Thursday, November 28, 2019

How to Create a Light Particles Photoshop Brush

How to Create a Light Particles Photoshop Brush
Final product image
What You'll Be Creating

Welcome to How to Create Light Particles Photoshop Brush! In this tutorial, you will learn the step-by-step process of how to create a particle effect using Photoshop brushes.

Adding light particles to an illustration or photo is a great way to enhance your image and make it more eye-catching. One of the best things about using a light particle Photoshop brush is that it has such a wide range of uses, such as adding a bokeh effect, a sparkle effect, dust particles, and even snow effects! 

Change the appearance of a photograph with particles

To get started with this tutorial, we'll need a photograph or image to use as a background for our light particles. You can find a wide range of professional photos on Envato Elements. Whether you're looking for a spooky forest or a glitzy wedding image, you'll be able to find all sorts of inspirational topics to help you get started. For a single monthly rate, you can unlock access to all of these and countless others.

For this tutorial, we will use a photo called 'Path through misty haunted woods'.

1. How to Set Up a New Project File

Step 1

Let's get started by setting up a New Document in Adobe Photoshop (File > New or Control-N). For this tutorial, we will use the settings below:

  • Width: 1920 px
  • Height: 1080 px
  • Resolution: 72
  • Color Mode: RGB Color
Create a new document

Step 2

Download a background image from Envato Elements or use your own image. For this tutorial, we will use a photo called 'Path through misty haunted woods'.

Use an existing photograph

Step 3

Open the background image in Photoshop (File > Open and then navigate to the file location on your hard drive). Select the whole image by using the Marquee Tool (M) or by pressing Control-A on the keyboard to select all. Press Control-C to copy the image.

Select the Marquee Tool

Step 4

Now return to the original document and press Control-V to paste it. 

Alternatively, you can change the size of the image by going to Image > Image Size and changing the values to something close to 1920 x 1080.

Then use Edit > Free Transform (Control-T) to resize the image or layer to fit the 1920x1080 sized document.

Change the image size

2. How to Create Small Dust Particles in Photoshop

Step 1

In this section of the tutorial, we will first learn how to add dust particles in Photoshop. Create a new layer (Shift-Control-N) and rename it Small Dust Particles. This is the layer where we will paint our dust particles Photoshop brush.

Create a new layer

Step 2

Select the Brush Tool (B).

Select the Brush Tool

Step 3

Now go to the brush library and select a standard round brush.

Select brush size and hardness

Step 4

Go to the Brush Settings panel (Window > Brush Settings) where you will find many options to adjust the brush that you have selected.

Brush settings

Step 5

Under Brush Tip Shape, set the size of the brush to approximately the size of the dust particles that you would like (e.g. 10 or 20). Set the Hardness to 20%.

Activate the Spacing option and set it to its maximum value (1000%). This will make the brush appear as dots instead of a line.

Particle brush settings

Step 6

Select Shape Dynamics and activate it using the tick box on the left. Set the Size Jitter to 100%. If you are using a tablet, you can also activate the pen pressure and use the settings below:

  • Control: Pen Pressure
  • Minimum Diameter: 5%
  • Angle Jitter: 0%
  • Roundness Jitter: 0%
Shape dynamics for particles brush

Step 7

Select Scattering and activate it using the tick box on the left. Make sure that the option for Both Axes has been selected. Then follow the settings below:

  • Scatter: Both Axes 1000%
  • Count: 2
Scattering for particles brush

Step 8

Select Transfer and activate it using the tick box on the left. Set the Opacity Jitter to 100%.

Select transfer for particles brush

Step 9

Activate Wet Edges and Smoothing.

Activate wet edges and smoothing

Step 10

Once you are happy with the settings, you can save the brush as a preset by clicking on the Create New Brush button on the bottom right.

Save the particles brush

Step 11

Use a new layer to add the dust particles Photoshop brush to see what the brush looks like on your image. You can also set the Opacity of the layer down to around 20% to make it lighter. The end result here can also be used as a sparkle effect Photoshop brush.

Apply small particles to the photograph

3. How to Create Particle Effects in Photoshop Using Custom Brushes

Step 1

In this section of the tutorial, you will learn how to create particle effects in Photoshop using a custom brush. To create a new brush, we need to create a New Document in Adobe Photoshop (File > New or Control-N). For this tutorial, we will use the settings below:

  • Width: 1000 px
  • Height: 1000 px
  • Resolution: 300
  • Color Mode: RGB Color
Create a new document

Step 2

Create a new layer (Shift-Control-N) by clicking on the New Layer button in the Layers panel. This is the layer where we will create the light particle brush. You can also rename the layer 'Light Particles'.

Create a new layer

Step 3

Select the Brush Tool (B).

Select the brush tool

Step 4

Go to the Brush Settings panel (Window > Brush Settings) where you will find many options to adjust the brush that you have selected.

Select brush settings

Step 5

Now go to the brush library and select the standard round brush. This will be the base for our light particle effect Photoshop brush.

Select standard round brush

Step 6

Under Brush Tip Shape, set the Hardness to 40%.

Set hardness to 40 percent

Step 7

Make sure that your background and foreground colors are set to Black and White. Select the black color so that your light particle brush color is black.

Select color for light particles brush

Step 8

Using the square bracket keys on your keyboard (they look like [ or ] on the keyboard), you can increase or decrease the size of your brush. Use this to create some light particle spots within the square. 

Depending on how dense you want your light particle brush to be, you can increase or decrease the number of light particle dots within the square. Try to randomize the size and the location of each light particle dot to create the best results (see below for a few different examples). For a bokeh effect Photoshop brush, you may want to use a wider brush with fewer particles.

Examples of light particles brush setup

Step 9

Remove the background layer.

Delete background layer

Step 10

Now go to Edit > Define Brush Preset and give the brush a name such as 'particle effect Photoshop brush'. Feel free to create a few different versions of this.

Define brush preset

4. How to Adjust and Customize the Light Particles Photoshop Brush

Step 1

After clicking on the OK button, you'll find that your new light particles Photoshop brush has been automatically selected and is ready to be used.

You can now also select the brush in the Brush Settings panel or the Brushes panel.

Particles brush can be found in the menu

Step 2

Now switch back to the original photograph document by clicking on the tab at the top.

Go to the Brush Settings panel (Window > Brush Settings) where you will find many options to adjust the light particle brush that you have selected.

Use brush settings

Step 3

Select Scattering and activate it using the tick box on the left. Make sure that the option for Both Axes has been selected. Then follow the settings below:

  • Scatter: Both Axes 1000%
Adjust scattering

5. How to Adjust the Color of the Background Photo Image

Step 1

In order to give our background layer a cold atmosphere, we will apply a blue hue. Create a new layer above the background layer (our photograph) and use the Fill Tool to color it in blue. 

Set the layer to Overlay in order to see what kind of effect it will have on the photo.

Change blending mode to overlay

Step 2

Keep adjusting the color of the overlay layer until you are happy with the result. Below is an example of a dark blue (#0e2640) overlay layer on top of the photograph.

Adjust the color of the photograph

Step 3

Create another new layer and set the layer mode to Overlay with an Opacity setting of 75%. Use the soft round brush to color the top of the photograph using a light blue (#b3dbe4).

This will add a bright light glow to the top or wherever your light source is in the photograph.

Add light source

Step 4

Now use a slightly warmer color (#d1aea6) and use the soft round brush to warm up the darker areas of the photograph—for example, the top left of the example photograph shown below.

Add warmer colors

Step 5

Next, we'll adjust the photo further by going to Image > Adjustments > Curves.

Adjust the curves

Step 6

In the curve properties, we can adjust the graph for the red, green and blue channel. The example below shows how each has been adjusted slightly by clicking a point on the line and then moving it either up or down. 

Use the curves graphs

Step 7

Use the graph settings to come up with a look that you like.

Adjusted photograph exmaple

6. How to Use the Light Particles Photoshop Brush

Step 1

Now, with the particle effect Photoshop brush all set up, we can choose a color for it. For this tutorial, we will select white for the light particles.

Create a new layer and call it 'Back Light Particles'. Make the size of the brush small using the square bracket keys or the brush settings. Use the particle effect Photoshop brush and create some light particles for the photographic image. Set the Opacity to 20%.

Apply back light particles

Step 2

Create a new layer and call it 'Mid Light Particles'. Make the size of the brush slightly larger using the square bracket keys or the brush settings. Use the particle effect Photoshop brush and create some light particles for the photographic image. Set the Opacity to 90%.

Apply middle light particles

Step 3

Create a new layer and call it 'Front Light Particles'. Increase the size of the particle effect Photoshop brush and create some light particles for the foreground using the brush. Set the Opacity to 30%.

Apply front light particles

Step 4

Select the 'Front Light Particles' layer, and then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the percentage value to 15%.

Blur the light particles

7. How to Add a Vignette

Step 1

Create a new layer and use the Fill Tool (G) to fill it with black. Then use the Ellipse Tool (U) to draw a white oval in the middle. Merge both of these layers.

Create a white ellipse on a black background

Step 2

In the top menu, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and adjust the settings until the layer looks similar to the image shown below.

Blur the shape

Step 3

Set the layer to Multiply.

Set the layer to multiply

Step 4

Adjust the opacity of the layer to your liking. In this example, we have set the Opacity to 25%.

Adjust the opacity

Awesome! You're Finished!

Congratulations! You have successfully completed this tutorial. Feel free to share your own creations below! I hope you found this tutorial helpful and that you've learned many new tips and tricks that you can use for your future illustrations. See you next time!

How to create particle effects in Photoshop

Learn More Particles Art Skills!

If you liked this and are looking to learn some more light particle effects or anything similar, check out the tutorials below! Expand your expertise by going through these in-depth guides. Happy designing!



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