Hi everyone, Steve Patterson here
from PhotoshopEssentials.com. In this
video, I'll show you how to blend text
into clouds in Photoshop. By the end of
the video, you'll know how to blend text
not just into clouds but into any
background you like! I'll be using
Photoshop CC but any recent version will
work. Thanks for watching and let's get
started! To create the effect, you'll need
a photo of clouds. I'll use this image
that I downloaded from Adobe Stock. If we
look in the Layers panel, we see that
I've already gone ahead and added some
text, which is sitting on a Type layer
above the Bbackground layer. I'll turn the
text on by clicking the Type layer's
visibility icon. And now we see the words
"creative clouds", a little spin on Adobe's
Creative Cloud, in front of the image.
I've added a gradient and an outer glow
just to make the text easier to see. At
the moment, the text is sitting in front
of the image. To blend the text into the
image, we can use Photoshop's Blending
Options. Double- click on an empty gray
area of the Type layer.
This opens the Layer Style dialog box
set to the Blending Options. If we look
down at the bottom, we see two sliders.
The slider on top is labeled "This Layer",
and the slider below it is labeled
"Underlying Layer". These are commonly
known as Photoshop's Blend If sliders.
and they let us blend our currently-selected layer with the layers below it
based on the luminosity, or the
brightness values, of the layers. To blend
the text in with the image, the only
slider we need is the bottom one, the one
labeled "Underlying Layer". We can use this slider to hide parts of our text based
on the brightness values of the image
below it. First, make sure that the Blend
If option above the sliders is set to
Gray. Then click on the white slider
below the right side of the "Underlying
Layer" gradient bar and begin dragging it
towards the left. When you reach a
certain point, you'll see the text begin
to disappear into the brightest parts of
the image, which in this case is the
clouds.
And that's because, by dragging the white
slider to a darker part of the gradient,
we're telling Photoshop to hide the text
in any areas where the image below it, or
behind it, is this brightness level or
brighter. In this case, it's anywhere
where the image is at a brightness level
of 180 all the way up to pure white at
255.
If we continue dragging the white slider
further to the left, we see more of the
text disappearing into darker and darker
parts of the sky. And if I drag the
slider back to the right, the text in
those darker areas reappears. Notice that
the transition between the text and the
clouds looks too harsh.
To fix that, on a Windows PC, press and
hold the Alt key on your keyboard. On a
Mac, press and hold the Option key. Then,
click on either side of the slider and
drag to split the slider apart. We now
have two halves of the slider that we
can move independently of each other. The half on the left sets the maximum
brightness value of the image where the
text in front of it will remain
completely visible. The half on the right
does the opposite. It sets the minimum
brightness of the image where the text
will be completely hidden. In other words,
anywhere where the image is pure black
up to this brightness level, we'll see the
text. And anywhere where the image is
this brightness level up to pure white
we'll see the image.
The area in between the two halves
creates a gradual transition between the
text and the image.
The greater the distance, the smoother
the transition, allowing the text to
blend more naturally into the clouds.
You'll want to adjust each half of the
slider to fine-tune the effect. Notice
that if I drag the left half too far
into the darker shades, the letters begin
to fade into the sky, and that's not what
I want, so I'll drag it back to the right
until the text reappears. Then I'll drag
the right half further to the right so
we can see more of the text through the
brightest parts of the clouds. I'll drag
the dialog box down a bit so we can see
the effect on the text in the upper
right. So far we've used the white slider
on the right to blend the text into the
lighter parts of the image. But there's
also a black slider on the left
that we could use to blend the text into
the darker areas. If we were blending the
text into a different background,
something other than clouds, then we
could drag the black slider towards the
right. And as we do, we see the text
disappearing into the darkest areas of
the image.
And just like with the white slider, we
could press and hold the Alt key on a
Windows PC, or the option key on a Mac,
and drag the slider to split it in half
and create a smoother transition.
But in this case, all we're doing is
blending the text into the sky, which
isn't what we want. So I'll click on the
right half of the black slider and I'll
drag it back to the left half. This
merges the two halves back into a single
slider. Then I'll drag the slider back
over to its original spot on the left.
And now we're back to blending the text
only into the clouds. When you're done
adjusting the sliders, click OK to close
the Layer Style dialog box. And there we
have it! That's how to blend text into
clouds, or into any background image,
using the Blending Options in Photoshop!
As always, I hope you enjoyed this video,
and if you did, please consider Liking it,
Sharing it and Subscribing to our
Channel.
Visit our website, photoshopessentials.com,
for more tutorials! Thanks for
watching and I'll see you next time!
I'm Steve Patterson from PhotoshopEssentials.com.
