Applying a Water Effect

You can use the Water effect to insert an expanse of water below the subject of a photo and to display a reflection of the subject in the water. You can control the position of the water below the subject. For example, you can position the water below a person's chin, or below their waist. You can also control the appearance of ripples in the water and how dark or light the water appears.

You can save your settings as a preset for future use.

To Apply a Water Effect:

  1. In Edit mode, in the Add group, select Special Effect.

    2. You can also access the Special Effects menu from the Filter drop-down menu or Filter toolbar.

  2. Click Water.
  3. On the Water panel, set the options as described below.
  4. Do one of the following:
    • Click Done to accept your changes and close the panel.
    • Click Cancel to discard your changes and close the panel.

Water Options

Position

Specifies the position of the water below the subject of the photo.

Amplitude

Specifies the height of the ripples in the water. Drag the slider to the left to reduce the height of the ripples and the distortion caused by the ripples. Drag the slider to the right to increase the height of the ripples and the distortion caused by the ripples.

Wavelength

Specifies the distance between ripples. Drag the slider to the left to reduce the distance between ripples and increase the distortion caused by the ripples. Drag the slider to the right to increase the distance between ripples and reduce the distortion caused by the ripples.

Perspective

Changes the size of the waves as they get farther from the subject. Drag the slider to the left to increase the size of the waves farthest from the subject and to increase the illusion of distance.

Lighting

Specifies the amount of light in the water.

You can right-click a slider to reset to the default value.

You can use the Edit Brush to paint this effect onto specific areas of your image.

You can use the Gradient tool to transition this effect across specific areas of your image.

You can use the Radial Gradient tool to apply effects around, or directly to, a center point.

See also: