Written By Steve Patterson

In this Photoshop effects tutorial, we're going to learn how to create a classic "starburst" background, the same effect you've undoubtedly seen hundreds of times in grocery stores, department stores, and in those weekly flyers that flood your mailbox. Creating the effect is easy. We'll be using Photoshop's Polygon Tool, a Solid Color fill layer, the Free Transform command, and one of Photoshop's little known but very useful features, Transform Again. Along the way, we'll learn how to find the exact center of a Photoshop document using rulers and guides, and how to make objects snap to your guides!

Here's an example of the "starburst" background we'll be creating:

Once we've created the background, we'll learn how to easily change the colors used in the effect, and we'll even see how to save it as a Custom Shape so you'll be able to use it again any time you want!

Let's get started!

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Step 1: Create A New Photoshop Document

The first thing we need to do is create a new Photoshop document. Go up to the File menu at the top of the screen and choose New..., or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+N (Win) / Command+N (Mac). Either way brings up Photoshop's New dialog box. For this tutorial, I'll create a 10 inch by 10 inch document at 300 pixels per inch, although there's no particular reason why I'm choosing these dimensions. You can create the same size document if you wish, or feel free to create whatever size document you need:

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box. Your new document will appear in a document window:

Step 2: Show Rulers

To have the effect appear to "burst out" from the center of the image, we need to know where the center of our image is. The easiest way to find the exact center of the image is by using Photoshop's Rulers and Guides. Let's first turn on the rulers. To do that, go up to the View menu at the top of the screen and choose Rulers:

By default, the rulers are turned off in Photoshop. The way you can tell whether they're on or off, besides looking in your document window, is by looking for a checkmark to the left of the word "Rulers" in the View menu. If you see a checkmark beside the word, it means the rulers are already turned on, in which case there's no need to select them here. If you do not see a checkmark, it means the rulers are currently turned off, so you'll need to click on the Rulers option to turn them on.

You can also turn the rulers on and off by pressing Ctrl+R (Win) / Command+R (Mac). With the rulers now on, you'll see them appear along the top and left of your document window:

Depending on how you have your rulers set up in Photoshop's Preferences, your rulers may be showing inches, pixels, centimeters, or some other form of measurement. It makes no difference which measurement type you're using for this effect.

Step 3: Make Sure The "Snap" Option Is Turned On

The reason we turned the rulers on was so that we can drag guides out from them, and in a moment, we're going to drag out a couple of guides, one horizontal and one vertical. Before we do that, though, we need to make sure the Snap option is enabled. With "Snap" enabled, our guides will automatically snap to the horizontal and vertical centers of the document for us. The spot where the two guides intersect is the exact center of the image!

To turn the Snap option on, go back up to the View menu at the top of the screen. You'll see the Snap option directly below the Rulers option. By default, the Snap option is enabled, so you should see a checkmark to the left of the option. If you see the checkmark, it means that Snap is already enabled and there's no need to click on it. If you do not see the checkmark, it means the Snap option is currently disabled, so click on the option to enable it. In my case (and most likely yours as well), Snap is already enabled:

Step 4: Make Sure "Snap To Guides" Is Enabled

While we're here, we should make sure one other option is also enabled, Snap To Guides. This will cause anything we drag near a guide to snap directly on to it, which will make it easy for us to place something directly in the center of our document, as we'll see a bit later on. To enable the Snap To Guides option, go back up to the View menu. You'll see an option that says Snap To directly below the Snap option we just looked at in the previous step. Hover your mouse over the Snap To option for a second or two and a sub menu will appear. At the top of the sub menu, you'll see the Guides option. If you see a checkmark to the left of the word "Guides", it means the option is already enabled and there's no need to click on it. If there is no checkmark, click on Guides to enable the option:

Step 5: Drag A Horizontal Guide Into The Middle Of The Document

We're ready to find the exact center of our document. As I mentioned earlier, we need to drag out two guides, one vertical and one horizontal. The "Snap" option that we enabled in Step 3 will force the guides to automatically snap into place as soon as we're close enough to the middle of the document, and the point where the two guides intersect will be the exact center. Let's drag out our first guide. We'll start with the horizontal guide.

Click anywhere inside the ruler that runs along the top of the document, then drag down towards the middle of the document. As you drag, you'll see that you're dragging a horizontal guide which will appear as a black dotted line while you have your mouse button held down. Continue dragging downward until you get close to the middle of the document, and as soon as you're close enough to the middle, Photoshop will automatically snap the guide into place. Release your mouse button at that point, and you'll see your first guide running left to right along the exact middle of the document. By default, guides appear in cyan unless you changed the color in Photoshop's Preferences:

Step 6: Drag A Vertical Guide Into The Middle Of The Document

We have our horizontal guide in place. Now let's add our vertical guide. Click anywhere inside the ruler that runs along the left side of the document, then drag towards the right into the middle of the document. You'll see that you're dragging a vertical guide which will appear at first as a black dotted line. Continue dragging the guide towards the middle of the document, and as soon as you're close enough to the middle, Photoshop will snap the guide into place. Release your mouse button, and you'll now have a vertical guide running up and down along the middle of the document. The point where the two guides intersect is the exact center (circled in red):

Now that we've dragged out our two guides, we no longer need to have the rulers turned on. You can leave them on if you wish, but I'm going to turn mine off by pressing the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+R (Win) / Command+R (Mac).