How to Create Clouds in Photoshop?

Method#1:-

Ever wanted to know how to create clouds in photoshop? It’s an easy yet effective way to perk up any old boring sky and bring more life into your work. They’re obviously not going to be “real” clouds, but hopefully once you’re finished creating those magnificent, big, and fluffy clouds, nobody will notice.

No doubt there’s a bunch of methods out there to get this accomplished, but if you’re looking for what is perhaps the simplest and quickest way to bring clouds into your photos, this tutorial is for you.

As always, Photoshop makes it easy! Let’s get right to it and find out how to create clouds in Photoshop.

First, we’re going to need a photo, preferably one that has a sky present somewhere. I’ll be using this beautiful shot.

Next, select the area that you want to add the clouds to. I used the Magic Wand Tool (located in the tools palette) to quickly select the sky itself and not the buildings. Just hold down the Shift key and click to add the “marching ants” to areas you want selected.

Now, we’ll need to set the foreground and background colors. In your tools palette, click on the foreground color to open up the color picker. Feel free to experiment with other colors, but for now, this is going to be the color of the actual clouds, so select white (R: 255, G: 255, B: 255). Now hit the background color in the tools palette. This is going to be the color of the sky, so let’s pick a light blue.

Go up to the menu bar and click on Filter. Scroll down to Render and hit Clouds.
how to create clouds in photoshop

The filter simply uses random values between the foreground and background colors you chose to generate a soft cloud pattern. You can reapply the filter (Ctrl + F or Command + F on a Mac) for a slightly different pattern of clouds until you’re happy with the results. For a more stark look, just hold down the Alt key (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you select Filter > Render > Clouds.

Feel free to now make any adjustments to the effect by going into Levels (Ctrl + L or Command + L) and moving the input or output level sliders to your liking.

That’s about all there is to it. Pretty simple, huh? Here’s how mine came out:

Again, there’s plenty of ways to do this in Photoshop. If the pattern of clouds the filter produces isn’t exactly what you’re looking for or just doesn’t match your photo, another great method would be to simply download a couple of cloud brush sets from the Web and put them in yourself.
Be sure to check out the 6 Best Sites To Download Free Photoshop Brushes for some excellent resources to help you get started. Don’t forget to also read our Idiot’s Guide to Photoshop.

Learn how to create clouds the easiest way by following this tutorial on Photoshop. They can be wonderful objects.

Method #2:-

*Making the Clouds:

1)Create a new document in any size and apply a gradient.

*For this tutorial a new document with a width and height of 1500x1500 pixels is made. Set the resolution also to 300 and the color mode to RGB.

2)Create a new layer and rename it.
Apply a gradient by going to your gradient tool. Edit the gradient through the gradient editor and select two variations of blue such as midnight blue and royal blue or dark blue and sky blue.

3)Apply the gradient with the topmost part of your layer containing the darker blue.

4)Add a new layer or Shift + Ctrl + N. Then go to Filter>Render>Clouds to create clouds.

5)Type in the shortcut Ctrl + L for the levels dialog box to appear and adjust the levels of the clouds. 
Copy the settings on the accompanied illustration or adjust the settings by moving all three arrows through the center.

6)Create the texture and shadow of the clouds.

7)Create a new layer first. Create a new layer by typing in Shift + Ctrl + N.

8)Click on the thumbnail of your cloud layer to select all or you can use also the shortcut Ctrl + A. 
Then copy the components or use the shortcut Ctrl + C.

9)Click on the new layer and then type “Q” on your keyboard for the Quick Mask Mode.

10)Paste the components or type in Ctrl + V.

11)Click on “Q” again to close the Quick Mask Mode.

12)Know that, after closing the Quick Mask Mode, marching ants or running lines will appear. Fill the selected areas with white or you can also type in Ctrl + Backspace to automatically fill the selected areas.

13)Add an emboss effect on the layer by going to your blending options.
Follow the settings on the accompanied illustration for the emboss effect. You can also play with the settings.

14)Copy the clouds layer or Ctrl + J. 
Apply the Difference Clouds Filter by going to Filter>Render>Difference Clouds. Apply the Filter twice or Ctrl + F.

* Adding Items:

1)Find a picture of a plane flying in the sky. 
Paste the picture on your artwork and then hide your clouds layer. Go to Select>Color Range and select the blue background of the plane through the eyedropper.

2)Erase the blue background through the eraser tool.

3)Apply a motion blur on the plane.
To apply the blur, go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Copy the settings of the blur on the accompanied illustration.

4)Move the layer below your clouds layer and above your Blue Sky Background and you’re done.

How did this method work for your photos and how do you go about creating clouds in Photoshop? Let us know in the comments.