Today, I’m going to show you how use brushes, custom shapes and Layer styles in Adobe Photoshop CS5 to create wonderful lighting effect for posters. Layered PSD file included. Let’s get started!
Final Image Preview
Start working by creating a new document (Ctrl+N) in Adobe Photoshop CS5 with the size 1000px by 1000px (RGB color mode) at a resolution of 72 pixels/inch. Click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Gradient Overlay.
Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close the Gradient Editor dialog box.
We’ve got the next background:
Next select the Ellipse Tool (U) to create a small ellipse:
Insert the mask on the last made layer by choosing Add layer mask on the bottom part of the Layers panel and choose the Soft Round brush of black color (set Opacity to 20% in Options bar).
Paint in the mask using this brush to hide out the ellipse layer on those four shown zones.
Create a new layer under the last made one and select the Soft Round brush of white color this time (brush Opacity – 30%):
Use this brush to paint out the same way indicated below:
Set the Blending mode for this layer to Overlay.
Insert the mask on the layer by choosing Add layer mask on the bottom part of the Layers panel and choose the Soft Round brush of black color (set Opacity to 20% in Options bar).
Paint in the mask using this brush to hide out the bottom part of the layer.
Select the Ellipse Tool (U) to represent a ellipse, which layer should be placed above the previous made ellipse.
Click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Inner Shadow.
Add Bevel and Emboss:
Apply Satin:
We’ve got the next result:
Using the same tool, we should represent another ellipse of the color #FFC013.
Right-click and select on the layer containing the previous made circle the Copy Layer Style options, right-click on the recently made one in Layers panel to select Paste Layer Style.
Next we can represent the rays’ elements of the color #FFDE1B. Select the Custom Shape Tool (U) in the Tools bar, in the Options bar click the Shape to open the selection menu. Find Registration Target 2 at the bottom of the menu, and then double-click a shape thumbnail to select it.
Click and drag to draw the shape. Select the inside anchor points with the Direct Selection Tool (A) (holding SHIFT button). Then choose the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command (set Maintain Aspect Ratio) to unite them on the central part.
Hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) and click between the rays’ layer and the ellipse’s one in the Layers panel to create a clipping mask.
We’ve got the next result:
Find a stock photo with a model represented on it, I used this photo from Shutterstock. I would like to thank the author of this photo, or if you prefer, you can substitute similar image of your own.
Remove the background using your favorite tools like Pen Tool (P), Magic Wand Tool (W), Magnetic Lasso (L) or even a simple Filter>Extract and insert it on a new layer in our main document.
Put the model’s photo on the main document now:
