Creating a Light Source in Photoshop

Creating a simple Light Source in Photoshop

1. Start by opening a new Document – 1024 x 1024 with 72 dpi resolution

Creating a simple Light Source in Photoshop

2. Select a very dark color for the background but not completely black – try something like #111111

Creating a simple Light Source in Photoshop

3. Create a new Layer and set the foreground color to a soft color, something like #004a80. Fill the layer with the new color.

Creating a simple Light Source in Photoshop

4. Now let’s create our Light source. Create a new Layer, Set the foreground color to White and choose a soft Brush with a diameter of 500. Click in the middle so the light source is centered. Making sure not to allow the white edges of the brush to bleed past the edges of the document. Now you should be able to drag that layer around without seeing the edges.  This is your light source.

Creating a simple Light Source in Photoshop

5. Create a new Layer, keeping the white as the foreground color and #004a80 as the background color, go to Filter, Render, Clouds. Set the layer to Overlay.

Creating a simple Light Source in Photoshop

6. From the Menu go to Filter, Blur, Motion Blur and set the distance to 200.

Creating a simple Light Source in Photoshop

You should have something that looks like this:

Creating a Light Source in Photoshop

7. Type some Text and use the Ubuntu Font.

Creating a Light Source in Photoshop

Apply the following Layer Effects to your Text:

Creating a simple Light Source in Photoshop

Creating a simple Light Source in Photoshop

Creating a simple Light Source in Photoshop

8. Go to Layer, New Fill Layer, Pattern. Select a Pattern with scan lines and set the Layer to Overlay. You can then lower the opacity to 50%.

Creating a simple Light Source in Photoshop

9. Let’s take a look at our Layers panel and organize it a bit. We are going to work with the 3rd layer, the white brush stroke we made – let’s rename that to Light Source.

Creating a Light Source in Photoshop

10. Duplicate the Light Source layer (Ctrl + J on PC or Command + J on Mac) and drag the new layer anywhere on the document. I have duplicated the Layer 3 times and moved the Light Source like this:

Creating a simple Light Source in Photoshop

11. Again, staying organized, from your Layers Panel select all 4 of the light source layers and press CTRL + G to Group them into one folder.

Creating a Light Source in Photoshop

12. Now we need to darken it up a bit. Create a new Layer and fill it with #043457.   Then set the Layer to Hard Light.

Creating a simple Light Source in Photoshop

13. Select the Eraser tool, make the brush size 500 and just erase the area where your text is underneath and some of the light source. Play with it until you get the desired effect. And as a final touch, you can drag the Light Sources folder around without any problems to try different light angles.

And here is the final result of Creating a Light Source in Photoshop!

Creating a simple Light Source in Photoshop

You can download the PSD file here: Creating a simple Light Source in Photoshop


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