Tutorials

Creating lightning

06/16/2004

Creating lightning is a snap with a couple of filters and adjustments.
The main filter used to create the lightning looks at areas of contrast to determine shape.

1. On a blank, white Photoshop canvas, paint a black shape with a large Paintbrush that will follow the basic line you want your lightning bolt to be. Keep in mind it is the edges of the stroke that will be the actual lightning.

2. If you want a second bolt then paint it on the opposite side of the first paint stroke.

3. Fill in the area between the two strokes.

4. Apply a Gaussian Blur (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur) filter with an amount large enough to heavily blur the shape (about 25).

5. Apply the Difference Clouds filter (Filter>Render>Difference Clouds).

6. Invert the image (Image>Adjustments>Invert).

7. In Levels (Edit>Adjustments>Levels), move the black slider to about 130 and the gray slider to .25.

8. If your second bolt is to be attached to the first then select it and send it to its own layer (Layer>New>Layer Via Cut).

9. Put that new layer in Screen Mode and position it where you want it. Flatten the file making sure all areas outside the lightning are black.

10. Transfer the file over to the document you want the lightning to appear in and put it in Screen Mode for the Black to disappear.

Wizard Lightning

This is a slight variation to the above effect in that you will create many lightning bolts streaming from a central point. If the source of the lightning is not in the center of the image then it is crucial to make the file where you are creating the lightning larger than the file where it will be placed so that you have enough room to make the lightning bolts bleed off the page.

1. In a Photoshop file like step one above, draw a series of long, vertical black rectangles. Each rectangle will produce two lightning bolts. The more rectangles, the more bolts you will have.

2. Blur the shapes as above.

3. Apply the Polar Coordinates filter (Filter>Distort>Polar Coordinates) with the Options set to Rectangular to Polar.

4. Now follow steps five through seven in from the above tutorial.

5. To add color to the bolts use the Hue/Saturation control (Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation) set to Colorize. Play with the Hue and Saturation sliders till you get the desired effect.