Enough people have reacted positively to the retouched photos on my page here at Los’ site that I offered to create this tutorial as a way for fans to add their own effects and recreate just a little better the fantastic world of Star Wars.

This tutorial will give you the basics on how to create a saber blade effect on the computer. This procedure is not terribly hard but requires some patience, a decent amount of practice, and a powerful image editing program and the computer to run it. I use Adobe PhotoShop version 5 on a PC, and it is one of the best programs I have ever used.

And let’s not forget your light saber replica. It is a part of the illusion, and we can’t do without it. You can check out the various tutorials on the other pages here at Los’ website if you need a tutorial on how to build a light saber!

Recommendation: I would also suggest that if possible you should find a way to incorporate a long, slender tube with your saber replica that is the appropriate size and length of the blade you want. This stand-in blade will act as an excellent reference for you not only when you retouch the photo, but also when you are staging it. It is always best to have a stand-in to mark the location your special effect will take place.

My 2^nd light saber was specifically designed for a stand in blade which screws into the threaded PVC pipe in the tip of the emitter. The tighter the fit, the better your blade will be- if it is lopsided or crooked, it is more a nuisance than help.

And while you’re at it, a jedi costume wouldn’t be a bad idea either. That takes a bit more work, but it also adds to your drama.

Last but not least, if you are editing the photos with your computer, you’ll need a way to get them on the computer in the first place. So you’ll need one of the following…

So are you ready, Padawan learner? Then let’s begin.

Let’s start with a basic saber picture, no people involved. And going against the advice I just gave, we won’t use a stand in blade, since this will be a small simple picture. As we use different PhotoShop tools, I will give you the name of the tool and the shortcut key (for example, the Eraser tool (E)).

1. Once you have opened up the picture of your lightsaber in PhotoShop, the first thing to do is create a new Layer. Go to the Layer menu and choose New; Adjustment Layer.

You can name the layer "saber" or "effects". We will create the light saber blade on a separate layer so that it is easier to manipulate without affecting the original picture.

2. With you foreground color set to pure white, use the Line tool (N) to make a straight line coming out of the emitter of your saber. You can change the thickness of the line by opening the line tool palette.



Double clicking on the line tool icon in the toolbar can access this option. A dialogue box with Line options will open. The column that says "weight" is the one you want to change to make the line thicker or thinner. I also recommend that the box that says "Anti-aliased" be checked off. This will ensure that your line will blend into its surroundings more with softer edges, which is what we want.

It is also usually a temptation for beginners to make their sabers thicker than necessary. Try to err on the side of thinner. The thick feel of the blade will come when you add the later effects.

3. Use the Magic Wand (W) tool and click on the white blade. You should get marching ants all around your blade. Then type the letter "Q" to go into the quickmask mode. This should cause everything but the selected area to suddenly look very red. Everything except your white blade, that is.



4. While in the quickmask mode, select the Airbrush tool (J). You may have to switch your foreground and background colors in the quickmask mode (by hitting X) so that the white color is in front. This means that whatever you "paint" is selected once you revert back from the quickmask. With the airbrush tool, you want to paint a soft glowing edge around the top of your blade. We only do one side at a time to keep it simple. See the example below.



5. Now hit Q to revert to regular mode. You will see that your painted area is now selected with marching ants. Double-click the Gradient Tool icon (G) and change the Gradient type to Foreground to transparent. Your foreground color should still be white. (There are 5 different kinds of gradients- the default Linear Gradient is the one we want.) The gradient will align perpendicular to your straight line, so if your saber were basically horizontal, you’d want to make your gradient line start mid blade and go slightly above the gradient area in a 90-degree, straight line. It may take a couple of tries to get it right, so when you mess up, just take a step back (CTRL-Z) and try it again. You should see the saber haze start to take form, like below.



6. Do the same for the other side of the blade but make sure you deselect the side you already applied the haze to. Select the white blade with the Wand Tool (W) and hit "Q" for quickmask mode. Use you airbrush to add an edge on the other side and deselect the top edge by painting it "red" in quickmask mode. Remember, when you’re in Quickmask mode, black deselects and paints as "red", and white selects, and paints as "clear". If you do this correctly, then revert back (hit Q) to regular mode and make your white to transparent Linear Gradient (G) on the other side. If you did it right, it should look something like this…



It’s starting to look like a lightsaber now, iddnit?

7. Now it’s time to choose a color for your blade. When you pick a color, keep in mind it cannot be too dark. The first thing to do is to create a new layer (Layers, New). Now that we’ve got our saber blade looking good, we don’t want to mess it up with a mistake applying the color. You can name this new layer "color".
8. Click inside the color picker and find the color you want. I’m choosing a light pinkish color. Use the Airbrush tool (J) and paint your color around the saber where the haze is. Don’t paint over the white main part of the blade, just around the sides. Even if your color isn’t exactly the color you had wanted, go ahead and finish this process up. We will be fine-tuning the color shortly. Don’t make the stroke too thick- you can also adjust the "pressure" at which the paint comes out of the airbrush in the airbrush options folder. I usually lower the pressure- this gives the brush a lighter, more transparent touch. This effect is almost like smoke- it must be subtle, not overpowering.

If you overpaint- I usually do- just erase using the airbrush option of the Eraser tool (E). At this stage, my blade looks like this…



Not bad, but we’ve got more to do.

9. In order to make the haze blend into the main blade, there are a couple of things we can do. One is to make the color layer a bit more transparent. In the Layers palette, there is an option for layer transparency. If you play with it, you quickly notice that the more transparent the layer becomes, the lighter and less colorful it becomes (duh) But you can increase the intensity and hue of the color by going into Image/Adjust/Variations. In this palette, you can choose to incrementally increase the various color aspects, making it more red, or purple, or blue, darker, lighter, etc. You can even take an existing saber color and modify it to make it a different color. I used it to restore some of the intensity of the red after reducing transparency of the color layer to 75%. You have to play around with it and use your judgement until you’ve got the right look.



10. Now that we’ve got a pretty decent color for our saber, let’s blend it into the white layer. You need to have your layers palette open- making sure that you are on the color layer, go to layer/Merge Down. This will combine your white layer and your color layer into one. Now we can blend the two together with the Blur Tool (R). (NOTE- The Blur Tool looks like a white tear drop- this is not to be confused with the Smudge tool (R), which looks like a finger pointing down. If you get the Smudge Tool, then click on its icon in the toolbar to get the blur option. They both use the same shortcut key.) Use the Blur tool to blur the area where the white parts meet the reddish parts of the blade. Touch-up any parts you need with the airbrush. I took a moment to add a little more red haze at low pressure and erased the excess with the airbrush eraser.



11. Now our saber looks pretty good, but wait, there’s more? Sure there is! Actually, this is the point where the real effects can start to come into play. Y’see, your saber, if it truly is a light source, should impact the lighting on the things around it. The first thing I recommend is going back to the background layer (original photo layer), and going to the Image Menu/Adjust/variations. Here you can make the entire background slightly more attuned to the color of your saber. (For example, I added a reddish tint to my background.) Next, I am going to select the area just underneath of the saber (since it is so close to the table) and lighten its color tinted with red, as if the table is reflecting the glow of the blade. I also highlighted other areas like highlights on the hilt and emitter to tint them more red. This makes a crucial difference in more complicated photos, but even in small ones like this, it really helps to make the saber seem more real, as if it is affecting the environment. Pick out the highlights in the objects and people in the room and tint those highlights with the same color as your saber.

This is my result.

These are the principles I use when I make my lightsaber blade effects, and with a little bit of practice and creativity, you too can battle evil alien jedi like in the picture below. I hope this tutorial has helped you get a feel for how to do it. Don’t be frustrated if yours didn’t turn out perfectly on the first try. It is a learning process, and with practice, this too will you master.

If you follow this tutorial and your picture turns out decent, send a copy to Jedi Los! He’d love to see it, as would I! And finally, if you have any specific questions on PhotoShop or don’t understand something I went over, feel free to write to me and I’ll do my best to help you out.

And may the Force be with you!

Please e-mail me with any questions or comments

Mort