Ice

Did you ever make your own ice lollies as a kid? No? Its easy! Just pour some juice into a mould and pop it into the freezer compartment of the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Perfect for a hot summers day. Well, thankfully the following technique will add a little 'chill' to your images without the long wait.

Apply the Crystallize filter.

Apply Gaussian Blur and adjust the Curves.

Apply the Wind filter.

Final image.

Open a new greyscale file on a white background with a black foreground. Select the Text tool in the Toolbox and type some text. I've used Verdana at 70 points. Select your text (hold down the Control key and click on your text layer) and then flatten the image by choosing Layer>Flatten Image. Your selection should still be active. Choose Select>Inverse to inverse the selection.

Now go to Filter>Pixelate>Crystallize and set Cell Size to 10. Click the OK button. Now inverse the selection again. Go to Select>Inverse. Add some noise by choosing Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Set the Amount to 70 and check Gaussian in the Distribution section. Click the OK button

Adjust the curves.

Next we'll add a little Gaussian Blur. Select Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur with a Radius of 2.0 pixels. Click the OK button. Adjust the curves by selecting Image>Adjust>Curves. Create a curve by moving the pointer as illustrated in the screenshot on the right. Click the OK button. Now drop your selection. Select>None and invert the image. Image>Adjust>Invert.

Rotate the image 90 degrees clockwise. Select Image>Rotate Canvas>90 CW. Now apply the wind filter. Go to Filter>Stylize>Wind and set Method to Wind and Direction to From The Left and apply the filter. Rotate the image 90 degrees counter clockwise. Select Image>Rotate Canvas>90 CCW.

Change the mode to RGB. Select Mode>RGB Colour and then select Image>Adjust>Hue/Saturation. Check Colourize and set Hue to -175. Click the OK button.

To add a little sparkle to your image select the sparkle brush from the "Assorted Brushes" file in the Brushes directory. In the Brushes palette select Load Brushes, browse the Photoshop directory and locate the Brushes directory. Load the Assorted Brushes file. You'll notice that an assortment of custom brushes have now been added to the Brushes palette. Select the sparkle brush, make white your foreground colour, and add a few sparkles to your image with the Airbrush Tool.