Design a MultiColoured Sunset with Light Effects

Now we are going to design creative multicolored sunset using photo mixing some vector shapes and lighting effects.


First of all, we need to find some appropriate picture of sunset to design it in future. Use Google Images or you can also use my picture. Open up picture and start the tutorial! Duplicate background with Ctrl+J, then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply a mild blur of 1,5px.


Now, we set the blurred layer to blending mode Soft Light and set opacity up to 50%. After that make this layer black and white with Image > Adjustments > Desaturate or press Ctrl+Shift+U. This gives us a slightly surreal blurring on the image.

Now, I think we need to do a little dodge work. Select the Dodge Tool (Brush: 250 px, Range: Highlights, Exposure: 50%) and make clearer the dark parts of the image. See the difference now:

Merge two of these layers in one. We are done with background for now. Move to the next step. Create a new layer, then select the Elliptical Marquee Tool and create selections as shown on the picture below. After that fill selected area with white color.

Remove selection with Ctrl+D and apply the Blur Tool to blur the sun shape and then change layer mode to Overlay for this layer.

Ok, now select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and create selection as on my picture that you can see below:

Cut chosen area to the new layer with Ctrl+Shift+J. Apply Filter > Blur> Motion Blur to the new received layer.

You should receive something like this:

Looks as real sun now, don’t you agree? Good, now I would like to add some curl ornaments to the sun glow. Well, we need to find the elements we will use. I prefer to use these. Let’s start mixing curls with sun glow.

Merge all layers with curls in one and duplicate received new one layer using Ctrl+J. Apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with similar settings to these:

Now we have an effect like this:

Merge two layers with curls in one again and duplicate one more time. After that flip new duplicated layer vertical with Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical and move it down.

Apply Filter > Blur > Motion Blur to this layer:

See the difference, now?

Set the blurred layer to blending mode Overlay and after that select the Eraser Tool and a soft round brush about 50 px to clear curls image out the sea area.

Now, go to the previous layer and apply Outer Glow layer style to it.

See the result:

Now the lighting is pretty nice already, but I’d like some different hues in the image as it makes the image a lot warmer than bluish colors. Use next colors to make sunset multicolor: #c59840, #c54053, #c540c0, #7840c5, #43609a. So in a new layer, use the Brush Tool (Brush: 80 px) to make brush strokes with a different colors.

After that apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with similar settings to these:

We received something like this:

Now in your tools palette choose the Smudge Tool (Brush: 150 px, Mode: Normal, Strength: 35%). Using your mouse, smudge your multicolor strokes outwards. Note that in the image shown, I’ve done some pretty big smudges so you can see roughly what we’re doing, but in reality you should make smaller, more subtle smudges.

Now we set the layer to blending mode Color and set opacity up to 47%.

Then use the Eraser Tool with a large, soft brush and remove some areas where you don’t want as much to shine through.

Ok, time to add the sun rays to finish off the tutorial. To make it we are going to use a combination of glowing edges and radial blurring. Go to the background layer and duplicate it using Ctrl+J. Then go to Filter > Stylize > Glowing Edges and use settings as on my picture below:

Looks strange, isn’t it?

Set the layer to blending mode Screen and apply new Filter > Blur > Radial Blur:

Please note that the blur center is shifted slightly to the right to the place where the sun shines.

Repeat the last filter used again by pressing Ctrl+F. After that go to the Image > Adjustments > Levels to correct brightness and contrast for current layer.

Picture becomes better now:

After that try to correct the sun rays a little bit. Use the Smudge Tool (Brush:150 px, Mode: Normal, Strength: 30%) to do this.

Looks better now! Now, bring more sharpness to the sun rays. To do this use the Sharpen Tool (Brush:500 px, Mode: Normal, Strength: 40%).

We finished off with this tutorial now! Hope it was interesting and useful for you!