Keetee

This post will demonstrate how to create the popular smooth glowing streak effect. Upcoming parts of this series will cover burst streaks and glowing orbs.

Free Wallpaper

To kick off this series, here is a 1920×1200 wallpaper for you that features all three of the lighting effects we’ll be covering:

Preview

Download the Starter File

You can apply these instructions to a blank canvas without issue, but for a more practical application I’ve created a PSD file that I’ll be working with for this tutorial. Download it here.

Create the Light Streak

1. Create a new layer above the Glowing Girl layer. Name it Streak.
2. Select the Pen Tool.
3. Click once in the middle of the girl’s neck and once near the top-right of the canvas, like this:
   
4. Click and hold in the middle of the line, dragging outward toward the right. This will create an anchor point in the middle of your path that will allow you to curve the line. Your path should look like this:
   
5. Select the Brush Tool. Set your brush size to 5px, foreground color to white, and set the Size Jitter to Pen Pressure (not sure how? See this tutorial).
6. Open the Paths panel (Window » Paths).
7. Ensure the default Work Path is selected. (You should still see what is in the screenshot in Step 4.) Right-click the Work Path and choose Stroke Path.
8. In the Stroke dialog box, ensure Brush is selected from the dropdown box and Simulate Pressure is checked. Click OK.
9. A white stroke should appear over the path. Click anywhere in the Paths panel that is not Work Path path to deselect the path. You should see this:
   

Duplicate the light streak

1. Return to the Layers panel. Duplicate the Streak layer by right-clicking and selecting Duplicate Layer and clicking OK for the default options.
2. Select the Move Tool from the Tools window. Ensure the Streak Copy layer is selected. Click and drag the layer to move the second streak below the first:
   
3. With the Streak Copy layer still selected, go to Layer » Merge Down to marge the two streak layers.
4. In the Layers panel, click and drag the Streak layer so that it is below the Glowing Girl layer.
   

Adding the Glow

1. Right-click the Streak layer and select Blending Options.
2. In the Blending Options dialog box, check and go to the Outer Glow menu item.
3. Set the glow color to white and size to 10px. Click OK.
   
4. Duplicate the Streak layer.
5. Right-click the new Streak Copy layer and select Blending Options.
6. Return to the Outer Glow menu item and change the size to 35px. Click OK.
   

Final Image

This concludes the tutorial on creating light streaks. For the final image, I added a couple more streaks using the same method.

Next Time

Thanks for following my tutorial! Next time, I’ll explain how to create “burst” motion streaks.