Advanced Photoshop Tutorial: Energy Sphere

Today at Graphic Education and Tutorials, Filipino graphic artist, Niño Batitis, prepared an advanced Photoshop tutorial. We’ll show you how to create and put a simple energy sphere effect into your photographs.

Follow the step-by-step instructions below and try to recreate this ENERGIZING tutorial!
Before we start, save this image that we’ll be using for the tutorial on your computer.

Step 1 – Crop (C) the lower part source image as seen on the image below, and adjust its Hue/Saturation (Ctrl+U – Hue: 1, Saturation: -52, Lightness: 0) & Curves (Ctrl+M – Output: 0, Input: 18) settings.

Step 2 – Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N) and draw a swoosh-like path between the image’s hands using the Pen tool (P).

Step 3 – While the Pen tool is still active, do the following steps: Right click > Stroke Path > Tool: Brush > Check Simulate Pressure box > Click OK > Press Enter. Prior to those steps, you need to set up your brush tool (B) to achieve the blurry effect. Press F5 to open the brush setting window. Select a feathered (#25) brush tip shape and check the Shape Dynamics and Smoothing boxes. Use #9ef8fb for the brush fill and match the brush size as seen on the image below.

Step 4 – Select the swoosh path’s layer and then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur >  OK. Duplicate the layer (Ctrl+J) and set its Opacity to 20%. To add more light effect, create a new layer and apply a feathered brush in #9ef8fb fill color to the areas indicated on the image below.

Step 5 – Now what we would like to do is put some of the light behind the hand. Use the pen tool to path and duplicate a part of the hand. Put the layer on top of the light and use the Eraser tool (E) to remove some areas of the hand to make it look like some light is passing through.

Step 6 – The next thing we’ll have to do is the lens flare effect. Create a new layer on top of all layers and fill it with black using the paint bucket tool (G). Go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare >  OK. Set the layer’s blending mode to Color Dodge and Opacity to 95%. Erase some areas of the lens flare by using a layer mask.

Step 7 – Create more swoosh paths in different layers just like we did on steps 2 and 3. This time we want to do a little variation so we’re gonna add the following layer styles:
Gradient Overlay
Blending Mode: Normal
Opacity: 100%
Style: Linear (Align with Layer)
Angle: 90
Scale 100%
Outer Glow
Blend Mode: Screen
Opacity: 100%
Noise: 0%
Technique: Softer
Spread: 0%
Size: 9px
Range: 59%
Jitter: 93%

Step 8 –  Download these free smoke brushes. Use one of the brushes in the set to create a smoke-like effect on the hands. Using the erase tool, remove some parts of the smoke as seen on the image below.

Step 9 – Create a new layer and using the brush tool, apply a #9de9e1 brush at 20% Opacity to the skin of the male image. Change the layer’s blending more to Color — you will see a slight change in the skin tone as it imitates the reflection of light.

Step 10 – For the final touches, create another new layer and fill it with black. Change the layer’s blending mode to Color Dodge. Using the brush tool, apply a white brush on the areas encircled on the image below to exaggerate the light effect.

Final output:

Try applying what you’ve learned in this tutorial to your own photographs. Feel free to share your works with our readers through the comments box below!