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CS6
Written by Steve Patterson.
In this photo effects tutorial, we’ll learn how to “ghost” an image. In other words, we’ll see how to
give someone in a photo a more ghostly, supernatural look, a great effect whether you’re a fan of
horror movies or just looking for a fun and easy way to spruce up a photo for Halloween. This new
version of our original Ghosting An Image tutorial is now fully updated for Photoshop CS6 and
compatible with Photoshop CC (Creative Cloud). Check out the original version if you’re using
Photoshop CS5 or earlier.
New in this version of the tutorial, we’ll be using Smart Objects and Smart Filters to create much of
the effect, and we’ll also be taking advantage of Photoshop’s ability to nest Smart Objects inside of
other Smart Objects! As we’ll see, the benefit is that each of the Smart Filters we’ll be applying to the
image will have its own unique layer mask! If that sounds more advanced than your current
Photoshop skill level, don’t worry. As with all of our Photoshop tutorials, I’ll be explaining every step
along the way.
Download our tutorials as print-ready PDFs! Learning Photoshop has never been easier!
Of course, when creating any type of photo effect, it helps to start with the right type of image. Here’s
the one I’ll be using (girl in field photo from Shutterstock):
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And here’s what the final "ghosting" effect will look like:
Let’s convert this Background layer into a Smart Object. Click on the small menu icon in the top right
corner of the Layers panel:
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Clicking the Layers panel menu icon.
It won’t look like anything has happened to the image, but we can now see a small Smart Object
icon in the bottom right corner of the layer’s preview thumbnail in the Layers panel. This is
Photoshop’s way of telling us the layer is now a Smart Object:
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Step 2: Apply The Motion Blur Filter
We’ll use a couple of Photoshop’s filters to create the main ghosting effect, and we’ll start with the
Motion Blur filter. Go up to the Filter menu in the Menu Bar along the top of Photoshop’s interface,
choose Blur, then chooseMotion Blur:
This opens the Motion Blur filter’s dialog box. Start by setting the Angle for the blur to 0°. Then,
increase the amount of blurring by dragging the Distance slider along the bottom of the dialog box.
The further you drag it to the right, the more motion blur will be applied. The exact amount you use
will depend a lot on the size of your image. In the original version of this tutorial, I was using a fairly
small photo so I set my Distance value to around 95 pixels. This time, I’m using a much larger image
so to achieve the same amount of blurring, I need to set the value much higher (to around 500
pixels). The easiest thing to do is to keep an eye on your image in the document window to judge the
results as you drag the slider:
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Click OK when you’re done to close out of the Motion Blur dialog box. Your blur effect should look
similar to this:
If we look again in the Layers panel, we see that because we first converted the Background layer
into a Smart Object, the Motion Blur filter was added as a Smart Filter. If you don’t think you added
enough of a blurring effect, or maybe you added too much, just double-click on the Motion Blur
filter’s name below the Smart Object to re-open its dialog box and re-adjust the Distance slider. Your
changes will be instantly updated in the image (click OK to close out of the dialog box again when
you’re done):
Double-click on the Motion Blur Smart Filter to change its settings if needed.
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Step 3: Select The Smart Filter Mask
Click on the Smart Filter’s mask thumbnail in the Layers panel to select the mask. A white highlight
border will appear around it letting you know it’s selected:
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The current Foreground (upper left) and Background (lower right) colors.
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Choosing a round, soft-edge brush.
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The image after painting with black on the Smart Filter mask.
If we look at the mask thumbnail in the Layers panel, we can see where we painted with black. The
rest of the area (filled with white) is where the motion blur effect remains at full strength:
The Smart Filter mask thumbnail shows the areas painted over with black.
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Filters applied to the same Smart Object. We've already used that mask to hide some of the motion
bur effect, so how can we get a separate mask for our second filter?
The answer is simple. We just need to nest our existing Smart Object inside another one! To do that,
with the original Smart Object selected in the Layers panel, click once again on the menu icon in the
top right corner of the Layers panel:
Choose Convert to Smart Object from the list, just as we did before:
It looks like we've lost our original Smart Object in the Layers panel, or at least lost the Motion Blur
Smart Filter that was listed below it, but what's actually happened is that Photoshop has nested our
initial Smart Object, along with its Motion Blur filter effect, inside a brand new Smart Object:
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The initial Smart Object is now nested inside the new one.
This opens Photoshop's large Filter Gallery dialog box, with a preview area on the left, the filters and
filter categories in the middle column, and options for the currently selected filter on the right. Click
on the Distortcategory in the middle column to twirl it open, then click on the Diffuse Glow filter to
select it:
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Clicking the Distort category, then choosing Diffuse Glow.
Click OK when you're done to accept your settings and close out of the Filter Gallery. Here's my
image with Diffuse Glow applied:
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The image after applying the Diffuse Glow filter.
If we look in the Layers panel, we see the Filter Gallery listed as a Smart Filter under the Smart
Object. We also see that because we nested our initial Smart Object inside this second one, we now
have a brand new mask to use with our Diffuse Glow filter, even though there's nothing we need to
do with it since we want the Diffuse Glow effect to apply to the entire image:
If you want to go back and edit any of your settings for the Diffuse Glow filter, simply double-click on
the Filter Gallery Smart Filter. Or, if you find your glow effect is too strong, you can reduce its opacity
value by double-clicking on the Blending Options icon:
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Double-clicking the Blending Options icon for the Smart Filter.
This will open the Blending Options dialog box where you can either lower the filter's opacity or
change its blend mode. You'll want to leave the blend mode set to Normal, but I'll lower my opacity
down to 90% just to reduce the glow effect a little bit:
Click OK when you’re done to close out of the dialog box. Here’s my image after lowering the
opacity:
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The effect after lowering the opacity of the Diffuse Glow filter.
Photoshop adds a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer directly above the Smart Object in the
Layers panel:
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The Layers panel showing the newly added adjustment layer.
The controls and options for the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer appear in Photoshop's Properties
panel. First, select the Colorize option near the bottom of the panel by clicking inside its checkbox.
This will allow us to colorize the entire image with a single color. Then, drag the Hue slider left or
right to select a color. You'll see the color changing in the document as you drag the slider. I think a
greenish blue works well for the ghosting effect so I'll set my Hue value to around 180:
Select the Colorize option, then choose a color with the Hue slider.
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The effect of the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
Step 12: Change The Blend Mode To Color And Lower The
Opacity
Finally, change the blend mode of the Hue/Saturation layer from Normal to Color. The difference may
be slight, but this will allow the adjustment layer to affect only the colors in the image without
affecting the brightness values. You'll find the blend mode option in the top left of the Layers panel.
Directly across from the blend mode option is the Opacity option. Lowering it from its default value of
100% will allow some of the original colors from the image to show through. You may or may not like
the result with your image so this final step is optional, but in my case, I'll lower the opacity to around
60%:
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Changing the blend mode and lowering the opacity.
And with that, we're done! Here, for comparison, is the original image once again:
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And here, after changing the blend mode and lowering the opacity of the Hue/Saturation adjustment
layer, is my final "ghost" effect:
And there we have it! That's how to add a ghostly, supernatural look to a photo with Photoshop CS6
and Photoshop CC!
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