80 best Photoshop tutorials from 2013

November 11th, 2013
Photoshop

Our annual tradition on Creative Nerds is to showcase the best Photoshop tutorials from the current year. We have scoured the web , in order to roundup the top 80 best photoshop tutorials created this year. The post has a variety of various tutorials from text effects to photomanipulations. The post is a great resource for building and developing your design skills, perfect if you’re beginner or a veteran designer.

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1. Create a 3D Typographic Illustration

Modern artists often use more than one application to create their work. This often means working outside of Photoshop much of the time. In this tutorial, João Oliveira will create a 3D typographic illustration using Cinema 4D to build the 3D and Photoshop for the post-production.

2. Learn How to Create a Old Photo Film Vector Using Photoshop

Are you wary of using vectors in Photoshop? The truth is that Photoshop can be an excellent vector program if you get to learn it’s more advanced drawing features.

3. How to Make a Split-Flap Text Display in Photoshop

While in the real world split-flap displays are becoming obsolete in favor of digital displays in places like airports, train stations, bus stations, and so forth, they still live on as a symbol of travel. Whether you use them in app interfaces or a vintage-inspired design, I’m sure that you’ll find this tutorial interesting and useful. In this tutorial, we will use Photoshop to create a split-flap display.

4. Creative mixed-media composition in Adobe Photoshop CS5

This tutorial uses some basic layering and masking techniques, coupled with some 3D elements that we’ll montage together to create an interesting mixed-media collage with lots of depth. Layered PSD file included.

5. How To Create a Retro Style Race Poster in Photoshop

You’ll use Photoshop to put together the poster layout with various textures and brushes, but also switch back and forth to Illustrator to create the typographic elements.

6. Trace photos for beautiful line art

You’ll use Photoshop to put together the poster layout with various textures and brushes, but also switch back and forth to Illustrator to create the typographic elements.

7. Create a Paper Receipt in Adobe Photoshop

In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a simple paper receipt illustration in Adobe Photoshop.

8. Design Magical Fire Energy Text Effect in Photoshop

In this Photoshop tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to Design this Magical Fire Energy Text Effect in Photoshop. This is a beginner tutorial and I will show how easy it is to create a great looking text effect in Photoshop in just a few steps. We will come across some paintings, layer blending, and image adjustments.

9. How to Give Your Photos a Retro Effect with Photoshop

In this Photoshop tutorial, you’ll learn how to apply a retro effect to your photos. We’ll use adjustment layers, Photoshop brushes, the Gradient Tool, the Brush Tool, Photoshop filters, etc. to mimic the colors, light leaks, film edge burns, overexposure and other characteristics of an old, retro photograph.

10. Learn How to Create a Cyborg Warrior Being

In the tutorial you’re going to learn how to create a realistic cyborg warrior, amidst a destructive cityscape scene.

11. Create a Surreal “Parting of the Sea” Photo Manipulation

Water, by its very nature is difficult to convincingly incorporate into a composition. In this tutorial, you will discover how to combine advanced masking techniques, blending modes, adjustment layers and clever use of filters to part the sea and create a surreal photo manipulation.

12. Create a Trendy Retro Landscape Design in Photoshop

My number one most popular tutorial from last year described the process of creating a trendy retro cityscape in Photoshop. I’ve noticed the retro and vintage styles are still in vogue, so today let’s take a look at creating another design that captures the abstract theme of old album art. Follow this step by step Photoshop tutorial to manipulate a landscape photo with various color adjustments and lay out a typographic quote to create a retro style landscape design.

13. Create a Coca-Cola Can Using Adobe Photoshop

In this tutorial, I will teach you how to create a Coca-Cola can from scratch in Photoshop using shapes, brushes and layer styles. You are going to learn different techniques which you can apply to solve different problems in iconography, UI or web layouts. Photoshop is one of the most powerful programs out there and once you start learning your way around it, you’ll realize that what you can do with it is only limited by your imagination.

14. Double Exposure Style in Photoshop

So in this tutorial/case study I twill show you how to create this double exposure effect using Photoshop and some stock photos. The process is simple however it does take time to adjust the details.

15. Add texture to retro-styled artworks

So in this tutorial/case study I twill show you how to create this double exposure effect using Photoshop and some stock photos. The process is simple however it does take time to adjust the details.

16. Give photos a retro-inspired look using Adobe Photoshop CS5

In this tutorial, you’ll use channel mixing, blending modes and opacity techniques to create a retro-inspired look on an image using Adobe Photoshop CS5, for this masterclass, you’ll need a stock photo of a suitably retro model, plus a fabric texture. Layered PSD file included.

17. Abstract Sci-fi Style Energy Laser Beam Creation in Photoshop

In this tutorial, It will show you the steps to create Abstract Sci-fi Style Energy Laser Beam in Photoshop. We will go through some interesting techniques to create these beams, on top of a space background, such as lighting effect, colour overlay and image adjustment.

18. How to Create Simple Gold Text in Photo

In this short tutorial, I’ll show you how to create gold text using one of the most powerful features of Photoshop: Layer Styles (read this guide on Layer Styles if you’re not familiar with this feature). Once we’re done, we’ll be able to save our layer style and apply it every time we need gold text in our designs.

19. Create a Surreal, Scenic Photo Manipulation

In this tutorial you will create a dark surreal landscape featuring a stony face.

20. Create Abstract Photo Manipulation with Tree Bark Texture and Brush Elements

In this tutorial, It will show you the steps I took to Create this Abstract Manipulation with Tree Bark Texture and Brush Elements. Along the way, you will learn how you can apply layer masks to image adjustment layers to create unique effect, as well as learning to blend texture and to use various elements to create great abstract effect.

21. Draw an Electric Guitar in Photoshop

In this tutorial, you will draw an electric guitar in Photoshop. We will start by tracing its shape in Adobe Illustrator and then export those paths to Photoshop to add the final touches.

22. How To Give Your Photos a Gloomy Split Toning Effect

In this tutorial you’ll look at using Photoshop to replicate this classic technique in digital form, using Color Balance adjustments to achieve the same range of blue and yellow tones.

23. Tutorial on retro comic book effect in photoshop

In this tutorial you will learn how to apply the retro comic book effect to an image. Impress your friends by giving your photos retro comic effect!

24. Fantasy light effects in Photoshop

Usings Photoshop and Illustrator, it’s possible to create a fantasy scene using brushes and blur effects to their fullest.

25. Create a Simple Price Table in Adobe Photoshop

In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a simple price table using Photoshop.

26. How to Make a Beautiful Landing Page with Photoshop

In this web design tutorial you will be creating a captivating landing page with Adobe Photoshop. There is nothing complicated with this design. This landing page layout can be used for many types of websites, so feel free to modify the text, navigation menu, imagery, icons, and so forth to match your own particular needs. Some example use cases of this landing page design: a downloadable product (such as an e-book), a design agency landing page, a web app landing page, or a mobile app landing page.

27. Create a Detailed Microphone Illustration

You’ll be creating a detailed microphone illustration that’s totally vector based. You’ll master things like smart objects, warping your vector shapes, creating custom patterns, textures, lighting and more, all within a clean, non-destructive vector workflow.

28. Design Fluid Typography on Watercolour Background in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps to Design this Fluid Typography on Watercolour Background in Photoshop. We will mainly use custom brushes and the liquify tool to achieve this simple, but unique effect.

29. Create a Beautifully Designed 3D Starfish Icon

With just about everyone using a smart phone, it is important for mobile apps to have beautifully designed icons to represent the brand. In this tutorial, we will show you how to create a beautiful 3D starfish icon using several applications including Photoshop, Cinema 4D, and ZBrush. In the process we will show you how to create 3D objects and then combine them with textures in Photoshop to create an amazing icon.

30. Cinemagraph

No doubt you’ll have heard of the term Cinemagraph since it exploded onto the Internets. Originally coined by Photographers Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck, a cinemagraph is a clever revival of the classic animated GIF. It combines features of video and photography to create a the illusion of a still image but with cool motion effects. Let’s take a look at how to create your own animated GIF cinemagraph by playing around with Photoshop’s animation tools.

31. Design abstract book art

Nicolas Monin-Baroille created this tutorial’s artwork for a book accompanying last year’s OFFF creative festival in Barcelona. He says that his aim with the piece was to have something in his own style that was messy and calm at the same time – and in keeping with the event’s them of ‘Unknown Disorder’.

32. How to use brushes to enhance your portraits in Adobe Photoshop CS5

This tutorial is an example of how a few simple techniques can be used to create a piece of digital artwork using multiple layers, masking, the Brush tool, some basic lighting and one simple noise texture. Using the processes here, you will be able to apply the same techniques to your photomontage and create your own look. Layered PSD file included.

33. Design Unique Grass Wood Text Effect in Photoshop

In this Photoshop tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to Design this Unique Grass Wood text effect in Photoshop. This is an intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be a little tricky. We will come across techniques such as layer masking, image adjustments, blending, a number of filter effects. Have a try!

34. How to Paint Quick Realistic Fur Using Photoshop

You’ll be taken through the steps to create a realistic wolf using a photo reference and some creativity.

35. Create a Magma Hot Text Effect in Photoshop

In this tutorial, we will explain how to create a magma hot text effect using layer styles and textures in Photoshop.

36. Digital lighting & colouring

You will learn how various lighting, colouring and stylisation techniques can be used across a wide range of styles to add charm to your work.

37. How to Create Soft Romantic Background of the Air Bubbles and Hearts

In this tutorial, you’ll discover some great techniques in Adobe Photoshop CS6 to create a soft romantic background of the air bubbles and hearts from scratch using custom brushes, shapes and Layer Styles. Layered PSD file included.

38. Create a Simple Web Badge in Adobe Photoshop

In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a simple web badge using Photoshop.

39. Create Dynamic Art using Glows and Lighting Effects

In this tutorial, I’m going to share some techniques on how to create a dynamic art using glows and lighting effects in Adobe Photoshop CS5. Some of the key techniques we will be using include adjustment layers, blending modes etc. Feel free to be experimental with your colour values and hues to amplify the overall mood and depth of the piece.

40. Create a Fantasy Floating Green Planet Scene in Photoshop

You’ll learn how to create a fantasy floating island scene using various photo manipulation techniques. As well as creating a beautiful landscape, you’ll learn how to construct a detailed flying machine from scratch, using advanced drawing, texturing and lighting techniques.

41. How to Replace a Woman’s Lipstick With Artwork Using Creative Retouching Techniques

Creative retouching techniques are often used to enhance the photography that is being used for a particular project. In this tutorial, Stefka Pavlova will show you how to replace a woman’s lipstick with artwork using some creative and effective photo retouching techniques.

42. Signage text effect

So for this tutorial it will show you how to create a nice old signage effect using Photoshop and a stock photo. The whole process is pretty simple bu the end result is quite nice. We will also create a simple animated gif in the end.

43. Create a Retro and Futuristic Design in Photoshop

Learn how to utilize the Repousse feature in Photoshop Extended to create a poster that has a mix of retro and modern effects. This tutorial will teach you many subjects such as how to work with shapes, apply patterns, brushes, create 3D objects, and apply photo effects. To follow this tutorial, you’ll need Photoshop CS5 Extended or newer.

44. Create Inspirational 3D Gold Text with Photoshop Extended

Learn how to make any inspirational message look more meaningful by turning it into a 3D typography poster. In this Photoshop tutorial, you will how to create striking 3D gold text, add reflections with image-based lighting, create a drywall background from scratch, and position your lights using an easy method that feel like you’re playing a 1st person shooter game. To follow this tutorial, you’ll need Photoshop CS6 Extended.

45. Iron Man in Illustrator and Photoshop

So for this tutorial I will show you how to create the Iron Man mask using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. It’s not too detailed because I wanted to share a simple overview/walkthrough so you could play and explore by yourself. In the end that’s the best way to learn.

46. Classic Light Effect in Photoshop

So in this tutorial I twill show you how to create a super cool text light effect mixing some photos to give more realism. The cool thing about this effect is that the whole process is very simple and quite easy.

47. Brick Text Typography Surreal Photoshop Tutorial

Photoshop using a free 3D action maker. We will combine the brick text effect with different images to create a surreal photo manipulation.

48. How to Create an Amazing Mixed Media Poster in Photoshop

Learn how to create this creative composition using a variety of graphical elements. This tutorial will show you how to easily create futuristic shapes with the Path tools and combine them with photos and brushes to create this mixed media poster.

49. How to Create an Amazing Space Battle Scene in Photoshop

In this tutorial I’ll show you how to create a sci fi artwork with spaceship, planets and galaxy. You’ll learn how to compose and manipulate some space elements together as well as blend them correctly and effectively. You can also learn to create some different kinds of lighting, work with group, use brush, masking and more.

50. Create This Stylistic Mixed-Media Artwork in Photoshop

In this tutorial you will learn to create a beautiful composition stock images and custom build shapes in Illustrator. It demonstrates effective usage of Photoshop’s shape layers, smart objects, and masks. By the end of the tutorial you will know more about these techniques. Parts of this tutorial require Adobe Illustrator.

51. How to Create Colorful Wooden 3D Text

Photoshop is a powerful tool for creating all sorts of imagery but it does have its limitations. While Photoshop does have some fantastic tools for creating 3D text, there are other applications that are often better suited for the job. That is why many illustrators use a combination of Photoshop and some other 3D application to help create 3D text. In this tutorial, we will show you how to use Cinema 4D to create wooden 3D text and then how to use Photoshop to add the final touches.

52. Creating an Edgy, Colorful Fashion Photo-manipulated Artwork

In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we will learn how to create a beautiful abstract photo manipulation applying some advance techniques of masking, lightning and the use of adjustment layers.

53. Create a Textured Wooden Text Effect Using Photoshop’s 3D Capabilities

Today you’ll learn how to create a simple wooden text effect using some practical, 3D and texturing techniques in Photoshop CS6 Extended.

54. The Creation of “Imminent Danger” Digital Art in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps of The Creation of “Imminent Danger” Digital Art in Photoshop, with elements such as urban building, grunge brushset and surreal lighting effect.

55. how to create retro race poster

You’ll use Photoshop to put together the poster layout with various textures and brushes, but also switch back and forth to Illustrator to create the typographic elements.

56. How to Apply a Plastic Mask Effect to a Portrait

You’ll use Photoshop to put together the poster layout with various textures and brushes, but also switch back and forth to Illustrator to create the typographic elements.

57. Create a 3D Neon Night Club Sign in Photoshop CS6 Extended

You’ll use Photoshop to put together the poster layout with various textures and brushes, but also switch back and forth to Illustrator to create the typographic elements.

58. Create a Unique Glowing Text with Space Background in Adobe Photoshop CS5

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to Create this Unique Glowing Text with Space Background in Adobe Photoshop CS5. We will use techniques such as layer blending, filter effect, custom brushes and transform tools to create this text effect. This is an beginner to intermediate level Photoshop tutorial, let’s get started! Layered PSD file included.

59. Create 3D Rubber and Glass Text in Photoshop CS6

In this tutorial, we will explain how to use the vector editing and 3D capabilities of Photoshop to create rubber and glass 3D text. In the process, we will show you how to create the materials, modify the lighting, render the scene, and finally, how to enhance the color of the final result.

60. How to Create a Stopwatch Illustration in Photoshop

Photoshop offers a vast array of drawing capabilities, and is a fantastic option for those not familiar with Illustrator. In the following tutorial your will learn how to create a stopwatch illustration in Photoshop. Throughout the tutorial you will learn handy tips, advanced drawing techniques, and gain a better understanding of how to master the software you use each day.

61. Create a Printer Icon in Adobe Photoshop

In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a simple printer icon in Adobe Photoshop.

62. Super Easy Colorful Effects in Photoshop

So in this tutorial I will show you how to create a nice colorful background using Photoshop. The whole process is pretty simple and straightforward. One good requirement is to understand a little bit of Color Theory in order to create different color combinations.

63. How to use brushes to enhance your portraits in Adobe Photoshop CS5

64. Photoshop tutorial: Create beautiful lighting effects

In this tutorial, Toronto-based Murilo Maciel will reveal how he used Photoshop to create a fashion illustration with lighting effects, based around themes of beauty and light.

65. How to Draw a PlayStation-Inspired Game Controller From Scratch in Photoshop

In this tutorial, you will explain how to draw a play station controller from scratch in Photoshop using basic tools such as shape layers, brushes, strokes, and layer styles.

66. Create a Glowing 3D Text Effect With Filter Forge and Photoshop

In this tutorial, it will show you how to combine Photoshop with Filter Forge to create a glowing 3D text effect. We will begin by showing you how to create basic shapes in Photoshop, we’ll then show you how to convert them to 3D, and finally how to add the final touches using Filter Forge and a few of Photoshop’s basic features.

67. Beginner Tutorial: Create a Mailbox Icon Using Photoshop

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a simple mailbox icon in Photoshop.

68. How to Make Translucent 3D Text

In this step-by-step tutorial, I’ll show you my technique for creating text that has a semi-transparent, three-dimensional appearance. We’ll use Illustrator and Photoshop to achieve our desired results.

69. Design Magical Fire Energy Text Effect in Photoshop

70. Create Chilling Ice Text Effect in Photoshop

In this tutorial, It will show you the process of creating this chilling ice text effect in Photoshop. We will learn several useful method of applying texture onto your texts, as well as various effect creation such as cloud, particles and lighting adjustments.

71. Create a digital photo illustration

Here we look at turning a regular photo into an eye-catching fashion illustration using lighting effects and colour correction in photshop.

72. How To Create 80s Style Retro Futuristic Neon Artwork

Follow this step by step tutorial to see how I put together the Electric Overdrive artwork with various texturing and lighting effects in Photoshop.

74. 4 Ways to Create Long Shadow Effects in Photoshop

Part of the recent, “flat design” trend, long shadow effects are a popular but not necessarily new phenomenon. The trend’s strongest impact seems to be on interface design elements and icons but it is being increasingly used as part of web designs, as well. In this tutorial, we will show you 4 ways that you can create long shadow effects in Photoshop using several different tools.

75. Photo Manipulate A Mysterious Steampunk Man in a Victorian Setting

In today’s design lesson we’re going to create a mysterious steampunk man and place him in a victorian looking setting.

76. Create a Simple Folder Icon in Adobe Photoshop

In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a simple documents icon in Adobe Photoshop.

77. Create a dreamscape photo illustration

This tutorial explains the creative process behind one of the photo-illustration in the 2013 Barbican Classical Music campaign by London-based Firedog.

78. Create a 3D Vintage Lightbulb Sign Using Illustrator, Cinema 4D, and Photoshop

Great-looking 3D typography often involves the use of several applications. In this tutorial, we will show you how to create a vintage lightbulb sign using Adobe Illustrator to create and export the basic paths, Cinema 4D to create the 3D render, and Photoshop for post-production.

79. Master Photoshop layer effects

Creating vibrant, eye-catching images like this one needn’t be a complex or time-consuming affair. In this tutorial, James White shows how to add a vivid retro flair to a striking model shot kindly provided by ThinkStock.com.

80. Create a Summer Inspired 3D Text Effect in Photoshop

In this tutorial, we will show you how to create a summer inspired 3D text effect. In the process, you will learn how to use Photoshop’s 3D features to create the basic text shape and then combine it with various images in order to achieve a desired result.