Fractals have a lot of theory behind them, but I am not going to bother you with Math now. To be honest, I don’t like Math at all, so let’s try to create a fractal-like image without even thinking about all the numbers crunched by Photoshop to help us accomplish our goal! Are you ready? Fire up your Photoshop and prepare to get something similar to the image below…

The result

 

1. Create a new Photoshop document - 500X500 pixels, with a white background. If you want, you can use a higher resolution, but be sure to make it square.

First step

 

2. Add a new layer (simply use Ctrl+Shift+N), and fill it with black, using the Paint Bucket tool.

You should be here now

 

3. Open the Filter menu, and choose Render>Lens Flare.

Grab a flare

 

4. Use 50-300mm Zoom with 100% Brightness, as you can see in the screenshot below. Be sure to place the lens flare in about the same location as I did.

Flare Settings

 

5. Now, open the Filter menu again, and go to Distort>Twirl.

Distort menu at work again

 

6. Be sure to have a 190 degrees angle, by using the slider or by typing in the value.

Twirl Settings

 

7. Duplicate the layer.

8. Rotate the new layer 90 degrees clockwise.

Rotating the layer

 

9. Change its blending mode to Lighter Color.

Last duplicated layer - notice the blending mode

 

10. Duplicate this layer again, and repeat steps 8 and 9.

11. The resulting layer must be duplicated again, and once you repeat steps 8 and 9 for the resulting one, group the four layers you got (see the screenshot below).

Grouping layers

 

12. Duplicate this group.

13. Merge the group, and flip horizontally the resulting layer.

Horizontal Flip

 

14. Apply Difference mode from Blending Options to this layer, and it’s done!

Finished

 

15. Enjoy your result!