This tutorial will show you how to create a dramatic effect in PhotoShop, which can be used on text or an image. We will be using Filters and Layer Styles to create rays of light shining behind text, in an explosive fashion.

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We start with a blank Black canvas and then add some White text:

Next, we open up the Layer Styles for the text layer and choose a Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, and Color Overlay. Note that these values should be customized to suit your needs - experiment and play around with the outcomes. Here are the settings we used for this example:

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After applying these Layer Styles, we want to duplicate our text layer, so right-click it and Duplicate. Then hide the duplicate and select the one underneath. Goto Layer > Merge Visible. Then Goto Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates, and choose Polar to Rectangular. We should have something like this:

Next, goto Image > Rotate Canvas > 90° CW. Then goto Filter > Stylize > Wind, From the Right. Then press Ctrl+F to repeat it a couple times. Then go back to Filter > Stylize > Wind, and choose From the Left. Repeat it with Ctrl+F once. We should have this:

Next, rotate it back (Image > Rotate Canvas > 90° CCW), then goto Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates, and choose Rectangular to Polar.
Then goto Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance and play about with your colors to get the right scheme. We ended up with this:

Now if we show our text layer again, we should end up with something like this:

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Play around with the Color Balance and Layer Styles and see what you can come up with.

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