I hardly ever keep them at 100% opacity, so don’t be afraid to lower it.
When it comes to lightsabers or other lighting in your pic, adding a few smoke brush strokes adds so much!
You can see in this photo around the lightsaber is where I added some smoke.
This is the exact same image without any SMOKE BRUSHES added.
The smoke around the lightsaber is more obvious, but also look at the texture and light it adds around both characters.