Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Hello everyone! I have a pretty good understanding of Photoshop and am self-taught however I'm struggling to create a similar lens flare / warm glow like the image below. I'm struggling to find youtube videos that match the effect I'm trying to achieve. Can anyone help me?
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
It's hard to say how it was done on your example, but you could try this:
With the original photo on the bottom layer, I added a Color Fill layer with red, set the layer to Multiply blend mode, lowered the opacity to 67%, and lightened the red on the backgroiund using a layer mask.
Then I added a Gradient Fill layer with a yellow/orange Radial gradient, added a layer mask, made an elliptical selection in the mask, filled with black outside the selection, set the layer opacity to 80%.
Experiment with the layer blend modes and amount of layer opacity, and the areas you want to mask.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Thank you very much, Barbara! I will try this technique today and let you know how I go 🙂
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
My guess is that is not an effect, but is a real lens flare from shooting with a strong back light.
To simulate it, and another way would be to use a custom gradient.
Warp the gradient (I tried using a radial gradient but could not get it to the right shape)
Blur the gradient layer to soften the outline. but note a lot of the gradient is out of frame so the left edge is not blured.
In case you don't know, you can reduce the opacity of one end of the gradient as below.
To finish the effect I added a layer with blend mode set to Color and with opacity reduced way down to 10%
You could do the same thing with a Hue/Sat layer with Colorize checked.