Step 15: Create A Couple More Path Variations And Stroke Them With The Brush

Repeat the previous step one or two more times to create more variations of the path and stroke each one with the brush. Try changing the size of the brush each time using the left and right bracket keys to add even more interest to the light streak. If you don't like the brush stroke you just added, simply press Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac) to undo it, then re-edit the path and try again.

If you want to see what your light streak looks like without the path blocking your view, simply click anywhere in the empty area below the path in the Paths palette. This will deselect the path and hide it from view. To see the path again, click on it in the Paths palette. You'll need to have your path visible any time you want to stroke it with your brush. If the path is not visible, the icons at the bottom of the Paths palette become grayed out and unavailable.

Here's my image after editing my path a couple more times and stroking each new path variation with the brush. Again, since we're still working on the same layer, "Layer 1", in the Layers palette, the Outer Glow and Inner Glow layer styles are automatically applied to each new brush stroke. I've hidden my path from view so we can see more easily what the light streak now looks like with all its different variations:

Step 16: Copy The Layer Styles On "Layer 1"

And with that, we've created our first light streak! You're probably going to want to add at least one more to your photo, and it's a good idea to place each light streak on its own layer, but we can cut down on some of the work we'll need to do by copying the layer styles we've already applied to our first light streak and simply pasting them onto each new layer we create. Switch back over to your Layers palette. You should still have "Layer 1" selected. Go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen, choose Layer Style, and then choose Copy Layer Style:

Step 17: Add A New Blank Layer

Click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add another blank layer. Photoshop will add the new layer above "Layer 1" and automatically name it "Layer 2":

Step 18: Paste The Layer Styles Onto The New Layer

With the new layer selected, go back up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen, choose Layer Style once again, and this time, choose Paste Layer Style:

The Outer Glow and Inner Glow styles from "Layer 1" are now added to "Layer 2" and will automatically be applied to the next light streak we create!

Step 19: Add Another Light Streak

With a new layer added and the layer styles from "Layer 1" already applied to the new layer, we can easily create a second light streak. Simply draw a new path with the Pen Tool, save the path if you want by renaming it "Path 2" (or whatever you want to name it), then stroke the path with the brush. Once you've created the main light streak, hold down Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) to access the Direct Selection Tool and edit the path, moving anchor points, direction handles and/or path segments to create a few slight variations of it, and then stroke each variation with the brush, using a different brush size each time.

Here's my result after adding a second light streak to my photo:

If you don't want both light streaks to be the same color, you can easily change the colors simply by editing the layer styles. Let's say I want my second light streak to be a different color. To edit the layer styles, all I need to do is double-click on the Layer Style icon on the far right of "Layer 2":

This will pop open the Layer Style dialog box for me. All I'd need to do is click on the words Outer Glow on the left side of the dialog box, which brings up the Outer Glow options in the middle column, then click on the color swatch and choose a new color either from the Color Picker or by sampling a different color from the image. Click OK to exit out of the Color Picker, then click on the words Inner Glow on the left to access the Inner Glow options. Click the color swatch, choose a new color, click OK to exit out of the Color Picker, then click OK to exit out of the Layer Style dialog box. You can edit the colors of the light streaks any time you want simply by editing the layer styles.

Here's my final result after editing the layer styles on "Layer 2" and changing the color of my second light streak slightly, using colors I sampled from the woman's hair:

And there we have it!

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