Once you select the plants you want for your brushes, you need to photograph them. I always place my cuttings on a large sheet of white paper to help make it easier to manipulate the images in Photoshop.

Step #1: Adjust the Brightness of Your Image
The first thing I like to do when I am creating brushes from photographs, is to adjust the brightness and contrast of the image. Just click on Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast as shown below. This helps to reduce some of the shadows that may be present in your photos.

Photoshop brushes are made from black and white images. The portions of the image that are white will be transparent and the portions of the image that are black will make up the brush. The object here is to manipulate the image so you end up with a strong black and white image that can be used for your brush.

Step #2: Desaturate the Image
Since brushes are made from black and white images, it is easier to see what you brush will look like be desaturating the image. To desaturate your image (which means to make it greyscale instead of color), just click on Image > Adjustments > Desaturate as shown below.

Step #3: Adjust the Levels of Your Image
Next, you need to adjust the levels of the image. This allows you to darken up portions of the image that will be used to create the brush. Again, what we are trying to achive is a black and white image to make our brush. Just click on Image > Adjustments > Levels as shown below. The amount you need to move the sliders will depend on the specific photograph and will be different for every different image. Just start by making sure that preview is selected and move the arrows in towards the peaks. Adjust the arrows until you are happy with the preview image.

Step #4: Copy the Portion of the Image You Want for Your Brush onto Its Own Layer
Once you have adjusted your image, copy the portion of the image you want to use for your brush. In this example, I am planning to use the garlic chive image on the far right end of the photograph. I select the image using the selection tool and copy it to a new layer.

Step #5: Define Your Brush
Once you have isolated the image you want to use for your brush onto a separate layer, it is time to define your brush. All you need to do is select Edit > Define Brush. A dialog box will pop up where you can enter the name of your new brush as shown below.

And that is all there is to it. Once you have defined your brush, you are able to access it from the brush palette and use it to create new designs. If you want to know how to better use the brush palette, just check out the brush palette tutorial HERE.

The last thing that I do when I make my own Photoshop brushes is to upload them into Adobe Illustrator and vectorize them. This allows me to turn the images into vector images instead of raster images. This way, I am able to create high resolution brushes that can be sized to the maximum allowable brush size which is 2500 pixels in Photoshop CS3 and CS4. This last step is not a requirement, but it is a nice extra step to make your brushes more useful.

Step #1: Downloading Photoshop Brushes
When you download brush files from BrushPortfolio.com, the files are compressed or “zipped” so they are smaller in size and faster to download. The first thing you need to do is uncompress or “unzip” the file. Generally, all you need to do is double click on the zipped file and you will be taken through a set of instructions. Be sure to pay attention where the uncompressed file is placed so you can find it again.

Some of the files you will find on the Internet can use different compression software. A common software that you will find creates files with a .RAR file extension. If you download files with a .RAR file extension, you will need to decompress these files using WinRAR or some other equivalent. There are a lot of options, many free. Just check Google for RAR file formats.

Step #2: Place Extracted .ABR Files into Correct Directory
Once you have extracted the brush file, it is just a matter of placing the .ABR file into the correct directory. One thing to remember is that if you are logged into Photoshop, you will need to close it and restart Photoshop in order to access new files that are added to the brush directory. I have no idea why, but if you look for a new file without closing Photoshop, it doesn’t show up.

Windows Users will need to place the .ABR file into the following directory:
C:/Program Files/Adobe/Photoshop CSx/Presets/Brushes

Mac OS X Users will need to place the .ABR file into the following directory:
{username}/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Presets/Brushes

And that’s all there is to it. Once the .ABR file is located into the correct directory, you can access the brushes using the brush palette. You can read more about the brush palette here.

Step 1: Open a New File and Apply Your Brushes

Open up a new file and set your background color to black and your foreground color to white.
On a new layer, apply your light brushes. I am using a great set of brushes created by
Edwin Cuadros Juarez titled Sui Generis v2.

Step 2: Duplicate Layer and Set Gaussian Blur to 65 pixels and Opacity to 50%

Now duplicate the layer containing the brushes and apply a Gaussian blur by selecting Filter>Blur>Gaussian . Set the blur to 65 pixels as shown in the image.  Set the opacity of the layer to 50% by selecting Layer>Layer Style>Blending Mode. You will end up with a fuzzy image like the one shown below.

Step 3: Apply Color to your Light Brushes

The next step is to apply some color to your light brushes. Create a new layer and set the layer style to “color” as shown in the image below. This allows you to apply color only to the active layer. I am using a bright pink (#FF00FF) and a bright blue (#0099CC) color for my design. Use a large soft brush to apply the colors. Each color should be applied to the same layer. You do not need to create separate layers for each color. Refer to the image below.

Step 4: Add some Texture using the Render Command

To add a bit of depth to your image, we are going to create a new layer. Set your foreground color to black and your background color to white (or select “D” for a short cut). Now apply a cloud texture to your image by selecting Filter>Render>Clouds. Set the layer blending mode to “Vivid Light”. Apply a 90 pixel Gaussian blur to the layer as well.

Our Finished Image

You can see the finished image below with the glowing light effects added to our brush.

How to Access the Brush Palette

The brush palette can be access by either selecting Window>Brushes or by hitting the F5 key.

Settings Within the Brush Palette

The image below is a close up of the brush palette. As you can see, there are a lot of settings within this palette. The user has the ability to modify the brush tip shape, set different scattering levels, apply textures, modify brush diameter, and more.

The palette shows a small thumbnail image of each brush that is currently loaded in the upper right corner of the brush palette. There is also a preview image at the bottom of the palette that shows how the brush will look after you apply changes.

Brush Shape Dynamics

The shape dynamics settings are used to modify the shape and angular position of the brush.

Refer to the image below to see how the shape dynamic settings allow you to modify the appearance of the brush strokes.

I am using one of the Photoshop default brush tips for this demonstration. You can see in the preview image how the brush appearance changes as I modify the angle, roundness, and spacing of the brush.

Changing the Scattering Option

The image below shows how the brush stroke changes when you select different values for scattering. The larger the value used, the further away each brush stroke will appear relative to each other.

Applying Texture to the Brush Tip

Another great feature that you can control within the brush palette is the ability to add textures to brush tip. The image below show the different appearances possible using the same brush tip with texture and shading modes applied.

As you can see, the Photoshop brush palette allows you to modify your brush tips to help achieve some awesome results. Spend some time experimenting with the brush palette settings to learn how to achieve unique results.