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This article is from February 2, 2009, and is no longer current.

Create Starbursts in Photoshop


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:



 

  • kabel says:

    yeah… I say let’s still not encourage the use of Starbursts…

  • jituchillal says:

    I liked this very mauch, Its very usefull technique.

  • Anonymous says:

    its awsome……creation of blending effect with a pointed light source is realy worth of admire………

  • Anonymous says:

    thank you for the tutorial im new to all photo shop an this helps me greatly

  • Anonymous says:

    For information, if you want create a Starburst effects on jewelry or shiny object in Photoshop, you can see this good tutorial : https://rienquepourlesyeux.free.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=57

    it is very interresting for a good rendering on your picture.

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