A Cool Lighting Effect In Photoshop

on Feb 5th 2008 with 90 comments
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In this tutorial, I will show you how to create that effect we saw on the screen at the Macworld San Francisco. It’s basically some lighting effects with blurs and blend modes, but the effect is awesome.

Step 1

Create a new document. On the Background layer, double-click to open the Layer Style dialog box and apply the Gradient Overlay with black and green (#9dc5c7).

Step 2

Create a new layer. Set white for the foreground and black for the background color. After that, go to Filter>Render>Clouds. Rename the layer to “Clouds.”

Step 3

Change the Blend Mode of the clouds layer to Multiply 60%. Duplicate the layer and rename it to “radial blur.” After that, go to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur.

Step 4

Duplicate the background layer and move it up in front of the other layers. Rename it to “Gradient Light” and go to the Layer Styles dialog box. Change the Fill Opacity to 0% under the Advanced Blending settings. After that in the Gradient Overlay settings, change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge and the scale to 70%.

Step 5

Place your logo in the center of the image and change the Layer Styles. First change the Color Overlay to black and then add a Bevel and Emboss as shown in the image below.

Step 6

Create a new Folder and call it “lights” and move it behind the logo layer. Inside that folder, select the Ellipse Tool (U) and create a circle that will be almost entirely behind the logo. Using the Pen Tool (P), create some shapes that will be the lights. Use the image below for reference. Make sure that all of these objects are inside the “lights” folder.

Step 7

If you are using the CS3 version of Photoshop, you can convert the layers to Smart Objects in order to use the non-destructive filters feature.

Apply a Gaussian Blur to the layers. Each one will have a different value because of their sizes.

Step 8

Select the lights folder and change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge. Duplicate the two bottom lights and move them to the center.

Step 9

Using the Ellipse Tool (U), again create a small circle but this time in front of the logo. This circle will be a reflection on the logo.

Conclusion

Now you can add some text—I’ve used Myriad Pro Light. Although this effect looks very cool and sort of complicated to achieve, it’s really easy and can be done pretty quickly. Using Render Clouds, blurs, and blend modes, we can create really amazing lighting effects.

 
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I am a Brazilian designer living in Porto Alegre (south of Brazil). In 2003, I founded a web design studio called ZEE, with Fabiano Meneghetti, an architect and friend of mine. It's a small studio now, with 4 people working basically with web.  

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  • http://jagaparajuli.com.np Kshitij Parajuli

    How Do You Guys Come up with so creative images????

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  • Ron

    I have the same problem as Phil above…when i select the lights folder and put it to color dodge, it looks nothing like yours. I also have CS2. It makes it look very choppy and bad.

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  • http://www.advitaenergylaunch.com Lee

    Nice effect. Wow.

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  • Md. Manik

    Thanks

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  • yong

    A great guide.
    but Im stuck at guide #7,
    can I have the video of it ?

  • http://zxczxczxczczxcz ajeshmohan

    coool and more better !!!

  • alberth

    Abduzeedo siempre crea los mejores diseño

  • STAR

    Can anybody give me this lovely heart? A link or something else. Tks.

  • STAR

    Sorry, I foun a better heart. When I try to make the lights I don’t succeed with pen tool. Can anybody give me some indications? Tks a lot.

  • uuno

    This is a complete shit, did everything as said and it’s just a blue ring

  • Bav

    Yeah I agree when it came to step 8 the blend mode was already on pass through not normal as indicated and the light rays ended up looking too bright.

    And I thought tuts+ members were supposed to be able to download psds of the tutoria? Where is the tutorial on the tutsplus area it can;t be found?

    Load of rubbish.

  • andre

    nice good

  • zebing

    Ok, I agree too. Problems at step 8. It seems color dodge is not the right blend mode. I’ve experimented with others and using the “soft light” blend mode is working a thousand times better for me, and duplicating the layer can also help. Almost seems like he wrote the wrong blend mode on that step.

  • Brian

    Awesome techniques, as always, Fabio. Love your tuts.

    I’m having trouble duplicating the look you achieve in this one. In the screen shots you provide, I notice there’s a big difference in the appearance of the background “cloud” layers between Step 4 & Step 5. But there is no mention of anything being done to those layers.

    Can anyone give me some guidance as to what was done in Step 5 to make the background clouds more vibrant?

  • Rhys

    hey man good tutorial
    i need a bit of help though u said to make a new folder in part of it but i cant find the folder button anyware on photoshop can u help plz
    thanks

  • karli

    so confusing. couldnt do it at all

  • hey

    this tutorial sux!!!

  • fillion

    In step 8 You’ve got grat light effect, but I cant make in? How did you do it?

  • http://www.juandiegonavarro.blogspot.com Juan Diego

    Fantastic

    Are you in linkedin

  • Dan

    I believe the step that is missing is he lower the normal opacity from 100 to a lower number for each pen drawn object. So after applying the color dodge then go back and try lowering the opacity of each light and see if that gives you better results.

  • sowmya

    supperb thank you

  • http://www.aarons123.com aaron

    without using the tutorial pictures, (except for the blurs and that) this here worked perfectly, i do believe color dodge is RIGHT. he just uploaded the wrong one.. i managed to get a nice heart out of this =] good luck all

  • http://www.ebuyshoesstore.com shirley

    So beautiful.

  • http://www.doodesign.co.uk Anton

    Great overall effect. Step 8 didn’t seem to work as instructed but if you play around with different blending modes like OVERLAY and SOFT LIGHT you can get a nice effect. Just some tweaking with opacity and maybe softening the edges with an eraser and you can get the same outcome.

    Overall great design and a great way to really make your logo stand out!

  • wanze2001

    Hi,
    I tried to add the habs get am but failed. Would like to give my girlfriend in 50×70 cm. Could this make me a time? or give a link where I can download it?
    That would be a wicked thing

  • http://www.alherabd.com animated gif

    Easy description. nice tuts.

  • http://N/A Treavor Crocker

    its a cool effect but it takes a lot of controll

  • ina

    when i select the lights folder and put it to color dodge, it looks nothing like yours. I also have CS2. It makes it look very choppy and bad.

  • Shell

    I am getting lost right at step one.. how do you get the black and green gradiant? I know how to get there but then all i can get to open is a black and white one or some of the ones that are already there. I’d like a bit more of an explanation, or a video to watch. so i can see exactly how it’s done.

  • hung

    you can try again with blending mode of “overlay”

  • http://www.ariona.net Rian Ariona

    Nice Effect!! simple step that make it glow like eclipse.. :)

  • Anthony Crawford II

    HI I need this file really bad for a school project and I dont know how to do this on windows I’ve been at it for days and cant get it Is there a video tutorial for it or is there a way i can just open up the file I need this quick !!

  • z

    Worse tutotial EVEr!! NOTHING IS EXPLAIN LIKE IT SHOULD!! Everthing important is misisng!

  • http://www.pretut.com/ pretut

    nice tutotial

  • Aldstar

    This tutorial isn’t very good. It’s missing a couple of things, but that could work in your advantage, cause that way you must find out the small things by yourself, well I’m halfway the tutorial, but I don’t have that particular logo, so I’ll do it with something else. Thanks for the tutorial :D

  • debopriya das

    in the second image u just puit black background than put green round and blur it u will get it

  • Wesley

    For those who has stuck at guide #8, I have an alternate way for getting a similar effect.
    After doing the rays of light (using the pen tool), I selected each one pressing Ctrl (it selects the pixels of the layer) and for each one I put a gradient from white (in the center) to black (at the end). After that, I applied the Blend mode “Dodge”.

    (and sorry for my English, I speak Portuguese XD)

  • rezaul

    very good.

  • http://wnabcreative.deviantart.com/ Akbar

    can’t get the result like yours when I apply ‘Color dodge’ mode on the folder ‘light’. I had to use the ‘overlay’ blend mood. please let us know what you’ve done differently to get the effect with ‘color dodge’?

  • Diaboliquin

    I got it! – there are two omissions:

    1 – In step 4, the gradient overlay = Radial

    2 – In step 7, you must change Opacity to achieve the effect

    Sample:
    http://i.imgur.com/2sbY0.jpg

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