STEP BY STEP FLARE EFFECTS

Add lens flares using the Shape tool and Gaussian Blur

01 BLUR A CIRCLE

Click and hold over the Shape tool and choose the Ellipse. Hold Shift and drag in the image to make a circle. Go to the colour panel and choose a yellow colour for the circle. Click the Live Filter icon in the Layers Panel and choose Gaussian Blur.

02 MAKE A ‘CHILD’

Hit Cmd/ctrl+j to duplicate the ellipse, then go to the Layers panel and drag the copy on top of the other layer’s name to make it a child. Expand the layers and set the blend mode of the child ellipse layer to Erase. You’ll see the beginnings of a halo e†ect.

03 CREATE A HALO

Grab the Move tool, click and hold on the corner of the bounding box. Hold Shift plus Cmd/ctrl and drag in to resize the second circle from the centre, making it smaller than the rst. Adjust the gaussian blur by double clicking the live lter layer to ne-tune the halo.

04 COPY AND RECOLOUR

Duplicate the top ellipse layer with Cmd/ctrl+j then gab the Move tool and position elsewhere. Use the colour panel to tweak to another warm shade. Adjust the opacity of the layer to tone it down and set the blend mode to Screen to blend with the image below.

05 BUILD IT UP

Continue duplicating to build up the „ares. Try turning o† the child ellipse layer to make some „ares more opaque. Keep the „ares on the same line, as this is how they would appear. Grab the Double Star tool. Set Inner Radius 3%, Point Radius 100%, Points 7.

06 MAKE A SUNSTAR

Hold Shift+cmd/ctrl and drag out from the sun for a sunstar e†ect. Choose a colour, set the Blend Mode to Screen and add a Gaussian Blur Live Filter. Add Levels Adjustment Layer and drag the Output Black Level to fade the blacks. Add a Lens Filter layer for warmth.