Bodyshop with Paint Shop Pro - Job 10: adding neons

Ok, so we’ve covered all the main jobs that are required to make a fully-pimped car, but what about that ‘must-have’ accessory that is under car neon lighting?

Well, here we will add them to our creation, and since Paint Shop Pro is a versatile tool we can make them any colour we want.

Step 1 Create a new Raster layer, and rename it to ‘Neon’. Leave it at the top of the list of layers for ease of use.

Step 2 Use the Freehand Select tool to create a selection around the bottom of the vehicle, incorporating the floor to the sides of it too. This is going to be the area in which we will be working with the neon light, though we are selecting more than we need initially.

Step 3 Use the Bucket Fill tool (‘F’) to fill this area with the colour you want the lights to be. Go for the sort of shade you expect a neon light to be; you don’t get brown for instance, though bright red is fine.

Step 4 Contrary to my usual practise of avoiding destructive editing techniques, here we actually will get the best results using the Eraser tool. So press ‘X’ to select it, put the ‘Step’ setting to 1, and the ‘Hardness’ to 0.

This will give your tool a nice soft edge to create a more gradual transition from full-colour to transparency.

Erase the colour that sits further away from the car than you want the lights to illuminate, and also wherever tires will obstruct their beams.

Step 5 Now, select Adjust>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set a value high enough to create a gradual fade from your lights to the floor. I set mine to 100 points of blur (maximum), which allowed the floor to show through as well as diffusing my light realistically, but the setting you use will depend upon your image’s resolution among other things.

Step 6  Change the layer mode and opacity settings so that it looks realistic and you should be done. Obvious layer modes to try are the Soft and Hard Lights, the Dodge (though this is very strong) and Lighten as these all brighten the image rather than darken it like most modes.

With the opacity setting it is important to take into account the picture that you are using; mine is shot in the daytime so the light will not appear very strong, however in a night-time shot you can have the lights much more evident.

Try a few different colours until you decide on one that suits the car and mood of the picture if applicable, it only takes a minute or so to recreate this effect if you decide to experiment so you don’t lose much time at all.

In this series of 10 in-depth image editing tutorials, ePHOTOzine's Michael Bates converts a VW Camper van using Corel Paint Shop Pro. He splits the job into specific elements that you can follow and recreate with your own photos using Paint Shop Pro or any similar image editing program. Click on any of the links below to take you to specific modifications. We hope you enjoy. Please leave comment under each individual section and share the link with as many people as you can, to help promote our tutorials.