Photoshop Tutorials

Description

Add a strong diffusion glow effect. This Photoshop effect makes light skin glow while keeping dark areas, such as hair, dark.

Adding the Diffusion Effect

Many experienced Photoshop users may already know about this popular effect. For those who don't know, you can apply a quick version of this effect by duplicating the layer, changing the blending mode to Screen, and applying a Gaussian Blur to the new layer. This tutorial goes further by showing you how to filter out the effect from dark areas and how to restore edge sharpness.

Step 1

Open a photo to edit.

Step 2

Duplicate the layer (Layer> Duplicate or Ctrl+J) and change the blending mode of the new layer to Screen.

Step 3

Add a layer mask to the top layer (Layer> Add Layer Mask> Reveal All).

Step 4

Make sure the layer mask is activated. The thumbnail of the layer mask in the layers window should have a white border around it. If it doesn't, click on the thumbnail to activate the layer mask.

Step 5

With the layer mask activated, open the Apply Image tool (Image> Apply Image). The default settings should be fine. Simply click OK to continue.

Step 6

Your image should now have a similar glow effect:

Step 7

Click on the thumbnail of the top layer to deactivate the layer mask. With the top layer selected, open the Gaussian Blur filter tool (Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur). Make sure that the preview checkbox is checked and increase the radius slider until the desired effect is achieved.