The Wonders of Photoshop's Clouds Filter

[sdecker]

Hey everyone, I recently wrote a tutorial about ways to use Photoshop's "clouds" filter over at my blog The Sassy Shutterbug, and I thought I'd share it here as well:

Oh, clouds. When did my love affair with the "Clouds" filter first start? I can't even remember. I think it was around the time I started downloading a lot of Photoshop Actions that used it and I realized how amazing it is. "Clouds" can make noisy skies less noisy. They can make a bland background more textured. The first time I ever tried "clouds," though, I was completely underwhelmed. Open up an image right now in Photoshop and duplicate the layer (CTRL+J). Now go to Filters-->Render-->Clouds. Wow, that is pure ugliness, right? It's so amazing that something so blah and ugly can make your photos more textured and beautiful. Now change the blend mode of the layer from Normal to Soft Light. Now we're talkin', right? That's essentially what I did on the image above of the Eiffel Tower. I knew I needed a little something extra to make this oft-photographed icon look unique. You'll probably need to mask out or erase the parts of your subject that you don't want the clouds over. Here's another example of the same technique:

(Please click to view - the forum won't let me post more than 4 images)

But it doesn't have to stop there. Applying a radial blur (Filter-->Blur-->Radial Blur) can have some cool effects. Here is an example with the "zoom" blur:
The sky was too noisy and ugly so I made it look like a long exposure with the zoom radial blur (I made the center of the blur just below the skyline). Choosing the spin blur (also in the radial blur dialog box) makes for some unrealistic yet nifty effects. Here's an example:
And one more way I like to use clouds: when you've got an overcast sky that is completely white, it looks very dramatic!
So, basically, "Clouds" is cool. You just need to know how to use it. How else do you use "Clouds"?

View this post on the Sassy Shutterbug blog

[Stryker]

Thanks, sdecker, for pointing out something that I will certainly find useful. Especially when we have that dreary white sky. Now if only I could learn how to effectively draw a selection mask...

[sdecker]

Thanks Stryker! You don't even need to draw a selection mask, using a brush with a hardness of 0 will generally blend it in just fine. Just add a layer mask (Layer-->Mask-->Reveal All) to your layer and use a soft-edged black brush to brush away the parts you don't want covered with clouds. If you make a mistake, press X to paint it back in, and X again to go back to painting away the clouds.

[Stryker]

Thanks again, sdecker. By the way, I really like what you have done with your pictures, especially the last one. Could you share what PP you did for that one, apart from the cloud filter?

[sdecker]

Thanks! I got a lot of questions on what I did to the last one...besides the clouds, I also used a filter called Topaz Adjust, which adds a pseudo-HDR effect, and I lightly cross-processed the image...apart from that there may have been some slight color tweaks but I can't rememember at this point.

[hugy789]

cool tutorial, thanks

[dseymour]

One more thing. If you sample two colors out of the sky, you don't even have to set the blend mode unless you want to lighten or darken certain parts or change some colors via Hue and Saturation. [Screen or Multiply].