1.Start with a new 400×400 image. Choose a background that you want to make the rusty text on. For this tutorial I just used the action for rust that came standard with photoshop. If you don’t see it in your actions look in your goodies folder in your photoshop directory. Once you have your background use the type tool and create your text. The color of the text does not matter, just make sure it is visible. Also make sure your text is where you want it to appear in your graphic. So move it to where it needs to be.

2.Next Ctrl+Click your text layer to select it. Once it is selected click your channels tab and click the save selection as channel button. By default it is called Alpha 1. Rename it to text. Now with the text channel still selected drag it into the create new channel button to duplicate it. Name this new channel light. Leave your new light channel selected and run the Filter/Blur/Guassian Blur with a setting of 8, then run it again with a setting of 4, then a setting of 2, then a setting of 1. Hit Ctrl+Shift+L to run the autolevels. Then hit Ctrl+Shift+I to invert the selection. Once the selection is inverted hit your delete key to remove any unwanted jaggies. Then hit Ctrl+D to deselect your channel.

3.Click back on your layers tab and click on your background with the texture in it. Drag this into the create new layer button to duplicate this layer ( name this layer rust). At this point you can hide the text layer that you created by clicking on the eye. Now make sure the layer named rust is activated (just click on it normally so it turns blue in the layers palette ) and go to Filter/Render/Lighting Effects and use the setting that I have here. Style-Default, Light Type-Spotlight, Intensity=35, Focus=64, Gloss= -65, Material=0, Exposure=0, Ambiance=25, Texture Channel-Make sure you select your “light” channel from the drop down menu, White is high, and Height=100.

4.Now with your rust layer still active Ctrl+Click on your text that you originally made ( It should be in the layer right above your rust layer ). This will select the shape of your original text so we can copy it out of our rust layer. With the rust layer still active and the shape of your letter now selected hit Ctrl+C to copy it, and then hit Ctrl+V to paste it into a new layer. Now you should have a layer right above your rust layer with nothing more than your new rusty text in it. Name this new layer effects.

5.Make sure your effects layer is active and go to Layer/Effects/Drop Shadow and use the settings that I have here. Note: the color I chose was from a dark part of my background so play around until you get a color that your are satisfied with.

6.Now on the same effects layer go to Layer/Effects/Outer Glow and use the settings that I have here. Once again I changed the default color to one that matched my background picture. Also make sure you change the Mode to Multiply.

7.Last but not least go to Layer/Effects/Bevel and Emboss and run the settings that I have here.
Highlight-
Mode- Overlay with the white color
Opacity- 100%
Shadow-
Mode-Multiply with the black color
Opacity- 15%
Style- Inner Bevel
Angle- =120
Depth- =15
Blur- =8

8.If all went well you should end up with a pic like the one I have on the left here. When you are applying your Layer effects on your effects layer you should experiment around with different settings to see what you can come up with.

Just for example, here is one with the bevel and emboss highlight setting changed to dissolve and with a different color in the color box. This gives it a real nice rough edge look. Also you can drag this layer into new projects and still have the rust look and all the effects. To do this just open up a new project and make sure your move tool is selected. Then just drag this layer into your new project and you are all set…

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