Ray of Light 1
Ray of Light 1
Saturday, August 12 2006 07:49 Denny Tang Photoshop Tutorials - Photo Manipulation
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Step 1
Open a photo you would like to edit. Or, you may use the photo used in this tutorial (from
iStockPhoto).
Step 2
To find and separate the light source in the photo, we'll use the Levels tool (Image> Adjustment>
Levels or Ctrl+L). Drag the middle input slider all the way to the left.
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Step 5
You'll notice that there are visible speckles on the ray of light. Don't worry about it, we can
simply apply the filter two more times and most of it will be gone. Press Ctrl+F to redo the
previous filter again. After the filter has been processed, press Ctrl+F again to redo the previous
filter once more. In total, you'll have pressed Ctrl+F twice.
Ray of Light - Page 3
Saturday, August 12 2006 07:49 Denny Tang Photoshop Tutorials - Photo Manipulation
Article Index
Ray of Light
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
All Pages
Page 3 of 5
Now that we have our ray of light created, we can blend it into the image by changing the
blending mode of the current layer to Screen.
Step 7
The ray of light is blended into the photo but it doesn't seem very strong. To increase the visiblity
of the ray of light, we'll use the Levels tool (Image> Adjustments> Levels or Ctrl+L). Drag the
right input slide towards the left to increase visibility. You may also press the Auto button to
have Photoshop automatically set it to an appropriate level.
Step 8
If you are working with a large image, you may notice that there are more speckles on the ray of
light. To remove this, we'll use the Despeckle filter (Filter> Noise> Despeckle). Press Ctrl+F to
repeat the filter until the speckles disappear. Use Despeckle filter sparingly because it will blur
the ray of light.
Step 9
Now we need to erase the areas that the ray of light shouldn't visible at. To do this, we'll need to
add a layer mask. Add a layer mask to the top layer (Layer> Layer Mask> Reveal All) and click
on the thumbnail of the layer mask to ensure it has been selected.
Step 10
With the layer mask selected, use the Eraser tool (E) to erase the areas where the light shouldn't
appear.
Step 11
To emphasize the colors of the ray of light, use the Hue/Saturation tool (Image> Adjustments>
Hue/Saturation or Ctrl+U) to increase the saturation. Before you can use the Hue/Saturation tool,
you need to click on the thumbnail of the ray of light layer.
Final Results
Rollover the images below to see the before and after effect.