Using Light and Atmosphere Overlays in Photoshop

Do you wonder how photographers create images that just somehow stand out from all the rest? Here’s a secret: it’s not hard! By using light and atmosphere overlays in Photoshop you can quickly and easily enhance your photographs and give them that special look that stands out from the crowd.

Use light and flare overlays to create impact and a more dramatic mood

Even if your photoshoot happens to be on a dull grey day you can still add warmth and interesting light effects during the editing process. Simply add a light or flare overlay as a layer in Photoshop and adjust your blend mode to create dramatic lighting effects and add a dreamlike effect, create a warm sunny backlight or haze, or a magical light flare instantly with a few clicks of your mouse or pen tool.

Check out some of these before and after images showing how you can create beautiful effects with light overlays and lens flares:

Fantasy Images

Light Up A Lantern

Family Photography

Couples, Wedding and Engagement Photos

The best light and flare overlay collection:

Add warm light, sun rays, light beams, light leaks, lens flares and magical lighting effects with this collection of 60 high quality light and lens flare overlays. These light overlays are high quality, 300 dpi .jpg files on black backgrounds. Add the light overlays as a layer set to screen mode in Photoshop or other editing software to easily create magical lighting effects with a few clicks!

Creating realistic effects with atmosphere overlays

Create hauntingly beautiful effects by adding smoke, fog, dust particles and other atmospheric effects to your images. An essential part of your toolkit when editing dark and moody images, atmosphere overlays are added as a layer in Photoshop. Most often they come on a black background, so you just set your blend mode to “screen” to apply the effect to your image and blend it in with the background.

Examples of atmosphere overlays

Add the atmosphere overlays as a layer set to screen mode in Photoshop or other editing software to easily create magical effects with a few clicks! Combine them, duplicate them and try different blend modes for unlimited creative possibilities!

The best atmosphere overlays for Photoshop

Add clouds, fog, dust particles, stars, cosmic glitter, lightning, northern lights, and other creative effects with this collection of 42 high-quality atmosphere overlays from Alana Lee Photography. These atmosphere overlays are high quality, 300 dpi .jpg files on black backgrounds and measure 6000 pixels on the longest edge.