Nicer Specular Bloom (PS)

[limdaepl]

Browsing the galleries I often stumble across images which either don't use specular bloom although they would benefit from it or they use it but it doesn't look good in my eyes. Hence i thought I'll write this little tut on how I'm usually making it.

Of course I don't claim this to be the only or the best way of doing specular bloom. In fact there are quite a lot and every one has its advantages and its disadvantages. The virtues of this version are that it works for almost every sort of image without being very laborious, that it looks very natural and that it slightly emphasizes the colors.

Here we go.
First of all we'll need an image:



Duplicate the layer and call the brightness/contrast dialog:



These are of course just sample values. For brighter images you'll need to make it even darker if you don't want the bloom to become too prominent. In the long run it depends on the image and how you want it to look. Trying around will help

Now comes what distinguishes this method from most of the others.
Repeat the last step with the copied layer several times (usually three times are sufficient). Now you should have three copies of your image, each darker than the underlying one:



Now gaussian blur the first copy by an amount of 10.0, the second copy by 15.0, the third by 20.0, etc. Again different images might require different values. Just make sure: the darker the copy, the bigger the radius.



Set the blend mode for the copied layers to screen and merge them into one layer which you might want to name 'bloom'



Set the mode to screen again and you should have a nice hint of a glow on the brighter parts of the image:



That's it.
Hope you found this useful and please leave some feedback!

For the lazy fellows among us I attached an action script doing exactly the same. One version darkens by 75, the other by 100.

Have fun with it!

Regards Roman

[backstept]

I find that the levels dialogue box (CTRL+L, or Image>Adjustments>Levels) has more control over the light and dark, than Brightness/Contrast (which I never use anymore )
basically the same technique I use, only I use the same layer duplicated a couple times with increasing blur but not darkness . . . if that makes sense . . .
then I control the effect with the layer blending (different depending on the image, Screen for one and Linear Dodge on another and Overlay for yet another), and opacity (usually set pretty low

(sorry about all the parentheses(have a nice day))

[limdaepl]

Yeah, I know about the levels dialog box and it's advantages. For example it much easier to isolate specific parts of the image with levels rather than fiddling around with brightness/contrast. You're right there.

I'm using brightness/contrast here for the reason that it's less complicated and completely sufficient for this purpose as well as that not everyone might have PS but another 2D applications which might not have such a levels dialog whereas brightness/contrast should be a rather common feature thus everyone should be able to follow this tut even when there's no high-end 2D package available.

Have a nice day as well

Regards Roman

[aszazeroth]

I also recommend trying to use desaturated bloom for some effects, to eliminate color artifacts. Cool tutorial though... thanks for sharing !

[backstept]

Originally Posted by limdaepl

Yeah, I know about the levels dialog box and it's advantages. For example it much easier to isolate specific parts of the image with levels rather than fiddling around with brightness/contrast. You're right there.

I'm using brightness/contrast here for the reason that it's less complicated and completely sufficient for this purpose as well as that not everyone might have PS but another 2D applications which might not have such a levels dialog whereas brightness/contrast should be a rather common feature thus everyone should be able to follow this tut even when there's no high-end 2D package available.

Have a nice day as well

Regards Roman

good points

Originally Posted by aszazeroth

I also recommend trying to use desaturated bloom for some effects, to eliminate color artifacts. Cool tutorial though... thanks for sharing !

yeah that happens sometimes if it's a pretty severe bloomage

[Ramiel]

Already done, already shared... But I love a good "refresh" on these tuts, good job.

And I agree with backstept on the use of the "Levels" instead of the "Brightness and Contrast"

[The B5 Fan]

Hmmmmmm I need to try this.....

[Comco]

That's an excellent example of specular blooming done right there limdaepl!

I often see what, to my eyes at least, looks like over-done blooms on images...That is subtle yet highly effective. Thanks for the tut.

[limdaepl]

Thanks Comco.
One of the 'red guys' dropping by honours me. Especially if he leaves such a nice comment

Regards Roman

[MadKoiFish]

Tops, this eliminates ppl using that filter in PS which blooms any light surface with hardly any control, as well as allows users of other apps to reproduce this effect.