Creating Realistic Magnifying Glass

Tutorial in Advanced, Designing, Drawing, Effects, Goodies, In Photos

In this tutorial we will create a very realistic magnifying glass, from its very beginning. We will also see how to recreate the glass effect over a written paper, and which of course you will be able to use over different images.

First, you will open the paper. You can download it from HERE.

Now write the text using an italic font style. You can download the font we used for the tutorial by clicking HERE.

Select the paper layer and the text one, and press Ctrl + E or go to ((Layer))-((Merge down)) to unify the selected layers.

Create a ((New Layer)).

With ((Elliptical Marquee Tool)), and Alt + Shift pressed (so that it grows proportionally from the center), create a circle in the middle of the document.

Now with ((Gradient Tool)), trace a radial gradient using the colors #000000 and #dddddd.

Create a ((New Layer)).

With the selection still active, go to menu ((Edit))-((Stroke)).

Then go to menu ((Select))-((Modify))-((Expand)): (5px).

Create a ((New Layer)).

And ((Edit))-((Stroke)): (2px, Center, White).

Apply ((Filter))-((Blur))-((Gaussean Blur)).

Ctrl + Click the glass layer to activate the circular selection.

Now merge all the layers invisible except for the background one (paper and text) by clicking the eye next to each layer.

Apply ((Filter))-((Distort))-((Pinch)). Enter the following value -50.

Merge the other layers visible again by clicking the eye.

Reduce the magnifying glass opacity to 40%.

Now apply a small sparkle to the glass in order to make it look more real. Stand in the glass layer and go to menu ((Filter))-((Render))-((Lens Flare)). We will place the sparkle in the left superior part, using these values: