How to Add Special Effects in Photoshop

A handful of “throwaway” frames from a photo shoot, along with a stock night sky image, turn out to be all that’s needed to add glowing, otherworldly special effects around a light-painted portrait. This tutorial covers loading extra images into one document, using the Screen blend mode to isolate glowing light, transforming and masking those glows into place, and adding a stock galaxy image with a Levels adjustment to control exactly what stays visible.

Loading Throwaway Photo Shoot Images Into One Document

Extra frames captured during a shoot, even ones that look like obvious mistakes at first glance, become raw material for special effects once brought into the same document as the main photo.

1. Load Extra Images Into a Stack

   Go to File > Scripts > Load Files Into Stack, browse to and select extra frames from the same photo shoot along with any stock images, and open them together.

2. Group and Move the Extra Images Onto the Main Photo

   Group the newly loaded images together, then use the Move tool to drag them from the loaded document onto the main photo being edited.

Why “Throwaway” Photos From a Shoot Are Worth Keeping

A frame with a subject blurred mid-movement or awkwardly posed looks like an obvious reject when judged as a finished photo on its own. That same blur or motion becomes genuinely useful raw material once it’s repurposed as an abstract glow or texture layered into a different final image, which is exactly why it’s worth holding onto extra frames from a shoot rather than deleting them outright.

Changing the Blend Mode to Screen to Isolate Light

Screen blend mode makes anything dark in a layer disappear, leaving only the bright, glowing areas visible over the image beneath.

3. Select the Loaded Images

   Shift-click the extra photo shoot images now placed on top of the main photo.

4. Change the Blend Mode to Screen

   Change the blend mode from Normal to Screen so the dark areas of each layer disappear, leaving only bright highlights and glows visible.

Why Screen Blend Mode Is the Key to This Effect

In Normal blend mode, a layer’s dark background would completely cover the image beneath it, making the layer useless for adding a subtle glow. Screen blend mode instead makes any dark pixel disappear entirely, so only the bright, glowing parts of each extra frame remain visible, blending naturally with the main photo underneath.

Transforming and Masking a Screen-Blended Layer Into a Glow

Rotating, scaling, and masking a single screen-blended layer turns an ordinary blurred frame into a deliberate-looking glow positioned exactly where it’s needed.

5. Rotate and Position the Layer

   Press Cmd/Ctrl+T and rotate, scale, and reposition the screen-blended layer until its glow sits in an interesting spot on the photo.

6. Add a Layer Mask and Clean Up the Edges

   Add a layer mask and paint black around the edges of the layer to hide anything outside the area meant to show the glow.

Layering in Additional Glow Effects From Other Frames

Turning on more of the loaded extra frames and masking each down to just its most interesting glowing area builds up several distinct special effects across the photo.

7. Turn On Another Loaded Layer

   Enable another one of the loaded extra frames and transform it to a promising position on the photo.

8. Alt/Option-Click the Layer Mask to Hide It Entirely

   Hold Alt/Option and click the layer mask button to create a fully black mask, hiding the entire layer at once.

Repositioning Light Glows With a Black Layer Mask

Painting white onto a layer that starts fully hidden behind a black mask reveals only the specific glowing area chosen, wherever it’s needed on the photo.

9. Paint White to Reveal Just the Desired Glow

   With the black layer mask active, paint white only over the specific glowing area that should show through, such as light near a subject’s hand.

10. Duplicate and Flip for Variation

    Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to duplicate a working glow layer, then flip or stretch the duplicate so it doesn’t look identical to the original.

Adding a Stock Galaxy Image With Screen Blend Mode

A stock night sky image, blended the same way as the photo shoot frames, adds an entirely different kind of glowing color and light into the composition.

11. Bring In a Stock Galaxy Image

    Bring in a stock photo of a galaxy or night sky, such as from a stock photography site. The galaxy in the video is a licensed stock photo, so it isn’t in the sample files; use a night sky photo of your own.

12. Change Its Blend Mode to Screen

    Change the galaxy layer’s blend mode from Normal to Screen so its bright stars and color show through while its dark background starts to disappear.

Deepening Blacks With Levels to Control What’s Invisible

Because Screen blend mode only hides truly black pixels, a Levels adjustment that pushes a lighter background closer to pure black is what makes more of that background disappear.

13. Add a Levels Adjustment to the Galaxy Layer

    Press Cmd/Ctrl+L on the galaxy layer to open a Levels adjustment.

14. Darken the Shadows Further

    Drag the shadow input slider inward to push the lighter haze between stars closer to pure black, making it disappear under the Screen blend mode.

Why Levels Controls What a Screen Blend Mode Hides

A Screen blend mode only makes pixels that are already true black disappear completely, so a background that’s merely dark, like a hazy blue night sky, stays partially visible instead of vanishing. Using Levels to push that hazy background closer to pure black gives the Screen blend mode more of the image to actually hide, leaving just the bright stars themselves visible against the photo underneath.

Duplicating and Placing Multiple Galaxy Accents

Duplicating the adjusted galaxy layer and masking each copy down to a smaller accent area spreads star-like light across multiple parts of the photo.

15. Duplicate the Adjusted Galaxy Layer

    Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to duplicate the galaxy layer once its Levels adjustment looks right.

16. Mask Each Copy to a Different Area

    Use a black brush on each copy’s layer mask to fade its edges and limit it to a specific accent area, scaling each copy larger or smaller as needed.

Why This Approach Works

Treating extra, imperfect frames from a photo shoot as raw material rather than deleting them is what makes this whole effect possible without needing any additional photography. Screen blend mode is the specific tool that turns those frames into usable glows, since it discards the dark background automatically while keeping the bright highlights intact. Reaching for Levels whenever a background isn’t dark enough to fully disappear under Screen blend mode is the fix that separates a messy, half-hidden layer from one that blends in seamlessly. For more on how blend modes like Screen actually work, see this guide to Blend Mode techniques.

Final Thoughts

There’s no strict formula to this kind of special effects work, just Screen blend mode, a layer mask, and a willingness to experiment with whatever extra images happen to be on hand. The same throwaway-photo-plus-Screen-blend-mode approach works with any set of glowing, light-painted, or brightly lit images, not just this one light-painted portrait.

Quick Reference: Keys, Menus and Settings

• Load the framesFile > Scripts > Load Files Into Stack; Cmd/Ctrl + G to group, Move tool onto the main photo
• Keep only the lightShift-click the layers, blend mode Screen
• Place a glowCmd/Ctrl + T to rotate, scale and flip
• Hide, then revealAlt/Option-click the layer mask icon for a black mask, paint white
• More copiesCmd/Ctrl + J, then flip or stretch
• Darken the galaxy hazeGalaxy on Screen, Cmd/Ctrl + L, drag the shadow slider in

No AI, no generative credits.