That sparkly, glamorous glitter effect you see all over social media is surprisingly easy to recreate. This technique uses glitter texture overlays combined with custom brushes to add instant shine and sparkle to photos.
The method works by layering multiple glitter textures over your image using Screen blend mode, then masking them to appear only where you want the effect. Custom sparkle brushes add the finishing touches for a professional result.
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Practical Tips
Here are the key techniques for creating convincing glitter effects:
- Use Screen blend mode for all glitter textures to make them interact naturally with the underlying image
- Darken your background slightly with a Levels adjustment layer to make the sparkle effect more prominent
- Create rough selections with the Lasso tool first, then refine with layer masks using black and white brush strokes
- Unlink layer masks from their layers so you can reposition textures while keeping the mask in place
- Change glitter colors easily using Hue/Saturation with the Colorize option checked
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