With anything in Photoshop, there’s several different ways to achieve an end result. In this tutorial, I’m going to walk you through the technique I use to create smoke in images. There are other ways to create an effect similar to this, I just happen to think this is the best way.

To begin, let’s create a new layer and use a brush with some harsh edges. We are going to start out using a light gray and we will paint a chris-crossing pattern emanating from the candle. Once we’ve finished with the first layer, let’s make a second layer, use a darker gray, and paint a complimenting poof of smoke the goes off in an opposite pattern. Finally, we’ll make a third layer and repeat the same steps.

Now that we’ve got a good base to start from, let’s use the Motion Blue filter (Filter > Blue > Motion Blur) and set the angle to 90 degrees, and the distance to 83 pixels. We’ll repeat this for all 3 layers.

After that, we’ll need to right click on one of the layers and apply a default Drop Shadow and Inner Shadow. Let’s also use a dark gray Outer Glow and Inner Glow, and a slight gradient overlay. Finally, let’s reduce the Opacity to 50%. Once we’ve completed that, right click on the layer which we just added the layer style to, and click on Copy Layer Style. Now right click on one of the two smoke layers that do not have a layer and click Paste Layer style. Repeat that for the final smoke layer.

After that, we’ll need to right click on one of the layers and apply a default Drop Shadow and Inner Shadow. Let’s also use a dark gray Outer Glow and Inner Glow, and a slight gradient overlay. Finally, let’s reduce the Opacity to 50%. Once we’ve completed that, right click on the layer which we just added the layer style to, and click on Copy Layer Style. Now right click on one of the two smoke layers that do not have a layer and click Paste Layer style. Repeat that for the final smoke layer.

Now let’s hit each of the three layers with a Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blue > Gaussian Blur)

Here’s our final result: