High-Tech Swirling Aurora Photoshop tutorials

Learn how to add a stunning beam of light that twirls around the object. This tutorial is more than a beam of light, it contains steps to create three versions of the aurora effect.

Creating the path

Start with a photo of a person or object that you would like to add the effect to.

Go to Layer > New > Layer to create a new layer. Name this layer Light Swirl.

Select the Pen tool and chose the Paths button.

With the pen tool, start from the bottom or the top and draw a path similar to the image below. Or you may experiment with your own path for your own unique effect, but for the first time, we recommend using the path pattern shown below.

Stroking the path

Select the brush tool and use the setting below. Depending on your image size, you may want to select a larger or smaller brush size. A good rule of thumb is for ever 100 pixels wide or tall, there should be 1 pixel. For example, on a 800x600pixel image, you would start off with a 8 px brush size.

Select white as the foreground color. To do this quickly, simply press D then X. Pressing D will reset the colors to black and whiter and pressing X will switch the two colors.

Select back the Pen tool and right mouse click on the image to display the path option menu. Select Stroke Path.

A window will appear where you can select the settings. Use the settings below:

This is what your image should look like now. The path you created earlier should be stroked with a brush and it should start thin on the ends and thick in the middle. If it's all just one straight line, make sure that you have the "Simulate Pressure" option checked in the previous step. If you forgot to do that or if the brush size is too small or large, go to Edit > Undo to undo the previous step and correct the setting. If you want to change the stroke size, select back the brush tool and change the brush size. You may also undo and experiment with other brush shapes and settings, but we recommend, if you're doing this for the first time, sticking with one that will produce the similar results as the image below.

Now we'll add some lighting effects to the stroke. To do this, we'll use the Outer Glow layer style. Right mouse click on the Light Swirl layer and go to Blending Options. Enable Outer Glow and select blue as the color. Adjust the spread and size to get the results that you desire.

Your swirl should now have a blue glow around it and look like light instead of paint.

Masking the light

Add a layer mask to the current layer with the swirl. To do this, go to Layer > New Layer Mask > Reveal All.

With the layer mask selected, use the Eraser tool to erase every other line intersecting the person or object so that the light looks like it is going around.

Once you are done, you should get a 3D effect similar to the image below.

Adding the aurora special effect

If you like the effect and want to keep it that way, you may skip to step 20. However, if you want to add an aurora effect to the light, continue with the tutorial. Press Ctrl+J or go to Layer > Duplicate Layer to create a duplicate layer.

Rotate the image 90 degrees CW by going to Image > Rotate > 90 degrees CW. We need to rotate it for the Wind filter that we will be using later. The Wind filter only adds a wind effect moving left or right and not up or down; therefore, we need to rotate the image and rotate it back after applying the Wind filter if we want it to blow up or down.

Go to Filter > Stylize > Wind. Go to the next step and do not click OK yet.

Choose one of the three effects from below that you would like to use. Then, follow the corresponding instruction for each.

Effect A

1. In the Wind filter settings, choose From the left and then click OK.
2. Press Ctrl+F to repeat the previous filter until you get the effect that you want.
3. Go Image > Rotate > Arbitrary and enter in 270 degrees CWto rotate the image back to the proper orientation.

Effect B

1. In the Wind filter, choose either From the Left or From the Right; either one is fine.
2. Go to Image > Rotate > 90' CW.
3. Press Ctrl+F to repeat the Wind filter.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 twice. Your image should now be back to its proper orientation.

Effect C

1. Choose From the Right in the Wind filter settings.
2. Press Ctrl+F several times until you get the effect that you like.
3. Go to Image > Rotate > Arbitrary and enter in 270 degrees CW to rotate the image back to the proper orientation.

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Select the new layer (2nd layer) and go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects. From the Style menu, choose Blue Omni and click OK. Reduce the opacity of the current layer to about 50%.

Finished Results

Here's what the image looks like after adding this Photoshop effect. This effect is great for making dull photos that sometimes doesn't make much sense into a high-tech digital art.

Vintage Lomo Effect Photoshop Tutorial

Begin by opening any photo into Photoshop. The image I used for this tutorial looks pretty decent, but try using an image that doesn't look very interesting. Lomo cameras are popular for making every photo look interesting even if it has the worst composition. 

The first step is to alter the color so that it imitates the color of photos taken with a real lomo camera. Lomo cameras tend to have vintage-looking colors because the reds in the photo have higher contrast. You can check this yourself by opening an image taken with a lomo camera into Photoshop and looking at the channels. If you do do this, make sure that you acquire images taken with a real lomo camera and not images that are converted with Photoshop. If you do a google search for lomo, many of those images are simply done with Photoshop and unfortunately, many lomo effects are not done correctly. They simply increase contrast, add an organic vignette, and apply color effects. That is why it's always easy to tell the difference between an image taken with a real lomo camera and one with just a Photoshop effect applied.

What we will do to adjust the color is to work directly with the red and green channel to increase the contrast. This will simulate the effects of lomo cameras. To do this, we'll be using the Levels tool. We'll add a Levels adjustment layer instead of using the Levels tool directly onto the image. This is so that we're editing the image with a non-destructive method where the original image is kept untouched in case you want to see what the original image looks like without the lomo effect.

Begin by clicking on the New Adjustment Layer button in the Layers palette.

A menu will appear where you can select Levels.

Once you selected Levels, the Levels tool will appear where you can edit the settings.

In the Levels tool, click on the drop down menu where it says RGB. Select Red. We'll be editing the red channel first.

Now that you have the Red channel selected in the Levels tool, we can increase the contrast of the histogram. When you do this, you will notice the colors changing and it is beginning to look like the real colors of a lomo camera. Drag the black and white input slider closer towards the middle like thescreenshot below. This will increase the contrast. Yes, you will be clipping some details, but don't worry because we are working on an adjustment layer and not directly on the image layer itself. This means that you can always fix the settings anytime you want without worrying about losing data. When you're done, don't click OK yet.

The image may have a pink tint to it. To fix this, click on the drop down menu located near the top of the Levels tool and edit the Green channel. Drag the black and white input slider towards the center like how we did with the red channel. As you drag the sliders, you should see the image colors change. While you drag the slider, look at the image to get the colors that you want.

When you're done, click OK. Now we have a Levels adjustment layer.

Adding the vignette

We won't be adding the vignette directly to the image because we want to keep the background layer untouched. So to add the vignette, we'll add it to a new layer. Begin by creating a new layer. To do this, click on the New Layer button in the Layers palette.

You should now have a new layer in the Layers palette.

Now we're going to fill this layer with white because to apply the vignette, we'll be using the Lens Correction filter which cannot work on transparent layer. Before we fill the layer with white, make sure your background color is white. If it isn't, simply press D on your keyboard and it should reset to the default foreground and background colors.

Press Ctrl+Backspace to fill the layer with the background color. Your layer should now be solid white.

Now that we have a layer to add the vignette to, we'll proceed with using the Lens Correction filter. In the Filter menu, select Distort > Lens Correction.

The Lens Correction tool will appear. Inside the Lens Correction tool, set the Vignette Amount to -100 and click OK.

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Now your layer should look something like this where the corners of the layer are dark.

To make the vignette blend, change the blending mode to Multiply in the Layers palette. The Multiply blending mode only makes dark colors visible while light colors such as white are translucent or transparent.

Now that we've blended the vignette, your image should look like the image below where the corners are dark.

Making colors bleed (Photoshop CS2 or older)

Now we need to make the colors bleed a little to simulate the low quality effects of a lomo camera and the film processing technique. This section is for users using Photoshop CS2 or older. If you are usingPhotoshop CS3, skip this section and proceed with the steps for Photoshop CS3.

To begin, select the Background layer and press Ctrl+J to duplicate it. You should now have two layers. Make sure that the new layer, Background copy, is selected before proceeding with the next step.

If you want, you can also change the name of this layer. Naming layers will help you identify the contents of the layer. Because this tutorial doesn't require many layers, it is not necessary to change the name. But for good practice, we recommend that you do anyway. To change a layer name, double click on the text in the Layers palette and edit. Press Enter when you're done typing.

With the background copy layer selected, change the blending mode to Color. This blending mode makes the layer only affect the color; just what we need to make colors bleed.

Now we'll add a gaussian blur. Choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

In the Gaussian Blur tool, adjust the setting while looking at the image. As you move the slider, you should start to see the colors bleed. The correct setting to use depends on the image size so just drag the slider while looking at the image to get the effects that you desire. The result should be just a slight blurry seperation between the colors.

Making colors bleed (Photoshop CS3)

If you're using Photoshop CS3, you can use smart filters. Smart filters are a non-destructive way to adding filter effects to an image.

But in order to add smart filters, the layer needs to be a smart object. To convert a layer to a smart object, right mouse click on the layer in the Layers palette and select Convert to Smart Object.

Now the layer should have a small icon on the bottom right of the thumbnail. This icon indicates that the layer is a smart object and smart filters can be applied.

Now that we have our layer converted to a smart object, choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

The Gaussian Blur filter will appear. Here, simply click OK with the default settings. We'll edit the settings later.

If you look in your layers palette, you should see Gaussian Blur listed under the layer. Because we used smart filters, we can go back and edit the settings anytime.

First, we'll need to change the blending mode of the Gaussian Blur smart filter so that it only affects the colors. Double click on the blending mode button for the Gaussian Blur smart filter.

The Blending Options window should appear. Click on the drop down menu on the top.

Select Color and click OK.

Now that the image has its proper blending mode, we can adjust the Gaussian Blur settings while seeing a live preview of the effect. Double click on the Gaussian Blur smart filter to edit the settings.

In the Gaussian Blur tool, adjust the radius while looking at the image behind the Gaussian Blur image. If you have the Preview checkbox checked, you should see a live preview of the effect. Adjust the settings so that the colors start to bleed with a slight blurry seperation between the colors.

Finished Results

Here's the final outcome of the lomo camera Photoshop effect.

Before and after

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