How to Create a Cool Glitch Photo Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Final product image — What You’ll Be Creating

Photo effects are a great way to practice and harness your Photoshop skills. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to create a fun photo glitch effect using Marquee Tools, the Wave Filter, and more!

Looking for glitch effect Photoshop actions? Once you’ve learned how to make a glitch effect in Photoshop, it’s time to find creative resources for your next project on Envato Elements, like this one:

Glitch Photography Distortion Photo Effect Glitch PSD — Glitch Effect Photo Distortion on Envato Elements

Working with pro glitch effect add-ons will easily show you how to make a glitch effect in Photoshop. Find a huge library of glitch pictures for inspiration to create whatever glitch photo effect you’d like. And explore Envato Elements and GraphicRiver’s libraries of glitch effects to find add-ons ready to use!

Learning how to do a glitch effect is easier than you think. Follow along with us over on our Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel:

Want to create more fun photo effects, without needing any in-depth Photoshop skills? Try these:

Photo Glitch Basics: What You Need to Know

It’s time to learn how to do a glitch effect. In order to get the best result possible when achieving effects based on real-life scenarios, it helps to do your research.

So what is a glitch? The kind of glitch we’ll be tackling is common to television or video games. These glitches are software errors or bugs that are often caused by a corrupted signal. The end result leaves your screen incredibly distorted and hard to make out.

For this tutorial, we’ll need to keep in mind some key visual characteristics to achieve this look. These are:

jagged lines or waves
frozen or static-looking visuals
inverted colors

Now that you know what a glitch is, do a couple of web searches to keep some inspiration and references on deck. Refer to them often to experiment with this style for yourself.

Glitch Photo Effect Alternative Version by Melody Nieves — Alternate version. Gather glitch effect references to help achieve this look! Stock from Freepik.

If you’re having trouble achieving this glitch design look, don’t forget that you can always bypass this process. Just download one of our incredible glitch photography effects from Envato Elements and GraphicRiver. You’ll find a huge variety of glitch effect Photoshop actions.

What You’ll Learn in This Glitch Effect Photoshop Tutorial

How to set up the glitch photo effect
How to desaturate a photo
How to create a linear glitch distortion
How to create a wavy glitch distortion
How to create a simple 3D effect

1. How to Set Up the Glitch Photo Effect

Step 1

Let’s begin! I’ll be using a stock image from PhotoDune for this tutorial. (Note: the original image is no longer available. You can find another stock photo of people from either PhotoDune or Envato Elements.)

For this glitch how-to, it helps if you choose a stock where the model has edges that you can see clearly because we’ll need to extract it from its background. It’s also an added bonus if the background is a solid color or not too distracting, like these wooden panels.

Hipster Man Stock from PhotoDune — Notice how you can clearly see all the edges of this model. Make sure you choose a stock with a model you can easily extract.

Double-click the Background layer to make it a New Layer. Create a New Layer (Control-Shift-N) positioned underneath your reference. Set the Foreground Color to white, and Fill the layer with white using the Paint Bucket Tool (G).

Glitch How to Tutorial Setup the Layers for a Glitch Photo Effect

Step 2

Select the Magnetic Lasso Tool (L). This will help us extract the reference by easily snapping to the sides of your model. Use the Magnetic Lasso Tool (L) to create a complete selection around the model. When you’re finished, Right-click and select Layer via Copy to create a quick duplicate.

How to Make Glitch Art Tutorial Use the Magnetic Lasso Tool to Extract the Subject — Make sure you keep the original stock. The end result is what the stock would look like on its own layer.

Step 3

Select the original stock. Use the Free Transform Tool (Control-T) to bring in the sides of the background to expose some of the white to the left and right.

Cool Glitch Art Photoshop Tutorial Squeeze the Sides with the Free Transform Tool

Alternatively, if your stock doesn’t have a background, you can just add a rectangle using the Rectangle Tool (U) like this example below.

Alternative Glitch Version with Rectangle Background — Alternatively, if your stock doesn’t have a background, add a quick rectangle. Stock from Freepik.