Fancy creating some cool, glass-like effects on your photographs? Try these stylish Photoshop actions from Envato Elements to bring new life to your images.
In this tutorial, you’ll see how to create wet glass, shattered glass, and plexiglass looks with your image using actions. All of these actions are available as part of an Elements subscription.
What You’ll Learn
- How to make a wet glass effect in Photoshop with an action
- How to use an action to make a broken glass effect in Photoshop
- How to use Photoshop to make a plexiglass effect
What You’ll Need
- Wet Glass Photoshop Action
- gray road under cloudy sky by Casey Horner
- Shatter Glass Photoshop Action
- woman wearing white crew-neck shirt and black shorts by Diego Rosa
- Plexiglass – 15 Abstract Effects
- Paris Eiffel Tower photography by Adam Birkett
1. How to Make a Wet Glass Effect in Photoshop
Wet Glass is a realistic effect that easily adds a hot-and-humid, rainy day look to your photos in just a few clicks. As an added bonus, you can also write or draw ‘onto’ the glass in the style of a finger drawing. There are three wet glass images to choose from and ten colours.
Before You Get Started
You’ll need to download and install the action.
This is the image I’ll be using to demonstrate.
Run the Action
This glass effect doesn’t require any prep in Photoshop, so you can go ahead and open the image and run the action. The action process will stop and tell you to add one of the images included in the download.
You may need to resize it to fit the dimensions of your image, but it’ll give you the chance to do that.
Make Adjustments
There are ten colour adjustments to choose from. Which you select will probably be based on the colours already in your image. I’ve gone for a mix of 09 and 06 at low opacities (around 25%) each, just to even out the colours and make it look a little starker.
Under Blurred you’ll find three options so you can make your background more or less focused depending on how wet you want the image to look. I increased it a little to make the road look smoother.
Write on the Glass
Next, you’ll want to write your message on the window to complete the Photoshop glass effect. There’s a layer called Write/Draw here, and it’ll come as no surprise to you to hear that this is where you write your message.
If you’re struggling to see it on your image, there’s a layer above called Write Overlay. If you lower the opacity on that slightly, it’ll bring some black through onto your writing.
Finished Result
2. How to Make a Broken Glass Effect in Photoshop
Create a realistic broken glass effect with Shatter Glass Photoshop Action. As well as the action itself, the pack comes with some textured photographs to layer over the top of your image.
Before You Get Started
You’ll need to download and install the action.
This is the image I’ll be using to demonstrate this Photoshop glass effect:
Run the Action
Create a layer called brush and brush over your subject using a hard, round brush. Hit play on the ShatterGlass action. Ignore Finalize for now.
The process will stop and ask you to place one of the included glass texture images in Photoshop.
When you’ve chosen and placed your Photoshop glass texture, the action will continue.
Make Adjustments
You can see that the image has been reflected in the pieces of glass, and some global contrast has been added.
There’s a little too much ‘glow’ on the glass, so to change that, head to the Glass folder and change the Opacity (or hide altogether) on some of the Glow layers and also the L1, L, S… and so on, layers. I’ve highlighted them for you below.
Finalize
Once you have the image the way you want it, you can go back to the Actions tab and run Finalize. This will flatten your image, so make sure you’ve saved it somewhere first!
Doing that will add extra contrast and give you three Curves options to choose from to add further colour and contrast to the image.
3. How to Make Plexiglass Abstract Effects
Add abstract and unique glass effects to your photographs with Plexiglass for Photoshop. There are 15 options to add colours and borders, brightening up dull images.
Before You Start
You’ll need to download and install the action.
Run the Action
Hit play all and you’ll find the various options in your History panel rather than Layers.
The Photoshop glass effects range from the cutely coloured:
To the bold and more graphic design oriented:
There isn’t much in the way of adjustment here, but each effect does at least have the option to adjust the gradient colour used and also to remove the border.
Cool Photoshop Glass Effects From Envato Elements
You can play around with even more glass textures and effects in Photoshop thanks to Envato Elements. The all-you-can-download creative platform has lots of unique styles you can pick from, and they’re included in your subscription. Let’s take a look at a few together.
1. Broken Glass Photo Effect for Photoshop (PSD)
What I like about this effect is that it doesn’t go overboard with its Photoshop glass texture. It takes your image and adds subtle, realistic breaks and cracks to it. The result is believable and can be applied across a number of photos. It’s a great choice if you like the look of a broken glass effect in Photoshop.
2. Glass Ripple Photo Effect (PSD)
There aren’t many Photoshop glass textures that have an effect like this one. Glass Ripple creates an artistic look that makes portraits stand out. Try it out on different subjects to create a distinct photo with a timeless glass effect in Photoshop.
3. Glass Overlay Photo Effect (PSD)
This glass effect for Photoshop looks like taking a peek through a cloudy window pane. What’s nice is that you can adjust both the placement and size of the overlay. Use this glass texture in Photoshop to spark some intrigue in the eyes and minds of anyone looking at your images.
4. Glass Prism Photo Effect (PSD)
You can’t talk about cool Photoshop glass effects without mentioning prisms. The bright colours only add to an effect that multiplies the subject of your photos. It’s easy to use thanks to the included help file. Try adding some grain to your final image to add even more glass texture in Photoshop.
5. Arranged Glass Texture Effect in Photoshop (PSD)
Typically a broken glass effect in Photoshop will be ruled by chaos. But Arranged Glass takes a different approach. The result creates an interesting mosaic in your photos. If you want an easy way to add a high-quality Photoshop glass texture, you’ll want to make sure you download this option.
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