How to add artificial light in Photoshop

Photographers often eat according to the weather, and the best shooting time is in the early morning or evening when the light is sunny and soft. The technical term is called "MagicHour" or "GoldenHour". At this time, the light is the softest, the color is warmer, and the light and shadow are longer (long beams are often visible), which generally exists one hour after sunrise and one hour before sunset. (magichour may last all day, except in areas with low sun azimuth and far from the equator. )

What if there is no ideal light? We can make up for the lack of early light by artificial light source lighting and post-lighting. Today, I would like to share with you the methods I usually learn to deal with light in the middle and late PS, adding charming effects to the photos!

First, create a backlight effect.

1. Accurately judge the shadow area and light source range in the original image, and highlight the place where the shadow is too deep and the light source center!

(Aaron uses a pink brush to select the parts that need to be brightened for everyone. This has a lot to do with personal aesthetics. Different people have different expectations for the later period. You don't have to insist. You can adjust your pictures according to your favorite style. )

2. Copy the background layer before modification (Ctrl+j). Good retouching order and habits will benefit you for life.

3. create a new "adjustment layer" and "image" >; Adjust > shadows/highlights. By adjusting Shadow, Quantity, Tone Width and Radius, we can readjust how much brightness we need to add to the shadow. This method is often used in the later stage to show more details in the shadow. Make the picture present the most realistic light and shadow effect by fine-tuning.

4. Adjust the light color. (deepen from the primary color. In this example, Aaron will create a new "curve" to make the color of light closer to orange, increase "red" and decrease "blue".

5. Add a limit to the orange light created above. Don't let it cover the whole picture, but spread out like sunshine. Add a "mask" to the "curve" layer, and Ctrl+I will convert the "mask" into black. Then use the gradient tool (which is used in both examples today and is also a common means of post-processing light) to select the "radial gradient" mode of "gradient from foreground to transparency". At this point, the foreground color is white and the background color is black. Emit from the center of the light source to the left of the picture.

The following figure shows the gradient effect from white to transparent on the mask:

The range of gradient light can be controlled by the length of emitted light in the gradient process.

This is the effect diagram after "radial gradient".

6. Deepen the white fog effect near the picture light source. Create a new "Normal" layer, select "Brush", increase "Stroke Size" and decrease "Flow". (Aaron chose 20% flow)

Hold down the Alt key to color the original light source, and choose a brush color close to the golden color of the light source.

Then I began to use this brush to color the places with white fog in the background.

Change the layer mode to color filter, so that the brush effect is closer to the effect of light, not the golden pigment.

If the brush touches unnecessary parts, such as the dog's ears (the ears are slightly darker under the backlight), we will use the universal "mask" and "black brush" to draw back the details of the ears.

7. Create a new "curve" and improve the "green" to make the grass in the picture greener. (Remember to add a "mask" after drawing the curve, so that the effect of the curve only works on the grass ~) First draw a large piece of grass with a high "flow" brush (Aaron used 80%), and then reduce the "flow" (reduced to 320% in the tutorial) to brush the joint between the colored grass and the orange light source. This processing can prevent the edge color conversion from being too stiff, which is a necessary skill in Photoshop.

(If you think that the grass color obtained by adding "curve" before is too exaggerated, you can add some "red" to the same set of "curves" to make 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 look more vivid. ("Sharpening" is a step that needs to be considered in the post-processing of biological portraits. Torch eyes make the target more vivid. But whether the eyes need to be "vivid" or "dim" depends on the mood of the photos, rather than generalizing. ) Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E, merge visible layers (this is the general step of sharpening), and then Shift+Ctrl+U, desaturate the image to prevent sharpening from affecting the image color.

Then change the layer mode to "overlay" and add "filter" >; Other > Gao Fancha reserved. Adjust the Radius until the dog's hair is clearly visible.

In order to lock the sharpening effect on the dog's eyes, add a "black mask" and brush only the dog's eyes with a "white brush". (You can also brush out the hair tips and dog noses. )

9. Add a blur effect to the foreground (grass) to prevent it from interfering with vision: Shift+Ctrl+Atl+E, Poke Layer, and add a filter > Blur > Tilt Offset to adjust the clear center of gravity to the horizontal line of the dog's eyes. Adjust the ideal fuzzy range (dashed range) and intensity (disc scale).

10. Highlight the protagonist (dog) in the photo: create a new "curve", slightly highlight the RGB units, do Ctrl+I conversion on the curve mask, and then brush out the dog's face with a "white brush". Be careful not to have too many highlights, so that the highlights are too heavy and the picture is distorted.

After all this, you can get a lively little creature, and both the lighting effect and the dog itself will become clear. This is not a complicated technology, so you might as well try it right away.

Second, the generation of linear beam effect

1. Imitate the artificial light used when the stamp is erased (in this picture, the white flash on the right side is erased instead of the yellow street lamp).

2. Create a new layer (type: "Normal") and use the "Polygon Lasso" to circle all parts (including the body of the model and the illuminated ground) from the illuminated light source to its light projection on this layer. ()

3. Create a new curve type adjustment layer. Brighten RGB cells and form a long beam. The magical polygon light effect appeared, as if the model was going to be taken away by aliens.

4. Use "Gaussian blur" on the "curve layer" to make the light beam look more realistic. In order to achieve a more realistic light scattering effect, the radius of the "fuzzy" filter needs to be larger. AaronNace set the blur radius of 158.9 pixels in the video. As can be seen from the figure below, the rigid polygonal beam becomes scattered and blurred, which is closer to the environment. All this is really amazing!

5. Use the Polygon Lasso selection again to create a "core beam". This word sounds a bit mysterious. To put it bluntly, people usually see the brighter parts around them.

6. In the same way as step 3, highlight the selected area with "curve" to make it stand out.

7. Using the same Gaussian blur to blur the "curve layer" is to disperse the light beam into the environment. The second Gaussian blur requires a slightly lower blur radius than the first one to make the central beam stand out. However, it should be noted that too small a radius will leave an obvious polygon >:< Everyone needs to observe to get their own satisfactory values.

8. You can also repeat the above steps according to your own needs, and make a more internal bundle to make the effect more real and refined! The number of repetitions depends on individual needs ~

9. Make "media", particles or fog that make the light beam appear. Uh-huh, it's "smog"! The method used by Aaron here is "curve", which brightens the whole picture from the bottom, reduces the contrast and gives people a foggy feeling.

Then use "mask" and "brush" to lock this hazy feeling in a specific area.

Then use "filter" >; "render" > "cloud" to render.

"Ctrl+T" changes the size of "clouds" and makes them bigger.

Then use a "black brush" on the "cloud rendering layer" to cover the part that has nothing to do with the light beam.

10. Blur the original "natural light source" (here, the "yellow street lamp" outside the photographer's flash): highlight the "curve", add a "filter" and render it as a "cloud". (Besides adjusting RGB units, you can also adjust the curves of "red", "green" and "blue" to make the light become your favorite color). Then use a "black brush" to erase unnecessary "colorful clouds".

1 1. At this point, the work of "manufacturing light beam" is basically completed. However, we can see that the place where the "artificial flash" was placed before was very abrupt. AaronNace created a new "normal" layer under "beam adjustment curve" and slightly blackened the strong light of the flash with a "black brush".

Then double-click this layer, enter the Layer Style, adjust the Blending Ribbon, and press and hold Alt to adjust the highlight of the next layer, so that the shadow effect is slightly weakened to be closer to the actual situation.

After adjustment, the sub-layer is "Gaussian blur", which makes the effect realistic.

12. If you want to change the color of the light beam you just made, create a new "curve" on all the top layers to highlight "red" and darken "blue", and then erase the range of the light beam with a "brush" to get a warmer light beam close to orange.

13. Group the beam adjustment curves of the flash, Ctrl+g, and use the gradient tool for the whole beam at the same time, so that the intensity and brightness of the beam will gradually change: Ctrl+j copies the beam folder.

Add a "mask" to the copied folder, press CTRL+I to turn the "mask" black, then select the gradient tool and choose the mode: foreground to transparent gradient, linear gradient and normal.

The reduced picture is "emitted" from the virtual light source in the upper right corner.

14. Dim the ground lighting: Add a "white mask" to the "Group 1" folder that has not been copied, press the X key to change the foreground and background colors, and change the gradient mode to "from dark to light".

15.Ctrl+g puts the processed two "group" files into a new "group". Add a "mask" to the "group" and perform "cloud rendering" on the "mask".

Paint the clouds white with the White Brush to create the texture of the light.

After the film is finished, our journey of creating light will almost officially end. I believe everyone is as stunned as I was when I first saw this tutorial. I just want to find a suitable photo to practice today's new technology!