Creating Lightning 2

One way of creating lightning in Photoshop is here. This is another way of creating lightning using almost similar steps. So here goes.

Step 1 : This is the photo I have opened to create the lightning on. A nice rolling countryside scene, with a bolt from the blue.

Step 2 : Open a transparent layer of 640 x 480 pixels dimension or something abit smaller.

Step 3 : Make sure that the Foreground color is set to Black. To set the color to Foreground Black and Background white, click the snall black and white colors squares at the bottom to set it. You can switch between Foreground and Background by clicking the small, bent two-headed arrow on top of the Foreground/Background. Next click the GRadient Tool. This will open the Gradient Editor at the top.

Step 4 : Click on the Gradient Editor will reveal it. Choose the one shown by the red arrow.

Step 5 : Press SHIFT on the keyboard and you can draw a straight line with the Gradient Tool. Begin a little away from the left margin and finish 3/4ths away from the right margin.

Step 6 : This is the effect you get.
Step 7 : Go to Filter>Render>Difference Clouds.
Step 8 : This is the effect you will get.

Step 9 : Press CTRL+I on your keyboard and this will invert the black to white. You will get the effect as shown above.

Press 10 : Press CTRL+L. This will bring up the Levels dialogue box.
Press 11 : Grag the Black slider at the left to the right as shown.
Step 12 : Drag the Drag the Black slider some more towards the left and the grey slider in the middle also a little to the left. Click ok after you are satisfied with the result. Step 13 : This is the effect you get. The lightning bolt with a bit of fuzz. The lightning is now ready.

Step 14 : Now I will drag the lightning layer to the countryside layer.

Step 15 : The lightning has been dragged onto the countryside layer.

Step 16 : Go to the Layers/Channels/Paths pallette and change the Blend Mode to Screen from the popup.

Step 17 : The lightning.

Step 18 : I have used the Move Tool to move the lighting to over the house at the left.
Step 19 : Click the Layer Mask button shown by the red arrow and the Layer Mask forms next to the layer thumbnail on Layer 1.

Step 20 : Click on the Zoon Tool to zoom into the image. Make sure the Foregound color is set to Black. Then click the Brush Tool.

Step 20 : Click where the blue arrow points to and you will be open up the brush settings dialogue box. Drag the Hardnes slider as shown.
Step 21 : Use the Brush Tool to brush away parts of the lightning at the top.

And here is the finished bolt from the blue.