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This tutorial was written by: HaLo2FrEeEk
Note: this tutorial is out-of-date. I will be making an updated version that better deals with transparency on dark backgrounds soon.
This tutorial will teach you how to make fireworks like the ones you saw decorating the site around New Years. Complete with smoke trail and everything, these are sure to be the envy of all your Photoshopping friends...or not. Let's get started:
First, open a blank document, 300x300 pixels with a transparent background. Fill it with white. Now click Filter > Noise > Add Noise and make your settings like mine:
Now, click Image > Adjustments > Threshold and change the level to somewhere around 220-230, I did mine at 225:
Invert the picture by either clicking Image > Adjustments > Invert,or typing Ctrl+I. Click Filter > Stylize > Wind and set it to Method: Wind, Direction: From the Right, click ok, then type Ctrl+F to apply the Wind filter again. Here's what you should look like:
Now rotate the image 90o CW by clicking Image > Rotate Canvas > 90o CW:
Add a new layer on top of the other one by clicking the  icon in the Layer Palette, select your gradient tool and set your primary color to white. Set the gradient method to Foreground to Transparent and make a gradient half the width of the canvas, so starting from the very top and going 150 pixels down. You can hold the Shift key to get a straight gradient. This is what you should look like:
Now, select your bottom layer again (the one we applied the wind filter to), and invert it with Ctrl+I, so that you have black streaks on a white background:
Merge the layers together so that you only have one (don't flatten it, just select the top one and Right Click > Merge Down). Click Filters > Distort > Polar Coordinates. Do Rectangular to Polar and this is what you should get:
Now, sometimes this might be ok, but sometimes you'll get random streaks going ott the edge, and these are unappealing. To get rid of them quick and dirty like, select the Elliptical Marquee Tool and start at pixel 0x0, holding shift make a circle that is exactly 300 pixels wide, the width of the document. Type Ctrl+Shift+I, to invert the selection, or click Select > Invert, then delete the selection by hitting Delete on your keyboard. This will leave you with a white circle and transparent borders:
Now get your Magic Wand Tool. set the Tolerance to 0 and click anywhere inside the circle where it is white, so you select the white pixels. This works better than selecting a color range because there is still a little bit of Tolerance, even though it's set to 0. now, with those white pixels selected, type Ctrl+Alt+D and put in a value of 1, click ok. Now delete that selection. Here's where we are at:
Duplicate that layer by holding Alt and dragging the layer to the bottom. hide th top layer, the original, and select the bottom layer. Click Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Set the Amount to 30%, the distribution to Guassian, and check Monochromatic (for a lighter, more airy feeling firework, you can set the distribution mode to uniform, but for this tutorial, I used Guassian), click OK. Here it is:
Now, these are our sparks, so let's add some color to them. Generally sparks are red or orange. I found that with the changes in the later steps, it's best to go with red. Select the bottom layer and type Ctrl+U. Check Colorize in the bottom right and set the saturation up to 50. The color is already set, so just hit OK:
Unhide the original layer and we'll add some color to it too. Type Ctrl+U again (make sure the original layer is selected) and turn on Colorize. Set the Saturation all the way up to 100, then drag the Hue slider to choose a color. I'll go with a nice pink:
Now, there are a few different options for this next step, we're going to change the Blending mode of the top layer to something, I've found these 4 to look best:
Darken
Multiply
Linear Burn
Darker Color
It really depends on the color you choose for your to layer, so please, experiment. I went with Darken, and this is what I got:
Ok, we're done with the firework part. Now we'll start on the smoke trail. This part's pretty straight forward. Click Image > Canvas Size and increase the height to 800, and click the up arrow in the Anchor box. Select your Pen tool and make sure you set it to Paths mode (click this icon in the upper-left:  ). Click near the bottom center of the canvas to make an anchor point, then again in the middle of the firework. Hold down the mouse button when you click in the center of the firework and drag it around to changethe path of the smoke trail:
Now make a new layer and drag it to the bottom of the list. Name it Smoke1. Select your brush tool and set your brush size and hardness to 12px and 0% respectively. In your Brushes Palette, turn on Scattering, Texture, and Noise. In the Scattering settings, set it to about 50-75%, check Both Axes, turn control off, and set the count 1. In the Texture settings select the "Wrinkles" texture and check Invert, set the scale to 1%, check Texture Each Tip and the mode to Color Burn. Set Depth and Minimum Depth to 100%, and DepthJitter to 0%. Close the Brushes Palette for now and set your primary color to a dark grey, I used #303030. With the Pen Tool selected, right click your path and click Stroke Path. Make sure Brush is selected in the dropdown menu, and Simulate Pressure is unchecked. Click ok:
We're getting there. Make a new layer above Smoke1 and call it Smoke2. Change your brush size to 15px and leave the hardness at 0%. Open the Brushes Palette again and in the Scattering settings turn the scatter up to 110%, leave the rest how they are. Change your primary color to a lighter grey, I used #838383. Now, making sure your Smoke2 layer is selected, right click the path again and click Stroke Pathm then click ok:
Ok, we're almost done! We don't need the path anymore, so you can delete it in the Path Palette, or just ignore it. Set the Opacity of both Smoke1 and Smoke2 to 75%, set the Blending Mode of Smoke2 to Either Multiply or Darken, your choice. And that's it! We're finished. Here is the final result:
Questions? Ask them here and one of our friendly members will be happy to help you.
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