1
The Lounge / Tutorial: Signature "Bloom" Effect
« on: August 29, 2007, 07:31:21 PM »
Now, I've been asked several times how I achieve the "bloom" effect I use in my signatures.
Since It's not really a secret or a really hard method, I'm going to show you how to do it:
Step 1) Get a picture of course, I'm going to use this sexy picture of Darth Vader for this tutorial:
Step 2) Copy the layer and d-saturate the new layer. (Ctrl+shift+u)
Step 3) Now, use a gaussian blur. I usually go with 3 for smaller pictures, 5 for slightly larger and 10 for desktops or other large pictures, any more and the effect is not so effective. For this picture, I went with 8 since it was in between.
Step 4) Once you do that either auto level it or adjust the levels/brightness contrast yourself. If you want a more exagerated effect, up the contrast a lot. For this example I only used auto levels.
Step 5) Usually the last step, set the layer to Overlay instead of normal in the blending options and voila!
Since It's not really a secret or a really hard method, I'm going to show you how to do it:
Step 1) Get a picture of course, I'm going to use this sexy picture of Darth Vader for this tutorial:
Step 2) Copy the layer and d-saturate the new layer. (Ctrl+shift+u)
Step 3) Now, use a gaussian blur. I usually go with 3 for smaller pictures, 5 for slightly larger and 10 for desktops or other large pictures, any more and the effect is not so effective. For this picture, I went with 8 since it was in between.
Step 4) Once you do that either auto level it or adjust the levels/brightness contrast yourself. If you want a more exagerated effect, up the contrast a lot. For this example I only used auto levels.
Step 5) Usually the last step, set the layer to Overlay instead of normal in the blending options and voila!