How to Create Colorful Bubbles

1. Open Online PS and go to File → New. Set the size to 1024 × 1024 px and pick black as the background colour.
2. Click OK and you have a black canvas.

1. Choose Filter → Render → Lens Flare.
2. In the dialog, drag the flare centre towards the middle of the canvas.
3. Set the values: Brightness 106 %, Zoom 50‑300 mm.
4. Confirm, and the light spot is in place.

Select the “Background” layer in the Layers panel and press Ctrl + J (⌘ + J on Mac) to create a “Background copy”.

1. Make sure the new “Background copy” is selected.
2. Choose Filter → Distort → Polar Coordinates.
3. In the dialog pick “Rectangular to Polar” and click OK.

With the polar-converted layer selected again, press Ctrl + J to duplicate it into “Layer 1 copy”. You will reuse this layer several times.

Select “Layer 1 copy” and press Ctrl + F (repeat the last filter) to run Polar Coordinates again and intensify the beam.

1. In PS choose File → New, set the size to 800 × 800 px and fill the background with black.
2. Add an empty layer, take the Elliptical Marquee tool (U) and hold Shift to draw a circular selection covering roughly 90% of the canvas.
3. Fill the selection with black (Edit → Fill), then deselect.

1. Switch back to the beam document and drag “Layer 1 copy” into the 800 × 800 circular canvas.
2. Use Ctrl + T (Free Transform) to resize and rotate the beam until it sits well inside the circle.
3. Run Filter → Blur → Gaussian Blur with a radius of 3 and click OK.
4. Select the beam layer and choose Layer → Create Clipping Mask (or press Ctrl + Alt + G) so the beam is confined to the circular mask.
5. Set the layer's blending mode to Screen.

1. Select the beam layer and press Ctrl + J to duplicate it.
2. Move the copy down to the bottom of the circle.
3. Run Image → Adjustments → Hue/Saturation (Ctrl + U), drag Hue towards blue and lower Saturation a little.

1. Duplicate “Layer 1 copy” once more (Ctrl + J) to get a third beam layer.
2. Use Ctrl + T to change the rotation so it sits on the right side of the circle.
3. Use Image → Adjustments → Hue/Saturation to shift it to the colour you want (magenta, orange and so on) and adjust Lightness to match.

1. Select the top beam layer and duplicate it with Ctrl + J.
2. Scale the copy up slightly with Ctrl + T (about 110%) and drop Opacity to 80 % so the highlight reads softer.

In the beam document, find the original “Layer 1” — the untouched light spot from before Polar Coordinates — and drag it into the current 800 × 800 circular canvas.

1. Select the “Layer 1” you just brought in and run Filter → Blur → Gaussian Blur with a radius of 4.
2. Move and rotate it until it produces a soft glow inside the circle.
3. Set the blending mode to Screen.
4. Create a clipping mask again (Ctrl + Alt + G) so the glow shows only inside the circle.

Repeat what you did in Step 13 — duplicate, blur, change the blending mode, clip — to add more soft highlights at the top left, top right, bottom left and bottom right. Each one adds a little depth to the light.

1. At the top of the Layers panel click Create new fill or adjustment layer → Color Balance….
2. In Shadows, Midtones and Highlights, nudge the cyan/red, magenta/green and yellow/blue sliders until the whole thing leans towards a rainbow bubble.

1. Click Create new fill or adjustment layer → Curves… or Brightness/Contrast.
2. Lift the contrast slightly (around 10‑15 %) or pull the highlight end of the curve up a touch, so the bubble gains volume.

That is the bubble finished. Save it with File → Export As PNG, or keep going in PS and add text, a background or whatever else the design needs.