Originally posted by JC Denton
How'd you do the lightning effect, if I may ask?
Quite easy, actually:
Create a black-to-white gradient across an image (the 50% gray section is the general area the lightning will occupy).
Filter > Render > Difference Clouds.
Invert the image.
CTRL-L to bring up the Levels dialog box. Drag the middle, gray slider all the way to the right. Hit Ok. Repeat if needed, dragging the gray slider towards the right however much you see fit. Hit Ok.
Then toss on a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, check the "colorize" checkbox, and drag the hue and saturation sliders to give the lighning bolt whatever hue and saturation you want - blues look most natural. Leave the "brightness" slider alone.
Finally, set the lightning layer blending mode to linear dodge or screen, prefereably the first option.
I got this method from, well... Google. Searched for "photoshop lightning tutorial" and clicked on one of the results... I found out in going through them later on that they're all pretty much the same.
Originally posted by IceFire
How is Photoshop CS and is there any reason I should go from Photoshop 6.0 that I have now to CS?
From 6.0? Upgrade if you can. Especially if you take digital pictures and are plagued by underexposed shots - the "Shadow/Highlight" adjustment feature is
amazing, far far beyond what you can do with just levels.
Also, if you like playing around with different combinations of filters, CS is the way to go - it has a filter browser, so that you can composite different filter "layers" - just like the regular layers palette - and see the results in real-time. Awesome.
I also hear the file browser has been improved, though on my P3-600Mhz it's almost too slow to be useful.
