To begin, open a new image in your version of Photoshop. It can be any size that you like. I reccomend going big, before shrinking them
down into a smaller size. (i'm going with 800x800, since its porportioned to a 100x100 icon which is what i plan to shrink it down to,)
Fill the background layer with black.
Next, go to filter > Render > Lens flare.
The lens flare serves as a great base for our light swirl, because of the different colours, and light effects. Your lens flare
must have a brightness of around 100% and I suggest make either a 50-300mm Zoom, or 105mm prime lens flare. If its your first time
I suggest just starting off with 50-300m Zoom and 100& brightness since this gives us the ideal effect for our light swirls. As you get
more expierenced you can play around with this to get different and more unique results. When you're ready, click the "OK" button, and
photoshop will render your specified lens flare
To give our light a "swirl" shape, we must distort it. To do so, head over to filter > twirl.
Adjust your angle, until you get a good swirl shape that your satified with, I usually go around 670-800 degrees. When done, click ok
and the twirl distort will be applied. You can swirl it again and again to get and even more swirly swirl :)
Now that we're done with the bulk of the project, we can customise it and change the colour to defrienciate it from the rest! I do this
by going to image > Hue/Saturation.
Changing the hue will change the swirl's colour.
Decreasing the saturation will take out colour from your swirl.
Increasing the saturation will intensify the colour.
Decreasing Lighting will dim your swirl.
Checking the "Colour" switch will make your swirl one solitude colour based on where your hue's set, instead of a variation of 3, etc.
Increasing Lighting will lighten your swirl.
When you get something, you like click "OK" and now you can marvel at how pretty your swirl has become!
If you'd like, you can change the size to suit your needs. Go to image > image size and adjust it. Its best that you keep "Constrain porportions" checked so that your swirl
stays in ratio, and doesnt become deformed.
Afterwards you can save the image, by using shortcut keys Ctrl +shift +s or by going to File > Save as. Stock up on these for projects, to create fun designs :)
4 comments:
Very well written tutorial, but I have one question, Does the background have to be black?
Yes it is necessary to have a black background. This allows the lens flare to render better and stand out more since it is composed of bright colours and white.
You can remove the black when using it in projects by playing with the layer mode (Overlay for example).
Otherwise, if done on prehaps a coloured background or white it will not come out as well, and not have the same effect. If you must, a dark colour is most suitable if you do not wish to go with black.
Thank you for the question! :) xx
Thanks. Does the light swirl have to be on a new image everytime you make it?
No, it just has to be on a new layer that is filled with black/dark colour. When you go render the swirl it will be on that layer.
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