Create a realistic effect of broken glass in Photoshop

Well here goes:






Step 1

The process behind this tutorial is very easy and fast. All you need is a background image and one of our brushes with broken glass. You can download the free sample if you are not a member.

For a background image, I downloaded this beautiful panoramic photo and opened it in Photoshop.




Step 2

Reduce congestion by going to Image> Adjustments Intensity>. Enter a saturation value of about -70 and +15 vitality.



Step 3

Just to add a nice touch to the scene, let's write something with a sans serif. I pepper tree, which is an open source clean and fresh.

Font color is # 56767d.



Opacity of the layer is too high in my opinion. Reduce by 40%. This is my result:



Step 5

At this point we can add the lens flare never boring! Create a new layer and fill it black. Then go to Filter> Render> Lens Flare.



Set the layer blending mode to screen to eliminate black areas. Done!



Step 6

Now we can create the effect of broken glass. Download our brushes broken glass, select a brush and click once on a new layer. Foreground color black.

Note that you could get the same effect with an image of shattered glass, but with a brush in Photoshop is easier.



Step 7

To make realistic effect, we have to remove the background area is covered by the glass. From the Layers window to select all layers except the one with the brush and click Ctrl + Alt + E (option + cmd + E for Mac) to merge them into a new layer. Then apply the blur filter (Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur) with a radius of about 3px.



Step 8

With the blurred layer still active, add a layer mask by clicking the appropriate button on the bottom of the Layers window.



Now you can use a round brush to remove black color some areas of the blurred background. Basically, with layer masks can be used brushes to remove black areas and white brushes to replace them without losing pixels.



Step 9

After all the "broken area" has been removed, the original background will be visible sharp and get a realistic effect broken glass:



Step 10

To finish the job, just play with a couple of adjustment layers. Start by radically change the color scheme with a gradient map layer (Layer> Adjustment> Gradient Map). Select the default gradient going from purple (# 6f156c) to green (# 00601b) to orange (fd7c00). Set the layer blending mode to Screen with opacity around 70%.



Step 11

For more vintage style, let's play a little with a color balance layer (Layer> Adjustment> Color Balance). I just changed the midtones until I liked:



Finite

Here is my final result! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.