How to Create Lighting Effects in Photoshop

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Give the light sources in any photo more color, presence, and a cinematic glow, all non-destructively, using Channels, a Solid Color fill layer, and a little Gaussian Blur.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to isolate light sources with Channels, recolor them with a Solid Color fill layer and blend modes, add a soft cinematic glow, and cool down the shadows for contrast.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro to Lighting Effects
00:54 Isolating Lights With Channels
01:45 Loading a Selection From a Channel
02:42 Refining the Layer Mask With Levels
04:18 Changing Blend Modes for Color
05:42 Duplicating for a Stronger Effect
06:36 Adding a Cinematic Glow With Blur
08:42 Cooling Shadows With Selective Color

THE STEPS
1. Open the Channels panel and check Red, Green, and Blue individually to find whichever one shows the most contrast between your light sources and the background.
2. Command or Control click that channel's thumbnail to load it as a selection.
3. Create a new Solid Color Fill layer while that selection is active, it will automatically load into the layer's mask, then choose a warm or cool color for your lights.
4. Hold Alt or Option and click the layer mask to inspect it, then use Levels to push the black point up so only the true light sources stay visible.
5. Paint black directly on the layer mask with a soft brush to remove any areas, like the ground or unrelated signage, that shouldn't pick up the color.
6. Change the fill layer's blending mode from Normal to Overlay, Screen, or Soft Light so the color actually blends with the light sources instead of flatly covering them.
7. Duplicate the color layer and adjust each copy's blend mode or color separately for a stronger, richer effect, or to give different areas of the image different colors.
8. Duplicate one of your color layers again, set it to white, then apply Filter, then Blur, then Gaussian Blur directly to its layer mask to create a soft glow around each light source.
9. Add a Selective Color adjustment layer, select Neutrals, and push slightly toward Cyan to cool down your shadows and add contrast against the warm lights.

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