#astharoze

OK so after you are satisfied with the crack, duplicate the layer (right click layer > duplicate layer, or Ctrl-J) so you have three copies. I renamed them and put them in this order:

First is the bottom layer, “glow”. We’re going to apply a layer effect by either double-clicking the right side of the layer or clicking the FX button on the bottom. 

I added an inner glow and outer glow using these colors and blend modes.

Now it looks like this.

Second is the middle layer, “beams.” We’ll apply a radial blur (Filters > blur > radial blur.) Move the blur center over where you want the beams to originate and be sure you switch the blur method to “zoom.” I’m just going to make it come out of the center this time. Crank up the amount so the beams are nice and long. I usually have to try a few times before I get a result I like.

ZOOOOOOOOOOM

If you make your “Cracks” layer visible again, you can see that the beams are centered over the cracks. It just makes them look kind of blurry instead of like light is shining out.

To fix this, increase the size of the “beams” layer and reposition it so the edges of the blurs align with the appropriate cracks. 

Now lock the transparency by clicking this transparency lock button. This keeps you from making new marks on this layer but still allows you to put new color on old marks. 

Now that the transparency is locked, you can recolor the whole layer pale yellow with a click of the paint bucket. I’m picking light yellow because it looks nice with the green glow we picked out earlier.

Then if you turn on all the layers it looks like this:

Click here to download the brush I used for these cracks and this image in the original PSD format. You can play with the lighting effects to see how they work. You can also copy/paste the lighting effects directly onto your own picture by right clicking the layer and selecting “copy style.” Then right click the target layer (in your own document) and right click > paste style.