Add artificial light to Photoshop (i): Create backlight effect

Photographers often look at the day to eat, sunny light and soft morning or evening is the best time to shoot, the professional term is called "Magic Hour" or "Golden Hour." At this time the light is the most soft, the hue is warm, the shadow is longer (often see the long beam), usually in the hour after sunrise and one hours before sunset. (except for the lower sun Azimuth, the magic hour may last a whole day, far from the equator)

What should we do without the ideal light? It can rely on artificial light, light, and other means to make up for the lack of light in the early stage. Today I would like to share with you about my usual study of PS post-processing light means to add fascinating effect to the photo!

This sharing will be done as a case study to analyze two YouTube videos I've seen during the learning process. The video comes from YouTube's Phlearn channel, which is being taught by Aaron Nace. Careful students may find that Hai Yin many periods of newsletter material are from this channel. Yes, this is really a good material library, a biennium of tutorial produced basically include all aspects of the photographic system.

Gossip not much said, below I take everyone into Aaron NACE tutorial, and everyone together to explore how in the late to create hazy lifelike effect, create magic blockbuster. The tutorial will be divided into two parts: the first part is about how to handle the light in the backlight photo to make it vivid and realistic; the second part share the effect of artificial beam in the later stage of direct light shooting!

(All of this material comes from the Phlearn channel on YouTube, by Aaron Nace.) This installment is organized by @ photographer R sauce according to video

　First, create backlight effect

1. Accurately judge the original image of the shadow area and light source range, and the shadow is too deep and light the center of the place to brighten!

Original

Aaron used the pink brush to pick out the parts he needed to brighten. This and personal aesthetic has a lot of relevance, different people on the later expectations are not the same, we do not have to adhere to, as much as they like the style of their own photographs to make adjustments.

2. Copy the background layer (CTRL+J) before modifying it. A good order of revision and revision habits will be profitable for life.

3. Create a new "adjustment layer", "image" > "Adjust" > "Shadow/Highlight". By adjusting the "number", "Hue width", and "radius" in the "shadow", you can achieve the goal of resizing how much brightness you need to add to the shadow. This approach is often used in later stages to give more detail in the shadows. Make the picture appear the most realistic light and shade effect through minor adjustment.

4. Adjust the color of the light. (from the primary color to deepen.) In this case, Aaron Jean Guang the color closer to Orange's orange, creating a New "curve", pulling up "red" and pulling down "blue".

5. Add a limit to the orange light created above. Not to let it cover the whole picture, but like the sun shines, dispersion. Add a mask to the curve layer and ctrl+i the mask to black. The gradient tool is then used (the "gradient tool" is used in today's two examples, which is also a common method for post-processing light), and the pattern selects the "radial gradient" from the foreground to the transparent gradient. The foreground color at this point is white and the background is black. Launch from the center of the light to the left of the picture.

The following illustration shows a white to transparent gradient effect on the mask:

The range of gradient light can be controlled by the length of the light emitted when the gradient is used.

This is the effect diagram after the "radial gradient"

6. Deepen the picture light source near the white mist effect. New "normal" layer, choose "brush", increase "stroke size", reduce "flow". (Aaron uses 20% of the flow)

Hold down the ALT key to color the original light source, and select a brush color close to the light source gold.

Then start coloring with this brush in the background where there is a white mist block.

Change the layer mode to "filter" so that the brush works closer to the effect of the light than the gold paint. If the brush touches the extra parts, such as the Dog's ear (which should have a slightly darker effect if the ear is under the sun), we will draw the details of the ear back with the almighty "mask" and "Black Brush".

7. New "curve", pull High "green", make the picture grass greener. (Pull the curve remember to add "mask", the effect of the curve on the grass yo ~) first with a high "flow" (Aaron used 80%) brush to complete the large grassland, then reduce the "flow" (reduced to 320% in tutorial), Brush filter grass and orange light source junction place. This approach prevents the edge of color conversion from being too blunt, which is an essential skill in Photoshop.

(If you think the previous "curve" to get the grass color is too exaggerated, you can add some "red" in the same set of "curve", do some balance. If the effect is still stiff, you can limit it by adjusting the opacity. )

8. "Sharpen" the dog's eyes to make the dog appear more vivid. ("Sharpening" is the process to be considered in the later processing of biological portraits, such as the eyes of the torch to make the goal more lively.) But the specific needs of the eye "vivid" or "bleak", need to be based on the mood of the picture to determine, not the generalized. Shift+ctrl+alt+e, merge the visible layers (this is the general step of sharpening), and then shift+ctrl+u to "saturate" the picture to prevent sharpening from affecting the image color.

Then change the layer mode to overlay, followed by filter > Other > High contrast retention. Adjust the "radius" to the dog's hair clearly visible on the good.

In order to "sharpen" the effect of locking in the dog's eyes, plus the "black Mask", and "white brush" only the dog's eyes part of the brush out. (can also be associated with hair tip and dog nose brush out)

9. Add a "blur" effect to the foreground (grassland) to prevent visual interference: shift+ctrl+atl+e, "stamped layer", then add "Filter" > "blur" > "Tilt Offset" to adjust the "clear center of gravity" to the dog's eye level. Adjust the ideal blur range (dashed range) and strength (disc scale).

10. Highlight photo Lead (dog): New "curve", slightly illuminated RGB unit, and the curve mask to do ctrl+i conversion, and then use "white brush" brush out the dog face. Be careful not to put on too much light and cause the picture to be distorted.

When it's all done, you can get the same vivid, ready-for-life creatures, whether it's the light effect or the dog itself becoming clear. It's not a complicated technique, you might as well try it right away.

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