How to Make Something Glow in Photoshop

Glowing object Photoshop - How to Make Something Glow in Photoshop 3

Adobe Photoshop has everything you need to manipulate photos. And yes, you can make an object look glow like the moon or lightsaber.

Turns out, to make such effect is not hard and can be done within 3 minutes of work. You don’t need to install a third-party plugin. All you need was already inside the program.

So, here is the guide!

The following guide is based on Adobe Photoshop CS4. However, the step by step guide should be the same for other versions.

How to make object glows in Photoshop

Time Needed : 3 minutes

In the following guide, you will learn how to make any object in Photoshop glows with a soft light. The result will somewhat look like the moon, glowing stick, or lightsaber. It best if you already understand working with some Photoshop tools, especially for selecting an object.

  1. Open the image you want to edit with Photoshop.

    Photo in Photoshop - How to Make Something Glow in Photoshop 5

  2. Make sure you already separated the object you want to glow from the rest of the image. For example, I have a moon photo with a black sky background.

    Separated object - How to Make Something Glow in Photoshop 7

  3. On the layer you want to make its object glows, right-click on it and select Blending Options…

    Blending Options... - How to Make Something Glow in Photoshop 9

  4. Check on Outer Glow.

    Outer Glow - How to Make Something Glow in Photoshop 11

  5. Play around with the Opacity, Color, and Size as highlighted with yellow. Then, click OK.
    (You can play with other parameters, but the three aforementioned before are the most common)

    OK Photoshop - How to Make Something Glow in Photoshop 13

  6. Now, you got the result.

    Moon glow - How to Make Something Glow in Photoshop 15

Tools
  • Adobe Photoshop
Materials
  • Image

The glow effect works best if you match the glowing color with the source of light. You may also have to play with Size and Opacity to depict the intensity of light.

In general, this method might not be resulting in a good quality photo. That’s why it’s recommended to master some Photoshop features to make the output file looks as expected. Brush, for example, is one of the most used tools in Photoshop. You can learn how to create a brush in Photoshop for beginners.

I hope this guide helps you. Happy editing!

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