Into The Light

[mediacop]

Here is the shot with my glow attached
Larry

[mediacop]

Must have posted incorrectly. Sorry, below is the original shot of train tracks. What I was trying to achieve was a shot of the tracks converging on a light that eminates or blazes from where the tracks converge. The best I could do was create a soft warm glow by using a separate layer with an an outside glow property. I welcome any comments/suggestions on how to produce a more photorealistic blaze. Thanks in advance.
Larry

[Noko]

I think the effect you did is fine. The over all pic (I think) would have looked better with a lower perspective.

[mediacop]

Yes, I completely agree, but I was standing on a bridge over the tracks with no way to get lower and still have the rails centered.
Larry

[Hunter]

Larry, is this close to what you were wanting to do? What I did here was to dupe the background to a new layer and did a gaussian blur and then lowered the transparency to 50% and merged it with the background. I then applied a Lens Flare effect of a 35mm Prime and placed it at the convergence of the tracks. I used Corel Photopaint for this.

[Mig]

I was just having fun with this, but it's pretty. Kind of crazy-looking, but nice to look at.

Mig

[mediacop]

Hunter, you are a genius! That is EXACTLY what I was looking for. I don't have photopaint, so I hope I can duplicate this in PS7. Can you suggest how to create this 35mm lens flare effect?
Meg, you are certainly creative, Thank you for taking the time to play with this.
Best,
Larry

[Hunter]

I don't use PS, so I don't know if it has Lens Flare effects. In older versions of Corel Photopaint, they only had like one or two lens flare effects. Current versions have quite a few and allow you to vary colors, tails, size, falloff, etc. I'd be kind of surprised, though, if PS didn't have a lens flare effect - it might be listed as a "camera" effect or something like that.

[Xaran]

Lens Flare

Using - Filter>Render>Lens Flare on a black layer set to screen mode works.

Christine

[mediacop]

Thanks Christine. I think that's the best solution!
Best,
Larry

[Duv]

I love this effect. Thanks Hunter. In my pic I feel like a deer frozen in the headlights.

Duv

[revilo]

if you want a blaze with more control over the illumination. Set to paintbrush > opacity really low like 5 -10 % (and make sure you have aleast 100 history steps). Set layer mode to colour dodge. as you paint it will dodge out the colour to give a glow effect. attched is my 2 cents worth..

I straightened the track for starters, used the colour dodge technique to paint in the glow and highlights on the trees and and a stuble lens flare to highten the effect

[mediacop]

Duv, Revilo, thanks for your work. Both effects are great. Revilo, thanks especially for taking the time to outline the PS steps.
Best,
Larry