Magic lighting effect in photoshop

Since my last article on how to create smoke generated lots of traffic, I decided to write another one on some of the photoshop effects. Although I use Photoshop on a daily basis, I am by no means a photoshop expert.

Well what I want to show here is how to create a nice light and magic effect.

1 - Create a radial gradient, in this case from a purple to a really dark purple

2 - Here I added a really cool Icon of a magic hat from the Crystal Clear Collection by Everaldo

3 - Add some text, I used the source code of a site to get the text and apply the Distort >Wave filter

Create two stripes of text

4 - Rotate and place the text

5 - Add some light using glow : Use different values for each line of text, the secret here is the blending option COLOR DODGE..

Change the values of Spread, Size and Range

6 - Group the 2 lines of texts and with one apply a mask to make the stripes disappear at their ends.

7 - With the other group of text apply a gaussian blur, after that delete some parts to show the non-blury text.

This will add a movement feel to the text, like they are really being magically created.

8 - Create a new layer below the text and with a regular big brush like 100px add a spot of light in white.

The layer must be below the text, otherwise the glow will not affect the white spot

9 - Make some smoke again, I used the eraser, I could've used the liquify as well

10 - Create a cloud: to do that make use a marquee with feather set to a value bigger than 20 and apply the render>clouds holding the command key(mac), ctrl key(win).

The same as the previous post, and the most important thing apply the COLOR DODGE blending options on it

11 - Sparks: For the sparks create a brush, play with the shape dynamics, scattering, and other dynamics. After that, apply a Outer Glow and Inner Glow to create the magic effect.

End - The result is really simple but at the same time it looks beautiful.

The whole process took me about 35 minutes, one thing I think is really cool is to apply the color dodge blending option to folder, and put blurred elements inside of it. Using it you can create some really amazing light effects.

Stormtrooper = wall - Photoshop Tutorial

In this tutorial we are going to have a quick look at how easily you can use bushes in photoshop to create some really great effects. The methods used in this tutorial are not limited to stormtroopers, They can be used to create graffiti stencil style portraits of you, objects, pets and pretty much anything.

To follow along with this tutorial you will need –

A picture – Portrait style shots from shoulder up taken facing the camera are best. (or just google for a storm trooper)

Photoshop splatter and spray bushes – There are loads of places on the net you can get these (or you can make your own) I downloaded a few sets from www.brusheezy.com

So to start of import you image into photoshop. We are going to have to remove the background of the images first.

There are many differant ways to remove background so I will not go into to much detail as this will vary depending on the image you are using. Some you may be able to get away with magic wand but most you will want to use the pen tool or a layer mask.

Next we are going to apply a filter that will give us our basic look. Go to Image> Adjustments> Threshold

Move the slider up and down to achieve the result suited to you picture Further to the right more black, further to the left more white. When your happy click OK and then duplicate the layer (cmd + J on mac and ctrl + J on pc) Add a new layer below the two threshold layers and fill it with white, You should now have the two identical threshold layers and the white background layer.

Next select the higher of the two threshold layers and change its blending mode to Multiply, You can do this by going to the layer pallet and clicking the drop down menu where it says Normal (as pictured). Repeat the steps for the threshold layer below but this time change the blending mode to lighten. This will be important later if we want to add a background.

Now its time to get to work with the brushes that you have downloaded. Click the brush tool and then go to the options bar at the top and click the brush drop down. Click the small around to the right to pop out the menu. Click replace brushes, use the brower to find where you stored the bushes on you system (if you saved them outside the photoshop brushes folder) and click load.

Now its time go get painting, Create a new layer and name it black splatters, Select the brush tool and make sure your colour is black. Start to paint on areas where there are spray marks, splashes and drips. You can be as detailed or as random as you like. Remember to change your brush a lot and resize a lot. You can also have a play with the shape dynamics in the bush pallet although I will go into more detail about brushes in a future tutorial.

Once you are done painting in your black splatter you should have something that looks like this -

Create a new layer and call it White Splatter. Repeat the steps we used to create the black splatter layer again but this time with white. Use this layer to remove areas from your original black areas. It should look something like this.

If you want to add a background to the image you can by putting the image on a layer below the two threshold layers and the splatter layers. I have used a concrete wall image to keep in with the graffiti theme.

And that’s it! If have any questions about the tutorial just post it in a comment and I will try and answer.