How to Create a Sparkle Overlay in Photoshop

Do you know how to add sparkles in Photoshop? You can use this technique to create photo sparkles and make images glittery. Here, you'll learn to create a sparkle overlay in Photoshop—a special texture that you can use to add a sparkle effect to any photo!

Follow along on our Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel to learn how to draw sparkles in Photoshop:

Save time with a premium sparkle Photoshop Action from Envato Elements. To add this sparkle overlay effect to any photo, just brush over it, play the action—and colorful sparkles will appear!

1. How to Create the Background for Your Photo Sparkles

Step 1

First things first: create a background for your photo sparkles. Create a New File. Use these dimensions:

Step 2

Use the Rectangle Tool (U) to make the background three-colored—this will help us adjust the effect to every level of brightness.

2. How to Add Noise to the Background to Make Your Images Glittery

Step 1

Moving on with this tutorial to make your images glittery. Create a New Layer. Fill it with black using the Paint Bucket Tool (G). Then go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Use these settings.

Step 2

Add a Curves adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves). Drag both ends of the curve towards the “hill” in the background. Then click between these points and drag this new point down, to increase the contrast.

Step 3

Go back to the noise layer and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Adjust the Radius to turn the noise into a starry sky.

Step 4

Click the curves layer and press Control-Shift-Alt-E twice to create two merged versions of the whole image. Hide the layers below and one of the copies.

Step 5

Press Control-T and make the stars five times larger.

3. How to Add Big Particles for a Full Sparkle Effect

Step 1

Let's begin adding some particles for a full sparkle effect.

Go to the Channels tab, hold Control, and click any of the thumbnails. Then go back to the Layers tab, create a New Layer, and fill it with white. If you delete the lower layer now, you’ll see the black background has been removed. Name this layer “Big Sparkles”.

Step 2

Duplicate Big Sparkles by pressing Control-J. Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. Adjust the settings to create a subtle smudge.

Step 3

Duplicate Big Sparkles again and add Motion Blur to it. This time, make the smudge longer. Lower its Opacity to make the effect more natural.

Step 4

Repeat the process once more, this time using an opposite angle. Don’t forget to lower the Opacity each time!

Step 5

Select all the sparkles by holding Shift, and make a group out of them (Control-G). Name the group Big Sparkles. Add a Layer Mask to the group.

Step 6

Go to Filter > Render > Clouds. This will add a little variety to the sparkles. To make it more visible, press Control-L and drag the right marker to the left.

Step 7

Duplicate the group. Right-click it and select Merge Group, and then right-click the Layer Mask and select Apply Layer Mask. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and adjust the Radius to create a nice glow around the sparkles.

4. How to Add Small Particles to Your Sparkle Effect in Photoshop

Step 1

Let’s add some smaller particles for a more dynamic sparkle effect Photoshop action. Show the second merged layer you created at the beginning, make it twice as large, and remove its black background the same way we did before. Name this layer Small Sparkles.

Step 2

Hold Alt and drag the Layer Mask of the Big Sparkles group to Small Sparkles. Then go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur. The preview will not tell us much, but experiment with Brightness and Threshold and see how it works.

Step 3

Duplicate this layer and make it four times larger. You may need to duplicate it once or twice to see the effect better.

5. How to Make the Particles Shine in Your Photoshop Sparkle Effect

Step 1

All right, the Photoshop sparkle effect is basically done, but they’re completely invisible on the light background. Let’s fix it by adding a black filled layer on the bottom. Add a Layer Mask to it and paint with a soft black brush in the middle. Then lower the Opacity to around 50%.

Step 2

The sparkle overlay effect is done! Now simply hide the background to make it ready to use.

6. How to Draw Sparkles and Add Them to Your Photos

Step 1

If you want to add this Photoshop sparkle effect to a photo, just open your photo, go to File > Place, and select this file. Resize it to your needs. If you want to adjust something, just double-click the Smart Object and you’ll get a chance to edit everything once again.

Click through this image gallery to see some beautiful results of how to draw sparkles in Photoshop!

5 Premium Particle and Sparkle Effect Photoshop Actions

1. Sparkle Photoshop Action (ATN)

To add this sparkle overlay effect to any photo, just brush over the selected areas and play the action—colorful sparkles will appear automatically! It's a great Photoshop sparkle effect if you're unsure of how to draw sparkles and want to make your images glittery in a matter of seconds.

2. Glitterstorm: Photoshop Action for Photo Sparkles (ATN)

Turn your photo into glitter with this Photoshop sparkle effect action! You can make the whole photo sparkle, or create a trendy Photoshop dispersion effect with it. It's a really simple answer to the question of how to add sparkles in Photoshop.

3. Shimmer: Sparkle Overlay Photoshop Action (ATN)

If you want to add a dust particle effect to make your photos sparkle, with this sparkle overlay Photoshop action you only need to paint over the selected area and press play! It can't get any easier than this. Sprinkle magic over your photos with this gorgeous sparkle Photoshop action.

4. Magic Bokeh: Animated Sparkle Effect Photoshop Action (ATN)

This professional sparkle Photoshop action will allow you to create stunning animated light effects from your photos with a lot of options to customize and improve them. You can save the result as a static image, a video for social media, or an animated GIF file. Create an animated Photoshop sparkle effect in no time!

5. Sparkler Photoshop Action (ABR, ATN)

With this sparkle effect Photoshop action, you can turn any line into sparkler art! Even if you're unsure of how to draw sparkles on your photos, you can expect amazing results with this action. Just draw your outlines over the photo and play the action.

Good Job! You've Learned to Add Sparkles in Photoshop to Make Images Glittery

Now you know how to create a sparkle overlay effect in Photoshop! You can modify this technique to create other photo effects as well—add snow, create bokeh, or add dust particles. Photoshop makes it all easy!

And if you need other types of sparkle photo effects, try one of these tutorials as well:

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