PhotoShop - Create a beam effect

Following the simple steps guided in this lesson, you will create your own customized beam of light with Photoshop tools.

Step 1

Open a new Photoshop file with arbitrary size. Press D to set the default foreground and background colors. Press Alt + Backspace to fill the file with the background color black. Duplicate the current layer into a new layer (right-click on the current layer name in the right layer and select Dulicate layer ). Continue working on the new layer.

Step 2

Select the Gradient tool from the toolbar, move the cursor down to the bottom edge of the file, hold down the mouse button and drag straight to the top edge of the file. After this operation you will have a file with gradients ranging from white to black

Step 3

Click Filter > Distort > Wave , the Wave window appears, set the parameters as shown below

Step 4

Go to Filter > Distort > Polar Coordiantes . Polar coordinates window opens, set the ratio to 100% and check the Rectangular to Polar option

Step 5

Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue / Saturation and select the Colorize option, then change the following sequence settings: Hue: 200 , Saturation: 25 and Lightness: 0

Step 6

Next step, go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and set Light type to Omni , the remaining settings to default.