Soft Glow Effects
July 20th, 2007 in Photo Edit, Tutorials by kailoon
This will be a short and simple tutorial for photo edit. I try this during my lunch time yesterday and find it is quite interesting. So, I wish to share with you guys too. This is best for those who like photo with glow effect or a little fantasy effects. Well, check this out.
Step 1
Open the image, if you wish to use mine then download here. CTRL + J to duplicate the image and rename as glow.
Step 2
Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur > 3px. Press “D” to reset the color mode to default (black foreground and white background). Go to Filter > Distort > Diffuse Glow and set the Glow and Clear amount to 18. Graininess to 0. Set the layer opacity to 60%.
Step 3
CTRL + E to merge both layers. Go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Set as below. Repeat 2-3 times to get the best effect by pressing CTRL + F.
Step 4
Create a new layer and rename as light. Grab the Polygonal Lasso Tool and make a selection as below. With Radial Gradient set foreground color to white. Drag it from top to bottom as shown. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur > 60.
Step 5
Reduce the layer opacity to 50%. Well, it is done! Hope you enjoy this.
Here is another example:














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i search in photoshop in the menus i found control + d its for deselect or alt control + D its feather or which option its for reset the color mode? But…..I cannot get from the polygonal with the whitened gradient in Step 4 to the subtle glow of Step 5. And I really want to. I feel like I am missing something. Can anyone help?
Nice, good example, thank you)
Thanks for tutorial, very useful!
wow this is amazing! thanks for the website!
Hi, I’ve been looking at your tutorials and they’re very helpful!
I just have a question about Step 2…
I understand what’s suppose to happen. after setting the Diffuse Glow, it goes bright, so therefore set the opacity to 60% to give it that “glowing” affect.
It won’t let me click on the opacity button though.
so then I undid the Diffuse Glow, created a new layer, tried to Diffuse Glow that, but I’m unable to cause no pixels are selected.
…I must be missing something simple huh? hahaha, some help would be greatly appreciated.
thank you.
Very good! How to do it.
Best
works much better if you DON’T flatten layers and simply move the opacity of the “glow layer” to about 30%
haha i would never in my entire life use this effect on anything!
this looks rather good, i really like the picture and then what you did tii it. looks great i thought.
I don’t know why people just can’t explain anything right in tutorials!
for goodness sake!
step 4 doesn’t work because photoshop says there’s no selection selected:/
wtf is “With Radial Gradient set foreground color to white.” !?
no explanation or tutorial on that
I think that the tutorial creator assumed that the people reading the tutorial would have at least some small degree of knowledge about the program they paid $1000+ for……. Good Tute….. better quicker ways to do it but this is good and its got a nice end result. This type of effect is especially impactful in motion.
good effects this is
Fantastic effect, thanks a lot!
I really like what you achieved. But…..I cannot get from the polygonal with the whitened gradient in Step 4 to the subtle glow of Step 5. And I really want to. I feel like I am missing something. Can anyone help?
Nice tutorial, very nice effect. Thank you.
how do you even work this thing? ;;
Step 2
Press “D†to reset the color mode to default (black foreground and white background).
what is “D†?
im new to photoshop..
hi, i agree with Mi, what is “D†?
i search in photoshop in the menus i found control + d its for deselect or alt control + D its feather or which option its for reset the color mode?
and Kailoon thanks a lot for you time and patience i really think ur great for share this knowledge with the world, thanks again…
Sorry about the confusion
Just press “D” will do.
Umm, it’s a GIF picture, how can i duplicate it?
Select all ( Ctrl + A ), Copy, and Paste.
Nice and easy tut to follow.
这个效果ä¸é”™~
wow ! ur gr8
Great tutorial. I know a Photoshop-compatible plug-in for Windows – Magic Enhancer Pro. You can use it to make your photos better and it works both with commercial software like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Corel (Jasc) Paint Shop Pro, Microsoft Digital Image Suite and free like software IrfanView, XnView.
More info:
http://sharewarecheap.com/Magic-Enhancer-Pro_software_1386.html
HOLAZ
lol…that’s what I’m thinking when i do this
interesting, but I think for the second example, the glow effect comes in a little too strong already, haha and the first pic the spotlighty kind of glow reminds me of Mr. Bean.
Nice effect though.
@> Calvyn: WOW! Really happy to hear that
thanks!
@> cometh: Ben, thanks for your suggestion but i still duno how to make it so i use this method, for now
@> Dave: yup, I did mention that in step 1
Good tutorial, but you do need to mention that when you open up original image, you need to duplicate this layer before you merge down.
Yeah, with the before and after picture can see the difference and enhance the tutorial… Ganbatte
another good tutorial…i going to make u as my graphic design idol…