When you’re augmenting an existing photo or creating new art from scratch, an effect that looks like the sun glinting off a metallic or shiny surface can add some depth and interest to your art. The starburst effect in this tutorial even includes a little lens flare, so it’s a tasteful replacement for the sometimes-overused lens flare filter. This how-to works in many Photoshop versions, from CS4 back to version 7.
Step 1
The first thing is to create a new document in Photoshop. I set my background to black so that I can see the white glint when I make it later.
Create a new layer and choose the line tool (hidden under the rectangle shape tool in the toolbox).
Choose 2 pixels and the draw pixel option from the Options bar.
Step 2
Set white as your foreground color and draw a short dash (A). Hold the Shift key to constrain the rotation to a horizontal line.
Choose Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. Add enough distance to get a nice tapered look (B). Make sure the angle matches the angle of the line.
Step 3
Duplicate the layer with the dash on it. Press Ctrl/Cmd+T for Free Transform. Rotate the dash while holding down shift to constrain the rotation.
Step 4
Choose both of your dash layers and press Ctrl/Cmd+E to merge them. (If you’re using Photoshop CS and earlier, choose the top layer and press Ctrl/Cmd+E to merge with the layer beneath.) Be careful that you don’t merge the dash layers with the background.
Duplicate the merged dash layer (Ctrl/Cmd+J).
Press Ctrl/Cmd+T for Free Transform. Rotate the merged dashes 45 degrees, then grab a corner point and scale toward the center to make the new star smaller. Hold down Alt/Option+Shift to scale from the center and constrain.
Step 5
You now have your starburst, and you may be satisfied with that.
For those of you who want to add a lens flare to the starburst, continue by creating a new layer. Grab the elliptical marquee tool (circular selection tool) and
create a selection over the starburst.
Step 6
Go to Edit > Stroke and choose a 1 pixel white stroke. Deselect. Choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to soften the effect.
Click OK and you’re done!
Step 7
Merge the layers together to use on your illustrations and photos. In Photoshop CS2 and higher, you can save them as Smart Objects.
Another option is to make a custom brush: Flatten the whole thing, choose Ctrl/Cmd+I to inverse, and then make a selection around the starburst. Choose Edit > Define Custom Brush.
Here are examples of how I’ve used this effect:
This article was last modified on January 5, 2023
This article was first published on February 2, 2009
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