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Exactly five years ago today, January 8 2007, I uploaded my first ever video tutorial to YouTube. I remember sitting down at midday and recording a tutorial looking at how to create a bolt of lightning in Photoshop CS2, and then uploading it to an old YouTube account I already had going. It took me two takes to record the entire thing, a far cry from the hours of preparation, recording, editing and presenting that my videos take nowadays.
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free, lightning, lightning text, Manipulation, merge layers, Photoshop Elements 10, screen blending mode, Special Effects, Text Effects, text tool, video tutorial
After setting the mood, crafting a bolt of lightning, and generating a block of burnt text, it's now time to add the lightning effect to the text itself. To do this we'll be duplicating the original lightning bolt and getting help from a neat little clipping trick in order to confine the electricity to the inside of the font. The result is a high-voltage, action packed Utah valley a million miles away from where the original photograph was taken.
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burnt, free, grunge, lightning, Manipulation, Photoshop Elements 10, Special Effects, Text Effects, text tool, wind filter, video tutorial
If we're going to be electrifying our image, what with a bolt of Lightning from the Utah sky, and pulses of electricity flowing through the text, then we'll need to make the text fit into our theme. Using the Wind filter and some multi-directional (you'll see) assistance, as well as some subtle layer styles and adjustment layers, we'll have the text smouldering in no time!
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Most tutorials out there that demonstrate how to create a realistic lightning strike use hand-drawn custom brushes. Although this method produces great results, the brushes have to be downloaded and installed, and they're seldom free. That's why I prefer the alternative method of creating a bolt of lightning the old fashioned way - using filters, tools and a little creativity. It's also much more fun and easier than you think - when you know how!
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The first video I ever created was a Lightning Effect for Photoshop CS2 users way back in 2007. 5 years later, to the day, I release an updated version for Photoshop Elements 10. Instead of just creating the lightning effect though, we start with the basics - setting the mood and tone of the image so it's ready to have a bolt of electricity zapping through the scene. Here we'll use a neat layer trick to add darkness to the cloudy sky, and levels to correct for an underexposed foreground.
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If you’ve got a suggestion as to what feature you’d like to see in future versions of Photoshop Elements, or a feature that is already part of the software doesn’t function as it should, did you know that you can tell Adobe about it?
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Today is December 25th and if you’re like me you’ll be spending it unwrapping a few presents, enjoying a meal with the family, and relaxing around the bright lights of the Christmas tree. It’s a time to appreciate what I have, and reflect on the many good things that have happened over the year.
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One of the new features in Photoshop Elements 10 is the ability to add type to a selection, custom path or as we'll see in this video - a standard shape. Using the Ellipse Tool we’ll trace the outline of the moon and then add text to it. One of the benefits of this tool is it leaves the text editable and therefore completely available to change later on. Once you've worked through this video you'll understand the principle of all three tools, and be able to use them to create custom text of your own.
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It’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog so I figured I’d better make an appearance and let you what I’ve been up to.
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