Security Lasers

Hey all,

I'm trying to add red security lasers to a photograph. You know, the type of lasers you would see some heroine doing acrobatics through in some miscellaneous heist movie. How do I do this without it looking corny?

Well, without a pic as a guide, I can't really say what's corny. One man's corn is another man's... well, you know.

Anyhow... off the top of my head, and using for my example the first thing that came up on GIS for "security laser," here's what I'd do...

1) use the rectangle marquee tool to draw out a beam
2) click on the gradient tool and create a very light red/white/very light red gradient
3) create a new layer in the layer palette, name this layer "beam," and then run the gradient tool through your "beam" selection.
4) get rid of your selection, and double click on the "beam" layer to get the layer styles menu, then click on "outer glow."
5) click on the color picker square, and then pick a good strong bright red color.
6) adjust the "outer glow" parameters to your liking, though I would suggest using "hard light" instead of "screen" for your blend mode.
7) when the glow is how you like it, click ok. then adjust the opacity of the "beam" layer down to, say, 90% or so.

Hope this helps some.