Tutorial 1
Not one for staying in the shadows, James Paterson explains how to light up the night sky in seconds using simple Photoshop Elements tools
Light up the night sky in minutes with a few simple PS welements’ tools
The Mission
Learn how to use Photoshop Blend Modes and Layer Masks to add fireworks to an image
Time needed
10 minutes
Skill level
Easy
Kit needed
Photoshop Elements
it’s that time of year when the night sky is regularly lit up with amazing firework displays – whether it be on Guy Fawkes Day, Diwali or New Year’s Eve. As such, it’s a great opportunity to head out with your camera and capture the colourful displays. But if you need a quick fix or if you’d like to add fireworks to an old photo, there is another way to light up the night sky. Using simple Photoshop Elements layer skills, we can blend photos of fireworks with any scene we choose. This is a fun technique to try if you’d like to create an atmosphere of celebration, or if you fancy bolstering a lacklustre display with extra explosions, or just want to learn fundamental Photoshop skills such as layer blend modes and masking.
We’ve provided a selection of firework images for you to use in your own photos, so why not give it a go? The best part is, it doesn’t take long. We drop the fireworks into our chosen image, position them in the sky, and blend with either the Screen or Lighten blend mode. Then we can use a layer mask to hide parts of the display where they would naturally fall behind objects, such as Big Ben here, creating the illusion that they’re exploding in the sky behind these foreground features.
The water in our scene gives us the opportunity to take the effect one stage further by creating a reflection on the surface. This is achieved with a combination of filter effects and masking. We’ll use the Displace filter to create a distorted reflection of fireworks, as if they’re on a rippled surface. It’s a filter effect that can be applied to all kinds of reflection effects, not just night scenes.