In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to create a speed lighting photo manipulation using different Photoshop techniques, brushes, blending modes and adjustments layers to get realistic motion effect in your photo manipulation. So let’s start!

Final Image Preview

Create a new document (Ctrl+N) in Adobe Photoshop with the size 1200px by 675px (RGB color mode) at a resolution of 72 pixels/inch. Select then the Paint Bucket Tool (G) to fill the new background layer with black color.

Find a photo of a car, I used Dodge Challenger photo.

Remove the background using your favorite tools like Pen Tool (P), Magic Wand Tool (W), Magnetic Lasso (L) or even a simple Filter>Extract and insert it on a new layer.

Using the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M), make a selection of the car’s wheels:

Go to Filter menu and select Filter>Blur>Radial blur

Apply this operation for both wheels:

Click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Inner Shadow:

We’ve got the next shadow on the car:

Create a new layer and press CTRL button while selecting it both with the car’s layer and finally press CTRL+E to Merge Down. Make a copy of the new rasterized layer, applying on it Filter>Blur>Motion blur

We’ve got the next motion blur effect on the car:

Click on the bottom part of the Layers panel on Add a Mask icon and choose a Soft Round brush of black color from Brush Tool (B):

Clean out the car’s wheels using Soft Round brush

Find a picture with a city in the night like the next one:

Insert it on our document, place this layer under the layer containing the car. Using the Free Transform (Ctrl+T), it’s possible to resize it a little and then stretch out the picture with the nocturnal city:

Go to Filter menu and apply Filter>Blur>Motion blur for the layer of the nocturnal city

We’ve got the next motion blur effect on the nocturnal city layer:

Create a new layer and select Soft Round brush from Brush Tool (B)

Using Soft Round brush, represent the road under the wheels. The brush’s color is #1F393A

Merge Down road layer and layer containing the car (press CTRL button to select the layers and then CTRL+E). Next we’ll create a reflection of the car. Make a copy of the rasterized layer. Use then the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) option to turn around the copy, placing it as below:

Click on the bottom part of the Layers panel on Add a Mask icon and select Soft Round brush of black color (Opacity 20%)

paint on the mask using Soft Round brush to clean out the reflection on bottom part.

Next we’ll represent three new layers (Create new layer) and select Hard Round brush from Brush Tool (B)

Represent several lines with Hard Round brush of white color. Each line in a separate layer

Select Add a layer style from bottom part of the Layers panel and click on Outer Glow. Select the next Outer Glow settings on each layer containing the lines. The Outer Glow settings for first layer’s:

The Outer Glow settings for the second layer.

The Outer Glow settings for the third layer.

We’ve got the next glow on the lines:

Combine in a group all the layers containing the lightning lines (press CTRL button to select the corresponding layers and then hold on the left mouse’s button while dragging these selected layers on Create a new group icon from bottom part of the Layers panel). Put together the group into a rasterized layer (press CTRL button, select the group and finally press CTRL+E to Merge Down). Go to Filter menu and select for this layer Filter>Blur>Gaussian blur

We’ve got the next blur on the lines:

Choose the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) to re-size a little the layer containing the lines by vertical position, placing it as below:

Make a copy of the last made lightning lines’ layer and choose again the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) to re-size the copies’ layer into a thin line (by vertical position). Place it as below:

Select Create new fill or adjustment layer from bottom part of the Layers panel and click to Curves to adjust the curve shape as shown to add more contrast on image:

We’ve got the next color correction:

Click again on the bottom part of the layers’ panel on Create new fill or adjustment layer>Curves to add more brightness on image

We’ve got the next color correction on image: