Tutorial: Lighting Effects in Photoshop

[Nixxie]

This is from my first challenge at MScraps (November 2011).
I did a little tutorial with lighting effects. I love using these as when you play about with them, they can totally transform the page!

So here is my page before any lighting effects are added.

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww339/NixxieSigs/MYFML1.jpg

Now to add a little lighting effect, go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects
http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww339/NixxieSigs/tut1-1.jpg

Now here you can play around with all the options to get the effect that suits you best. For mine, I usually use 2'Oclock Spotlight and Omni as shown here:
http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww339/NixxieSigs/tut4.jpg

I have the intensity usually between 13-15, anything else seems either too dark or too bright. You can also drag the circle on the left around to adjust how much of the page you want to be lit by the lighting effect. So have a play and see where you best like it.

Here is my page as lit by the above settings:
http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww339/NixxieSigs/MYFML3.jpg

Also the colour in the properties box can be changed to suit the style of your page. So here, I added a pink lighting effect to suit the page:
http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww339/NixxieSigs/tut2-1.jpg

And here is the page using these settings:
http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww339/NixxieSigs/MYFML2.jpg

So have a play around and see what a difference this simple effect can have on a page!!

[France]

Such a fun tutorial! Really changes a page!

[Heddy]

I love this tutorial! Thanks for "bumping" it to the top of the list so I found it France!

[fruitysuet]

Oh I remember this, thanks for bumping as I had forgotten some of the finer points of this technique!

[Dalis]

oh I am so trying this, is so easy and such a powerful change!

[Dalis]

my CS5 doesn't have that, they took that option.

[France]

my CS5 doesn't have that, they took that option.

Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that. You can do something similar with a contrast layer and a colour overlay perhaps? That's how I used to do it before Nixxie's tutorial, well, not the colour but just the brightness/contrast layer.

[Romy]

I think it can be mimicked by using circular gradient layer

[France]

my CS5 doesn't have that, they took that option.

That is weird. I use CS2....and it works.....

[Heddy]

my CS5 doesn't have that, they took that option.

I have it in my PS CS5 - it's under Filters > Render > Lighting Effects. Then you can select 2 o'clock spotlight and omni directional light.

[Romy]

I don't have Lighting Effects under Render in CS5 either :-((

[France]

Really? i have access to a copy of CS5.1 and I checked and it's there.....
do you suppose it's a Mac version vs Windows version?

It's the last option at the bottom of the Filters >> Render menu..... very strange.

[DoggiNo]

Romy, do you run the 64bits version ? Try running it as 32bits.

Not my idea, Adobe's :giggle:

[France]

:giggle: I've been wanting to test Jing for a while, so here's a 20 second video of how it looked on CS5 here. on Windows.

http://screencast.com/t/R53DhWyDNuG8

[MetaWulandari]

thanks alot for share this trick :worship:

[Skippyherron]

Romy, do you run the 64bits version ? Try running it as 32bits.

Not my idea, Adobe's :giggle:

Yup that's the only way i can get it to work as well - i was almost pulling my hair out till i found a workaround on the Adobe site.