For my most recent work I wanted to create bubbles that would reflect my subject in a believable yet magical way. To do this I started by duplicating the main photo Layer >> Duplicate Layer.
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Next I scaled the duplicate to 25% of it's original size.
Edit >> Transform >> Scale. We also need to distort the duplicate. First I flipped it
Edit >> Transform >> Flip Horizontal or Vertical, then I distorted it further by adjusting the perspective.
Edit >> Transform >> Perspective![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vNvw7RYfsDBIbngIZu3zZKMj8KTIb95U2ISRMALZrnYuxqRTOPqjljyJSO8kM4NB_tnxSOnnKBHvyI0-26ogFrTZNrof0JGgJjozynd9uEFux_eGMGhYq7tXeOKYjcUw=s0-d)
Still doesn't look like a bubble does it? Here comes the fun part. Select the elliptical tool (
M) and draw out an area that's a perfect sphere (by holding shift). We want to get rid of everything outside of the bubble, now. So go to the to menu and choose "Select" then "Inverse" (
Select >> Inverse) then press delete. You've now deleted everything on the layer that will not be in the bubble.Press Command + D to deselect everything then Command click on the layer of the bubble. You should now have only the sphere selected.
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Now, the most important part of the process, distorting your image to be a sphere by using the "Spherize" option. select
Filter >> Distort >> Spherize. Use a setting of 100%.
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Now, click on your color window. You want to change your foreground color to a lighter color that is close to white on the color scale. You can use a darker color if you want but to give the illusion of transparency I chose a lighter color, and accented it with darker ones in the steps that follow.
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Now we're going to turn the "Sphere" layer into a more believable bubble. We do this by adjusting the "Layer Style" (
Layer >> Layer Style). Select "Gradiant Overlay" from the list and activate it. Click on the Gradient window and select "
Foreground to Transparent" set the opacity to "
Soft Light". Reduce Opacity by 7% down to 93%. Directly to the right of that window select "Reverse" and then change the Style to "Radial". Adjust the scale to your liking.
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Next go up to "Blend Options". Change the type to "Color Dodge" (or whatever looks best for your picture). At this point I also adjust the overall "Fill" of the layer to 65%.
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Now select "Inner Shadow". This step helps us define the 'spheriness' (I know it's not a word, shut up) of the bubble. In the "Structure" area set the "Blend Mode" to 'Soft Light'. I used the following settings
Distance >> 22px, Choke >> 54% and
Size >> 45px but experiment and find what works best for you.For my particular image I needed to create a magical aura around the bubbles. I did this by adjusting my
Outer Glow and
Inner Glow settings. I also duplicated my bubble several times to create more bubbles. These settings are not relevant to creating a believable bubble so I won't go over them here but the best way to figure out how to get an image like the one below is to experiment.
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_t_IoH2BIwS_du78o8EGAXakVb1bz-AJG8IYbqEA96C5W1cqBIvjcRmi0lvt-ueSzU6hAyx3rn2krn0VuYc0CRA3uiEuxjLZSoxCbw_mqnxOLeGlTYeBNfSLJS7-bFIsXg=s0-d)
So there you have it, a finished bubble with a the reflection of your background image!
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tji_fW_VMLA16nle-gcheBPyNC28c-EqCoz4mIrzGKiIlUmbLyuqDYpHdaj8wM7BDhp7LaN8uBwWcjIBZSQA7Usm5oy1mJiB43t6xNj8mPd7h-tXOvrXjWjFEOxP6dSVU=s0-d)
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