How to Add Fake Smoke/ Mist to your Pictures

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Randolf Briggs
5 years ago
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TIP SHEET #4 How to Add Fake Smoke/ Mist to your Pictures In this tutorial I want to take you through two different ways that you can add smoke / fog into your pictures.

1 TIP SHEET #4 How to Add Fake Smoke/ Mist to your Pictures In this tutorial I want to take you through two different ways that you can add smoke / fog into your pictures. Ordinarily adding in smoke would require a smoke machine and whereas they have dropped in price considerably over the past few years, it s maybe still an expense that some wouldn t wish to stretch to when considering how often it is likely to be used. A great, and believable alternative way is to add in smoke / mist using Photoshop and in fact Photoshop has had a clouds filter for quite some time now. However the filter does require some extra work to help it look realistic and indeed with a little bit of practice it can be extremely convincing.

Step 1: Blank Layer Start by setting the foreground and background colours to their default of

Then add a new blank layer to the top of the layer stack.

2 Step 1: Blank Layer Start by setting the foreground and background colours to their default of black and white by pressing the letter D on the keyboard. Then add a new blank layer to the top of the layer stack. Now we ll add the beginnings of our clouds by using a filter so go to FILTER > RENDER > CLOUDS and then click OK. Step 2: Rectangular Marquee Tool Admittedly at the moment what we have created doesn t closely resemble realistic smoke or mist. So, choose the Rectangular Marquee Tool from the Tool Bar and drag out a rectangular selection in the centre of layer. Next go to LAYER > NEW > LAYER VIA COPY or use the keyboard shortcut of COMMAND/CTRL + J to create a new layer that includes the selected area and rename it Smoke. Now delete the layer containing the original clouds filter.

Step 3: Free Transform With the smoke layer active go to EDIT > FREE TRANSFORM and whilst holding down the ALT/OPTION and SHIFT keys click and

This now stretches out the cloud filter effect and gives it a much more realistic look. Press ENTER/RETURN to lock in the transformation.

To do this simply lower the opacity of the smoke layer to taste. In this example I lowered the opacity to around the 25% mark.

3 Step 3: Free Transform With the smoke layer active go to EDIT > FREE TRANSFORM and whilst holding down the ALT/OPTION and SHIFT keys click and drag any of the corner transform handles and enlarge the selection way outside the picture boundaries. This now stretches out the cloud filter effect and gives it a much more realistic look. Press ENTER/RETURN to lock in the transformation. Step 4: Opacity and Layer Mask Now that we have our fake smoke / mist we need to reveal the underlying picture of our subject. To do this simply lower the opacity of the smoke layer to taste. In this example I lowered the opacity to around the 25% mark. Once done, click to add a layer mask and then with a soft edged black brush set to around 20% opacity paint random brush strokes over the subject to reduce the dense smoke / mist and make it look as though he is stood amongst it.

Xplosion Brushes Another way we can create fake smoke / mist is using brushes.

collection is explosion brushes available from Brusheezy at this link: http://bit.

click on the cog icon and from the drop down menu choose LOAD BRUSHES. Then simply navigate to the explosion brushes you downloaded to install them.

4 Xplosion Brushes Another way we can create fake smoke / mist is using brushes. Now, ordinarily this can be quite a lengthy process to create a brush that is only part way to looking realistic but thankfully there are brushes freely available for us to make use of and one such collection is explosion brushes available from Brusheezy at this link: Step 5: Download and Install From the link download the free explosion brushes and then from within Photoshop choose the Brush Tool from the Tool Bar and then from the Brush Preset Picker click on the cog icon and from the drop down menu choose LOAD BRUSHES. Then simply navigate to the explosion brushes you downloaded to install them. Step 6: New Document With the explosion brushes now installed we need to make some adjustments to the settings so that they look even more realistic. Choose one of the brushes from the explosion brush set and then add a new document by going FILE > NEW and from the Document Type choose the name of the file we ve already been working on and click OK. Choosing this give us a new document with the exact same dimensions. Then go to EDIT > FILL and choose black from the drop down menu and click OK

Step 7: Brush Shape Dynamics Press X to set your foreground colour to white and then choose one of the

Go to the Brush Panel and from here we can make changes to how the explosion brush looks.

within the Brush Transfer tab change to the Opacity Jitter to 100% and with no other tabs active and changes

Try brush strokes at varying sizes to see how different the brush looks and if needed / wanted dive back into

5 Step 7: Brush Shape Dynamics Press X to set your foreground colour to white and then choose one of the explosion brushes from the Brush Preset Picker. Go to the Brush Panel and from here we can make changes to how the explosion brush looks. In the Shape Dynamics tab increase Size Jitter to 100% and Angle Jitter to 100% Step 8: Brush Transfer From within the Brush Transfer tab change to the Opacity Jitter to 100% and with no other tabs active and changes made, apply a few brush strokes onto the new black document you created to see how the xplosion brush looks. Try brush strokes at varying sizes to see how different the brush looks and if needed / wanted dive back into the Brush Panel settings to make further adjustments. Now with your explosion brush ready you can use it to add to smoke / mist already created using the first technique or use it to create smoke / mist from scratch.

TIP Jitter Explained For added realism when using brushes for effects, it s important that there is variety in each of the brush strokes and this is where Jitter comes into play.

and re-apply a brush stroke. TIP Colour Grading There are many ways to add a colour theme into your pictures to add mood and an atmosphere.

6 TIP Jitter Explained For added realism when using brushes for effects, it s important that there is variety in each of the brush strokes and this is where Jitter comes into play. Think of Jitter as meaning Randomize and so when we see it such as in the Brush Panel, the higher percentage we increase the Jitter, the more variance there will be each and every time you lift off and re-apply a brush stroke. TIP Colour Grading There are many ways to add a colour theme into your pictures to add mood and an atmosphere. The common term given to this is Colour Grading and the method you choose is a matter of personal taste. Plug Ins such as those from OnOne and the Nik Color Efex from Google have presets but there are also simple ways in Photoshop. One such way is a Selective Color Adjustment Layer set to Neutrals from the Colors drop down menu and then using the sliders to dial in a colour grading you like.

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