1bree Netpond Admin 5+ yrs Netpond Member 9 yrs View all articles | Contact author

Make Lightening Strike (Photoshop 6 or 7)
by Bree

1. For this tutorial, create a new Photoshop document, 600x600 in RGB mode.
2. Make a new layer and name the new layer effect.
3. Make sure your color chips are black and white and create a linear gradient from left to right.

4. Next, go Filter --> Render --> Difference Clouds. This randomly generated so yours will look different from the example. (tip: You can apply this filter until you like the results).

5. Now go Image --> Adjustments --> Invert. Your image will be a "negative" of what it was before.

6. This step will help to clean up the lightening strike. Go to Image --> Adjustments --> Levels. Move the center slider a little bit to the left and the left slider a little bit to the right or until you see the kind of lightening you like.

7. Use a brush of your choice and the color black, brush out the unwanted parts.

8. Finally, adjust the color. You can make the lightening strike whatever you wish. I made mine sort of purplish. Go Image --> Adjust --> Hue Saturation. Be sure to check the colorize box. Then move the sliders. My color settings were Hue 257, Saturation 66, Lightness 0.

Now we will apply our lightening strike to an image.

9. Open the image you want to use.

10. Drag the "effect" layer from the first image (the lightening) to your image.

11. Change the effect layer blending mode to Screen and you'll see all the black background disappear.

12. Viola!! Lightening strikes !!!

Tip: Create more lightening strikes. Jump to ImageReady and create animated lightening using the animation palette and layers.