Photoshop Tutorial : Create an electrical current effect

This short tutorial shows you how to create the effect of arcing current in the air. Because it uses the “Difference Clouds” filter, the effect can look different every time you try it.

1. Open a new file. Make it 500 x 500 pixels.

2. Set the foreground colour to black and the background to a light grey.

3. Select the gradient tool and in the tool options bar, set the gradient to Foreground to Background.

4. Drag the gradient tool diagonally across the image.

5. Choose Filters > Render > Difference Clouds.

6. Now Invert the colours in the image by pressing Ctrl + I.



7. Choose Image > Adjustments > Levels to open the Levels dialog box.

8. Drag the black slider to the right to dramatically darken the image. At this point the effect of “electrical currents” should become apparent.


At this stage the current looks pretty cool but if you would like to add some extra colour to the image. choose Image > Adjustments > Variations. From the Variations dialog you can add colour by clicking directly on any of the preview images. Each time you click , the colour will change.