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Create exploding photo effects (part 1) 

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Tips & Tutorials, by Mark White 

Freeze time and capture explosive images normally invisible to the naked eye

. Get selective

Open your image, set the Magic Wand to a Tolerance of 15 and check Contiguous in the Options bar. Select all of background then hit Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+I to invert. Click the Refine Edge button and copy these settings: View Mode OWhite, Smart Radius 79.1px, Feather 1.4px and Decontaminate Colour on with Amount 100%, then hit OK.

2. Perfect cutout

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Drag the newly created mask over the trash icon and click Apply in the following window. Create a new RGB canva3,071 x 3,626,and then fill the Background with the colour #090c1f. Drag your light bulb thumbnail onto the newanvas to create a new layer and rename it Hands/bulb. Now use the Patch and Clone tools to remove the two largeflections.

3. Broken glass

Open an image of shattered glass and resize it to cover the bulb. Reduce the layer Opacity to around 50%, thenaccess Warp via Transform and apply an inflate preset with the Bend value at 70%. Select and delete some areas.Active selections can also be repositioned with the Move tool to shift segments.

4. Merge layers

Set the layer back to 100% Opacity, add a white layer below and then merge them into one. Press Shift/Ctrl+Cmd+

o Desaturate, then hit Ctrl/Cmd+L to access Levels and set the Input midpoint to 0.72 and whitepoint to 145. Go tomage>Crop, ensure the displacement is the target layer then select all and copy.

5. Displacement map

Create a new canvas, accepting the clipboard preset and set the mode to Grayscale. Paste the selection and flattehen save it as ‘displacement.psd’. Back in your project file, disable the visibility of the displacement layer, thenduplicate the Hand/bulb layer and rename it Bulb Shutter.

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8/19/2019 Create Exploding Photo Effects

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t’s important to match the tonal and colour range of both light bulbs, so c lip a Levels adjustment to the Broken Bulbayer with the following settings: Input blackpoint: 40, midpoint 0.90 and whitepoint 179. Next clip a Colour Balanceadjustment to the same layer with midtone Red at -9, midtone Blue at +16, highlight Red at -12 and highlight Blue a+5.

Create exploding photo effects (part 2) 

Posted in:

Tips & Tutorials, by Mark White 

Part 2 of our beautiful exploding lightbulb tutorial!

0. Continuity counts

Target the Bulb/hand layer and clip a Levels adjustment. Change the input midpoint to 0.63 and the whitepoint to 2Both your light bulbs should now blend seamlessly and their colour and tonal range match much better.

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1. Linear gradients

Place a new layer above the Background and label it Grad. With your Foreground colour black, set the Gradient toohe Foreground to Transparent preset and select Linear in the Options bar. Now press Shift and drag from the top a

bottom.

2. New layer via copy

Shift-click the Hand/bulb mask thumbnail to disable it then use the Polygonal Lasso to select the top-right portion. HShift+F6 to access the Feather window and enter 2px. Now press Ctrl/Cmd+J to copy as a new layer and name it Bop. Move this layer to the top of the stack then enable the Hand/bulb mask again.

3. Add style

Mask any excess on the Bulb top layer, then add a Bevel and Emboss layer style to give the glass a little thickness

with Style set to Inner Bevel, Technique to Chisel Hard, Depth to 100%, Direction Down, Size 3px and Soften 6px.Click the New Style button to save the preset, then apply it to the Bulb Shatter layer too.

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7. Glowing particles

Now we’ll reproduce some glowing particles caused by the black. Import a firework stock image, again in Screenmode, but this time place it above the Bulb top layer and position top left. Add an inverted mask, then reinstate theentral area with a large soft brush as before. Name this layer Flash 5.

8. Glass fragments

Now incorporate elements of a fragmented glass picture. Place it as an upper layer and enlarge to cover the wholeanvas with a blend mode of Screen and Opacity at 85%. Add a mask and hide the bottom half with a black toransparent linear gradient, then continue to paint on the mask as required. Clip a Levels adjustment with the Input

midpoint at 0.52 and whitepoint at 206.

9. Colour boost

Add a top layer in Colour Mode, then paint with a soft brush at a low opacity with pastel yellows and purples tontensify the colour a little. Concentrate your strokes over the main explosion and, if you over do it, reduce the layeropacity to compensate. Finally, add some white glass particles on another layer with custom brushes.

Tags: brushes, creative, exploding, fragments, layer styles, layers, lighting, masks, Photoshop, tutorial