Secrets of manipulation in Photoshop: Shadows and light. Applying a soft light blend mode
In today's Photoshop tutorial we will learn how to quickly create light in Photoshop. Thanks to the lesson, you will be able to create light in your works for such elements as car headlights, lamp glow, etc. The lesson is more likely for beginners, but perhaps someone more experienced will learn something new for themselves.
Light in Photoshop can be created in different ways, today we will create it using the filter " glare"and blending modes. I will look at the lesson using the example of creating light for car headlights. Well, let's move from words to deeds.
Open Photoshop, upload a photo of the car into it, as you probably guessed, preferably on a dark background since the light on white is not particularly visible
Next, create a new layer; for this, click on the icon at the bottom of the layers window or go to the menu layers > new layer. On a new layer, create a circle of black color using a large brush, you can use the oval area tool to create a selection and fill it with black color of your choice. The main thing is that you, like me, have a black circle on a new layer.
In the next step we need to add the light itself, we will do this using the highlight filter, so let's go to filter > render > highlight, let's set it up. I select the brightness at 100% (your brightness may differ depending on the size of the image), and the object type is 105 mm (another one is possible). I position it so that it looks like a headlight is shining, and I apply a filter.
Then for this layer I set the blending mode to screen and move it to the headlight. And if you set the overlay mode to replace with light, you will get the effect of side headlights.
Let's duplicate the layer with the light and install it on the second headlight, and since in my case the second headlight is distant relative to the first, the light needs to be slightly reduced and dimmed a little. We will reduce it through free transformation, for this we go to the menu Edit > Free Transform. Let's make a reduction and dim it by reducing the opacity until we are satisfied with the result.
That's all for a fairly simple and straightforward tutorial on creating light in Photoshop, although we didn't create a cast light, let's fix that. To do this, create a new layer above the layer with our car and draw two stripes in front of the car with a soft brush. I painted it in light gray #dadada. You can paint with the color of the headlights, for example, yellow, blue.
The field of why these stripes need to be blurred, let's go to filter > blur > gaussian blur and set the blur radius, I set it to 26.1px. and apply it. Then change the blending mode to soft light.
The final result in the form of an animated gif
That's all in today's lesson, we learned how to quickly create light in Photoshop. Experiment with the light blending modes, you may like other modes from the lightening part. You can also change the light of the flare through hue/saturation.
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Creating a focal point using a soft white brush
Now we will improve the focal point using light, adding just a few layers above the original photo.
You can see from the screenshot that the light is evenly distributed throughout the photo. Open it in Photoshop and create a copy of the background layer (Ctrl + J). Set to Overlay. Then create a color fill layer (Layer – New Fill Layer – Color) (Layer – New Fill Layer – Solid Color) and select dark gray color ( #565656 ). These steps will slightly improve the colors and create the basis for the lighting effect.
Now let's add shadows. Create a Gradient Fill Layer (Layer – New Fill Layer – Gradient) (Layer – New Fill Layer – Gradient):
Gradient: transparent to black
Style: Radial
Angle: 132 degrees
Scale: 150%
Next we will add light. Select a tool Brush Tool (B), right-click on the canvas and lower the Hardness to 0%, you need a regular round brush. Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) on top of the rest and outline the flower. Install Blending Mode on Soft Light.
To enhance the glow, create another layer and outline the flower. Install Blending Mode on Overlay.
This method can be applied in different situations and modified if necessary to achieve a better result.
Creating directional light using filters
Photoshop has a filter that can be used to create lighting effects. It's on the menu Filter – Rendering and is called Lighting Effects. Let's look at this filter using the following image as an example.
Go to this filter and the settings window will open. You can change the direction of the light by dragging the light spot in the preview window.
After applying the filter, I decided to create another lighting effect. Go to filter again and select Source (Light Type) – Light bulb (Omni). Place the light directly on your phone.
As a result, I ended up with the image shown below. As you can see, the filter has a lot of settings that you can experiment with and get completely different results.
Using Brushes to Create Light
There are many brushes on the Internet that can be used to paint light rays. For example, this set.
Before using brushes:
Creating special lighting effects
One of the most creative approaches to light is to create specific lighting effects. In the following example, I'll show you how to create a lighting effect using simple shapes and paths.
Create a new document in Photoshop (Ctrl + N) with a black background. Create a copy of the background layer (Ctrl + J) and apply a filter Clouds with overlay (Filter – Rendering – Clouds with overlay) (Filter – Render – Difference Clouds). You may want to repeat this filter several times (Ctrl + F) to get the desired pattern. Install Layer Blending Mode to Overlay.
Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) under the cloud layer. Select a soft white brush and draw a small circle. By drawing on this layer, clouds will become visible to you.
Select a tool Pen Tool (P) in Paths mode and draw a curved line as shown below. The line should come out of the light spot.
We need to outline this line with a brush. Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N), select a tool Brush Tool (B), give it a size of 14 pixels, 0% Hardness and white color. Switch back to the instrument Pen Tool (P), right-click on the canvas and select Stroke Path. In the window that appears, select Brush and enable the function Simulate Pressure so that the ends of the line taper.
Double-click on the line layer to open the style window. Apply style:
Opacity: 67%
Noise: 0%
Color: White
Spread: 3%
Size: 18 pixels
Range: 50%
Jitter: 0%
As lines appear, you will see more and more clouds through the glow. Repeat the process and create several lines coming out of the circle.
Select a soft brush and paint over the white circle layer to make more clouds visible. Try lowering the parameter value Opacity in the brush settings so that the clouds are not too bright.
Add color using a gradient fill layer. Use colors #e17a00 And #601900 and make a linear fill.
Additionally, you can paint particles using these brushes. You just need to draw on a separate layer so as not to damage the other elements. Install Opacity layer with particles at 75% and tool Eraser Tool (E) wipe the particles off the light ball at the base.
This was a simple example of how light effects can be created in different shapes using simple tools. Don't be afraid to experiment and create similar things in your work. Such effects make images more interesting and effective.
Using light to change the mood of a painting
Open the following image in Photoshop. Using light corrections and effects, we will create a night forest under the light of the moon.
Make the photo black and white (Image – Adjustments – Desaturate). Then create a copy of the background layer (Ctrl + J) and apply the Ra filter to it Gaussian Blur (Filter – Blur – Gaussian Blur) with meaning Radius– 1.5 pixels. Install Blending Mode copies on Overlay. This will make the image softer.
Create a new fill layer with color #253a53. It will help create a blue tint throughout the image. Using the light ray brushes from this set, paint the light passing through the tree branches. Use blue color for the brush.
Use a gradient fill to darken the edges (we did this earlier when enhancing the focal point).
Finally we'll create points of light that could represent fireflies or magic dust. In any case, this will help create a magical atmosphere in the forest. Select a soft brush of 7 or 8 pixels and go to the brushes palette (F5). Install Spacing almost to maximum, and also turn on two other parameters. For Shape Dynamics install Size Jitter by 75%, and for Scattering set parameter Scatter by 1000%.
Draw dots on the canvas. You need to draw on a separate layer under the layer with light rays. After that apply the style Outer Glow to the drawn points.
Blend Mode: Screen
Opacity: 48%
Noise: 0%
Color: White
Technique: Softer
Spread: 4%
Size: 14 pixels
Contour: Linear; Anti-aliased: Disabled
Range: 50%
Jitter: 0%
Result:
This concludes the lesson. Using the methods described above, you can significantly improve your work. Don't be afraid to experiment and find new ways to use light.
This Photoshop lesson was prepared for you by the site team.
We analyzed the practical application of the mode Ordinary or Normal in the English version of Photoshop.
Now let's continue to get acquainted with the application of the most commonly used blending modes in practice. The mode can safely be called a champion here Soft Light.
How does he work?
A neutral color, that is, one that does not have any effect on the image, for the mode Soft light is 50% gray. The RGB channel values are 128, 128, 128.
If we apply a layer filled with 50% color to the image in the mode Soft light, then the corrected image will not change in any way.
If the overlay color is lighter than 50% gray, the image will be lighten up, if darker than 50% gray - darken. Moreover, lightening and darkening occurs smoothly and naturally, without affecting the black and white points of the image, that is, the effect falls mainly on midtones, gradually decreasing towards deep shadows and high lights. It should be noted that the effect on shadows (both brightening and darkening) is somewhat stronger than on highlights.
The interaction with this overlay mode is channel-by-channel, that is, if the values of the overlay color are different across channels, then the effect, accordingly, will be different in each channel.
For example, let's overlay a 50% gray layer with a color with values for the RGB channels 250, 128, 20 in the mode Soft light
The gray layer has equal brightness of the RGB channels, as can be seen in the image below
The overlay layer has a light red channel, 50% brightness green channel, and a dark blue channel.
After overlay in mode Soft light the channels look like this:
The red channel became lighter, the green channel remained unchanged, and the blue channel darkened somewhat. Moreover, the impact of the regime Soft light in areas darker than 50% the gray is slightly stronger.
Using Soft Light mode.
As mentioned above, in the mode Soft light the most natural lightening and darkening of the image occurs for our eyes.
This suggests the first way to use it: local lightening and darkening image by painting with a black and white brush at low opacity on an empty or 50% gray layer lying on top of the image in mode Soft light.
It is the second method that has become widespread, as it is the most obvious. This is a well-known technique Dodge and Burn, or, in Russian, lightening and darkening. You can watch the video tutorial
Its use in this form is most effective for softly drawing highlights and shadows, as well as for retouching. Although (this is just my personal opinion), it is better to do lightening and darkening during retouching using adjustment layers with curves.
Next way to use blend mode Soft light associated with increased image sharpness. To do this, a halo map is first created using the High Pass filter.
It is not necessary to use a composite color image to create a halo map. Typically, the best results are obtained when using presets based on image channels.
The resulting halo map is then superimposed on the original image in Soft light.
Also blend mode Soft light can be used to enhance local image contrast.
Another original way to use the mode Soft light: create a copy of the layer, overlay it in the mode Soft light, above, through the clipping mask, apply an adjustment layer Hue/Saturation, getting rid of unnecessary “overcooking” of the image.
Then with tools Clarifier And Dimmer on a copy of the layer in mode Soft light We draw the necessary areas, making appropriate corrections.
Simple overlay of a copy of an image in Soft light does not make much sense, since the impact in this case is similar smooth S-shaped curve with stronger correction in the shadow area.
In this tutorial, we'll look at 4 useful lighting effects that can make your photos much more interesting. All these effects can be created using the Photoshop editor.
Lighting effects using the Dodge blend mode inPhotoshop.
There are many techniques for creating lighting effects in Photoshop. I'm only going to talk about four, but they can be used in different ways. First, let's look at a few filters that are found in the Filter Gallery under Rendering in Photoshop (CS6 and CC). First of all, these are Lighting Effects, which have received an update and have become more powerful and easier to use compared to previous versions of Photoshop.
How to access Lighting Effects inPhotoshop C.S.6.
The preview window has been replaced with a more complex interface. You have three different types of lighting effects to choose from - Spot, Directional and Infinite - and different presets for them. There's a Properties panel that customizes the appearance of the light effect in terms of direction, placement, etc. This filter works on smart objects, so you can work non-destructively. All aspects of this filter are too extensive to cover in this article. It will be better if you just open the image, experiment with different options and see what happens.
Instead, I'll show you alternative techniques that I like to use in Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), some of which you may already be familiar with. I really like the Gradient Filter in ACR. It works similar to the Gradient Neutral Density Filter on your camera. Landscape photographers use it to avoid overexposing the sky area. The dark area is at the top, letting in less light, and the exposure is set to the foreground. A similar result can be achieved using the gradient editor in Photoshop.
Gradient Filter icon inAdobe Camera Raw.
With the image open in ACR, select Gradient Filter. Select the area where you want to apply it. Adjust the sliders on the right - Exposure, Highlights, etc. - to lighten or darken the area. You can also choose a color to add warm or cool undertones.
This is the original snail image before applying the Gradient Filter.
For the snail image, I applied the Graduated Filter in three different areas. I wanted to add warm tones to the water, so I used yellow to create the impression of a spot of sunlight. The second area I brightened was the water vortex in the lower right corner. And finally, the third area is a darkened area behind the snail, so that the viewer's eye goes directly to it. While these are subtle lighting effects, they can add more drama and even change the composition of a photo.
An image of a snail using the Gradient Filter in three different areas.
AnimatedGIFto show photos before and after applying the Gradient Filter.
Flare, which you can find in the Filter Gallery - Rendering, is also a lighting effect that can be very useful, but should be used with caution. For example, an image with a golf ball on a red mark.
The Highlight filter has been applied to this image.
I used the Graduated Filter in three areas, just like in the snail photo. Then I added a purple tint to the grass in the bottom left corner to get rid of its flat green look. Adding another color using the Graduated Filter adds depth to the image. I then added a highlight to the top right corner and lowered the opacity so that the effect extended to the tips of the grass. Converting the image to a smart object before applying filters helps make changes non-destructive. I was also able to hide some of the effects under the mask in areas where I thought they were too strong.
AnimatedGIF golf ball with the addition of a Graduated Filter and a Highlight.
This brings me to the third technique, the Foundation Dodge blending mode. I wanted to create the effect of the headlights on the car (photo below). This is a very easy way to create a lighting effect in Photoshop and the results are amazing.
First create a new empty layer on the original image. Choose a darker color for the area of the image you will be working with. For the bottom of the headlight I used dark red. Using a soft brush, blend it out, and then make the spot a little bigger using the Free Transform tool.
Car tail lights.
Add a little Gaussian blur so that there are no "hot spots" in the center and the color looks uniform. Place this on the headlight section, change the Blend Mode to Dodge and reduce the Fill, not Opacity, to achieve the desired effect. In this case, I reduced the Fill to 59%. Then I duplicated this layer and moved it to the right. You can reduce the size of the spot if you feel it is too large. So now my lower rear light was working. I repeated the same steps for the top section of the headlight. But I used dark yellow color.
On a separate layer, paint the desired area with a darker color and apply a Gaussian blur.
AnimatedGIF with flashing taillights after using blend mode Lighten the base inPhotoshop.
The fourth and final technique is similar to the one outlined above. When you need to add light to an image to bring out some detail, this and the above techniques can be used in any kind of photo. It is very light, fast and effective. In the photo of the grapes (below), I wanted to create highlights in the dark areas to make them stand out. As before, create a new layer on top of the original image and using white paint a small spot. Make it bigger using the Free Transform Tool and add a Gaussian Blur. Change the blending mode to Overlay or Soft Light; I usually use Soft Light. Reduce the opacity until you get the desired result.
AnimatedGIFto show the lightening of a specific area in a photo of grapes using the Overlay/Soft Light blend modesPhotoshop.
Before us is the bride against the backdrop of grass and trees, the shadows in the photo seem to have failed, the grass looks dull.
To fix this, apply the following steps.
Go through the menu to (Image - Correction - Shadows/Highlights).
Click on the square next to Show More Options(More Options), the palette will reveal hidden functions.
We set the following settings:
Let's take a little break from the lesson and get acquainted with this palette in more detail.
Palette Shadow/Heights (Lights/Shadows)
Section Shadows
Amount(Amount) – the amount of light in the shadows. Movement of regulators: more - less.
Total Width(Tonal Range Width) – Moving the sliders changes the width of the shadows.
The higher this parameter, the wider areas of the image will be affected by the tool.
Radius(Radius) – this function controls the contrast of shadows and the smoothness of their transitions.
Highlight section
Amount(Amount) - function of darkening light areas.
Total Width(Tone Range Width) - a parameter that determines the range of pixels affected by the command.
Next section Adjustments
Midtone Contrast(Midtone Contrast) - The higher the value, the higher the contrast of the image's midtones.
Black Clip And White Clip(Shadow Clipping, Highlight Clipping) – parameters that set maximum values that determine how dark (or light) the pixels in the image should be.
Increasing this parameter will lead to a decrease in the dynamic range of the picture and a decrease in the total number of tonal transitions. It is not recommended to touch this parameter; it is better to leave the default values.
Back to the lesson
Let's create a duplicate layer.
Set the blending mode to the top layer Soft Light(Soft light). Then go to (Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur) and set the following settings:
Make another copy of the layer and apply the filter again " Gaussian"blur, but with these settings.
