Deltastock, an on-line forex and stockbroker company are holding a competition to breathe some life into their web presence.  They want graphic and web designers to come up with new creative concepts for their business , with the best designs winning cash prizes ranging from $250 to $2,500.

The deadline for submissions is 12th November 2009, and see below for the design brief.  More details can also be found on their website. Happy designing!

DESIGN BRIEF for banner & landing pages design contest

Here is the final image of what we are going to make.

Let’s Begin.

Create a new document with width 864px and height 1152px with resolution as 100px and background as transparent.

Making of the Hair and Face:

Now select the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and draw a circle of  218px width and 205px height. Fill it with #f5dbaf. Name this “face”.

We will make the hair now. Create a new folder above the “face” layer and name it as “hair”. Now create a new layer and select the Pen Tool (P). Make a shape something as shown below. Fill it with #2e1801. Name it as “hair_bg”.

Let’s give some highlights to her hair. Select the pen tool again and create some shapes above the “hair_bg”. Use random colors for it. I have used #81613f, #906231, #81613f, #ff9d54 and #af7940. Always experiment with different colors. I have made this.

Remember to keep all the highlights and the “hair_bg” in the same “hair” folder. Now lock this folder and switch off the layer visibility.

Create a new folder and name it as “eye” above the “face” layer. Select Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and make a circle with 22px width and height. Fill it with #ffffff and give a #000000 border to it. Create a new layer and make a circle with 17px width and height. Fill it with #32bde5.

After switching on the layer visibility of the “hair” folder you should have made something as shown below.

Select Pen Tool (P) again and in a new layer create her nose. Fill it with #81613f.

We will give some freckles on the girl’s face now. For this select Rounded Brush Tool (B) with 1px diameter and color #81613f. Randomly create the freckles on both sides of her cheeks.

Now select Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and create a circle of 30px width and height above the freckles layer. Fill it with #f8a49f.

Now duplicate this pink blusher layer and fill it with #f73c5a. Now go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Keep the Radius as 3.9px. Click OK.

Press Ctrl+T to transform the selection to 85%.

Make a new layer again and select Pen Tool (P). Make a small lip shape as shown and fill it with #ce567a.

We will make her neck now. So, select the Pen Tool (P) again and above the “face” layer and below the “hair” folder make a new layer and make a shape as shown below.

Making Her T-Shirt:

Above the neck layer make a new folder. Name it as “t-shirt”. Create a new layer and select the Pen Tool (P). Create the t-shirt as shown. Fill it with #e10a0a.

Let’s add some design to it. With the help of Pen Tool (P) and Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) I have made something like this. You can obviously make your own different patterns.

In a new layer above the “t-shirt” layer create a rectangle of 147px width and 22px height using the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M). Fill it with #44cefb.

Now create another layer above this t-shirt layer and select the Brush Tool (B). Select the Dune Grass brush with 30px diameter. Select #bffdfa color as Foreground and randomly make some fur on top of the blue layer.

Making of Her Jeans:

Make a new folder above the “t-shirt” folder and name it as “jeans”. Create a new layer in it and select Pen Tool (P). Start making her jeans as shown. Fill it with #000d11.

Once you are done with it duplicate it and press Ctrl+T to transform. Flip Horizontal and place it as shown.

We will make the zip now. For this in a new layer select Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and make a rectangle of 6px width 27px height. Fill it with #013140. Place it above the two jeans layer so that it looks like a zip layer.

We will give some stitch pattern to this. So make a new layer above this rectangle layer and make some rectangles of 1px width and 2px height using the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and fill it with #74858b. Duplicate it and make a stitch pattern.

In a new layer, create a circle of 45px width and 44px height with the help of Elliptical Marquee Tool (M). Fill it with #74858b. Make this circle near the sides of the jeans to give it a feel of jeans pockets. Once you are done select the layer and Ctrl+click on the right jeans layer. With the selection on, Add Layer Mask to the pocket layer.

Now in a new layer as you made the stitches before make the same for the pockets too. Now duplicate both the pocket and the stitch layer and place it on the other left side too.

We are done with the jeans now!

Making of Her Shoes:

Create a new folder beneath the “jeans” folder. Name it as “right_shoes”. Make a new layer and select Rectangular Marquee tool (M). Create a rectangle of 30px width and 7px height. Fill it with # fcfacd. This will look as socks.

Create a new layer and select Pen Tool (P). With #032a73 as Foreground Color create a shoe shape.

We will make the lace holes in the shoe now. Select #fcfacd color as Foreground and make a circle of 3px width and 3px height with the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M). Duplicate it to get this.

Time to create the shoe lace! Again, in a new layer with Pen Tool (P) create a lace as shown. Fill it with #70c2dd.

With the lace holes it will appear like this.

The shoe is almost done. But some highlights are missing. So, select the Round Brush Tool (B) with 3px diameter and create two strokes as shown with # 0880a8 color.

Similarly, with the help of Pen Tool (P) make a shape as shown for highlighting the shoe. I have used #066296 for this.

We are done with the shoe now. Duplicate this full “right_shoes” folder and place it as the left shoe. Modify the shoe shape a bit so that both don’t look the same.

We have made this much till now.

Making of Her Hands:

Create a new folder above the “neck” layer and name it as “hands”. Select the Pen Tool (P) and create a hand shape as shown. Fill it with #f5dbaf.

Similarly, make her right hand too. But this time fill it with #dec08e.

Making of the Candy:

Below her left hand create a line with the Line Tool (U) with weight as 3px. Fill it with #000000. Press Ctrl+T and rotate the stick to -32 degree.

In a new layer make a circle with Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) of 38px width and height. Fill it with #ab7bf2. Place it near the stick.

Now, select the Rounded Brush Tool (B) with 5px diameter and create a spiral above the lollipop circle. I have used #6d39bc color for this.

Double click on the layer and set the following Layer Styles.

Drop Shadow: Blend Mode: Multiply, Opacity: 75%, Angle: 120 degree, Distance: 5px, Spread: 2px, Size: 0px.

Bevel and Emboss: Style: Pillow Emboss, Technique: Smooth, Depth: 16%, Direction: Up, Size: 0px, Soften: 0px, Angle: 120 degree, Altitude: 30 degree, Glass Contour: Cone, Highlight Mode: Vivid Light, Color: White, Opacity: 75%

Stroke: Size: 2px, Position: Outside, Blend Mode: Normal, Opacity: 100%, Fill Type: Color, Color: #a375e7

Click OK. Your Lollipop will look like this now.

Making of Her Jewelry:

We will make some jewels now. Make a layer above the “neck” layer. And make a small circle of 5px width and 5px height with Elliptical Marquee Tool (M). Fill it with # 03c0fd.

We will make a pendant for this.

Make a small circle of 5px width and 5px height with Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and fill it with #ffffff and place it below the blue beads.

Give some shine in #ffffff to the blue beads.

You can give a sparkle too to the pendant.

Making of the Shadow:

Add some shadow effect so that the picture looks real. I have used Pen Tool (P) for this and have used #000000 color. Decrease the opacity to 7%.

Making of the Background:

Now, you have finished with making the Lollipop girl. Just need to add a good background to it. Make a new layer beneath all the layers and select the Gradient Tool (G). Make a gradient with #efd39c and #eea982.

Select the Radial Gradient and make a gradient as shown.

Conclusion:

So, now your Lollipop Girl is all ready! Hope you enjoyed reading and doing this tutorial. Feel free to ask any questions if you think I have missed out something or if somewhere the technique was not very clear.

Enjoy working with photoshop!!

Download the psd file from here.

I thought I’d share with you today a few post processing techniques I use when importing photos.  It’s possible to make some subtle and in some cases not so subtle enhancements to your image to really make them stand out.  A potential danger of post processing is to go too far in making alterations which can make the photo look false and unrealistic (if that’s not what you’re aiming for), so it’s important to bear that in mind.

You might have already come across the tips I’m going to list below but if you have a great post procesing technique that I haven’t mentioned, please post a response at the bottom of this post.

Take RAW Photos

One of the most versatile ways to alter your photos is to take pohtos in RAW format.  I use a Canon EOS 20D and I’m sure it’s similar with many cameras but you have the ability to take photos in RAW & Jpeg mode at the same time.  This takes up more space on your card naturally but it means you have a jpeg image for immediate use and then a RAW photo for making alterations at a later date.

If you open a RAW image in photoshop, an editor window will appear (as shown below).

From this window you can change virtually all characteristics of the image ranging from brightness/contrast & colour alterations to vignetting and sharpness. Once you are happy with your settings, you can then save your settings and/or open up the image in Photoshop and then make further alterations if you so wish.

Sharpen using the High Pass filter

This can be found in the menu Filter > Other > High Pass

To use this filter, open up an image that you wish to sharpen. In the example below the butterfly is slightly blurry.

If you duplicate this layer(control/cmd +j) and then run the high pass filter (filters > other > high pass), a box will appear with a radius slider. The image will be mostly gray.  To achieve the optimum sharpness, move the slider so that the edges of the image are starting to come through the gray, in this case 1% seems to work well.

Hit “OK” and then set the layer mode to overlay.  This enhances the edges of the image and makes the photo look sharper.  If you want the image to be sharper still, simply duplicate the high pass layer.  If that makes the image too sharp, then simply reduce the layer’s opacity.  The finished effect is shown below

Remove Artifacts using the clone stamp tool

The clone stamp tool is useful to remove unwanted elements in a photo.  This could be anything from facial blemishes in a portrait photo, to unwanted elements in a landscape scene.

Clone stamp copies an area which is artifact free and pastes it on top of the unwanted element in the photo.

In this example, I want to remove the leaves on the ground.

Simply select the clone stamp tool (s), adjust the brush head ( using [ or ] ) to get the right size and then hold down the alt key and click near to the area you wish to hide. Release the alt key and then proceed to brush over the unwanted element. The result is shown below

Soften a photo’s background using gaussian blur.

This is useful when you wish to improve the blurred background of the image.  It’s often the case that noise will creep in when taking photos at a high ISO level and that is particularly noticeable if it is noise within a blurry background. I’ve found this also useful when taking photos in a zoo, when you dont want the blurry cage in the image. Below is such an example.

So here, I want to blur out the cage. In order to do this, duplicate the layer (ctrl / cmd + j) and select filter > blur > gaussian blur.  Next, add a layer mask to this blurred layer and then proceed to hide the blurred layer where the owl is in focus. Use a brush with 100% opacity for the centre of the owl and then use a lower opacity for the extremes where the owl and the background meet.

The end result will look like something like this

Alright! Well I saw a post a while back by abduzeedo called sparkling hot girl and really liked it, so inspired buy his piece I made this one.  A lot of light effects are being used lately so here is another cool way to make your images look wicked hot! In this tutorial I am going to focus on how to get the cool patterns rather than the extraction of the girl but I will touch on it. This is my first ever tutorial, so hope I explain myself. The PSD file for this tutorial can be found at the bottom of the post.

We are going to be making this/something similar:

Step: 1

Open photoshop and create a new document File>New. Create it any size you like, for this I made it 800×1000

Step: 2

Make sure your foreground and background colours are set to Black and White, you can hit X then D to do this. Create a new layer and name it “Origional” then Filter>Render>Clouds.

Step: 3

Still in your “original” layer go Filter>Pixelate>Mezzotint… A dialogue box will appear, I choose the setting medium strokes. But play around with the different setting to get new unique looks.

Step: 4

Still in your “original” layer go Filter>Blur>Radial Blur. In the dialogue box make the settings Amount:100, Blur Method: Zoom and set the quality to best.

Step: 5

These next steps are where you get to be creative and decide how crazy you want to go depending what setting you enter for the Twirl dialogue box.

Duplicate the layer called “original” twice and call them “twirl1″ and “twirl2″ using command/control + J. Now lock and turn the eye off on the original layer. ( I keep this layer just incase anything goes wrong, or if I want to add more later on.)

In your “twirl1″ layer go Filter>Distort>Twirl… We are going to be doing this step a couple of times and depending on how you want it to look you will enter different settings. For my first “Twirl” I enter +77

Then in layer “twirl2″ do the same Filter>Distort>Twirl… but change the twirl amount to (negative) 200. Now change the blending mode of Twirl2 to Lighten. Right, now its starting to take shape!

Step: 6

Now we are going to merge these two layers, to do this select both layers and then use command/control + E and name it “swoops” Using the Lasso tool create a selection of your image, try to draw around cool looking swoops and sweeps.

Now right click and select “refine edge” play around with the settings, mainly feather to get it looking similar to mine. Here are the settings I used, but these can differ. Once happy go Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection.

Step: 7

To give some life and colour to this image go Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation… Check the tick box colourize and play with the setting till you get something nice. My setting can be seen below.

Duplicate the layer “swoops” Now go Image>Adjustments>Curves… Pull the curve down like I have, and this will put some blacks back into the image to make the lines in the swoops look a lot nicer!

Change the blending mode of the copy to “luminosity”.

Step: 8

The girl. This part may take a bit longer for un-experienced photoshop users but stick at it and give it a shot. Open the girl image with File>Place. We are going to use the bezier pen tool to trace the outside of the girl, or whatever you decide is going in the image.

Once you have a full selection, right click and create selection. Now again we are going to use Select>Refine Edge to cut the girl out. You have used this already during this tutorial so again play with the settings till it looks good, a bit of feather will help a lot. Once happy go Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection.

Now change the blending mode to hard light, I do this as it brings some of the background swoops through as if they are coming out of her. Depending on the colours of your image you cut out you may need to trial different blending modes to get a good look.

Step: 9

To finish up we are going to add some glowing trails. Create a new layer name it glow trails. Select the paintbrush tool and then go Window>Brushes to bring up the brush settings. We need to add scattering and shape dynamics.

Now double click on the glow tails layer, this will bring up the Layer Style dialogue box. Ad glow and change the blending mode to “Colour Dodge“. Again its up to you how much glow you add and what colours you use. My settings are shown below. Now draw on your funky light trails!

All done! Now you can enhance your image further by adding other colours or adding other assest! Up to you! Remember this is just a guide and one way to do it! Experiment with each step to get a different look and make it your own!

PSD File

Step 1

Open Illustrator and create a new document 1024px width by 768px height, with an RGB color.  Select type tool (T) and write “FLORAL” in black (#000000). You can use any other color if you wish to. Keep the font as Arial Black, size as 150pt, leading as 180pt and tracking 0 as shown below. Name the layer as “floral”.

Step 2

After creating the floral layer, copy the layer and move it below the floral layer. Name it as “floral_style”. Now disable the “floral” layer and click on the “floral_style” layer. Open the graphic style by clicking Windows > Graphic Styles (Shift+F5). Once the Graphic Style dialogue box is open click on the right side button to get the drop down list. Select Open graphic style Library > Artistic Effects.

Once the Artistic Effects dialogue box opens click on the “Paint Brush” effect.

Now keeping the “floral_style” layer selected make the stroke color as black (#000000). You should get something like this.

Step 3

Then go to Effects > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Keep the Blur Radius as 6.0 and hit OK. This will give some shadow to the text. It will look like this now.

Step 4

Now we will be adding the flowers to the text. The flowers I have used can be downloaded from here.

Open the fbg_lldkiejn.ai file in Illustrator. We will be using different elements from this file to create our floral effect. Ungroup the shown image from the open file.

After ungrouping, take two yellow flowers and place them as shown below in the middle of the “floral” and “floral_blur” layers. Your image should look like this now.

Step 5

After this, start ungrouping some more flowers from the image and start pasting them around the text. Try to get something similar to this.

Step 6

Lets add some stones to it. Go to Windows > Symbol Library > Nature.  Add some stones to the image. Now select everything (Ctrl+A) and group (Ctrl+G) or go to Object > Group.

Step 7

We are done with Illustrator now. Open Photoshop and create a new document with 1024px width and 768px height. Keep the resolution as 100px  and background as transparent. Save it as floral_wallpaper.psd

Step 8

For the background we will be using a paper texture. Download the old paper background texture from here.

Open this texture in and place it in your psd. Select it and go to Edit > Transform > Rotate 90^O CCW. Adjust it properly with the document size. Name it as “paper”. You will see that there are some black portions around the image. Select it with the magic wand (W) tool and delete.

Now make a layer below this paper layer and fill it with #dab787. After deleting the black potions Ctrl + click on the paper layer. Go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/ Contrast. Give brightness as +52 and contrast as -50. Hit OK. Change the blending mode to Luminosity and opacity to 57%.

Step 9

Drag the grouped floral text from Illustrator to Photoshop. Place it above the paper layer.  Tilt it a bit. Double click on the floral text layer and add some drop shadow to it. Give Blend Mode as Luminosity, Opacity as 45%, angle 120degree, Distance 3px, Spread 4% and size as 6px.

Step 10

Its time to add some watercolor and coffee stains brushes to the background now. You can download the watercolor brushes from here and coffee stain brushes from here. Once you have applied different watercolour and coffee stains brushes decrease the opacity and change the blending mode of some of them. Make sure to use a different layer for each of brush so that you can play with the opacity and blending mode easily.  I have made it like this.

Step 11

We will add some more shadow to the text layer so that it gets some depth. Make a new layer below the text layer. Take brush tool (B) and with a soft rounded 40 px brush and opacity 57% make some areas near the text layer as black. Erase any part which overlaps with the text. It should come out something like this.

Step 12

We are almost done! But the wallpaper is looking a bit empty. So, let’s add some butterflies to it. I have used Illustrator default butterfly symbols. You can get them from Windows > Symbol Library > Nature

Conclusion

Here we’ve got the final piece. I hope you liked this one and don’t hesitate asking questions if you encounter some confusing or overwhelming steps. Have fun!

PSD File

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(Click on the image to see it in full size – n.b. you’ll need a flickr account)

The original images used were: (click on an image get the full res version)

Step 1 – preparing the background with the patch tool.

Open up the mossy wall image into photoshop and resize the image to 1176x 1756, then unlock the layer by double clicking on it in the layer panel (the padlock will then disappear).  You’ll notice a number of artifacts on the image which gives away the size of what we’re looking at.  So we’re going to remove those, using the patch tool (hotkey J).  So click on the patch tool and draw around each artifact that stands out, and then once you’ve created a selection drag with the mouse from inside the selection to a similar area.  Photoshop will then make a neat job of patching the new area to its surroundings. Next create a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, de-saturate the image and colorize it with a pale dark green/yellow.

Step 2 – Lets add some pipes

Open up the pipes image, and paste it in directly under the hue/saturation adjustment layer. Transform it to a smaller size and position it to where you like it best. With this layer add a layer mask. With a brush (hotkey b) and with the layer mask selected,  start to paint out the background of the pipes image.  Start with a big relatively hard black brush with high opacity to get rid of most of the background, then use an increasingly smaller brush when you get closer to the pipes themselves.   Some shortcuts of use here.  ’[' ']‘ keys to make the brush size bigger or smaller.  X to switch between foreground and background colours (black and white for the layer mask).  The numeric keypad to change opacity levels, and shift+ [ or ] to change hardness of the brush.  Layer masks are non destructive, so if you accidentally brush out part of your image, switch from black to white and start painting, this will reintroduce part of your image.

Once you’ve got rid of the background, duplicate the pipes (hotkey ctrl+j) around the image to produce an effect similar to this:

N.B. To create some more funky pipes, trying using Transform > warp on an existing pipe layer.

Step 3 – Burn baby Burn

Select all the pipe layers and merge them together into 1 layer (hotkey ctrl/cmd+e ).  Then duplicate this pipe collection layer. Set the layer blending mode to overlay on the top pipe layer and on the bottom pipe layer set the layer opacity to 50%. This will create quite a nice grunge pipe effect.

Next we want to create some shadows.

Create a new layer above the moss and below the pipes.  With black as the foreground colour, use a brush set to color burn with low opacity(5%), 0% hardness and a large size to paint shadows under the pipes and inbetween them.  If you make a mistake, and go too dark, use the eraser with a low opacity to undo any excessive shadows.  You should end up with something like this:

Step 4: Lets make a cave

Next we’re going to create a cave and add a cute little door and window to the scene.  Again in the shadow burn layer, use a brush with higher opacity to create a cave like shadow near the top of the image.  I’ve created the cave above one of the naturals cracks in the moss layer just above the pipes.  Next open up the cottage door and window image and paste it in a new layer above the pipes, scale this image so that it fits in the newly created cave hole.  Then add a layer mask and start blending this photo in with the rest of the image.  The cottage image is slightly brighter than the rest of the image.  So create a new brightness/contrast adjustment layer above the cottage layer and darken the entire image.  Then hold down ctrl + alt and click with the left mouse button on the line between these two layers in the layer palette,  the new dark effect will now only apply to the cottage layer.  You can see this in the layer palette with the adjustment layer being slightly indented from the other layers.

You’ll end up with something like this:

Step 5: Working with Colour

Turn off the top hue saturation layer, and you’ll notice that the cottage layer is a different colour to everything else.  So create a new hue/saturuation layer immediately above the cottage layer and play around with its settings until the difference between layers is less obvious. 

The bricks of the cottage are a bit too blue.  So create a new layer between the adjustment layers and with a soft brush set to color with 5% opacity and a light orange/yellow colour start to paint over the bricks to warm them up a bit.  Next, let’s change the door colour.  Use the pen tool to draw around the door.  (make sure the paths icon is clicked and not shape on the menu at the top).  Once you have the path, right mouse button on it and select make selection.  Then press ctrl+shift+i to invert the selection.  Finally create a new color balance adjustment layer with that selection and tweak the settings to get a nice red effect for the door.  Use a layer mask on this layer to bring back the colour of the overlapping leaves over the door.  You should end up with something akin to this:

Step 6: Lets get ready for a goblin

Get rid of the window frame. Make sure the cottage layer is selected.  Use the Pen tool with paths mode selected to draw around the window.  Once done, right mouse button on the path and select make selection.  Then press ctrl+shift+i to invert the selection and press delete to remove the unwanted window frame

Turn on the top hue/saturation layer again. Open up the goblin image and paste it into your composition in a layer right below the top hue/saturation layer.  Resize the layer so he fits in the window.  Next use a layer mask to again mask out his background so he looks like he’s peering out of the window.  Then create a new layer above the goblin, and use the same burn techniques as in step 3 to burn shadows into the image on and around the goblin.  You should have something like this:

Step 7: Painting in Colour

We’re nearing the end now, so let’s add some colour back into the image.  With the layer mask for the top hue/saturation layer, start to paint black to bring colour back into the image, to achieve something like this:

Step 8: Big effects for little work

Ok, now it’s time to add some atmosphere. I strongly suggest you create a snapshot (in history) to temporarily save your work at this point. Select all the layers and press ctrl+e to merge them all together.  Duplicate this new layer (ctrl+j) and use a gaussian blur filter of 4.  Set this new blurry layer to a blending style of overlay and an opacity of around 25%. This technique is useful for enhancing the colours of your scene.  Select these two layers again and press ctrl+e to merge them together.

Now with this 1 layer, go to filter > render > lighting effects.  Using a spotlight style light, tinker with the properties to emulate a light coming from the top which fades to darkness near the bottom of the pipes.  You should get a result something like this:

And that’s pretty much it.  As with anything with Photoshop, you can get some really good effects if you’re prepared to spend time over the look to get it just how you want.

PSD File

• Glows using layer styles
• Stroking paths
• Particles using brush dynamics
• Bokeh effect

The PSD and full size image can be found at the bottom of this post and we’re going to draw a lightbulb:

Step 1:

Create a new document, 1600×1200 and fill the 1st layer in black.   Then set your primary colour to white and set your brush hardness to 0% and a size of 30. Create a 2nd layer and then use the pen tool to draw the coils of the lightbulb.  Once finished, right mouse on the path and select stroke path and make sure simulate pressure is ticked.

Step 2:

Add inner and outer glows to the resulting line to produce a suitable glow effect.  I used an outer glow size of 27 with a mid orange and an inner glow size of 5 with a slightly lighter orange.  Next, click on the paths tab to reselect your coils path, change your brush size to 7 and set it to 25% hardness, create a new layer and stroke the path again, and again add inner and outer glow layer styles.  Finally move each smaller coil a few pixels so that they’re not directly overlayed on top of each other.  (Repeat this process twice to achieve the effect below)

Step 3:

Next we’re going to create the particles around the coils.  Click on your brush tool and enter Brush Dynamics.  Set hardness to 0%, spacing to 1000%, tick shape dynamics and set size jitter to 1000%, tick scattering and set scatter jitter to 1000% percent

Create a new layer, then with these brush settings, paint around your coils.  Once finished, copy the layer style from one of the coils and paste it onto this layer. Next customize the layer style so that it resembles something like this:

Step 4:

Use the techniques demonstrated in steps 1 and 2 to draw the edges of the lightbulb in  new layers.  Set their opacity to 10% so that the focus remains the coils

Step 5:

Now we’re going to add some colour to the interior of the lightbulb. Click on the gradient tool, then edit the gradient so that it goes from a strong colour ( e.g. bright green) to 0% opacity.  Then in a new layer create a radial gradient near the top of the image.  Then, draw another radial gradiant using a different colour (e.g. bright blue to 0% opacity).  Finally add a layer mask to this layer and paint out all parts of this layer that fill beyond the extremities of the lightbulb.  Finally set this layer to 25% opacity.

Step 6:

Create a new layer and repeat step 5 again with 3 radial gradients, using a mid green at the top and 2 orange/red gradients at the bottom. Next add a layer mask, set your foreground and background colour to white and black respectively and then use the render clouds filter to simulate a smoke effect.  Go to image> adjustments> brightness & contrast and up the contrast of the layer mask by 100%.  Finally set this layer style to color dodge. 

Step 7:

Next we’re going to add a bokeh effect.  Bokeh is a term used to describe light sources out of focus, think blurry circles.  An example of what bokeh is can be found here.  Hopefully you’ve retained the brush settings from the particles in Step 3.  All you need to do now is change them slightly, so set the brush size now to 75 and set hardness to 100%.  Create a new layer, set the brush colour to a mid/light orange and then proceed to draw over your image.  These circles still look a bit too defined, so then use a gaussian blur filter with a radius of around 5%.  Finally set the opacity of this layer to around 9%.

Step 8:

The final touches involve creating a new layer and using a standard brush to paint over the coils with a dark purple colour, then setting this layer to color dodge, and this enhances the glow effect of the coils.  I also added some text along the path of the edge of the lightbulb.

And that’s pretty much it.  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and found it useful.

Final Image

PSD File (the psd file here is at 1024×768 resolution to save on bandwidth)

Step 1:

Open any high quality but appropriate photograph in PhotoShop. Such as this one below:

 Step 2:

 First duplicate the background layer so that it can be edited, currently it’s locked. To duplicate the background layer select it in the layer palette, then right click on it and select the duplicate layer option.

Step 3:

Select the rectangular marquee tool from the tool box as shown below and select the part of the image you want to emphasize.

Step 4:

Select the layer via copy option from the layer menu and make a copy of the selection. Mark it invisible by clicking on the eye in front of the layer.

Step 5:

Convert the photograph into black and white by selecting the desaturate option from the image menu. Again make a copy of this black and white image by selecting the layer via copy option.

Step 6:

Step 7: 

Set the blending mode of this layer to Linear light. This will enhance the quality of our black and white photograph. Set the opacity of this layer to 40%.

Step 8:

Create a new layer by selecting its option from the layer palette.  Now fill the new blank layer with any color you like, i have used pale green.

Step 9:

Change the blending layer mode of this layer to soft light and reduce its opacity to 65%.

Step 10:

Now merge all the layer expect the one on which you copied the selection and the background layer which is locked. To merge all the layers select all the layers and right click to select the merge layer option.

Step 11:

Step 12:

Now select diffuse glow option from the filter menu.

In the diffuse glow dialog box set different values as shown below.

Step 13:

Step 14:

Now we will make a border around this selection. To do so select add a layer style option from the layer palette as shown below and select the blending options.

 Under the blending option first select stroke, change the color to white and increase its size to 10 pixels. Change its position from outside to inside.

Secondly, make a few changes with outer glow layer style.

Here is my final image.

PSD File

Final Image

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