Making an Object 'Glow'

[pdxdev]

Say I have a red 100x100px square. I want to make it look as though this square is "glowing" 8px out in all directions. So I duplicate the layer, put the new layer below, and apply an 8px Gaussian blur.

Great, it's the effect I want, but it's a little dim. So I undo the blur, and instead put a 108x108px square in the layer below (expanded 4px in each direction). I apply a 4px Gaussian blur. Perfect! Except, the blur extends for 11px. This won't work for my specific purposes, as I need the image 116x116 for placement in a web page.

If I cut it off at 116x116, I have a clearly delineated edge on this "glow." So I try selecting the glow, feathering the selection 8px, inverting the selection, and deleting. But now the edge is just slightly less obvious.

Is there some way to create this effect with any precision?

[Medley]

Create your box,

Create a new (blank) layer.

Cmd/Ctrl-click your box layer to get the 100x100 selection back.

Highlight the blank layer to ensure that it's the layer you're working on.

Go to Select> Modify>Expand. Type in 8 in the dialog box.

Go to Select> Feather. Feather by about 6 pixels.

Make the color you want your glow to be the foreground color using the color picker.

Go to Edit> Fill and choose 'use foreground color' from the drop-down menu.

Not bright enough? Just duplicate the layer. Play with blend modes and opacities until you get the mix you like.

-Medley.

[ElectrifieD]

I guess you can allways add "Outer Glow" to the object

[tombothetominator]

I guess you can allways add "Outer Glow" to the object

That's what i was thinking.

[Q21]

Lol same here when i opened this thread...Medley makes things so complicated it seems :S But they work lol.

[Medley]

Lol same here when i opened this thread...Medley makes things so complicated it seems :S But they work lol.

it's all about control, my friend. He asked how to create the effect with precision.

Follow his lead, creating a 100x100 box. Then give it an 8px outer glow. magnify it to 1600% and tell me how many pixels worth of glow you can count. If you're really good, you can just barely make out the sixth row of pixels.

Of course, you could put the outer glow on it's own layer, and duplicate that layer using a screen blend mode until you can see 8 pixels worth of glow without zooming in. But by then, the glow has expanded beyond the 8 pixels, to 10 or 11. To get it back within 8 pixels, you would have to.....

Geez, this is the simple solution???

By controlling the amount of feathering, you can control both the number of pixels and the appearance of the glow. It may not be as easy, but it is infinitely more precise.

-Medley.

[tombothetominator]

Yes Medley, your way is more precise, which is exactly what he asked for. However you can get the same effect just by adding the 'outer glow' property to a layer with a 100x100px square on it, set it's size to 8px, and leave the rest of the options at default (technique softer, spread 0). You get the same effect without creating additional layers. If it isn't bright enough for you, change the mode around, and adjust the transparency of it.

Personally, i try to keep my layer count down (mostly because no matter what, i end up with more layers than any human should, so any reduction is a good thing), so a simple layer effect (which i can change around at whim) to me is simpler and more managable than creating a static glow layer.

But that's the nice thing about PS, many different ways to create any one effect.

[pigbait75]

uh what?