Adobe Photoshop CS/CS3 Electrifying Glowing Lines
by Eli Journals
More Tips
Design trends come and go but when they’re hot, you can bet on what your clients will ask of you. Take, for example, glowing, energetic light beams. Creating this look isn’t as difficult as you might think. We’ll show you how—in just a few simple steps—you can wow your clients and add luminance and energy to your images!
Select an image
You can add light beams to any image but this technique especially complements subjects that display movement. Also, because you will add the light beams both in front of and behind the subject, you’ll need an image with a subject you can isolate easily.
For our example, we’ll add light beams to the image shown in Figure A. As you can see, we’ve already done some of the dirty work and isolated our figure from the background. To follow along with our example, download the file electrify.zip. Extract the file electrify.psd, launch Photoshop, and open the file shown in Figure A. (Images provided by PhotoSpin. Some images modified for educational purposes.) If you’d rather use your own image and don’t want to change the background, see the pullout box in this article titled “Go a different route.”
Figure A:
Go a different route
If you want to keep your image’s current background, here’s how you can put light beams in front of and behind your main subject. First, make a selection around your subject. Next, feather your selection slightly and then press [command]J ([Ctrl]J in Windows) to move a copy of that selection to a new layer. When you add light beams, make sure to put at least one light beam layer above the copied layer (in front of your subject) and at least one light beam layer between the copied layer and the original (behind your subject).
Add a background
We’ve already deleted the white background from our sample image. Now you can add a new gradient background to make it a little more dramatic.
To add a gradient background layer:
1.
Set the foreground color to a dark magenta (R:196, G:26, B:138) and the background color to black (R:0, G:0, B:0).
2.
Create a new layer, rename this new layer Gradient, and move it beneath the Woman layer.
3.
Select the Gradient tool from the Tools palette.
4.
On the tool Options bar, choose the Foreground To Background gradient in the Gradient Picker and select the Radial Gradient button.
5.
Click in the center of the image and drag the mouse outward to create a radial gradient on the Gradient layer, as shown in Figure B.
Figure B:
As you can see in Figure B, the Woman layer has a soft, feathered edge and there are still some white pixels around the hair. But that’s okay because you can cover up those missed pixels with a couple of layer styles.
To add layer styles to the Woman layer:
1.
Select the Woman layer.
2.
Click on the Add A Layer Style button located at the base of the Layers palette and select Outer Glow from the pop-up menu.
3.
Click on the Set Color Of Glow color swatch to open the Color Picker, enter the same RGB values you used previously for the dark magenta, and click OK.
4.
Set the size to 40 and then click on the Inner Glow layer style to select it and make it active.
5.
Click on the Set Color Of Glow color swatch to open the Color Picker, set the color to white and click OK.
6.
Set the size to 40, leave all other values at their defaults, and click OK for results shown in Figure C.
Figure C:
Beam me up!
Next we’ll get to the fun part and add the light beams. You can do this task a couple of ways: by painting brush strokes or by drawing paths and then stroking them. If you have a tablet with a pressure-sensitive stylus—and a steady hand— you could probably just paint the strokes on your canvas. We’ll assume that not everyone has a tablet so, to create precision lines, we’ll draw paths first and then stroke them with white.
To add light beams:
1.
Choose the Pen tool from the Tools palette and select the Paths button on the tool Options bar.
2.
Draw a curved path, as shown in Figure D.
Figure D:
1.
Double-click on the Work path in the Paths palette and click OK in the Save Path dialog box to save the path with the default name Path 1.
2.
Set the foreground color to white and select the Brush tool from the Tools palette.
3.
Choose the Soft Round 35 Pixels brush preset, or a soft round brush with a similar diameter.
4.
Create a new layer in the Layers palette and rename this new layer Beam 1.
5.
Move the Beam 1 layer to the top of the layer stacking order.
6.
Select the new path in the Paths palette and choose Stroke Path from the pop-up menu to display the Stroke Path dialog box.
7.
Choose Brush from the pop-up menu, select the Simulate Pressure check box, and click OK. Then, deselect the path (click outside the path in the Paths palette) for results shown in Figure E.
Figure E:
Make the light glow
Our light beam has a good shape but we need to add a glow and also mask out portions of the line so it appears to wind around the woman. We’ll start by adding the same layer styles that we applied to the Woman layer and then modify them slightly.
To make the light glow:
1.
[control]-click ([Right]-click in Windows) on the Woman layer and select Copy Layer Style from the pop-up menu.
2.
[control]-click ([Right]-click in Windows) on the Beam 1 layer and choose Paste Layer Style from the pop-up menu.
3.
Double-click on the Outer Glow layer style on the Beam 1 layer to open the Layer Style dialog box.
4.
Select Color Dodge from the Blend Mode pop-up menu and click OK. Note: Depending on your image, the default blend mode might suffice or you might want to experiment with different colors and blend modes until you find a combination that makes your beam glow.
5.
Click on the Add Layer Mask button at the base of the Layers palette to add a layer mask to the Blend 1 layer.
6.
Choose the Brush tool, keep the soft round brush option that you set earlier, and set the foreground color to black.
7.
Paint on the mask over areas of the light to make it look like the light beam wraps around the image, as shown in Figure F. Note: Increase or decrease the brush diameter as necessary. Continue masking until your image looks like ours, as shown in Figure G.
Figure F:
Figure G:
Intensify the light
Now that you’ve completed the first beam, the rest of them will be a cinch! Use the original path to create another light beam, but offset this one slightly and make it thinner.
To add a second light beam:
1.
Select Path 1 in the Paths palette and then choose the Path Selection tool in the Tools palette.
2.
Press the left arrow key approximately 15 times to nudge the path to the left slightly.
3.
Create a new layer in the layers palette, name this new layer Beam 2, and move this layer to the top of the layer stacking order.
4.
Set the foreground color to white, select the Brush tool from the Tools palette and select the Soft Round 13 Pixels brush preset.
5.
With the path still active in the paths palette, choose Stroke Path from the pop-up menu to display the Stroke Path dialog box.
6.
Choose Brush from the pop-up menu, select the Simulate Pressure check box, and click OK. Then, deselect the path.
7.
Choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, enter 5 in the Radius text box, and click OK.
8.
Click the Add A Layer Mask button to add a layer mask to the Beam 2 layer, set the foreground color to black, and paint over the areas that you wish to allude are behind the woman. You can see our results in Figure H.
Figure H:
Build up the light
We can’t possibly walk you through every step, so you’re on your own to create as many light beams as you want to add to your image. Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you build up light layers:
Create a variety of thick and thin light beams.
Don’t feel like you have to use layer styles for every light beam. Try blurring a light beam instead, giving it a soft glow.
Rotate the light beam 180 degrees, scale the layer, and experiment with different layer blending modes to make interesting patterns in the background. We set the blending mode to Darken to achieve the neon glowing effect shown in the background in Figure I.
Duplicate a light beam layer to intensify the look.
Figure I:
Finishing touches
We added a few more light beams and enhanced the background with a neon-looking light beam, as shown in Figure I. The last thing we’ll do is add some light particles to give the image a slight fantasy appeal.
To add light particles:
1.
Set the foreground color to white and select the Brush tool from the Tools palette.
2.
Choose Window > Brushes to display the Brushes palette.
3.
Select the Brush Tip Shape panel and increase the spacing so the brush tip shape displays as dots. Tip: If you don’t want to use a soft round brush, consider one of the star brushes instead.
4.
Select the Scattering option and increase the scatter setting to your liking. We set ours to 300.
5.
Create a new layer, name this new layer Light Particles, and move it to the top of the layer stacking order.
6.
Paint some light particles on the layer, adjusting the brush size according to your preference.
7.
Add a layer mask to the Light Particles layer, set the brush opacity to 30, set the foreground color to black, and paint over some of the light particles so they appear to fade.
Our final image is shown in Figure J. One other thing we added is an Exposure Adjustment Layer to the Woman layer and we clipped it to just that one layer. This added a dramatic look to the woman. You can preview our finished lower resolution file, electrify_final.psd at the URL given at the beginning of this article.
Figure J:
PhotoSpin subscribers receive a 66% discount on Inside Photoshop. Click here for more information!
