In this Photoshop Effects tutorial, we’re going to look at how to add colorful streaks of light to a photo. You’ve probably seen these light streaks used in ads for everything from shampoo to cellphones, and in fact they were used most recently in a cool ad for a new cellphone from Sprint and Samsung. Creating them is as easy as drawing a path with Photoshop’s Pen Tool and then stroking the path with a brush, with a couple of simple layer styles used to add the actual color and light effect. It’s all fairly easy, but if you’ve never used the Pen Tool before or you’re not sure how to draw paths, you might want to check out our Making Selections With The Pen Tool tutorial first, where I cover everything you need to know about drawing and editing paths with the Pen.
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Here’s the image I’ll be working with in this tutorial:
And here’s how it will look after adding our light streaks:
Let’s get started!
Step 1: Add A New Blank Layer
We’re going to be adding our light streaks on their own separate layer, so the first thing we need to do is add a new blank layer to our document. To do that, click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:
This adds a new blank layer, which Photoshop names “Layer 1?, above our Background layer:
Step 2: Select The Pen Tool
As I mentioned at the beginning, we’re going to create our light streaks by drawing paths and then stroking the paths with a brush. To draw paths, we need the Pen Tool, so select it from the Tools palette. You can also press the letter P to select it with the keyboard shortcut:
Step 3: Select The “Paths” Option In The Options Bar
Photoshop gives us three different things that we can do with the Pen Tool. We can use it to draw vector-based shapes, we can draw paths with it (which is what we want to do), and we can draw pixel-based shapes. We select between these three options by clicking on their icons up in the Options Bar at the top of the screen. You’ll see three little square icons grouped together on the left side of the Options Bar. Click on the icon in the middle, which is the Paths option:
Step 4: Draw A Path Where You Want The First Light Streak To Appear
With the Pen Tool selected and the Paths option chosen in the Options Bar, we’re ready to draw our first path.
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