Selecting What to Wither

• After studying how something visually communicates being withered, your next task lies in Photoshop. Select the area you want to appear withered. Keep both withered and healthy elements in your picture, because the contrast between the two will emphasize the withered elements. To select an element, such as a flower, for example, click one of Photoshop's selection tools, such as "Lasso" or the "Quick selection" brush. Then drag along the edges of the element you want to appear withered. For the flower example, you could run the lasso-shaped "Lasso" tool, then drag around the petals and stem of the flower to select them.
  
  

Liquefy

• After selecting the regions you want to appear withered, change the apparent structure of the element to make it appear weakened. For the flower example, you could make the leaves droop. This quality, drooping, is common to many withered things because it indicates an object is succumbing to gravity. Photoshop's "Liquefy" filter can make the forms in your images appear to droop. To run "Liquefy," select that item from the "Filter" menu. Photoshop will display a new dialog box whose tools, especially "Forward warp" and "Push left," can make images appear to droop.
  
  

Forward Warp

• Use the "Liquefy" command's "Forward warp" tool to communicate the idea of a weakened structure, which is part of the withering effect. Open the "Liquefy" dialog box, then click the top button in the dialog box's left pane to run "Forward warp." Drag the mouse cursor over the image region you selected for the withering effect. Photoshop will display a preview of the effect that "Forward warp" has on your selection region. If you're not satisfied with the effect, click "Cancel," then reopen the "Liquefy" dialog box and try "Forward warp" with different mouse strokes.
  
  

Desaturation

• One aspect that many withered things share is their muted or dulled colors. You can desaturate colors in Photoshop by applying the "Hue/Saturation" adjustment layer to an image you want to appear withered. Adjustment layers are similar to filters in that they use geometrical calculations to transform some aspect of your image like color, shape or size. But unlike filters, adjustment layers leave your original image intact. Apply the "Hue/saturation" adjustment layer to the image element you want to wither by clicking the "Layer" menu's "New adjustment layer" command, then clicking the "Hue/saturation" item. Drag the "Saturation" slider to the left, noticing that your image becomes increasingly more muted, as though Photoshop were draining the life or essence out of the image.