A Cool Lighting Effect In Photoshop
In Effects by FabioIn this tutorial, I will show you how to create that effect we saw on the screen at the Macworld San Francisco. It's basically some lighting effects with blurs and blend modes, but the effect is awesome.
Step 1
Create a new document. On the Background layer, double-click to open the Layer Style dialog box and apply the Gradient Overlay with black and green (#9dc5c7).

Step 2
Create a new layer. Set white for the foreground and black for the background color. After that, go to Filter>Render>Clouds. Rename the layer to "Clouds."

Step 3
Change the Blend Mode of the clouds layer to Multiply 60%. Duplicate the layer and rename it to "radial blur." After that, go to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur.

Step 4
Duplicate the background layer and move it up in front of the other layers. Rename it to "Gradient Light" and go to the Layer Styles dialog box. Change the Fill Opacity to 0% under the Advanced Blending settings. After that in the Gradient Overlay settings, change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge and the scale to 70%.

Step 5
Place your logo in the center of the image and change the Layer Styles. First change the Color Overlay to black and then add a Bevel and Emboss as shown in the image below.

Step 6
Create a new Folder and call it "lights" and move it behind the logo layer. Inside that folder, select the Ellipse Tool (U) and create a circle that will be almost entirely behind the logo. Using the Pen Tool (P), create some shapes that will be the lights. Use the image below for reference. Make sure that all of these objects are inside the "lights" folder.

Step 7
If you are using the CS3 version of Photoshop, you can convert the layers to Smart Objects in order to use the non-destructive filters feature.
Apply a Gaussian Blur to the layers. Each one will have a different value because of their sizes.

Step 8
Select the lights folder and change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge. Duplicate the two bottom lights and move them to the center.

Step 9
Using the Ellipse Tool (U), again create a small circle but this time in front of the logo. This circle will be a reflection on the logo.

Conclusion
Now you can add some text—I've used Myriad Pro Light. Although this effect looks very cool and sort of complicated to achieve, it's really easy and can be done pretty quickly. Using Render Clouds, blurs, and blend modes, we can create really amazing lighting effects.

Comments
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Jim
February 5th, 2008
Very cool as usual.
Fire G
February 5th, 2008
Very amazing, very amazing. A fantastic effect as always.
Drew
February 5th, 2008
Nice. Looks very much like the Apple image.
JoDo
February 5th, 2008
Nice, but the reflection (small circle on the UL of the logo) is somewhat distracting.
god056
February 5th, 2008
nice effect. now i’ve an idea how those eerie moods can be duplicated
Elite By Design
February 5th, 2008
Another great tutorial. I like the “mood” it sets, especially with the cloudy background.
Web Major
February 5th, 2008
I like the technique used for the beams of light. Different from how I would have done it– so I learned a new method here.
dS
February 5th, 2008
Very cool indeed!
KING NOTHING
February 5th, 2008
VERY FANTASTIC EFFECT…..THKS…
Kim Dolleris
February 5th, 2008
Beautiful!
GeminiArt
February 5th, 2008
great Fabio …nice work … i will try this tut
thanks
Andrei Constantin
February 5th, 2008
another quality design tut.
i wish i had the vision and inspiration like you do, Fabio.
nice work
SnakeJake
February 5th, 2008
Nice, but it’s almost completely the same as all his other (abduzeedo) tutorials. It’s always lighting with clouds in the background.
Constantin Potorac
February 5th, 2008
:)) great tutorial. Thank you.
Shane
February 5th, 2008
Another fantastic tutorial - they’re coming thick and fast now
A couple of things:
i) #9dc5c7 isn’t green is it? I see blue
ii) I agree with JoDo that the reflection is a little distracting.
I’m really starting to get a feel for the power of blending modes, effects and brushes in photoshop!
Thanks Fabio.
Sarath Raj
February 5th, 2008
Good Work!!!
giackop
February 5th, 2008
I use this wonderful free plugin (http://amicoperry.altervista.org/luce/main.html) for the lighting effect..
Anyway the tutorial is cool.. Thanks..
kitune
February 5th, 2008
Awesome!
Markus
February 5th, 2008
Nice tutorial!
They are coming fast!
Thanks! :´)
Mr_LeE
February 6th, 2008
nice clean tutorials as usual
Chad
February 6th, 2008
WOW, great tutorial. Thanks for posting it. I like your aesthetic, it is graphic but clean and contemporary as well. I use photoshop mostly for photo-retouching and just told a friend that I had never found a use for the color dodge layer type. It is really great to see what other people do with photoshop since there are really no limits!
-Chad
Terry
February 6th, 2008
this is pretty cool. beteen this the and the lighting effects/ glow effects tuts, i have some aweome ideas.
keep it fabulous, Fabio!!!
nacho
February 6th, 2008
Magnífico tutorial! Me ha encantado!
Bubbila
February 6th, 2008
Sweet tutorial, just what I have been looking for! Well Pleased…
mahalie
February 6th, 2008
Great tutorial. I blogged it. Was hoping to figure out how to do that rainbow vertical lighting effect seen at MSNBC and others.
Aloke Pillai
February 6th, 2008
Awesome effect!
Keep Rocking!
Aloke Pillai
Ignacio
February 6th, 2008
Yes!
Alberto
February 6th, 2008
Nice tutorial as always.
Mahalie: I managed to reproduce the MSNBC “vertical rainbow” effect.
First layer is a rainbow gradient. You can use a layer style with gradient overlay.
Second layer is a motion blurred black and white fibers (filter>render>fibers) - blending color opacity 20%;
Third layer is the same motion blurred black and white fibers - blending multiply opacity 50%;
Fourth layer is a black vertical motion blurred brush stripes for the dark areas - blending multiply opacity 70%;
Fifth layer is a white vertical motion blurred brush stripes for the light areas - blending luminosity opacity 20%.
Probably there’s a better way (there’s always one) but I did it in 5 mins and its quite close tothe target.
Check a quick example:
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/8387/gradientfibersmm9.jpg
Pascal
February 6th, 2008
I have one question, or remark as you wish!
I always learned to make my stuff in CMYK, for printing reasons…
Many times I see that the stuff you guys at PSDtuts make, is in RGB.
That’s why my results (and maybe of other people) are never the same.
Like the pen-drawn radials are totally scr*wed when made in CMYK and ofcourse the blending modes are not the same.
Anyway, what does anyone have to say? Or do you guys make everything in RGB? I know it somethimes looks better but when it comes to printing the stuff for magazines or flyers, CMYK get the better result (or so I was told…)
Pls comment!
cheers!
Pascal
Anselmo
February 7th, 2008
Nice, very nice:)
Ben Gribbin
February 7th, 2008
not bad, very simmalair to the rock star one
Mike
February 7th, 2008
What is the font you used to mimic the apple font.
Alberto
February 8th, 2008
Pascal, maybe I’m wrong, but:
if you plan to use your artwork for printing, cmyk is the best choice, of course.
if you have to produce something for screen view, for example a website, you definitely need to use rgb.
Moreover, when you “save for web” from photoshop, colors generally seem brighter and images seem to have lower contrast. Thats because the color profile for web is sRGB (not only a general RGB), while photoshop generally applies a different profile. So you’ll have to “edit > convert to profile” them. With a calibrated screen they’ll look exactly the same.
Hope that helps.
kojie
February 8th, 2008
weeeee!!
its cool!!!
tnx alot…
bratwurst
February 9th, 2008
fabio- you are a master of all elements of good design. take a bow!
Inspiration Up
February 9th, 2008
Bookmarked!
Braintrove.com
February 13th, 2008
Rock on! Great job!
Jared
February 13th, 2008
I cannot get step 6 to go correctly…. I can create a new folder but it will not let me do the ellipse tool, it gives me an error message…. i can create a layer in that folder and move it behind the logo, but when i use the ellipse tool, you can see it on the heart, it’s white right above the heart, and then sort of transparent on the heart (the rest of the circle)… i have tried figuring it out myself, searching help and even google… it’s frustrating me and i just thought i would ask for some assistance.. thanks to whomever responds…
HELP!!!!!!
February 20th, 2008
you make people pay to download the psd…….. you evil b**thead. i didnt want to have to do this but…
*charges up a kamehameha*
*launches it with full force at you whole lunch table*
yeah…. now you learned your lesson creep
( >_
zwenkwiel
March 11th, 2008
i’m using PS 2
and when I set the light rays to color dodge they go all screwy on me.
any ideas???
st elmo
March 27th, 2008
wow.. you’re amazing on photoshop =D
i have CS3 and i am able to follow all of your tutorials but i can never get the clouds right?
what page size do you use for your graphics as i think this might be the case…
keep going =]
kash
March 30th, 2008
hi
very nice tutorial
satish nishad
May 21st, 2008
excellent site for tutorial i liked so much