How to Add Fog & Light in Photoshop

Tutorial Description

Learn how to add a bit of mystery to your photos by creating fog and light beams from scratch, using the Phlearn Fog Brush!

Bonus: Download the custom brush and image used in this tutorial.

Create Fog Using a Custom Brush

Fog is surprisingly easy to create in Photoshop, provided you have the right resources.

First, download the Phlearn Fog Brush below. After downloading, double-click on the .abr file to load it into Photoshop. Select the Phlearn Fog Brush by first selecting the Brush Tool (B) in Photoshop, then right-click to bring up the list of available brush presets. The Phlearn Fog Brush will be at the end of the list.

While using the Phlearn Fog Brush, try changing the brush size to approximate different types of fog. Also, start by using brush flow around 30% to get a natural appearance. If you find that the fog has too much detail, simply add a gaussian blur to the fog layer.

How to Create Light Beams

In order to give this image a bit more life, we are going to add beams of light coming from the disco ball.

To create beams of light in Photoshop, start by creating a new layer and painting random patches of white with the brush tool. These random patches of white will serve as ‘locators’ for the next step, applying a radial blur.

The goal is to make the random patches of white into streaks, and to do so, apply a radial blur. Go to ‘Filter – Blur – Radial Blur’ and choose ‘Zoom’ under ‘Blur Method’. Adjust the amount of zoom to 80 and choose a center point for the zoom blur by clicking on the ‘Blur Center’ graph. This filter does not give you a live preview, so you have to guess where the center of the zoom blur will be.

If you get the center wrong, simply undo your blur and re-do it again, this time moving the blur center. Once you are satisfied with the blur center, you can adjust the amount of blur.

Now you have a zoom blur coming from the center of the Disco Ball