There are tons of tutorials how to create neon sign in Photoshop, but these all suffer from the same lack – they are too artificial and practically unusable. If you really want to ceate a neon sign, which will look real at least a bit, the Outer Glow effect is not enough…

Ready? Well, get down to work.

The following logo of fictive bar BlueBar, which fictively goes in the dinning-car on the Czech rails (because of this there is the glass symbolizing the shape of the rail). By clicking on the image you download the logo in bigger size and open it in the Photoshop.

First it is necessary to transfer the logo into the inverse form (in order to have it on the black basis). Under normal circumstances we would correct the base in curves and repainting of responding curves would be enough. But it would not be a bigger problem in this way as well.

We invert the image with the Ctrl + I shortcut and then we invoke the Image - Adjustments - Hue/Saturation, in which we move with the first slider till logo looks approximately as blue as on the previous picture. In reality the blue is notably darker, but it looks still light against the black background. We do not need to care of the grey frame, because it is without any color and it is still grey, ergo (it only get lost little bit due to the inverting, but we do not really care).

The first glow type which we are going to use is simple and very frequent (there is nothing wrong about it, the worse thing is the fact that the work mostly ends after this). We copy this layer (for example with the Ctrl + J shortcut) and apply the Gaussian Blur effect on it with Radius of 4 px.

As soon as we set the interaction to Screen to this layer, the sign starts to light. The size of this “shine“ depends on the setting of the Radius from the previous step. It is enough for us, it is not the last “adding more light and glow“ after all.

What we will do is decreasing the opacity to the ground layer. Thereby the blurred layer excels more.

In order to avoid transparent pixels (grid which is drawn by Photoshop), we create a new black Solid color layer (see the left part of the image) and move it under both layers (right part on the image). Completely in the same way we can create a new layer and fill it with the black color fully, but we safe the memory this way and the image will have a smaller size.

Select the non-blurred layer and press the key 6 on the keyboard – thereby the opacity is set to 60 %. As you can see on the picture, the sign is darker overall, but more blured. It is due to the fact that the blurred layer is seen more now.

The right irregular blur will be brought by Radial Blur effect. Duplicate the blurred layer and apply the effect from the menu Filter - Blur. Important is to set the method to Spin, choose the other parameteres (Amount and centre of the effect) accidentally. Switch the Quality rather to Best. Effect is still pretty fast.

You can see the result on the picture.

But the effect is too strong, that is why we decrease the Opacity of the layer to 70 %.

The next blur will be the Motion Blur. Duplicate the blurred layer again and apply the effect once more. Chooce the Distance parameter adequately:

One illustration by 100% look:

Decrease the opacity of the layer again, e.g. to 50 %. We want to make neon sign, not doodles.

If you want, you can duplicate the blurred layer again and apply filter Radial Blur. Move the centre somewhere else only:

And the neon board begins to project slowly. Over the fact that it lights, the strongest part is the text “Bar” (from the first Radial Blur effect). It almost seems like somebody cleaned the glass poorly and the smudges, which glance now, remained here. And it is nice.

Now it is time for “highlights” – places, which are over highlit (from any reason). Copy the blurred layer again (the one, which we copy always) and invoke the dialog Levels this time. Move the white slider to the left so that the picture will be really overlit and shiny. Do not worry about it, it will not look like this for ever.

Add the mask to this layer (use the button which is shown on the next picture in the layers palette). Fill this mask with the black color and draw accidental scribbles into it with big white soft brush with decreased opacity. Following picture shows the preview of the mask (black and white part of the layer) and the preview of the layer on the background (other layers are here hidden for illustration).

All layers looks together like this. The effect is more real after the accidental adding more light. On the right, there is the picture without highlights for comparison.

Last corrections will be related to the color. We randomly move the hue slightly in some places.

Add a new adjustment layer Color Balance in the layers palette and in Highlights decrease the last slider to the left to the Yellow color. Thereby everything will be to the green.

Ditto, we fill the mask with the black color again (we want effect not to be seen) and we draw some lines randomly whith big white soft brush into the mask several times. In these places the effect will apper after – namely the greener sign.

And that is all. At least from me, you naturally can improve the sign to the transendence. In the end we see through the layers in the picture:

1 – black underlayer of the background
2 – normal logo layer on the black background, with decreased opacity to cca 60-70%
3 – blurred layer made by the effect Gaussian Blur, screen interaction, decreased opacity
4 - blurred layer made by the effect Radial Blur, screen interaction, decreased opacity
5 - blurred layer made by the effect Motion Blur, screen interaction, decreased opacity
(6) - blurred layer made by the effect Radial Blur, screen interaction, decreased opacity
7 – layer with the highlights and with the mask, which determines where these places will be seen
8 – color adjustment layer with the mask, which determined where the color will be changed

You can see the picture in its 100% size by clicking on it. Good luck!

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