Super Slick Dusky Lighting Effects in Photoshop

Sep 28th in Photo Effects by Collis
One of the best sites around for desktops has to be Desktopography. I've been inspired by their amazing work, so today we are going to put together a sunset image mixing some vector shapes and dusky lighting effects to produce a slick image that would make a nice album cover for a chillout mix!

Author: Collis

Hello! I started PSDTUTS because years ago reading Photoshop tutorials was how I got into design. I hope the site helps and inspires others! You can find me on Twitter!

What we are Making

Click the image for the high-res version.

Steps and Assets

As always you can download the PSD file to follow along at the bottom of this tutorial. It's a pretty large file so be warned! Additionally we are using a few assets including a photo from iStockPhoto and some vectors from Arsenal's Freebie Section. Note that in the sample PSD, I've merged some text onto the original image to protect its copyright since it's such a large copy.

Step 1:

So here's our original photo from iStock. It's a pretty gorgeous photo with great sunset lighting and contrast for us to build on.

Step 2:

First off we duplicate the photo, press Ctrl-Shift-U to desaturate the image to Black and White. Then go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and make the image a bit brighter and contrastier as shown.

Step 3:

Now go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply a mild blur of 2px.

Step 4:

Now we set the blurred black and white layer to blending mode Overlay and Opacity 50%. This gives us a slightly surreal blurring on the image. BE WARNED: This effect (blurring then overlaying) is a bit of favorite of amateurs, so go easy on it. When you do use it, make sure you fade it out a reasonable amount so it doesn't look too tacky.

Step 5:

Now the lighting is pretty nice already, but I'd like some pinkish hues in the image as it makes the image a lot warmer than bluish colors. So in a new layer, use the Paintbucket to fill with a bright pink color. Then use the Eraser Tool with a large, soft brush and remove some areas where you don't want as much pink to shine through (this was pretty arbitrary for me and just gives the image more depth rather it being uniformly colored). We then set the blending mode to Color and 20% Opacity. Actually I did those two steps the other way around (I blended first then erased the bits I didn't want).

Step 6:

Here's the image after adding the pink.

Step 7:

Now to make the sun rays, we are going to use a combination of glowing edges and radial blurring. So duplicate the original colored layer and put it on top of all the other layers. Then go to Filter > Stylize > Glowing Edges and use settings of 1, 11, and 15 respectively for Width, Brightness, and Smoothness.

Step 8:

Now we go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur and apply settings as shown. Make sure that you have set the blur method to Zoom (not Spin). Also importantly move the Blur Center until it's roughly in the position of the image where the woman was standing, i.e. where the 'sun' is going to be. You may have to do this a couple of times to get the positioning exactly right because it's a bit trial and error.

Once you've got it, apply the Radial Blur again by pressing Ctrl+F (to repeat the last filter used).

Step 9:

Now set the blending mode for this layer to Screen.

Screen blending mode basically knocks out darker colors to only leave the lighter ones. This is the opposite to Multiply which knocks out any lighter colors and just leaves darker ones. This is really handy for when you have say a logo on a white background and you want to apply it to an image but don't want to cut it out - instead you just set it to Multiply (or Screen if it's on black).

Step 10:

To get the light looking more like sunlight, we go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and tick the box that says Colorize to add some more color to the light rays. Then move the sliders around until you get a reddish tint and press OK.

Step 11:

Now repeat the process (Glowing Edges > Radial Blur > Screening the Image) a couple of times to get more light rays as shown. Try moving the Radial Zoom filter around a little to get different casts of light to mix together.

Also as you add extra layers on you can always use the Eraser tool to remove some parts of a layer and leave others so that they blend together well. This is generally a matter of playing around with the image until it looks right. Also note that you can use Layer Masks to do this without losing any image data, but because I never used Masks when I was learning Photoshop, out of habit I still do things the old (and probably a bit dumb) way :-)

Step 12:

Next we want to add the big glowing center to the image. So create a new layer on top of all the others and get a large, soft brush and with White as your foreground color paint a blob of white over where the woman's silhouette is.

Step 13:

To this blob of white, we now add an Outer Glow of yellow set to Overlay (as shown). You can do this by right clicking on the layer and selecting Blending Options.

Step 14:

Now in your tools palette choose the Smudge Tool (R) which you can see in the image. Using your mouse, smudge your ball of light outwards. Note that in the image shown, I've done some pretty big smudges so you can see roughly what we're doing, but in reality you should make smaller, more subtle smudges.

What you are trying to do here is give it a burst of light feel. You might want to duplicate the layer and have a couple of them together which is what I've done in the sample PSD.

Step 15:

Now what sunset would be complete without a lens flare? Rather than using the filter though just create a new layer on top and draw a circle as shown and fill it with white. Set it to blending mode Overlay and about 10% Opacity. Then create a new layer and do the same with a smaller circle and repeat again a couple of times until you have a subtle lens flare as shown.

Then merge the layers together and set it all to about 30% because we want this to be really subtle!

Step 16:

Now in new layers we paste in some of our vector images. I've used a sort of swirly wing thing from Arsenal's Freebie Section and also the capital letter A from a font called Porcelain, which you can get from Misprinted Type for free.

I chose both because they have lots of lines and swirls which fits what I want to do. I also duplicated the swirly wing vector, flipped it by going to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal, then Ctrl+T to scaled it down in the transform menu. That way its good for little details.

Step 17:

Now fit the three images together as shown. When we switch them to white, we want most of the objects to be obscured with just bits of swirl poking out the edges.

Step 18:

So now for each layer we press Ctrl+I to invert the color from Black to White and then right-click the layers and select Blending Options. Then we add an Outer Glow as shown to make them fit in with the main ball of light.

Step 19:

You should now have something that looks like the image below.

Step 20:

Now for the final touches, I've added some text using the font Chalet which is wonderfully elegant but isn't too over the top. Note that you might feel tempted to add a swirly, cursive type font for text, but this would be overkill. It's much better to contrast the complexity of the main image with a very simple and understated type treatment (in my opinion). Anyhow as you can see I've placed it near the center of the image.

Looking at the final image, I also decided it needed a little more color so I added a layer at the very top filled with a reddish color (#957070) and set it to Overlay at 30%. This warms up the image a little more, and you'll see that layer in the final shot.

Final Image:

And finally we're all done. Click the image below for the high-res version of our finished product!

Sample PSD

Download the PSD for this tutorial

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User Comments

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  1. hvdesigns September 28th

    excellent 5 stars again ;)

    your effects are great


  2. Martin September 28th

    Great Tut! Can’t wait to try this. Keep up the good work.


  3. giackop September 28th

    Wow amazing!!!!!!! Very very nice..


  4. mediamelt September 28th

    You rule. Keep em, coming. :)


  5. Smart Man September 28th

    Could you do an example of how you come up with a website design?


  6. JD September 28th

    I just found this site but after reading this one tutorial I am definitely bookmarking it and reading through the rest of the site when I get the chance. Easily one of the best tutorials I’ve come across in a while, as far as image enhancing goes.


  7. Matthew September 28th

    Wow againnn lol ;)


  8. Zeb September 28th

    Yours tutorials are great, as usual !! Great !!


  9. Jason September 28th

    The most easy-to-follow and informative PSD tutorials I have ever found online. I am forever devoted to this site and look forward to more, more, MORE!


  10. Hyder September 28th

    Awesome tutorial once again Collis. It’s amazing how simple it is to build once you know how to do it. But getting to that point takes years of practice.

    Thanks again.

    P.S - I hope you have some tutorials on making logos, modifying fonts and such, coming in the future.


  11. Dao September 28th

    Great tutorial! very well written.


  12. Klaus September 28th

    This site has become a place to visit daily.
    Your tutorials are really good, they show things I haven’t see before, and are very informative. Two thumbs up!


  13. Martín September 28th

    The effect looks very nice. Keep up the good work!


  14. Tim September 28th

    Woooooowww… thx for the great source of inspiration !!!
    Love it !!!


  15. Shadowfax September 28th

    Wonderful. Forget the tutorials. I love to come to your site to soak in the visual beauties u create


  16. Shadowfax September 28th

    I would also like to create various radiant lines around various shapes, objects, logos. I have some Ideas now and for that I am indebted to you but i am looking forward to some aurora effect with more subtler styles


  17. DS September 28th

    //speechless//


  18. Hamish M September 28th

    Great tutorial, very nice effect for wallpapers and whatnot. Keep ‘em coming!


  19. Clark September 28th

    This site is becoming really helpful, I’m a design student trying to get my head around Photoshop and your tutorials have taught me more than most of my tutors do :)


  20. Graeme September 28th

    Thanks for taking the time to do this. I usually following such links from Digg and give an unimpressed “meh”. But my jaw dropped when I saw this tutorial It is outstanding. Keep up the great great work - the world appreciates it.


  21. Nature Wallpaper September 28th

    That is amazing. That is some really nice photoshop skills, guess some have it and some have to come to figure it out ;)


  22. Steve September 28th

    Brilliant tutorial, lovely end result, going to have to give it a try myself later.

    Thanks for the post


  23. PAVAN September 28th

    very nice really I like it


  24. Free stock photos September 28th

    Love your tutorials, keep it up Collis!


  25. José Gomes September 28th

    Very good tutorial!!!!
    (pt) Está um bom trabalho…


  26. yuhh September 28th

    oha diyorum başka bir şey demiyorum…


  27. Ivan Minic September 28th

    Very nice tutorial!


  28. Laurie September 28th

    Brilliant tutorial once again.
    You’re at the top of my RSS feed!
    Just wondered if you had ever considered screen capture software to make tutorial videos?
    I for one would absolutely love to see static tutorials made into videos.
    I suppose the bandwidth might be an issue then?..
    Thanks and keep it up!


  29. Mr_LeE September 28th

    u rule


  30. APIEX September 28th

    great tutorial!!


  31. APIEX September 28th

    http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1452779238&size=l


  32. brandy September 28th

    very nice! it’s great to see you explaining things further now. each tutorial gets better than the next!

    others have mentioned they want tutorials for things like logo design and website design. i’d actually advise you against this… i don’t think anyone can really learn how to design a logo just from a photoshop tutorial! obviously, logo design and the like involves lots of work beyond the actual technical process.

    also, your website is very specifically called PSDTuts, which means (to me) that you should just do tutorials on image creation and manipulation using photoshop as a tool. people can then decide for themselves where the effects you teach are most appropriate to use.


  33. John Antunes September 28th

    One of the best tutorials I have ever read! Great Job!


  34. Joe September 28th

    I just found this site today… and… WOW! I’m bookmarking this. And I bought ya a coffee haha


  35. RJ Norris September 28th

    your technique is great, but your ability to see effective light, colour and composition is absolutely fantastic. of course, it’s a little more difficult to offer a tutorial in “what looks good.” ;-)


  36. Travis September 29th

    I agree with what Brandy said (above). I think your tutorials teach fundamentals of manipulation, while true to rules of aesthetics and appealing design. Your tutorials end up looking professional, whereas many manipulation tutorials elsewhere end up overdone and amateur looking. Thanks for the beautiful work!


  37. aaron September 29th

    excellent tutorial. There is a lot of solid stuff in there to learn from.
    Thanks!


  38. Jeff Finley September 29th

    Great use of Arsenal elements, it’s not too obvious. Nice and subtle!


  39. AJ September 29th

    FANTASTIC.

    I love your website, props.


  40. alan September 29th

    woo hoo, another psdtuts tutorial. I thought I was going to be alone tonight! can’t wait to get home and try it out. thanks


  41. Supercillious September 29th

    Beautiful. A wonderful show of talent


  42. subcorpus September 29th

    this is like really good …
    am gonna try it this weekend …
    am sure i need more time to do this that most of you guys out there …
    hehe …


  43. nitesh September 29th

    this site totally rock. it has high standards of tutorials and laymens language for everyone.


  44. Michael September 29th

    Great tutorial, thanks!


  45. Brad September 29th

    Awesome tutorial, looks like the perfect album cover as well.


  46. Mark Petereit September 29th

    Awesome! Do you do any Final Cut/Motion work? ;-)


  47. Chris Coyier September 29th

    This tutorial brought to you by the awesome power of Overlay =)


  48. Matt September 29th

    Very easy to understand tutorials! These are some of the best explanations that seen. Thanks for the great resource!


  49. Ronnie September 29th

    Great tutorial. I used this for a similar image that I took in Costa Rica. http://www.wallyx.com if you would like to see.


  50. Haleh September 29th

    Very impressive! I am always delighted to see people who use PS as a tool to creative surreal effects.


  51. rafaelinux September 29th

    Impressive, just that!


  52. Dennis Plucinik September 29th

    For people who use Photoshop a lot, these tutorials are like stories instead of tutorials.

    Easily digestible short stories of Photoshop goodness.


  53. blackhawk1793 September 29th

    Very nice tutorial, excellent, please keep adding more of these type of tutorials.

    Thanks for the tut.


  54. ana September 30th

    u guys rule!


  55. Alexander September 30th

    It’s music to my ears!


  56. Mia September 30th

    thats brilliant! I never thought of that, especially the sun rays…awesome. I’m going to start trying that out myself. :)


  57. Sean Hodge September 30th

    Great Tutorial. I haven’t used it yet. But I’m looking for a client project I can incorporate this into. Thanks.


  58. Headshot September 30th

    Awesome Tutorial!! :)
    The final result looks really great!!

    1 question ;), i wrote a tutorial and submitted it.
    How long will it take for a reply about accepted / rejected?

    Could you let me know, i would appreciate it :)

    Kind Regards,

    Headshot


  59. Hellgrace September 30th

    Awesome!


  60. Kelvin September 30th

    WOW! that’s a great tutorial. I have been using some of your tutorials on some of my projects. It gave me brilliant effects and bascialy WOW-ed people.

    for this tutorial, may i ask where did u find your Chalet font from? i love it.

    Thanks.


  61. noogie September 30th

    Thnx 4 this =)


  62. h3ll0 September 30th

    F**ing!!! Awesome!!! Keep Going!

    Amazing Site!!! I just Love IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


  63. Eric Thoolen October 1st

    Finally a tutorial site with some decent advanced techniques! Oh man please keep this up! This is fantastic!


  64. Franksta October 1st

    Fast server; I hit upwards towards 2Mb/sec downloading the PSD file. Great tutorial! Keep it up!


  65. Headshot October 1st

    Awesome Tutorial!
    Is there a way to get in contact with you Collis?


  66. PARPOLE October 1st

    AWESOME…!??! MORE TUTORIALS PLS… ^_x


  67. paris October 1st

    your tutorials make me speecless…


  68. Levi Figueira October 1st

    My first reaction when I opened this was: … (silence… awe! :o)

    I will use this technique someday, but the most useful thing to me was the fonts you presented. That cursive is exactly what I’ve been looking for for an idea I’ve been having!!

    Thank you so much! :D


  69. Kate October 1st

    Cool, you are my favorite photoshop tutorial


  70. NobsTutorials October 1st

    Thanks for this, great tutorial as always!


  71. Xavier October 1st

    Man, you killed it again, you are a master.


  72. wiiL October 1st

    nice nice :D :D
    thx for god tuto


  73. dodobahia October 2nd

    That´s wahy i love this site, great tutorial again, the way that u teach is simple and very clear, thanx!


  74. Chuck.hc October 2nd

    Thx for all.. continue !


  75. pitaro October 2nd

    yup…very good tutorial…. :) keep more !


  76. bruni... October 2nd

    Hey, you are the man!


  77. Darren October 3rd

    Great tutorial once again, learned some techniques I will use in other images.

    The multiply and screen for cut-outs….never even thought of that!


  78. mahir October 3rd

    super!!!!!!!!!!
    looking like exibhition invitation card


  79. Ozwall October 3rd

    great tutorial, i was searching for somethig like this ..thanx!!!


  80. Photoshop Tutorials October 3rd

    You’re tutorials are simply awesome. Thanks for sharing it.


  81. Ashley Ford October 3rd

    Absolutely fantastic site, lovely design, excellent use of icons. really great images! keep up the good work!

    Ashley :)


  82. suba October 3rd

    Yours tutorials are great…….!!!


  83. m.o.m. October 4th

    Great Tutorial. Thank you.


  84. Tommy Lee October 4th

    ok so i did everyting like u said just when it came to the vector image it wouldnt save or instal right idk if i did it wrong but how can i get that free pack thing from go media


  85. Jimbo October 4th

    Great Tutorial, I must know, Where did you get the Chalet Font from? Please e-mail me when you can :)

    Jimbo


  86. ShereKhan October 6th

    Great tutorial man.


  87. SIDDHARTH October 6th

    wow…!……..really nice one.


  88. Joel October 7th

    You rule man. HARD.


  89. Giannis October 7th

    Super! I’ll try use it for a brochure design.
    I hope it works at 300dpi…


  90. somchai October 7th

    very Goods


  91. HARI BABU A October 7th

    Great tut man! i love it. i tried it and has come out well. want to see more from you :)


  92. Harry Roberts October 8th

    Wow, amazing! Thanks!


  93. Visitor921 October 8th

    I have visited your site 255-times


  94. Erik October 8th

    Sweet effect!
    Really dig this one!

    Great work, keep it up! =)


  95. Boris October 8th

    Greth tutorial i want to be there.

    Thanks!


  96. abdelaziz October 8th

    nice tutorial, thx a lot !


  97. shinu October 9th

    Mind-blowing… Great man. Thanks 10 out of 10 points


  98. Daniel Costa October 9th

    Amazing effect! Congrats!


  99. J Bobbink October 9th

    Thank’s again for such a nice tutorial! Keep up the good work!


  100. Martha October 10th

    Wow! Great tutorial! I’m now inspired to read more and learn more! Thanks, keep them comin’!!


  101. mossiwo October 10th

    Awesome! you have perfected the technique, great way to go! I’ll give it a try.


  102. rachel October 10th

    This is beautiful. Thanks for the tutorial, I can’t wait to try it out!


  103. Ian Farrell October 10th

    You really should get a book of tutorials out, you have some amazing techniques!


  104. Jude October 10th

    Awesome tuts… some of the best i’ve ever seen!!!

    Well Done!


  105. Chibone October 11th

    Sweet


  106. Eduardo Guerrero October 11th

    Excelente, muchas gracias !!!


  107. R3D October 11th

    Oh my god, really nice. I always wondered how people made these kind of pictures. Or I was to lazy to try it myself ;o)
    Thanx for sharing!!!


  108. M.Gökhan AKSAN October 12th

    This work is so great ! Congrulations !


  109. M.Gökhan AKSAN October 12th

    sorry… -> congratulations


  110. Iman October 12th

    Great!
    Keep up the creative work
    :)


  111. Soumya October 12th

    Another superb tutorial! Your tutorials teach quality stuff! It’s very, very helpful for amateurs like me! Thanks a lot! Keep up the good work!


  112. eliwagar October 13th

    Thank you very much for this great tutorial! Just did my own piece and I love it…if anybody want to see it: your welcome to visit my Site :)…I love the glowing edges effect! Thank you so much for sharing!


  113. emol October 13th

    wow.. cool.. colors are very smooth but contrast in tone.. love it!


  114. KoLdSnow October 15th

    hmm, i cant get the vector swirly shape from arsenal freebies
    T.T) where i can get them..


  115. dillip October 15th

    Great tutorial


  116. Aroldo Contreras October 15th

    WOOOW! so F***** awesome!! De maravilla! Saludos Desde Venezuela! xD


  117. Cristine October 15th

    It’s a very nice……
    but how can u remove the watermark


  118. SATORi October 16th

    Hi, Great work! Excellent. You make it look so simple yet it takes a great amount of time and hardwork to get such effects!

    However, I am getting a problem as I can’t get the “Glowing Edges” effect of the sun’s rays to come on the picture. Is it because I applied the previous layer’s colour to half of the picture vertically?

    Not have the ray’s effect really distorts the image as a whole.

    I would like to get a reply from you ASAP as I am working on something and it’s taking some time to finish it due to the ray’s problem which also causes smuding problems x_x.

    Regards,


  119. Edgar October 16th

    Ja wie por favor!


  120. Tanja October 16th

    Awesome, beautifull, here’s mine:

    http://shmizlicka.deviantart.com/art/corfu-66976963

    not so good as yours!


  121. Brad October 17th

    Jumpin’ Jesus on a Pogo Stick!!!! This tutorial ROCKS!!!!! Thanks! :)


  122. Frankey October 17th

    oh emm gee..
    this is awesome..
    but its difficult to understand..
    i got lost on the step 8..
    ):


  123. solon October 18th

    cool tutorial men