Create a Page Curl Effect using Photoshop CS5 in 5 easy steps

When I was new to Photoshop, I went through a lot of tutorials to help me create a page curl effect. Back then it was considered a very cool effect and almost every website and graphic had a page curl effect. But most of the tutorials that showed how to achieve this effect were quite lengthy and I used to lose interest in reading the entire article. Why should one use unnecessary steps to create an effect when it can be done using few precise steps. Even though this does not apply to every effect in Photoshop, I found that true for the page curl effect.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a Page Curl effect in 5 easy steps.

Lets get started.

1. Launch Photoshop and open the picture/photograph on which you want to add the page curl effect. I am using the ‘Chrysanthemum’ picture from Windows Picture gallery.

2. Double click on the Background layer in the Layers palette to unlock it and create a new layer. Click OK in the New Layer dialog box, leaving the default settings unchanged.

3. Using the ‘Rectangular Marquee Tool’ draw a selection at one of the corners, where you want to curl the page.

4. Choose the gradient tool from the Toolbox, choose a black to white gradient and drag the gradient in inside-out direction of the selection. See below:

5. Now deselect the selection; Select > Deselect or Ctrl + D. Then go to Edit >Transform > Warp. You should be able to see a grid on the picture. Now drag the corner of the picture as shown below:

Click Enter to exit from Warp. This is what we get;