How to Make Vector Snowflakes in Photoshop

A great way to turn an ordinary photo into a Christmas photo for family and friends is to add snowflakes. You can easily create snowflakes with Photoshop's vector tools, especially its pen tool. The process is simple, but the results can be spectacular.

Instructions

1. Open a new 4 by 4-inch Photoshop document with a transparent background. Choose "Preferences" from the application menu and set your unit measurement to inches. Turn on the "Rulers" option in the View menu and drag guides to the horizontal and vertical centers. Drag another ruler to the three-inch mark on the vertical ruler (along the top).

2. Choose the rectangle shape tool and set it to path mode in the tool's options palette. Check the tools palette to make sure the tool is in "Add to shape area" mode. Set the snap mode to "Snap to Guides." Drag the tool from the document center point to the three-inch mark at the top.

3. Bring the Palette to the front. The path preview should show your rectangle in white and the background as gray (if it isn't you drew the path in subtract from shape mode). Click on the bottom right rectangle corner with the "Delete Anchor Point" tool. The rectangle will become a wedge.

4. Set the pen tool to "Subtract from Shape Area" mode. Use the pen tool to cut into the triangle with irregular shapes. The shapes don't have to fall exactly on the path borders. If you check the paths preview, you should see the path areas cut out of your triangle (in gray).

5. Name the path to save it. Choose a foreground fill color. With the path selected in the Paths palette, click the "Fill with Foreground Color" button on the Paths palette toolbar. Click anywhere outside of the path layer to deselect the path (it's important that the path isn't active during the final steps).

6. Drag the snowflake image layer to Layers palette "Create a New Layer" icon. Make the new layer active and choose "Free Transform" from the Edit menu (Command + T). Set the reference point location in the tool options palette to bottom left corner and rotate your layer 30 degrees.

7. Continue to duplicate your snowflake layer and rotate until your layers rotate 360 degrees. Select all twelve layers and choose "New Group from Layers" in the Layers palette flyout menu. You can drag the group to any image, flatten and resize it to add as many snowflakes as you want. Rotate, scale and play with transparency and blend modes to enhance the realism.

Tips & Warnings

• Change your snowflake colors with the "Color Overlay" layer style. "Color Overlay" changes the snowflake color without having to paint the individual pixels.