Lens Flare Abstract Tutorial

1. Create a new document in any size. For this tutorial, my document will be 640x480 in size.

2. Fill your document with Black by going to edit -> fill with these settings:

Contents: Black
Blending Mode: Normal (100%)

3. Go to filter -> render -> lens flare. For the Lens Type, pick 50-300mm Zoom and tone down the brightness to 40%. Randomly place it anywhere.

4. Repeat step 3 until you fill up your whole document. Make sure no two lens flare overlap each other.

5. After, go to filter -> stylize -> emboss with these settings :

Angle: 90
Height: 100
Amount: 500

It should look like this :

Click to enlarge

6. Open up the Levels box (Ctrl+L) and use these settings :

Input Levels: 0 0.60 255

7. Desaturate the image (Ctrl+Shift+U) and duplicate the layer.

Click to enlarge

8. On the duplicated layer, go to filter -> distort -> twirl with these settings :

Angle: 200

Set the blending mode to Darken then merge all layers.

9. Duplicate the layer once again and go to filter -> distort -> twirl with these settings :

Angle: -250

Set the blending mode to Lighten then merge all layers.

10. Open up the Hue/Saturation box (image -> adjustments - > hue/saturation) with these settings :

11. For the finishing touch, go to image -> adjustments -> brightness/contrast with these settings :

Brightness: -25
Contrast: +40

Click to enlarge