Cool Neon Lights

There are different ways of making neon lites with Photoshop. It’s really easy and fun to make them. So today post is a nice tutorial on how to make neon lights and how to use them in different ways to make nice effects. Before we start we need a thing or two things.


The most important thing is to have a good picture to start your creativity running. I will be using a free one from iStockPhoto.com. All of the great talents use images from this service, you can even sell your own there. Take some time and check out their database of images that will really help you to make the best out of your ideas… There are even some free weekly images and i used one of those.



This is the image i’m gonna start with.


Work with it and add elements you like, apply your own personal style to make it nice. I will use my own skills ideas and inspiration for this. Try not to copy it step by step, work on your own idea and see how it work out for you, this way you will learn more than i can teach you with this tutorial. You can also put work when it’s finished in the comments, i’d love to see it.


I’ve added a hoolander under the lens of the camera. The color is #FDBA63. Different colors make different results so you should play with it. I used this one since it felt good. On the right you see how it looks like when you set the layer blending to “color dodge”.


Now duplicate the layer and use this or similar settings for the glow. Again, settings defer from resolution etc. First set the FILL OPACITY to 0%FIL. Then apply this Outer glow settings


I’ve added a circle where the lens is and applied glow to it. It now looks like the magic is coming from it.

Now for the next step we’ll be using a nice brush setup. Since a tutorial for it would be a bit time consuming i’ve saved it for you so you can download it. Here is the preview and you can click here to download my brush #001.



I started drawing with it from the lens glow outside, and applied these settings for the glow effect. I choose the color white for the brush.



Feel free to add more colors to it, just make a new layer, choose your new color and start drawing. Get crazy with it if you want!



You can also apply this effects to other elements like lines etc. What ever you want.

And here is my final result. Click it for full view.


Begin by creating a new document — the example is 128x128. Choose a light blue shade for the forground color and a dark blue shade for the background color.




Now, go to Filter » Render » Clouds. Press CTRL+F several times until you get the clouds the way you like them.



Next, we will make the "Neon Lights". Go to Filter » Artistic » Paint Daubs, and fill in the following values: Brush size=40, Sharpness=36, Brush Type=Sparkle.

That's it! You now have your neon texture — to make it seamless, go to Filter » Other » Offset, set it to Wrap Around and half the dimensions of your image. Use the Smudge Tool to blend the edges where you can see a seam.