A Photoshop tutorial that will help you create water drops using a very simple and scalable technique. All you need is a picture with a surface that’s prone to have water drops. We’re using a beer mug just for demonstration  purposes (Of course ).

Because the values you will encounter in this tutorial are size and color dependent we recommend you use the same image. You can get the image here.

Preview

1/3 The Water Drop

Open the image, select the Ellipse Tool {}, set the Mode to Shape Layers {} and draw out a small circle.

After you create it, you need to apply a somewhat neutral color to the shape. Just click the color box in the upper right corner while Photoshop’s Ellipse tool {} is still selected and choose a 50% Black color.

Click the circle shape layer and set the Blending mode to “Overlay” . The Overlay blending mode screens the colors, based on the background color. Colors “overlay” the existing image while preserving its highlights and shadows.

To add realism to the water drop we need to apply various effects to it.

Right click the layer and click “Blending options”. Select the “Drop Shadow” box and change the opacity to 15 percent, the angle to 90 deg, distance to 3 pixels,  and the Spread and Size to 5. Set the contour to “CONE” so the shadow will spread towards the left and right sides of the drop. Also check the Anti Aliased box for a smoother result.

Select the “Inner Shadow” box, set the Opacity to 15 percent, the choke to 0, and the distance and size to 5 pixels (these values depend on the size of the water drop so make sure to play around with them and understand what they change)

Now select the “Inner Glow” box,  set the Blend Mode to “Multiply”, opacity to 20 percent, switch the color to 100 percent black, keep the size to 5 and the Range at 50 percent.

Hit the “Bevel and Emboss” box. Change the size to 12 pixels, angle to 90 and set the altitude to 70. Also change the Highlight Mode to Normal, switch the shadow Mode to Overlay, the color to White and the opacity to 90 percent. Hit ok and your Water Drop is done.

For a slightly different result you can play with the Bevel and Emboss size. Make sure you play around with it to notice the difference.

To give it a more realistic look you can click the Direct Selection Tool {} from the left panel and click the water drop outline. Now pull-up the upper node to give it a more realistic shape.

2/3 Resizing the water drop

To change the size of the water droplet without ruining it, select the layer, set the blending mode to normal, drop the Fill to 0%,   right click the layer and click “Convert to smart object. If you need to edit it later just double click the smart object.

3/3 Optional Tweaks

If you look at a any puddle or water drop you’ll see the image behind it looks distorted. The miracle of Optics. Thus, no self-respecting water droplet is complete without background lens distortion.

To get that effect, hold down ctrl and click the water drop layer icon. This will create a selection in the shape of the water drop. After this, select the background layer and go to the “Filter/Distort” menu and click the RIPPLE entry. Toy around with the settings ’till it looks good.

Í lok

We’ve added some bubbles using our air bubble brush {download it here} and multiplied the droplets. This is what we got:

Keep in mind that most of the values are size dependent. We recommend that you try different sizes and shapes so you understand this Photoshop Tutorial better. If you need to apply the technique to liquid of a different color you should also use Photoshop’s “Color Overlay” Blending Option and play around with it until you get it to look right.

We hope you’ve had fun with this tutorial.