lightning effect help

[higakun]

i was wondering if anyone knew a good site that teaches how to make realistic lightning effects in photoshop?

[Gregory Wohlwend]

you can find all the tutorials you want on www.google.com

just search photoshop lightning tutorials.

however there's a popular method:

1.Black and White as Foreground and BG colors
2.Gradient B&W across canvas
3.Filter>>Render>>Difference clouds
4.Image>>Adjust>>Levels (make it so it looks like lightning, so just play with it)
5.Image>>Adjust>>Invert[Ctrl+I]


this should give you the basic lightning bolt, it's pretty amatuerish looking, but in the right context it can look ok... just use a color blend over top to get certain effects etc.