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If you follow the tutorial closely, you are almost sure to get good results!
1. Open up a new white image. Size doesn't matter, but I'm using 400 x 150 px.
2. Open up your stock as a new layer. Position it so that it looks good, like so:
3. Duplicate this layer, and turn off the duplicate by clicking the eye symbol to the left.
4. With the original stock layer selected (NOT the duplicate), go to Layer > Colors > Desaturate.
After that, with this layer still selected, go to Filters > Enhance > Sharpen. Set it to
whatever you want, but the picture should look crisp and not noisy.
5. Now, turn the duplicated layer on by clicking the eye. This layer should still be in
color. Go to Filters > Blur > Motion Blur. Settings should be:
Linear
Length - 15
Set the Angle to an angle that looks good with your stock. This will give your sig
flow. Set this layer to Normal at 34 Opacity. It should look like this:
6. Now, duplicate the orginal stock layer, second from the bottom. Drag this duplicate layer
to the top. Double-click on the Gradient Tool from the tool bar, and make sure it is at these
settings:
7. Change your foreground and background colors to some bright opposite colors, like this:
8. Next, go to Select > All. Then, with the top layer selected, go to Filters > Colors > Map > Gradient Map.
Set this layer to Color at 50 Opacity. Go to Select > None.
9. Duplicate the original stock layer again, and drag it to the top. With this layer selected, go to
Layers > Colors > Levels. Darken it by dragging the middle notch somewhat to the right.
Set this layer to Value at 30 Opacity.
10. Now make a new transparent layer. Set white as your foreground color, and double-click on
the Gradient tool. Settings should be:
11. Then, do the gradient where you want your light to be. Like so:
12. Set that layer to Overlay, 100 Opacity.
13. Now go to Edit > Copy Visible. Then Edit > Paste. Then click on the New Layer button to
anchor it. Make sure this layer is on the top.
14. With this new layer selected, go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur using 10 as the setting.
Then go to Layer > Colors > Levels. Settings should be:
Set this layer to Hard Light at 35 Opacity. (Full credit goes to This Tutorial for this technique.)
15. Almost done! Duplicate the original stock layer again, and bring it to the top.
Go to Filters > Blur > Motion Blur and use the same settings you used earlier. Then go to
Select > All. Then Select > Shrink, using 10 as the setting. Then click the Quick Mask button, like so:
16. Now go to Filters > Blur > Motion Blur again and use the same settings. Then click the
Quick Mask button again, then click Ctrl + K. Go to Select > None.
17. Set that layer at Normal, 34 Opacity. Adjust the levels if you need to, to make a
shadow around the edges.
18. Text and a border can be added anyway you choose. For my text, I
picked a color from the sig and used Arial for the font at size 15. For the border, a black 1 px. border,
with the opacity lowered down to 30.
19. YOU ARE DONE!!! :D
