Funny story to get you started. When I was first working on this post I had the idea for the title already in my head. I’m not sure why that particular phrase came to mind…it just did. So I thought I’d run with it.

A little secret, most times when I’m writing I’m always on the hunt for image ideas that go with the theme of my post. Google comes in real handy for this. Oddly enough I found a great quote that eerily tied in with that title in my head…

I’ve always been sort of a driven, busy gal so the first part of that quote really resonated. But even better…after a rough start to my year I’ve been working on trying to attain a “better” outer glow. Kinda made me wonder how the universe guided me to not just the title but that amazing quote?!?!?

Clearly, you’ve guessed by now that today I’m going to be talking about glows, both outer and inner. So, let’s get started…

It’s Glow Time

If you’ve been digi-scrapping for any length of time, you may have used the Glow layer style in Photoshop Elements (PSE). It’s great for adding, well, a glow (outer or inner) to an element. Glows can illuminate, radiate and make elements really stand out on a layout. If you haven’t used a glow…today’s your day to give it a try…glows are fun! But they can be tricky…especially the inner glows!!!

Because the Inner Glow is tricky…I’m going to start with those.

I know everyone doesn’t celebrate Halloween but here in the United States, it’s only a couple days away. Some may have already celebrated and kids may have already gone out trick-or-treating over the past weekend. But officially, Halloween is on Thursday!

I love Halloween and I can’t think of a better theme to use when working on glows. Hence the adorable little jack-o-lantern above.

Before I get started, just a quick reminder…I use PSE – 2024. So, my screen shots may look different than what you see on your screen.

Inner Glows

In PSE one of the Layer style attributes is Inner Glow. This is used to give an inner glowing effect on the image/text to which the style is applied.

A lot of beginners have a misconception of what the Inner Glow layer style actually does. If you look at the image directly above you should be able to see that there is a pinkish “edge” around the inside of the words. That was achieved by using the “Quirky Clause Regular” font, an Inner Glow layer style and a small bevel.

PSE uses whatever color (other than black) I choose to create the glow from the outside edge toward the center of each letter in a word (as in the image above) or around the edges of any “independent” section of an element/cluster as in this balloon cluster:

That image was created using elements from “Spooky Season” by ET Designs. I applied a greenish inner glow and you can see how PSE created the green “edge” around each balloon and its string.

Above I mentioned that I cannot use the color black for an inner glow. I’m certain you caught that and are wondering why. Well, in PSE the Inner Glow has a “built-in” Blend Mode set to Screen which cancels out black meaning the black does not show up at all.

That same thing happens if you place a black layer over any type of image layer and change the layer Blending Mode on the black layer to Screen. A little later I’ll explain how to work around that unfortunate PSE setting.

Regardless of the issue with black, inner glows can be a lot of fun on text and some elements. You just have to keep in mind how the effect works.

As I mentioned above, these inner glows can be tricky and for more than one reason. Color (not just black) is something that trips a lot of people up. Just as with the black issue, all colors are affected by the “built-in” Blend Mode set to Screen for Inner Glows. This can make selecting the final desired color more than just a little challenging.

For example, look at the Inner Glow text image above. Clearly the words are a bright blue with a very bright pink glow. Here’s what I started with:

The color I used for the font was a fairly bright blue (#3000f8) Then I went on to set the Inner Glow. I used a very bright pink (#ff2af8), the Size was set to 50 px and the Opacity to 100%:

Well, that worked out just fine so I went on to add the bevel (Lighting Angle=120 degrees, Size=15 & Direction=Up) and the drop shadow (Size=35, Distance=10, Opacity=55 and color = #2e038b). And this resulted in what was almost the final image.

I did want the blue text to be just a bit brighter so I changed the Blend Mode on the words to Vivid Light and that’s how I ended up with the final image you saw above. This all seems pretty straight forward, right?!?!

Well, let’s take a look at what happens if I use the same blue letters (Blend Mode set back to normal) and a bright yellow (#fff600) for the glow instead:

This is clearly anything but a yellow glow. This is where not having complete control of the Blend Mode for the glow can cause an issue. So, I started playing with the blend for the word itself. A Blend Mode of Multiply got me close to the yellow I wanted for the glow:

But now the letters look black. So, I went back to the font settings and played around with the color setting hoping to end up with a blue that would work. That wasn’t getting me anywhere so I just set it back to the original blue (#3000f8).

Then I tried something else. I duplicated the text and changed the Blend Mode on the duplicate layers to Lighter Color:

This looks more like what I wanted. Now here’s the image with the bevel & drop shadow added:

See what I mean about Inner Glows being tricky? I don’t want that to deter you from using them. You just need to be willing to experiment with colors and Blend Modes in order to get the look you really want.

Now let’s look at a different kind of image that needs another tricky inner glow…

Alternate Inner Glows

I want you to take a look again at that cute jack-o-lantern I showed you earlier:

Do you see the glow effect “inside” the cut-out portion of the face? At first glance, a lot of people might think that was easily achieved by using an inner glow. But that’s not quite the case with this jack-o-lantern.

Here is the original jack-o-lantern element:

That jack-o-lantern is also from “Spooky Season” by ET Designs (link above). If I apply a yellowish inner glow to that image here is what I end up with:

You should be able to see that all PSE did was add yellowish edge to the exterior edges of that jack-o-lantern. That’s not the effect I wanted. But I actually wasn’t surprised since the “face” of that pumpkin is solid black.

I really want a “glow” around the cut outs (black) that make up the jack-o-lantern’s face. But even if I cut the black face out:

And then apply that same inner glow, I still don’t get what I’d hoped:

The glow is still just around the surface of the pumpkin. Again, I shouldn’t have been too surprised based on how PSE applies the glow.

So, what happens if I apply an Outer Glow instead:

Well, I got the glow “inside” the face but it’s also around the outside of the pumpkin. Not at all what I want.

So, what’s a girl to do? There are two ways to take care of this.

The first thing I could try is to just erase the glow around the outer edge of the pumpkin. That would require that I simplify the layer so the glow becomes permanent. Are you now wondering why?

I must simplify the image because if I don’t and try to erase (or mask away) the glow using a hard round brush, I can’t.

Even though I had previously simplified the pumpkin when I cut the face out, I’ve now added an outer glow. While this did not change the layer back to a smart object, PSE will only let me erase the pumpkin at this point:

Can you see how instead of getting rid of the glow, all I did was erase part of the pumpkin? And the glow is still there, just following the new shape of the pumpkin. So clearly that didn’t work. This is why I have to simplify the layer.

With the layer simplified I can now either erase or mask away the glow. Which would certainly take care of the issue.

But that can start to get a bit tedious. Perhaps not so much on this particular pumpkin. Put if you’re working with an image that has a more intricate “outer edge”…it could be a lot tougher.

That’s why I did something else. I want to extract or make a copy of the black sections that make up the face. First I’m going to pull in a black paper from the “Spooky Season” kit (link above) and layer it beneath the jack-o-lantern:

I’m using this dark background so you can really see how things are going to work as I move forward.

Since what I’m about to do next is considered a destructive edit, I duplicate the jack-o-lantern layer, hide the original and rename the duplicate layer Face Only and simplify the layer.

With the Face Only layer active I’m going to create a selection of only the face of the jack-o-lantern. I open the Selection Brush Tool. Then using a hard round brush, I set the size to around 175 pixels and make a selection somewhere in the mouth area:

You should be able to see the circle of marching ants in the mouth. So, then I go to the top tool bar and click Select->Similar:

And I end up with this selection:

Wow…that’s a lot of black selected. But it shouldn’t be too tough to clean this up. All I have to do is alternate between using the subtract or add option on the selection brush to tweak the selection until it looks something like this:

Note: You can use whichever selection method you prefer. If you need tips on making a good selection, please refer back to my March 5, 2024 post about making the Right Selection.

Next, I create a new layer via cut (Ctrl+Shift+J) and rename this new layer Black Face and hide the Face Only layer:

Great…I have the face extracted. Now I can unhide the Face Only layer and move the Black Face beneath the Face Only layer:

Now, we already know that the inner glow isn’t going to work on the pumpkin. So, how am I going to get the glow I want? I’m kind of going to trick PSE into putting that glow inside the face.

With the Black Face layer active I apply an inner glow using the following settings:

The color chip is set to a yellowish color (#f2d047), Size is set to 150 px and the opacity is set to 75% (Lighting Angle is not relevant for this so you can ignore it). And here’s my jack-o-lantern now:

One last thing…with the Black Face layer active, I’m going to change the Blend Mode to Lighten which will give it a little more glow:

So, that’s how I got the inner glow I was looking for.

And here’s a cute Halloween layout using that glowing jack-o-lantern:

For more details about this layout, you can find it in my 2024 Gallery.

Now I’m going to give you some options for creating those non-PSE black inner glows…

Black Inner Glows

As I already mentioned, Inner Glow doesn’t use black. But I can trick PSE into creating a black inner glow by using one of two different methods…

Glass Button Method

I know this sounds preposterous. Just bear with me. I’m going to use the same “Inner Glow” text I used early on in this post and just change the color of the text:

Then I open the Glass Buttons style and select Translucent Glass:

This is what it looks like:

Next, I’m going to “turn off” the bevel portion of this style. I double click the Effects icon (fx) at the left edge of the layer and uncheck the Bevel option:

That results in this:

That actually doesn’t look too bad as it is. But I’m going to make a few other adjustments. I can now go into the style settings and actually change the Inner color chip to black. And I’m going to again use the following settings; Size=50 px and Opacity=100%:

Note: Remember that the lighting angle setting is irrelevant for glow settings.

And voilà…I have a black inner glow! Take that PSE 😊

And as I did with the original image, I went on to add the bevel (Lighting Angle=120 degrees, Size=15 & Direction=Up) and the drop shadow (Size=35, Distance=10, Opacity=55 and color = #2e038b). And here’s how it ended up:

Stroke Method

The other way to create a black inner glow (of sorts) is a bit quicker. I can just create a black inner stroke (on its own layer) and blur it! This method creates a lovely effect on photos:

I’ll walk you through the quick steps to create this effect. I’ll be using this image by ArtTower from Pixabay:

With that image loaded into PSE I temporarily hide it and create a new blank layer above the image. Then I click Ctrl+A to select the entirety of that blank layer.

This is required in order for PSE to know that I want all of the transparent pixels within the layer to be selected. If I were to just Right-Click on the layer’s thumbnail I would receive the following error message:

After clicking Ctrl+A the blank layer should look like this:

You should be able to see the marching ants around the entire layer. Now I go to the top tool bar and click Edit->Stroke (Outline) Selection:

PSE opens the Stroke options dialog box and I use the following settings:

I set the Width to 120 px, Color to black, Location to Inside, Blend Mode to Normal and Opacity to 100%. Then click OK to confirm:

And voilà…I have a black stroke around that blank layer.

Note: In some versions of PSE, it may take a few seconds before the stroke appears. Just be patient.

Now with my inner “glow” on its own layer, I Deselect the selection (Esc or Ctrl+D) and unhide the image layer:

Now, I’ll ensure that the stroke layer is still active. Next, I just go to the top tool bar and click Filter->Blur->Gaussian Blur:

PSE opens the Gaussian Blur options dialog box and I use the following settings:

I ensure the Preview box is checked. This allows me to “watch” how the blur looks over the image before I finalize the settings.

I then set the Radius to 95.0 pixels (you can use whatever blur radius looks good for your image) and click OK to confirm:

As you can see, the blur softens the edges and actually makes the stroke appear a bit larger.

I could now adjust the opacity if needed. Or I can even duplicate the stroke layer and play with the Blend Mode for different effects. Setting the duplicate layer’s Blend Mode to Dissolve creates an interesting “dusty” effect to the blurred edge and Overlay makes the “glow” a bit more intense.

I’m pretty happy with this so I’m going to leave it as is.

The only draw back to this method is I cannot change the size of the stroke once it is created. But it’s really not that big of a deal to just recreate it adjusting the size until I’m 100% happy before I apply the blur.

This method is quicker than the “Glass Button” work around above but doesn’t have as much flexibility in regard to changing the size of the “glow”. But still…I have a black inner glow! Once again…take that PSE 😊

You can also use this method on text such as the “Inner Glow” image I used above (or other elements) and still apply the bevel and drop shadow. In that case you would create a blank layer above the text and this time you could then Right-Click on the text layer’s thumbnail to make the selection before creating the stroke. If you’d like to know more details about using this “stroke” method on something other than a photo/image please feel free to message me for more information.

So that’s it for inner glows. And as I’ve previously been known to do, I’ve let this post get a bit longer than I’d like.

I said at the top of this post that I was also going to touch on Outer Glows. And in my defense (sort of 😉) I did mention them and even showed a quick example above.

But I do want to go into them a bit more. However, next week I won’t be posting a normal Tuesday tip. It’s going to be a kind of different week with an important day on Tuesday…Election Day. I may have some thoughts on that rather than crafty tips.

Please plan to join me in two weeks as I give you some pointers on working with Outer Glows.

Extra Tips

Remember, in PSE the Inner Glow has a “built-in” Blend Mode set to Screen which cancels out black and can “monkey” with other colors so don’t panic if your color results are odd from time to time.

Don’t shy away from using Inner Glows. You may just need to experiment with colors and blend modes in order to get the look you really want.

You can also enhance the glow effect by duplicating the layer, adding Gaussian Blur, and adjusting the blending modes.

It is possible to create a black inner glow if you just take the extra time and use the work arounds I’ve outlined.

Never be afraid to experiment with Blend Modes on any item to which you add a glow.

As always, if you have any questions or want to make a suggestion about a topic you’d like me to cover, please don’t ever hesitate to “Message Me”.

Thanks for reading this week’s Tuesday Tip. Be sure to check back in two weeks for tips on working with Outer Glows! If you want to stay informed about new posts, just click “Follow Me” to stay in touch. I hope you have a wonderful week!