This technique might be quite interesting for the less experienced Photoshop users.

Adding lighting effects to an image filter/render/lighting effects... is destructive.

A better way to do it is using a 50% gray layer. How?[list][*]Create a new layer and make it active[*]Fill it with 50% gray; go to Edit/Fill... and select 50% Gray under the section Content. Click Ok.[*]Set the blending mode of this layer to Overlay[*]Add the desired lighting effect to this layer; Filter/Render/Lighting effects...[/list:u]Voila!

Now you can also add a mask to soften/remove some parts of the lighting or you can change the opacity of this layer.
A gaussian blur of this mask creates a smooth transition.

This technique only works when you don't use any texture channels in the lighting effects filter (Option Texture Channel is set to None)

Instead of adding a Lighting Effect to this 50% gray layer, you also might want to use any other filter like Noise, Lens Flare, Mezzotint, etc.

jpfitness

I like this technique, have used it often......... twas another trick I learnt from this board and it has saved my bacon a few times he he he
sfm

aironite

Same here. A simple one but precious.

But I never tried using other effects. A new lesson gained. Thanks Gaussian.

vee

Rick

I use this technique quit a lot as well [righton]

Tanya

I'll take that one and add it to my how-to list... much thanks, G!

BTW.. I'm amazed at the amount of new building going on in Bejing and different cities in Northern China!

Tanya

Geoff

love the technique gauss! simple yet verrrryy effective! [righton]

Sanby

Wow, if only I knew this tecnique before. Thanks for filling me in.

Sanby

ladyfinger007

Nice tip, gauss... Might be useful on grouped layers, too! (I take the habit to separate shapes and texture/content , then make a clipping group)

grotesquehybrid

I'm curious what your how to list is? How is it set up, in a word document or is there a better way of keeping track of how to's.

Photcrazed