Abstract lighting effects can enhance your artworks exceedingly wel, and is a very popular trend as can be seen by these gorgeous photo manipulations.

You can add them to premade photos, or create whole new scenes from scratch.

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1. Space Lighting Effect Poster in 10 Steps

In this cool Photoshop tutorial you will be shown how to create a space scene with some nice lighting effects in 10 easy steps.

Space-steps photoshop abstract lighting effects tutorials

2. Windows Vista Aurora Effect Photoshop Tutorial

In this tutorial, you’re going to see how to create the Windows Vista wallpaper effect yourself. This Vista lighting effect, sometimes referred to as the Aurora effect, can really transform an ordinary wallpaper to something extraordinary.

Windows-vista-aurora-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

3. Awesome Digital Bokeh Effect in Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to create a digital bokeh effect in Photoshop. The process is very easy and we will be using the super powerful Brush Engine, one of the coolest things in Photoshop.

Awesome-digital-bokeh-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

4. Make Abstract Wallpaper with Brushes

In this creative Photoshop tutorial, you will try to mimic the nice abstract preview that Axeraider70 made for his Ultimate Brush Pack 3. This will give the beginners a better idea on how to use these great resources to create their own awesome posters.

Wallpaper-brushes-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

5. Space Environment Poster Tutorial

Learn how to create realistic space scene from scratch using Photoshop.

Space-environment-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

6. Light and Glow Effect Tutorial In Photoshop

This Photoshop effect tutorial covers the creation of several different light and glow effects in Photoshop. The effects in outcome consist of smoke, light trails, sparkles, stars and bokeh effects. Luckily it’s pretty simple to create each of these effects in Photoshop.

Glow photoshop abstract lighting effects tutorials

7. Create an Amazing Nike Poster in Photoshop

In this easy tutorial you will use some images and play with Blend Modes and Color Adjustments to create a really cool Nike Ad in Photoshop.

Amazing-ad-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

8. Create a Dark and Surreal Geometric Space Poster using Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to create an abstract space poster using geometrical shapes, masks and apply some filters in Photoshop. Layered PSD file is included.

Dark-surreal-geometric-space-poster photoshop abstract lighting effects tutorials

9. Make a Freezing Cold Snow-themed Abstract Piece

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a snow-themed large piece. You’ll learn how to plan the composition of the piece, to add elements into the composition, how to recycle the piece itself to generate more elements for the piece, how to incorporate pen tools into a design and finally how to finish off and fine tune the piece to make it look great.

Freezing-cold-snow-themed-piece-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

10. Use Lighting Effects to Make Photos Sparkle

This tutorial shows how to create a variety of light effects that can be applied to photography or illustration with equal impact. From sparkles, pixie dust effects, colored light spots and light beams, to using splatter effects as a form of lighting, it’s all here.

Use-make-photos-sparkle-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

11. Sparkling Hot Girl Poster Tutorial in Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to create an image using light effects and sparks technique. It basically mixes some techniques from different tutorials and takes the best from them.

Sparkling-hot-girl photoshop abstract lighting effects tutorials

12. Give a Photo a Complete Glamour Makeover With Stunning Light and 3D Effects

This tutorial teaches you how to transform a regular, every day photo into a real glamour shot. In this tutorial, you will learn how to retouch a model’s face and subtly manipulate her hair. In addition, you will enhance the canvas by adding attractive lighting and 3D effects. This tutorial requires considerable Pen Tool skills, but with perseverance and a passion for design, you will certainly be able to achieve great results.

Give-photo-complete-glamour-makeover-stunning-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

13. Amazing Photoshop Light Effect in 10 Steps

Learn how to create a beautiful “Buy me a coffee” wallpaper in Photoshop. You’ll be using basic brushes and some blending effects.

Amazing-steps-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

14. Incredibly Realistic Water Text in Cinema 4D and Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to create a water text effect. Even though it might look complex it’s a very simple effect. You will need to use Illustrator for the text, then Cinema 4D to make it a 3D text and Photoshop to mix the 3D with some real photos to create a nice and realistic result.

Incredibly-realistic-water-text-cinema-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

15. How to Enhance Your Subjects With Striking Light Effects in Photoshop

This Photoshop tutorial will show you a simple technique that can be used to enhance any kind of subject with stunning light effects. You will use in particular selection tools, gradients and brushes to achieve the result.

Enhance-subjects-striking-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

16. Energize Your Graphics with Abstract Energy Lines

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create some energetic lines you can use to create more lively digital creations. Effects such as this are great for enhancing abstract compositions.

Energize-graphics-abstract-energy-lines-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

17. How to Create a Gorgeous Glassy Text Effect

This tutorial will show you how to create glassy text effect using a series of shapes with different transparency and color effects.

Gorgeous-glassy-text-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

18. Create an Abstract Design with Patterns in Photoshop

Follow this walk through to recreate this detailed design with nothing more than gradient and pattern effects.

Create-patterns-gradients-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

19. How To Design An Abstract Poster In Photoshop and Illustrator

In this tutorial, you will be creating abstract shapes using the Pen Tool and Shape Tools in Illustrator and then using those shapes to produce an abstract wallpaper in Photoshop using various color blending techniques, textures and transformation tools.

Design-wallpaper-photoshop-illustrator-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

20. How to Create a Realistic IES Lighting Effect in Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to create a realistic IES (photometric) lighting effect. You’ll be using Photoshop CS4 as well as some free plugins and software.

Create-realistic-ies-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

21. Abduzeedo 2010 Light Effects in Photoshop

In this tutorial you will see how to create new Abduzeedo’s 2010 symbol. It’s a sort of monitor/halftone effect mixed with glows and other light effects. You will play with Blend Modes and Blurs. The whole process is quite simple and it won’t take more than 20 minutes to achieve the same result.

Abduzeedo-light-photoshop-2010-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

22. Drawing an Abstract Lightbulb

This tutorial covers a couple of simple techniques, which if used accordingly can help you attain great lighting effect.

Drawing-abstract-lightbulb-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

23. Create Simple, Yet Elegant Abstract Spectrum Lines in Photoshop

This tutorial will show you the method used to design a simple, yet elegant abstract spectrum lines in Photoshop. You will see how easy it is to achieve this nice effect and you can use it a wide range of occasions including perhaps site header backgrounds, logos, or add extra flavor to your photo manipulations.

Simple-elegant-spectrum-lines photoshop abstract lighting effects tutorials

24. Create an Abstract Composition in Photoshop

In this Photoshop tutorial, you will learn in easy steps how to create an abstract composition using rendered images and light effects. As you can see from the final result preview you will create a mystical and magical effect.

Create-composition-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

25. The Making of “Constant Slip”

This tutorial takes you through the creative process of making intriguing light effects and applying them in your work. This is more a process description of making this illustration, than a detailed step by step how to. It will give you some good guidance on how to deal with an illustration like this and cover the overall workflow, however.

Making-constant-slip-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

26. Create an Explosive Abstract Poster in Cinema 4D and Photoshop

In this tutorial, you will be creating an explosive abstract piece called “What is Man?“ You will have to use Cinema 4D to create the explosive effects. You will then take the 3D elements over to Photoshop for the final composite and lighting.

Explosive-cinema photoshop abstract lighting effects tutorials

27. Quick and Effective Planet, Star and Meteor Impact Creation in Photoshop

In this tutorial, you will learn how to make planet, star and meteor impacts in Photoshop in a quick and effective manner. This is intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be a little tricky, but the outcome is worth it.

Quick-effective-planet-star-meteorit-impact-creation-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

28. How to Create Great Abstract Artwork via Custom Brushsets and Particle Effect

In this tutorial, you will be able to follow the steps needed to create this cool abstract artwork via custom brushes and particle effects in Photoshop. You will then learn how to create your own brushes and use them to add particle effects to the image to spice it up.

Create-great-artwork-custom-brushset-particle-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

29. Create a Fantastic Abstract Fan Poster

In this tutorial, you are going to get creative with layering, lighting, and texture to build a fantastic abstract piece. More specifically, you’re going to employ some unusual techniques to make a fan poster for the band Omega Code, but you’ll quickly see many different applications for what is taught here.

Fantastic-fan-poster-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

30. Calculations and Colorization

This Photoshop tutorial will show you how to create an Alpha Channel using the Calculations dialog and you’ll use it to get a really great abstract colorized photo effect.

Calculations-colorization-abstract-lighting-effects-tutorials

Let us know if we have missed something awesome and we will be happy to update the article. You should definitely have more than enough poster ideas to make in Photoshop now!

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