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Here’s a note for some of you: when you want to create a new document with the same image size settings that you have on the current document...go ahead and Select: All and then Ctrl/Cmd click on the layer icon of the background layer and go to Edit: Copy or Ctrl/Cmd C. Then File: New and you have the exact same dimensions. It’s important when you copy to be aware of what layer you are on in the layers palette. Otherwise you will copy the dimensions of say a text layer, so by using the background layer as the copy source you are getting the same document directions.

You can create your own custom gradients. I cover this method in detail in other tutorials and in Basic Photoshop training. Move the eyedropper outside of the gradient editor dialog box to choose your desired colors from another open document (of the gradient or colors you want to emulate). Do this after you have clicked on a color stop. Click anywhere on the bottom of the gradient bar to create another color stop and choose it’s color. Choose a lighter purple blue and the make a third on the right being white. Now move each of these stops closer to the left to tighten up the shot group.

Here’s a really cool effect which I will just touch on now but you can create some awesome work very fast by using the gradient tools on linear or reflected with different blending modes. Different blending modes help them to add up and mix light on top of each different stroke that you do.

Go back to your gradient editor by double clicking on the gradient option bar and choose noise as your gradient type. This is so much easier than creating 500 different color stops. Now adjust the color channels as shown to end up with this blue gradient noise.

Go ahead and name your gradient and then press ‘new’ to capture it to the dialog box as an option (note; you have to save the set in order to keep new gradients for the next Photoshop restart). Now simply swipe across with your linear gradient tool. On normal blending mode you can keep swiping until you get it right (with foreground to background).

If you did this on the background layer and you don’t want to keep it locked, just drag it to the new layer icon to duplicate it and then drag the original to the trash.

Inside Photoshop Revealed in DVD video.