Learn how to build a soft, dreamlike light bloom completely by hand in Photoshop — no AI required. This tutorial covers isolating highlights with Color Range, stacking multiple Gaussian-blurred layers for customizable glow, and finishing in Camera Raw with color grading and grain. We work through the full effect on one image in detail, then move faster through a second image to show how the technique adapts to different photos. CHAPTERS 0:00 Building a Manual Highlight Glow 0:47 Selecting Highlights with Color Range 6:18 Duplicating and Stacking Blur Layers 7:58 Bringing the Image into Camera Raw 9:51 Avoiding Highlight Clipping 12:04 Color Grading Shadows and Highlights 15:10 Adding Grain for a Final Mood 16:54 Repeating the Effect on a Second Image THE STEPS 1. Select just the highlights of your image using Select, then Color Range, then Highlights 2. Duplicate the selection to a new layer and convert it to a Smart Object 3. Change the blend mode to Lighten and apply a Gaussian Bl...