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Pictures of adorable babies and pugs with terrifying laser eyes are sweeping the internet. Now you can recreate the effect in your own photographs -- no lasers required, just some Photoshopping.
<strong style="text-shadow: none;">Find your picture[/b]
Both eyes should be clearly visible. Open it in <a style="text-shadow: none;" href="https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-02/19/happy-birthday,-photoshop,-and-thanks-for-the-cake?page=all">
Adobe Photoshop</a>. Create a new layer with the default settings ("Layer, New, Layer").
<strong style="text-shadow: none;">Draw your laser[/b]
Select the "polygonal lasso" tool by clicking on the bottom right arrow in the icon box. Click on the centre of the first eye once, then click again and draw a lasso line to the edge of the image.
Click to define the end point, then move the cursor along to define the width of the end of the beam. Double-click to complete the polygon back to its start point.
<strong style="text-shadow: none;">Pick a colour[/b]
In the colour picker (beneath the tools) make white your foreground colour and press "alt-backspace" to colour in the laser ray. Repeat for the other eye. Remember to take perspective into account -- you may have to make the beams diverge slightly for it to look right.
<strong style="text-shadow: none;">Get glowing[/b]
To add the glow, double-click on the layer you created. Click on the words "Outer glow", and select the square (under "Noise:"): to pick the colour of your rays. Choose a really bright version -- red for your dark side, Skywalker-sabre blue, or whatever shows up best against the background. In the same dialogue box, move down to the "Elements" section and set the size of the glow -- big enough to show up without merging into the background.
<strong style="text-shadow: none;">Glow some more[/b]
To add more glow, duplicate the layer (right-click -- "Duplicate layer"). If it looks too sharp, go to "Filter" in the drop-down menu and hit the "Blur" option and then pick "Gaussian blur".
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
