Lighting effects in photoshop

Netguy · 4 May 2015 at 23:28

Hi does anyone know the best way to create lighting effects like in the provided club flyer link?

http://www.graphicriver-review.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/2-night-club-flyer.jpg

(lighting effects over the main title text)

I tried using a white soft edged brush with outer glow but mine never looks anywhere close

kaku · 5 May 2015 at 00:18

You draw them, more or less.

The ones on the upper-right badge look like they have a blend mode applied that enhances the underlying colour.

It's likely made up of several layers, but the base is usually the same (large, soft-edged white brush). Try making a bunch of them, then stretching/squashing them and playing with opacity.

lsg1r · 5 May 2015 at 00:52

well if it's the 'white horizontal' lines then it would usually be called lens flare, possibly with a bit of extra glow etc on it

Photoshop has tools for this under filter-render in cs6

Alternatively you can just grab a brush set like the ones here

http://www.brusheezy.com/brushes/50617-35-optical-flare-brushes

gord · 5 May 2015 at 10:13

New layer. Draw a white ellipse (wider than taller), use a horizontal motion blur so that it elongates the ellipse further. You may need to duplicate the layer a few times and merge down to get a more solid effect. Set the blending to Overlay. Move around and see where it fits.

Meekal · 5 May 2015 at 10:46

There used to be a lightening Plug-In for photoshop, think it was around PS6 I used it though.

Makhaira · 5 May 2015 at 12:10

Looks like a blob that's had shear applied to it, Gaussian blur, feathered selection and delete, and then a couple of blending modes or duplications applied.

Netguy · 5 May 2015 at 23:11

gord said:
New layer. Draw a white ellipse (wider than taller), use a horizontal motion blur so that it elongates the ellipse further. You may need to duplicate the layer a few times and merge down to get a more solid effect. Set the blending to Overlay. Move around and see where it fits.

Not sure if i'm doing right

doesn't look bright enough?
I have several duplicate layers with blend mode set to overlay

gord · 6 May 2015 at 10:18

Hmm, that doesn't look quite right. Overlaying the white on purple should result in a shade of purple, not a solid white.

Try to stick to one layer to begin with. Is your background plain all over? This technique works best over a detailed background.

Netguy · 7 May 2015 at 22:39

gord said:
Hmm, that doesn't look quite right. Overlaying the white on purple should result in a shade of purple, not a solid white.

Try to stick to one layer to begin with. Is your background plain all over? This technique works best over a detailed background.

Several duplicate layers. Tried merging but still can't that effect.
Do you know of any good online tutorial covering this area?

gord · 8 May 2015 at 16:14

Can't recommend any tutorials from experience but what you're looking to create is an anamorphic lens flare. There will be loads of info out there, from a quick Google I found a tuts+ one. They use colour dodge as a blend mode rather than overlay, but they also do a lot more prep than my approach. http://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/create-an-intense-movie-poster-in-photoshop--psd-4841, step 21 onwards.

Netguy · 10 May 2015 at 14:50

gord said:
Can't recommend any tutorials from experience but what you're looking to create is an anamorphic lens flare. There will be loads of info out there, from a quick Google I found a tuts+ one. They use colour dodge as a blend mode rather than overlay, but they also do a lot more prep than my approach. http://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/create-an-intense-movie-poster-in-photoshop--psd-4841, step 21 onwards.

Thanks for the link