





Note: This tutorial is written for Photoshop CS on a Windows XP platform and assumes you have a basic knowledge of Photoshop. However, this technique will work on most versions of Photoshop or similar graphics package.
In this tutorial we will create the effect of adding a layer of frosted glass to an image. We'll use the the Dr Quincy logo and start with this . . .

. . . and end up with this:

1. Copy the start image and paste into a new canvas; rename Layer 1 to Base.
2. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and select an area of the image similar to the image below:

3. Duplicate the Base layer and rename the new layer to Frosted Glass.
4. Select the Frosted Glass layer and choose Edit > Transform > Scale. Hold down Shift and drag on the top-left control point so the image is about 30% larger. It will looklike the image below:

5. Hold down Shift and press the down arrow once and the left arrow once. This nudges the top layer so it is roughly centred over the original point of the scaling transformation. This will make the magnifying effect of the glass a little more convincing; your image canvas should resemble the image below:

6. Now it's time to create the frosted glass effect; we'll start with some lense blur. Choose Filter > Blur > Lense Blur. Choose your settings thus:

7. With the Frosted Glass layer selected, click the Add a layer style button from the Layers panel and choose Color Overlay. Set the colour to white (#FFFFFF) and the opacity to 20% like this:

8. Now let's add a subtle shadow. With the Frosted Glass layer selected click the Add a layer style button from the Layers panel and choose Outer Glow. Set the Blend Mode to Normal, the colour to black (#000000), the size to 5 and the opacity to 20% like this:

9. We'll now add an outline; with the Frosted Glass layer selected click the Add a layer style button from the Layers panel and choose Stroke. Set the opacity to 25%, the size to 1px and the colour to white (#FFFFFF) like the image below:

10. You're done! Your final image should look like this:

You can play around with the settings. For example, changing the scaling transformation in step 4 alters how close the glass looks to the original layer and changing the opacity in the Color Overlay style in step 8 changes how dense the glass looks.
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This resource was written by Tim Bennett Bsc (Hons). Tim Bennett has a First Class Degree in Multimedia Systems Computing from Leeds Metropolitan University. He works as a freelance multimedia developer under the company name Texelate creating free and commissioned high-quality multimedia solutions. Find out more by visiting the portfolio section and viewing his blog. If you'd like to request a resource get in touch!









