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It takes some ingenuity to smoothly blend text into an image without obscuring its appearance
or losing the message. In this case, the Liquify filter and a layer blending trick integrates text
nicely with ripples in a swimming pool.
Begin by downloading the ripplingwater.zip archive (2 MB), extracting ripplingwater.tif and opening it in Photoshop. Create text, then duplicate the layer
(Command-J). Turn off the visibility of
the duplicate, reselect the original, and
choose Filter > Liquify (Shift-Command-
X for Mac or Shift-Ctrl-X for PC). Accept
the rasterization warning—see why
you made a copy! Check Backdrop and
choose the text layer.
 
Select the Freeze tool and set the
Brush Size. I chose 60 pixels with a
Brush Pressure of 1% for softer edges.
(Photoshop CS users: Check Show Mask
in View Options and set the Density.)
Paint over the text areas you want untouched
by the filter. Freezing shadow
areas wouldn’t provide much variation,
so I chose to freeze at the water’s
highlights to blend text where water
“moved.” To erase a mask, press Option
(Mac) or Alt (PC) and paint again.
Select the Turbulence tool and paint
over the text, distorting it to match your
image. Vary the brush size for smaller
or larger distortions. If you’re not happy
with the results, use the Reconstruct tool
to paint back to the original or the Twirl
tool to fine-tune the distortion. Instead
of the smudged, feathered text you
might get using other tools, your result
is a beautiful distortion that works.
To further blend the text with the
image, double-click the text layer to
open the Layer Style Blending Options.
Change the Blend Mode to Color Burn
and adjust the Fill Opacity—I chose 90%.
This burned the water’s highlights so the
text appeared to float in the pool. Click to enlarge the final effect below.
 
What if your image is dark or shadowy
with light text, such as the one below? After applying Liquify,
double-click the text layer. In the Layer
Style dialog box, drag the black Underlying
Layer triangle until the image’s darker
pixels begin to show through the text.
Press Option (or Alt) and drag to split
the triangle. This softens the transition
between light and dark masked pixels.
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