Hello everyone this is Chris from Spoon Graphics
back with another video tutorial for Adobe Photoshop.
Today I'm going to share some useful techniques for create a glowing effect in Photoshop to
make objects appears as if they are illuminated.
I'll be applying the effect to the antlers of a deer in this example to create a surreal
fantasy image, but the same process can be used to add lighting effects to all kinds
of objects within a scene.
But first, if you want to help support the channel, follow the link in the description
to check out Envato Elements
To give a deer lightsaber antlers, we first need a deer image to work with. This great
shot by David Selbert is downloadable for free from Pexels.com.
Open the image in Adobe Photoshop. To be able to apply effects to the antlers, they first
need to be separated from the rest of the image by cutting them out. Use Pen tool to
trace around them.
Click and drag to form a smooth curve, then hold the CMD key (or CTRL key on Windows)
to toggle to the selection tool if necessary to adjust the points and bezier handles.
Areas where there's a sharp corner will require the anchor point to be reset to prevent the
curve from continuing. Hold the ALT key and click the point.
Loop the path back to the starting point then trace the other antler.
Hold the CMD key and draw a selection around both paths, then right click and choose Make
Selection, with zero feathering.
Go to Edit > Copy and Edit Paste to place a clipping on a new layer.
Select the background layer and add a new Color Lookup adjustment layer above it. Select
the Moonlight 3D LUT preset.
The darker blue colouring isn't applied to the antler layer because it sits above the
adjustment layer in the layer stack.
Drag the antler layer onto the New Layer icon to make a duplicate.
Change the blending mode to Linear Dodge.
Right click and choose Convert to Smart Object.
Make another duplicate, then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a value of around
5px just to add a soft glow.
Make another duplicate of the layer and double-click the Gaussian Blur smart filter to edit its
value. Choose a larger blur of around 20px.
Add one more duplicate and edit the blur to around 60px to add more of a haze around the
glowing antlers.
Add a new layer and set up the brush tool with a soft tip. Flip the foreground and background
colours around to paint with white.
Dab a couple of spots over the antlers, then set the blending mode to Soft Light. Reduce
the opacity to create more of an ambient glow.
Shift and click all the layers that form the antler effects so far and use the CMD+G shortcut
to Group them.
Add a Hue and Saturation adjustment layer. Check the Colorize option, then clip the layer
to the Group so the effect is only applied to the antler layers.
Adjust the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness sliders to find a suitable glow colour. The
saturation will likely need to be maxed out to 100%.
Add a new layer, then sample a colour from the glowing antlers.
Reduce the Flow value of the brush in the top toolbar to a low figure.
Zoom in and begin painting highlights on the deer's head. Build up layers of colour using
the reduced flow value to add brighter spots where the light would hit first.
Set the blending mode of this layer to Color Dodge, then reduce the Fill value. Altering
the fill rather than the opacity can help the colours to interact with some blending
modes.
Add a new layer and add some soft glows to the surrounding areas.
A basic hightligh can be added to the tree by clicking near the top, then shift and click
near the bottom to create a straight line.
Set this layer to Color Dodge and reduce its fill to tone down the highlights.
Download my free Grain Textures by following the link in the description. Open one of the
PNG images, then copy and paste it into the main document using the shortcuts CMD+A for
Select All, CMD+C for Copy, CMD+W for Close, then CMD+V for Paste.
Invert the graphic by going to Image > Adjustments > Invert, or use the CMD+I shortcut.
Set the blending mode to Overlay to allow the bright speckles to interact with the colours
of the scene.
Use the CMD+T shortcut for Transform to scale and reposition the grain texture over the
antlers to add glowing particle effects.
Add a layer mask, then use the soft brush to erase any unwanted particles that might
be obscuring the head, and to help fade out the edges.
Open up a second grain texture and copy and paste it into the document too.
Invert it with CMD+I then scale it to fill the canvas with CMD+T.
Make the layer a Smart Object, then apply a Gaussian Blur filter. Use a value of around
10-15px to make the grain appear like out of focus particles floating in the scene.
Set the blending mode to Color Dodge and alter the Fill value slightly to blend them with
the background colours.
Add a layer mask and dab random spots to help the particles appear less uniform with some
being brighter than others.
As a finishing touch, make a merged copy at the top of the layer stack with the finger-contorting
shortcut. CMD+ALT+Shift+E, or go to Layer > Merge Visible, but hold the ALT key while
clicking.
Make this layer a Smart Object to apply a filter non-destructively, then open the Camera
RAW tools.
Tweak the sliders to fine tune the appearance of the image by boosting the blues and tweaking
the contrast.
The final result is a colourful illuminated glow effect that can be used to create all
kinds of surreal
or fantasy artwork.