Our 10th tutorial on AREA 1!
Today we’ll be learning about how to make abstract smoke in Adobe Photoshop.
Here’s what we are going to make:
So let’s get to work!
First, lets take our smoke image. I used this image.
See Screenshot 1.Open it in Adobe Photoshop and go to Image > Adjustments > Invert or press CTRL + I.
Now go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. There are 3 settings: a black point slider on the left, a grey point slider in the middle and a white slider on the right. You will be able to see the histogram change as you make these adjustments. Now try to bring the best contrast out of your image. See Screenshot 2.
Now select your image layer and go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp mask.
See Screenshot 3.Go to Layer > New > Layer and set the blending mode to Color and you can set the Opacity lower if you want.
See Screenshot 4.
Choose a brush with smooth edges and start colouring the smoke until you are satisfied.
See Screenshot 5.
That’s it!
Here’s my final result: Screenshot 6.
Hope you’ll enjoy this tutorial! Please leave a comment & thanks for the visit.
Don’t forget to 
subscribe to our RSS feed if you want to be the first who receives the latest posts on AREA 1, 
follow us on Twitter if you want to receive great links everyday or 
become a fan on Facebook! Remember that YOU can also 
write a guest post on AREA 1 and get 1 MONTH OF ADVERTISING!
Written by: Mihai Opariuc | Visit Website
My name is Opariuc Mihai, I'm a graphic/web designer from Ploiesti, Romania and I'm the owner of AREA 1. I hope we can share a lot of information, tips&tricks and ideas through this website. Follow me on Twitter or add me as a friend on Facebook.
I have been looking for a tutorial on how to make abstract smoke brushes in Photoshop. I didn’t realize that these images were made from photos of smoke (similar to how a cloud brush is made).
Do you have any suggestions on how to take the smoke photos to use? I want to make some of these smoke brushes for my website and need to make sure I don’t violate any copyrights. Thanks.
And thanks again for the tutorial.
Really good tutorial if you ask me, thanks a lot
Thanks for the comment
This is great tutorial. I have been tinkering with this for so long.