Ray of Light Photoshop Elements Tutorial
Ray of Light Photoshop Elements Tutorial
Ray of Light Photoshop Elements Tutorial
Monday, March 31 2008 11:24 Denny Tang Photoshop Elements Tutorials - Photo Effects
Make your photos look breathtaking. In this Photoshop Elements tutorial, you will learn how to use a combination of tools to digitally add a realistic ray of light to your photos.
With the top layer selected, choose Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Levels. Drag the black input slider towards the left until most of the image is black except for any light source. For example, in the image below, the contrast was increase only until the window turned all white. We could have applied more contrast, but the translucent bones in the medical image would start to turn black.
With the top layer selected, choose Filter > Blur > Radial Blur. Copy the settings from the image below. In the Blur Center settings, move the target to where you want the light to blast from. For example, I positioned the blur center to the top right corner so that the light blast out from the top right to the bottom left.
Step 7: Duplicate the layer and repeat the Radial Blur filter
Right now, the ray of light in your image will look very faint. In this step, we'll repeat a process of duplicating the layer and repeating the Radial Blur filter to extend and brighten the ray of light. Press Ctrl+J (duplicate layer) then Ctrl+F (repeat previous filter; Radial Blur) three times or until you get results that you like. You should end up with several layers and a more visible ray of light.
Select the top layer then press Ctrl+E several times until there are only two layers left.
Select the Background layer then choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast. This will create a new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer positioned above the Background layer so that it is only affecting the Background layer and not the ray of light. Adjust the settings to get the results that you like. Below are three example settings you can use.
Final Results