Photoshop: Create water drops - how it works

In this practical tip, we explain how you can create realistic water drops in Photoshop via digital image painting.

Create water drops in Photoshop

The image effect of close-ups is usually increased by water drops because they make the motif appear more plastic, increase the tension and become another eye-catcher. With the versatile tools of the extensive photo editing program Photoshop, object pictures can also be provided with water drops afterwards. In our picture gallery we show you the individual steps in more detail.

1. Start Photoshop and open your desired image to be spiced up with drops of water.
2. Create a new level and name it according to your ideas.
3. Now select the "Selection Ellipse Tool" tool in the vertical toolbar on the left. Then draw an ellipse in your picture and determine the position and size of your artificial water drop.
4. Your ellipse must now be filled with a gradient using the "Gradient tool" in the "Fill tools". Set the "Linear curve" function. Click on the horizontal color bar to set the gradient to "black and white" in a new window (see screenshot). Make sure that you previously registered "black" as the foreground color and "white" as the background color. Confirm your settings and now drag a gradient, for example diagonally, over your ellipse so that it is colored with the desired gradient.
5. In order for the effect of the gradient to appear, you have to use the "Copy" effect under "Normal".
6. Then add your drop-down image editing function in the menu bar via "Layer" -> "Layer Style" to promote the three-dimensional appearance of your drop.
7. A new window opens in which you can define the structure of the drop shadow. Set the blending mode to "Linear post-exposure", the opacity to "25", the "Distance" and the "Size" to "10", define an angle of the shadow and remove the checkmark at "Use global light", Make these settings as a precaution and check your settings at the same time on your subject. The numbers are only recommendations and the angle is only an orientation value, which should above all be adapted to the lighting situation of your picture.
8. Under "Drop shadow inside" you can equip your water drop with an inside drop shadow. Here too, enter "Linear post-exposure" for the blending method, "45" for the opacity and "5" for the distance and size. Remove the tick again and set an angle before confirming. Due to the outer and inner drop shadows, the water drop looks like a foreign body on your motif.
9. In the last step, add some shine by placing a small white dot on the top of your water drop with the help of the brush tool, thereby simulating a fine reflection of light. Your drop of water is ready and can be reproduced at any time.

We will show you in another practical tip how you can let it rain on your photos with Photoshop.