Photoshop Tutorials > Photo & image Effects

Light Your House On Fire

Other titles I thought of for this Photoshop fire tutorial were "Burning Down the House", "The Roof Is On Fire", and "Fire! Fire! Fire", but then I realized how cliche that would be. I obtained my house photo from PhotoSpin.com (PhotoSpin #0780029).

First we'll isolate the house by selecting it and putting it on it's own layer Ctrl + J. Hide the background layer and open your Channels palette Window > Channels.

Hold the Ctrl key and click on the Channel that has the most contrast. Press Ctrl + Shift + I to inverse the selection.

Click on the RGB channel to return to normal. Go back to your Layers Palette and create a new Solid Color Adjustment layer. Make the color white.

Go to Image > Rotate Canvas > 90° CW. Then go to Filter > Stylize > Wind.

Run the Wind Filter 1 or 2 more times by pressing Ctrl + F. Rotate the canvas back by going Image > Rotate Canvas > 90° CCW.

Create a new Solid Color Adjustment layer and make the color a burnt orange-red, fire type of color. I used #AB3D07. Set the Layer Mode to Color Burn.

Duplicate the layer you applied the Wind Filter to Ctrl + J and hide one of the copied layers. Select the Smudge Tool R. Go to the Brushes Palette Window > Brushes.

Under "Shape Dynamics", drag the Size Jitter up; Angle Jitter up; Roundness Jitter up. Click on "Scattering" and alter the settings until you get something similar to this:

Now start Smudging the layer. You should get an effect similar to this:

Unhide the layer you hid earlier. Run a slight Gaussian Blur Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur of around 2-pixels.

Now go to Filter > Liquify or Ctrl + Shift + X. Select the Twirl Clockwise Tool and lower Brushe Pressure to around 40%. Now add a little bit of craziness to your image.

You may want to add a slight Motion Blur Filter > Blur > Motion Blur or a slight Gaussian Blur Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur if you still have some harsh lines.

Now create another Solid Color Adjustment layer below your "fire" layers. Make the color something similar to your fire color or darker. I used #522A04. Use the Brush Tool B with a Black foreground to paint away some of the areas of the house, so that certain areas show through. You might want to lower the Layer Opacity too.

That's pretty much it. I know I might have gotten a little confusing with the Layers, so here's a shot of my Layers Palette for reference.