Using Lighting Effects in Photoshop

Light plays a very important part in digital design and in our scrapbook pages.  It can be used to add drama to both our photographs and layouts.  Today let’s look at the Lighting Effects filter in Photoshop and see how we can make that work for us.

The Lighting Effect Filter is not available in Photoshop Elements; however, the Lens Flare Filter, which we talked about last week, is an option for you.  In case you missed that tutorial,  you will find it listed below, along with other Filter tutorials you might find helpful.

Using the Lens Flare Filter in Photoshop

Using the Shear Filter in Photoshop

Using the Liquify Filter in Photoshop

Today I am using Photoshop CC2014; however,  the Lighting Effects Filter is also available in previous versions of Photoshop.

Here is a layout by layout artist, Bernie, using Hay Day.  I love how she positioned her photograph and cluster in the lightest part of the background paper, but let’s see how we could use Lighting Effects to create even more drama.

Select the layer (or layout) you want to use for the filter.

Convert it to a Smart Object.  (Right Click on the layer > Convert to Smart Object.)  This will allow the filter to be applied as a Smart Filter, giving you the opportunity to adjust it if needed.  (For more about Smart Filters:  How Smart ARE Smart Filters?)

Go to the top Menu Bar and follow the path:  Filter > Render > Lighting Effects

A new window will open, showing your document and a Lighting Effects Panel.

The last filter used will automatically be previewed on your active document.    The last filter I used was the Infinite Filter.  It’s not the filter I want on this layout, so let’s explore our options.

Presets are available for us in the first drop-down box: Point, Spot, Infinite.  I have chosen to use the Spot Preset.

The following is true of all Preset options:

Two elliptical selections are visible around a center pen.  The inner ellipse is the “hotspot,” or where the most intense light is.  The outer ellipse will show the range of the overall light. And you will also see a center circle/dot.

Use the top and bottom white handles (dots) on the outer elliptical to scale the width of the lighting effect; use the right and left handles to scale the length of the effect. Position your cursor just outside the outer elliptical and click; without letting go of the mouse rotate the effect to your liking.  Click and hold anywhere within the ellipticals to move the effect around on your page.

There is a slight gray circle around the center pen.  Within that gray circle is a small lighter gray area.  Click and drag the lighted gray area to increase/decrease the intensity of the light.

There are also additional options in the Light Effects Property panel:

• Use the Hotspot slider in the Lighting Effects Panel to adjust the size of your hotspot light.
• Colorize your effect, and adjust the exposure with the “Colorize” option.
• Experiment with the Gloss, Metallic, Ambiance and Texture options.  These will all affect each image in a different way.

When you are happy with your results, click OK.  Remember – if you have converted your image / layout to a Smart Object before applying a filter, you will have the option to go back and adjust it if you don’t like the end result.

This is the result I received using the Spot Effect, with the additional choices I made:

One layout is not better than another.  It is all personal preference and the look you are trying to achieve.

Lighting Effects are just one more tool to add to your arsenal of Photoshop techniques.  Experiment and have fun!

Working with this Fall layout reminded me of how much I like Hay Day!  With Fall upon us, I think it is a perfect time to put Hay Day on sale for you, as well as offer you this beautiful cluster, created by Kabra.  Just click HERE or on the image below to download.