To save yourself from downloading frosted glass texture images or shooting your own photos through frosted glass, you can create a frosted glass effect in Photoshop.

With this easy-to-follow tutorial, you’ll be able to create frosted glass in all shapes and sizes for your future designs. Whether you call it a blurry glass effect, obscure glass, or simply frosted glass, the results will be impressive.

How to Create a Frosted Glass Effect in Photoshop

This tutorial works best if you already have an image you’d like your glass shape to cover. Once you’ve chosen your image, open it in Photoshop.

Whichever image or design you’re using, remember that the texture of frosted glass will obscure any fine detail. Only use frosted glass effects on areas where it’s okay to lose the detail. You can also create a frosted glass effect in Figma.

Photoshop screen with image of man at Mac and large black ellipse over the top.

Open a new group by clicking the folder icon on the layer panel, but you can also do this later. Using one of the Shape Tools (U), draw a shape anywhere on your image. In the Properties box, set the Fill to black (000000) and set the Stroke to none.

Photoshop stroke properties in layer style menu.

With the shape selected, click fx on the layer panel and choose Stroke. In the Layer Style window, set the properties as such: Size to 4px, Position to Outside, Blend Mode to Normal, and Opacity to 50%. Ensure Overprint is unchecked. Set the Fill Type to Color and the color as white (FFFFFF).

Photoshop inner glow properties in layer style menu.

On the left of the Layer Style window, choose Inner Glow. Set the Inner Glow settings as follows: Blend Mode to Normal, Opacity to 50%, and Noise at 0%.

The color should be set to white and there should be a white-to-transparent gradient by default. Set Technique to Softer, select Edge, set Choke to 10%, Size to 150%, Range to 50%, and Jitter to 0%.

Photoshop color overlay properties in layer style menu.

In the Layer Style window, choose Color Overlay and set the Blend Mode to Normal and the color as white. Put the Opacity to 10%.

Photoshop drop shadow properties in layer style menu.

Lastly, choose Drop Shadow on the left-hand Layer Style menu. Set the blend mode to Multiply with black as the color. Set Opacity to 10% and change the angle to around 137 degrees. Set Distance to 70px, Spread to 0%, Size to 70px, and Noise to 0%. Click OK.

This will give your shape a white glow around the inner rim of the shape, with the rest of it being black. Duplicate your background layer or main image by right-clicking the layer and choosing Duplicate Layer​​​​​​.

Drag the duplicated layer to the top of the layer group and drop it there—if you didn't open a group folder at the beginning, you can do it now and drag the shape layer and your new duplicated layer into the same group. The duplicated image should appear inside the group above your shape layer, essentially hiding the shape layer beneath it.

Photoshop with image of man at Mac and a glowing white circular outline on top.

Right-click the duplicated layer and choose Create Clipping Mask. This brings your shape to the front again and removes all the black from it, giving it a white glowing effect.

Photoshop image with man on Mac with a white circle that's see-through but blurry.

With the clipping mask layer selected, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Choose somewhere around 35 - 50 Pixels in the options box. When you’re happy, click OK.

To be able to freely move your frosted glass shape around your image, you need to select the shape layer. If you select the clipping mask layer, only the image will move. That would ruin the effect. You can move and transform your frosted glass-style shape anywhere around your image, including resizing it using the Transform Tool (Cmd + T for Mac or Ctrl + T for Windows).

You may want to add further effects to your frosted glass, like the dimpled effect you may find on privacy windows in bathrooms, for example. It’s very easy to add the dimpled effect to your frosted glass effect.

With your clipping mask layer selected, go to Filter > Filter Gallery > Distort > Glass. If the background layer used in your clipping mask is vector-based, it needs to be rasterized first in order to use the filter gallery, but there should be a popup warning you of this and allowing you to rasterize it if needed.

Photoshop glass distortion filter menu.

In the Distort menu for Glass, you may play around with different effects, but the settings we recommend are Distortion set to 5, Smoothness set to 3, Texture set to Frosted, and Scaling set to 145%. This may change depending on your image and desired results. Once you’re happy with the preview window, click OK.

Photoshop logo on computer screen with a hexagon of dimpled glass texture over the top.

This adds a nice texture that gives you a different glass style for your look. If you want to experiment with more textures, check out our guide on creating textures in Photoshop.

How You Can Use a Frosted Glass Effect in Designs

As with any type of art, experimentation is key to finding more uses for your designs. One great way to experiment with your opaque frosted glass is to add a stroke around it. A stroke with a subtle gradient naturally enhances a design without it being too overwhelming to the eye.

You can use the frosted glass effect in Photoshop to add texture to your digital paintings. If you’re drawing something with windows or glasses, the frosted glass texture is a great way to add some realism to your digital artwork. You can add frosted glass along with many other effects, like a glowing object, to realistic images.

Sunset photo of river in Berlin with a blurred search bar with website written in it.

If using Photoshop for website design, you can use this frosted glass effect for search bars or button backgrounds that sit seamlessly within the website background image. The effect merges into a background well without the shape being lost.

As with the tutorial, using a large shape with a blurry glass effect over it serves as the perfect way to have a complex background with a clear section for text like titles or contact information. Who says that a background must be plain and boring?

Add Realistic Texture to Your Images With a Frosted Glass Effect

Now with the new skills you’ve learned, you’ll be able to transform images and pictures into more useful assets. With so many uses for frosted glass effects in your work, this is surely a technique you’ll use again and again without using it for the same thing twice.

You can use set shapes like circles or squares, or even draw a custom shape for your glass to fit. Experimenting with strokes, textures, and different shapes will open up a world of design options to add to this fabulous technique.