Photoshop blue round button tutorial

Tutorial to make a blue round button in photoshop.

Select the marquee tool (M) and pres shift/m to switch between

oval and square (we need the oval one).

Now draw a circle (hold down the shift key while dragging to

get a perfect round circle.

fill the circle with white (shift/F5)

create a new layer on top of the first one and (while the

circle is still selected choose select/modify/contract and set

it to 15 px

fill the selection with a light blue

keep the area selected, create a new layer on top ctrl/shift/n

and fill it with a dark blue

now again choose select/modify/contract and set it to 40px this

time. hit backspace to delete the inner area of the selection.

now ctrl/click on the light blue layer thumbnail and with the

dark blue layer selected choose filter/blur/Gaussian blur and

set the radius to 20 px.

now deselect (ctrl/d).

on a new layer select the brush tool (B) size 250px, 0%

hardness and click 4 times in the lower area of the sphere, all

in the same place. than choose ctrl/t and flatten the brush

dots vertically.

set the layer opacity back to about 90%  (to do  this easily

just press the number 9 when the selection tool (V) is on).

Now again on a new layer draw an oval with the marquee tool on

the upper part of the sphere. Select the gradient tool (G) and

a linear gradient going from white to transparent.

Now hold down the shift key (to draw a vertical line) and draw

a gradient from the top of the selection to well beneath the

selection.

Now we are almost finished, just select the light blue shape

again (ctrl/click on the layers thumbnail) and on the dark blue

layer above apply another Gaussian blur (filter/blur/Gaussian

blur with a radius of 20 px) to make it a bit softer.

Now we just want a shape inside so select the custom shape tool

(U) and a shape and draw the shape on a new layer, just

underneath the ‘top glare’ layer on top.Fill the shape with a

color you like and you can free transform or transform it in

perspective the way you like.

To make the button come out more and look like an actual 3d

button double click on the bottom white layer and choose

bevel and emboss with these settings.

Now one more step; we want to create a shadow behind the sphere

, so duplicate the white bg layer ctrl/j(deselect the

layer styles we just added) and fill the shape with black. This

should be underneath the original white layer.

select transform ctrl/t and make the layer less high and

position it on the ground.

Now apply filter/blur/Gaussian blur with a radius of about 20

px.

Now I am still not totally satisfied so select the light blue

layer again and on a new layer just above that one draw with a

soft large dark blue brush a bit of shade over the bottom part

of the sphere.

If you really want to finish the shadow you can again add a new

layer on tp of the one we just worked on , ctrl/click on the

white bg layer to select it’s shape and than ctrl/alt/click on

the dark shadow layer thumbnail of the layer we just made. Now

both shapes are selected and we can with the same brush draw a

bit of shade on the bottom white border.

Set this layers blend mode to multiply.

Now I at last want to make the spheres inner blue light up a

bit more, so add a new layer on top of all layers , set the

layer blend mode to overlay and with a large white brush paint

several dots on the parts you want to lighten up.

This might make the shape inside invisible in places, so I

just gave it a bevel and emboss and gradient overlay with a low

opacity (dbl click on the layer to get the layer styles

palette), and finally a dark stroke (also with a low opacity.)

 And here is my final image.