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Adobe Photoshop CC - Essentials Training

The Lens Flare right of passage in Adobe Photoshop

Daniel Walter Scott

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Hey there, this video is more of a right of passage than it is learning Photoshop. We are going to be learning something. We're going to be learning the filter called Lens Flare. It's this thing here that I've added, watch this, turn it off, turn it on. It's the sparkler that comes out of the lens, turn it off, turn it on. 
And why do I show you it to you? It's because you need to learn to love it, and then hate it, like Comic Sans. I'm not saying this is you but pretty much, well most people that I show this, and they're kind of like, when they’re beginning in Photoshop, specially students, okay, University, I show them this, and then it doesn't really matter what the job is, I know, because this is exactly how I did it. I got shown Lens Flare, and in every single assignment for my Graphic Design Degree had a Lens Flare in it, didn't matter what it was, an image, Lens Flare, business card, Lens Flare. 
There were very few times in that first year of University that I couldn't put a Lens Flare on something. And as I transitioned into teaching students it didn't even matter if I showed them this tool or not, they found it, and every second project, Lens Flare. And I want to give this gift to you, it's really easy to use, and from now on you'll be able to throw it into all of your projects until you learn to hate it. Then you'll be able to spot it in other people's projects and tut along with me. Let's get into it, and learn how to make it work. 
To create our amazing Lens Flare open up two files from that same filters folder we've been working from. It's called 'Lens Flare 01' and 'Lens Flare 02'. With the layer you want the Lens Flare on, have it selected in the layers and go up to 'Filter', go down to 'Render', and find the magical 'Lens Flare'. And that's it, what you can do is this little sparkle here, you can click hold and drag around to get a sense of kind of how the Lens Flare works, and I'm going to put them kind of like-- through the trees here. I'm going to-- you can obviously increase the brightness, or lower the brightness, make it subtle, but remember, this is Lens Flare time, we want it to be obvious, so everyone knows. 
Now this is the traditional Lens Flare. This is the one I see on every first-year University design student I've ever taught. You're only allowed to use this one, but then there's these other ones and they're just different looks, different kinds of lenses react differently. Experiment with ones you want, I'm going for the Classic. The 50-300mm zoom lens. Ah, look at that! Magic. 
And that my friends is a Lens Flare. Now on this option here, this is the one I want you to practice on. See if you can find a good spot for a Lens Flare. What I want you to do is make sure you find your own pick and stick like 10 lens flares on it, and I want to see them, and remember the rule, 50% of all the work you do for the next year, if you're brand new to Photoshop, needs to have a Lens Flare put into it. Enough of Lens Flares, that is going to be the end of Filters. We could go through, there's just so many in here. I could spend the next 10 hours going through every single one of them, but now you've got the kind of understanding of how they work. 
You can go to the Filter Gallery to get most of them, and get a cool little preview, then there's lots in here, like Render and Tree. It's random, you click on it, it generates trees, if you're a Landscape Designer, that is an amazing one, there's just so many in here that you need a little bit of experimentation. And what you'll probably find is that once you've got your core skills from this course you'll find tutorials online, you'll be like "Oh, I have the skills to do these tutorials now." And you'll find, to do this X effect you will need to do filter A, B, and then C to make that happen. You'll be able to work through different filters as you get more experienced. Let's get into the next section of this Photoshop course.