How do I create a 'inner glow ring' in Photoshop CS5?

Question

I would like to make a ring that has a faint inner glow ala this image:

I've tried first creating a circle, then applying a layer mask with a radial gradient from pure black to pure white, but that only achieves a linear gradient from center to edge, whereas this appears to be purely transparent right up to the edge of the circle.

Next I tried creating a circle again, then applying a inner glow effect. This nearly achieves what I want, except the circle is not transparent.

Here is my progress thus far:

Any tips? I am using Photoshop CS5. Would this be better done using different software?

Answer 1

Okay here's how I might approach it:

By playing with radial gradients with colors so we can see I got something like this:

Now I'm going back in and changing the blue for transparent, note how I pushed everything to one side:

Which gave this result:

Which isn't bad but not quite there yet. I redid the gradient pushed even further to the side. I also added a very small feather so there won't be a hard outside edge:

With the gradient pushed even further, and the feather added we get the following result:

Hope this helps you