In this tutorial, we will be looking at how to create a Ring of Fire from scratch in PhotoShop. This example was created with PhotoShop CS3, but you can use most - if not all - versions of PhotoShop to recreate the effect.

We will begin with a blank canvas of 400x400px, with a black background. Then create a big circle selection with the Elliptical Marquee tool, and with White chosen as the foreground color, right-click the selection and choose Stroke. I did 3px, Center:

Try Server Intellect for Windows Server Hosting. Quality and Quantity!

Now, duplicate this layuer by right-clicking it in the Layer window and clicking Duplicate Layer. Hide the top layer and go back to the original. Goto Filters > Stylize > Wind. For the options, choose Wind and From the Right:

Repeat this filter as many times as you like, by pressing Ctrl+F. You may find you need to move the circle more-over to the right of the canvas as to not cut off the top of the wind strokes. I applied the filter twice:

Now goto Edit > Transform > Rotate, and rotate it 90° Clockwise so it is the right way up (TIP: Hold Shift while rotating to rotate in set increments). Then Ctrl-click the original layer with the circle still on it to make a selection of it, and choose the Move tool. Now click on the following align buttons (with the wind layer selected) on the Move toolbar to re-align the two layers:

We used over 10 web hosting companies before we found Server Intellect. Their dedicated servers and add-ons were setup swiftly, in less than 24 hours. We were able to confirm our order over the phone. They respond to our inquiries within an hour. Server Intellect's customer support and assistance are the best we've ever experienced.

With all layers now visible, we should have something like this:

Next, we want to make the flames more realistic. Two ways to do this are: 1, use the Liquify and Blur filters, or 2, use the Blur tool. We will cover the Blur tool - go ahead and choose the Blur tool from the toolbox. Choose a soft brush and a Strength of 50%. Now use this brush to go around the circle, smudging and bending the flames slightly:

Once completed, we should have something like this:

Now let's add some color. Goto Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Experiment with the sliders, and make sure the Colorize check box is checked, to get the color of flames you desire:

We migrated our web sites to Server Intellect over one weekend and the setup was so smooth that we were up and running right away. They assisted us with everything we needed to do for all of our applications. With Server Intellect's help, we were able to avoid any headaches!

Now duplicate this layer and experiment with the top layer's blending mode. This is Color Burn:

Finally, duplicate the original layer (the white circle) and move it to the top of the composition. Add an Outer Glow layer style to it and use Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur to make it look like this:

And as always, please experiment with PhotoShop to get the best results.

Guys, please take a look at Server Intellect for Windows Web Hosting. I'm very pleased. You will be too. Take a look and see for yourself!