How to Cover Photos in Sparkles in Photoshop

You can create a sparkle brush in under an hour.

Adobe Photoshop is a software program used to edit photographs and create images for professional and personal use. You can use Photoshop to add a number of special effects to your photographs. You can create sparkles in Photoshop after you have created a sparkle brush. While it can be time-consuming to create brushes, you can use them in any photos that you want to add sparkles to in the future.

Instructions

1. Create the Sparkle Brush

   • 1
     Double-click the Photoshop icon on your desktop to open Photoshop on your computer.
   • 2
     Click the File menu at the top and select New.
   • 3
     Enter the width and height of of your new document and select White from the Background Contents drop-down box. The recommended values for height and width are 200 pixels.
   • 4
     Click the brush tool in the tools palette. Press the "D" key on your keyboard to automatically set your foreground color to black.
   • 5
     Click Brush Presets at the top left corner of the brushes palette. Scroll down through the list of brushes and choose the Star 70 Pixels brush. Click randomly around your document a few times to add a few sparkles.
   • 6
     Scroll up and click the Airbrush Soft Round 17 brush on your brushes palette. Click around your new document a few more times to add several smaller sparkles.
   • 7
     Click the small arrow at the top of your brushes palette to access the drop-down menu and select Assorted Brushes from the menu.
   • 8
     Click the "Append" button when the pop-up box appears asking if you want to replace your current brushes with the assorted ones.
   • 9
     Scroll down through your brushes palette list again and select the Starburst—Small brush. Click around your document again a few times until several starbursts have been added.
   • 10
     Click the Edit menu at the top of the screen and select Define Brush Preset.
   • 11
     Name your brush and click "OK."

   Set the Sparkle Brush Options

   • 1
     Click the File menu and select Open from the menu. Select and open the photo that you wish to edit.
   • 2
     Add a new layer by clicking the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette.
   • 3
     Double-click the name of the new layer and rename the layer to Sparkle.
   • 4
     Click the brush tool icon located on the tools palette and select the sparkle brush you created earlier.
   • 5
     Set the foreground to white by pressing the "X" key on your keyboard.
   • 6
     Click Brush Presets on the brushes palette. Scroll down and select the sparkle brush again.
   • 7
     Select the Shape Dynamics option on the left. Locate Size Jitter at the top right of your brushes palette. Find the Control option, select Fade and enter "25" in the text box.
   • 8
     Select the Scattering option from the Brush Presets menu just below the Shape Dynamics option you just selected.
   • 9
     Enter "110%" in the Scatter text box. Enter "3" for the Count and "35%" for the Count Jitter.
   • 10
     Click Brush Tip Shape below the Brush Presets menu and set the Spacing to "50%."
   • 11
     Click the photo next to the object that will create the sparkle and drag the brush in the direction of the sparkle trail you want to create. Your photo will now have many sparkles.