EdgeOfTheMoon said:

... everything he said

Cradily said:
Which program do you use to make the effects? I can maybe give some pointers if it's photoshop (7.0).

EdgeOfTheMoon said:
Note I use GIMP but I imagine Photoshop has similar features. For a good glow I'd play around with the layer modes. In GIMP you click on a layer in the layer window and select the mode from a dropdown box at the top ( puu.sh/g7EVa/aa1376bb0b.png )

The useful ones for glows are addition, soft and hard light and grain merge there is an in depth explanation of how these work her docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-concepts-layer-modes.html but just playing around with them can get good results

What I tend to do is make two additive layers. The top layer I fill in the "Middle" of the glow with a fairly dark color and on the lower one I do a much larger but softer area around it (using a circle gradient or a soft brush) with the same color. You get a subtle glow around the area which is doubled up in the middle. Quick example puu.sh/g7F8B/7589eb270d.jpg

Psi said:
Exactly how I do it, and yes Photoshop has the Soft/Hard Light layer options.
I usually do like this:
-I separate the colour that must glow on another layer, and add an Outer Glow effect to that layer to create the "core" of the light source.
-I create a new layer and make a large circle of colour around the glowing object, using the Hard Light option and setting the opacity at 50-70%.
-Then I make another Hard Light layer with a larger circle of lighter colour and set the opacity to a lower value, 30-50% depending on the picture.
-Then I use a Soft Light layer to paint the colour of the glow on the shapes that would be illuminated by it.

Of course this is my noobish method, I'm sure there are different and better ones and anyway it's not a precise mechanic. I change something each time depending on the picture.