In this tutorial, we'll see how to create a beautiful light spots background using Photoshop. If you are trying to create or simulate this effect, it is a good idea to imagine that the effect is separated or simplified, and then the simple steps are combined into a complex effect. This tutorial is just based on two circles with different effects, iteratively changing their opacity, size and intersection to achieve the final effect. For the sake of brevity, I've attached the source files used at the end of this tutorial.
Create the first circle
Here I'm going to create my first circle. First, create a simple circle using the Ellipse tool on the Tools panel. Apply the following three effects in the Layers panel.
Apply Inner Shadow Effect Turn on the Inner Shadow effect and apply the values shown in the image below.
Apply Outer Glow Effect Turn on the Outer Glow effect and apply the values shown in the image below.
Apply Inner Glow Effect To turn on the Inner Glow effect, apply the values shown in the image below.
Set the fill color to #000000 on the Fill option in the Layers panel. The final effect of the circle should look like the picture below.
I will use this as the main or original circle in the following steps. After creating the main circle, I'll start adding some effects to give it a more glossy look. First, I'm going to duplicate the circle so that we have two circles and apply the following effect to the second circle:
Apply Inner Shadow Effect Turn on the Inner Shadow effect and apply the values shown in the image below.
The result of this step is shown below:
Now I will add some light to the circle: 1. Using the Selection Tool, create a circle with a Feather of 50. 2. Fill the selection with green (#4bcc9d). 3. Move the circle so that half of the circle intersects the main circle. 4. Select the original circle layer (Ctrl + click on the layer thumbnail) and make sure the new circle layer is also selected 5. Invert the selection: Go to Select > Invert (press Ctrl + Shift +I) 6. Delete the main Outside the circle area 7. Repeat the above steps to create a highlight at the bottom, and the left side of the circle will have the effect shown below.
