More Photoshop Trickery

So in this instructable I will show you how to make:

- Lightning
- A persons eyes a crazy colour...
- Some glow effects

I'll add more instructables for photoshop, these are just a few basics for beginners. It's aimed at those that know a little about photoshop but havn't really started using it.

This is actually one of the simplest things you can do with a photo, obviously once you see how it works then you can apply it to ther photo tricks, eyes are just a good starter point.

So open your document and create a new layer, there's a little button just above the layer views. Set the blending mode to overlay, that's done using the little drop down menu that has the default normal, found just beside the new layer button above the list of layers.

Make sure your new layer is selected, click on it if you're not sure now take the brush out and make the brush size about the same of the eyes, select a nice bright colour and simply paint on over the iris (coloured part of their eye's).

That's it they should now have funny coloured eyes!

For more subtle/realistic effects choose a bright colour anyway but lower the opacity of the brush or overlaying layer.

This again is actually really easy, make a new document at the approriate size for your purposes.

Now hit the 'D' key, this resets your colours to black and white.

If you want sheet lightning then skip this: Take the gradient tool, which can be found with the bucket tool sixth from the top on the left of the toolbar, right click to choose the gradient tool. Run a straight gradient in the general direction you wish the lightning to go across the canvas, not really sharp but not too soft either.

If you didn't make a gradient then you need initial clouds, here's where they're found filters>render>clouds.

While you were there you most likely noticed the difference clouds aswell, now go filters>render>difference clouds. Now you'll see some weird clouds appear with lightning like bits in them.

Simply hit ctrl + F (apply last filter used) until you see some nice patterns, now hit Ctrl + I (Invert image) you'll see a nice brilliant bit of lightning.

To isolate the lightning we use the magic wand with a tolerance of 1-3 so we only get the stuff we need. click on a part of the purest white in the lightning. You'll select one or two pixels that way, right click and hit similar, you might have to repeat the magic wand bit a few times to get the lightning you want. Now simply hit ctrl + X (cut) to cut the lightning out. either clear the document or paste the lightning into another document as a new layer, It wont look real until we add a glow, handily enough we're doing that next anyway.

So now we have our new layer of lightning it'a time to make it glow...

Double click on the picture of the layer in the little box of layers, go down to the outer glow box, click on the text. You'll probably want to change the colour to pure white for this to make it more like lightning but obviously the choice is yours.

Go down to the spread and size box, play with them a bit, the size is just how far the glow reaches out, the spread controls how much of the glow is solid by percentage.

You'll see a little drop down with two techniques in it, softer and precise, try them out and see which you like.

There are two images of the different glow techniques and settings here, compare them and see which you prefer.

The third image is there to show the effect of playing with the contour of the glow, you can make a glow that has halos and other stuff very easily with this.

A great tip for the lightning is after applying the glow take a soft eraser and clean up around the lighting to make it more realistic.