Create Your Own Lightning with Photoshop

This tutorial will give you the basics to learning how to create lightning using photoshop.
We start with a blank page of your preferred aspect ratios (You can use a rectangle or square shape, I am using the Web preset 1600X1200 with transparent background.)

Once you have the new file, make sure your preset foreground and background colors are black and white. Choose the gradient tool (linear or reflected work, but for this tutorial, we will use linear.) Now make a horizontal line in the middle of the page to get this gradient:

Now use this effect only once: Filter > Render > Difference Clouds
Then Command (or Ctrl) + I to invert
This is what we have so far:

To make it darker, bring up the Levels box by clicking on Command (or Ctrl) + L
I used these presets to make the most realistic lighting, but what you need to do is bring the middle gray cursor to the right so that you can darken the mid-tones, and also darken the shadows (the black cursor on the left) a little bit.

We are almost done, all we need to do is to bring this thunder to life through a hint of color. To do so, go to Image > Adjustment > Selective Color. Choose the Neutrals colors, here, it is completely up to you to choose the color of thunder that is most pleasing to your purpose, and these are the setting I used to colorize my lightning:

Click OK, and you have lightning.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and hope to see you rock the earth with your own lightning and thunder.

How to Design an Effective Newsletter

Since we all live in the new digital world that barely existed 25 years ago, people seem to enjoy the comfort of having computers and email accounts. Indeed, email accounts serve as the new mailbox that uses ones and zeros instead of papers.
Businesses of all sizes need to use this tool in a way that does not harm their business, or reduce their profits because of a bad newsletter design or meaningless text, so here are a few tips that will help a business’s newsletters get read, business-to-business or business-to-customers:

1. The layout is one of the most important aspects of a newsletter email. The layout should not be too simple (just text or just an image) nor too complex (too many images and text.) This makes your newsletter look spammy, therefore, try to find a middle ground that suits the type of business you perform. Here are a couple of very useful techniques:
1. Try using two columns where the left column takes one third of the page and the right column takes the remaining two thirds. This makes text much easier to read than using the whole width of the page, which makes text look too long. Use the left column as a table of content and links to articles or related links to your topic, and don’t forget to give this column a background color to make it more appealing to the eyes. Use the right column for the content of the newsletter, including these three elements: title, images, and content.
2. Colors matter. If the business is food or a restaurant, make your newsletter colorful using red, green, and yellow for these are the colors of most foods. Also, use the colors of your business’s logo to make your newsletters unique. Don’t forget to use the darker colors for the left column’s background with a complimentary light color for the text, while using the lighter colors for the right column’s background with the darker complimentary color for the text (this makes it more comfortable for the eyes to look at and easier to read.)
2. The title is indeed the most important aspect of a newsletter for it is what separates your email from those of junk mail and spams. Try to use the title as an attention catcher. Many businesses use the name of their business in the title. In many cases, this is a big mistake because some readers might not be aware of this business and disregard the newsletter based on that. Another reason why using the business’s name in the title is a bad idea is because it tells the reader that this is a useless update, or even spam. Therefore, use a shorter version of the title of the content for it is very relevant and grabs attention, or just be creative and straightforward with this section. An example for Applebee’s coupon: 3 Appetizers for 2 only at Applebee’s (this is one of the cases where using the name of the business is relevant.)
3. The content definitely depends on the type of business performed. However, a general rule of thumb is to never forget the human aspect. The following are some useful tips and techniques for the content section of the newsletter:
1. Imagery is indeed important to this section. It is possible that the image gets the attention before the text, even sometimes the title. This also depends on the type of business you are performing. For example, a food chain might focus on adding more images than text for it opens up the appetite and possibly grab more customers to the restaurant, but many images can be too much for a business-to-business newsletter for the focus is on text rather than images. However, use at least one image in this section that is most relevant to the topic in discussion.
2. Yes, readers do judge a book by its title. They want the title to tell them what the content is all about. So if your newsletter is about marketing for college students, do not confuse your readers with an irrelevant, vague, or overgeneralized title that makes the reader believe your content is about marketing in general. Be specific and write a title that can be considered a relevant title for a scholarly article (because your content is that important.)
3. As for the content itself, there are many things your business can do to make this section readable:
1. Make it in the form of a third-person rather than using the “our products,” “we are the best,” and “the award is for us.” Using first person form can be confusing, and makes your business sound selfish, so try avoiding that as much as possible. Using the third person form lets the reader know what you are talking about, especially when speaking specifically of a product or a service unique to your company.
2. The style of writing is an aspect your business needs to understand, as such is to write using friendly language, and use simple words that everyone understands instead of long complex ones that only a few people understand. Basically, try to avoid jargon, for it is a language only those in a certain profession understands.
3. When using abbreviations, explain what they stand for in the first reference, for many people just have no idea what a certain abbreviation stands for even within a profession.
4. Proofreading is essential. There might be some typos and grammatical errors that the writer did not pay attention to the first time, and proofreading helps detect these typos and errors. It also provides the chance to improve the overall quality of the content and makes it sound more professional when read.

Trippy Twisted Swirly Thingy

This tutorial will teach you how to create an abstract background of twisted swirly lines using Adobe PhotoShop, something that looks like this:

Let us start with a new file of your preferred aspect ratio (try to have a square, but a rectangle is fine just do not make it stretch too much because that won’t give the intended results.) I used the preset web with 1600X1200 for this one.

Set the foreground and background colors of your choice (I used black and white for additional effects.)

Then, Filter > Render > Clouds.

Then, Filter > Pixelate > Mezzotint.
Choose Medium Strokes for best results, press OK, and this is what you get.

Now choose Filter > Blur > Radial Blur.
Choose the following settings:

Amount: 100, Blur method: Zoom, Quality: Best

Press OK, then click Command (or Ctrl) + F to apply the filter again. This is how the image should look like:

Command (or Ctrl) + J twice to copy the layer twice.
Choose the third layer and apply this filter:
Filter > Distort > Twirl
Set the Angle to a positive angle, somewhere between the range of 80 to 360. I chose 360 but it is up to your artistic rendition, then press OK. This is what you have for the third layer:

Click the eye on the third layer to hide it, choose the second layer and apply the same filter, this time with a negative number, preferably the same number as the third layer, then press OK.

Now show the third layer and select it. Change the blending mode to Lighten, and do the same thing for the second layer, this is what you should end up with:

Since you chose the colors of your liking in the beginning, you are almost done, all you have to do is to right click on one of the layers and choose Flatten Image then save the file and you are done.

However, I chose black and white colors for a small addition to the process. If you did so, do NOT flatten the image, we are not done yet. This is just an extra.

Select the third layer, then go to Image > Adjustments > Selective Color.
The Method I chose is Relative, and personally I prefer that.
We are going to change the following Colors: Whites, Neutrals, and Blacks.
Choose each one of the colors and adjust to your taste and liking, and you can always keep the colors as they are. This section is all up to you, boss, so be creative. Click OK after you have adjusted the colors to your liking.
This is what I have so far by changing only the Whites and the Neutrals of the third layer:

Apply the same to the second and first layer and adjust each of the colors to your preference. When you have the results you like, right click on any of the layer and Flatten Image. You can now save the image. This my final result:

(Optional addition) After you have flattened the image, Command (or Ctrl) + J to create a new layer, and change that layer’s blending option to, again, your preference, to create the effect you seek, flatten the image and save the final progress. I chose the blending option Color Burn to end up with this:

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Don’t forget to leave your comments.