Creating a spotlight with Photoshop

How?

[LABachlr]

What I want to do is create two streams of light that look like they are from spotlights. They will go across the navigation bar diagonally. The new nav bar will be about 1.5 inches in width (vertical).

Here is an example:

[xkalybr.com...]

If it's not OK to post an example, let me know.

I have tried to create it in Photoshop with the gaussian blur filter, but I can not seem to draw a straight line. Also, I am not sure how to increase the width of the line as I draw it to make it look like a spotlight. What tool should I use to draw it?

[dmorison]

It does look like they used a simple "blur" effect.

Don't know Photoshop so I can't help with drawing the solid white bean first i'm afraid.

[benihana]

to get a similar effect:
create a layer and fill with background color.
create a new layer above the background and use a large airbrush using the SAME COLOR to paint the shape of the highlight you require.
use a bit of gaussian blur on the new layer, and then set the blend mode to screen.

in the very quick test i did this gave a similar effect.

ben

[LABachlr]

Thanks.

How do I draw it in a perfectly straight line (what tool do I use), and how do I gradually increase its width so as to give the appearance of a spotlight?

[benihana]

a perfectly straght line is easy - just use the line tool.

however, to have a tapered line, i would recommend using the pen tool to draw the basic shape and tweak till its right, then load that 'path' as a selection (theres a little button at the bottom of the paths pallette for this),
and then just filling with the paint bucket.

ben

[LABachlr]

Thanks. Line tool worked well. Not sure how to use paths, though.

[Jon_King]

There is a built-in effect:

Filter>Render>Lighting Effects

I have used it from time to time for a simple spot light effect... it actually has enough control to make a fairly realistic image if you play around with it.

[korkus2000]

I would think the easiest way is to use the line tool on a layer above the image using white as your forecolor. Draw the line with the line tool, ad a small blur and then drop the opacity to what level looks best to you.

I never found a good lighting effect in render that dosn'e actually drop light on the background image.

[Jon_King]

Yes indeed korkus you are right. I do not think it possible to keep the background 'flat'...
-Jon

[brdwlsh]

try this, it should mimick what you showed in the earlier post:

1. fill the bottom layer with your desired bg color.

2. fill a second layer with your desired spotlight color.

3. in the top layer, spotlight, use the polyganal selection tool to draw the outline of a spotlight--thin to wide. this selection should be as close to the edges as possible where it would run off of the page.

4. invert the selection.

5. choose a feather of 10

6. cut the selection. the selection that was cut reveals the bg color with a spotlight shape on top of it.

7. i recommend dropping the opacity in the spotlight layer, but blending modes will give you interesting effects as well.

8. repeat this process for the second spotlight so that you have your spotlights on separate layers.

9. crop the image if necessary, so that the spotlight looks like it is running off of the page cleanly.

good luck!
brdwlsh

[LABachlr]

Thanks for the info. I just used the line tool, increased its pixels to make it wider, filled it with a color that was a lighter version of the background color (using white was too much), and then used the gaussian blur filter on it.