Mystical Light Shaft
Step 4
What we’re creating is a mask that separates the sky from everything else. But chances are that it is not perfect. For example, in my image, the bride’s dress still shows up as white. To fix this, select the Brush tool and paint those areas black. The only thing that should be white is the sky.
Step 5
We’re done with creating the mask. We’ll now use this layer and blur it to create the light shaft. But first, we’ll need to make this layer blend into the layer below. Change the layer blending mode to Screen.
Step 6
This is where the results start to appear. Choose Filter > Blur > Radial Blur. The Radial Blur filter can create a zoom blur from any direction. In the Radial Blur filter, set the amount to 100%, blur method to zoom, and quality to best.
Before we work on the blur center setting, we’ll need to know where the source of light is coming from. The easiest way is to look at the shadows. For example, looking at the shadows in the image below, we can tell that the light source, in this case the Sun, is from the top left.
Now that I know that the light source is on the top left, I will move the blur center in the Radial Blur filter setting to the top left.
You should now have a beautiful light shaft like the image below. It looks a little too short, so in the next steps, we’ll extend it.
Step 7
Extending the light shaft is easy. Just duplicate the layer and apply the same Radial Blur again. To do that, press Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer then Ctrl+F to repeat the previous filter. You should now have a longer light shaft.
Do this one more time (duplicate layer and repeat the Radial Blur filter). You can continue doing this, but usually the light shaft is long enough.
Here’s a timeline of the progress. Starting from the left is the image with no light shaft. Then to the left, the light shaft is created and lengthened.
Written by admin on February 21st, 2008 with
19 comments.
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#1. February 22nd, 2008, at 3:51 AM.
Looks good, keep it up.