, we’re going to place the water droplets using the brush tool at a neutral 50% gray color.
Click on the foreground color icon and type in 50% for the B value, or enter the color code #808080, and hit OK.
Make sure your brush is set to 100% hardness, 100% opacity, and 100% flow.
how to make a water drop shape in photoshop?
Not all water droplets are perfectly round in real life, right?
To achieve the best realistic water drop effect in Photoshop, I’m going to show you a clever way how to make water drops in various different shapes.
To do so, we’ll need to change the brush settings. Go to Window > Brush or click on the Brush icon in order to bring up the Brush settings dialog box.
From there, we’re going to configure our brush to create realistic water droplets.
STEP 2: Configure your brush settings for the most realistic water drop effect in Photoshop
Under Shape Dynamics, set the Jitter Size to 100%, Minimum Diameter to 0%, Angle Jitter to 30%, Roundness Jitter to 100%, and Minimum Roundness to 60%.
Make sure to toggle all Control fields Off, and check both Flip X and Y Jitter.
Next, we’re going to move on to Scattering. Scatter is set to 1000% on Both Axes, Count is 1, and Count Jitter is 0%.
Again, I’ve all Control fields set to Off.
The last thing we’re going to do is adjust the Transfer settings.
Make sure all values (Opacity Jitter, Minimum, Flow Jitter) are set to 0%.
Smoothing is a standard setting and can be kept on.
Once you’ve modified all your brush settings accordingly, you should see something like scattered dots in different round and oval shapes in the brush demo field at the bottom.
With our water drops Photoshop brush on point, we can start placing some random dots on our canvas.
For now, the gray dots resemble everything but real water droplets. But don’t worry, each gray mark will soon be a realistic water drop in Photoshop!
Just move the brush over the areas where you want to have the water droplets. Repeat until you’re happy with the amount and spread of the soon-to-be water drops.
STEP 3: Set the layer’s blending mode to Overlay
Step 2 is a quick one: simply set your water drop layer to the Overlay blending mode by selecting the option from the Blending mode dropdown in your Layers Panel.
You’ll notice that all the gray dots on your canvas will disappear immediately.
So what we’re going to do in step 3 is apply a couple of layer styles so that each of the now invisible dots will make a realistic water drop in Photoshop!
STEP 4: Add Layer Styles (Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Inner Glow, Bevel & Emboss)
To bring up the Layer Style dialog box, you can either double-click in the blank area of the layer, click on the little fx icon at the bottom of your Layers Panel, or go to Layer > Layer Style in the top bar menu.
Drop Shadow
We’re going to start at the very bottom of the Layer Style box and add a Drop Shadow. Keep the Blend Mode at Multiply and the color at black (#000000). Move the Opacity slider down to 20%.
The Angle depends on where the lighting in your image is coming from. If the light is coming down vertically from the top, you can set the angle to 90 degrees. If your light is coming from the side, adjust the angle accordingly.
Keep Use Global Light checked. Fill in ‘4’ for Distance, Spread, and Size.
Make sure to set the Contour to Cone and to turn on Anti-aliased.
Inner Shadow
Next, we’re going to add an Inner Shadow.
Set the Blend Mode to Color Burn, keep the color at black, and move the Opacity slider down to 25%. Set the Distance to 5px, keep the Choke at 0, and up the Size to 15px.
Inner Glow
After that, we’re going to add an Inner Glow, and the settings are as follow:
The Blend Mode is at Multiply, Opacity at 20%, and Size is at 4px. The color remains at black, Noise and Choke are at 0%.
Bevel & Emboss
If you take a look at your working layer, the dark circles still don’t resemble a water drop. What is missing is the bright reflections where the light is reflected back from the droplet surface.
But how to create realistic water drop reflections in Adobe Photoshop?
Well, Bevel & Emboss is going to help us make a realistic water drop in Photoshop.
As for the Bevel & Emboss settings, we’re going to keep the Style at Inner Bevel and reduce the Depth to 80%. We’re going to increase the Size to 10px.
Keep the Angle at 90 degrees, but change the Altitude to 75 degrees.
Put the Highlight Mode to Normal, keep the color at white (#FFFFFF), and increase the Opacity to 100%.
Then, we’re going to set the Shadow Mode to Lighten. The color is white, and the Opacity is 75%.
Hit OK and there you go!
Have a look at your layer now. Do the initially gray dots look like realistic water droplets now? Pretty much, I guess!
Bevel & Emboss was actually the last essential step to make a realistic water drop in Photoshop!
You can still tweak around the layer opacity until you’re perfectly happy with the result.
- Quick Tip:
You can easily apply the same style to different layers or even to text, without having to configure each of the effects again.
Just right-click on the water droplet layer that contains the style and select Copy Layer Style from the pop-up menu.
Then go to the new layer you want to duplicate the style to, right-click on it and select Paste Layer Style.
Grab your free Photoshop Water Drop Effect
Subscribe to get access to our Freebie Library and download the Realistic Water Drop Effect as Layer Styles .ASL, transparent .PNG & multi-layered Photoshop .PSD file!
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I hope that this tutorial on how to make a realistic water drop in Photoshop was helpful. If you found any value in it, please feel free to share it with other artists so they can also learn from it!
If you are using anything of what I’ve showed you in this post, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @ginangiela, or post a link here in the comments. I’d love to see your creations! Make sure to sign up for my email list below so you don’t miss out on new Photoshop tutorials, perks for subscribers and other cool stuff. ♥
