How To Add A Sparkle Trail To A Photo With Photoshop

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Written by Steve Patterson. In this Photoshop Effects tutorial, we'll learn how to add a sparkle trail to a photo using a custom Photoshop sparkle brush we'll be creating. I got the idea for this tutorial after seeing the poster for the movie "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium", but of course sparkle trails have been around since the days of Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, and I'm sure even long before that.
Fortunately, Photoshop makes them extremely easy to create thanks to the powerful brush controls that were introduced in Photoshop 7, which are still just as powerful and useful today!

Here's the image I'll be starting with:

The original image.

I'm going to make her magic wand look a little more magical by adding a sparkle trail. Here's how it will look when we're done:

The final result.

Let's get started!

Step 1: Open A New Photoshop Document

As I mentioned, we'll be creating our sparkle trail using a custom made Photoshop "sparkle" brush, and the first thing we need to do is create our brush. To begin, go up to the File menu at the top of the screen and choose New, which brings up Photoshop's New Document dialog box. You can also access the New Document dialog box using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+N (Win) / Command+N. Enter 200 pixels for the Width and 200 pixels for the Height, and make sure the Background Contents option near the bottom is set to White so our new document has a white background, then click OK:

Create a new Photoshop document that's 200 pixels wide by 200 pixels high, with white as the background color.

Photoshop opens a new 200x200 document with a solid white background:

The new Photoshop document.

Step 2: Select The Brush Tool

With our new document created, select the Brush Tool from the Tools palette, or simply press the letter B on your keyboard to access it with the shortcut:

Select Photoshop's Brush Tool.

Step 3: Set Your Foreground Color To Black

We need black as our Foreground color, which is the color Photoshop uses to paint with when we have the Brush Tool selected, so if black is not currently your Foreground color, press the letter D on your keyboard to quickly reset your Foreground and Background colors, which sets black as your Foreground color (white becomes your Background color). We can see our current Foreground and Background colors in the color swatches near the bottom of the Tools palette (the swatch in the upper left is the Foreground color and the one in the bottom right is the Background color):

The Foreground and Background color swatches in the Tools palette.

Step 4: Select the "Star 70 Pixels" Brush

The "sparkle" brush we're creating is really just a combination of several other brushes that ship with Photoshop, and you can experiment on your own if you like with different brush combinations to create your own unique "sparkle" brush, since there's several brushes that would work well for this effect.
I'm going to start with the Star 70 pixels brush, so switch over to your Brushes palette, click on words Brush Presets in the top left corner to see a list of preset brushes on the right, then scroll down the list until you get to the "Star 70 pixels" brush.

Click on it to select it:

Click on the words "Brush Presets" in the top left corner of Photoshop's Brushes palette, then scroll down the list of preset brushes on the right and select the "Star 70 pixels" brush.

Step 5: Click In A Few Random Spots Inside The Document With The Brush

With the "Star 70 pixels" brush selected, click in a few random spots inside the document to add our first few "sparkles". Three or four clicks should do the trick:

Click in three or four random spots inside the document with the brush to create the first few "sparkles".

Step 6: Select the "Airbrush Soft Round 17" Brush

After you've added the first few sparkles, switch back to the Brushes palette and scroll up the list of preset brushes until you come to the Airbrush Soft Round 17 brush. Click on it to select it:

Scroll up to the "Airbrush Soft Round 17" brush in the Brushes palette and click on it to select it.

Step 7: Click In A Few Random Spots Inside The Document With The New Brush

Just as we did with the previous brush a moment ago, click in three or four random spots inside the document with the new brush. This adds more "sparkles", as well as a little variety to them:

With the new brush selected, click once again in three or four random spots inside the document.

Step 8: Select The "Assorted Brushes"

Switch back to the Brushes palette once again, and this time, click on the small right-pointing arrow at the top of the palette to access the drop-down menu and select Assorted Brushes from the list of additional brushes at the bottom:

Select "Assorted Brushes" from the list of additional brushes in the Brushes palette drop-down menu.

Photoshop will pop up a message asking if you want to replace the existing brushes with the new brushes. Click the Append option to have Photoshop simply add the new brushes in with the existing brushes rather than replacing them:

Select the "Append" option to add the new brushes to the bottom of the list of available brushes.

Step 9: Select the "Starburst - Small" Brush

With the Assorted Brushes added in the Brushes palette, scroll down the list until you come to the Starbust - Small brush and click on it to select it:

Scroll down the list of preset brushes until you come to the "Starburst - Small" brush. Click on it to select it.

Step 10: Click In Three Or Four Random Spots Inside The Document

With the "Starburst - Small" brush selected, click in another three or four random spots inside the document to add the rest of our sparkles:

Add the remaining sparkles by clicking in a few random spots with the "Starburst - Small" brush.

Step 11: Define A New Brush Preset

We've added all of our sparkles. All we need to do now is save them as a brush. To do that, go up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen and choose Define Brush Preset. Photoshop will pop up a dialog box asking you to name the brush. I'm going to name mine "Sparkle Brush":

Type in a name for your new brush. I've named mine "Sparkle Brush".

Click OK after you've entered in a name and your new brush is created! You can close out of the brush document at this point, since we no longer need to have it open. No need to save it when Photoshop asks, since the brush is already created.