Create a shiny and realistic pearl in Photoshop

Richie

In one of my previous tutorials, we learnt how to create a shiny orb and then went on to create a shiny earth. This tutorial pretty much uses a few of the similar techniques used in the former one.

In this tutorial, we will be learning how to create a shiny, glowing realistic pearl. We will be learning a lot of interesting stuff in layer styles. Layer Styles is definitely one of my favorite features in Photoshop. We can achieve a lot of effects using this.

We’ll combine layer styles and generous amounts of shininess to create the perfect shiny pearl. We shall give more emphasis on ‘realism’ which is very important to give out the elegant appearance of a real pearl.

Step 1:

Create a new file with size 800 x 600. Always start with a big document so that it can be scaled down later if needed. Fill the backgorund layer with Black (#000000).

Using an ellipse Tool, and holding SHIFT, draw a circle with the color set to White (#FFFFFF). Name this layer ‘pearl’ and rasterize it:

Step 2:

Double click the layer to open the ‘layer styles’ window. Add a radial gradient overlay with the following settings.

The result should be something like this:

Step 3:

Double click the layer again to open the layer styles window and set ‘Inner Shadow’ with the following settings. This is to create the dark bottom region which appears due to the lighting conditions. You can experiment with the opacity and size to get the effect as desired.

Step 4:

Now, Create another layer and name is ‘shine’. Now, CTRL + Click the ‘Pearl’ layer to get a circular marquee around the pearl. Now, click on the ‘Shine’ layer and using the ‘Gradient Overlay’ option from the ‘Toolbox’, create a radial gradient running from bottom left of the image to the top right. Use the below two images for reference.

Step 5:

Reduce the opacity of the layer to around 10 -15% to get a distinctive look. Now, Create a new layer and name it ‘Light’ and using a Soft brush of size 30px and color set to White, click on the pearl (the white gradient area -’pearl’ layer) to get the lighting effect.

Use the image below for reference. The result should look similar to the image shown below:

Step 6:

Let us now add a ‘Outer Glow‘. Double click on the ‘Pearl’ Layer and click on outer glow. Apply it with the following settings.

Step 7:

Now, CTRL + Click the ‘Pearl’ Layer and go to SELECT>MODIFY>CONTRACT. Use 4 pixels for radius.

Step 8:

Now, Create a new layer and name it ‘Shine 2′ and using a soft brush of a bigger size of around 70 px, and with white set as foreground color, create 2 small white parts at the border of the image (one on the top left and the other on the bottom right).

Use the image shown below for reference.

Step 9:

Now, Duplicate the ‘Pearl’ layer and a vertically invert the image. You can do this by Clicking on the duplicated layer, Pressing CTRL + T. Now, change the ‘H’ scaling value to its negative).

Read the previous article on ‘How to effectively use the Photoshop Transformation Tool‘ for more information on this (if you get stuck here).

Step 10:

Reduce the opacity to 20% and apply a Black to Transparent Gradient layer mask to get the fading effect.

Well, that’s it. We have today learnt to create a realistic looking pearl with a shiny finish. Hope you guys enjoyed the tutorial and keep visiting for more.

If you want to use the pearl in a lighter background, I suggest you add a shadow. I have explained how to achieve the shadow effect here : take a look

I created a Pearl necklace with the image above by duplicating it several times and adding a Lens Blur to get the following image. This was just for fun, so didn’t quite turn out really well :D