Create glowing heart using CS6!

[Tom E]

Hi all, I am trying to draw a heart and give it a glowing effect. I'm a bit limited because I only have access to PhotoShop CS6, and while I have played around with PhotoShop for some basic things like burning/dodging and using the clone tool my overall experience is quite limited. I've seen some tutorials using later versions to creat the glow effect, but have not been able to duplicate what they do since I lack some of the tools that are used. Or very possibly I'm just not understanding the instructions.

I'm attaching a file showing what I am working with. I want to give the outline of the J&J heart in the bottom right a pink glow. I've tried using the brush tool and can create the pink heart, but have not been able to get a glow effect. Also the brush tool is very spotty rather than a solid line; I have almost never used this tool before so I'm probably doing something wrong.

Any help will be greatly appreciated! As you can probably see, I need the instructions to be as simple as possible.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[IamSam]

Hello.

Perhaps you could post an example of the "glowing effect" you are trying to duplicate?

A simple pinkish glow is fairly easy, but we need to know exactly what you are wanting.

 

[Tom E]

Sure! This is from a YouTube video that I tried to follow, but CS6 was lacking some of the tools used. I want to put the line in the heart outline, and then add the glow.

 

[Rich54]

@Tom E ,
I use Photoshop CS5, so your CS6 version will have whatever I have. I found and watched the tutorial you referenced. The only tool you don't have readily available—very late in the video—is when they use the Camera Raw filter. That last Camera Raw step is a very subtle refinement, almost unnoticeable, and unneeded, in my opinion. Also, the video went too quickly right there and it's not even clear what or why those Camera Raw adjustments are. With a few caveats, you should be able to fairly easily replicate the glowing effect on your heart image.

First, the caveats:

• Your heart image is a poor candidate for a glow effect.
• Any glowing effect works best against a dark image. In your tutorial, the man is in deep shadows against a dark background. Your heart image is relatively light and mostly monotone, so there is not much opportunity for the glow to be pronounced.
• Part of the tutorial consists of manually painting a soft magenta glow across the folds of his sweater, his arms, fingers, etc. This "sells" the idea that the glow is reflecting and illuminating the different volumes of the man and his clothing. However, your heart image is simply a flat slab of wood, so there is no opportunity to apply a similar glow across the different folds and shades and volumetric shapes.
• One of the reasons that the video uses a layer blend mode of "Linear Dodge (Add)" is because that blend mode will create different glowing colors depending on the color of the background image. However, your heart image doesn't have any background color changes to speak of—it's all mostly one monotone.

That said, here's a simple way to achieve the effect:

• The white outline should ideally be created using the Pen tool (by applying a white stroke to the vector path that was created with the Pen tool). This is what the video does and it's the best choice for a smooth, curved shape like that. However, the Pen tool is often daunting for beginners. You should try to learn it, but if not, you'll have to create the white outline some other way, perhaps drawing it by hand with the Brush tool.
• Once you've got the white outline (on its own layer), find the fx icon at the bottom of the layers palette and click on it to open the Layer Styles. Choose "Outer Glow" and use these settings (but you can experiment with different settings).
• As an optional step, add another layer style of Bevel & Emboss. This will give your white outline a hint of volume, as if it's a neon tube.

• On a new layer above that, activate the brush tool and set your foreground color to the magenta glow.
• Use a fairly large, soft brush and set the Brush Flow to around 15%. Change the layer blend mode to Color.
• Now paint some additional glowing, both inside and outside the heart.

On the left is what I get following these steps. On the right is what it would be if your starting image were much darker.

 

[Tom E]

Jeff, thanks so much for your help. I was aware that a darker background would make the effect more pronounced, but if I can create the same or close to what you showed here that would be great.

I am currently stuck on getting a visible line after tracing the heart shape using the Pen tool. How do I "apply a white stroke to the vector path that was created with the Pen tool"? Right now all I have is a barely visible dotted line (see attached file) and so far I have not figured out how to turn it into a solid line. When I try Edit>Stroke I outline the entire file, not the heart.

I have played with some of the Layer Styles with text in the past so I understand them a little, but in this case I'm unable to create anything to work with to apply the styles to. I tried tracing the heart with the Brush tool, but all I got was a very spotty line that also would not change when I tried using Layer Styles. Then I tried using the Pencil inside the Brush Tool. That was better, and gave me a nice solid line that was rather shaky. I then tried to use Layer Styles on this outline, but nothing happened. Clearly I'm missing something very basic here, but I have no idea what it might be!

I've been working on this for almost two hours and am getting nowhere, hopefully you can set me straight.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Rich54]

I am currently stuck on getting a visible line after tracing the heart shape using the Pen tool. How do I "apply a white stroke to the vector path that was created with the Pen tool"?

By the way... I'm Rich, not Jeff.

Whoever I am, here's how to stroke a path:

• Set your foreground color as desired, in this case white.
• Activate the brush tool and choose the appropriate size brush, probably around 6 pixels in this case. I used a soft brush, but you can adjust the hardness to your taste.
• With the brush tool active, go into the Paths palette and activate your heart-shaped path (see image below).
• Click the icon down at the bottom where the red arrow is pointing. That icon will stroke the path using the brush and color you have chosen.
• Now click in an empty part of the Paths palette to de-select the path.
• Go back to the layers palette and now you can apply an Outer Glow layer style to your stroked outline.

 

[IamSam]

I am currently stuck on getting a visible line after tracing the heart shape using the Pen tool. How do I "apply a white stroke to the vector path that was created with the Pen tool"? Right now all I have is a barely visible dotted line

Hey, just adding this for clarification. The dotted line is a selection. It may have been created by the path. When you make a path with the Pen Tool, don't right click and make it a selection.

This is a path....


This is a selection....

 

[Tom E]

Rich and Sam, thanks very much! What I did not understand (and frankly did not even know about) was the Paths palette. I was stuck with this nice heart that I had outlined with the Pen tool, but unable to do anything with it. Once I clicked on Paths I was able to add the stroke and then use the Blending Options to come up with something that should work for my purposes. Not as nice as what Rich showed me with the added Brush effect to make the glow better (I'm still working on making that work!), but at least more or less what I had visualized.

I'm very happy I have discovered this forum. Most of what I have been able to do with Photoshop has been by trial and error, and Photoshop is not what I'd call an intuitive program. Being able to get advice and help from people who really know the program is fantastic!

Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it!

 

[Rich54]

What I did not understand (and frankly did not even know about) was the Paths palette. I was stuck with this nice heart that I had outlined with the Pen tool, but unable to do anything with it. Once I clicked on Paths I was able to add the stroke and then use the Blending Options to come up with something that should work for my purposes.

I'm very happy I have discovered this forum. Most of what I have been able to do with Photoshop has been by trial and error, and Photoshop is not what I'd call an intuitive program.

Glad we could help. One piece of advice: after you create a path with the Pen tool, go into the Paths palette and save the path by giving it a name (the same way that you label a layer). If you don't save it, then the next time you use the Pen tool, it will delete the old path and start over with a new one.

I, too, learned Photoshop by trial & error, plus a million books, video tutorials and help from this forum. I've been at it for about 15 years and I'm still learning new things every day.